The search for something beautiful in the unknown.... (Plot Mission) - Closed

Mission Details:

Most explorers of the area would have been traveling for days before the mornings light highlighted the rocky shores before them., marking that they had finally arrived at the Warriors pit. It's name hinting to its  history as an ancient battle ground that encompassed a whole region of mountainous and rocky out jutting earthen spires and ravines, its flat land marred by horrendous environmental damage no doubt caused by Shinobi of the past. Most in the world had been taught that the Scorched lands were the most desolate place in the world, but this region utterly destroyed any and all notion of that once seen. It was bleak and a testament to the destructive nature behind human motivation. Nothing could ever compare to the feeling of dread and unease that settled over travelers as they crossed over and into the rocky hill line and deeper into the region, the first glimpses of the Bloodstained mire forever registering into their minds.

The marshland section of the region held uniquely colored flora and beasts meandered about it aimlessly, their forms occasionally visible through the dense foliage and plant life that was growing out of the bog before them. The clouds high above were numerous and caused limited light to filter down, giving the swamp an almost permanent sundown like atmosphere. In the center of the bog laid a great tree with crimson glowing baubles, that was clearly visible from the hill that had crossed over to enter into the area. As travelers encroached further into the area they would notice that the ground became sanguine in nature and the streams even ran the color of blood. A clear sign of the high iron content in the soil poisoning the water table, causing it to run red.

It was here that Genkumaru and Kannagi had reached after a somewhat stable journey on the Kataki road. The day of travel having been more or less comfortable for the two of them, or at least Gen thought so. As they entered into the region it was hard for him to describe just how awful it began to make him feel. The very air felt... heavy and as if some for of crushing weight was being placed on his shoulders just from being here. Stepping down into the ravine and making his way downwards into the bog land, he looked up to Kannagi with words of encouragement, "This place can't be nearly as scary as it looks can it?...  I am sure this will just be a routine cut and dry harvest operation... That tree though.", Looking off into the distance below the winding paths of the mire could be seen to all culminate in a single spot. A grand tree that looked to be both lifeless and not at the same time, strange luminescent crimson orbs hanging from its branches that cast a sanguine glow upon the surrounding bog land. Stranger creatures flitted about periodically as Gen watched, during his descent.

The cliff face was steep and bending as it dropped into a flat spot on the ravines floor, the bog splayed out in front of them now like a twisted enchanting forest of terrifying sounds and images. A nightmare more then a dreamland, biting his lower lip he spoke again, "Okay maybe it is just as scary as it looks...", as he finished speaking, the ground quaked with a pulsing and building crescendo almost as if to say yes, and the source of the quake became audible as a guttural and terrifying roar came from something  deep inside the bog that pierced through the valley like ravines walls and echoed back around, surrounding the area in its dread filled wail.

Kannagi and Genkumaru had entered the mire cautiously; she had sent Cirilla back home early on when the grassland become wet and unstable. Bogs were incredibly dangerous and although Kannagi had never been to one, it was presumed naturally that a name like Bloodstained meant that too many had entered the bog without the precautions. Over a hundred years after vanishing, corpses had been returned accidentally discovered and largely preserved over the times from places like this. The grasses grew thicker and denser, and to her surprise, trees too. Adventitious roots, she assumed from her reading, having inspected them silently on their walk.

Kannagi hadn't said much on the ride, preferring to feel only the wind around her and Cirilla below her. The ride was shorter than she would have hoped but they had a mission to do and she wasn't going to race around for the joy of it. She had stepped carefully, some places in the mire deep and watery just by sight, others were as solid as ground but jiggled with each footstep. Where they had stopped now, it had gotten rockier and there were many more sturdy places to stand than on the walk here. The large tree and the floating orbs of opalescence made Kannagi frown deeply. "I suppose I must scrap my knowledge of mires for this place. What I see practically defies nature."

Kannagi walked around, her sandals squelching in the muck. These crystals were rumored to come from the soil itself and for that she felt a bit concerned. Her wet and muddy feet, tiny bits of weeds clinging to her ankles and toes, were safe enough walking with the sandals over rock and goo. However, if the muck disguised large or sharp crystals, Kannagi might be prone to infection from a cut in a place like this. She bent over at the waist and shoved her fingertips into the soil slowly, feeling around. "Silt, stone," Kannagi withdrew her hand to show a clump of dense material dripping with  red liquid, "Some red clay. I've got a sour feeling that we'll have to descend towards the tree in order to locate what we seek. Should we be concerned with those animals out there? I can only make out some of their shadows." The blue haired woman tossed the clay to the side and rinsed her fingers in the red pool by her feet. She shook her hands dry and shuffled towards the cliff side, assuming the next step would be to go down if Genkumaru was in agreement.

WC: 426

Genkumaru's words were rife with quandaries and a myriad of mistakes. Kannagi's mouth went dry at first, so in surprise was she. Her wide eyes trained on the cliff before her as his words rattled through her mind, shaking her sureties to the core. Genkumaru was a friend, he had vowed to help her train, to become a better shinobi, to strive with her towards greatness! He was her only friend thus far, beyond Cirilla, and she felt cutting tears stinging the corners of her eyes. How could he let her down so enormously, how he could he speak to her thus and be so unaware of his damage? She had thought they were equals. She had helped him by teaching him the very basics of yoga, encouraging him to face his fears, helping him in all the ways to grow more powerful and develop into a person worthy of the title of shinobi. His pathetic attempt to repair the damage, asking her to abandon him instead of playing the role of a hero, it only drove her to an anger lined with madness.

She was non-responsive for a while, Genkumaru working down the cliff's edge and waiting for her at the bottom. From so high up, he had to have been able to see her face now and it was not a pretty sight. Every alluring and beautiful curve in her had tensed to a sharpened point. Her upper lip twitched once and her blue eyes glowered down at him like the hottest of flames. She looked like a warrior queen, full of righteous eminence and daunting fury. "You want me to run. You want for me to not get hurt. You say I should not be a hero for your sake, and this mission is not worth my life," her words were deliberate and slow, as if repeating what he said would help his betrayal to sink in.

Her eyes were filled with sudden fanaticism as her outrage caused her to bark out a chilling laugh. She allowed a paper to form from her right arm, blade like in appearance and certainly as sharp. She showed it to him and demanded, "And what will you do if I get hurt? Will you save me, I your damsel, your stepping stone to your own herohood?" Kannagi drew the paper made blade over her left bicep, creating a clean thin line of blood that drooled down her arm. Her paper blade receded and she looked her arm over, glancing down at Genkumaru. "What shall you do? About this? You desire to try and control me?" She stomped a foot on the cliff top and pointed down at Genkumaru, "I am not a shinobi for fun. Shinobi are sent on missions to help their village, risking my life is part of the job. If I died here, it would be an honorable death. I would not leave a friend, nay- a partner behind! I would not flee like a roach in the sunlight. I am not afraid to fight and die to protect the village."

Kannagi shook her head and paced at the cliff top, her madness seeming to come and go; her angered face, so beautiful and terrifying, faced at Genkumaru. Had he dared to actually speak, she might have simply jumped from the cliff's edge, and Kannagi had hoped his need to protect her would have kept his mouth shut. "You cannot control my life or my death. You cannot take away my honor or my will. I am not a little girl... I am a capable ninja!" She looked pained then, less angry and more mournful. Her brows dropped and she shut her eyes tight, "I trusted you. I thought you considered me an equal, a real friend. Even Cirilla liked your company. Oh how you had grown with me by your side." When she opened her eyes she touched her face, her bloodied hand smearing a streak on her cheek. She didn't seem to even notice. "You think you're better than me. You think its ok for you to die here, its ok for you to die on a mission, but I am too precious for that. Y-youre just like them."

"Women take care of the mind and soul, men take care of the body. I helped you with your chakra and your fears and in return you want to send me home so you can face any dangers alone. You're a hell of a man, now aren't you?" A single tear managed to escape her eyes and exhausted, Kannagi just it fall. "I trusted you. I trusted you. I trusted.." Her jaw set firmly and she made a few seals with her hands. In a quick motion, Kannagi's entire body become like two dimensional paper. She leapt off the cliff edge and floated all the way to the bottom. She transformed once more, ending the jutsu, standing a few feet away from Genkumaru.

"I wouldn't abandon any of my other partners on a mission, and you have my word that I won't leave you either," her blue eyes looked him up and down. "And my word should be enough for you, since I have never broken it." Kannagi didn't know what else to think, what else to do. Her anger started to simmer down but the pain was still there. Genkumaru couldn't undo the damage or unsay what he had said. She knew he wasn't a mean person, she knew he wanted to look out for her because of his kindness. He was as careless as he was kind, accidentally tripping over his emotions and shattering the trust between them. Such a careless, stupid, idiot. He should consider himself lucky that she had her emotions and her mind under such great control. Her jaw quivered once before her posture straightened again, Kannagi's body facing the tree. Her arm still bled, but it was light in comparison.

WC: 990

Kannagi heard him speak, his words reaching her as if through a misty veil. She no longer felt that emotional connection, she no longer felt much of anything. Her anger unleashed had taken a toll on her mind. He had a tragic story to be certain and she felt pity for him. His life couldn't have been an easy one. It was no excuse to say and act as he had. In Kannagi's eyes, his weakness, his lack of confidence, both had built him to an inevitable conclusion. If he wasn't able to fight for himself and let go of all the burden that he carried, Genkumaru would put himself in danger more than necessary. He would risk himself, others and the missions at large with his clouded world view. If she didn't stop him, who would? Of course, she could merely report the issue and leave it to someone else; being part of his mental breakdown here in the mire however made her obligated to see it that he didn't endanger himself or others. It was just her way; even if she was angry and hurt and even if their friendship was in such danger.
   
After significant debate, the woman turned to face him in time for him to release a large explosion into the walls. A shrieking from the large tree gave out as a massive cloud of creatures emerged and made their escape. Birds, bats, and insects rushed through the area and passed the two of them. Kannagi ducked and covered her head, feeling the hard carapaces and scratchy claws sliding over her and around her. She was unlike most girls in that she didn't so much as scream. After almost a minute, the cloud of creatures had finally left and she stood back up. Kannagi didn't even think twice, she had to nip his self-loathing in the bud before it killed the both of them. The blue haired woman walked towards him and open hand slapped him hard across the face. "Enough! If you're not the person you want to be, then by suns and stars, change it! You have the power to do that!"

Kannagi took a step back, her sandals squishing in the thin layer of mud atop stone. "You have the power to do that," she pointed at the blast crater, "You have the power to change yourself. Attend to your weaknesses before you get us both killed." She shook her head and moved away, walking towards a large wet pool that she could see the shine blinking off, from the light of those orbs floating around. Those bloody crystals would shine on their own if they were out and obvious; so the prime place to search was going to be in those hidden places. As she walked away, the ground trembled and groaned. The explosion and her subsequent footsteps had been too much for the ground nearby and what had seemed solid a moment ago became thick with mud in a single second.

The ground fell through, an opened sinkhole filled with the stench of the acidic bog and just as dangerous. Kannagi tried to assert her chakra with swiftness in her feet, but the mudslide moved too swift. The blue haired woman slipped into the rush of brown muck, one hand sticking out, grasping. The ground continued to split and crack, the hole widening all the way towards Genkumaru. Kannagi has lost sight of him rapidly and her hands were jerked around too forcefully to put out any hand seals. Something hard compressed her foot and ankle, twisting. With an agonizing tug, Kannagi freed herself in the dark and her body was swept once more into the churning turmoil of bog water and clay. Her head surfaced several times, letting her catch a breath and spit out the dirt from her lips. She felt the pelting of a few rocks as she tumbled down, riding the disaster out and focusing on staying calm.

With a sudden slam, Kannagi landed on something solid and smooth, and she felt outwards with her fingers. It was some sort of stone floor. She couldn't see but she could hear the echo of the room and feel the way the mud splashed around and away from her. She had fallen into a large cavern. Kannagi choked and coughed, trying to crawl out of the force of the mudslide. She dragged herself through the dark until she came to a wall covered in something shaggy, perhaps the underground root systems of the reeds and weeds far above. Kannagi took a cloth from her pouch and dabbed at her eyes, nose and lips before taking a hearty breath. Fortunately, she didn't smell sulfur or any other toxic gases down here and simply rested there against the stone wall, her pulse still in overdrive with adrenaline.

WC: 805

The shinobi leaned against the wall without a sound, resting and recovering from the adrenaline shock of the mudslide. She was lucky to not have drowned or been sucked deep beneath the bog to die and be preserved for decades to come. Her heart raced and her breath was labored, she spared no ounce of energy to stop Genkumaru from his speech or his embrace. She waited until he had held her a moment too long and gently pushed him away. "Yeah, all the horses, Genkumaru. You're more emotional than my grandmother." She stretched her body a bit, feeling everything inside of it out, testing to be sure every limb and bone functioned. Judging by the tense agony in her right ankle, Kannagi knew it was probably broken. The blue eyed woman showed no pain on her face, an expert at hiding her hidden emotions when she wanted to. Yet, Genkumaru could not hide his pain from her.

She reached forward and touched his shoulders then, pulling him in for a tight hug. "This place is not the place for reunions and melodrama. Did you notice your chakra control is currently good enough to maintain that light? You have been doing your exercises, well done. Now," She paused and whispered delicately in his ear, "Deep breath," Kannagi ordered before suddenly grabbing his injured arm and snapping it hard into place. She had done it several times before for the men in her village growing up. Repairing a dislocation was incredibly painful, but a well practiced basic medic as herself knew the first step was a sincere distraction and a quick action. The distraction was the hug and her whispers in his ear, which given his confession should have been plenty. If he had let her sudden embrace take place, so would her shoulder-fix. Afterwards, she spoke like a doctor, strange given that she was coated in mud and hardly looked the part of a professional, "Just be gentle with it, it will heal."

Kannagi pulled away from him and gave him a soft smile. His confession of feeling a connection to her did not fall on deaf ears, but Kannagi was mostly all business at the moment. Marriages where she had come from were about helping the family, economic growth, two people well matched to successfully raise a good family of their own. Dating was fairly rare and his confession was an odd one of her to try to consider in the moment. She hadn't even known him for very long and had doubts of the truth behind his feelings. Considering all of the help she had been giving him, Kannagi was certain it was one of those situations she had heard of happening for some women in the Irezumi family. Men and boys falling for women after becoming emotionally vulnerable to them was common enough, but normally people recognized the signs of infatuation and helped the victim through it.

Kannagi wasn't sure where their friendship even lay at this point. Despite being at the bottom of this dark cavern, the woman knew he sought out answers to quell the surge in his heart. The only way she would get him to be focused on the task at hand was to give him some sort of answer. "If you don't believe in yourself, why should I believe in you? You have to go through a lot of growth and get a handle of your affectivity before you have my interests," Kannagi swallowed hard and made a face, spitting to the side. "Sorry still have mud in there."

"I can still hear the trickling from above. It sounds as if the slide is mostly over, but we can't risk any sudden motions releasing the roof over our heads. " She gestured her hand around, "Can you give it a look? I still feel a bit winded," Kannagi lied effortlessly, hiding her broken ankle.

WC: 651

From where she sat, Kannagi considered the fall around thirty or forty feet. Her head felt sore also now but she waited until Genkumaru scrambled away before touching it with her palm. A bump there indicated she got hit at some point but she felt lucky there was no blood. Kannagi had to do what she needed to do in a hurry, not wanting Genkumaru to take notice. She opened her medical pouch and pulled out some wrapping cloth. Her sandals were in terrible condition but to not wear them down here might get her feet torn up. Using the fire Genkumaru had made as lighting, she created another paper blade from her arm, cutting two dense roots to act as sticks. Between the wrapping and the sticks she had, Kannagi patched her ankle into a makeshift splint. Then, she coated it in the mud to let it blend in with the rest of her dirty body.

The shinobi couldn't trust Genkumaru to treat her as an equal or want to care for her and she had no intention of being carried around like a broken porcelain doll. This way his focus would be on escape instead of her, and they could partner together well to get themselves out. Of course, that still left the mission incomplete but Kannagi held off hope that they might be fortunate enough to locate one down here. Genkumaru returned to her quickly and she addressed his findings with an astute exclamation, "An amphitheater? By the sound of those roots it sounds like this area was probably something other than a mire at one point. Succession and time caused the place to change, many seasons of flooding perhaps. It could be an ancient temple." Kannagi looked up at him, "Did you see a way out or--?" The loud sounding coming through the cavern made her stop altogether.

Kannagi took Genkumaru's hand and let him pull her up. She placed most of her weight onto her good foot but kept a straight back and a straight face. "That sound is malevolent. Its agitating the ground. We don't need another collapse before we can escape. Maybe we can chop some of those roots and apply them to get back out." Her blue eyes shifted in the dim firelight to look to the faint red glow from the surface. Going towards this discovery of his meant moving away from the only way they had known was a certain way out. While a sunken temple was innately fascinating, those loud clamors only made Kannagi more pressured, as if they were closing in on an underground bomb. "If you have reason to believe this is important enough to investigate, then let's do so swiftly. That sound reminds me of funeral chimes this far below.." Her voice trailed off and she started walking without a limp towards the place Genumaru had come. She would let him lead her all the way there, her blue eyes dark and intense and her face held a stiffness and a tension that made her feel like a boiling kettle on the brink of screaming.

In outward appearance, Kannagi rested nonchalantly against the wall of the cave as Genkumaru dashed around filling the place with dim firelight for them to see by. He hadn't been overreacting; this place was exquisite and ancient in design causing Kannagi to wonder about the plants and their perfect placements within it. What natural or unnatural phenomenon had done all of that collusion? Her ankle throbbed and she leaned harder into the wall, taking a deep breath. When she looked back up, Genkumaru wasn't staring worriedly at her as she had thought he might be. Instead, it was she who stared worriedly at him as he reached his hand into a pool of liquid. It was risky and there was no reason to believe it was a safe idea. Especially if this place was sacred, it might even have been an act of desecration. "Take heed," Kannagi began lifting a hand toward him.

He didn't seem to hear her, digging his hand in and pulling out a handful of crystals. Red crystals. She stared at them intently when he brought them back to her. Kannagi touched them herself, feeling a coolness to the crystals and an evil intent as well. "Well, mission complete I suppose. I don't like the feel of these. You won't mind if I seal them away, lest something else happen down here and we lose them." Her real reason was she wanted to seal these evil crystals out of sight and away from body. She drew out a piece of paper from her pouch. It was stained but not torn; she made her seals and pressed the paper atop his hand until all the crystals were sealed and the paper was left in his hand. "You should hold onto them because you unearthed them."

When he stated that he had an idea to get them both out of here, Kannagi gave him an uneasy smile. She was having a harder time hiding her pain, but filtered the expression organically into her words, "If you have another idea, then let's get started. It is perilous to remain here much longer." Kannagi lifted her head at the sound getting closer and furrowed her brow. It might have been an aftershock, but it moved with a shambling rhythm that gave her the feeling it was artificially sourced. Genkumaru turned and raced back towards the hole, leaving Kannagi behind. She liked being treated as capable and allowed herself to limp after him. She made agonizing faces and soft whimpers as much as she was allowed until Genkumaru was back in hearing and sight range. Then she stabilized herself and forced her legs forward. She had to stop once, helpfully timed to where he stood beneath the collapsed hole and called out to her.

She gave him a brief nod and then waited while he took a position there. As soon as he looked away, Kannagi doubled over and touched her splint. The sticks were moving around and the wrapping was sliding betwixt the grime, grinding the sticks into the swollen area. She felt nauseous when she pressed on the wrapping to adjust it but returned to standing as quickly as she was able. "Sorry, I thought I saw another crystal on the ground. I am advancing now!" The woman cried out to him in a single breath of fast talk. Kannagi walked forward with a clenched jaw and fists and stopped just behind Genkumaru. Sweat dripped from her neck and face, leaving clean streaks where the mud stain was trickled away. Her hard breathing was evident and she whispered, "Yes. I trust you, If you have something which isn't an explosion, I am anticipating it now." The shinobi didn't wait until he said 'when'; the banging sound was nearly deafening in the cavern, with no other sounds to focus on except the dripping of the mud and the racing of her heart as adrenaline started to pump back through her blood to help her deal with the injury. Kannagi latched her hands around his neck and good shoulder and waited.

Kannagi held tightly to Genkumaru as he made some sort of a prayer. She wasn't sure what or who he was praying to, but luckily for him, Kannagi knew how powerful faith and the spiritual world was. If she hadn't, her skepticism might have put her in enough doubt to instead take a defensive stance as the crashing sounds moved ever closer. The monster itself came from the room that they had left, which meant that there were more places, perhaps deeper places to unearth and explore. The creature looked like a massive winged reptile, the sort of beast from children's horror stories and ancient mythology. The creature roared louder than she would have thought possible for a reptile, sounding more like a mammalian predator. "Genkumaru..?" Her voice came expectantly. Whatever he had done, even if she could not see it, better to have been enough. A hefty sense of vertigo overthrew her concerns swiftly; it was a good thing also considering she could feel the heat of those blue flames from just before their ascension.

The creature paced below them in the darkness, illuminated by a second shot of fire in their direction which blinked out before reaching them. Kannagi let go of Genkumaru and walked off the wall and towards the mire, already needing to fight the soggy ground as it threatened to slide her back down. Once she had walked about ten feet away, she addressed Genkumaru. "I don't know how you did that particularly, but it was very well done. Commendable," her stiff nod and smile were aimed at Genkumaru, whether he had followed or stayed upon the wall. She could hear the roars from the bottom of the chamber and started walking again. The sticks had moved again on her ankle, the mud she had used to hide the wrappings had done damage in that the whole splint kept rotating and grinding into the injury. She took a deep breath and the pain scrambled her thoughts. Kannagi excelled in controlling her emotions but with the adrenaline tampering out and the agony worsening, it was only getting more challenging by the second. Kannagi full on limped over to a dry looking spot with a mossy boulder and a dead tree.

"That monstrosity has wings so we can assume it has the ability to use them. If it was down there so deep, it must be seriously hardy. We opened up a gateway from his underground temple to this mire and without knowing its capabilities, we risk imminent danger for ourselves and the villages." If something like that had wings, it was not a far assumption to think it could use them. And with that assumption in mind, how had it gotten stuck in that cavern? With a sigh, Kannagi pulled her canteen out and took a big drink before pouring the rest purposefully over her wrappings and ankle. The mud slid away and she reached her hands down shakily to take the splint apart. It would need to be rebuilt and there was no real requirement for her to hide the fact any longer. Her hands trembled as she pulled the parts away and finally saw the swollen and bruised area. Nearly her entire foot was shades of blue and purple, trickles of blood present from the scraping of the splint but it would appear that the bones had not pierced her skin from the inside out. Her stomach turned as she tried to rework the splint and with a deep inhale she lay back against the dead tree and closed her blue eyes.

"It's broken. Just give me a minute to rest and then I'll patch it up and we can get moving," Kannagi groaned as her fists tightened and released. She steadied her breathing and added, "We have no idea how long it will be before the beast follows us. I'll be as brief as I can manage."

"It's wonderful that I put blind trust in you then. Serves you well enough if I am dead and cannot scold you for lying," She joked but her face was intent and serious looking upon her ankle. Proper healing would be necessary but she wouldn't have access to that for awhile, travel took time. The next best thing was ice, elevation, and a proper splint. A deep frown creased her lips as she considered that she did not carry any pain killers with her and icing and elevating would have to wait. As Genkumaru reprimanded her, Kannagi let out a loud and genuine laugh. "I am aware of the importance of my body. This isn't the best time for a lecture." She took his comments as light hearted or brotherly, not detecting his anger with her focus being mostly on her ankle. Her hands worked shakily as nausea started to come over her. All the energy she had put into the last couple of hours and the cooldown from her adrenaline rush demanded at least basic replenishing of energy with sustenance.

Once they got back to her horse, she would eat and feel better. A proper splint wouldn't be placed until she could stop shaking. "I do need your assistance. Travel carefully, and thank you." Kannagi collected the dirty wrapping and sticks in a bundle in her left hand and used the boulder beside her to help pull herself up. She leaned forward and boarded Genkumaru like a great over-sized child, the woman just a few inches short of six feet tall. She rested her head against his shoulder and tried not to groan in pain from the adjustment. "I might fall asleep. Just... wake me up when you find Cirilla. Whistle and she will return. Just in case, maybe wake me up so I can do the whistling part." He called this mission an adventure, an enlightening adventure. With blood crusted on her arm, her whole body coated in a layer of moist muck, and a broken ankle, somehow she still found Genkumaru to be more crazy than she was.