Painting the forest [m] [done]

[Kayori]

SPOILER: Click to show

Among the Forest
Rank: C
Life Cycle: Once per PC!
Description: A man has requested that he be escorted in his artistic endeavors. He plans to venture into Hi no Kuni, within the forest, to find beautiful spots in which to paint, where he will bring his surroundings to life on paper. Since the country can be dangerous, and wild animals may be about, he is willing to pay for the services of the shinobi.
Objectives: Stay with the artist and protect him until he is finished painting.
Rewards: 50 EXP / 1,000 Ryo

The artist was outside the village gates, waiting beside the gates by the wall. From the glazed eyes and blank look on the guy's face, Kayori thought that the man was probably admiring the beauty of the forests of Hi no Kuni and was thinking of his potential art. Kayori, however, wasn't that far away from the man as being an artist. His art, however, was the art of stealth and killing. And he was one of the most accomplished artists in Konoha.

The artist, from his physique, was a man in his early fifties with a hint of grey in his short but heavily moussed hair. His slick black hair stuck up all over the place, not even one strand of hair not defying gravity. A pair of gold-rimmed glasses were supported by his rather high nose, and directly below it was a thin moustache; thick enough to be more than a few strands of facial hair and thin enough to give him that educated look.

He wore a simple black T-shirt with a sleeveless green jacket over it. The jacket had more pockets than a normal shinobi's flak jacket would and they were overflowing with painting equipment. There were brushes of various sizes, small bottles of paint and even a rolled and folded up piece of painting paper poking from his pockets. The same could be said for the khaki pants that he wore, with bulging pockets probably filled with the same stuff in his jacket.

Pulling a piece of paper of heavily creased and folded paper from his pants pocket, Kayori took a glance at the note before adjusting his attention back to the artist. And apparently, the man hadn't even noticed him yet.

"You are Ishigawa Takumi-san," Kayori stated more than asked as he looked at the man before him with an amused looked. The man never even heard his voice. Rolling his eyes, the shinobi tapped the artist on his shoulder with considerable force which did the job. Kayori repeated, "You are Ishigawa Takumi-san. I'm Kayori."

[Kayori]

Ishigawa Takumi the artist, shaken from his thoughts, was so surprised by the tap from Kayori that he jumped at the touch and almost had his glasses dropping on the ground. It had been his guardian-cum-escort who caught it and returned it to him while looking at him for any signs of a response.

Takumi looked back at Kayori before the thought struck him that he should reply the shinobi's statement. "Ah, yes yes. I'm so sorry. I tend to do that a lot when I'm in a forest. Oh, the green leaves, the brown of the tree bark. You can even smell the forest from here. Do you smell it? I don't really know why but every time I wake up from sleep, the smell of the forest from the wind is always the perk-me-up that I need. Ah yes, the wind is quite strong today isn't it? It's quite a pleasant weather for outdoor activities..."

Takumi continued rambling on and on, each sentence bringing him farther and farther away from the situation at hand. Kayori, aware of his short temper, quickly stopped the artist before his rambling warranted a violent stab into the guts.

The blonde quickly put up his right hand, prompting Takumi to stop and then look at Kayori with a puzzled look before, "There I go rambling like always again. I'm so very sorry. Yes, I am Ishigawa Takumi. You will be my escort for this trip?"

Sighing, Kayori nodded and replied, "Yes. And can we get going now?"

"Yes yes, we should be going now," the artist answered as he scrambled to grab the rest of his painting equipment that was propped up against the village wall. Watching the man fail at attempting to carry all of his stuff, the shinobi walked forward and offered to carry some of the bigger stuff which included a large canvas for the drawing that was about to done and the canvas stand.

"Let's go then. Lead the way, Takumi-san," Kayori exclaimed, his hands full.

[Kayori]

After about an hour of trekking through the forests of Hi no Kuni with the cumbersome items in his arms as he followed the artist in search of a perfect scenery, Kayori was finally allowed to stop and drop the items to the dismay of Takumi who attempted to lecture to his escort about how art is sacred and how he should respect the equipment that would be instrumental in creating a masterpiece.

Ignoring the man, Kayori left the artist to his own devices and walked to a tree that he found suitable and sat down under it, allowing its large canopy of leaves to shelter him from the sun beaming down on them. Another reason why he had opted to join the Anbu: their missions were primarily performed in the darkest of nights.

Although he didn't know what art was and how sacred it was, he knew one thing for sure. The surroundings were absolutely stunning. He had never taken the time to enter the forests of Fire Country and immerse himself in all its glory. Maybe he had done it before the war when he was a Genin since he was constantly training in the forests, but after awhile, he had mainly trained in his team barracks and never had time for such stuff anymore.

The scenery before him was a river, crystal clear while reflecting the cerulean sky and sparkling in the sunlight. It was shallow, probably waist high, and it made a rhythmic sound as it gurgled along at a considerable pace. The banks were even, with a bed of small stones rimming the river on both sides before allowing grass to grow and connect the it to the forest.

[Kayori]

One hour quickly passed with Kayori sitting under the tree, wasting time away by looking around him and enjoying the scenery before him. Until he got bored. The boredom quickly led to the shinobi snoring softly as he dozed off, brought about by the fresh breeze that had lulled him to sleep.

Just a few steps away, the artist was so concentrated on his drawing that he paid little attention to his surroundings. He was going to painstaking means to get his drawing as pristine and majestic as possible that he completely engrossed in only the subject of his painting and the painting itself.

There was a rustle in the bushes, but Takumi was completely oblivious to it as he continued dabbing his brush into the different shades of green and blue on the palette he was holding on his left hand and then drawing large but controlled strokes on the canvas.

Mixed into the rustling sounds were snorts which gradually grew louder and louder until it was impossible for Takumi to ignore. Turning his head to his right, where the bush was, the fifty-year-old dropped his brush in mid-stroke when he saw the bristling fur on the back and the sharp curved tusks of the wild boar that was glaring angrily at the duo.

Afraid of further angering the wild boar into goring him, Takumi slowly inched towards Kayori, his eyes still fixed on the wild boar which had begun to paw its front hooves into the ground in preparation for a charge.

The timid artist nudged Kayori continuously in the rib with his shoe until the Uchiha woke up.

"What is it?" the shinobi asked as he looked up at the frightened expression on Takumi's face and then brought his eyes to where the latter was looking at. When he saw it, Kayori's eyes glistened and the first thing exiting his mouth was, "Sweet! Dinner!"

[Kayori]

The shinobi moved in the blink of an eye as the boar charged in their direction. It was a blur of colors for Takumi as Kayori rushed before him to stop the boar in its tracks, and when everything was back in normal speed for him, the artist was amazed to find the shinobi grabbing the wild boar by his tusks and preventing the animal from moving forward.

"Wow, this one's got quite a load of strength there," the twenty-year-old said as he dug his heels into the ground and tried to hold the wild boar in place. "Wait... That means its meat is gonna be too tough.. Nah, this ain't gonna be dinner material," Kayori said to himself as he withstood the boar's strength, trying to tire the animal out.

"Kayori-san, can you do me a favor?" Takumi asked all of a sudden, his voice suddenly showing signs of excitement and anxiety compared to the fear-gripped whisper earlier.

"What favor do you need?" The shinobi was still pitting his strength against the boar's, although Kayori was using less and less strength as time went on. The only reason he had needed a sudden burst of strength was because of the momentum from the boar's sudden charge and now after dissipating, it was just raw strength.

"Can you hold that pose and that boar in place for a painting?" Takumi asked exuberantly, hoping that the answer would be positive. Kayori cocked an eyebrow and looked at the artist with an expression of helplessness when the temptations of being a drawing's subject began to appeal to him. Changing his mind immediately, Kayori altered his body a little and quickly ordered, "Do it fast then. And you better make it look cool."

[Kayori]

By the end of two hours, the wild boar had already dropped to the ground on its stomach out of exhaustion. Kayori was sitting beside it, leaning on it with an elbow on its head. The boar was too tired to go anywhere anyway and he was sure that Takumi had already gotten an image of what he wanted to paint without constantly referring to the shinobi and animal.

"There! It's done!" Ishigawa Takumi finally shouted as he held up his palette-bearing and brush-holding arms in glee, stepping back to admire his work from a further distance. The grin on his face was one of pure joy, having forgotten earlier how frightened he had been of the wild boar before it had charged. Turning to Kayori, Takumi gestured for him to take a look at the painting.

Raising an eyebrow, Kayori stood up and left the pig where it was lying, and walked to Takumi's side to look at the painting. Takumi had portrayed Kayori as how he had seen him, but apparently this was the end to the painting's truth. The wild boar had "magically" became a wild bull with sharp, curved horns that would put any horned demon to shame. Kayori had become a bullfighter.

"You drew this from this?" Kayori asked incredulously as he pointed to the wild boar, which at this point looked up at them and then merely snorted before getting up and walking to the river for a drink.

"Grand, huh?" Takumi responded, obviously not getting the shinobi's drift. "This will be one of my masterpieces. Definitely," the artist continued, the earlier grin of relief turning into a smile that spoke of the satisfaction he felt from producing this drawing.

"Well, I've gotta say you did do a great job of drawing me," the shinobi stated as he leaned closer to the drawing and observed it closely. "You are actually one fine artist, Takumi-san."

"I don't like to boast, but I think so too," the artist exclaimed as stood proudly with his chest out. "If you want, I've got some other drawings in my bag that I can show you. I've been in and out of Konoha while I've been in Hi no Kuni and you are not the first shinobi to protect me while I'm drawing throughout this month."

"That explains the abundance of missions I've been hearing from the Genins about escorting artists around Hi no Kuni for painting excursions. But sure, I will be glad to look at your previous drawings."

[Kayori]

As they walked back to Konoha, Kayori was looking through a portfolio of Takumi's previous drawings. There were the typical scenery drawings, those of models posing for him and even battle-scarred areas. The shinobi merely flipped through them one by one until he finally stumbled on the last drawing. And he stopped right there.

"Where did you see this?" Kayori asked the artist, his eyes never leaving the last drawing.

The background of the drawing was a rocky area, with small bushes and shrubs scattered around the rocks. However, the point of attraction was the dirt mound in the middle of the rocks, and there, standing against a larger rock was a sword. Not a normal sword, but one that was huge. Kayori knew the exact dimensions of the sword because it had been his.

"My Souten Ginrou," Kayori whispered as he looked at the drawing intently, hoping to decipher where this place was. When he couldn't get an answer, the shinobi's head jerked up and then looked at the artist dead in the eyes. He repeated once more. "Where did you see this?"

"It's north of the river we were at earlier. It's about 40 miles north and you just have to follow the river until you see a cliff. Once you get to the cliff, search the cliff face for a small cave and crawl through it. You will exit from another cave and there you will see it."

"Is it easy to find? For a shinobi?" came the question, to which Takumi answered uncertainly, "..I think so?"

"Great, now let's get you back to Konoha, grab my reward and I'm off to search for this place," Kayori said as he committed the image to memory and handed it back to Takumi.

[Axcel]

+51 exp