Making Turtle Friends (P)

Wed May 31, 2017 11:27 pm

It was the morning after Sakana’s third chuunin preliminary. As his eyes started to open early morning he could feel the soreness in his jaw from almost getting it broken by Mr. Terry Cruz. So mumbling in pain, he threw his legs over the side of his bed as he was starting to get up. In the moment when the boy sat his body up he remembered the injury he had received the day before, the huge black and blue mark on the side of his stomach. He used to think making chuunin was going to be some easy thing. But after the first exam he had realized he was wrong. A broken leg, a stab wound to the shoulder and being in a coma for almost two weeks. Then the second exam wasn’t too bad and he even got to show off a little. But after the third he finally came to terms that becoming a chuunin wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t going to be something he could be his mellow self like usual. He needed to give it everything he had, and that meant anything. Seeing Komorgi still sleeping on the floor in his new puffy dog bed, ( it was pink because Sakana thought Komori would love it when he got back) he grabbed his clothes and got changed in the bathroom so the dog would stay at rest.

Today was not a training day, no today was an exploration day. Sakana had explored almost every avaible space in the village except a select few, one of them being the mountains. The kumo mountains. They were dreaded by some, legends say those mountains contain monsters but since Sakana had never seen any, he didn’t pay much attention to them. It did not matter though, monsters or no monsters he was going to explore. Today he was wearing his standard outfit, while it wasn’t the best for climbing it still allowed for the greatest mobility, plus it was super comfortable. The quickest way to the mountains that allows for him to avoid the rot field and the nice zombie looking fellas was coincidentally through his beloved lake. Not that the zombies were bad or anything, they were actually considered valiant protectors of kumo but it kind of smells over there, like death. Upon walking out the door, he made sure to shut the door tightly behind him so that Komorgi wouldn’t get out if he ended up getting out of bed later.

Once he got to the lake he made his way over to the bag he kept there. All that was in it was a change of clothes, snacks and some other miscellaneous items. To his surprise the bag was open, and it looked as if something had rummaged through it. Hopefully It was just a cat or something but he was skeptical. Whatever this animal was it wasn’t too smart, as it got a bag of pretzels open but let them fall out of the bag making a sort of trail on the grass. If this was a training day Sakana probably would’ve dismissed this creature and let it go but since he was already planning to go exploring, what better adventure is there than solving a mystery. He followed the trail into the woods, step by step he took in his surroundings to try and find the animal. But to his dismay the trail ended at a tree, was this all for nothing? Had he just spent valuable time looking for an animal that wasn’t even there? He was about to accept defeat and just leave when he heard a whimper in the distance. It almost sounded like a babies cry, not too loud not to soft. “Hello?” He called out. When there was no reply he said, “Is anyone there, do you need my help… I promise I won’t hurt you.” Seconds went by with no answer, but the creature coming to his senses said “I’m over here, under this bush, I was trying to eat a berry but a kind of fell over and now I can’t get up.” Sakana had not expected someone to be speaking English, that was a rather odd thing for an animal to do. But he went over to the bushes as instructed. Pushing the leaves aside he found a small tiny blue turtle, laying on his back. No wonder he was unable to get up, this little guy was about the size of the Meijin’s fist. The gennin picked the turtle up, placed him in his palm and brought him up to face level with Sakana. “Hi little guy, what’s your name and what are you doing in the middle of the woods?” The turtles first instinct upon hearing the boy talk was to retreat inside its shell, but as Sakana just waited he slowly start to come out. “ My name is Ao.” He said shyly. “I was outside my home today, and I was kind of Hungary, so I went out in search of something to eat. I found this bag by a lake and started to eat the pretzels inside, then I got over to this tree here and wanted a berry, you know the rest of the story” He said giggling at his own mistake. Sakana was curious as to where this little blue turtle came from, because as much as he had explored the village he had not seen or even heard anything about talking turtles. “Do you mind telling me where you are from, so I can help make sure you return safely.” The little turtle pondered the question for a minute, not sure if he should answer. “Well my dad says that humans aren’t allowed where we live but since you saved me I am pretty sure he’ll make an exception for you.” Ao said, he then would climb up Sakana’s shoulder using the sticky shell technique.

While talking to Ao, Sakana learned that he was from a tribe of turtles that lived in the kumo mountains. Since his new friend was really young he did not know much about the history but he assured the gennin that his father would be able to fill him in once he arrived there. Talk about an adventure, the boy was going to explore the mountains while finding what he thought to be an undiscovered race of turtles.

The trek through the mountains was way shorter than he expected, maybe it was because he had a guide on his shoulder telling him where to go. But once they were nearing the camp the Meijin started to feel a bit uneasy. If the turtles had a thing against humans would they welcome him because he saved one of them? Or was he walking into a fight he wasn't prepared for. Either way he was committed at this point and continued on to their living grounds. The next part seemed like it came directly from a movie. Ya know how the main characters will be talking to one another while in the woods saying maybe they'll get out ok and then a spear or something of the sort comes flying out of no where? Like Rue in the hunger games or the flaming spears in season 5 of lost, well Sakana, like those characters had a spear thrown at him, it was not an ordinary spear though, it was made of lighting and cut right through a tree as it wizzed by the boys head. So much for a warm welcome. Not wanting to have to try and dodge more of these javalines Sakana called out, “Stop shooting please, we wouldn't want Ao here to get hurt, now would we?” The rustling in the trees immediately stopped, as a gruff voice started to speak in a language he didn't understand. Maybe they didn't all speak English. To his surprise he heard the little child’s voice of Ao also speak in this weird language.

After they conversed a bit the gruff voice told him, in human language, to come and enter the camp. Ao informed him that his name was Lo, and he was the gates guard. Sakana was led to this big tent by the turtles, talking in his surroundings as he walked he noticed around 10 turtles outside, probably more in the tents, he was definitely underpowered if he had to fight. Once entering the tent there were two turtles inside, one was roughly double the size of Ao but the other was pretty massive, maybe reaching 50 meters in height. Inside the room they were in there was many drawings and words he didn't understand on the walls, most of these drawings were of turtles. The larger turtle lowered its head to reach Sakana’s level. “Is what they tell me true, did you save my son’s life?” Ah there it was, Ao was the big guys son. That's probably why it looked like this meeting was with the important turtles and not with the guys outside. “Saving his life is a bit of an exaggeration, I found Ao in the woods, on his back unable to get up, I helped him and wanted to make sure he got home safely, I mean you and your people no harm. My name is Sakana Meijin a shinobi of kumo” Sakana tried to say as humble as possible.

Ao, and his dad started to talk to each other in their turtle language, probably making sure Sakana’s story checked out and things like that. “First I would like to thank you for helping my son, my name is Xo. You probably have a lot of questions so let me try to explain first, we are the Kaminari Turtles, known for our lightning style Jutsu. We came to live in these mountains years ago, we keep our borders closed to humans well because we've had bad experiences with them in the past.” He said, his Tone dipped during that last part though. Sakana wondered what the bad experience was with humans, maybe he would find out. The smaller turtle in the back was quiet, probably trying to figure out what to do with Sakana. Then he spoke. “Hello Sakana” His voice was old and creeky. “My name is Zo, and I am the leader of the village.” Whoah, that was kind of a shock that he was that old and their leader. Sakana began to notice something about their names though, it was like a ranking, Ao was the youngest, while Zo was the oldest. Lo was a guard and Xo is important like Zo. The incident Xo spoke of was, the last time we had met a human, we trusted him,shared our power and secrets with him. He was like family, but it wasn't enough for him, he thought we were holding out on him like there was more. He then killed my brother Yo, the co founder of this village, along with other brave soldiers in the village that tried to stop him. That is why since that day we have allowed no humans to come into our land, until today. See we were prepared to kill you as you saw with the lighting being thrown at you, but then you said you had our little Ao, you brought him back to us. I could kill you now so that you never speak of this to anyone but I offer you a different choice. I want you to share in our power, because anyone who saves one of our own becomes one of us, and all we have in this world is each other.” Well damn that was a lot to take in, he thought maybe the human stole their food or something not committed genocide. And now this guy was trusting him? That was a big leap of faith, now In Sakana’s mind he wanted to turn them down, because he was scared but in his heart he knew he should join them. Thank god Sakana followed his heart.

The boy kneeled before the boss turtle. “Thank you Zo, I accept your invitation.” He realized this was a huge decision but it was one he hoped he wouldn't regret. Zo started saying some stuff in turtle and then a scroll appeared. On it it laid out rules for how all of this worked, at the bottom there was only one name, the name of a murderer, it was crossed out. “Upon signing this scroll you are made apart of our tribe for life, if you try to leave you will be hunted and killed. You may call upon us in battle, you can only call turtles you have formed a bond with, Like Ao for example. You can summon us by using the boar dog bird monkey and ram hand seals. This also requires a blood tribute. Sign here in blood when you are ready.

Sakana took a moment to take it all in, he thought today he would climb some mountains, maybe see some cool plants but nah, instead he was forming a new bond with turtles, lightning turtles. The Meijin bit his thumb and signed his name in blood. Hopefully this would be the start of a beautiful friendship.

After signing the contract Sakana would walk around the village a little bit with Ao still on his shoulder explaining things in the village. He learned of other turtle groups scattered around the shinobi world. There was one in rain country, water country, and so many other places. Ao said he would try and help the boy find them if he wanted to make more friends. The Kaminari sect of the turtles was probably the smallest the last Ao had heard. Most of the other groups had never seen humans before, and none had allowed them to harvest their power, but Sakana hoped he could change that. One of the other things he learned was that now that he was initiated into their community, he would need to learn their written and verbal language. There was a lot of work a head if this experience would be a worthwhile one.

In the end Sakana came here looking for an adventure. But what he got was so so much more. He found friends, dare he say a family. A family that would aid him in battle whenever he needed it. A family he now vowed to protect. And this opened the door for so many more adventures.

The Meijin had a new goal, and that was to gain the trust of all of the turtles all across the lands. Maybe he would start with rain or maybe he would be daring and go to suna since he heard word that it was now kumo territory. He really was not sure what was next, but he was really excited to find out.

WC: 2,510

Requesting:

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Contract with the turtles
Ao as a summonable turtle

Thu Jun 01, 2017 3:33 am

Approved

Making Turtle Friends (P)

Making Turtle Friends (P)

Re: Making Turtle Friends (P)