Night time adventure

Mezurashii tossed and turned, twisting her covers and kicking them off. Her nightmares were back tonight, images of loved ones flashed before her closed eyes and then disappeared, she tried searching for them but what she saw made her wake up screaming.

Her skin was pale and she was shaking like a leaf, she felt just as brittle. She put her face in her hands and took calming breaths, she didn’t know why but when she was little she was always plagued by nightmares, she had thought they had gone away.

No such luck, this one wasn’t as vivid as some of the others, but she could still remember the bloody images of her dearest friends and family being cut down. Shaking her head she calmed herself.

‘Calm of Thoughts. Ruler of Actions. Light of Domains’ she repeated like a mantra in her head, as though the words would save her from her painful dreams.

“There’s no way I’ll be able to sleep now,” she muttered to herself before she hoped out of bed, dressing quickly she exited her room. She checked her papa’s room to find it empty, panic coursed through her but she quickly took a second to calm herself.

‘Probably gone out for a mission’ she thought, her papa had recently gone back on the roster, granted he had trained himself half to death afterwards to make sure he was in top shape. The redhead practically jumped down to the kitchen and found the all to familiar note, she only needed to skim it to know her papa had gone out on another mission.

‘Sorry for leaving in the middle of the night, it’s a mission. A-rank and I’ll be out of the village for a while. Love, papa’ she read but her eyes could only stare at the rank.

Such a high rank? So soon after he was injured? Mezurashii took a deep breath; she needed to get out of the house. The silence was too loud; the spacious walls were wrapping around her and suffocating. Dropping the note she practically ran out of the house, out passed the garden and into the forest.

She jumped into the high branches amongst the tall trees, adding probably to much chakra she started off at a breakneck speed and kept it. She was scared, for her father, for her friends, for her future and their own. It was probably just the effect of the dream and the night and the note, but she was still scared like a child.

Suddenly she ran out of trees, adjusting herself in mid-air she landed at the bank of a lake, the water lapped at her bare feet. It seems she had forgot to grab her shoes, she laughed a little before taking a step onto the waters surface.

Her hair was still down, she mildly noticed as she ventured away from the shore. Mezurashii took a stance for a long moment before she began to move slowly, her foot extended and traced it on the waters surface until it was behind her. Then she pushed off at high speeds, the force causing the water to explode backwards in a flurry of droplets.

She easily ran towards the center, every thirty she would pause and perform a combo. Twisting and jumping and sweeping and spinning while kicking and punching the invisible enemy that she faced, but once thirty seconds had passed she would continue her sprint towards the center of the lake.

The redhead skidded to a stop, breathing in deeply to re-oxygenize her blood supply, Mezurashii looked around herself in a slow, gentle, manner before smiling to herself.

It looked as though she was separated from the world, standing in the center here. You couldn’t see the bank, just a sudden cut from blue to brown and green, and she couldn’t stop smiling. This place was just so peaceful, so quiet, and it seemed as though very few people had been here, if any at all.

Sitting down in a cross-legged position on the waters surface Mezurashii gently closed her eyes, and looked within herself.

When she opened them she was in her mindscape, she looked around and grinned to herself. Her pond that symbolized her chakra was much larger from when she last visited, and the stream that fed it was larger as well, and it flowed faster.

Her willow tree was covered in so many flowers in full bloom, with so many memories to keep her will strong the tree had grown large enough to hide the cabin fully, she check the cabin and was happy to see it hadn’t been tampered with. Turning around she walked amongst her flowers and hills where the grass reached your knee, until she reached her forest.

Again the guardian of this realm in her mind greeted her silently, but it’s eyes told her nothing had been tampered with here either. Nodding she passed through, watching the strangling vines she had put in and walked towards the mountain range.

When she reached it she was both happy and annoyed that she could feel the cold, closing her eyes for a second Mezurashii banished the cold from her skin and she sighed in relief, glad to have the cold gone. She re-opened her eyes and smiled, the storm was still raging, and she vaguely saw the outline of the keeper of this barrier.

“All is well here, none have crossed nor attempted to” was all the giant wolf said, Mezurashii nodded in response and continued on, and as expected she fell through a barrier of snow and fell into a cave, ice spikes littering the ground she was rapidly approaching. Smiling to herself she let herself be pierced, no blood was spilt, no pain was felt.

The redhead faded from the icy cave and re-appeared in darkness, if one thought her world was real they would expect this to be the afterlife. Sighing she rubbed her abdomen, where she was pierced, and looked into the abyss.

“That is sure to throw invaders through a loop,” she muttered to herself, her words echoing in the darkness. “Lets add some sunlight shall we?” she said as she lifted her arms, the sun rising with them and banishing the darkness.

Colour took form wherever the light touched; golden sand covered the ground while pale blue sky covered everything above. Wind kicked up violently and sand flew everywhere, a great sandstorm emerged with enough power to peel the skin off anything that wasn’t protected, though the and never touched the redhead.

“Looks like my idea of coyotes isn’t going to work here” she thought out loud as she let her hands fall to her sides, she looks around as the storm wavers and finally settles. Dunes of sand stood tall, some large enough to shield someone from the sun.

Taking a deep breath she thinks about what could possibly be in a desert, there are lots of reptiles but that would be to mainstream, there are scavenger birds but she doesn’t think they would work in the unpredictable storms. Looking on in the distance she could already see another one forming, the sand rose like a cloud in the distance.

“Something land based, but can’t be a mammal, and it can’t a reptile either,” she muttered to herself, by the time she thought of something she could feel the wisps of wind of the approaching storm. Grinning in victory she turned to the sand at her feet.

Kneeling on the warm sands Mezurashii placed one open palm on the ground, looking very much like someone who was kneeling to a king, she focused on the creature she was thinking of.

She envisioned them being of various sizes, the small ones would stay near the surface and would be a common sight on the dunes. However the larger ones would be deeper and would only rise when a threat made itself known, the redhead grinned to herself as she stood, knowing just how someone could make themselves a threat here.

A small scorpion, a beautiful black colour, emerged from the sand and crawled towards her in a manner that seemed rather comically confident, for something so small. Smiling gently she picked up the small creature, both hands were flat so they created something akin to a platform for the poisonous insect.

“If anyone steps on you, picks off your limbs, hurts you in any way, even if it’s just insulting, you bring up your brothers and sisters. If they can’t handle it bring out the big guys okay?” she asked, it made a clicking sound and snapped its pincers in affirmation. Happily agreeing to do as she says.

“Good, now go spread the word. And remember, try to get an intruder to hurt you, otherwise this defense isn’t worth much” she added before she gently placed the scorpion on the hot sand, the sand storm was about to hit. The scorpion turned to the raging storm before turning back to its mistress; it made the equivalent of a nod for a scorpion and burrowed underground.

Standing up again Mezurashii walked towards the sandstorm, wondering what she would use as a doorway. Using the sandstorm would be to obvious while having the scorpions eat you would be just about the same, sitting down the redhead looked at the sky. The blazing sun beating down on every little thing in this part of her mind.

“On every little thing…” she muttered, standing up suddenly she looked around. Shrugging to herself she turned to the sand again and began digging, she continued on until she could feel the cool sand. Sticking her hand in she felt a pull; grinning to herself Mezurashii let herself be pulled into the sand. It was cooler down here, suddenly the temperature dropped to freezing.

Kicking herself up she broke the surface, when she rose again she was back in the snowy mountain range. Grinning she pushed herself out of the snow and stood, this place needed some renovating as well, closing her eyes she imagined all the visible caves riddled with wolves or unstable ceilings.

The caves would collapse if anyone stayed in them for too long and the wolves would attack any who entered; the caves covered by snow would posses those ice spikes that would send you to the desert. However, there was one cave that held a spring. If you fell into that cave you would come to a tunnel, and that tunnel would turn into the trunk of a tree and you would exit the hollow of that tree into the jungle barrier.

Grinning to herself she jumped from tree to tree, following the path that she needed to take. The giant apes gathered around her, she let them grab her and they took her to the ‘heart’ of her mind. Looking around she noticed she had nothing to protect her haven besides the barriers.

Taking a deep breath Mezurashii laid herself on the soft grass, looking on the partly cloudy sky. She knew her chakra was beginning to run low so this would be the last thing for this meditation session; she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

The hills moved slightly, the grass bent for a few seconds before it settled again. There was the sound of deep breathing and a soft growling, she petted the hill slightly and the sounds stopped. The hills moved again, only more rapidly as the creature raised it’s head and stared at its creator.

“Hello” she waved to the creature, its slit shaped pupils stared back at her for a long while before it nodded and delve back beneath the surface of the fields, the ground shifted and before settling. It looked as though the land and the creature were two different things.

“Now this is bound to throw intruders through a loop, if they get this far” she said to herself as she stood and walked to her large pond. Though now it looked more like it had suffered a drought.

Sighing Mezurashii plucked a flower from the willow tree and set it in the pond, placing it gently in the water and watched as images formed. Like a movie the scenes played out, the sounds from that memory echoing.

‘Let the race begin!’ a large man called out, holding out a black and white checkered flag. Kids lined up at the starting line, all of them pumped for the race as people cheered.

‘Ready… steady… go!’ he yelled and the kids shot off, a blonde haired boy was easily edging ahead. He grinned confidently as he neared the finish line a red haired girl shot ahead of him, laughing joyfully.

The picture blurred while it skipped ahead.

‘You cheated! There’s not way a little girl like you could beat me!’ the blonde yelled angrily, his friends were behind him and agreeing with him. The redhead tilted her head in confusion while the adults around her scowled.

‘How do you cheat in a race?’ she questioned and the boys face turned red.

Mezurashii sighed as she plucked the flower from the water and placed it back onto one of the branches, that memory always made her feel nostalgic. That was the first race she won, and it will always be her favorite race.

“Time to go” she stretched languidly; her fears had washed away in the time it took to create her barrier and add some things. She closed her eyes slowly and heaved a deep sigh, she felt herself lift as though gravity had abandoned her.

After a long moment she felt gravity return, she opened her eyes to find herself back at the lake. The redhead yawned as she stretched one hand over her head, the over covering her mouth, before she stood. Her chakra wavered slightly so she hurried back to the bank, jumping and spinning every thirty seconds but never stopped moving.

When neared the bank her chakra finally gave out, she yelped as she fell through the water. She only fell waist deep but it was enough for her to stumble forward and crawl to the bank, she didn’t bother to try and use her chakra after that.

Standing at the bank, half soaked, she felt much better compared to earlier. So with that Mezurashii began her trek home, occasionally stumbling over a root covered by the shadows. The redhead laughed every time that happened.

“This is good training for fighting blind” she said to herself, it was still dark and she could barely see anything.

She paused when she heard a sound, she turned but saw nothing, shrugging she continued on. She was probably hearing things, but when she heard it a second time she turned around and, carefully, headed towards the sound. Mentally berating herself for heading towards a potentially dangerous situation, blind, low in chakra, and far away from any form of support.

“Oh my…” the redhead couldn’t even finish the sentence when she saw it, a small brown bear. It was just a cub, tangled in ninja wire. Some idiot had probably left the wire, maybe an academy student. It whimpered as she approached.

“Shh… shh, it’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you,” she whispered gently, the bear cub growled pitifully in an attempt to scare her away. Mezurashii just smiled comfortingly and slowly reached out a hand, the cub still bared its teeth and when her hand was just about to touch it the cub bit her hand. Hard.

Mezurashii winced but didn’t move, her posture still relaxed and friendly. She continued to inch towards the scared cub.

“See? Your okay now, there you go,” she said calmly as the cub relaxed and slowly let go of her hand, whimpering the cub licked it in an apology. In response the redhead patted him gently.

Turning around to reach her pouch Mezurashii pulled out a kunai, moving slowly and deliberately keeping her movements within the cubs’ sight she began to cut and loosen the wire. When the bear cub was finally free the redhead stood slowly with a smile.

“There you go, but I have to leave now. Bye” she waved and turned to leave, she continued a few steps before stepping over a root. She made not two steps before she heard a whining sound; she turned and saw the bear trying to climb over the root.

“No, no, no. You’re not meant to follow me,” she chastised as she walked back and set the cub back down, on the other side of the root. Standing back up she turned and, once again, didn’t get far before she heard the bears whining.

Looking back over her shoulder she watched the bear cub tumble over the root and ran towards her, rubbing up against her leg. Sighing, Mezurashii bent down and picked up the little cub, too tired to fight the small animal.

“Fine, I’ll keep you” she muttered and continued her trek home; she looked down at the bear cuddling against her shoulder. “What shall I name you?” she thought out loud.

She continued to think amongst the dark, heading home and carrying a, slightly heavy, baby animal. By the time she reached home she was yawning more than walking, and she still hadn’t figured out a name.

Wiping her feet she opened the door and gently let her bear cub fall to the floor. He, she found out a while ago it was male, was enthralled by his new home and began running around like crazy. Sniffing everything it would reach and some things it couldn’t, in the mean time Mezurashii stumbled into the kitchen and pulled out some meat.

“He has to be a few weak old, does he eat meat this early? Or is he still on milk?” she wondered as she slowly got out a bowl and placed the meat, she didn’t even need to call out when the cub came scampering in and quickly devoured his meal.

Placing the bowl in the sink the redhead noticed how the cub yawned, or did the equivalent of a yawn for a bear. Scooping the bear up she used what little chakra had had gathered from the walk and sent it into her cub, it accepted the chakra and fell limp. Happily asleep from the warm buzz of chakra.

Walking up the stairs Mezurashii placed him on the pillow and changed into some pajamas. Slipping under the covers she adjusted the bear cub so he was partially covered in blankets as well.

“Good night, Boken” she muttered before she fell into slumber.

[TWC: 3136 +15stats, +31JP]