Iwagakure, City of Ruins and Nothingness

It was a dull afternoon, the rocks were painted a faint shade of grey that would show that this place was completely decimated and had been for quite some time. Atem doubted that this could have happened before his time, but he knew it wasn’t recent either, this was due to no overgrowth happening although that would only cancel out the possibility of this happening hundreds of years ago which would make the time frame a bit to general. Anyhow, Atem was done thinking on when this happened and wanted to gain intel on the place as a whole, he knew this was Iwagakure, or… it was Iwagakure, so his first report should be that Iwa had been totally and utterly destroyed leaving nothing. There was a small hope that he would be able to find something though so that is what he clinged on to as he used all of his tracking senses to see if he could find the remnants of anything that was lingering around as if it were some stubborn spirit that clung to hope of the place being restored and it being found. This time the latter would happen as Atem vowed he would not leave this place until he found something. Atem began to walk to what seemed to be the training grounds, it was a large open space which could have honestly been due to the explosion that seemed to have happened here, but it also had wood that had been broken into pieces that had no unit of measurement it was so small.


He knew this was useful, but he didn’t want to come back with a report that only stated how he found that they had a training grounds just like Hoshi, he figured that all villages had a training grounds as every village wanted there ninja to get stronger and promote general social activities. With that being said he left from what seemed to be the remnants of the training grounds and went to where he seen the largest amount of rubble because that means the buildings were more concentrated in that area, it was quite some time before he had gotten there, but he made it nonetheless as he had already came all this way so how could he stop now. Atem had then made it to what seemed to be the leader chambers, it showed the broken kanji of Iwa meaning rock in a dull brownish orange color and a rough rusty texture to match it’s surroundings. “Ah, I am here. There has to be something of use here because this is where their Kage was so he had to have had something important in this building unless it was stolen or blown up, but there was no way it could have been stolen if the person who took out the village did just that, took it out." Atem began to look at the outline of where the building originally was seeing that it was circular in shape and stood very tall, possibly the tallest building in Iwagakure, but he could not figure out where an item would be at the time. “Hm, Lucien must have an idea. He should be on his way over as I speak so I’ll just wait.” Atem says as he leans up against a piece of rubble and begins to slip into a light nap that could be awoken if anyone was 35 meters of his position unless it was Lucien of course because he has the silent movements of the Chasseur clan.

[WC 591]

Lucien was only 40 meters away from Atem at this point and he was stalking his way behind him while he was moving upward and checking out each respective site of ruins. As Lucien would move, he moved with his guard on the maximum, often checking behind him, above, feeling the ground for vibrations, and watching for all suspicious things such as puddles on the ground when obviously no water would be here. Lucien had found Atem to be lightly sleeping it seemed. 

From a distance of 40 meters still, Lucien would think to himself. “That’s likely a clone for a trap or decoy, or he’s attempting to bait in anyone else nearby into a trap? Interesting.” Lucien thought to himself. He was already moving silently but he wanted to know if Lucien had thought this through or not. Using chakra sensory for that short duration of time, Lucien checked to see if anyone else was around with a chakra signature, of course he didn’t have one. In which case, it wasn’t a clone as even Lucien wasn’t capable of making his clones not give off chakra when in play. “I see then, it isn’t a clone huh? He better be fooling me, worse, actually sleeping.”
Lucien would walk in front of him from 40 meters away in such a way that the position had Atem’s front facing Lucien from 40 meters away. Lucien took a last look at the surrounding terrain. “Wasteland, complete wasteland and flat land, few ruins.” He thought to himself as he silently drew a kunai from his left ninja pouch via his right hand. Lucien would then throw this at the speed of 80 in such a way that it would land against the wall that Atem was leaning on exactly 5 inches to the right of his head from Lucien’s perspective of view. “Just testing if you’re alive over there. I finally got here! It’s time that we get going and scout out the rest of these ruins.” Lucien said quietly but loudly enough surely for Atem to here from that distance. “Also, pass me my kunai back at some point will ya?” Lucien said as he walked over to the right of himself by 4 meters. “I’m going to keep watch, just alert me if you find anything.” Lucien said as he clapped his hands at the speed of 100 and rushed both of his hands into the ground. “This should be sufficient.” Lucien said as below him a 3 by 3 meters platform of earth arose. That platform then rose into the sky lifting Lucien at the speed of 25 until settling at 10 meters off the ground. “It’s my earth core pillar, I should be able to keep a decent scouting from here. I’ll alert you with this sound whenever you’re out of my view.” Lucien mumbled as he’d made an almost inaudible click with his mouth that a Chasseur could barely even hear. “And this one shows you what direction I’m scouting from here in relation this platform and specifically me currently.” Lucien would then cycle through four different sounds all very low for the Chasseur ears to alert Atem. 

“One is I’m looking forward, two is left, three is right, four is back. I’ll pulse these every few seconds and you can do the same if you want to tell me where you’re looking. In this way, we can explore effectively by not looking in the same place and be able to watch each other’s back easier.” Lucien continued on speaking super low as always. 

WC: 596
329 AP 
- 10 AP

AP = 319

Atem was still asleep until he heard the whistling of a kunai slicing the air as soon as it hit 35 meters from his position, opening his eyes immediately Atem rolled to his right at the speed of 95 going about half a meter from where he once was. The slowly moving kunai then implanted itself in the rock making a noise as it inserted itself into the rubble Atem laid up against. Atem would then snap his neck towards the direction of the kunai’s original position only to see that there was a green-haired boy looking at Atem’s position. Atem would begin to speak only enough for he and Lucien to hear, “Oh, hey there Lucien. Had I not been myself I would have died right there, but I digress. Anyhow, you’ve finally made it, where I am sitting right now is the position of the Leader Chambers, this is where the kage should have been meaning there are important things here, since this place specializes in doton there should be something underground. I took a brief nap in order to wait for you to get here, but I might have already found it, you wouldn’t have doton by chance would you? Raito will work to.” Atem said with a flurry of dialogue. He then picked up the kunai and threw it back at the ninja at the speed of 80, “Hopefully he will catch this there is nothing behind him to stop the kunai from moving.” Atem said just loud enough for him to hear.

Awaiting for his partner to have caught the kunai he then turned around and began to feel the earth below him, he felt small vibrations and heard little tremors. From where they originated had to be underground, but he was not sure which is why he asked if Lucien had doton or Raiton so they can break through the rock. Atem then put his ear to the ground and began to listen carefully on where the source was of the vibrations and it seemed to come from where Lucien was standing. Now that Atem knew where to break the earth he would instruct Lucien to break it with one of his releases if he were capable. If not he would use some of his explosive tags to use a louder method. Walking over to where Lucien was he would wait for the shinobi to begin to excavate the land in some way or tell him that he could not. “Oh yeah, there is no need to look for I have already found where we need to be and it is right below you.” Atem said in a silent whisper that only the two ninja could hear.
[WC 1046]

Lucien catch his kunai as Atem passed it back at him. “Yeah you should keep your alert game high, heh. Good work. All in all, it would have worked as a decent trap depending on who it was that you were fighting. Very much so who.”

 Said super low Lucien listened as Atem talked and said it wasn’t necessary to check the surrounding area. “Oh, you’re right. Iwagakure is the land of the earth users, it would almost be redundant to not expect them to have some sort of underground area for storing possible treasures or something of the like. Sure thing.” Lucien said as he would flip off the 10 meter platform to the left of himself. 

He flipped off and flew downwards at the ground at the speed of 50. Now, he would directly beside the left side of the rock pillar he had created. “This should be easy in which case. I did learn doton a while but I don’t have anything that would directly allow me to be able to break the earth below us for both of us to make entry into whatever this place is. I could go alone, but that’s not in the squad plans heh.” Lucien said with little to no volume. “Alright, step back for a sec?” Lucien said as he drew an explosive tag from his weapons pouch via his right arm and right hand. “This should do the trick well.” 

Lucien positioned the tag directly on the tip of his right index finger. Lucien stomped on the ground and from the sound that he got in return, he could suggest to himself that there was some sort of opening below that was maybe 5-10 meters away. “Looks like I’ll need two.” Lucien said as he drew another explosive tag in the same manner. 

“I’ll funnel some chakra into them to make the explosion a bit larger as well.” In a flash, Lucien sunk into the ground and closed the hole behind him. Now he would go underground and leave a 20 second explosive tag at 5 meters deep and 10 meters deep. He calculated the likely explosion size of each and decided that 5 meters between each if he were to enhance them via chakra would do fine. Now Lucien would move himself in the direction of Atem and appear beside him by 1 meter. They should have be around 7 meters away from the area where Lucien sunk down into the Earth. “Alright, that looks like it will work in maybe ten or so seconds.” Lucien said lowly again. Lucien had moved at the speed of 20 through the ground and that was the reason that he had decided to set the explosive tag for so long. 

“Alright, this will explode an entrance into whatever you were talking about earlier. We don’t know what could be down there but once it explodes, you’re first in. I’ll follow directly behind, have your kunai at the ready or something.” 

WC: 1096 Tots

Atem seen as the green-haired shinobi caught the kunai with ease and began to speak, “You know with this clan we can’t be snuck upon, but it is quite the opposite for other people.” Atem chuckled as he made his way to Lucien. “You are right they should have something underground in the works, it’s almost weird though that a ninja that was able to destroy this village wasn’t able to find something as simple as this, I guess that is the perk of being in this clan.” Atem said putting his ear back to the ground right next to Lucien. He then heard the vibrations that felt like miniature tremors to the hairs in his ears which perceived the sound. As the boy said that he had learned doton he was relieved, “Ah, I’m glad I asked, this will be easy enough to do then. Let’s see what you can do.” He said as he watched Lucien begin to work on the earth with the explosive tags and hiding like a mole technique. Atem payed close attention to the hiding like a mole technique as his was a technique that allowed any ninja to move underground as if they were some sort of worm, or mole as described by the jutsu. Atem backed up as requested a bit late, but continued to look at the shinobi as he continued to work underground. He could slightly hear the shinobi moving underground ruffling the stones as he moved through it. “How interesting.” Atem said.

Lucien was finally done with placing the explosive tags into the ground and then it would cause an explosion of 10 meters, it created a jagged hole in which inside Atem and Lucien could see something shining. No, it was glistening, multiple rocks laid in a water fountain looking construction down there and the drop had to at least be about 20 meters down meaning it would hurt if they were to just fall down their. Luckily Atem had wind gale palm which he would use in an abrupt manner, taking Lucien who was next to him by the flak jacket at the speed of 95 with his right hand making no unnecessary movement to get to his collar. Since Lucien was right next to him it didn’t take much time to grab him and with this being said they both jumped in, or better yet, Atem jumped in with Lucien in suit. Atem would then begin to weave the signs for wind gale palm at the speed of 95 which would be done around the time they got to 15 meters into the drop. He had waited for the right timing to be propelled up and when they got within 5 meters of the ground he would activate the jutsu causing both he and Lucien to be pushed back up a little then slowly brought down by gravity once more, but this time at an acceptable distance.

Now that they were both underground and safely they would begin to scope out the place seeing an open area that had massive constructs that was around 50 meters in diameter from the middle of the area where the water fountain was. “It seems we are here, let’s look inside of that water fountain and grab what we can, we should get out before anyone in the nearby area finds this place.” After saying this Atem would run to the water fountain at the speed of 85 which was 7 meters away from him, Lucien should have been right behind him. Getting there in practically no time he and Lucien would discover that there were small rocks in the fountain that seemed to have had some influence on Iwagakure or at least some sort of importance if they built a whole area around this place. “We will bring back 4 stones, 2 per person and see if they can analyze these rocks, we will also have to notify them on this location obviously.” Atem said as he took up two rocks and expected Lucien to pick up two as well. He then popped open a portal to his storage and placed the rocks in their for safety and then proceeded to head out. Assuming Lucien was in tow Atem would then hop up the giant hole and jump from wall to wall until he had finally gotten back to the surface. Now that they were back with something decent enough to show the kage for their chunin rank up Atem would begin to speak, “Well, with this we will finally get out of the genin rank making it closer to the ANBU rank we so much desire. As we head out of this place we should leave in different directions, different places that head to the same place would be a better thing to say.” Atem would say just enough for the both of them to hear. Assuming Lucien agreed he would then begin to walk away walking directly towards the mountain ranges he had came from. He looked back at Lucien once more before his departure, “I’ll see you there. We shall meet at the Royal Palace the second we enter Hoshi, no resting or anything. This should be obvious, but y’know. I thought it had to be said. Again, see you at Hoshi.” Atem said dashing off into the direction of the mountains which faced Hoshi. As Atem was running he wondered what the weird symbols could have met, it kind of resembled what Atem had learned in the Ninja Academy about Konoha and how they had a monument of all of their kage. “An underground monument, that is fairly weird for the prideful people of Iwagakure.” Atem said as he continued back to Hoshi anxious to get back.

[WC 2010]
[Exit, Unless interrupted]

Lucien would follow along with Atem as he finally showed up beside him. The explosion was successful and had resulted in a jagged hole of which they could fall down into however the fall itself was rather expansive and clocked in at 20 meters which wasn’t suitable for the body of either of them. Lucien had planned to use his control over wind to simply flip in and flip off to the side off the air when he reached the point where the jagged rocks where no longer. 

He could then flip in and go off to the side rolling across the ground and gaining himself a solid landing. But before Lucien could, he was grabbed at the flak jacket by Atem who would then throw himself into the hole. “Welp, if he’s doing this, he’s got a plan.” Lucien thought to himself as he glanced directly back up through the hole and using his left hand grabbed two kunai from his left side and threw them directly up through the whole. There was a .1 meter distance between the two of the kunai and one was .1 meter higher. Using this odd set up, it allowed Lucien a quick glimpse of the area to make sure that he wasn’t being followed by looking off into the reflections of the kunai and the reflections that the came to the kunai off the other kunai. This was only possible due to his near perfect eyesight. The kunai were thrown so perfectly, that when Atem was using his gale palm, the kunai would then fall back down landing directly into Lucien’s left hand. Atem likely noticed them anyway so he wasn’t afraid of having the kunai hit him or himself. “The hell, this place seems too darn nice to simply be sitting around underground. I wonder what there idea was with this, maybe they simply wanted to preserve this can got some good vertical technique utilizing nin to push this entire section of a building down?” Lucien said as he landed from the now 5 meter or so fall. Basic.


Lucien moved about and observed until he was given the stones which weren’t all that heavy. With those, he’d be able to then move out alongside Atem who suggested that they take separate paths back over to Hoshi. However, these paths would still have a short enough distance so that if either of them were to say something or yell very loudly, the other person should have been able to hear it regardless at an at least faint level. 

“Alright, I’ll see you at Hoshi then, our travel shouldn’t be that long all in all.” Lucien said as they were already back at the surface. “Hmm… on second thought, I’m gonna stay here and do a little run down of the surrounding area a bit further.” Lucien said as Atem was already on his way, Lucien wanted to do a bit more exploring for his time. Should he need to be able to simply get out of there he could if he encountered any ninja. Before furthering in his exploring efforts, Lucien would stand 2 meters away from the earth pillar that he had made earlier, from here, he would examine the area around himself to make sure that none were sneaking up. “I can use the pillar as a means of navigation if I have to but via visual memory of textures on the ground and other sensory clues, I should be able to guide my way around this area. I’ll firstly need to conduct a little investigation on the wildlife here, so far, I haven’t seen any at all and I hope there is at least something here for me to be able to find.” 

Lucien said lowly just enough for Atem to hear had he been in range them. Lucien was already on the move moving forward into that which would be Iwagakure territory. It was easily visible from all directions, the vast wasteland that existed before them. As for now, Lucien would make it a good focus to the ground to look for tracks of anything or any possible insects. “Not even a single bug, this place must have been destroyed to the ground for sure. Well then, I wonder.” Lucien decided that his antics on finding some fort of organisms or wildlife wasn’t going to pay off because he didn’t even smell the smell of feces or anything else that would be left by animals for miles sadly. “Well then, I’ll start my returning around now but firstly I’ll see if I can close up that hole that we left into that secret area.” Lucien said as he would begin speeding over to the hole in the ground where he’d attempt to fix it using only his control over the element of earth and his hands. It took some time but after a while it looked nearly identical to what he had remembered of it before he went to explode the entire thing. “Well then, looks like this will be good enough. Now if anyone decides to show up, they’ll have to find this as well. 


I find it strange how powerful the flowing of that water is down there. Even stranger, the water hasn’t changed in color at all so I don’t know what to think about that but regardless of that I must be returning to Hoshi now. I can’t be late on the return.” Lucien thought to himself as he began making his way back to Hoshi still in range of being heard by Atem. 

WC: 2026
[Exit, swerve]