Ashes and Earth: Season 1
Apr 6, 2012 10:53:31 GMT -8
Post by ¤ SFS ¤ on Apr 6, 2012 10:53:31 GMT -8
Apart from bad breath and eye-crusties, waking up in the morning was the 2nd most glorious moment in the day. The first most glorious was making it back to your bed at night. Most ninja died on their feet, in battle, in action. To survive long enough to fall prey to things like disease or old age, that was an accomplishment. It was a rare feat to die happily in one's sleep so making it back to his bed at night always gave Sen a sense of closure. He couldn't help it if a superior shinobi infiltrated his home and stole his life in the night. That was a possibility no matter where he slept so he found solace in the thought that it could at least happen in the comfort of his home. Waking up each morning, though glorious, was also bittersweet. You were treated to the gift of life for yet another day but there was always the lingering thought that you wouldn't make back to your bed before the day was over. Theories and philosophies rang out in full blast as he casually went on his morning routine of cleaning/grooming himself and then getting dressed. He had a lot on his mind this morning because there was something unique he planned to take care of today.[/size]
It had been weeks since Shinkirō and himself had done spring cleaning, it was one of the things they put off every year in the hopes that their parents would come home to find things unchanged, to find that their children had been waiting for them for the whole time. Sadly the boys finally accepted their circumstances and got over bouts of sentimentality and laziness and did the damn spring cleaning of the entire manor. In one of the old file cabinets belonging to his father the genin found a scrap of paper with crudely drawn pictures on it of what shape he couldn't readily decide. At first glance it appeared to be a map but closer inspection revealed that it only noted landmarks along a single designated path, only a couple of which he quickly recognized. Further study of the drawing lead him to believe that it was not used to travel all of Earth Country but rather, to a single specific location in particular. In all likeliness, what he was looking at was a personal reference map drawn by his father which directed him to some kind of treasure. 'Treasure' being a term he was using loosely.
For a while after finding the map he was filled with self-loathing over having found an actual hand drawn crappy map that could actually lead to something of importance. It was such a cliche he almost couldn't dare stomach it. How likely was it that his father arbitrarily dug a hole in earth country somewhere and put hundreds of thousands of ryo in it before leaving it there and abandoning his family, never telling any of them about it before disappearing. He scowled at the absurdity of it, slowly beginning to recognize the shape and kanji drawn near the map's 'X'. The drawing mostly looked like a cloud until he recognized that the kanji next to it was for the word "scroll".
He wasn't sure how likely it was that his father had hidden a scroll of some sort instead of ryo but it seemed more plausible in general. A scroll was simply a piece of paper and even the largest and most elaborate of scrolls had a designated and relatively low ryo value meaning since it was worth less money than hundreds of thousands of ryo he found it more likely his father had buried it out there somewhere. The true value of a scroll came not from the physical scroll itself, but from the information implanted on it. A single scroll could house a kinjutsu of unrivaled power or reveal plots and plans and individuals that could start, or end, a war. Alternatively, it could just be a ruse to get someone's kid to travel hundreds of meters away from safety just to dig up a scroll that read "You suck." He couldn't remember if his father was capable of such an elaborate prank or cruel enough to pull it on his own sons. With his equipment packed, his headband pulled down around his neck like a bandana and his crappy might-be-a-treasure map in his pocket he set out for the 'X' marked on the paper. The itching in the back of his mind told him he should probably get some backup, just in case. But who could he count on if things went bad today?
