The Forest Guardian of Luck

Mission Details:

Ise had looked at the map while being surrounded by Hikari and the others, scratching he said. “According to the map that we got from Saxon, we are in Yoshino Forest,” Isemori said, pointing to the name of the map. They were also surrounded by tons of trees and other oddly-looking plants that they wouldn’t typically see in their own world. The moss on the trees glowed a bluish color, mushrooms were colored black all over, including the stem. The silver-haired Uchiha may have not been the brightest, but despite that, he figured that he would attempt to try and eat any of those mushrooms, due to the fact that they could be poisonous.

Aside from being hungry though, Isemori was actually more concerned about the warning that they had all gotten from Saxon about the man who sought to use the power of this dimension to destroy their own. Despite being only a mere Genin, he couldn’t just simply allow someone to do something that would threaten his own home. "Surely the others have probably been thinking about the same thing too, Especially Toran,” Ise thought to himself, looking at his cousin for a brief moment, looking as if he was not only looking at his cousin but also drifting in his own thoughts. Whoever this man was, Ise knew what needed to be done, and that was to stop the impending threat before their world would be destroyed.

WC: 240

Perhaps the woman should have been paying more attention to her surroundings, but at the moment, the Akari was in a world of bliss as she walked through the cherry blossom forest that she had found herself walking through. The Kunoichi honestly was completely at a loss of words as the group made her their way through the spring wonderland known as the Yoshino Forest. The smell of Cherry Blossoms, the world of pin that surrounded them, it reminded the fields of love in Lux Aeterna. It had been nearly 2 years since the Kunochi had actually gone there, so this was a positive trip down memory lane for the woman. Stepping through the forest, Hikari hadn't nearly forgotten that the two shinobi that wasn't Ise had been awkwardly looking in her direction ever since they had met. As much as the Kunochi had hopped it was just general teenage boys behavior, with the woman's current attire and large limp she was walking with, she had a feeling that it was something more than that. Taking a breath, the Kunochi would proceed to speak up. "Yoshino Forest.... This place is honestly beautiful. I'm sorry, did you say this place was another dimension? Because if not, I might want to settle down here rather than continue north for another few days."

Continuing to follow the group with her limp, the woman would look over Ise's shoulder and try to take a glance at the map to see exactly where the group was going. "That being said, with all due respect to the local talent, perhaps somewhere with better bards would be greater, tell me, where you boys come from, do you have any good musicians?"

WC: 284

“Alright Ise! So you got a map? That is what I wanted to hear.” Youta would continue to look at the others “So do any of you know what a Yoshino Forest is and did Saxon explain how to get home or did he just give us this map?” He would look around to the others who talked to Saxon more than Youta did. He would follow along hoping for an answer.

They would reach a forest full of cherry blossom trees and a bunch of other very beautiful plants and fungi. Most of the plants Youta did not recognize, especially being from Hoshigakure which is mostly desert. Youta has not ever really left the village except for the national preserve which has a bunch of trees and stuff but most of Hoshi was cactus and other desert dwelling plants. All the plants distracted Youta for a minute when a voice in his head said “there is a chakra source somewhere here. I can feel it and I want it.” This would worry Youta slightly and he would meet up with the rest of the group.

“I think he said this was a different dimension, Hikari. We are from Hoshigakure and I tell you this trustingly because we will have to work together to get through this. Hey Ise and Toran slow down a sec. I am getting this uneasy feeling.” He would activate his Meigan and his eyes would start to glow a blood red and shine a little bit but this gave him chakra vision. He would notice that the chakra levels here were different from anything they had encountered. He would continue “The chakra levels and feeling I am getting is different from the rest of the places we have been. So keep an eye out.”

WC 299

“It definitely looks nice, however, I wouldn’t trust any of the plants growing around here. After all, we don’t know if they are even edible. For all we know they can be highly toxic,” Ise pointed out to Hikari, especially the black-colored mushrooms. The silver-haired Uchiha wished Saxon would have told them more about Yoshino forest, but then again … Ise admitted to himself that if they stayed and listened to his terrible singing that his ears might have fallen off. Ise had taken a minute to answer Hikari’s question, not really sure himself, truthfully. “Hmm, I never really paid attention to stuff like that if I’m being honest, but I know for a fact that Hoshigakure has some really nice restaurants with a bunch of tasty food!” Ise had grinned at the woman. Shortly after Ise had finished talking, Ise’s little brother chimed in, making it his turn to talk. Ise had immediately caught on to why Toran had asked the question to Hikari, which made Ise slightly frown.

“Oh, lighten up a bit Toran. Honestly, if she wanted to get information out of us, she more than likely could have done so the old-fashioned way. But instead, she’s actually been a great help to us so far in my opinion,” Ise had said, nonchalantly. Sure, he understood why Toran was weary of her, but Ise had made a good point himself just now, and he stood firmly by that statement. After Ise had said what he needed to say, Youta had decided to join the conversation. “Well, if it’s anything like how Yoshino means in our world, then it would mean ‘Luck’,” Ise had randomly pointed out to Youta, which probably would have surprised his younger cousin due to the fact that Ise wasn’t the brightest lightbulb in the room so to speak, or at least not at first glance. However, did have moments like this one that could impress quite a few people. Shortly after the silver-haired Uchiha had finished speaking, a voice that didn’t belong to anyone could be heard a few meters ahead of them.

“Hehehehehehe! You’re right! Its meaning does derive from your own world! However, you four are not the lucky ones!” The voice was high-pitched as well as creepy. Ise believed that it was more than likely a female who was talking to them. Ise had not noticed it right away, but rather than an actual person, it was a small doll that stood upright, as well as moving, which pointed to only one plausible answer. The doll was actually puppet. “Let me … show you what I mean! Heheheheheheeheheheheeeeee!” small doll-like puppet laughed manically, opening its arm up as if it were about to shoot something at them. “Everyone! Move!” Isemori shouted at Toran and the others to disperse while he activated his peacock spirit blessing to quickly launch himself up into air, flying just high enough to avoid the cloud of poison that had begun to surround where they were once standing. The trees were also high enough for the others to use to escape the cloud of poison lingering below them as well, providing Ise’s group a chance to not get poisoned. Ise had decided to immediately go into action as well, forming a set of his own hand signs (Snake → Ram → Tiger) while activating his Sharingan; releasing a fireball down on the puppet.

Puppet being controlled:

Actual Puppet Master (aka The Forest Guardian):

WC: 567
TWC: 807

As the group continued to make its way through the cherry blossom forest. Ise seemed pleasant enough, conversing with the Akari, but the other two didn’t seem as interested in small talk. They responded to when talked to, but offered very little in the way of conversation themselves. Eventually, the younger Uchiha would come out and ask Hikari about being truthful, Which Ise would proceed to defend Hikari on. As Toran asked, The Kunochi tilted her head again, once again allowing a puzzled look to cover her face.  “Thank you Isemori, that means a lot to me, but besides direct you to the village I saw when we first met, I don’t think I have done that much to help you out. If I am being honest, I highly doubt I will be of much assistance to trained Shinobi such as yourselves. I feel like more a burden to you then someone that is actually assisting to the cause. I’m sorry about that, I wish there was more I could do.” The girl would turn her gaze and break eye contact for a second. Even if the girl hadn’t been hiding her chakra based abilities, so many of them was so out of practice that she doubted she would be of much help to the boys. Eventually she turned to back to the younger of the Uchiha.

“Toran. I’m sorry if I’ve done something to make you be weary of me, but I haven’t lied to you once. I’m just a traveling expecting mother to be to be looking to find a place up north to live a better life for myself and my children. If you would like, I can talk more about myself if it would put you at ease, but I’m not a threat or anything to you. Even if I did mean you harm, I highly doubt I could hurt a trained warrior such as yourself as I am right now.”

It was at this moment that the Shinkou would call for the group to stop. Hikari, who was standing further to the back would do so as he requested. Soon, after a creepy conversation, the silvered hair Uchiha would call for everyone to move, and start his flight into the air. The Kunochi who was further in the back, would take a second to process what was going on, her combative reflexes being dulled by her time working as a barista over the past few months, but would start backing away. With her slow pace, the Kunochi would have had a problem getting out in time if she was where the other boys were, but since she had been standing a little further back, she didn’t have as much space she needed to run and as such was able to get out of the poisoned mist area in time. As she felt like she had a safe distance on her allies, the kunochi would duck behind a tree for cover. While out of sight of everyone and with Love’s transplanted eye hidden behind a large makeshift eyepatch, the woman would activate her byakugan, and scan the area for hostiles. Eventually, she would find the puppet, as Ise was shooting fireballs at it. Some distance behind that, the kunochi would see another weird creature with chakra threads extending from him toward the puppet. Another puppet? No… there was something different about this one…. Nothing was controlling it like the other puppet. What was this? In all of her years as a Kunochi, Namikaze had never witnessed anything like this.

From behind her position, the kunochi would yell out. “Through the trees, about 25 meters south by south east from that monstrosity, I saw some bushes moving, something bigger than a squirrel. I think there is another one around there! Be careful!”

Wc: 635

Youta would talk more with the group and say “keep your eyes open, do any of you sense any sort of danger.” Then Ise would would activate his chakra and then his chakra would form a peacock.  He would jump and fly away. Then a mist of poison would start to head towards the group. Youta would quickly activate his Meigan and then a dark aura and chakra would surround Youta and his movements began to speed up.  He would jump back following Toran and Hikari.  He would quickly make handsigns and a dark whip would chase the puppet. “I see the chakra strands for the puppet but they do not seem to lead anywhere but the poison seems to be jutsu based so I got this.” Ise would fire a fireball at the puppet but the puppet would dodge.  He would make more handsigns and then he would just absorb all the poison that this technique had.  “The puppet was not the origin of the puppet. Of coarse it’s poison Ise I told you nothing good happens when we open those mysterious letters. Nothing good. But Toran and Hikari keep the puppet busy. Yell if you need help. Ise! You and I will follow the chakra strands to the user. Unless one of you have chakra vision and can see the strands.”  If the others agree he would say “Ise this way!” And they would head towards the bush that Hikari saw and then a shinobi would jump out and run.  “Ise let’s get him.”

WC 255
TWC:554

Toran gave his older brother an annoyed roll of his own eyes at being told to lighten up when it came to Hikari. He still couldn’t really trust her all that much when it came to her words or what she could do to them. She hadn’t been the best of help when it came to actually helping out in their own quest. Toran could only hope that things would become better as time went on. However something did perk his ears up when it was mentioned about something rather particular. That being the mention that she was actually pregnant. Toran eyes quickly flashed red for a moment to check, seeing the small glob of chakra before flicking them off as soon as it had happened.

To say Toran was apologetic would be an understatement of the century. He took a deep bow for a moment at the resulting news of her being a mother in time. It made him feel like such a dick to how things were going on. His voice rang out inside of the forest that they were in, perhaps that was what notified the puppet master of their own whereabouts. Toran couldn’t help but feel as though he had to talk about how bad he felt about being a brat towards a pregnant woman. He thought it was a respectful thing when it came to having a child. His mother taught him well when it came to trying to be respectful. Usually resulting in getting tapped on his head about how he should be more respectful towards people who are having children.

“My apologies! I didn’t know so I just…. God dammit I’m a real ass aren’t I?” He said before the following events had occurred in quick succession. Seeing as how Toran would now be the one closest to Hikari. He’d try his best to get her away from the deadly poison as soon as possible. But when she was able to get back and away from the mist all together, it at least confirmed Toran’s own suspicions that she was indeed a shinobi of sorts. There was no way someone could move like that and not be a shinobi. But he wouldn’t bother with the questions anymore. There was going to be a time for them. However that time could not be now as he was left to deal with the puppet now. Toran's eyes scanned the area as he wondered what kind of jutsu he could use in this scenario. He didn’t have many ranged options besides the fireball jutsu. But it wouldn’t be a good idea to simply try and use the technique immediately. Yet he still had to do something in order to fight against the puppet. So he’d weave one handed behind his back while the puppet was distracted, suddenly making a 1 meter long thunder spear inside of his hands. Taking a small sharp breath, Toran shot the blast of lightning directly towards the puppet. The speed of which could have been reactable. But hopefully the puppet was actually hit by the jutsu itself.

“Hikari! Try and find a safe distance! Just keep close!” He shouted while focusing now on the puppet and how much damage it potentially took from the blast if it didn’t dodge it entirely. Toran’s eyes scan the area for any potential way of beating this thing, any sort of traps or anything like that.

WC:571
TWC:984

Ise had hoped that the fireball that was fired at the creepy-looking puppet would hit it, as well as burn it to a crisp, however, with a simple shift of the chakra strings connected to it that Ise saw with his Sharingan, the doll-like puppet had swiftly moved out of the way, cackling away, as if them fighting with was some sort of game. “Missed me! Missed me, Now ya gotta die painfully! Hehehhehehehehehheee!” The dolls howled, which made Ise annoyed. The doll had then opened up its other arm, firing a few kunai at Ise attempting to hit him, however, Ise was able to dodge them with ease with his Peacock Spirt Blessing still active. “Your aim isn’t that good either,” Ise said to the stupid doll in a matter-of-fact tone. The silver-haired Uchiha’s attention was then directed to Hikari’s voice, telling him that the person who was possibly controlling the puppet was hiding twenty-five meters in-between the south and southeast of where Hikari and Toran were. That was when Youta chimed in, which made Ise smirk. “Yeah,” was all Ise said, his Sharingan eyes, transforming into the unique pattern, and before Youta had moved, something different had happened.

Ise’s Left eye started to bleed from the corner near the bridge of his nose. About six meters away from the patch of bushes where the chakra strings were coming from, black flames had started to emerge, swiftly spreading towards the hidden enemy. Luckily, Youta had already made his way already towards the spot, or he would have been engulfed by the black flames that had formed.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!” an unfamiliar voice, moreso belonging to the puppet master that was hiding, had been caught by the black flames that had formed. Then shortly after good couple of minutes had passed, Ise’s right eye had begun to bleed in the same manner as his left, and shortly after, the black flames had gradually dissipated before they could spread any further within the forest beyond. Ise had then grunted, feeling a massive throbbing pain in not just one, but both of his eyes. “What did … I just …?” Ise had tried to say to himself, but he was in so much pain that it was hard for him to speak.

Despite what Ise had seemingly pulled off, Ise couldn’t dwell on what caused the black flames to appear, now looking towards the newly charred vicinity of where their attacker was. As Ise had gotten closer, ignoring the pain that he felt in his eyes, he had realized that their attacker had only looked like a mere girl - nowhere near his own age. In fact, despite the severe burns covering her entire body, she looked as if she were an eight-year-old at best. “Why looked so shocked …?” she croaked at Isemori, which made him surprised that she still was able to speak. Ise had noticed that her body as was also not normal. Further examining her body, it was hallowed out … like that of a puppet. Once the realization had his Ise, a faint smirk had formed on the girl's face, seeing that had finally understood. “As you can see, my body isn’t like yours and your friends. I have left here long ago … I had no one … until Dinyo Dynamo came along …” She had said, coughing, while trying to sit up, however, her body just didn’t simply find the strength.

“He told me … that you and your friends would stop him … and that … I needed … to dispose of you …” She had said. “So, you listen to a guy who tells you to do something awful? From the sounds of it, the guy could have been using you,” Ise had said, eyeing the girl down. “That may have been true … But … I didn’t care … ‘Cause he was all I had …” Then shortly after the last word that escaped her lips, she had died. Ise just stood there, his hands tightening into fists - an anger swelling up inside of him. Anger at this Dinyo Dynamo person. Ise could feel the others eyeing him from behind, and Ise had turned to them with a solemn look on his face; blood on his cheeks now drying as the unique pattern of his Sharingan had faded back to their regular shade of emerald green. “She’s dead …” That was all Ise had said to them. Honestly, he didn’t really have much else to say after that. All he cared about was finding Dinyo Dynamo and putting a stop to his evil plans.

WC: 769
TWC: 1576

Exit and Claims:

As the Kunochi would start to run or limp away depending how you looked at it, the woman would hear out of the side a call for her and the younger Uchiha to deal with the front guard. “I think you might be asking the wrong person!" Hikari would scream out as she continued to get some distance away from the fighting.  “If I could do anything, don't you think I would have done it by now!?"

It was true, while Hikari had a few of her techniques ready, she doubted many, if any would be able to be of much help to the boys. So she decided to take the Toran's advice, and keep her distance while keeping an eye out for what her allies were doing, and to keep guard of them incase any other enemies decided to make their presence known. Keeping a good  30 meters away from the fight and out of eyesight of any of the boys, Hikari noticed that Toran started making a thunder spear to attack the monster some distance towards the puppet until he was about 10 meters away from it and got ready to use a spear to attack the monster Hikari, realizing his appoaching style showed that his combat was more about close range rather than distance fighting like herself, figured she had one trick up her sleave that might help. From the cover of the tree, Hikari would form the proper hand signs and place her hands on the ground quickly so that no one would see her do so, and suddenly summon a wall of light that would surround the two combatanats, and raise up until it was 20 meters high, surrounding the two and preventing the monster from escaping. Hikari would wait and see what was going on with her byakugan, and would drop the shield in case the gennin would need to retreat, or if he finished dealing with the monster.

Assuming that the boy finished off the puppet, without giving any sign of the fact that she had anything to do with the light structure, the wall would disperse releasing the boy from within. Giving the boy some time to recover, Hikari would call out, asking if it was safe to come out. Assuming someone would say it was, she would

“Sorry, I'm guessing I really am not of much help at all." The Akari would say, stepping out and rubbing her eyes as if she had been blinded by the Hikarition technique for a few seconds. “Wow, for being so young, you boys really seem to be effective at your job, Ise just dove right into that thing, and Torran, the way you locked off.... I don't know what that thing was, but it was incredible!"  

As Ise and Youta would return, Hikari would give them the same props, but sound a little bit more annoyed at the Shinoku for telling a civilian for getting involved, but would stop seeing the older Uchiha obviously having more of an issue. The Akari would give him some  space, deciding it might be best to console him at a later date. 

WC: 522
TWC: 1441

Claims: Mission Rewards 4,000 Ryo + 4,000 for my rank of Jounin (from my understanding, correct me if I am wrong.), 20 AP, 14 stats (All to Chakra) 
All words to Hikariton: Radiant Star