The Ghost of a Friend (Private; Flashback)

The dark cave was lit by a single torch as Katsuro sat at the entrance looking over the lake. He had received a message addressed to one person named Woody. He knew who had sent it before he even read who had signed off on it. Sparky. He knew the name he had given his best friend as a genin when they were members of the same squad. That squad mate eventually ended up surpassing him in rank and possibly skill, being a former Raikage that was presumed dead, but somehow avoided the death and was now looking to get back in touch with his old friend.

With a sigh Katsuro pulled the cigarette from the crinkling pack in his hands before placing the paper rolled tube into his mouth. The lighter clinked as the metal top clinked against the side as he flicked it over. Katsuro's face was briefly lit by the small flame of the lighter before it was flicked shut without another clink and all that was visible was the ember at the tip of the cigarette. The sweet cherry flavored tobacco filled his lungs as he held it there. He thought he could feel the nicotine flood his blood system as he exhaled. His extremities seemingly warming up on their own as the mist hung to his skin like a set of wet clothes.

As he waited he tried to arm himself with a set of mental and verbal weapons should the situation call for it. He also readied his physical weapons lest his friend had been interrogated and gave everything up. While he didn't perceive his life to be important he knew that there were secrets he knew that few people knew. Like who the strongest genin were, where they lived, what Kekkei Genkai they had, and easiest way to manipulate them. Of course if he thought he was going to be captured, he would easily kill himself to stop the risk of information leaking. With another inhale he caused the ember to become brighter before it grew dim again as he pulled the cigarette from between his lips. Soon smoke mixed with the cool night's air and rose towards the sky.

Achilles couldn't help but raise his head up and smile as the rain poured onto him, it was after all his favorite thing about The Land of Lightning. The constant cloudy weather and of course the rain, it was one of the most calming things in the world so i was rare that he wouldn't bare a smile when the weather was like it was now. Although, even he knew not to just stand in the rain, so evening his head once again, he took a glance at the assigned position, and began trudging forward once again. He was sure, his appearance would be a fair bit different then the last time he saw Katsuro, after all a month without a hair cut or shave can do that.

Achilles hair was now roughly down around his eyes, and framed his face around his jawline, with the back of his hair now creeping on the top of his shirt. All in all it looked wild, and was only made more so, by his now lengthy beard, making all of his face a sandy blonde looking haze of hair. Not, that he really minded at the moment however, as with the cooling rain outside he was kept rather cool by it. After entering the grotto where the lake and their meeting place was, a grimace found it's way onto his previous smiling disposition, "Ugh, why did he have to go and sit inside the damn cave."

Raising his hand up into the air, sparks began to form around his hand, growing brighter and brighter until his entire hand was covered in his Elemental chakra Lightning. "That's better." Nodding to himself in approval, he began to make his way further in, until the familiar smell of smoke, and ash began to fill his nostrils. The smile, that had faded away after arriving had began to flare up again as he recognize the dying smell of cigarettes and smoke. Looking past the lake just before him he saw a faint but definite light, though it looked like it was head height, until he saw it dull then brighten again he immediately realized what it was.

"Looks like smoke stack is at it again." Flaring his hand causing the light to shine brighter for a moment before dulling back to it's original brightness, he began to walk straight for Katsuro, smile now dulled to a content look. It wasn't long before Achilles was just a few feet away and was close enough to finally make eye contact with his friend, "Aye, Katsuro, lovely night isn' it?" His casual small talk was sure to confuse him, as he probably wasn't quite as laid back as the former Raikage was, seeing as how, he knew for a fact he'd been alive since the Land of Tea incident, though he highly doubted Katsuro bought into the whole Raikage dead thing as well, as long as their wasn't a body to prove it that is.

The cherry flavored tobacco filled his lungs again as he drew a breath through paper filter. It was taking longer than he had originally thought for his friend to get to the meeting location and Katsuro was growing bored. Though his state of boredom didn't last long as a gust of wind blew rain into his face soaking his cigarette and his clothes before he could retreat back into the cave. He gave the now ruined cigarette a look of disdain before dropping it on the cave's floor and rubbing it against the hard stone with his foot. A simple handseal and a thick piece of wood grew from his arm until the six foot piece of wood had dropped to the ground with the echoing sound of wood against stone. He then set to breaking the wood into smaller pieces as he waited.

By the time he saw a light flare up and die down out of the corner of his eye, the torch was now underneath the broken pieces of Katsuro's wooden cells and was the base of the fire that was now there. Katsuro smiled as he stood up from the hard ground and stretched. His soaked Jounin vest had been removed and placed at a distance from the fire where it would dry out without catching on fire.

"Yes it is," he said to his friend once Achilles had gotten to him. He looked his friend over for a second taking in his state of unkemptness before giving off a laugh that started in the pit of his stomach. "Damn Achilles, I would say look what the cat dragged in but you look more like the cat ate you before it was eaten by a dog then vomited both of you up. Though I guess the life of a dead Raikage couldn't have been easy, eh?"

He gave another chuckle as he waved for Achilles to get closer to the fire before he would sit down himself.

"When they said you had disappeared and were presumed dead I couldn't do anything but kick myself. Figured if I could have been there I could have brought you home alive and well. Guess that's apart of that hero complex I'm so fond of and entirely unneeded seeing as you are alive and mostly well. So tell me me old friend. What did you think you could accomplish by technically becoming a Rogue Ninja."

Katsuro's voice maintained the normal amount of indifference as it normally does when he is attempting to gauge someone. Unbeknownst to Achilles, Katsuro was gauging whether he was real or another shinobi using a transformation jutsu.

Extinguishing the Lightning from his hand he smiled at the insult, "Same ol' Katsuro, if I didn't know any better I'd say you look like a wet dog yourself." He was obviously referring to the fact that Katsuro had been out in the elements for a while waiting on Achilles and had become drenched due to that. Chuckling at their common ground of how they always interacted with each other, the insults and terrible nicknames they enjoyed trading off, he couldn't help but feel a sense of home. In reference to being a dead Raikage, Achilles simply shrugged, "Honestly, I kind of prefer it now, I was bored." Knowing that his answer would bring about confusion he began to elaborate further.

Taking the seat offered to him by Katsuro, whom he was sure was eagerly awaiting him to continue, "To be blunt, I felt trapped." Leaning back away from the fire, it being a little bit too warm for his now haired face, "I couldn't go on missions, I was stuck in that office, I couldn't do anything anymore." Sighing as he took a moment to consider his next explanation, "I have no intention of being a Rogue Ninja, I don't like the thought of having to kill all of the ANBU sent after me, but I do have some plans while I'm going to be gone." A smirk began to appear on the face of Achilles as he pulled up his right sleeve revealing a seal mark tattoo on his shoulder. "I finished it."

"This was very possibly the most difficult thing I had ever worked on, it took years to perfect it, of course it was made much easier once I became Raikage, ironically, but I no longer had the time to perfect it." Pulling his sleeve back down he continued speaking, "This seal is possibly my most powerful technique, and once I started thinking about it, I have several powerful techniques, I'm even working on a Taijutsu version of Raiton Strike I should be finished with that soon." Knowing he was probably far off topic from the actual question and way too excited Achilles caught himself, "Basically I've become even more stronger then I was as Raikage after, being 'killed', after The Land of Tea. I don't want to be trapped like that again, and I want to explore the world, see what else is out there."

"Of course I won't completely ditch you guys either, I'll send reports on anything I see, and I'll give detailed reports to the interior of any village I run into." Thinking to himself he smiled again, "Think of me as Kumo's super spy!" Though it sounded funny he had plenty of thought behind it, "I mean look, in the Bingo Book I'm only known as The Lightning Sage former Sixth Raikage, no one knows my appearance outside of Kumo, so I'm in a good position to roam the world, and I can certainly handle any trouble."

There was also still the issue that, Achilles was also looking for a student one, who truly fit his style and could be the recipient of the skills, that he brought to the world. He didn't mention this, because he knew Katsuro would have an issue with it, if that recipient wasn't of Kumo, though Achilles himself would prefer that as well, he wouldn't pass up the opportunity to train another person like him.