Never Break into a Library

Thu Mar 16, 2017 2:27 pm

Continued from Here

Since his studying did not seem to be valid, Komori instead decided that he would make his way towards the library. The sun was beginning to set, as his visit to Max had taken much longer than he had originally anticipated. Still, he maintained a walk full of ease as he kept his hands in his pockets and meandered down the seemingly orange cobblestone road. The dying rays of sunlight were already causing the world to change colors around him, as the sky above him turned to a dull shade of yellow. The clouds were unusually large today and seemed to cover most of the sky, leaving the great village of Kumogakure occupied by orange tinted buildings, objects, and people, all of which had extensive shadows that grew with every passing moment. The Hozumi had not bothered to visit the central Kumo library in what seemed like a lifetime ago. He had changed so much in the last few months as he transitioned from an innocent genin who was eager to learn into a slightly more serious chuunin who had been forced to take lives against his will. However, he had begun to come to terms with this, as he accepted that they were prisoners who would have died anyways. This way just helped provide Komori a means of furthering himself in the ranks of shinobi. He had recently been accepting a new philosophy, albeit one which would not come to fruition for a long time. If you were able to have the superior strength, then you would be able to step in between other people fighting to stop them. If you were a shinobi more skilled than those at war, no matter how powerful they were, they would not be able to stand against you.

Komori arrived at the library which seemed to be darkened inside. Well, that's just great. It seemed that the library closed towards the beginning of the evening, which is why it was better to check out books around midday as opposed to trying to squeeze in before they closed. It was then that he turned around in defeat only to spot his favorite librarian. He held up the ram sign and seemed to immediately materialize in front of her at a speed of 225. “Hey, Yuko!” Her face turned contorted into a look of terror as she did not seem to recognize him. She screamed. Komori stood there awkwardly, as he realized that she had always been jumpy for as long as he had known her, so he probably should have been more careful. Oh well. She was still screaming. “Yuko! It's me, Komori! I'm not going to hurt you.” Still screaming but now lower in pitch, he noticed her eyes analyzing him from behind her glasses which featured a round frame. Her scream began to die down slowly, which must have looked comical to any bystanders as she finally came to a stop. “Oh hiiiiiiiiii.”

He simply smiled at who she was. “Hello to you, too. How have you been?” Now feeling comfortable in the presence of someone she was familiar with, she responded, “Less busy, actually.” Her face then looked towards the ground in a rather sad manner, “Seems to be less and less people stopping at libraries nowadays.” Komori understood why that was a rather poor turn of events for society. Libraries were homes to vast amounts of knowledge, most of which children of today did not seem to want to know. Including himself recently…

“Yeah, I was actually trying to stop by the library to get some studies in…” his voice trailed off so that Yuko could maybe pick up on what he was subtly asking without asking. It took her a moment before she pushed her glasses up, as they had been slipping since their conversation had begun. “Oh! I could unlock it for you!” Komori smiled and thanked her as the pair made their way up a small staircase to the front entrance of the library. She decided to strike up idle conversation, “So what kind of subjects are you looking to study?” She smiled as she fiddled with her keychain. Komori replied, “Oh just some fuinjutsu. Remember when I studied that more as a genin? I’m looking to-”
“YOU’RE NOT A GENIN?!”
Komori froze, startled by the sudden outburst. “Uh, no.”
“CONGRATULATIONS!” She threw her arms around him, catching him off guard once more.
“Uhhh, thanks, Yuko.” She released him from her bear hug. “Really.” He gave her a genuine smile as she went panicked and quickly pulled away.
“Sorry, I’m so sorry, I just got really excited and I cut you off and I didn’t mean to and that was totally unprofessional of me and I’m such a terrible person and-” Komori grabbed her shoulders.
“Can you maybe chill.” She looked into his eyes and gave an awkward laugh.
“Riiiiight. Anyways, what were you going to look into.”
“I wanted to get some more research since I’ve been looking into this thing. Have you heard of it? It’s called the Iron Armor Seal.” She froze and turned to look at him.
“Komori… that’s just… too dangerous. I can’t help you there…” She then quickly said goodbye and hurried off.

“Wait what?” She was already gone but Komori was insanely confused. First she had been her friendly, awkward self and willing to help, then she had seamlessly transitioned into her closed off self. Komori took a deep breath and crossed his arms as he evaluated the locked door before him. The keyhole was rather old fashioned and open, meaning that one could peep through it. Or fit through it. Komori extended his hand towards the lock as his body morphed into water and slid through the opening, reforming on the other side. He brushed himself off, despite not having any dirt on his person, with a prideful smirk on his face. Operation: Get Into Library Complete. Now to move to phase two.

Komori headed into the dark library. It was growing steadily darker, the dull yellow light fading into a deep, dark orange glow that barely illuminated the room from the windows lining the top of the wall, above rows of bookshelves pressed against the wall containing neatly arranged stacks of scrolls in the shape of a pyramid, three at the base, then two, then a final one on top. It shared the space with regular books, which were leaning away from the scrolls so that they would not accidentally fall and ruin the scrolls. The Hozuki continued on in the dim light. He signed the handseals needed for lightning release: rat violent quake, Monkey → Ox → Boar → Tiger, and cause four orbs made of pure lightning to form. He telepathically controlled them as he spread them out from his person to illuminate the room a bit more than it was, causing a faint blue light to fall upon the darker parts of the library. Apparently, they relied more on natural light instead of artificial. Komori did not have to walk far from his position to a slew of fuinjutsu books. He rifled through the shelves, looking for the seal that had frightened the librarian. It did not take him long to find a worn book with a blanket of dust on it. He took it out and blew the layer away before walking over to a desk. With his orbs near him, he had just enough light to be able to read the book. As he was alone, he did not care whether or not he spoke aloud, as he was a bit of a narcissist so he liked the sound of his own voice. The entire book seemed to be about the Iron Armor Seal, so Komori just scanned one of the pages with his index finger before coming to a stop at a certain line. ‘With this method, we may finally be able to capture one of the bijuu, more commonly known by the general populace as one of the nine tailed beasts.’ He continued reading with interest, “A tailed beast…” until he came across another article. It seemed to be more of a journal, ‘The last jinchuuriki lost control of Gyuki. The monster went on a rampage across the city until the third raikage defeated him once more with his hell stab technique. Another candidate has already been selected, but the seal needs to become stronger. His name is Ki-’ Komori suddenly felt a leather bag pulled over his head before he was rendered unconscious, causing his lightning orbs to fizzle out before he could use them.

He regained consciousness sometime later, “I'm sorry! I won't break into the library ever, ever again!” He assumed that this was the work of ANBU under the Raikage, who had been rumored to have killed a librarian before. Maybe she stayed until after hours as well. “Hozuki Komori.” A deep voice seemed to echo throughout the room. Based on the way the voice rang, he could infer that he was in a rather large room. “What are your specialities.” Crap, they’re probably trying to determine if I’m worth more to them alive than dead. I better answer honestly, especially since honesty is how I gained my rank. “I am a chuunin of Kumogakure who specializes in ninjutsu and fuinjutsu.” He started talking again, “Of course, I would be down to expl-” before he was cut off. “Silence.” The voice was stern and level, as the man’s voice seemed to resonate without the need for yelling. “We selected you because of the sheer power that your chakra emanates. Kobayashi Senshi is easily a more powerful fuinjutsu user than you are, Hozuki Komori, however the power of his chakra is lacking in comparison to yours.” Oh, so he was one of those people who referred to others by their surname and then their given name. Wait… selected?

The bag was removed over his head as he looked around the room. His hunch had been correct, as it was a large room with rounded walls, so it appeared as though it was a dome. However, it was lit only by torches and seemed to be slightly damp. Underground. Komori looked at his captors. They all wore black robes with light blue accents, including the interior of their donned hoods. They wore no masks, which meant that they were not ANBU black ops members, but something else. “Welcome, Hozuki Komori, to the Kumogakure Sealing Society.” Komori looked around to see that there were five others aside from the speaker, all standing silent and reserved. The man gave him a rather unnerving smile, “My name is Himitsu. Welcome to our ranks, brother.” The man then approached the chuunin and signed Rat → Boar → Tiger before placing his hand on the Hozuki’s exposed upper arm. It burned for a moment before immediately fading away, leaving him with the kanji symbol for Iron. Tetsu. “This is our symbol. The Iron Armor Seal.” He raised an eyebrow. “It is our understanding that you are eager to learn it?” Komori was still rather thrown off by the secretive, behind the scenes mannerisms of this group, but he knew that if they were powerful fuinjutsu users like they claimed, then they would probably have protective seals and countermeasures in place. Instead, he went along. “Yes, but why does it matter? What does it have to do with tailed beasts?” The man simply gave a creepy smile again. “Brother, this seal allows us to contain the power of the most fearsome monsters in this world inside of ourselves.” Komori was rather hesitant, as he did not necessarily trust these people. Yet.

“No one has even seen a tailed beast in years…” Komori stated. That creepy smile again, “The signs say otherwise. Destruction of land, annihilation of entire acres. The beasts are back. And we believe that you may be strong enough to contain them.” He gestured around the room. “We are not warriors. Our chakra is not as powerful as yours is. We are able to sense your signature more than many others in the village through chakra sensors on hidden tags placed in strategic locations. We want to entrust you to make Kumogakure mighty once more. War is approaching fast, and we must come out on top, Hozuki Komori.” He looked at the boy expectantly. Komori did not really have much of a choice here. He wanted his comrades to survive this war and if the way to do that was to capture tailed beasts… to seal the strongest creatures on the planet… he had to be up to the task. He clenched his fists with a newfound determination. “Tell me what I have to do.” Himitsu led the boy over to one of the five silent members. “Place the iron armor seal on Shizuka.” he gestured to a red haired female, who must have been the one named Shizuka. She raised her sleeve and exposed her delicate looking arms as she turned her head away. He made eye contact with her and decided to reassure her, “It doesn’t hurt badly. And it’s only for a moment, okay?” He took her silence as acceptance and signed the handseals Rat → Boar → Tiger before placing his palm on her forearm. Tetsu. The seal burned into her skin for a moment before leaving behind a light blue kanji symbol that matched the color of the interior of their robes. “These are your first steps,” Himitsu spoke up. “Your next trials are to master two seals; one which seals and stores chakra, and the other which drains it. Both of these are vital to the Iron Armor Seal.” He handed a scroll to the boy. “Activate this seal when you have completed your tasks. He then stepped backwards as a symbol under Komori’s feet lit up in the same color blue as he had seen before. Reality warped around him as he found himself outside of the library once more.

“...”

“What the hell was that.”

The boy then began the arduous walk home, confused by the events that had just happened. After all, a secret society of fuinjutsu users were now entrusting him with sealing the most dangerous things in existence. He headed home and immediately fell asleep, exhausted from the unbelievable events of the day. He would have to remember to learn the two seals that they had mentioned.

--Exit--

WC: 2405 + 2636 = 5041

Requesting: (2045+636 from prior thread=) 3041 words towards Iron Armor Seal, 24 AP, everything else was claimed in the prior thread

Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:39 pm

Approved.

Never Break into a Library

Never Break into a Library

Re: Never Break into a Library