Three To Get Ready

Sat Jun 24, 2017 10:28 am

Spoiler:

Valen arrived at the incredible Kozai Yuki National Archives, which he’d been told since he came to Hoshi was arguably the largest library in the known world. Inside you could find tens of thousands of books on more subjects than you knew existed in the world. It was absolutely incredible how large the place was. The young Akari walked up the steps toward the monumental library to collect research for a mission. It seemed that he and Damon had caught the eye of the queen herself with the situation the other day in sewers. He was sent a note of commendation and had been informed that he had been granted a successful mission toward his rank ascension to chunin. This meant he only needed one more to obtain the next rank in the hierarchy of the ninja world. This is what our hero was doing at the library today. His final mission toward his rank up was to gain information on another villages defenses and file a report on them to the Hogokage himself. He could choose to either travel to another village, one that was intact or destroyed and left in ruins, and then try to gather whatever information he could on their defenses, imports, exports, and whether or not Hoshi should establish diplomatic ties with them or not. His other option was to try and gather all of that information in the library where he currently was. At this point it was rather obvious which one he had chosen. After all if he tried to go gather information on another village and was caught he could be killed without good reason, and somehow Valen doubted he was spying to do a book report would be considered a ‘good’ reason. So we find him entering the library to find any books he could on his village of choice Kumogakure.

There wasn’t a particular reason for his choice. It was merely the first thing that came to his mind when he thought about the mission. He figured he could write loads about their natural mountainous defenses and the exports and imports of a village that was located in the mountains were pretty simple as well. Usually they exported ore and precious metals and brought up farmed food stuffs that they themselves could not grow in their rather rugged terrain. He’d of course have to find and confirm all of this information, and there was also the defenses thing as well. He honestly doubted he’d be able to find much about those though. After all why would the village defenses of a village be listed inside of a book in a library? It just didn’t make sense after all. So with these thoughts in mind he would walk up to the head librarian and give a small smile in greeting before speaking, softly of course, it was a library after all. “Good morning, I’m looking for information regarding the village of Kumogakure, could I ask that you point me in the right direction toward books of that nature as well as a quiet place to read and work? I’m working on a report for Hogokage-Sama.” He would say with a polite nod of his head. The librarian, a middle aged woman with slowly graying hair bordering on the cusp of silver, would look up at him and nod before pointing up. “Fifth floor is where you can find books about all of the shinobi villages. There’s a large separate work room on the floor as well with a large table that you can use.” She would say before pointing toward a set of stairs off to the side. “The room itself is soundproof so while I appreciate you being quiet right now once you have your books in the room and the door closed you can speak as you wish.” She would say before turning back to her work. “Thank you” Valen would say simply before turning and walking toward the stairs, he was wondering if he would be able to compile a good enough report with information from a library. He certainly hoped so as he desperately wanted to get his chunin promotion as soon as he could. It’d allow him access to stronger techniques and he was extremely excited about that prospect.

The crimson eyed sword wielder quietly made his way to the fifth floor where he would begin to look around for the section about Kumogakure. “Kirigakure, Konohagakure, Sunagakure, Funkagaure, Ah, here we are…” He’d say as he located the section he was searching for before moving into the area with the shelf on Kumogakure was located. The shelf was chock full of books on the village and Valen looked carefully at each name and slowly began compiling a list. He found book on the village’s history, a information book about the village, the geography of the land of lightning. He even found a recently published book by an Ex-Kumo shinobi. He decided this would be enough for the moment and carried the three books into the thankfully unoccupied room and sat down, spreading his book out. He quickly unsealed some paper and pens and laid them out, intent on taking down all of the important notes that he found before compiling them into a single large report. He’d try to keep it as informative as possible without wasting his Hogokage’s precious time with mundane information. He’d try to take things that only a hidden village might have interest in. Like anything manipulatable, their defenses if possible and information on their kages if he could find it. He picked up his first book, the information book on Kumo and began to skim through it, reading through the important bits quickly and in a practiced manner that denoted much studying in his past. His academy days weren’t that far behind him after all.

WC: 974

Fri Jun 30, 2017 2:45 pm

Kumogakure no Sato. The Village Hidden in the Clouds. The Rot Fields. Public Enemy #1. Most Hated Village Around. The aliases go on and on, seemingly forever. That is the true beauty of language: a million words can describe a million different concepts and ideas or a million words can describe a single concept. That was to be the target of Damon in his pursuit of the third chuunin exam. This mission would allow him to venture outside of the city in favor of checking out the outside world and adventuring. However, he was weak as heck, so instead he and Valen had decided to pull a crash course on the defenses and history of Kumogakure at the Kozai Yuki library, which just so happened to be one of, if not THE, largest source of knowledge in the world. However, like all other sources, one had to actually spend time in here before being able to know everything. The Queen had sent, or had had someone else send, a letter of gratitude in regards to what the Uchiha had managed to pull off with his Akari brother in arms. The two had quelled a rebellion before it truly was set in motion, and as a result, were given credit for the chuunin exam which would have required a brawl with other shinobi. Lucky for them, since many shinobi do not take that for some reason. Oh well.

Digging through old newspapers, the genin pulled out a copy of the unofficial newspaper of the Village Hidden in the Clouds, The Daily Decay. The paper was dated not too long ago, maybe only a few weeks or months ago. Apparently a couple of Hoshi shinobi had attacked… drawing out the Raikage himself? This can’t be right. Hoshi is peaceful… isn’t it?” he thought to himself. Damon could not help but feel a mild connection to Kumogakure no Sato, despite disliking the place. He pocketed the newspaper, as it may provide details on the surroundings of Kumo. Back during his traveling the world days with his merchant father, the pair had only occasionally stopped by Kumo, as its stench of death and wailing bodies left a sour taste in mouths and a heavy feeling in soft hearts. How in the world did people manage to put up with such rot and death? And more importantly, why did they fight to defend it? Sometimes it felt as though it would be better for the village to expel its kage and establish itself differently in the world, but alas it remained the same death infested place it had been for the past two years, give or take. Shinobi headband displayed rather proudly on his right bicep, Damon headed towards the front desk. He was not going to bother trying to find anything else on his own, especially since Valen was nowhere in sight. The two had agreed to do this assignment together, which was beneficial to both of them, as it would allow them to collaborate on an assignment in the stead of having to single handedly write a report.

“Hi, sorry to bother you, ma’am, but have you seen another guy around here? About the same age as myself and most likely wearing something crimson.” She gave him a one over as she seemed to spot the armband on his person. “Fifth floor. Get out of my sights.” He was slightly taken aback, “Err. Thanks, I think.” Damon quickly began to walk away as he headed towards the stairs. Ascending them two steps at a time, he got in his daily workout. Aside from training ninjutsu and the occasional technique of a different spec, he never really did anything to hone his own body. It just seemed to progress naturally and improve throughout his own training and required no consistency. Oh well. Before long, he had arrived at the fifth floor, where he scratched his head and looked around. Would it have killed her to have been more specific? Thankfully, he noticed a flash of crimson that seemed to disappear behind a row of bookshelves. Heading around to catch it, he found nothing. I could have sworn… Suddenly the closing and latching of a door. Damon walked around the bookshelves and saw a plain wall with a door that must have been the source of the noise. “Well, it couldn’t hurt to check,” he said as he approached the door and placed his hand on the knob. “SHHHH” came the stereotypical cry from someone else studying up on shinobi villages for some reason. Perhaps the same as himself. Damon entered the room, where he saw a large table covered by books, paper, pens, as well as Valen sitting in a chair studying one of the aforementioned books. He closed the door behind him. “Hey, man.” Damon pulled up a chair and slung it in front of him, the back of the chair clinking against the table. He reached forwards and grabbed the book on the geography of the Land of Lightning. “I’ve been there a few times, but I just need to refresh my memory a bit. Have you gotten anything so far?” Damon would listen to Valen before reading further into the book.

WC: 870

Sat Jul 01, 2017 8:19 am

Valen would raise his eyes long enough to notice the mop of black spiky hair that reminded him so much of a chicken’s ass. Before noting it was Damon and looking back toward his book. His seemingly destined partner in all things grabbed the back of a chair and swung it around in a quick motion before sitting on it in reverse. He’d then grab a book on the geography of the Land of Lightning, mentioning something about him having been there before and only needing to brush up on it a bit. Obviously that had something to do with his past. Valen didn’t much care, or rather wasn’t rude enough to inquire about such a thing unless it was blatantly offered so he’d refrain from asking. Besides if he was right then Damon was here for the same reason he was. The black haired fire and lightning wielder had obviously been given a by for one of the chunin exam missions as well for his own hard work in the sewers. Good, Valen couldn’t have handled that situation alone, he was glad Damon got rewarded as well, same as he did. He’d finally end his thoughts on this route as his study partner asked about his progress. “I had just begun when you walked in actually, but we could easily team up on this report. I have the imports and exports right here, the one in your hand should talk about the geography. I have a few more books here, including one written by an Ex-Kumo Shinobi, what say you handle the one in your hand, and the one by the Ex shinobi, while I handle the one about the history and this information book here?” He’d offer, of course if Damon would prefer it, due to his wanting to read a certain one instead or something Valen of course wouldn’t care. Hell he purposefully gave the boy what he thought was the most interesting of the two to read. After all a first hand account from someone who lived in Kumo? It would doubtlessly be a good read and a gold mine of information.

Whether or not Damon would want to switch the second book they already held their first ones so at this point Valen would continue reading, quietly to himself. Taking down notes every so often about the things he was reading, including a good list of the imports and exports that he’d found. Kumo exported rare gems, minerals, and special select delicacies that the fishermen caught off the coast. Meanwhile they imported a great deal of their farmed crops. After all living in the cold, frigid mountains with no real farmland made it incredibly difficult to grow anything successfully. Valen could easily see a village leader have a ration based on that alone which would allow them to train their shinobi to be hardier, and go longer without food if it truly came down to it. He could also see a tyrant like leader not giving food to those that he felt were unworthy. That thought alone made the crimson eyed wielder actually SEE red and not just have eyes the colour of. He also found other information like total population, the general ratio of boys to girls born, etc. But Valen skipped over these as the book was a few years old and something like that could easily have changed over the short few years since the book’s publication.

After writing down a few more things he’d reach over to grab the next book, setting the old one aside to do so. As he did he’d ask quietly “How are things on your end?” He’d ask before following it up with “I’ve got a list of their imports and exports as well as possible conclusions that lead from that information.” He’d say as he’d open the next book and begin skimming, listening to Damon’s answer with half an ear as he did. His notes page didn’t have much so far, but he had a feeling they would change that quickly.

WC: 676
TWC: 1700

Fri Jul 07, 2017 4:10 am

“That sounds like a perfect plan to me.” It was awfully kind of Valen to let Damon have dibs on whatever book that he wanted, especially the most interesting one. The Uchiha had been there before numerous times, but he had never truly lived there, so hearing a first person account on what day to day life is must be interesting. And so, Damon decided to tackle the book that he had already possessed in his hands, detailing the geography of the land of lightning. While far too many pages were simply details about the various mountains in the region, there was a section set aside exclusively for Kumogakure no Sato. He had almost missed it by accidentally flipping to the bijuu training island. Whoops. Don’t need that. Maybe later wink wink. Skimming through the boring geological stuff, Damon got to the juicy bits which centered in on the cityscape itself.

Truth be told, not much was known about the village or shinobi itself aside from rumors and tales that may be tall or true. As in the village literally remained shrouded in mystery, despite all of these sources. Its Fog Wall was seemingly infinite as it stretched on for miles within the Land of Lightning. Damon thought back to when he had first seen the colossal, seemingly natural structure that was just a massive surge of chakra.

Rumble rumble. The wooden wheels of a traveling cart wobbled as they traveled along a dirt road which had bits of gravel scattered and strewn about the pathway. Up ahead was a massive 300 meter tall wall of sheer fog. It was as if the cloudiest of days had manifested itself far below the skyline, encompassing the entirety of Kumogakure no Sato. Sound had seemed to die out around it as the carriage entered the mist. And nothing. It felt cold. A younger version of Damon cowered at the sheer radiance of chakra as the mist just made the already intimidating atmosphere seemingly overwhelming. He inched closer to his father in a childish attempt to feel safe. A reassuring hand was brought back across his shoulders and held onto his back. “It’s okay, son.” Then through the silence: echoes. Echoing wails of agony. That’s what made him remember the worst part about Kumo…
He shook his head as he registered the voice of his essay writing partner, Valen. Damon was left staring absentmindedly at a drawing of the fog wall in the book. No point in reliving old memories. “Things are going alright. I’m jotting some stuff down about the outskirt defenses then I’ll work my way inside. Like to the outermost wall of the city.” Damon would then wander off into his own mind and memory of the events, which were surprisingly more accurate than these books that they had picked out. Maybe the library did not know everything in existence.

WC: 1350

Fri Jul 07, 2017 1:36 pm

Valen would nod his head at Damon’s response before an idea struck him like a train. He’d calmly lift an eyebrow while reading and mutter the following under his breath. “How silly of me, my eyes increase my perception of the world, meaning they should allow me to read much faster..” before activating his eyes, which were beforehand crimson, now became gold. He then began to scan his book at a much faster rate than he had been before. He opened up the book on the history of Kumogakure No Sato and began to leaf through the pages at a rapid pace, his eyes easily able to quickly catch glimpses of anything that might be important. He held a look of absolutely concentration on his face as he moved through the history book before coming to a section about the Raikage’s, which even had information about the current. He began to read down the list, jotting down the information as he read it with his other hand. As he read however, he noticed that the information skipped the first Raikage, he tilted his head in curiosity before shaking it off and considering the fact that only the current Raikage, Mortarion, would be useful to know about. After all what could they do with information about the previous ones?

Thus began his section of the report that spoke of the village leader. He began to comprehensively read his section, taking in all of the details. Mortarion took over after Akatsuki killed the previous Raikage, Yaju. Apparently he put Misaki, also known as the Third Raikage on a spike when he took power and began to rule with fear. Those that joined him willingly were treated better, although they still lived in fear. Those that joined out of survival were treated far worse in comparison and those that did not join him at all were constantly in fear of being killed at any moment. The man created a great many defenses for the village most of which were meant to both kill the intruders and severely harm those that did not join him willingly. The most frightening of which in Valen’s eyes were the Virulent Civilians. These creatures were what became of the last of those to accept the new Raikage’s leadership and made them the first to take in an experimental toxin and rapidly decayed their bodies and turning them into hideously malformed men that knew only one order. To protect their great village. They tirelessly wander the fields of Kumogakure hunting down intruders and ending their life for the protection of their home.

This treatment of people sent a shiver down Valen’s spine as he read over this section twice with his eyes to make sure he read it properly. He had to make sure that he wasn’t hallucinating someone so..monstrous as a village leader. He could almost imagine the pain those people must be in day in and day out. Could they even feel anymore? Could they even think? It was slavery, and it was human experimentation and it was...wrong..Wrong on so many levels that Valen simply couldn’t comprehend what must’ve gone through that madman's mind. He began to try and imagine doing such a thing to citizens of Hoshi and he had to fight down the bile that threatened to rise as he began to feel sick. He shook his head as he simply could not imagine condoning such torture. He let out a deep sigh at the cruelties of the world and particularly those of the power hungry and violent before moving on the next defensive measure the tyrant created.

The Treasonous Wall, as it was called is not as profoundly torturous to individuals as the Virulent Citizen’s are. It is however powerful enough to send a message to anyone who would try to assault the village. It takes a ‘Scorched Earth’ policy in terms of defense and anyone who managed to damage the walls itself would find the wall exploding with exceedingly violent explosive tags lining the inner working of the outer village wall. The explosives would be carefully placed in such a way to cause the wall itself to fall inwards, onto the villagers living below. The only ones housed in that particular sector of the village however were those who merely joined the tyrant for survival. The collapsing wall would kill those inside, as well as crush and destroy any useful items or supplies anyone invading might want to loot or use to recover due to the explosions. It also holds an immense psychological effect on the minds of his citizens, effectively telling them that they joined him only for survival, but that their survival is tenuous at best. It appeared that the only way to remotely activate the explosives was housed with the power of the Raikage, which wouldn’t exactly be the most comforting thought knowing that the tyrant that controlled your village could kill you at any moment while you slept or went about your day. Meanwhile it would have massive psychological effects on the minds of any attackers. This psychotic ruler would murder to lives of his own citizens for no reason other than the fact that they joined him for survival? What would he do to his enemies? How many innocents would be killed as they fought through the districts of the village to take the fight to the tyrant? Valen shuddered at the thought.

Finally we have another defense. The Watchful Wall, was as grotesque as it was effective. It was your standard brick and mortar wall but it was covered by the both real and synthetic eyes of traitors who were recaptured by the village. They would be brutally killed before being skinned and their eyes removed for the construction of the wall that acted as another layer of defense for the Village Hidden In The Clouds. The eyes on the wall itself could see people as they moved about, searching for intruders or even certain inhabitants by visual site rather than chakra. Should one be caught in the gaze of the eyes the eyes would cast a great light down upon the unfortunate soul that was found. Alerting anyone searching to the targets presence. Valen personally found this method of defense extremely effective as it meant enemy spies and possible criminals were much more likely to be found. Especially since apparently the eyes could recognize those who had and had not been registered to be within the village. Allowing the eyes to truly be an amazing countermeasure for intruders. While the construction of the wall was extremely crude the currently golden eyed sword user could see the benefit of that as well. After all someone invading wouldn’t desire to walk climb such a surface, hell they wouldn’t want to even look at such a surface. Even for those with the stomach to do so they would quickly be seen by the eyes that surely couldn’t miss the presence of someone running or walking up the wall, no matter how stealthily they did so. Valen thought desecrating the dead for such a defensive measure was far too passed the line however, but he couldn’t question the effectiveness of the tactic.

At this point our red garbed warrior had filled three pages of notes on Kumo which he felt was quite enough information about the place. Between the exports, imports, the current Raikage as well as some of the defenses put in place he felt that the report would be quite the compelling read for the Hogokage, as well as the Queen for that matter. Which he assumed would probably also receive of a copy of the report. He began to situate his own information, reading through what he’d written down and making sure he hadn’t missed anything important. Now he simply needed to speak with Damon about all of what he found, then they could put together the reports, one each. Then take them over to the Hogokage’s office. Hopefully upon delivery they would allowed to be promoted to chunin. But for now they still had to get each other’s information. So he looked up to his chicken ass haired partner to ask. “How are you things on your end? I’ve found just about everything useful from my own books. Shall we compare notes and write our reports individually before taking them to the Hogokage’s office?” He’d ask with a raised eyebrow. This made him wonder about something he’d thought of a moment before. Would he consider Damon his partner? He was a fellow Hoshi shinobi, so to a certain extent yes of course, but they had been on multiple missions together at this point. Granted they didn’t truly speak much of each other to each other, but that’s beside the point. He quickly shook these thoughts from his head. He wouldn’t consider Damon a partner, if only because he couldn’t become reliant on only having one fellow shinobi around. Considering one a ‘partner’ bred reliance. Which is something Valen would never conform to. It was one of the most fundamental laws in their world. They needed to be able to adapt.

With this thought process finished he’d look to Damon for his answer, his notes on everything organized and stacked neatly and meticulously in front of him, he still had plenty of other paper to begin writing his report as soon as Damon finished his own research. This meant that they shouldn’t be here much longer. Hell they might just be chunin by the end of the day. A prospect that excited the cloaked boy more than he’d ever admit out loud.

WC: 1604
TWC: 3304

Sun Jul 16, 2017 2:38 am

Doing book reports is easily one of the most mind numbing tasks available to a student at the age of basic schooling. It is essentially ‘Read this and tell me about it’. And it is a major drag. But alas, that does not change the fact that this tedious report is the arduous task at hand. He then heard Valen say, “How silly of me, my eyes increase my perception of the world, meaning they should allow me to read much faster,” because Damon had amazing hearing. Also it was a library and they were in a soundproof room, so it was dead quiet. He looked up to see the Akari’s eyes turn from red to gold. The Uchiha watched as his friend began sifting through the pages at a rapid pace, which made him self aware as to how long he was taking, especially since he was not using his dojutsu. Timeline wise, he had learned what his eyes natural visual prowess had meant when he had attended the funeral for Roshi Uchiha, the father of Yurei. During the event, Damon had come to recognize a single black swirl in a sea of white that mirrored his own aside from the discoloration due to the boy’s albinism. Before then, he had used it whenever it really suited him. Now, he was much more cautious and needed to be careful who he let see his inheritance. Turning his attention back to the task at hand, he started reading the book absentmindedly as the near chuunin remembered the last journey he had taken there as a child, some two years ago shortly after the takeover. It had been last trip to Kumogakure no Sato, as the sight had left its mark permanently etched into the minds of the boy and his adoptive father, dissuading them from ever returning.

Past the fog wall was the dreaded rot forest. Their carriage immediately began to lose its momentum as the ground turned into mush and slowed down their movement. Damon never knew the name of it until he saw it in the book, but the unhallowed ground must be a byproduct of the rot fields as well as the chakra of the Raikage. Not to mention the appalling blood that seemed to leave eternal stains everywhere, innards, and foamy puss of the victims that had mixed with the earth, softening it and becoming highly unstable as it has turned into an almost complete mush of excrement, blood and earth. It was horrifying. And that was just the ground. The rot field itself covers the entire circumference of Kumogakure, spreading out for about fifty meters in all directions. The combined efforts of the smell of decomposition and the mushy sound coming from the wheels of the cart made the young boy nauseous as he moved to the side in the event that he had to vomit. Which he then was forced to lower his head over the side and expel his lunch onto the ground. He wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand as he lifted his head up to see a face contorted in agony. The impaled body seemed to be oozing white foamy pus from a tear in its stomach that dripped down to the ground below. He screamed and scurried backwards as the fog wall seemed to lift slightly, revealing to them a better look at their surroundings. The two found themselves surrounded by dead cadavers that they then had to maneuver through. According to the book from the Kozai Yuki library, the one building in the world that knows everything, these are said to be the bodies of the ones that chose to not follow Youka into the new era of Kumogakure. They are injected with a special poison that causes the body to rot and produce a more volatile pus inside the body. Back to reality, Damon glanced to a highlighted section of the book, “Each body is still alive and forced to live out their entire life impaled and attached to medical supplies that keep the body alive through the pain of the body rotting from the inside out but never giving death to those that beg for it. “ He then noticed that on the side of the page, a little note was written down in an ink pen that read “Omg kumo sux, let’s kill ‘em”.

Well that’s not really fair… he thought to himself. After all, why judge an entire village based on the principles of one man? For all the Hoshi shinobi knew, the shinobi could be in complete opposition in regards to their moral beliefs and systems, which is better than to just assume that they were evil. But maybe there was some slight, inexplicable bias resonating somewhere within the boy. Perhaps some remnant of the memories left over before the takeover. Smiling children, eager to become shinobi and learn jutsu. These people were independent thinkers whose beliefs did not have to align with that of their dictator. However, this did not change the fact that the defenses were nauseating. Damon was actually able to speak for himself, seeing as that he had been there before as a younger child, but with some rumors he had heard in Hoshi… It did not seem like other shinobi were very fond of Kumo. In fact, this village seemed to be the most popular target of the second exam and most subjected to hatred. The only sound in the room was pencil scratching against paper and their own breathing. However, with the enclosed quarters and having to deal with reliving suppressed memories, Damon just could not shake this feeling of restlessness. So while Valen was still writing down some things, Damon placed the geography book down. “I’ll be right back.” He then exited the all too quiet room and back onto the library floor. The fifth floor housed anything and everything on the current village system. There was no splendor to this library. It was just a basic collection of every single book in existence apparently. Damon slowly paced the floor with his eyes closed but his senses aware, so as to not bump into anyone, even the weakest of chakra signatures. Besides, it was not like many civilians would come this far up anyways.

Kumo itself was not a terrible place. Two years ago, when he had finally made it inside the city, having passed the wretched defensive measures that Lord Raikage had installed to secure his claim to the throne. In one way, it was quite ingenious what the man had done… if he was even a man anymore. Damon had seen firsthand the product of his ‘experiments’. He was toying with the very concept of life itself, testing the laws of the universe to conform to his own ideology. Kings change the laws of man at their own will, so why should the laws of nature be any different? However, when he managed to finally enter the city itself, it was not all too different. The people looked more frightened, the spike heads outside the village grounds serving their purpose of intimidation and terror. This fear monger was able to keep people in line through death. It would not be a surprise if there was some underground rebellion planned to end this forced rule. Chatter to the side of the cart. “...our jounin. All of them, just. Gone. There’s no one left to oppose him.”

The other man spoke up, “And these damnable defense measures he put in… we can’t look to the outside for help.” Young Damon’s eyes grew wide at this admittance of inadequacy. He was not yet mature enough to fully understand the peril that these people were in, but he knew that he would have hated to live there. In fact, he could not even remotely imagine being a Hozuki there or something. Then he bumped into someone. It could hopefully be a familiar someone, that Damon had trained with several times before. Maybe even someone who could finish this damned assignment and finally become a chuunin for the sake of Hoshigakure no Sato. Please.

WC: 2707

Sun Jul 16, 2017 5:26 am

Another day of study, another hard day of work wasted.
These thoughts were going through the young girl’s mind as Hikari Namikaze made her way up to the Yuki Archives. This was… well… basically an everyday thing for her. Come to the library, study the sealing chakra seal, go home, sleep. Come to the library Study the Curse mark seal, go home sleep. For a bit of time, the chestnut haired girl even thought of the possibility of making a shirt and wearing it every day she came to the library. The girl could see it in her head even now… a black shirt with white writing on it, not unlike Brock Lesner’s ‘suplex city shirt.’ The shirt’s white wording would say.

Eat
Study curse mark
Fail,
Study Chakra sealing technique
Fail
Sleep
Repeat!

Rolling her eyes, the girl would walk into the library her chakra surprised as usual, as she was paranoid of civilians having the ability to sense chakra and would randomly try to jump her for no good reason besides the fact that she was an evil demon worshiping shinobi. … and start to walk around the library… She had gotten a new lead recently….. a large man, with orange hair, probably has a ciggerate in his mouth, and that has a bit of a problem with stripping.

The Fuin user knew that this man was the key to finding out the secret behind the curse mark. Either this man had the Curse mark she was looking for, or he held a secret behind the jutsu that might lead Hikari to another clue that will get her closer to unraveling this mystery.

The other Day, Hikari looked through all of the shinobi files that she was allowed to, and didn’t find anything. Either this shinobi was a high ranking shinobi from the village hidden among the stars who Hikari wasn’t allowed to have access to his files, or the man was not a shinobi of the village hidden in the stars. That being said…. Perhaps he was a shinobi from another village?

Heading over to the ’Foreign Affairs’ Section of the library, Hikari would think of where to look at first. Her first thought was to look in the Konoha section… she always was curious what went on over in that place…. But deep down in side, she knew that the village hidden in the clouds would be the place that that man was from most likely from, as Hoshi had some sort of connection to that place.

Anyways, as Hikari would walk over to the Kumogakure section of the library, the young girl would see a few people that she knew set up at a table very close to the Kumo section of the library. They were two Genin from the village hidden in the stars, Dameon Seto, and Valen Akari, both of which had dark hair and were sitting at a desk a few meters away from the young girl. Perfect Hikari would think and approach them, Ever since she had been asked to look into the 2nd chunin exam, the young girl had been looking around for genin who were trying to progress their way through the ranks Hoshi and become a Chunin. This way, she would know the abilities of those who were in the exam, and if she needed worry about them being killed or not.

Approaching the two boys, Hikari was about to say something to the two, but looking over their shoulders, she saw a book that they were reading, a book on the Kumogakure defenses…..

A little brain vessal could be seeing popping out of Hikari’s head…. Another group of ‘heroes’ that got to skip over the second exam because they did something to help save the village hidden among the stars. Hikari remembered everything she did as a genin… and was still not given that opportunity. She saved the princess, won a bikini contest…. AND Fought with an Evil Psychotic Loli. But despite all of that… no… Hikari was still expected to fight against a Hyuga that had it out for her, Kenshin Uzumaki… a chunin, a rainbow haired priestess, AND a freaking DRAGON!
Despite the fact that the young golden eye user was slightly jealous of the two boys getting to skip a section of the chunin exams, in her heart, the girl knew that they were doing whatever they could to rank up to chunin and better the village hidden amoung the stars. Something that Hikari herself knew the feeling of when she was trying to rank up.

The girl would start to walk up and offer the two advice… but wait… if she had just come up and offered all this information……. Would the two young boys think it would be unmanly to take so much help from a girl? Heck, perhaps the two would even go as far as think that continuing with the exam after hearing that Hikari had done all of this already would make doing this exam redundant and would take away their motivation to continue, and might make them start all over.

Thinking about it, maybe letting the boy’s have their moment and give them a push without letting the two know she had would help them booster their ego, while at the same time helping them get through the exam.

With that, Hikari would quickly go behind a book case, out of site from the group, and quickly scratch down everything she knew about the Village hidden in the clouds on a note pad that she had.

Dear Kenshin,
How are you? It has been a while since our battle in the chunin selection exam. I hope this letter finds you well. However… I say this, but this is not just a friendly letter of me checking up on you. No, this is a letter of warning. Since I know you are planning to go out of the village on a world trip pretty soon, I figured I should warn on you on a few dangers that this world possess, the main one I want to talk to you about is one in the land of lightning to the far east of Hoshigakure, there is a village called Kumogakure (Or Kumo for short). About two months ago, I preformed a report on this village. These are some of my personal notes I kept on the subject.
A while back, this village had it’s old kage replaced by a Youka Tau, who basicly took the village by force, while not a lot is known about the takeover, it is known that the takeover was quite violent, and was one that most regretted being a part of. As of this point, no information has been discovered on him, other than he is a powerful S-Rank shinobi, and his power is feared throughout all of the world. One thing can be said about this man however, and that is his lack of caring for those who he deems a threat.
Now, when approaching the village, the first thing that will be noticed when approaching the village and you should be awear of is the village’s first defense, what has been called the ‘Wailing Rot Forest’. In the fields that go on quite a few meters out from the village, there is a horrifying scene of countless of half dead bodies, stuck on pikes, scattered throughout the field. These are the bodies of those who either opposed The Raikage in his rise to power during his grab for the Kage seat, or were found later to be not in support of the new village kage once he rose to power. These bodies are scattered throughout the fields, and are each spaced a couple of meters away from each other. The most terrifying aspect of this though, is that the bodies are however still mostly alive, feeling every last bit of pain that comes from being implanted on a pole for the rest of their lives. Next to each body is a small medical kit that keeps the bodies alive, so they feel every ounce of pain. Along with that, each body is also decaying/rotting, so they have that pain to suffer on top of the pain of the poison going through their veins (See later) and the pain of having a pike stuck through you…. All at the same time. On top of that, each body is injected with a poisonous puss, which not only makes their pain even worst, but acts as another defensive feature for the village. This puss will form into sacks on their stomach area, which the Raikage, Youka has the option to explode the people at any time he pleases it…. He can use this to blow up any incoming invaders. Due to all of the pain, the victims will wail at all times, this is where the defense gets its name, the wailing rot forest.

However, The cruel dictator didn’t stop there however, he felt like there should be more of a defense in the village, so, throughout the field, he has guards placed, patrolling the wailing rot forest, looking for those who dare to try to break into the Village’s borders. One thing that must be noted about these guards is that they aren’t just normal people walking around. On the contrary, these people are zombie like creatures that were once people that supported Youka, but they decided to support him to late, and due to that, their punishment was to be injected with poison in order to be used as the guards of the wailing forest. These guards are called ‘virulent civilians,’ and are humans that have been ejected with stiffening toxins. Unlike the civilians that are stuck on the pikes however, it is unclear whether or not these people are still alive and able to feel the pain they are in. One can only hope that they have passed on and are put out of their misery. Anyways, the zombie like creatures are not that fast compared to a shinobi (but much faster than the average human) and are able to take some damage. Each of them however has a pouch of liquid in their necks, and from these pouches a putrid smelling greenish grey liquid shoots out at enemies. If it connects, it doesn’t do any damage, however, the liquid hardens and makes it harder for the target to move. This will set them up for the explosions coming from the victims on poles of the ‘wailing rot forest.’ If hit by even one of these spurts of acid, it is recommended that the person leaves the area and attempts clean off the muck to recover their speed.

Once one gets to the city proper however, is where more problems come awaiting those inside attempting to enter the city. Surrounding the outer border of the city is a large stone wall, this wall isn’t anything special from the looks of it, it just appears to be a stone wall. However, in the inter-making of the wall, there are hundreds of explosive tags which are connected to the raikage’s office. Whenever the first wall falls to invaders, the raikage will be waiting from afar watching, and will activate the paper bombs, when the first wall is taken, making the walls fall in and crush those around it. Now, before the question, comes up of Wouldn’t the falling debree also hit houses and civilians in the village?’ And the answer to that is, yes, it would, probably causing more civilian casualties instead of hostile casualties. Does the Raikage care? I sort of doubt it personaly. In the first section of the village, he keeps all the people who only joined him out of fear of what he would do to them, in that location. That way, if the walls were to fall, then only those who he didn’t have much of a care and or need for would be the first to die. If someone is captured from this district, using them as a hostage would not be effective, (Although, I doubt he would care about people who got captured wether or not they would be allowed to live or not anyways,) As such, one should be careful when around this wall or in the area before it.
The village is cut into three section, the first section, as stated before, is the wall that collapses on itself, inside it holds the people that the Raikage doesn’t care about. Mostly the people that only joined the Raikage so that he wouldn’t kill him, not because they liked him. The second section is for some reason called the treason wall and it stands at about two hundred meters tall and is another wall called the “Watchful wall”. This is a brick wall covered with the flesh of those who have betrayed the Raikage. Along with their flesh of their bodies, their eyes are sewed the walls as well. These eyes will track people in between the first wall and the second wall. The way they track people is not by a shinobi’s chakra network, but by his/her physical bodies, which is a lot more reliable than shinobi’s easily hidden chakra network. IF someone who has never been in the village before tries to enter in this area without proper authorization, a bright light will seep out of the artificial eyes and follow the Intruder. Also, this light can be used at any time to find individuals in the village if need be. These eyes are also connected to The Raikage’s own eyes, so he can see whatever they are looking at. Any ways… my point is No sneaking in Kenshin.

So… in conclusion…… Kenshin….. No entering the cloud village…. None what so ever…..

And with that, Hikari would make two large lines through the two papers, making an ‘x’ to make it look like this was a rough draft, and that she didn’t need the paper anymore, before wadding it up and putting it on the outside of her purse. Now… the problem was to get this to the two without them realizing she was doing it on purpose…. And an idea came across her mind.

The girl would walk over toward the two of them, and as she was about to pass them, she would slap her hand on her thy, using ‘Wind Gale force palm’ and a light gust of wind (Powering down to 5) Would come from the girl, just enough to send the paper that only just barely in her purse out, and onto the ground near her. She would then continue to walk off without really listening to the two of them, if they called, she would completely ignore the two of them, almost as if she was some mind possessed guard who was about to go commit suicide.

Later, the seal user would realize the severity of what she did, when she used the jutsu, her chakra would flair up, so both boys who probably knew the chestnut haired girl’s chakra level by now would recognize this as her, even if they didn’t see her face. Also, when she passed, the wind would reach 5 meters, probably enough to catch both boys attention, and since they were inside, such a strong gust of wind was probably not very likely to happen. On a normal Day, Hikari would or probably thought through all this, but right now, the girl was just to focused on the thought of finding the orange haired giant and figuring out the secret behind this curse mark to really think through her plan that well.

Either way, after doing her litter shrade, the girl would head back upstairs to where the shinobi file room was. She couldn’t go back to the Kumo section right now with Val and Dameon there…. But perhaps she had missed something before when she was going through the files.

[enter/exit]

WC: 2671
Claims
26 AP:
2000/2000 words to master wind gale palm to be used without hand signs, and another 671 words to master it for extra power.

Also, going to put 2671 WC to the mission completion, as stated in the rules.

Sun Jul 16, 2017 5:28 am

Hikari may not gain AP from this as per mission rules. Training should be fine if sufficiently practiced. <3

Sun Jul 16, 2017 5:38 am

Sorry... didn't realize I was part of the mission!

New Rewards claimed:
1500/1500 Claimed toward mastering Gale force palm without handsigns
1001 WC claimed toward mastery gale force palm for extra power

Also claiming 4k Ryo, 10 Ap, and totally claiming that chunin rank! (With how long it took me to get it, I feel like I am justified in claiming Chunin twice )

Sun Jul 16, 2017 5:43 am

If your wc is part of the mission, so are you. However to properly claim all rewards you have to check 1) if the mission is repeatable and 2) if you've done your equal share of the wc - 8k/3. <3

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