The Search for Souten Ginrou [Graded]

[Kayori]

Without the artist to escort anymore, Kayori went full speed as he stopped for nothing in his path. With his hidden blades fully extended in both hands, Kayori slashed through every branch and leaf that stood in his way as he leapt from tree to tree, barely breaking a sweat.

When he had been walking earlier, it had took him more than an hour to get to his destination, but with his speed unrestricted, the blonde shinobi made it to the river in a fairly short fifteen minutes. Upon coming to the last of the trees near the river, Kayori kicked off the branch he had landed on and dropped to the bed of pebbles, beside the river.

Letting out a breath and allowing his breathing to slow down, the Uchiha looked up and down the length of the river before walking in a northern direction, keeping the river to his left. He had retracted his hidden wristblades, and as he walked, his eyes were slowly taking in everything.

Rumors had it that since the war had ended, there were plenty of civilians who had had their homes destroyed and without any means of surviving had banded together in the mountains, waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting travellers and merchants who were passing through the forest. This had led to Konoha getting loads of requests for shinobi to act as escorts.

[♠Solo♠]

Game Master

The adventurous shinobi's travel up the river would only last for so many moments, as the river would soon begin coming to an end. Further up north the river would begin taking a downward fall, scaling at some several dozen feet. If not this then more, as exactly what was at the bottom couldn't be seen. A miniature waterfall fell down the destroyed and deformed land. The Uchiha's search would eventually lead him here, at which point he must find his way down the, otherwise, dangerous looking fall. Scaling the cliffs downward would be a difficult, yet possible task. Would the treasure he ventured for be below?

[Kayori]

Walking with purpose, the Uchiha continued following the river. The terrain was no longer how he remembered it to be, and he was unfamiliar to where the river led to. A more steps later, the answer was obvious to him, or rather, his ears. Ears prickling slightly at the new noise mixed into the forest's, he soon identified it as the sound of water rushing quickly. "A waterfall?" he asked himself in his mind as he continued pushing forward.

And it was soon confirmed. The path before him soon ended, and so did the river, as it transformed from a slow-moving river into a small but gushing waterfall. The cliff he was standing on overlooked a large forest as well, and from the looks of it, this was probably an aftermath of the "Big Bang" that had ended the greatest Shinobi War of all time. However, whether the forest down there had sunk or the cliff which he was standing on had elevated was another question to be sought another day.

Right now, he had more important things to tend to. Walking to the ledge of the cliff as far as he could without plunging to his death into the misty waters below. He looked downwards, his black eyes searching the remainder of the cliff wall that wasn't hidden from view by the waterfall, searching for the cave as the artist had mentioned. There was, however, a ledge a few foot down.

"How did he even get down there?" Kayori queried out loud. "That Konoha-nin who was escorting him sure did his job pretty well."

Understanding that there was no way to find the cave from where he stood, Kayori knew what to be done. Normal shinobi would have used a rope, tied one end around something immovable and the other end around their waist before scaling down. But for Kayori, who hadn't packed his equipment and was only armed with his kunai and hidden wristblades, there was only so much he could do.

It was the "only so much" that he did. Biting a kunai in his mouth, the shinobi stood with his back facing nothingness as he kneeled down and slowly lowered himself with both hands, grabbing the edge of the cliff by his fingertips. When he had fully stretched his arm, he quickly grabbed the kunai from his mouth with his left hand and jammed it hardly into the cliff face, hoping it would be enough to support his weight.

Once he had made sure that it would, he proceeded to grab another kunai from his equipment pouch with his right hand and did the same thing as he had done earlier. Taking in a huge breath, Kayori pulled out the left kunai and then stuck it lower, to which he then did the same for the right kunai but even lower and slowly carried on this routine until he finally lowered himself to the ledge that he had spotted earlier.

"That was... fun," Kayori stated with a grin on his face as he sheathed the kunai in their holsters and began once more searching the cliff face from his new vantage point.

[♠Solo♠]

Game Master

The cliff was the least of the young Uchiha's worries. His quest would test his patience, if anything else. The rushing waters were but a mere entrance into the world he couldn't see before him. The land stretched out before him once more. The rushing waterfall would fill his nostrils with the moist, salty flavor that coated the rushing air. Stretched out forty meters away from pool of water would be the entrance he was looking for. A cave, filled with mystery and wonder.

In front of the cave entrance would be some sort of figure. A body perhaps. It was hunched over, and covered in black garb. If it held life or not was a question to be explored, as it remained immobile. It clearly was no creation of nature, so it was placed there by some force. Questions needing answers. It was only the start.

[Kayori]

From the ledge, Kayori looked up and down the entire cliff face. It was almost night now, and with sunlight getting weaker and weaker, Kayori was forced to look for cave that Takumi had mentioned quickly. Another resultless 15 minutes of observing the cliff face later, one thought struckt the Uchiha.

The only place he hadn't checked was the rock wall behind the waterfall. The waterfall was about ten feet away from him, to his right. Eyeing the cascading shower of water confidently, the Jounin grabbed the same two kunai that he had used earlier to scale the wall and did the same thing again.

Except that this time, he was moving horizontally rather than vertically. Inching slowly towards the waterfall as fast as he could, the yellow-haired shinobi was soon beside waterfall. Droplets of water were raining down on him from the proximity between him and the waterfall, but that was the least of his worries.

Apparently, his hunch had been correct. From his current position, dangling on the cliff side with two kunai in each hand stuck into the wall, he could see a cave just enough for one person to enter, protected from wary eyes outside by the waterfall.

Completely oblivious to the water as it poured down on him when he inched even nearer to the cave, Kayori began to swing his body to the left and right before finally gaining enough momentum to wrench out his kunai and swing himself over to the cave. There was no ledge at all to the cave, and the shinobi once more put his life on the line as he tried to catch himself by jamming the same pair of kunai on the cave floor.

The kunai in his right hand failed its job as the Jounin felt his entire body drop downwards as his right arm flew clear, supported only by his left hand and the kunai in it. Gritting his teeth, he kept the kunai back into its holster and once more swung himself upwards by kicking off the side of the cliff with both feet.

"Urgh!" Kayori grunted as he dropped on his back, now safely in the cave. Looking up at the cave's ceiling, he could see moss growing around the mouth of the cave due to the waterfall. The air in the cave was cooling to his exposed skin, and when he finally got up, his eyes caught something.

"Takumi didn't say anything about that...." Kayori mused as he walked deeper into the cave, and neared the hunched, sitting figure. It was dressed in the same black hooded cloak that most special operatives like Kayori himself wore.

[♠Solo♠]

Game Master

The Uchiha was correct. There was no information about the thing that lurked at the foot of the cave. It sat there, lifeless and still. Whom placed it there was an even greater mystery than what it actually was. It seemed like some sort of humanoid form, from a distance. However it was nothing more. As the Uchiha neared the figure that blocked his entrance to venture the cave, an unexpected turn of events had taken place.

The top of the dark figure had moved. A sign of life some would call it. An omen, bringing bad luck others would see it as. It was a head, coming out of the cloak. It rolled forward, off of the rest of the form and plopped about on the ground, rolling toward the blonde shinobi. It was a detached head from someone whom was previously of this world, but no longer. The half of the face that could be seen was bloodied and bruised. The other half was covered with some sort of sutra. As the head rolled about the rest of the form started to glow slightly. Only a second would pass.

An enormous explosion occurred, blowing the cave entrance to nothingness, and eliminating the wandering Uchiha, had he not found himself avoiding the massive explosion. The loud bang would ring the ears of the world around him, causing the waters of the pool to further ripple about, and shake the leaves of the trees that surrounded the area.

A trap was set for the wanderer. Someone was expecting him. What would he do now? Even had he survived the explosion, he was far from safe, as a pair of eyes in hiding laid waiting, and watching.

[Kayori]

As he extended his right hand to touch it, the sudden movement from the hunched figure alerted him to quickly coil back his arm. Somehow, the black cloak protecting the figure had shifted and the head of the figure, a grotesque and deformed human head, dropped to the ground with a loud clunk that echoed into the unknown depths of the cave.

As soon as the head stopped rolling, the remainder of the figure began to glow lightly. Taking it as a warning, the Jounin hastily whipped around and rolled out of the cave. It was a close call as the massive explosion blew out chunks of rock in the cave wall and ceiling. Even the waterfall that had served as a cover for the cave had been disrupted by the earlier explosion.

When the smoke had cleared, Kayori hoisted himself with his arms on the mouth of the cave to take a look at the situation. Before the explosion had consumed everything in its path, the Uchiha had thrown himself out of the cave and grabbed hold of the cave's mouth at the very edge with his right hand as his left hand kept his ANBU mask on his face to keep out of the debris from eyes and nose.

The hunched figure was no longer anywhere to be seen. In fact, the entire cave was nowhere to be seen. The explosion had caused a cave-in, and with large rocks blocking his way into the cave's interior, all Kayori could do now was to plow open a way for himself. And away to work he was, after popping his knuckles.

After an hour of pulling away the rocks, the Jounin dropped on the ground on his ass, looking satisfied as he looked at the hole he had managed to open up in the newly-formed wall that could fit at least two people of his size. By then, the sun had set and there was almost next to no light in the cave.

However, he wasn't a member of the Hokage's strike force for nothing. Kayori's eyes adapted quickly to the darkness and with care, went through the hole, his fingers on both hands flexed, ready to unsheathe his hidden blades at the slightest sign of danger.

[♠Solo♠]

Game Master

All wasn't lost to the shinobi. His hard work would not go unrewarded. His ambitions, unlike the sun itself, would never decline. It would be this very ambition to accomplish his task that would ensure that his life would be full of success, one task at a time. The darkness would take him into it's arms, as he ventured in. The cave itself wasn't very large. However it was big enough to harbor him and his secret.

Just a few meters inside of the cave would be the weapon he had looked for. Planted upside down into what looked like an alter for the blade, it was planted into the rock. It was in his face, right there. However the task wouldn't be very easy. The cave was still rocked from the explosion. Even his footsteps still rattled the walls along the cave.

It was still ready to cave in, and completely collapse on him and the weapon he searched for. Treading with caution would be the absolute best task at hand. Had he not done so then he would find himself in a grave covered in rock and decay. His final task was to remove the sword without setting off the very unsteady cave he was in. Simply pulling the sword would with force would cause the cave to completely crash into itself. What would he do?

[Kayori]

With his adapted eyes, Kayori could only see silhouettes, and even that was enough. It had been months since he had last seen it, and there it was, giving off a powerful vibe as before. The Souten Ginrou's blade, which was made of an azure material no longer available, shone lightly despite the dark cave. It cast a dark blue glow on the entire cave as its glow revealed where it stood. The wolf head motif stared back sharply and fiercely at Kayori through its blue eyes. He had finally found his sword.

Looking around the cave, Kayori quickly found the mound of recently packed dirt that had been illustrated in Takumi's drawing. Pulling a kunai from his pouch, the Jounin used it to sweep off the loosely-packed earth to reveal whatever was inside. He had suspected it to be a corpse, probably the corpse of the person who had stolen his blade, and he wanted to know which village he had originated from.

True, they had been sporting a new forehead protector which had the word "shinobi" on it instead of their respective village's insignia, but still he bet that the original forehead protector was still somewhere on the shinobi's body.

After around fifteen minutes of careful digging, Kayori soon discovered what he was looking for. It wasn't a corpse as he predicted. Rather, buried in the ground beside the Souten Ginrou, was a bundle of thick fabric tightly wrapped around the object within it. Rapping his knuckles on it, the hardness led Kayori to believe that it was some sort of metal inside.

However, what he had uncovered was just a small portion. Using his hands to continue digging, the Uchiha finally dug out the entire package, almost as long as his sword itself. It was too dark to analyse it properly and Kayori walked to the hole he had made in the wall of rocks and tossed it outside, near where the now-destroyed hunched figure had previously sat.

And the problem was now back to his sword. The earlier explosion had rattled the entire cave, and shifting Souten Ginrou from its resting place would probably send the whole cave crashing down on him and effectively bury him alive with his sword. As it was now, the sword tip had dug into the ground shallowly with a portion of the roof weighing down on the sword's hilt.

His first thought was to use the wrapped package he had dug up to quickly swap places with Souten Ginrou, but considering the fact that he might have stumbled upon something precious from the way it was being protected, Kayori threw that idea away and continued to think of another way.

He could try to grab the sword and then rush out of the cave as quick as possible, but it was quite a gamble and he wasn't that willing to waste his life away yet. He looked to his left and right, around his feet and when his gaze finally landed on the rocks that he had removed earlier, a crazy idea popped into his mind.

Since there was no other method he could use, the Uchiha set about his idea and quickly brought in the rocks that he had dug out. His hands worked quickly as he began to stack the rocks from the floor to the ceiling, reinforcing them with chakra as he piled them up higher and higher. Using chakra to hold the first pillar in place, Kayori quickly set about to complete the second pillar.

When he was finally done, the Uchiha retreated a few steps to look at his handiwork. He had used the rocks and chakra to form two pillars on either side of the sword and they both seem sturdy enough. Next he dug around gently around the sword's tip so that he wouldn't displace the sword. When he finally removed some of the earth and stones around it, the shinobi stood up.

"This is it. Do or die time. On 1.... 2.... 3!!" Kayori said to himself under his breath, shouting at the number 3 as he grabbed the sword by its handle out of the blue and dashed for the outer cave. Hurtling through the hole, the blonde stretched out his left hand in mid-dash for the tightly-wrapped long package and heave it along with him.

Apparently, his idea as of no use at all. The two pillars withstood the force of the crumbling cave for only a second before scattering to the ground, with the ceiling of the cave following it only seconds behind. From there, the cave began to collapse quickly, with Kayori always one step ahead of the rocks crashing down behind him.

He finally closed the distance from where the sword had been to the mouth of the cave, and without any preparation this time, the Uchiha allowed himself to drop down the cliff. He had a plan though. Dropping the heavy package in his left hand, the Uchiha blasted a surge of chakra into his Souten Ginrou which ejected the secondary sword, which he grabbed with his now free left hand and promptly jammed both of the swords into the cliff wall.

The blades continued carving into the cliff wall as it as unable to fully contain the momentum from the dive, until it stopped abruptly with Kayori hanging on the cliff face with his two hands outstretched gripping his sword hilts tightly.

"Again, that was fun," Kayori said to himself in a rushed breath of relief, as he could still hear his blood pounding in his ears, his heart rushing and pumping heavily and quickly under the effects of the adrenaline rush.

[♠Solo♠]

Game Master

Surviving death, not once but twice. Locating the missing weapon which had weighed heavily upon his mind for so long. Watching from the skies, the moon had reflected it's light upon the success of the adventurous man. The moon was full in lieu of his victory. The wolf would receive his praise this night, but more than just caves and explosions laid before this shinobi, as his quests were only just beginning. No. They were only the very tip of the iceberg of his life that was to come. However for now, he would celebrate with his new weapon.

-Sword Obtained

[Kayori]

With the momentum of his dive now completely gone, Kayori made another suicidous attempt at his life. The Jounin grabbed on the sword tightly and then placed his feet against the cliff wall. With a solid push, Kayori wrenched both swords from the cliff and allowed himself to drop backwards into the river below, head first.

In mid-dive, the shinobi expertly reattached both swords and then held the hilt with both hands as he then positioned the sword below his head, which would to split the water before his body would be submerged underwater. Only a small splash was made due to the blade going first, and as the water rippled around him, Kayori used his left hand to sweep his dirty blond hair away from his forehead and looked up at the moon.

"The Huntsman.. is back," Kayori said as he smirked under the yellow light of the moon, his face facing the dark sky.

Wading his way to the riverbank, Kayori thrust his massive broadsword into the slightly damp ground and then dove back into the river, his eyes open underwater as he searched for the bound package he had thrown into the river earlier. It took him about ten minutes before finding it.

As he sat on the bank with his bounty, the Uchiha could only guess what was wrapped underneath the layers of the thick fabric. It was around the same weight and size as the Souten Ginrou, something that struck Kayori as odd. His broadsword stolen, a package of the same size buried beside where it stood, a sitting man rigged with explosives protecting the two items even after death and a cave protected by a curtain of ever-flowing water to block it from the wary eyes of the world.

There was definitely something fishy going on, and Kayori trusted his gut feeling enough to know that there was going to be more trouble for him. That, however, was matters for another day. The first priority now was to get home.

-Sword Obtained

SPOILER: Click to show

Souten Ginrou (Silver Wolf of the Azure Sky)
Rank: B
Type: Primary / Melee
Special: Has a secondary sword that is 3 feet long attached to the blade of the Souten Ginrou which can be detached to be used as a sidearm.
Description: A massive broadsword standing at the height of 5 feet from the end of the hilt to the tip of the blade and 1 foot wide, the Souten Ginrou is a powerful blade to reckon with. The blade itself is 3.7 feet; the blade is a combination of two shades of azure, with a lighter shade for the edges and darker shade for the remainder of the blade, with the silver motif of a wolf's head biting on a ring on the bottom half on both sides of the blade. The white hilt, wrapped in black fabric, is 15 inches long, with a guard, cylindrical in shape that is slightly larger in diameter than the hilt measuring at a length of 5cm. The left side of the lower half of the blade is another hilt, which would be the key to the Souten Ginrou¡¯s special ability. The additional hilt actually belongs to an auxiliary single-edged sword with a straight blade and a tip much like a katana¡¯s, locked into place via chakra-enabled hinges that makes up the left half of the blade. By releasing a small burst of chakra into the Souten Ginrou, Kayori can undo the hinges to release the double-edged sword and used it as a sidearm or as a defensive tool.
Cost: 10, 000 Ryo

[永遠に]

42 kayori
25 zero