Cult of Shadow
#12 of Tail Underground
Dawn breaks over the country of Arca as Jubei gently rolled over in the bed he stayed in, his eyes slowly open to greet the day. He sighed gently as he sat up in the bed, in the nude. He looked to the window and shook his head, rubbing the sleepiness from his eyes.
"Man..." he said calmly and shook his head of the dizziness, "What in the world happened to me last night."
He looked over to the young ram next to him sleeping, along with the nude panda on the floor and wine bottles all over the floor. Jubei couldn't help but smile as he slowly stood up, feeling the aches and pains of the little "workout" he received last night.
"Ah, so that's what happened." He said jokingly as he stretched gently.
The young Shadow fox sighed gently as he looked for his tantos. This was his celebration day with the others after he had just achieved his Fourth Coil status within the White Lotus Society. Suddenly, he could hear a commotion coming from downstairs as his ears gently flicked, picking up shuffling of feet and screams from downstairs. The sounds would start getting louder leading up to the room in which he stayed. Jubei couldn't help but laugh, who ever was outside didn't know what they were in for. Suddenly, bursting through the doors were a pair of Arcan Soldiers with long swords and shields at ready, pointing them at the shadow fox.
"Jubei of Han-ma! You're under arrest in the name of King Arca, you are to come with us!" the taller of the two black foxes said.
Jubei smirked and looked to the two, "What are my charges..." he said calmly as he gently raised his hands in surrender.
"That's none of your concern!" screamed the shorter one as he made a motion to handcuff him.
Jubei suddenly grabbed the guard's arm and twisted it around, to the point where he was able to make him drop the sword, but before the sword would drop, Jubei's foot would kick it back up so he could grab it out of the air and place it at the guard's neck.
"I believe in Due Process and there for I am entitled to know why I'm being arrested so that I may effectively defend myself in court..."
The other fox didn't hesistate and charged the shadow fox, only to find his sword buried into the bosom of his partner and his partner's sword buried in his own. Mortally wounded, the two guards fell to the ground and groaned loudly as Jubei looked behind him as the panda and ram looked to him shocked, not knowing of his abilities until know.
"Oh yes. I remember now..." he said as he quickly got down on all four knees and grabbed both his weapons and his suit, putting both on in haste as he began dragging the mortally wounded soldiers out of the room. Jubei then turned around to the two and placed his finger over his muzzle, as if to say ‘this is our little secret.'
It would take him a while, but Jubei eventually dragged the soldiers all the way to Arca's courtroom, obviously interrupting some important meeting with other world leaders as Jubei had kicked in the door. He dropped the two men on the ground at Arca's feet and looked to him scornfully.
"Arca... you should be ashamed, first of all you're gonna send men who refuse the laws of due process to me and then have them attack me the first time they get... this is an all time low for you Arca, even with the whole no tail raising business..." said Jubei with narrow eyes glaring at the king.
Arca quickly stood up as if to say something but was interrupted by the two soldiers, "Jubei... these aren't my men... I ordered no raids what so ever today... these men are imposters!" he said as he picked one of them up as the captive screamed in pain.
"MY LORD!!!!" suddenly came from outside of the room as a young guard, a rabbit, comes barreling in. "My Lord... two of our guardsmen were found dead in their rooms this mourning, their throats cut..."
Arca narrowed his eyes at the man he held up and snarled angrily, "Thank you Marn... I believe we have our culprits..." he said angrily.
Jubei looked to the king and gently knelt to the ground, his hand over his hear, as a show of respect in the White Lotus, "Your Highness... I wish to be the one who interrogates them... please allow me this honor after they attacked me in my home..."
Arca looked down to the young ninja and nodded, "That's fair enough, the interrogation is yours Jubei..." he snarled as he tossed the man down on the ground, "Make them regret ever coming to my court..."
It took several hours but and one of the men's death, but he finally extracted information for him to go upon, his eyes closed as he heard the words coming from the fox's mouth.
"Cult of Shadow... lead by our Shinigami, We will slaughter all in Arca... EVEN YOU JUBEI!!!!"
He couldn't help but feel uneasy at the mentioning of other shadow fox in Han-Ma, was it possible? As he gently walked up to the Tail Underground he saw his leader, Ikage. "What happened today? Ian's miffed that he's gotta replace a door." He says.
Jubei shook his head, "Couple of men crashed in dressed like Arca's boys and tried to kill me... I turned them into Arca... Excuse me..." he said softly as he walked past his leader, keeping quiet of the what exactly happened. Jubei slowly walked into the tavern and looked to Ian smiling gently, "Sir Ian, I'm going to be going to Han-Ma for a couple of days I'm going to go take care of things..." he said calmly before going up to his room to pack for the journey he was about to partake upon.
It would take several weeks on the boat ride home, but Jubei finally returned home to Han-Ma. He sat in his normal meeting place where he normally would meet his mistress, Lady Uhn, but instead of Lady Uhn, he would get another figure to stand with him upon the wonderous waterfalls of Xun Province. One of her advisors, lady Ming would meet him in the normal spot, a young female green dragoness.
"Lady Uhn is busy I presume Ming..." Jubei would say as he sat at the top of the water fall as lady Ming slowly stalked up behind him without turning around.
Ming sat down beside him cross-legged, sighing softly, "She is helping Ikage on a mission unfortunately..." she said, "What brings you back to Han-Ma Jubei?"
Jubei sighed a bit and looked to Ming, "Some Disturbing news... other shadow fox in Arca tried to kill me... I wanna know where they're located... they call themselves the Cult of Shadow..."
Ming gently nodded softly and looked to him, "The Cult has been our sworn enemies for a long time... since the seven year war..." she said softly.
Jubei closed his eyes gently and looked to her, "so you knew?" he asked.
Ming nodded softly, "Don't persue them Jubei... they WILL kill you..."
Jubei looked over to her and narrowed his eyes, giving a slight red hue of anger, "Not without me killing some of them first, tell me where they are..."
Several days later, Jubei would start to hike his way up to the highest moutain of Wong province to the north east in Han-Ma. It was freezing cold but Jubei was covered in feral furs to keep warm, he found that the Cult was based in Wong, in order to keep them in control by Tang during the seven year war. It took him a few days of hiking but he finally made it to the monastery the cult called their headquarters. He walked into the monastery and slowly walked his way through, keeping his furs on to cover his identity. He would make it to the main room which was huge and ornately decorated, obviously in the image of Lord Tang when he was alive, in the front of the room there was a shadowy orb swirling with dark energies as five young Shadow fox bowed before it in a form of reverance. The one clothed in the more innate outfit turned around and smiled softly.
"Welcome my friend... are you too a Shadow Fox?!" the young man said heartily.
Jubei simply nodded softly and looked to the young man under his hood, staring blankly towards him.
"BRILLIANT!" he said gently as he walked over to him, "What province are you from?" he asked. Jubei at that point figured it was now the best time to reveal himself as he threw off the furs and tossed ninja stars, but only to miss as the other four Ninja bounded out of the way.
The Man would then smile gently as he saw the young figure before him, smirking, "Ah Jubei, it's about time you showed up... I figured you'd come sooner or later." The young man would say.
Jubei stood at the ready with his new Orichalcum tantos at ready, "Why did you try to kill me?! Why send assassins after me?" he said angrily at the figure, who was obviously the leader of the cult.
"Why it should be so obviously Jubei, my son, You are abomination upon our society!" he said calmly and smiling as though it was nothing.
Jubei looked to him and blinked a bit, "Son?! My father was killed by the Wolves of Kang beast!" he screamed loudly.
The Figures stood and laughed maniacally, "That man was merely a Shadow Fox in which escaped our reach after Tang woke us up to the truth, he led us towards the path of darkness..." he said gently, walking towards the young Jubei, smirking gently.
With that, Jubei screamed, "LIAR!" And made an attempt for his heart, but was caught by the elder man's hand to his wrist, smirking.
"Jubei, my son, the White Lotus is no match for our powers..." he would say.
With that, he would land a blow directly to Jubei's chest which would send him flying down the room, tumbling on the ground as he landed. He was slow to get up as he looked over to see the older shadow fox stood over him, practically picking him up by the scruff of the neck.
"Jubei, there is nothing you can do... you're in for a world of hurt!" he snarled.
He chucked and threw Jubei into the wall hard. Jubei suddenly got back up slowly holding his side painfully.
Jubei looked to the man and snarled, "You're not my father, if you were my father you wouldn't be doing this to me..." he growled loudly.
"Of course I would if you believe the lies your foster parents gave you..." he said angrily as he slowly walked over to his son. "Jubei... you will die if you don't return to our side!" he said softly.
Jubei looked to the fox and stared into his eyes, being trained to read people via their eyes. He saw desperation in them, helplessness, like he was being controlled. He then saw the swirling vortex of darkness at the end of the room. Jubei suddenly made a quick dash towards it, with the man watching, unsheathing his own tanto, colored black and swirling with shadow as he also made a run for the orb. As Jubei desperately jumped and dug his orichalcum tanto deep into orb, the fox tossed his tanto deep into Jubei's back.
As Jubei fell down to the ground in pain from the tanto in his back, the orb suddenly shatters causing every shadow fox in the monastery to shake their heads gently as the elder looked around.
"wh... what happened?! Why are we here? What happened... JUBEI!!" he screamed loudly as he ran to his son. Jubei moaned in pain as the fox quickly pulled out his own Tanto and dropped it on the ground, "Jubei my son... I... I... I couldn't stop myself... I'm so so, sorry..." he said softly.
Jubei coughed up a small bit of blood, "Th... that's the father I knew..." he smiled.
Suddenly the man grabbed Jubei and swiftly took him towards on of the shadows of in the room and phased into the shadow, to come back out slowly with the two of them fully healed.
Jubei blinked a bit and looked up, "How... how did you do that?" he asked.
The father smiled and ran his hand through his son's hair gently, "My son, I, Sasuke, have the ability to heal other shadow fox in the shadows." He said smiling.
Jubei gently hugged Sasuke gently, with tears flowing from his eyes, "Father... I..."
Sasuke smiled softly as he held his son for the first time in ages, "I love you my son... but now is not the time for our reunion. Tang has made his return To Arca... and we need to get there... and fast."
Jubei nodded softly, he knew he couldn't keep up with the others in the teleportation, but something told him he didn't have to...
-End