A band of men was marching through a nasty landscape filled with downed and rotten trees and skeletons all around them. While skeletons were certainly a poor company for a traveling group of moderately armed men that was not what intimidated the group - that would have been the ground in the swampy wasteland of death. The ground everywhere was black like the eternal void of death that the place reeked off. One could not know when the ground would open, when the black dirt would become a pure sludge of lethal stench that eats one up in seconds and when it would be sharpened coal-like surface that is able to cut through shoes and legs like butter.
Many people disappeared around those parts, no one ever went to that place which was why this ragtag team of bandits had decided to settle down there and make that place their headquarters, the place where they return to after every big job to settle for their share of the loot and party until the morning. Morning, of course, was a relative term there, the clouds were always gloomy and the Sun never showed its face, sometimes the marshlands and the swamps ignited and started flaming and that made even the late nights bright but gloomy - it was literally impossible to tell when it was night and when it was day in this cruel birthplace of death itself.
The criminals advanced slowly, helping out their friend that got into trouble by getting into the black sludge up to his knees or fending off the few animals that wandered to those parts. The stench here was impossible to stand, every couple of minutes one of the bandits threw up on the black gooey dirt surface, the men literally had to keep drinking so that their constant vomiting from the stench and lack of fresh air did not kill them. This place reeked of sulfur and despite this place having its battle concluded three years ago, it still reeked of rotting human waste. Perhaps it was the flesh and bones of the curious or daring travelers that passed through this place that still kept the stench going?
"This is a bad fucking idea..." one of the men spoke up finally as he waved the stick to hit a vulture spinning around his head as his body dug deep into sludge again. He was pulled out by his friends, one of them spoke up as well.
"Everything's a bad fucking idea with you. Remember when we wanted to raid that caravan near the Konohagakure gate? You said that was a bad fucking idea too." The man took off his boots and shook the black slimy dirt off of his shoe, then cursed and yelled out loud as the ground cut his feet opening up a gruesome wound. It was almost like he stepped on the edges of multiple blades.
"That was the WORST fucking idea, Higumo, Shoji, Mangoku, and Okumo died!" the man replied and bandaged his foot. "Details... We escaped with plenty of food and loot" someone from the group replied.
"May I remind you, gents, that it is because of that fucking raid that we are here, to begin with!?" the bandit spoke up as he approached the man leading the party.
"Had we not raided that caravan and didn't attract the attention of ninja we wouldn't have needed to hide here, just when we took those damn bags from the cart those fuckers just started chasing us like crazy!" The man in front kept walking forward silently, he was a nasty looking fellow with a certain "cool" charm to him, he looked just like one would've imagined a bandit to look like - rag clothes, a dirty cape that looked like somebody's curtain or dirty sheet stolen from the laundry bag, a giant scar all over his face as well as an eyepatch. The man's eyes were always angry and looking cruel, always ready to incinerate anyone he sees with his eyesight alone.
The man turned around and slapped his comrade, the man fell to the ground and screamed in pain as more wounds opened up on his body after getting cut by the now rock-solid ground. "Shut the fuck up, you loser! Konoha ninja ran like dirty dogs because they follow an agreement to not have any military forces in this ground ever, a group of five or more qualifies as "military force" in the agreement and they didn't want to send less than five ninja of average rank into this place. It's perfect for bandits to hide, I've no idea why no other bands ever grouped up here. This place is amazing!" the man shouted out, his voice echoed through the wasteland of death. Some people who have visited this place and lived to tell the tale had described it as "Hell on Earth" and it was quite apparent that they weren't too far off.
"Jeez, it's getting dark here!" another bandit shouted out, "It's always fucking dark and gloomy here, on top of it all it stinks like your dead mother's diaper!" yet another replied. The group kept walking, they weren't yet sure where exactly they were heading, they had to find some materials for their base, all they had were some clothes and a bunch of bones lying around. It didn't quite make a good bunch of things to build a solid base from.
"Why didn't we stop, yet, boss? What are we waiting for?" one of the men closer to their leader asked. The leader grunted and grumbled under his nose but didn't reply a thing. "We need to walk far away from the border of this place, I'm worried that entire armies of bandits might come here and realize just how perfect this place is for hideouts." the man then replied after a long enough pause to make no one expect a reply any longer.
A loud shout of pain came up as a man disappeared from the group, only his closest comrade saw him fly off into the darkness. He shouted out some unintelligible babbling, then just pointed in the direction he disappeared in. "We keep going" the leader ordered with an angry tone.
"I've heard there was a battle here three years ago, I bet that the spirits are still goddamn furious that they died so they killed your pal" one of the dumber sounding bandits laughed out holding his stomach as he laughed.
"Have some shame, fucker, Chucho saved your ass today, did you forget how he deflected that arrow for you?" the bandit that saw his friend fly off into the dark gloomy shade yelled out. A loud scream of a man dying interrupted the bandit group, that convinced the leader to keep moving faster, he ordered the men to keep watch.
"Yeah, cause that idiot found a coin and ducked to pick it up when he stood back up the arrow hit his damn helm... AAAAAGH!" the bandit tried to reply but was interrupted by an unseen force that dragged him outside the perimeter into the gloomy darkness.
The men started losing their cool and freaking out, losing and meeting new people of their crew was nothing new to them, comrades died and new friends were made each day. What worried the men was that they did not see their slayer and were worried that they'd be next. Usually, any danger can be evaded by just running really damned fast - now there was nowhere to run. For kilometers around this place, there was only the deadly Hell of a battlefield surrounding them, hungry for victims to swallow whole or bloodthirsty and wishing to cut them as deep and as many times as humanly possible. Then again, even if they did run and get lucky, what would've stopped this demon of the gloomy night from catching them completely off guard? The men were absolutely terrified.
Suddenly the leader stopped on his feet making the men behind him bump into the back of their leader. A dark and short figure stood in the gloomy shadows, completely invisible beyond just recognizing the basic humanoid shape, this could've been a spirit, a mad psycho killer, or a demon of this swampy gooey Hell for all they knew. "You are in my katei, leave now and you'll be spared, continue to desecrate it and I will kill you" a grumpy yet almost childish voice came their way.
A bandit yelled out and gasped in fear, "It's a demonic spirit of the child that had his parents sneak him into a battlefield and then he died!", his friend to the side slapped the back of his head, "You dumbass, who'd sneak their child into a battlefield, parents keep children away from battle!"
The leader of the bandits drew his curved sword and took a step forward. "I am the new owner of this wasteland and I claim it as my home! Be you just a child, a spirit or a demon, I spit at you and I will be the one killing you..." suddenly the man stopped in his tracks, only then did the bandits notice a young child behind him with an exposed blade. It was a short blade, the likes of which inexperienced ninja carried, the blade was cracked and chipped in multiple places. The boy himself was short and looked like a little jungle boy with his reddish-brown hair flowing freely over his shoulders and his face being completely pummeled and bandaged and his body covered with scars. "You're in my katei, leave now!" the child spoke again as the boss of the bandits collapsed having blood spray from his chest. The black slimy ground started to slowly consume the man's body. The bandits all drew their swords and took their staffs and improvised weaponry. The boy yelled out loud to express his discontent at this decision and charged forward at the group of bandits.
It would've been an incredibly odd sight to behold to see this battle transpire from the side, one would've had to come extremely close through the noxious gases that erupted from the ground and through all the perils that the place had. The boy's cracked blade continued to dance over the bodies of the men that have entered his sacred space, the boy was not a demon, just a young man and he constantly slipped up and got punched or struck with a weapon opening up wounds. Not that it mattered for this boy truly acted like a demon, his endless dance with his blade continued and would've never stopped until he or the men he was facing off against had died. To this boy this space was sacred and no other man or woman or child had the right to be present in his "katei" or else they be killed. Many times Senju shinobi from the Leaf have come to this place to try and fix it, make a forest of trees using their Wood Release, and then use Earth Release and Water Release to fix this landscape but... All of them caught only their deaths, all of them died and while each of them injured young Tanshu, each injury taught him yet another lesson. Made him stronger and faster and smarter and the fact that in order to honor their agreement with the other countries only less than five ninja could've entered this ground at once helped him not to get overwhelmed and captured throughout the three years he lived here.
Tanshu's sword went through the throat of the last bandit. The man coughed up and fell having been cut down by the rampaging demon of this hellhole, no, Tanshu was no demon, not yet, he still felt pain, he still got hit, a demon was perfect, a demon made no mistakes and killed without any warnings, a true demon craved death and bloodshed which Tanshu did not. A fighting dog was what Tanshu was, fighting when his bowl of food is threatened. He warned these men, he wanted them to leave but they didn't, so he killed them just like his parents would've in order to protect their katei. Parents would've been so proud of him if they saw him! Tanshu wanted to believe that there was an Otherworld where they saw him from but... Seeing what he had seen through these three years, the worst that this world has to offer, bandits, thieves, murderers, arsonists, and rapists fleeing to this ground to hide from justice. They were not welcome here! If someone wanted to take Tanshu's katei they were welcome to come and claim it.
As the boy tried to pull the blade out of the man's throat it broke off, it was inevitable that it would happen, the boy looted this sword from the first man he had killed in this place. He cursed as he looked around, he found the loot of these men and looked into the bags, they were full of food and medicine, bandages, and the things that he so desperately needed. The boy sat down and started bandaging himself, all those endless gashes where he was cut by either the bandits or the ground he was sleeping on, he then ate and drank from those bags and took what was left with him, all that he could carry and what he couldn't the boy tipped with his foot into the sludge that soon devoured all of it. This loot was not his, he felt bad that he claimed it but... In order for the rightful owner to claim this loot, they would've had to come into his katei and claim it, if that happened Tanshu would kill them defending his katei. He did not wish to do that, it would've been better off if there was no loot, to begin with...
As the boy passed through the corpses he noticed that the bandit leader was carrying a larger katana, the boy dropped the loot down and bent down to see what it was about. As the young kid picked the sword up and checked its blade he cursed, the blade was dull as a chunk of steel - must've been one of those "non-lethal" sword junk. These were quite common, slave traders used those, people that just wandered the out of village areas that belonged to no country claiming villagers and travelers, as well as other bandits as their slaves, "pacifistic" travelers, also had those, Tanshu hated all of them. One group were just human filth that had it coming when the boy cut them down, the other were just fools that were lying to themselves. There was no place for not killing when wielding a sword, there was no other option than to kill when fighting. These fools were just easy food for slave traders and then to Tanshu - slave traders had a nasty habit to command all of their slaves to fight the boy before they themselves tried to. Because of that all peaceful idiots that refused to kill automatically associated with enemies to Tanshu, a potential enemy was an enemy regardless. In the wild, a potential enemy was even more dangerous as the current enemy is fighting you right now while a potential enemy might attack you when you're unprepared.
Those were the times that Tanshu lived in, times where he killed whoever wandered into his katei with no mercy or reason other than that they were where they shouldn't have been. It all changed, however, all changed just a couple of weeks later from the day that Tanshu killed those bandits and changed his blade. Despite that the blade was dull, the boy still preferred longer reaching blades than the curved trash that those fools had, at least with the dull sword he could still thrust and stab someone, the boy already lacked range because of his short arms anyways, he couldn't afford to fight with a curved short sword. Still, the boy had decided to sharpen his sword one day as poking things he hunted or wanted to kill was just too difficult for him. Tanshu always preferred slashing over thrusting and he didn't feel like adapting his style. It was then that he heard a bunch of people walking up to him, how could they do that? Tanshu learned to feel the vibrations of the ground, he had traps and all sorts of alerts and impeccable hearing that alerted him when something was going on nearby. He controlled an area at least three kilometers in radius and only missed out on two or so by the edges of the wasteland, those that passed through there either got scared by the view of the place and the deadly stench and left or went in deeper to where Tanshu saw them.
The boy didn't bother to lift his eyes at the passing by people, he kept sharpening his blade, only nonchalantly adding "You're in my katei, leave now or I will kill you." Someone of that group laughed out, a woman stepped out in front, she had creamy pink hair and deep green eyes, her voice was annoying as hell though. She was dressed pretty weird for such a place too, her white clothes would've gotten dirty with black goo from the dirt or her own blood when she cut herself on the rocks. Only her boots were pretty cool, they were large and thick, maybe Tanshu should loot them off of her body? He wouldn't have to worry about getting cut in his feet ever again!
"So what if we're in your home, brat, scram out of here and maybe WE won't kill YOU!" she spat out with her stupid annoying whiny voice. That voice pissed Tanshu off and he stood up, the boy easily swung the sword around his head and then put it into his sheath and then stood into a drawing stance.
A man with a black round hat stepped in, he had his entire face and body covered with a huge coat and the lower part of his face as well as everything below wrapped in bandages. "Halt, Hana" he lifted his eyes at the boy, his eyes were so strange, they looked like pure silver but had strange circles all around it, only looking at them was scary! "It appears like this boy is a swordsman, he may be worth his words and if he is he'd be worth to be my beloved apostle if he is not... Well... A swordsman should always die by the hand of another swordsman, isn't that right?" the man looked at Tanshu and slammed his staff into the ground, drawing an oodachi from it, revealing the gigantic staff to be just a sheath for his blade.
"Let us fight. If you impress him with the eyes of God, he will allow you to join his ranks. If not, you will get an honorable death as one who is smitten by that with eyes of God has no place in Hell!" the man spoke. His weird manner of speaking addressing himself in the third person annoyed Tanshu even more than his female friend. His voice sounded cool but a bit forced as he clearly had to use moderate effort to lift his own sword.
"You refused to leave my katei, all four of you will now die!" Tanshu replied looking angrily at the man and his three companions. The man traveled with the strangest of companies: besides the bubble gum color haired girl with the white dress, there was a man in a completely black jumpsuit with chains around his body and with a blue oni mask and a swordswoman with a kimono and strangely large white irides with no pupils. Tanshu tied his sword to his belt and stood in a taijutsu stance, changing his stance and weapon of choice was a good idea - the man's blade was impossibly large so it must've been troublesome for him to keep up with a fast fighter, hand to hand will destroy this man and when he can't lift his sword at all because of his broken ribs - one quick strike would finish it all!
One with the eyes of God was about to close those eyes forever...
=======================
If you want to support me and also access 30 advance chapters, join my patreon with the link patreon.com/EddyHazArd
Or just search "EddyHazArd" in the patreon searcher.