Ghost Dive [Kita]

Snow Squall cuts quietly through the fog.

At first, Water Country had been an eerie place, full of tension. After a day's sailing since their arrival, the cold and lack of visibility has become merely obnoxious. They are a little ways away from where Murata has narrowed the location of Old Kirigakure proper, allowing for the possibility that during the sinking of the village it has slid or fractured in such a way that would make it more difficult to locate. They have not seen another boat in a good while.

Those aboard have taken to entertaining themselves, such as with card games, gambling, or in Murata's case deflecting wind bullets from one of her mission partners out into the fog while the captain frets over the sails.

"We're here."

The voice of the navigator cuts through the air, the young woman fussing over maps as she speaks. She clicks her tongue and shuffles the cross-referenced mess of papers Murata had provided her, second-guessing herself as the crew turn towards her with a skeptical air.

"Where on earth's 'here', then?" their hired captain murmurs. He is well aware that their quarry is underwater, and will not look like much from the surface. Murata agrees with his sentiment, however, as she gazes out over the fog. It's disconcerting to think that the placid, chilly waters here once housed a vibrant nation that is now gone, lying silent, deep beneath them.

"Shall we get this show on the road?" Murata says to Kita, presumably nearby, cracking her knuckles. They should be located over what was once the beating heart of Old Kirigakure. Murata jumps down from where she'd been perched along the edge of the ship and steps to an anchor they'd brought along - curiously bereft of any kind of rope or chain - and forms the Dog handseal before pressing her hand to it. For just a moment, Kita can see the small blue dot of Murata's mark seal blazing on its surface, before it fades to black and then vanishes from sight altogether.

Murata lifts the anchor up with a grunt and throws it out into the mist. It lands with a mighty splash, and then there is silence.

Now, to wait.

[371]

Mark Seal applied to an anchor, which will now sink to its new home at the bottom of the ocean in the Ruins of Kirigakure. (758 AP - 5 AP = 753/758 AP)

Kita fired off the last of his air bullets, which Murata promptly deflected with a twirl of her blade. Kita grinned at the sight, and pulled his own blade from its scabbard, twirling it around in the same manner that Murata had just demonstrated.

"Thanks! This'll definitely come in handy. If I can't dodge attacks in the exams, this should be more than enough to cover me."

The navigator interrupted almost immediately after, proclaiming that the squad of ninja had arrived at their destination. With raised eyebrows Kita examined the mist around himself and the crew. Maybe they'd gotten lost? Murata seemed confident that they were still in the right location, and she had developed some incredible sensory prowess last Kita had heard.

"I'm ready. Just give me half a second to take care of a little chore I have to do."

Kita himself walked over to where Bobo was sitting at the bow, reading some sort of teen romance novel that he had somehow managed to smuggle from somewhere. How he got ahold of it was beyond Kita. He certainly didn't bring it on board, but none of the crewmates were exactly clamoring to take it back, so Kita was content to let the issue lie.

"Bobo, come on. We're going."

The simian groaned profusely at that. He dog eared the page that he was reading and closed the book before setting it to the side.

"I was just getting to the good part too. This blows..."

Kita chuckled.

"You can read your book later. Unfortunately for you, this just so happens to be important. Hop on my back and we'll get going."

Bobo reluctantly jumped onto the young shinobi's back, grumbling all the way.

"I go through all the effort to steal this thing, and it'll probably be gone when I get back. Life's so unfair."

The two come back just in time to see Murata apply her seal onto the anchor and toss it into the water. It gives a mighty splash before disappearing under the waves. Kita gave a quick inhale, and then exhale, shaking his body slightly to rid himself of any excess stress or jitters.

"Ready whenever you are Murata. Lets do this."

Word Count - 369 Words

"We are going diving," Murata says, looking out over the waves. She settles one hand into the Ram handseal, sensory abilities reaching out to follow the anchor as it sinks to the depths. When it finally reaches the bottom, she reaches a hand towards Kita so he may take it, connecting them through Murata's Ninshu. "I am not certain how clear a picture I will be able to give you. I have not commonly tried to share a current experience." If Kita takes her hand, swimming short-term memories of his own face from Murata's perspective will reach him - loose, barely coherent, other memories always edging in, his reflection through Murata's fresh memory like a dream slipping away.

Murata's other hand drifts from Ram, flashing through six more handseals - held on the last one, a handseal that Kita does not recognize. Immediately, Kita must wrest with three perspectives - his own, and Murata's flickering memories of the two lines of sight she now juggles. Murata, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, seeming to struggle a little with the dissonance herself, and she goes quiet as she focuses on the projection of her chakra she has just created at the bottom of the ocean.

Distant Projection is a technique that she has developed for this precise purpose. A ghost of her form illuminates a small amount of light within the deep abyss, and Murata and Kita gaze through its eyes. Strange deep-sea fish dart away at the sudden light, and the abyss becomes deathly still. Below them is cracked stone, stretching out into the dark.

Murata's projection floats forward, unbothered by the crushing pressure bearing down on it. The ghostly light it emits rolls over the dead ruins of old Kirigakure. It is difficult to grasp the shape of where they walk - it is a city forever clouded in night, with a skyline that will never be seen again. They are only able to see one tiny piece at a time.

Murata floats upwards, along the shape of a sunken building. The shape of twisted concrete and steel, rusted over and overgrown, greets them. Murata wanders along the shape of the wound, revealing the contours of where a massive claw has passed. It's true, then? Isobu wrought this?

"...I underestimated how long this may take," Murata murmurs. Coming through a dry ruin for the evidence of one passerby would be difficult enough. Surely the Leviathan would not be able to survive such depths - if he has come here, there is no way he could remain, could there? They step over half-dissolved bones, scattered and nigh-unrecognizable. They learn that clothing survives much better at these depths than corpses.

Something approaches.

"What--" Murata mutters, projection turning as something surges through the water. She gets a glimpse of scales and teeth before her projection is ripped apart, its chakra scattered and their connection broken. Murata takes her hand back and swears loudly, striding to the edge of the ship. The crew, who have been watching patiently as the pair appear to simply stand there, lean in slightly with obvious curiosity.

"...did something happen?" the navigator asks.

"Apparently," Murata murmurs, looking down into the water. What on earth could live down there and tear through a chakra construct like that? For a moment, the ludicrous image of the Leviathan's ghost crosses her mind, haunting the depth. But that flash of scales and teeth she had seen resembled something more akin to a shark. She turns to Kita. "Did you recognize what hit us?"

There is a loud splash, and the crew shouts and scatters as something huge and heavy erupts from the water. A strange creature lands on the deck with a low, gurgling roar, flexing scales and grimacing with a broad, toothy maw, tail waggling menacingly. Its tail... no... its handle?

Samehada?

The creature - the blade - slithers slowly across the deck, scales slimy with seawater, pale and grimy. It leers without eyes, teeth gnashing as it seems to judge its surroundings and find them wanting. A low growl comes from the blade as it twists on the deck, swaying its handle almost like the warning of a rattlesnake's tail. Murata points Fish Eagle straight towards the creature, holding her ground while the crew steps back.

Murata had read of Samehada being a living blade, but she had not been expecting this.

"Would it be too much to hope you can speak?"

'Gigigigi...'

"I recognize that pommel anywhere," the captain breathes. It's true. Even with the blade awakened and twisted into its living, independent form, the skull is unmistakable. "...but what is it doing here?"

"He could not possibly have just left it," Murata murmurs, Samehada holding its ground in turn, judging them as they speak amongst themselves. She narrows her eyes through the faceplate of her helm. It is difficult to tell, in this form she had not seen pictured or described, but the blade seems... sickly. Its scales are thin, and it moves with unsure, shivering movements, like a starved animal. Had it eaten her projection? "...whatever happened, it has been more than a year..."

Murata slowly, carefully, puts her weapon away, and steps forward. There is one way for her to gain more information, and that is through Ninshu... but to do that, she must touch the cornered animal that has brought itself on to their ship. However, they may be able to come to some manner of agreement.

"You are hungry," Murata calls to the blade. She gives Kita a pointed sideways glance, silently impressing upon him the expectation he should intervene if Samehada decides it wants to bite her arm off. "Come here. Eat."

Murata crouches, and the crew murmurs, pacified against this line of action only by the readied stances of the two other genin Murata has brought. She reaches forward, and Samehada hisses quietly, judging. For a moment, Murata feels quite stupid - somehow, she can read that the blade is heavily considering turning its nose up at her and returning to the ocean to starve. A distinctly grumbling sound comes from the living weapon.

"Well, you do not have much of a choice now, do you?" she snaps, knowing now that on some level it can understand her, and already finding it quite tiresome. "You are coming with us whether you like it or not, creature."

Samehada turns around with a disgruntled bark, and Murata hesitates as it... offers its handle to her. She blinks, and without fully considering the consequences, she reaches forward to take it into her hand. She immediately stumbles, wheezing as it drinks her Chakra greedily. But then, it stops, and hisses. Memories flit through her mind - ones that she cannot comprehend, the alien senses of the blade bouncing against her human mind like a square peg against a round hole. Samehada appears annoyed by whatever it gains from hers, and it relaxes its pull on her Chakra system, its furious, resigned hissing echoing through her mind. Murata takes a deep breath and pulls herself to her feet, and Samehada begins to shrink, folding itself away back into its more familiar form - a huge, curious blade of navy scales (though it has obviously seen better days). Murata allows it to keep contact with her, the pull of its hunger not quite as demanding. It feels almost... sheepish, underneath the petulant rage, as though Murata's vision of its inscrutable memory had been quite embarrassing to it.

The crew gawks as Murata steadies herself, and she blinks awkwardly all around. She becomes suddenly, dreadfully aware that she is a foreigner with one of Kirigakure's most treasured relics in her hands. A creeping sense that she has bitten off more than she can chew builds in her, and she brushes it off. Her investigation is... something of a success. Something has happened to the Leviathan to make him part with this prize of conquest, and given time, she will have this living sword tell her what it was... if she can figure out how to communicate with it properly.

At the very least, she is grateful that Gonk and Ban had not been able to come. She has the suspicion that this may have driven a wedge between them. She watches Kita's expression, hoping that it will not betray a deepening of his jealousy. It is just a sword. It is not hers, it belongs to the village. She will hand it to the Kage, access it for the purposes of her investigation, and then that will be the end of it.

"...Lord Second needs to know about this," she murmurs - and that, at least, everybody seems to be in agreement of.


1,423
TWC: 1824

all words going towards finishing Vanish at max stat discount, which was at 1942/3750 words from training here and here. discarding remaining 66 wc

techs used: mark tracking and distant reflection, technically awakened samehada, will edit in AP usage if someone interrupts i guess

claiming Samehada IC, but it's already on my statpage from event claims so it's just a formality

Kita would take hesitate for a moment before taking Murata's hand. He had a relatively good idea as to what she hoped to accomplish, but it was a slightly unnerving experience last time. Regardless, the mission called for him to play along, so he took her hand. He winced as the foreign memories of his companion flooded his mind. He saw his face from Murata's perspective, as well as the odd thought or another. Barely more than a word or a whisper, but unmistakably there. All that Kita could do was try his best to sort them out, to establish which memories were Murata's and which were his own.

Yet it was nothing compared to what came next. Even with Murata's warning, he hadn't anticipated the cognitive strain it took to experience the world in so many ways at once. Not only did he have to grapple with his own mind mingling with the idle thoughts of his companion, but viewing the world through three distinct lenses. His own vision, the vision of Murata, and the sight far below the ocean overwhelmed Kita's senses, and he began to feel a deep, primal sense of panic. His hand involuntarily gripped Murata's even tighter, and his head began to hurt. He wiped at his nose, and looked down at his hand. Blood. Or was it even his? It was difficult to tell anymore.

It was difficult to make out many coherent thoughts as Murata's projection scoured the ocean for... something. Kita couldn't remember what. Yet he could clearly see the devastation that lay below the waves, remnants of an older Kirigakure. Vaguely, Kita remembered the one who caused the destruction. One of the Tailed Beasts that he had read about he believed, though its name and tail number eluded him. What power they had. It was hard to believe that people once...

His thoughts were interrupted by a brief flash of scales and teeth, quickly severing his connection with Murata's jutsu. He quickly pulled his hand away from Murata's to sever the connection, giving a slight yelp as he did.

"What was that?! It shredded your jutsu like tissue paper."

Murata asked if Kita knew, and he vigorously shook his head.

"No idea. It looked almost like a shark of some kind. I don't know of any shark that spiny however, and none that live that far down. Even if the did somehow reach the depths though, I don't think any of them could or would try to eat a chakra construct."

Bobo smacked Kita's head slightly to get his attention.

"Don't leave me in the dark here kid! What on earth did you see down there?!"

Kita grunted in pain, and rubbed at the spot where he struck. Kita still hadn't recovered from the mental strain of Murata's jutsu.

"It was... something Bobo. Some kind of animal I think."

Yet they didn't need to wait long to find out what exactly the creature they were looking for was. Out of the water erupted the creature that had torn through Murata's jutsu. It was spiny, and had a maw filled with razor sharp teeth. Attached to it was... a handle?

Kita scowled, and began to formulate a jutsu.

"Bobo. Get my katana, now."

Bobo scrabbled off, leaving the two shinobi and the scattered crew staring at the beast that had made its way onto the deck of the ship. Murata points a weapon at it, and the crew murmurs amongst themselves about what the creature could be. Kita wouldn't attack, not yet. Not until he was sure that it posed a threat.

It didn't speak, not that Kita really thought it could. Yet everyone seemed to recognize the creature. It frustrated Kita, but he remained silent. Bobo returned with Kita's katana, which he quickly drew from its scabbard and pointed it at the creature. It didn't seem to care. For now, Kita simply watched as Murata handled the beast.

She handles it will ease, slowly coaxing and calming the creature into a sense of security. It slowly dawns on Kita through their interaction that this just so happened to be a legendary weapon, one from Kirigakure's history books. His eyes began to widen, and his blade began to lower as he realized that he was standing before a piece of history. Yet it was Murata who tamed the thing. It was beyond Kita's belief. As he gazed upon the scene before him, the feelings he had for Murata began to swell once again. Despite all his work to rise above, here she stood, an outsider, holding a weapon sacred to his lands, his country. It filled him with... rage? No, nothing so intense. Yet it was a sense of bitterness that he felt within that he couldn't quite place a finger on.

Bobo seemed to notice his dissatisfaction, and pulled at the hem of his kimono.

"Hey kid? You doing alright? You seem a bit upset."

Kita scoffed, and sheathed his katana.

"I'm fine. Let's just go ahead and get going."

Word Count - 839

Total Word Count - 1208

Exit Claims:

Approved