Secret Treasure Search: L & A

Lucien and Atem were prepared for their new mission that would revival everything else that they’ve previously done for the village. After the previous chuunin exam battle, where the monk boy had simply decided not to fight and the two Chasseurs would then request a harder and more suitable supplement to that mission as they were effectively left without a fight, the princess Tehniyat would tell them something in secret talking about where to meet for the discussion of their replacement mission. They both agreed and then, the night for the discussion had finally came.

The scene was perfectly set. The sky, a color darker than the fate reserved for those only truly wicked, the air, thin and cunning like hemophilic blood slowly dripping, always constant. Silence hung over the village of Hoshigakure no Sato as if a ghastly spirit, once a mourning owl. From what Lucien could tell, not a single person was out at this time in Hoshi.

“This makes me feel like I’m operating on stealth missions again… Ahh the times at the village of the Chasseurs. Strange it is, that I can still remember so well.” Lucien would think to himself as he stood on a Hoshi rooftop, staring off into the sky with his focus aiming towards the white crescent moon. The scene was as ominous as it was quiet and thus, the moon felt as if a platform for some spectator to watch from a distant far. Though that, that would be impossible.

Lucien now was high on the roof gazing around in all directions. He could easily tell the time simply by looking around at a few environmental details. “I judge it’s time that I get going. Atem likely is on his way there.” Said his thoughts. The Hoshi Chuunin would then get to moving, having already activated his clan’s abilities allowing his fine vision in the night as well as total silence in movement and the lack of any chakra signature. From his own chakra sensory, Lucien found little traces here and there but they were all seemingly coming from houses and homes. Granted it was 1 AM, there wouldn’t be many up then anyway.

Lucien sped along from rooftop to rooftop until finding himself at a never seen before forest where he’d follow a path dictated by kunai that seemed to vanish after he’d pass them. He made sure to leave no prints behind and to take a path into the forest that would confuse anyone that happened to be looking from an outside perspective. Stepping over a few rocks that were obstructing his vision until he was directly upon them, he’d look up to see a large camo building that seemed to be rather sturdy with only one door and a few other things. It was at this point that Lucien would notice that Atem was nearby, he could smell the poison on his weapon even when it was sheathed. He had to be 50 meters off to the left, on a different side of the clearing.

“Quite peculiar… I wonder what level of mission requires this strange of a location for discussion…” Lucien wondered aimlessly in his head as began making his way to the door of the structure. No lights were on, and all the windows were barricaded as well as covered in some dark light obstructing cloth. Lucien would then walk to the door and put his right hand on the knob twisting it slowly at the speed of 10. It would then open nearly by itself to his surprise. Stepping in, he could see the female ninja that he had seen previously at the chuunin mission. “Hello, Lucien, nice to see you’re here. As well as Atem too, tell him to hurry in, I already know he’s here. My two guards are rather excelled at relaying information quickly.” The princess said. “Hmm… some sensory that must be. Nothing that I won’t create a counter to later.” Lucien would say in his mind. The princess was in the corner of the room sitting in a chair, she wore royal seeming attire and Lucien could also sense the presence of other ninjas nearby, two to be exact. Those were likely the guards. Strange. Lucien would take one of the two seats within the room and simply get ready for the discussion. The princess also had a box beside her. “Once we’re all together, the guards shall put the special seal over this location and all sound, as well as any other forms of sensory, will be blocked from leaving but not from entering. It will cover the perimeter of this location.” The princess said elegantly, as expected.

It was at this point, Lucien knew, he was surely getting into something worthwhile. Would he finally be able to become recognized by the higher-ups should he succeed? Firstly, he’d need to know what the mission was in the first place. 

WC: 806

Lucien would wait before finally, the nin Atem had showed up in the situation and would be having some role at this point. The atmosphere was finally set once he got in the room and the echo of explanation began. After the high importance nin, otherwise known as the princess, had finished her explanation. Lucien would ask a few questions to confirm what he essential task was.
“So… I’ll presume it that you us to then retrieve said treasure and bring it back to the royal palace even without the actual guards in the palace knowing themselves?” “Yes, it seems that would be the best course of action.” “Well then, you’re really testing our abilities with this one. Interesting, I gladly accept the mission.” 


Lucien said as he then watched the lady seemingly vanish like she was never there in the first place. Obviously another feat of her guards, it was. It was at that moment that the echoes stopped. Lucien switched back to talking just enough for the two of them to hear each other. Granted no other chakra signatures were around any longer, that would have been quiet enough for them to be able to communicate in secrecy. “Looks like we’ll need to start on this quick and somehow manage to finish before the day breaks above us. Lucien said as he walked over to the chair that she was sitting in. Lucien would take the map and closely study it. It was a map from the far past that detailed what the old Hoshigakure looked like along with various locations that Lucien had never heard of. On the side was a riddle of sorts that seemed rather hard to decipher. Well they both seemed rather hard to actually decipher since the map itself was practically in a code of its own league. All locations were written in symbolic numbers it seemed and in different locations of the map, it would shift from north normally being the top of the map to it then becoming south in a section there, east in a section there and overall the map alongside with the riddle was an utter mindfuck. 

Lucien attempted visually staring and quickly putting all the pieces together in his head and rearranging them like a puzzle but for some reason, even this didn’t seem to work. However he did figure enough out to be able to say that his forest was the actual starting location and that he’d need to then head somewhere else depending on the message that was displayed on the riddle. Lucien could tell that the riddle itself was written in some form of eternal chakra, in which case, the riddle likely had some strange and special properties. “In a world where there’s nothing left to right, and no right causes to take. People look up, with none watching each other’s back, there’s no way to move forward.” Lucien read very lowly. “I see. So we’ve got to head down since that was the only direction that wasn’t mentioned. It seems the first riddle is a little too simple, however, these riddles are laced with chakra and I won’t be surprised if, once we reach the next location, the riddle itself will change. But I assume that there’s something underground to reach. Maybe a location that none have discovered until now. Looks like we’re finally doing something important.” Lucien said as he went around checking for anything else of use within the cabin itself.

 “Heh, looks like it’s time to finally get this party on the road. In which case, you can get those items and store them for now with the displacement technique, I assume you’ve got it and in the meantime, I’ll head underground and leave a hole of sorts." Lucien said as he began to slide through the thin floor of the cabin by first stomping through it and using strength then utilizing his hiding like a mole technique to dig through the ground until reaching an opening that was pretty far down. Lucien would already be waiting in what seemed to a bunker with a metal door in the small room, they’d need to enter that door and that’s all that Lucien knew at the time. “What a strange place…” 

WC: 1506

Seeing as though Lucien was answering the questions Atem didn’t feel as though he had anything to say,he knew Lucien was smart enough to answer all of the important questions so in order to let the two speak he would sit quietly. Within his own mind he would begin to collect the dialogue between the two, “If we are to bring it without even the guards knowing then there must be some sign of treason or inner workings here. I can’t put my finger on it just yet but if I were to guess I would say that someone is trying to take down Hoshi. Of course this is a rather brash assumption, but in the world of ninja anything is possible through the will of chakra. What am I even speaking of? One day I’ll be an old dolt who speaks to himself out loud giving away my insanity.” Atem said within his mind as the conversation continued.

As the princess warped from reality itself thanks to the Queensgaurds she had arrived with, Atem would stand up. His partner would begin to speak about how quick they needed to finish this mission, but showing an exceptional amount of hubris Atem would say, “Well, that isn’t a problem when it comes to us two. I believe we can solve this in no time.” Atem proposed just loud enough for the two ninja to hear. This had become a habit between the two that Lucien started and Atem picked up on. Atem was one for espionage and such so it easily fell into place.

Looking at the map it was easy to see that the language that was being used was fairly archaic in terms of symbolism, one thing about the language that played in their favor was the fact that it was rather simple. Atem began to think of this language as the simplest way possible in order to decipher it, people never did things to make them harder on themselves, especially if this was a public map. With this mindset Atem would begin decipher the simple letters and connected them into simplistic sentences for the riddle that it showed.

“In a world where there’s nothing left to right, and no right causes to take. People look up, with none watching each other’s back, there’s no way to move forward.” Atem and Lucien would say at the same time. “I’m glad to see that we’ve come to the same conclusion, it always good to check your answers with others.” Atem jested. “Correct, down would be the most reasonable place to head to. If it does change when we get to the aforementioned place that’s how we know we’ll be in the right place. Yeah, it does seem that way, we did want to become top ninjas and this is a great step forward.” Atem said storing all of the items as told and then walking out of the cabin.

This was to ensure the time of day and seeing that they still had quite some time left before the break of dawn, anyhow, Atem went back into the cabin and went through the hole cautiously. He figured this is a technique he would need to learn because it seemed pretty useful in the least. As Atem finally got through the elongated hole he would see Lucien looking around the place being his observant self and Atem would do the same.

He would then wait for Lucien to come up with a hypothesis of a conclusion of what to do, he figured he’d let him take the lead in this mission while aiding him in whatever comes to mind. With there being only a small metal door it would entail that the people who made the map couldn’t be as old as he had previously thought due to the door actually being made of some sort of metal. Although that was a redundant thought it brought a lot to the mind of Atem about the time period, he had no idea if it were relevant or not, but for his own sake he was very curious. “A strange place indeed, what do you say we do about this?” Atem asked Lucien as he continued to ponder upon the age of this whole ordeal.
[WC 1388]

Lucien was slightly perplexed by there simply being a small metal door before him. "This has to be some sort of vault door. But I doubt it is the final vault that we're looking for. From what I understand, there's multiple locations based off a riddle being that easy from the start. Thus it would make the most logical sense that whatever is behind this door must be exactly what we need to find the next part of our riddles." Lucien said only loud enough for himself and Atem specifically. 
 
"Alright then... let's examine this place. It's strange because it's an opening that has no way to leave either. The only remotely entrance worthy area in here would be the hole we entered by." 
 
Lucien began looking around examining the stone on the walls, the corners and every crack of the metal door until he found something at the bottom right corner of the door. It appeared to be some sort of key hole or something of a similar nature. “Atem, check this. There’s a key slot in the bottom right of the door. Just if we knew what key we’re supposed to have. Not to mention, this is basically a timed mission. We must finish before the break of day or really even the slightest rising of sunlight granted we have to get the treasure or whatever back before even the guards wake up in the palace. In fact, I’ll go scout out the palace to make find a proper means of entry. You should probably check the map. I think we can’t progress any longer and if that is the case, the riddles have likely changed by now. While I’m out there. I’ll use what I remembered of the map to see if I see any similarities with the current day Hoshigakure.” Lucien said as he looked at Atem then.
 
“I’ll tell you what they used to say in the original hunter village. ‘Hunt, and strike fear. But never strike death.’ Heh.” Lucien finished.
 
At that moment, the space filled with a warm darkness that expanded blinding all vision within the area at a speed of 225. “Just throw a kunai really high in the air if you need me, I’ll see it.”
 
In the cover of the super dense mist, Lucien vanished quickly sliding up and out of the hole at his top speed leaving the cabin silently without much of a trace. And that’s about the time when his natural hunter instincts had kicked in allowing him to move through the night like some sort of phantom. He made sure to keep his stealth as the top priority in front of even his speed at reaching the palace. Granted how far he was, it wouldn’t be that quick. But, it wouldn’t be long either. He went from tree to tree, roof to rooftop until finally landing on a high building roof that seemed to show the palace. The guards were still up and outside doing their normal guard patrols of course. “heh… I’ve been tasked with indirectly infiltrating my own village’s headquarters by said village? Life can’t get better than that.” Lucien thought to himself as he proceeded silently on the roof. Keeping his sensory game at the highest and utilizing all of his clans abilities, he was able to scope out the palace. Now it was time for progression, there were 4 guards in the front, likely more around the perimeter. “An underground route doesn’t seem all that promising, I can bet that keep a steady chain of earth style users in the base of the palace to prevent such a thing from happening. In which case, we’ll enter from above. If I get found out, I fail the mission and possibly die from having to fight a royal guard. Heh.” Lucien thought.
 

Lucien moved to the right side of the palace going roof to roof before getting onto the wall of the castle. Above him, the 2^nd floor guards likely were passing by. He peeked his head over to see some of them, luckily, they weren’t looking at him at this time, besides he could tell anyway, through a complex usage of his smell position sensory. “I’ll likely need to head back soon. So I’ll keep an eye out for the glimmer of a barely visible kunai in the sky. That’s my signal after all.” 


WC: 2231