Reconnecting with One's Roots

Mission Briefing:

Sitting in his office, the Mizukage was hard at work signing off on paperwork. Nowadays, there was less and less work for him to do as most major issues have cleared up and he only needed to take care of minor ones for the time being. Though it wasn't as much work as it was previously, it was still abundant in nature with how many requests and sign offs appear within a week. At least he was able to get them all done in a timely fashion this time around as there is much for him to do compared to in the past. Finishing up the work in front of him, the Mizukage exhaled in satisfaction at what he had currently accomplished before he set off to find something else to do to kill time. Getting up from his large blue couch chair, he began walking into the common room nearby in order to relax himself. Changing out of his Mizukage robes, he even decided he would leave his steam armor behind and let himself be able to relax for once. It was quite stressful playing the village leader for days on end with no rest in sight. Sometimes he wished to be able to quit and be left to his own devices but, who would he have been able to pass on the mantle too?

Thinking about this, Kizmaru decided this was his fate and he would continue to carry out his duty until he died one day. Giving a small depressing sigh, he felt as if he was too young to bear the burden of leadership from such a young age. Being only twenty five years old, people his age were enjoying life around the skyscraper village doing whatever they pleased as they frolicked. Well, as long as his citizens were happy that was all he could ask for. Laying down on a nearby bed, Kizmaru decided to relax himself and turn his thoughts elsewhere. lost in thought, he spent a good amount of time just lazing about until he heard a loud crash come from behind him in the kitchen part of the room. Yanking from his daydreaming, he turned over onto his stomach in order to peer into the kitchen to see what caused that racket. Scanning the area, he saw a couple of pots and pans sitting on the floor with an open cupboard right above it. Peering above it, he saw a familiar creature searching through the cupboards looking for something to put in its mouth. Letting out another sigh of relief, he saw it was his animal companion, Ram, just doing his thing as per usual.

Rolling his eyes, Kizmaru decided to turn back on his back figuring he'd deal with this mess at a later point in time. He would also feed Ram at the appropriate time as well. It wasn't lunchtime for either of them but he'd make sure to feed Ram his fill before grabbing something else for himself. Resting for another hour or so, Kizmaru decided it was time for him to drag himself out of the bed and get back to pretending to be somebody he was not. Now that he thought deeply about it, he doesn't even remember the reason why he hid his identity anymore. It was something about originating from Konoha and he didn't want his background history to come to light for archaic reasons long passed. He felt a little silly hiding his heritage when he knew even if he were to come out now as a Senju instead of a Terumi, he'd doubt anybody would bat an eye or care. Unfortunately, he's been keeping this game up for so long it was too ingrained into his body to stop with the charade now. Either way, it was time for him to do what he had planned to and proceed to get up from out of the bed. Putting back on his armor, Kizmaru continued to have thoughts about his clan even after the fact. 

Walking over to the kitchen area to where his animal companion, Ram, was still making a mess, he picked up his friend and placed him down on the ground and told him to behave while he cleans up. Ram nodded, placing one of his near the opening of his shell in order to wait for Kizmaru to get the food ready for the both of them. Deciding to make some large filling, Kizmaru began to get the ingredients in order to make a large pot of curry for him and his buddy. Preparing and cooking the dish didn't take any longer than thirty minutes to finish and let cool down a bit before serving the two of them. He was no master chef but at least he could do something as simple as this to feed himself. His wife mostly did the cooking and he very much enjoyed it as he didn't have a lot of variety of dishes under his belt. She was also the one that taught him how to cook the things he knew how to so he didn't starve himself or order takeout everyday. Not only that, but it wasn't healthy for him either. Chuckling to himself, he ate and thought about other potential things his wife would scold him for.

Recalling correctly, she was of Yuki descent which means she could manifest Ice natured chakra if she so desired. She wasn't much of a combatant so once she graduated the academy and became a genin, she had decided to take she would just reside at home and take care of things for him there, even if he wasn't home often himself. He figured he'd make more regular trips back home if he could help it himself. For now, he'd finish his meal as he served Ram seconds and eventually thirds when asked for it. The good thing about having an animal companion that was always hungry was food didn't often go to waste, which made him chuckle to himself. Now that he was well fed, he decided to go and do something in the way of exercise. Come to think of it, he still wanted to know more of what it was like being a Senju. he was very young when he left the village and so he didn't know much about his heritage although, Konoha had no place in his heart anymore. he couldn't do anything about that yearning at the moment so he decided he would take some kind of mission in order to clear his mind of thoughts like that. 

Now that everything was said and done, he decided he would take a mission to clear his mind. nothing to steep with danger but still dangerous nonetheless. of course, he couldn't just casually go on an A-rank mission or he'd be swarmed by his bodyguards in no time, attempting to accompany him for wherever he went. Deciding that was a hassle, he figured he'd be just fine with his armor and just decided he would put that on. Still, he transformed himself into himself but without the armor being visible with the basic transformation technique and prepared to ;eave his office. turning to his animal companion Ram, he wondered his buddy would tag along for the ride too. Unfortunately, it seems Ram was yawning ever so slightly meaning it was almost time for him to take his own nap for the time being. giving a small chuckle, he decided to rule him out and just venture to the mission board himself to take whatever tickled his fancy at the time. He was particularly reserved today as he didn't mind taking whatever interesting came his way regardless of his rank. Making his way down the hallway, down a stairwell to the lobbying area, Kizmaru made his assistant doing their own typical paperwork. 

Giving them a smile and a nod, Kizmaru approached them and proclaimed, Kizmaru Senju the Jounin would like to take a mission of high interest. The assistant gave him an odd look, attempting to convey the message that he doesn't have to do this every time before shifting through their portable laptop to find some work for the 'Jounin' in front of them. Eventually, the assistant pulled up a job for him to do. Apparently at the borders of Kiri, some ruin's entrance had surfaced recently with the Senju clan's symbol on the entrance. The assistant informed him this has been here for months and they had been meaning to inform him but other things had been coming up. Narrowing his eyes, Kizmaru had been a bit annoyed he didn't learn of this sooner but he was glad it popped up now when curiosity of his clan had surfaced. Better late than never he supposed. Deciding he'd take it, Kizmaru set out to his destination. Leaving the Kage's Estate, he decided to head to the gates of Kirigakure in order to leave the town for the time being to search for the ruins his assistant had told him about. Passing through the gates, he saw his gatekeeper sitting in his booth in typical fashion looking at a magazine. Shaking his head in disapproval, he continued through the gates without checking in with him. 

He figured when he returned, he scolded him a bit later but he knew he could never remove him from his post as when things got to their climax, he was normally toughing it out just fine. He's always got the feeling that particular anbu didn't really get along with him but that didn't matter, all he really wanted was his compliance. Well, he'd think about all of that later, for now, he'd continue onwards to his destination. It took him some time to get there as he was traveling on foot there until he arrived. the setting of where the ruins were, is similar to where he took certain individuals. There was a cliff nearby where he was supposed to go, more specifically the entrance was on the cliffside. It means he would have to scale the side of the mountain in order to get inside in general. Giving a sigh, he began to walk towards the cliffside anyway in order to begin his ascent from down below using the surface walking technique. Making it to the bottom of the cliff, Kizmaru began to tread lightly on some jagged, slippery, moss covered rocks. He already deduced a slip up while climbing up the cliff would mean his end.

He wasn't worded as he was quite confident in his level of control. Always has been for a few years now. there were definitely people far superior in controlling their chakra than he was but he still considered himself pretty high up there as a contender. Done with making comparisons and reassuring himself of his skill, Kizmaru began to send chakra to his feet in order to begin his treacherous climb up the mountainside. Walking up right alongside the mountain, Kizmaru began his journey towards the entrance of the cavern ruins to begin his mission. Making it to the entrance of the ruins, it seems the mission briefing had been correct on the door having a Senju marking upon it. According to his briefing, there was no signs of an obvious entry into the ruins in order to see what could be lurking inside of them. Examining the walls and the door itself, he found no signs of being able to get in like some sort of mechanism or what not. Eventually, he had almost resorted to violence in order to get in. He touched the door itself to get a feel for how difficult it would be to break down the door and what kind of technique might do that trick but before he could get that information, the door's Senju symbol had lit up and opened itself. 

Quite puzzled, he looked at the hand he touched the door with before giving a slight shrug and entered into the cavern. The light from outside lit his way as he traversed deeper into the dungeon. As he continued going deeper, the light from the entrance began to dim, slowly losing sight of what was in front of him, literally. Eventually, he found an unlit torch he could use to light his way and lead himself further into the ruined cavern. He called it a cavern but that was because he lacked the correct term for it at the moment. Overall, it wasn't very important to him as he had to figure out how to get through the series of twists and turns. Taking another step inside, he could immediately see a podium and two rows of long, wooden chairs. Placing his hands into his pockets, he turned his head to look from left to right. Other than the eerie sight of what looks like a religious group of Senju were previously inhabiting the area. Walking to the center of the room, he found a trap door in the middle of the room where the lock was broken. It seems people were in here before him and he may or may not have to fight for what he's potentially looking for, if there was anything worth looking for. Well, there's nothing left to do but continue to delve deeper in order to reach his objective.

Walking down the flight of stairs, Kizmaru had then walked in front of a set of double doors. From the big doors in Depths, he made his way to the left side of the gargantuan hole to find a ladder, followed by some more ladders. At the bottom, a club-wielding Barbarian would welcome him, appropriately. Kizmaru made short work of the bandit by giving it a swift kick to the chest. He then climbed back up another ladder to deal with a second barbarian enemy. Before proceeding, he noticed a lower level to the right with kiri shinobi dropouts and deserters hanging out below. When they spotted him, he ran towards a ladder at the far back to the right that allowed them to come get him. Keeping to the left for the time being, to avoid getting spotted by them, he waited until the three of them ran by him. He didn't know this many potential dangers were down here and as much as he'd like to exterminate them all, he couldn't risk being swarmed and overwhelmed. Getting out of his hiding spot, he continued onward. Once the bandits were gone, Kizmaru proceeded to encounter one more of those barbarians, then two more after that he had to dispatch. Once they're dealt with, he advances to the ladder and takes out a bowman that was stationed as a sentry.

Heading back up to the overhead structure and continuing onward, Kizmaru had located two small bridges. The first one on his right is a wobbly bridge that will sway from side-to-side as he crosses it, there are a few of these in the upper parts of this blight of a desert town. A general rule of thumb for crossing weak bridges like these is to stand still when they started moving. The other bridge just after the first leads to the same area, however this bridge is stationary. If he continued to the left, on a platform he was currently on, he saw a corpse with an item on a lower platform across a gap; the item is a weapon of some sort and the jump provides a quick way to the destination he was heading in, but the risk at this point is too high. On his right, he noticed a swordsman with its back towards him standing near a ledge. Slowly creeping up on it, he delivered a swift kick to the humanoid figure as it fell over, emitting a high pitched scream. After he dealt with it, he would then proceed to cross the stationary bridge noted earlier and made his way down a ladder. To his right, he saw another corpse at the bottom of a short drop; dropping down caused him to fall through the floor to a lower level. 

So he used some nearby ramps on the left that lead down to find a nameless shinobi decaying peacefully. Turning around to continue, he discovered another narrow walkway ahead leading to two more bandit barbarians on the right. The first one is trapped in a vase and the other is at the end of the platform with it's back turned to him, as most enemies, he dealt with them right away unless thought otherwise. Making his way down the ladder, to the left of the walkway, he continued leftwards to find makeshift campsite. Continuing past the campfire to find a descending ladder, at the end of the path, with two more bandits waiting down below for something. Dispatching them swiftly, he proceeds under the platform to find three blooming, purple moss clumps, on a suspended walkway. Heading up a ramp and continuing to the left over another wobbly bridge, he took the ramp on the left to confront two shinobi dogs. The stench was almost too much for Kizmaru to handle with his sense of smell. Once he made it to the bottom of the short ramp, he turned and went around the ramp to find a narrow path just to his left, following it to find nothing of interest. 

Backtracking to an area he was in before, he noticed a beam sticking out of the edge that he could potentially use to jump across to a different platform. Heading towards his left and up the ladder he initially came from, where the bandit was trapped in a vase. At the end of this platform, he dropped down to one below on the right. Heading back around, he dropped down next to a big torch. There was another bowman on the far right of him and flaming dogs on a brick bridge. Kizmaru began to lure the dogs and the hound master away from the line of sight of the bowman, and dispatched them before running across the bridge and turning right into the wooden platform where he was confronted by two more dogs. Kizmaru kept progressing until he saw a large, parasitic creature below to his right and take the ladder down. This made him cringe a bit but he had a job to do. There was another ladder in front of him, which made him give an audible sigh as he's done nothing but traverse ladders for most of his time down here.

At the bottom, another bandit started to climb up at some point, so he was ready to strike if the situation called for it as soon as it finished climbing the ladder, Kizmaru had simply kicked it off of the ledge when it was trying to maintain its balance while standing up. He then took the ladder it was climbing, on the right and dispatched another barbarian that was hiding down there with some throwing weapons. Continuing along the path, he ended up by the end of a wooden walkway. Making his way back up the ladder, he took the other ladder down this time and found a ramp heading down that leads to a ladder on the right, which took him up to find the bowman from earlier when he lured the dogs and the hound master away. Watching out for more bandits, he followed the path to a cave where he found another barbarian inside. Another ladder led him to the backside of the parasitic creature he found earlier, where it is vulnerable. After killing it, he dropped down to find a shinobi corpse. Heading to the left, down a ramp, there is a barbarian in the cave to the left. He disposed of it within seconds as another barbarian lurked, not too far behind it. Making his way to the end and down the ladder to find a gate. Behind the gate, he could see a very large swamp with very large, thick trees growing out of it. 

At the far end of the swamp, Kizmaru could spot a shiny object in the distance as he gazed over the swamp. He couldn't quite tell what it was but he could tell it was a jewel of some kind. Looking around, Kizmaru decided to scout out if there were any obvious traps that might be lurking around. He didn't really see anything that would be out of the ordinary for a swamp, not that he was an expert or anything like that. Well, there was nothing left to do but continue on his way and deal with anything that might come his way. Channeling his chakra to his feet, he began to walk on the surface of the swamp water towards the shiny object in the distance. At first nothing impeded his advance towards the object but eventually, it felt like something was straining his chakra. All he had on currently was his Sharingan and the surface walking technique. Looking down, he saw something that disturbed him mildly. There were living roots swirling around the swamp that were actively draining his chakra as he stood on it, feeding on it and expanding before it eventually tried to directly consume him.

Wasting no time, Kizmaru decided it was best for him to power through it instead of heading back as he already came this far. Activating his armor's mobile capabilities, Kizmaru jumped into the air around ten meters over the swamp water and began to hover briefly, dashing towards the shiny object instead. It was a clever trap left by his Senju predecessors but luckily, he had the tools necessary in order to get through this kind of situation. Eventually, he landed onto the soil where he saw the shiny trinket in the distance. He couldn't make out what it was before but now that he was up close, he saw it was a necklace of some kind. A green emerald laced with gold chain. It looks pretty but he was more interested in what it does mechanically if people went through all the trouble to guard it with traps, having bandit camps come searching for it and even buried it underground. Taking the strange necklace, he'd shove it in his armor for safekeeping before finding a way to get out of this swampy ruin. He figured it'd be easier to go back up than it was to go down as he could jump up most of the ladders and the large gaps. 

Seeing no other way, he decided he'd have to traverse the path backwards in order to escape the underground ruins. Backtracking the way he came, it was a lot faster returning with his armor's mobility capabilities as he already memorized most of the twists and turns he had traversed, as well as some key points he took note of like corpses and bandits hew slew. Making it back to the entrance with the green necklace in his inventory, he proceeded to walk back towards his village before handing off the artifact to a group of researchers that may or may not be able to figure out the unique properties of this piece of jewelry. For now, he'd return to the Kage's estate in order to turn in the mission for his payment. He was supposed to formally turn in his findings as well but seeing as he was the Mizukage in disguise, he preferred to skip the entire process and proceed straight to the results. Returning to his office, he sat back down in his chair, double checking to see if he was in the right attire for doing so. He didn't want somebody to come in and either think he was an intruder or somebody figuring out his true identity, regardless, he took the appropriate measures in order to continue to conceal who he was in the end. Patiently, he waited for the results of the test's results to get back to him. Maybe he could use the new trinket for his own personal gain. 

T.W.C: 4,016

Loot Claims
Claiming 6,000 Ryo + 1,500 Ryo from wages, 15 AP

Ability Claims
Using 1,875 words into learning Lava Globs
Using 1,875 words into learning Melting Apparition

Approved. Kiz voluntarily discarding unused words.