Budding Leaves

A few miles adjacent to the bustling city of Konohagakure, a dense forest expanded as far as the eye could see. The animals were larger than normal and trees seemed to touch the sky. Some trees had large space between the dirt ground and its roots, providing shelter for wildlife, and the occasional weary traveler. A young boy with red dreadlocks sat lazily under one of the aforementioned tree caves that was next to a lake. He was skipping rocks across the surface of the water, completely blending with the nature scene.On his head were a pair of headphones that were playing loud music. Allegro was clearly enjoying the song that was playing. The rest of his body was laden with pouches for his ninja tools and slots for his ninja scrolls. He had some down time between missions. He had been working diligently on each mission, but he's been feeling like a tadpole amongst giant toads lately. The difference in his power against theirs was too great.

But what was the genin to do? All he could do is train to become a stronger shinobi. But there were things he had to concern himself with besides his shinobi duties. He had an ambition. He was to make great music someday and become a number one hit pop star in Konoha and across the nations! The young Uzumaki fiddled with his headphones as the song came to an end, then stood up to stretch. Which one would come first, he wondered. Would he become a great shinobi, or a famous celebrity?

Allegro surveyed the vast forest for signs of food or entertainment. Occasionally, Allegro would hide in the shadow created by the tree from a giant sized predator that was lurking nearby. He would not waste his time and stain his blade with the blood of a wolf or snake. He would would test his hand against an equal adversary: a ninja.

ooc:

Fenrir was far too bored for his current mindset.  He had just finished his mission, but in killing the poachers he had found, he had reawakened something he had been suppressing for quite some time for fear of being killed by a superior opponent.  Now, he was simply looking for a fight.  It didn't need to be anything fancy, it didn't even need to be a human opponent.  Fenrir simply wanted to get into a real battle, between himself and an equal opponent who could give him an actual challenge.  He was in the middle of running through the forest, searching for said opponent, when he noticed something new.  The air here felt different, more familiar than throughout the rest of the forest.  It reminded him of something... but what.  Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Fenrir thought about what it was.  Home.  The air here was more humid, but not quite as literally wet as the air back home, just enough to remind him of Kirigakure.  Opening his eyes once again, Fenrir quickly searched the area, his head turning wildly in his strangely frantic search for the source of water that caused the humidity.  Setting eyes on the area with no trees, Fenrir was off, sprinting towards his new home.  While running, he would remove his headband and stash it within his jacket.  Having no headband allowed one more freedom to fight, no one knowing what village you hail from unless they had met you before.

As he approached the area, Fenrir's eyes became more wild, spotting the lake and speeding up towards it.  Jumping off of the very tree under which Allegro was hiding, not knowing that the genin was there, Fenrir landed roughly 20 meters out, splashing hard into the lake.  At this distance, the water wasn't shallow, but wasn't too deep either, giving him optimal chilling depth.  Chill was, unfortunately, not on the menu, as Fenrir still wanted to fight and this short distraction would only keep him for so long.  Splashing, jumping out of the water, and swimming around in circles underneath the water.  After a few minutes of this, he would shoot out of the water, only going a couple meters above the surface while activating the Surface Walking Technique, allowing him to stand on top of the lake.  Facing away from where he had come from, he took one last moment to enjoy the lake before turning around.  IF he saw the genin upon turning around, he would pause for a moment, somewhat surprised by his lack of noticing the genin.  He would then charge directly at him, screaming at the top of his lungs, eyes returning to their previous state.  If he didn't see him, then he would simply walk back to the shore and begin squeezing the water out of his clothing.

WC: 473
AP -1
267/268 AP remaining

Someone had arrived, made clear to the leaf genin by the twitch of his ears from behind his headphones. It appeared that the music did not disrupt the ninja’s acute sense of hearing. The appearance of this mysterious chakra would steal the Leaf genie's interest for a brief moment, indicated by his readjusting his sitting posture so as to get a proper view. Before a moment passed, a ninja had appeared before him on the lake front. Allegro’s presence was still undetected, but he could see how fast the ninja was as he descended from the tree branches above. ‘He’s pretty fast. Is it me or is everyone around here ridiculously speedy? Maybe it's time I laid off the ’ he told himself as he poised himself to rise to his feet. Before he stood to his feet, he recognized the ninja whom had made a sudden appearance. Even though Fenrir tried to disguise himself by removing his head band, the clues made it obvious. He was clearly a shinobi from the ninja pouches that were along his pants. Moreover, Allegro's sharp eyes did not miss the traces of blood and struggle from the poachers Fenrir had killed on his clothing. Plus, of course, there was always the matter of fact that Allegro had laid eyes on this manic ninja once before.

He flashed back to a few days earlier when he had observed an ad in the inner city of Leaf village. It was an invitation to spar, its creator was someone who was a few marbles short. Save the slight curiosity in a mysterious, cloaked woman, Allegro gave the matter his immediate attention and investigated the scene. When Allegro arrived to the training fields that day, he saw his teammate Jason already sparring with the mysterious challenger. The same boy with the white hair with the scars on his neck from that day was now in the forest with Allegro, looking slightly more deranged this time. What exactly is the deal with this guy, and the Mist ninja in general? Fenrir was older than Allegro was by several years, and a ninja of the Mist Village, which was formerly revered as the Bloody Mist for reasons that need not be repeated aloud. He revisited his memory of how some Leaf ninja still held resentment towards the Mist village ninja, his teammate included. Was this about to be a continuation of the hatred between villages? Allegro kept his headphones on but lower the volume while he positioned himself to move while the Mist genin played in the water like a toddler.

The two ninja were still separated by about 20 meters, with Allegro still on solid ground and Fenrir standing on water. As Fenrir began to turn his head to survey the scenery at an unspecified speed, Allegro quickly flickered away from sight without leaving any indication of his presence. We will assume he did so at a speed faster than the turning of Fenrir's head, so as to preserve the element of surprise. Allegro would reappear directly behind Fenrir, after having weaved five hand seals while in Fenrir's visual blindspot, preparing his chakra for a jutsu. Allegro would descend with a casual float, with his right arm gently resting onto Fenrir's shoulders as if he was welcoming an old friend. His feet would glow slightly with chakra, allowing him to stand on the rippling waves created by Fenrir's barbaric thrashing.

“You’re the guy from earlier with the blade that absorbs ninjutsu... Fenrir. You are originally from the village hidden in Mist, right?... I can dig it.”

Allegro whispered in Fenrir's ear with growing interest in the ninja. He gave an eerie smile, not to be a creep or anything like that. But rather because he could not help himself; something about Fenrir fascinated Allegro. Fenrir would seem blood thirsty and deranged to anyone who looked at him properly and had a decent amount of common sense. However, our dear friend Allegro seemed to heed no such cautionary premonitions. Allegro felt that there was much to learn from Kiri ninja, and he would take advantage of this period of "fake peace" a term he had coined after gauging his teammates' view on the shift in political power in their village. Allegro would definitely study carefully and see if the arts of Kirigakure were worth learning, while learning more about the forces within their ranks that made even Konoha kneel. That was something that the boy had previously never imagined to be possible. The curiosities eventually centralized around one focal point, that brought Allegro to form his next words, assuming Fenrir had enough sanity/decency left in him to let him finish his sentence.

"The way you summoned that snake in that fight with Jason...You must show me how. I've seen fuinjutsu used to call forth weapons and other inanimate objects, but that was my first time witnessing the summoning of a living being. With an ability like that, I can become stronger and level the playing field on my team. You must teach me, Fenrir-kun"


[1167 TWC]
-5 AP for Substitution Technique [Pending]
-1 AP for Surface Walking
-All actions performed at max speed (65)

While he really was quite good at killing things, when Fenrir was distracted, holy hell was he distracted.  Somehow, while turning around specifically to survey the area, the genin known as Allegro had managed to slip by him to his back, now standing roughly a foot behind him.  Now, while Fenrir may have been distracted enough to allow this to slip past his sight, he certainly wasn't about to let his guard down completely for the sake of swimming around in a damn lake.  Hearing the other ninja's movement behind him, Fenrir's immediate reaction was to draw his sword.  Of course, this reaction would be suppressed for the slightly less strategic reaction of simply not moving.  IF this person had wanted to kill him, they simply would have attacked while he was unaware rather than moving behind him all dramatic n shit.  Waiting for the one behind him to say something, or at least move, Fenrir would immediately become uncomfortable as a hand was lowered onto his shoulder, as if they were friends or something.  Perhaps...

Jason?

Fenrir would say at almost the exact same time that the other began speaking, quickly realizing that it was not who he had assumed it to be.  Upon realizing this, Fenrir would release his Surface-Walking technique, allowing himself to drup to his neck in the water before forming the Ram hand seal, causing himself to disappear in a blur of speed, faster than the other genin could possibly react to.  He would finish his blur movement behind the genin, moving through the water rather than through the air to get the advantage in this encounter.  Drawing his sword and poking the tip into the ninja's back, not enough to pierce the clothign but enough to make its presence known, Fenrir looked at his funny hair.  Fenrir thought, now that he had a proper view from the back, that he might possibly recognize this guy from somewhere, but he really had no idea who he was.  Maybe they had passed each other in the grocery store or something.  Wait for just a second, Fenrir didn't shop for groceries!  This was mighty suspicious.  Allowing the genin to finish his words if he so chose to, Fenrir would react accordingly.

Speaking now, Fenrir's tone would become remarkably more serious than usual.  He didn't like being outmatched, whether it was in a fight or a game of mahjong, and this guy was kicking his ass in the way of information right now.  You know my name, and you apparently witnessed my spar with Jason, meaning you know that I use summons and Svallin, the two tools I made use of in that fight.  Unfortunately for me, I don't know your name, your skills, or your team.  I'll just assume your skills are limited to the basics, otherwise you wouldn't be asking someone like me to train you, and I'll assume Jason is on your team simply because he is one of the few Leaf ninja I know, and you happen to also know him.  If you want me to train you to become on par with Jason, that would require that you become at least almost as good as me.  

Fenrir paused for a moment, not used to talking for such a long period of time when he was expecting a fight.  And that, will cost you.  I don't care what you trade for it, as long as I deem it to be of equal value to the training I can offer you.  You could pay me with money, women, men, dogs, leaves, or even dirt, so long as it's enough of it to equal the value.  Pulling his sword away from the genin and leaping backwards from them, Fenrir put the blade away.  Or you could simply trade training for training, which is what I normally do.  So, what'll it be?  While Fenrir thoroughly enjoyed training and money, he really did hope the genin would pick another option.  He had never had someone pick Men, Women, or Dogs, and he really did want to see how someone would pay him with any of these things.  Would they simply hand him a bunch of people tied together?  Sick a pack of dogs on him?  Take him to a brothel maybe?  Probably none of these things, as people absolutely hated the effort required to make a proper trade, and usually tried using leaves or dirt, but he had never seen anyone collect enough to equal his training, or the training of any other ninja.  Who knows though, maybe this is the champion dirt-collector of Leaf Village, and Fenrir just didn't know it.  Maybe.

WC: 779
Flicker Movement: 10 AP
257/268 remaining

Body Flicker speed: 148
All other actions performed at max speed (84)
New distance: 15 meters

Fenrir did not often overlook important details in a fight, but in any other situation his attention to detail could be... lacking.  This resulted in the rather unfortunate mistake he found himself making when he was once again dropped into the water of the lake, left unable to speak for another few moments.  This issue was easily fixed when he swam to the surface, listening to the other ninja yell at him from the shore.  Fenrir would say everything he already planned to say, simply from the surface of the water, while slowly swimming towards the genin on the shore, enjoying his time back in the water.  It was much more comfortable in the water than while standing.  Upon arriving at the shore, Fenrir would ask the genin another question to add on to his previous statements.

What do you specialize in?  I need to know so I know if you could teach me anything good.  As he said this, Fenrir would calmly draw a kunai into his left hand, then slice open his right thumb.  He would then perform the seal of confrontation on the ground in front of himself, causing a poof of smoke halfway between himself and Allegro, out of which appeared Kindo, the purple snake Fenrir had used in the spar with Jason.  The snake would at first look to Allegro, inspecting him with seemingly genuine interest, then to Fenrir, then Allegro, and finally back to Fenrir.  Why am I here?  There is no fight to be had.  Fenrir would turn his gaze to the snake, momentarily ignoring Allegro to reply.  How do I get this guy the scroll to sign?  While Fenrir was a Space-Time specialist, he had never really looked into the summoning aspect of it past how to summon Kindo, and how to do a few jutsu that used them.  Right now, the only source of information on the topic was the small snake in front of him, who he had already noted knew very little about summoning himself, despite being a summon.

WC: 340
New distance: 5 meters
Kindo is 2.5 meters from each
AP: 247:268

Allegro let out a chuckle and sigh of relief when he saw Fenrir break the surface and begin swimming towards him. He was beginning to worry about the genin. This was quite the demonstration, and completely different from the combat-efficient ninja he observed a few days prior in the training fields with Jason. Nonetheless, the two traded words when the Mist ninja finally dragged himself to shore. The boys clothes were drenched with water from the lake, but would soon dry out under the radiant Konoha sun. Allegro loved coming here during the day to see how the light trickles down to the grassy floor through the dense treetops, forming a light pattern that reminded him of kanji seals. Perhaps it was fate that led him here on this very day only to cross paths with good ol Fenrir.  Today could be the day he perfected a new jutsu. Fenrir redelivered his speech, and Allegro could not help but laugh. He grinned at the boy and said,
 
“Well since you asked, let me properly introduce myself…”
 
The ninja took a step back from Fenrir, who seemed to prefer being in the water than on land. His hand was poking around in the pouch located directly above his buttock, and he pulled out a scroll. A cloud passed over the sun, providing a moment of darkness on the scene. Only a singular beam of sunshine seemed to pass through, and as luck would have it, it shone directly on Allegro. The ninja would unravel the scroll on the earth and slap one hand firmly on top of it. The resulting reaction was a puff of smoke shrouding his entire figure. The scene was set, and from the depths of the smoke, came the sound of a classical guitar strumming smooth notes to accentuate the key points of the introduction.
 
“Behold, the great ninja Allegro,
I am the man who’s music will unite the nations,
The sound of my voice is like taking a sweet vacation,
I am a member of Konoha Team 7! The Red Haired Super Star!
Even the toughest kunoichi drops her panties when I strum my guitar…
♫GRRROOOOOOOOOOVYYYY♫ Yup, that’s me ~”
 
Allegro would hold a brilliant pose once he finished his grandiose introduction. By the time Allegro finished, Fenrir would proceed to ask him another question while initiating a ritual that Allegro recognized from Fenrir’s fight with Jason. He watched the kid prick himself, and then summon a serpent with just a single hand seal. Allegro was shook. He looked down at the purple snake in awe as it assessed the situation. Allegro was impressed to see that the serpent was so well trained. The ones that were plaguing the forests in Konoha were always hissing and biting and stuff. Allegro could remember spending days in the hospital while he was in the ninja academy after being bit by a viper said to have enough toxin to kill an elephant. Still the fact that the small boy could live through such a fatal incident paled in comparison to the fact that the Snake began to speak….with Human speech. Allegro could not believe his ears. He stuttered at first, but eventually, Allegro worked up the nerve to answer Fenrir’s question and address the snake.
 
“I’m a pro when it comes to musical jutsu. Although, I don’t think you need any more voices playing in your head,. It seems like you’ve already got plenty. I mean, you must be a part of some cult since you summon sna…..Erm – Um., I mean, Good Afternoon, Hebi-Sama!”
 
Allegro rubbed his hands through his dreads, hoping the snake would overlook the insult he was seconds away from making.  He mentally analyzed the Summoning Technique that Fenrir performed and cross referenced it with his lessons at the ninja academy back in the day. He distinctly remembered his teacher saying that a shinobi can only summon a beast after having signed a sacred contract that binds the two species together. Allegro would choose his next words wisely and change his tone to a slightly more serious one.
 
“Actually, I asked Fenrir-kun to summon you here. I think I’m ready to sign my soul away to be able to summon your kind as well…Would you happen to have that scroll?”
 
   
The Leaf genin would be crouching on his toes as he addressed the snake, clearly unafraid of the possibility that the snake would pounce and snag him right in the face. He intended to wear his commitment and dedication on his face as he waited for the snake to answer the question. Allegro’s heart was pumping. He had hoped that there were no tricks involved with signing his soul away. He was sure his father would not approve after all he went through to raise Allegro properly.

[2469 TWC]

After the genin's little musical number was over, he gave a short summary of his abilities and a couple of short remarks that could have gotten him into trouble had Fenrir been one of those psychos who denies that they're psychotic.  Fortunately, Fenrir was entertained by the joke about his voices, simply remarking Oh, you have noooooo idea.  Red and Blue were simply buzzing on about this guy already.  Why the hell was he singing?  I think it sounds nice, he's surprisingly talented.  Talented at clearing rooms, maybe.  Don't be rude, we only just met him!  It's not like he can hear me anyway, why shouldn't I be rude?  Besides, it's just honesty!  It's not being honest if you're only doing it to be an asshole!  Fine, I'll just stop talking entirely!  That would likely be best, you know how hard it is for him to concentrate when we do this.  Right now he should be concentrating on ending this insect and moving on.  Not everything is about killing people.  It should be.

With this little session of voices finished, Fenrir was able to return his mind to reality, but he had completely missed Allegro speaking to Kindo.

Kindo was not entirely pleased with the answers he had received upon being summoned in such a manner.  It was incredibly difficult to keep the influence of the annoyance these two boys were being when he replied, What makes you think that I, literally the first summon you have acquired and a mere D-Rank at that, would have the scroll that allows humans access to my race's warriors?  If you want to summon the scroll, you need to summon the holder of the scroll, not me.  Kindo then turned from his master, believing him sufficiently scolded, towards the new one.  Moving forward and flickering his tongue, Kindo allowed it to just barely touch the tip of Allegro's nose.  You taste different, I'm not sure what it is, but it's certainly distinctive.  Done creeping on the Leaf Genin, Kindo turned back to his summoner.  So, are you now ready to summon the proper snake?  To this, Fenrir had little to say.

Hmmmmmmmm............... sure.

Simply rubbing his thumb against the nail of his index finger to re-open the wound previously made to summon Kindo, letting it flow for a moment before looking to Allegro.  He would address the genin plainly, not bothering to hide the fact that I have pretty much no fucking idea what I'm doing, but hopefully it works.  Fenrir had only ever trained summoning Kindo before, and even then the snake had been with him the whole time he had been training, making it far easier to connect to the summon.  Now he was trying to summon a creature he had only even met once, and had spent less than 5 minutes speaking to, and had certainly not spent any of it training how to summon him.  Maybe he just needed to try and summon someone bigger than Kindo, and that would be enough.  After all, the holder of the scroll is one of the strongest snakes, right?

Okay, here we go... summoning... the guy.

Fenrir then slammed his hand on the ground, once again causing a poof of smoke.  This time, however, the poof was not accompanied by a purple snake, nor was it accompanied by the giant snake Fenrir had seen in the cave when he signed the scroll.  Instead, he summoned a possibly the least terrifying snake he had ever seen, especially considering it was one of the legendary Snake Summons, and not just a garden snake, though you couldn't tell by looking at it.  Who are you?  I don't recall you being our summoner.  Where is the old one?  Not entirely ready for the results of his summon, nor for the questions he received upon the appearance of the snake, Fenrir was unable to respond immediately, prompting a short silence that may or may not be filled by words from the other genin, Allegro.  After this short silence, lasting only for a few seconds unless Allegro chose to speak, Fenrir answered the snake to the best of his ability.  I'm Fenrir, and I've only recently signed the contract with your race.  I don't know who the last summoner was, and especially don't know where he is.  What I do know is that I need to summon the contract holder for your race, and you don't seem to be him.  How would I go about summoning the contract holder?  Staring intently into Fenrir's face, apparently not pleased with the reason for his summoning, the snake answered quickly, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice.  Focus on summoning the scroll, not the holder.  You have spent no time training with him, I know because no one does, but you have put your blood on the scroll, meaning you can summon it easier than you could summon him.  When did humans lose the ability to grasp simple concepts like this?  It's not difficult to figure out you can summon the magical contract you permanently connected yourself to better than the snake you've spoken to once.  While the snake had been annoyed by Fenrir's simple question, Fenrir was certainly peeved by his generally condescending tone and rude rapports.  Of course, his temper was easily cooled by how unbelievably adorable the little guy looked.  Hearing his tiny voice scold Fenrir and try to be scary was just the most amazing thing he had experienced in a while.  Fenrir would once again slam his hand on the ground, hopefully for the last time, and attempt to summon the scroll so that Allegro could sign.  One poof of smoke later, Fenrir was looking at a snake, much smaller and older looking than the one he had spoken to in the cave, although still larger than Fenrir himself.  In the snake's mouth, the summoning scroll for the Snakes was held.

Wait a second, you can't just let him sign the scroll because he asked you to!  You have to test him!  Make sure he is worthy of summoning us!  We aren't just pawns for you to throw at enemies and give to random kids!  The green snake was apparently unaware of the fact that when Fenrir had asked how to summon the scroll it was in order to let Allegro sign it.  Now turning to Allegro, the snake would speak once again.  Prove yourself worthy of the contract, or you may not sign it.  He would then await any response from the genin, not really giving any outline for what he could do to impress the snake.  Fenrir, not liking being left out of something he was so involved in, spoke up one last time.  You could spar with me a bit, or with one of these two.  The whole reason I came out here in the first place was to fight someone, and it would be nice to get some action in before I need to go.  The snakes said nothing to this, but Kindo seemed to be visibly excited at the prospect of fighting, even if it was just a spar.

As all of this happened, the old snake holding the scroll remained entirely still, apparently not giving any fucks about what happened around it.


WC: 1214

OOC:

The brown skinned male took calculated steps to distance himself from Fenrir. He measured his steps so that when he turned around to face him, there would be 10 meters between them. The snakes that  the mist genin had summoned were nearby, and yet out of Allegro’s way. He did not want to step on one of the snakes on accident. He watched the snakes rather closely, accepting his fate to square off against a mist ninja in order to get to the scroll he desired. His biggest concern was that a ninja would pass by this scene and automatically make the wrong assumption. He could see it now: in the event that Allegro bested Fenrir in this bout, a mist shinobi would immediately retaliate, thinking that Allegro was some bitter loser seeking revenge for those killed in war between the two nations. Or, if Fenrir managed to best Allegro, it was highly likely that a swarm of Leaf genin would appear to rush the outsider in retaliation as well. More to that end, he hoped that at least his teammates would come to his rescue if it turned out that Fenrir and his snake horde were up to no good. He couldn’t trust the words of a snake, after all.

Why did Allegro want to bind his soul to a bunch of snakes anyway? He wondered to himself, really. He had never really had any interactions with snakes before. He reflected to his earliest memory having even slightly to do with a snake as the Konoha winds blew against his face, causing even his heavy red dreads to flutter in the wind like a frenzy of snakes. He reflected back to the time when he was making his citizenship in the Leaf village official under his father’s care. The young Uzumaki, still with dreads that did not even extend past the nape of his neck, was playing in the grass one day and made a discovery. He picked up what looked like a dead snake, only hollow and flaky to the touch. The boy was dumfounded. His father approached him from behind with a comforting hand on his left shoulder. 

“Allegro, thats the molted skin of a cobra! It’s rare to find those in these parts of the country.” Allegro looked at the poor withered skin of the cobra snake. He was curious about what the real thing looked like. He stroked the skin carefully to understand its texture. It felt like a brittle leather. He eventually redirected his attention back to his father, still hovering over the impressive molten skin. Allegro asked his father what this meant. He responded, “Hmm, well boy, it is said that the Cobra is one of the most powerful and venomous of all serpents, and for years, they’ve been considered a symbol protection and regeneration. Ancient villages considered the snakes sacred and used them to protect their youth in times of war. The sound of the lullabies that the maidens played to put the children to sleep also made the cobras dance.”

The young boy, still new to the ninja academy, was delighted by the story. He had deeply internalized that moment, whether he realized it or not. That memory would grow to be his fondest one of his father, whom he did not know existed until his arrival to the Leaf Village. Allegro refocused on Fenrir and his snake companions by the time the brief wind finished gusting up the forest leaves around them. His gaze met with Fenrir’s intently. Allegro was sure that Fenrir was a very capable ninja, and possibly even a good person….deep, deep, DEEP down.  However, Allegro could not let even him stop Allegro from his aims. He was to become strong enough to be a hero in his village. He wanted to become a symbol of protection wherever he travelled, just like the Cobra. And his music, he wanted his precious music to vanquish the mightiest beasts, and soothe all whom were not at peace within. Allegro gave a decisive nod of his head, directed to Fenrir at the same time he formed the seal of confrontation, hinting at his his imminent assault. A single leaf fluttered to the ground, exactly equidistant between the two ninja. The moment the leaf touched the ground, the Leaf ninja vanished in a blur of speed and connected his fist to Fenrir’s face. At the same time, Allegro slipped the scroll out of the mist ninja’s hand and secured it in his own hand.  Fenrir would hit the ground tumbling while Allegro fixed his posture to stand upright and stare at the scroll with the intricate patterns decorated on it and the wax parchment seal molded in the the shape of a serpent that kept the scroll sealed closed. 

He did not waste any time at all before ripping the seal away cleanly with a single senbon needle that he used as a letter opener. He unraveled the scroll with both hands and set it down gently on the ground, next to the snakes. He did not pay them any mind, expecting them to honor their bet now that Allegro had bested his sparring opponent. He looked carefully over the names that were already written in blood in columns. Of course, the latest signature was the boy just a few meters away dusting the dust from his clothes, or possible the blood from his mouth. The other names Allegro did not recognize, but the very first signature one stuck out to the boy for some reason. 

“Denkiteki. Who is he?”

Allegro took his headphones off and broke his silence to ask this question. It was open for anyone to answer, but Allegro expected a reply from the very snakes whom were previously bonded to the man (or woman). Judging from the age and maturity of the small low leveled snakes beside him, they were probably too young to know who he even was. He was counting on either Fenrir or the snakes to really know their history, so they could inform him of the history of the snake summoners. Allegro would wait for their reply, and then smile. Whether the answer was informative or not, he would think to himself and say ‘I see. So that’s how it is…’ Then, with the same senbon needle that he used to open the sealed scroll, he pricked his index finger and drew just enough blood to write with using his finger. He drew the kanji version of his name vertically down the column next to where Fenrir’s name had been written. All who would read from this scroll thereafter would read the latest summoner of the Snakes of Ryuchi cave to be none other than “Allegro”. Allegro paused for a moment. He did not feel any differently. Perhaps he was expecting some kind of weird sensation or weird out of body experience in which his soul would forever be bound to the snakes. There was no such experience, unfortunately.

The boy returned the scroll to the elderly snake and stood to his feet. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a shiny red apple. He had intended to eat it while resting under the shade of the tree before Fenrir came plummeting down from the treetops above. The apple was almost as red as the genie’s fiery hair. He tossed the red fruit, and it sailed smoothly towards Fenrir. It was a kind gesture of thanks for indulging his request. Finally, Allegro would turn his back to the lot and say.

“Until next time, Fenrir.”

The boy would vanish behind a flurry of leaves and wind. His leisure time had long since expired and he was due to resume his missions.

[Exit Thread]
[3848 TWC]
+19 Stats
Claiming Snakes of Ryūchi Cave Contract (Free)
C Rank Fuinjutsu Lock (2000/2000)
Remaining WC towards B Rank Fuinjutsu Lock (1848/3000)