Jewel of the North [P][Holiday Mission]

Jewel of the North - Mission being completed

Keita once again found himself in the iron country, although he was not really aware of where he was, it was a similar experience and environment as it was the last time he suddenly appeared here from the sand village that he was in not just moments ago. Or perhaps he was asleep when he was transported over, he was unsure, as the memory was a bit fuzzy, and all he could think about was the mission that had popped up into his head. It seemed that there were going to be more of these so called 'missions' from the Hollykage, but Keita was not the one complaining very much, as there was always something interesting to see on one of these trips, and they were usually pretty relaxing and not very stressful, and they would even get a reward after the whole thing, so in fact, Keita actually started to look forward to these little outings. Keita got the rest of the fog out of his head, and noticed that he was in an unfamiliar place yet again, and he looked around, looking for his friend that was usually transported with him on these excursions, Kizmaru. Keita wanted to make sure that he was not alone for this one.

WC: 210

Another day, another weird task he had to undergo and Kizmaru was not pleased. He wasn't sure what was going on but at this point he wouldn't question it anymore and just roll with the punches. Wearing his dark red steam armor without his robes, Kizmaru looked around to see if he could tell where he was transported this time around. Looking around, it seems he was back in that unfamiliar land where they had hunted animal groves and the like. he wasn't sure if this was an area in the shinobi world or a different dimension but if it wasn't, he'd like to come back here normally and see what was going as to why he kept getting summoned here. For now, he'd put that aside and looking round to see if his partner partner, Keita was here as well. that was a relief at least as he didn't want to go this alone, providing they had the same goal in their head. Most likely they would since they're here together. For now he'd ponder what course of action they should take unless Keita had some idea of what they should be doing at this exact moment as currently, he didn't have any ideas on to where their objective might be.

W.C: 212

Keita looked around at the rocky terrain this time, and noticed that it was cold, but it was not covered in snow like the last time they had been transported somewhere, so Keita felt that they could muddle through without any protection, at least against the cold, on this particular mission. Keita was glad when he saw Kizmaru, enough to where he even let out a sigh of relief when he saw him, and then made sure to give him a nod before looking around. They seemed to be in some sort of rocky valley, and the way that they had been transported here would suggest that they needed to go towards the cliff face that they were looking at when they showed up. At the cliff was some sort of ravine, an place between two cliffs that they could leisurely walk side by side through without squeezing through it, so it seemed to be some sort of path. The strange words in his head had told him that the two of them would be looking for some stone inside of some sort of room that might have traps or something, but this required them to look at the place when it was shrouded in moonlight. This was fairly vague, although it was going to be simple to wait about an hour or so until the moon was actually shining in the sky before heading off. Keita made sure to inform Kizmaru of all this, although he thought that the mysterious entity that teleported them here would have informed Kizmaru as well, he was not so sure.

WC: 267

It seems like it was another cold place they were transported to but nothing he couldn't shrug off. Maybe if it got colder he'd turn on the furnace in his armor again but for now, he'd just ignore it, being the leader of a relatively, cold place. Taking note of his sigh of relief, Kizmaru also smiled as the feeling was mutual before they turned to the task at hand. Being in another rocky area, he made note that there wasn't any snow this time around to hinder their progress too much. From what he had from the disembodied voice that keeps telling the pair to do things, they were supposed to find a cave where a rare jewel resides, locating its whereabouts as the quest. He wasn't sure if they were to retrieve it or to just find and look at it but that's what they would do if they happened upon it. Being transported near a ravine, it seems their option was to head down there and check out what their surroundings look like. before he could head over to climb down, Keita had informed him there might have been traps in the rea they were bout to search. Kizmaru nodded before attempting to make his way down the side of the ravine.

W.C: 215

As Keita and Kizmaru made their way to the area that they were supposed to search, they could see that there was some sort of shrouded entrance to a cave ort something down the side of the ravine, meaning that they had to find a way to get down there without injury, and while this would stump a would be grave robber, it was of no consequence to shinobi like themselves, as Keita simply walked to the side of the ravine, activated his surface walking, and started to make his way down the side of the cliff face and towards the entrance to the so called cave. There was a mass of vines in the front of the area that partially shielded it from view, but one could find that the cave extended deep into the mountain, which seemed like the perfect spot that their challenge of finding this stone would be. This seemed quite cliché in a way, but that was fine with Keita, as he was most likely able to brute force his way through here, considering the entrance was only lightly obscured and not really hidden, taking no effort to find it for someone who decided to look for it. Keita made his way to9 the bottom of the cliff, and suddenly his feet were back on soft soil with grass as they were before that had been here, and he was now standing in front 0of the cave entrance that was covered in vines, and they could start their investigation whenever Kizmaru got down there with him.

WC: 261

Activating his surface walking technique, Kizmaru began to head down the ravine with Keita at his side.  Walking along the edge of the cliff, Kizmaru had traversed the side of the cliff, walking to his intended destination of the entrance he had saw at the top with his bodyguard until the reached the soft sil of dirt once more instead of the jagged rocky cliffs. This was no more than an inconvenience for the two of them as they were both fairly skilled shinobi in this regard.  It took a couple of moments or so to reach the entrance to the cave they had spotted from the top of the cliffside before they proceeded to enter the cavern to find the jewel of their eye. The entrance of the cavern was slightly covered in vines but nothing to inhibiting for the duo. Unsheathing his blade, Kizmaru began to swish and cut through the vines fairly easily in order to gain entrance to the cavern. Walking inside, it was fairly damp with murky water but that was it. Remaining vigilant, he could only hope the cave wasn't booby trap right from the get go. If anything, he should be fine with the heavy armor he wore from physical traps. 

W.C: 208

Keita watched as Kizmaru started cutting down the swaths of vines, and while he did that, Keita decided that he would look around the entrance for a short while, and collect quite a few rocks of different sizes and weights, so that he might be able to trigger some traps that relied on pressure or weight, should they come across something like that in the cave. Keita then followed Kizmaru through the cave entrance to find the inside very damp and relatively dark. Keita's senses were pretty good, but not enough to see in the dark, so he brought out a torch from his storage of his robe and lit it using a tinderbox, which shed a bright light around the area he was in. After walking a couple dozen feet into the cave, the light shone on a cave wall that seemed like some sort of mural art piece, depicting some ancient creature doing battle in the snow. Keita had no idea what this creature resembled, as he had not taken any studies that reminded him of what the creature could be, and while the letters and symbols around the large wall were intricate and ornate, the art of the creature left a lot to be desired. There was an inscription that read like a riddle near the bottom of the wall, and Keita made sure to point this out to Kizmaru as he held the light up closer to it. 

"Two men drink poisoned tea. The first man drinks his fast, and he lives. The second man sips his slowly, and dies."

This was the only inscription which was next to what appeared to be a small slot, as if telling the readers to put their answer here.

WC: 290

Finishing up with the vines that barred their path, Kizmaru gave a slight nod before sheathing his katana. He turned his head to see where Keita had gone briefly as he did so but figured he was just scoping out the surrounding area. He waited a bit for him to return before they proceeded into the cave entrance. Traversing through the cavern, it had gotten dark rather quickly as the light from the entrance immediately faded out with only just the two of them taking steps into the area. While it wasn't pitch black, it was still difficult to see through without some sufficient light. It seems as if Keita was one step ahead and pulled out a tinderbox to light their way. It was a pretty handing thing to have but he sort of wished they didn't have to partake in this activity in the first place. Still, they navigated their way through it and eventually they had come across something peculiar. There was some mural art on the walls depicting some kind of creature fighting something else in snow. Keita had directed Kizmaru's attention towards it initially but he couldn't really make out too much afterwards other than the picture. Looking at the riddle, Kizmaru began to squint at it as he read it. he wasn't sure what it means but maybe he'd be able to figure it out on his own, or Keita would. 

W.C: 237

After a couple of moments Keita used contemplating to himself about the riddle, something clicked in his mind, although he was unsure that it was the correct answer, but it made sense in his head. He would talk to Kizmaru about his findings for a little while, which was going to be ice. It would make sense that ice would melt slower inside of a cup than not, and then this would mean that the ice melted fairly slowly, releasing the poison throughout the drink if you drank it slowly, as the riddle had said. So, the answer seemed to be ice, but as Keita looked around, there did not seem to be any way to procure said ice and put it in the area that accepted the answer, which he assumed was the little slot under the riddle. Keita looked around once again, before asking Kizmaru if he had any way to make ice, since Keita had no idea the extent of his friends power at this point, and so he might have something related to the cooling down of things, and maybe they could make ice. After waiting for Kizmaru to say whether or not he could make ice, if he could not, then Keita would leave the cave, and notice that there was snow in a nearby mountain cap, which they were fairly close to, and wondered if snow would count. It was just powdered ice after all, and there should be some sort of logic in this, and so he would begin his trek towards that mountain to go and get the ice. He was fairly speedy in his strides, so he thought he could get there and back without too much of a hassle or wasting too much time.

WC: 294

Reading the riddle, it had stated, 'Two men drink poisoned tea. The first man drinks his fast, and he lives. The second man sips his slowly, and dies.' He wasn't quite sure what this means nor did it make much sense to him. If both the drinks were poison, why wouldn't both of the men have died, regardless of how fast they drank it or not. It was truly puzzling to him. As he thought about it, Keita seems to have come up with answer of some kind and began to discuss it with him. According to Keita he believes the answer to be ice and asked him if he was capable of producing some. Kizmaru could control and manipulate a lot of elements but unfortunately, Ice wasn't one of them. Maybe he could acquire some DNA that would allow him to at a later point in time but at this current moment, he could not. After the brief conversation Keita had backtracked the way he came in order to find some ice or something that could serve as a substitute for Ice. He knew it was cold but he wasn't sure if he'd find any type of liquid that would be remotely freezing at this time. If he managed to find some then maybe they could proceed with their travel into the cave.

W.C: 224