Reconnecting With My Clan [Mission, P]

Spoiler:

Keita had been studying his clan's history and background for quite some time, and now, when pouring through ancient texts that he had gotten from various sources, including old merchant vessels that could not read the coded messages to finding them on his travels, Keita had discovered that there was some sort of heritage site of the Uzumaki clan here in the borders of water country. He was ecstatic when he heard about this, and decided that he was going to go ahead and travel to the heritage site and explore. he was going to make sure that he walked through the entire area to see if he could uncover any of the lost secrets of the Uzumaki, and make sure that when he left that area, there were no more secrets that would be able to be hidden from him about the Uzumaki. At least, that was the hope, as he did not have any family members here, and with tensions rising between them and Konoha, where his clan had a long history inside of, he could not really ask any elder of the clan about what was going on, they were far too scattered and isolated for him to be able to come into contact with for information. He had to do it on his own, as he expected, but this was something that he could still do, as he was a scholar at heart, and so he was definitely interested into going into ancient sites and exploring, as he had always wished to become an archeologist if he did not become a ninja, but fate had a bit of a different plan for him, so now he could have some fun with a small child like dream of his and get some closer at the same time. Keita walked around his house, preparing everything he needed. He always had a large amount of food and water sealed inside his armor, and so he was fine with all of that, he would definitely survive if he were to be put in the wilderness, so this was nothing to be worried about. 

This was going to be a journey that was going to be fairly short anyways, as it was just at the borders, so there was nothing that he really needed to prepare, but he was slightly nervous in his mind, as he was going to be able to study the techniques and the lives of his ancestors, even if it was only for a moment. After the nerves had subsided, Keita made sure to put on his best poker face so that no one would know that something was going on with him, before applying for a leave of absence from the village. With his jounin status, this was not really needed at the end of the day, but he still felt the need to do it for clarity's sake, and so that everyone in the office knew that he would be gone for a couple of days, and where he was should he not return in time, if the worst came to pass. still, Keita got approved instantly, and it was rather strange for a jounin of the village to request a leave of absence when something such as war was on the horizon, but he was confident that he as going to come back alive, and in a few days, so there was nothing to be afraid of if he simply left for a little while. Keita greeted people, and there were quite a few students that followed him from the administration office to see him off on his journey, which was not only unexpected, but heart warming as well, so this was something that felt completely great inside, so Keita was happy that he was so well loved in the village. With light and airy steps, and a focused heart and mind, Keita left the entrance of the village and headed off to the borders. Although he would be much slower if he hired a carriage, he would be much more at ease and save a lot of chakra that way, as well as stamina, so he decided that he was going to hire a carriage at least until the half way point to his destination, which did not have precise coordinates to, but he had a general area, and he hoped that he would be able to see the signs easily since he was a clan member if he got close enough and searched the area for a while. 

As Keita sat on his newly hired carriage, the old driver up front chatted with him about interesting things he had seen in the recent weeks, and most ninja would not have even chatted with him, he decided to do so, as Keita was always warm and helpful to people, and would always find new things to chat with them about. They chatted about the weather, which was mostly the same, the wildlife, as Keita had recently done a mission where he had seen all sorts of fish, and then Keita chatted to the old man about his trip to the village hidden in the sand, and how he had seen a couple of desert creatur4es that he had never seen before, although it was only two of them, he felt that it was special. After a long time chatting, it seemed that a couple of hours had already passed, and it was time for Keita to continue the rest of his journey on foot, and so he made his way off of the carriage before bidding farewell to the old man that was driving it, and looked around him. He was in a forest that connected to an atoll, and this forest was more on the tropical side than most forests, as there were many colorful birds and other wild life that one would not see anywhere that was connected to a mainland here, and they were all vibrant and beautiful, as well as deadly. Most of the things that Keita saw were poisonous, and so he would make sure to steer clear of them for the time being, as he was not quite skilled in medical techniques as of yet, so there was a definite threat that he could go down and be in serious trouble should he be poisoned or envenomed right now, and he liked to look at things from afar anyway. Keita continued walking while taking out a calligraphy brush and a sheet of parchment and practicing his calligraphy, as he always did when he had some free time, and the result were pretty good, although Keita was his own worst critic, and did not really like what he had created. 

He never threw the ones that he did not like out, however, as they served as a reminder that he was still improving, and they were still works that he put his mind and soul into, so there was no reason to simply throw them away. When worst came to worst, he could always give them away as gifts to a couple of people he knew would appreciate them for what they were, and ones that were a less harsh critic about it than he was, so there was always that option. Keita walked for a couple of hours, before coming to a stream. This led directly to the ocean should one follow it, but this was a map marker that Keita could use to find this heritage site, and he knew that he was getting closer and closer to his goal of exploring something that once belonged to the ancient Uzumaki clan, which made him more and more excited. this thought invigorated him, and even though he was tired before, he was no longer tired, and made his way towards the so called site before it was night fall. The sun was going down rapidly, and although it would not hinder his trained vision much, it was still detrimental for him to travel when it was dark, as the predators of the islands would come out at this time to hunt, and some of them were particularly nasty, so he decided that he would camp out for the night, as it was getting into the later stages of the evening. He found a couple of sturdy trees right next to each other and walked up them using the surface walking technique, before unsealing a hammock he had in his armor and tying it to some stakes he had stabbed into the tree. This was sturdy enough to hold his body weight up, at least for the time it took him to sleep, and he would be protected from the dangerous things on the floor, which was mostly poisonous insects that crawled around through the soil at night. With this in mind, he drifted off to sleep, although being a shinobi, he was an incredibly light sleeper, and was sleeping with part of his brain still active so that he would not get attacked stealthily during the night.

The sounds of the night of the tropical forest did not deter Keita from sleeping, as he was used to harsh stays out whenever he did missions, and so he was well rested when the sun started to peak its head out from the horizon, and Keita was happy to see it. The air was crisp and cold, and he was ready to start the day by heading straight to the heritage site and study it. He collected his materials before sealing them back into his robe, and thus was the end of his first night out here in the wilderness, before he happily jumped from tree to tree towards his destination, which seemed a lot faster and safer comparatively, as there were still quite a few predators and other such nasty things that would hunt at dawn, so he still kept his vigilance when traveling. Keita made it to a large clearing, where the stream opened up into a small lake, or a large pond, depending on who was there observing it, and this lake was at the bottom of a small waterfall, which looked very beautiful. At this lake there was a cliff wall that was next to the waterfall that seemed to be covered in a massive amount of vines and moss, and this was where the heritage site was supposed to be. Keita decided to adamantly look around for as long as he could before leaving, so he was fairly serious in his attempt to uncover the whereabouts of this particular site. As he looked the first thought was that there were instructions somewhere on how to get to the heritage site, and the first thing he did was start using a kunai to scrape the moss and cut the vines off of the cliff wall he saw, and lo and behold, there were actually symbols on the wall, detailing some sort of fuuinjutsu seal, which one would have to decode. This special method was something only the Uzumaki clan could utilize, so Keita was already somewhat familiar with it, and started decoding it straight away.

The intricate lines and strange symbols each held a deeper meaning when infused with chakra, although the one on the wall was not real, it could still hide messages, and if one were to actually put chakra through it, Keita would know that it would do either nothing, or that it would destroy itself, preventing others from seeing this location when they should not. Keita studied this thing for a few hours, before realizing that it was incomplete. There was someth88ing missing from the symbols of the seal that had to be filled in, and once they were, this would be a fully functioning seal. this was something related to space time, which Keita was not versed in, although that did not matter, and there seemed to be something missing that only related to fuuinjutsu. The majority of the seal was already done by whoever was here before him, and he slowly learned that when he completed the seal and used it by putting chakra through it, it would then use the space time technique embedded within itself to teleport him to the heritage site. There was also a self destructive line of symbols inside of it, which would suggest that it could only be used once, and would destroy itself after it was used. There was also some sort of timer on it as well, which meant that he would be teleported out of the site after a certain time had passed, and then the seal would destroy itself, forever sealing the heritage site within, so that no one could access this particular one ever again, unless they were a high level space time user, then that might be possible, Keita mused, before getting straight to work on testing a few separate methods of filling in the broken pieces of the seal. Keita tried lots of different methods, and some of them were simply to test the other parts of the seal, he did not think that they would work, but they gave him an incredible understanding of the seal after some testing.

Soon, it seemed that Keita was far too enthusiastic about the job at hand, and he noticed that it was getting quite dark again, and another day had almost passed. When Keita figured that out, he was a bit shocked, as he had not been engrossed in a topic as thoroughly as he was today since he had discovered his love for calligraphy about ten years prior to this, so he was a bit confused. Still, he noticed that his hand was slightly aching from all of the drawing that he had done with his symbols and seals, and looked at the paper that was littered and scattered all around the ground in front of the seal on the cliff face, each with different shapes, sizes, and symbols within them. Keita was still unsure as to which of his designs were close to the truth of the matter and when he was going to fix it, but he was sure he was on the right track, and he was going to figure it out and get into the heritage site by tomorrow, and Keita was quite confident in that. Keita did his usual thing when he decided that he was going to sleep for the night, which was to climb a tree that was really close to another tree, stakes both of them before tying a hammock to it so that he could sleep soundly. As he was lying in the hammock, he was gently swaying in the breeze, and he had a fancy blanket over his body and was actually quite warm. The rocking back and forth of the breeze actually helped lull him into sleep, and it was a very calm and nice night, with nothing but the sounds of the waterfall behind him that was there, as it seemed the animals were warded against this area and did not even come to hunt in this area, so it was extremely calming to be here, like a small paradise. Another night came and went in this jungle, and thus Keita was going to be gone for a full three days, as he did not think that the heritage site would be guarded by such a complicated sigil. Still, it gave him a great sense of accomplishment and yearning to enter the site when he was working, so it was not all bad. 

Keita continued his hard work, the ground littered with a large number of pieces of paper that had seals on them, but soon, Keita stopped in his tracks. It seemed that something happened within his mind, he sort of had an epiphany, and there was something that clicked in his head, but to test his theory that he had just created on the spot would require him to test something else many times, and this was a special extra formula that he could place on the already constructed seals that would boost their capacity somewhat. Slowly but surely, the pieces of paper on the ground were whittled down over the course of a few hours as they were tested, leaving only a couple of seals left before the large seal on the cliff seemed to glow with a faint light. Keita almost did not notice it in the light of the after noon sun, but he caught it when he was about to test another seal formula. Keita figured it out, finally, and was overjoyed, almost jumping around like a small boy. He refrained and restrained himself, however, before feeding his unique Uzumaki chakra into the seal on the wall, and then suddenly, his mind went blank as the special pulling and stretching feeling that came from being teleported from space time jutsu washed over him. He was especially disoriented, as would anyone be that were not used to such techniques, and he soon found himself standing in a fairly small hall. There were a couple of book in a tattered old book shelf, and a seemingly innocuous old staff that was propped up against a desk. This seemed like a scholarly place of study, but the amount of books did not seem to match the description. Keita imagined some celestial spot that was above his understanding, somewhere some immortal saint of the Uzumaki clan would write away the findings of his last years, but alas, all he saw was a dilapidated old room with a stick in it and a couple books. 

Although his concept and dream was shattered, the thought that he could read the words of an ancient one of his clan reinvigorated his enthusiasm, and he knew that he only had a small amount of time in this place according to the seal that he had deciphered. As he perused through the books, he attempted top take one and seal it into his cloak armor, but that failed, and he realized he could not seal anything in this room into his cloak, they were all protected by a layer of space time and fuuinjutsu that he could not see, nor could he break it. That was, until he got to the staff. It was a fairly unassuming staff that could be found anywhere, although it seemed to be made out of a special wood that Keita could not recognize, and it was covered in engravings that seemed to have a familiarity to him that he could not put his finger on. He ignored it, as he could actually take the staff out of this place, which meant it was some cultural item, and so he could study whenever he wanted to when he got back to his village, so that was not the important thing for now. the important thing was to read through all of the books and study the things that he could not bring out of here, so that was his plan, and he got to work immediately. Reading the books, there was something about the life of the old Uzumaki clan member that had written the books, and he had said that he went on the path of the pure Uzumaki, focusing on seals, medical techniques, and the greater functions of space and time. Alas, he had spent too much of his time studying seals, and thus could not come to a solution for a jutsu that would allow him to be ageless, as his foundations in space time were much more shallow than his foundation in fuuinjutsu seals. Although he prolonged his life as much as he could, without strange and forbidden techniques, he could live no longer, and he refused. 

Thus he left these records for any of the clan that wanted them and could figure out his seal, however, most of these ramblings in the pages were not special Uzumaki techniques, nor were they the secrets of space time, just a collection of things and a memoir of an old man that did not want to be forgotten by his clan members at the end of his life. There was a melancholic feeling that rose in Keita's chest, and he sat there in the room, contemplating, before paying his respects to the old man. Keita sensed a slight fluctuation in the space of the area, so he knew that he was about to be cast out of this place, and so he walked up to the desk, and quickly pulled out his calligraphy brush. He was absolutely sure that this person was dead, and that there was no way that this person would know what he was doing, but Keita was determined to put forth a small token of remembrance for this old man that was seemingly all alone, and that forfeited his youth searching for something he was never destined to find. Keita quietly wrote the words on the desk. "Uzumaki Saratu. I, Uzumaki Keita, remember you." This was written on the desk in the most beautiful calligraphy that Keita could must at the time, followed by the kanji for 'eternal'. This was the last thing that Keita could do for the old man that was no longer with this world, and it seemed that something was lifted off his shoulders as he paid remembrance to a man he had never met. Keita was then suddenly back outside, and it seemed that it was still in the early parts of the afternoon, as if time had stood still while he was in that place, and Keita looked a bit aggrieved. He had gotten quite a bit on this trip, although it was something he never thought he would receive, and it was a reminder that time waits for no man, and he had to make the most of his. 

"Maybe next time I will not take the carriage." Keita chuckled to himself under his breath, before starting the trip back to the mist village. He was going to hurry, as he was never going to feel like he was wasting another moment in his life, after this intense realization. Keita was then jogging back to the village, and although he was fast, he was not quite fast enough, and would get there in the dead of night, but decided that he was definitely going to just bite the bullet and head into the village at his fast speed, as he was confident in his armor protecting him from at least the fangs and the skin of all of these deadly creatures that he might run into, so that he would not have to deal with poison regardless. He was traveling quite quickly now, as he decided that he no longer had any time to waste, and he would be done in this place. He had gotten what he wanted, and then soon made his way to the borders of the mist village, where he started to see the farmers and other people that were working, and they all nodded to him. This made him worry about the old villagers that he interacted with on a daily basis, as they too would soon be gone to the sands of time, and he would never talk to them again. this lesson would engrave itself on Keita heart, and there would definitely come a day when he was a lot stronger for this lesson. He made his way into the village, and swiftly made his way towards the administration building to confirm that he was back in the village, and that he was going to be here for the time being. The people here were somewhat surprised that he was late, as Keita had never been late in his life, but there was something that made them a little less surprised, as it was something that might have been uncontrollable. He was done with this current mission, so he was now going to make his way to his favorite noodle spot and relax a bit after his long journey. Well, it was long to him comparatively, because usually he would only be out of the village for less than a day. He was still mentally more fatigued that he was when he had to go and visit the sand village for the kage summit. As Keita sat there with his bowl of noodles, he slowly sipped the warm broth, as was customary to do so with any new ramen that you had received, and as he did so, he reminisced about what he had seen yesterday. The old man's memoirs could not be taken out of the area, and even now, Keita thought that was might not remember all of the words in the book, almost no one could, and so eventually he too, would be lost, but Keita thought that he was going to spread his Uzumaki elder's name around the village, and tell stories about him, so that he would not be lost, at least not in his life time.

EXIT
WC: 4179
Claiming 6500 Ryo from mission and jounin
Claiming right to make special Clan Artifact
Claiming B rank Electromagnetic Murder with 1125 words (1500 words with 25% discount)
Claiming B rank Wind Release: Jump Technique with 1125 words  (1500 with discount)
Claiming A rank Ninjutsu Amplifier with 1875 words (2500 with discount)
 Total 4125 words used

Approved.