Having only just returned home from a previous mission, Shun Sora was once again assigned another solo mission. Perhaps her track record for losing squadron members had finally taken it's toll on the village. Her uncanny ability to survive and return, compared to the misfortune of her comrades, seemingly spoke volumes. Standing at the villages gates, along Dragon's Tooth Pass, Shun Sora stared out into the distant horizon. A concerned and puzzled look could be found upon her face, as she and several onlookers stood gazing at the dark and ominous clouds looming over the northern skies. The reports of another peculiar weather anomaly were obviously more than just reports and clearly had some merit.
Supposedly, there was an odd tropical storm just off the coastline in the northern region. An event that wasn't unheard of, but given the current season, unnatural. This event had stirred concerns among villagers and shinobi alike, all across the country, but posed great risk to the livelihoods of some northern settlements. Equipped with her gear, consisting of her shinobi tools, camping and hunting equipment, Shun Sora embarked upon this new mission. Her journey to the northern coast was filled with peril as the further north she went, the stronger the storm began to in grow with rage and intensity. By nightfall, the rain began to lash against her skin as the skies filled with violent thunder and powerful gusts of wind.
She had made it to the northern mountain range, once again. With each continued step, she began to carefully observe the storm's behavior and take mental notes of it's erratic patterns of wind and rain. Going deeper into this valley, Sora located a nearby cavern and took up refuge within it for the night. Soaked from the storm, she quickly pitched her tint and started a campfire. Stripping out of her wet clothes, and changing into new Gi outfit, she used ninja wire to set up a clothes line beside the fire and hung her wet gear to dry. Pulling out her note pad, she began to write down her earlier observations as lighting crackled in the skies outside; illuminating them with brief burst of brilliant light.
Despite the chaos surrounding her, and the situation she had found herself in this night, Sora remained focused on her mission. In fact, as violent and relentless as this storm was, Sora felt a sense of comfort in it all. Once she finished writing out of earlier observations, she returned her notepad to her bags and placed a few cans of food next to the fire to warm. "Perhaps Raiden is angry at the state of things." She said, attempting to verbally point the finger of blame. Truth be told, Sora wasn't one for the super natural or cult followings. After a short while, her food was warmed and ready. Blissfully eating, while enjoying the thunderous booms of lightning, she began to grow tired. Her mind wondered if the storm would let up come morning, if even for a while; just to make the rest of her journey easier. Calling it a night, she crawled into her tint to rest.
Come the next morning, Sora found herself woken by the sound of the ferocious winds blasting at the entrance of the cavern, echoing all throughout. Disturbed and in a panic, she scurried to her feet and glanced towards the entrance. The storm from the night before had only gotten worse; what was once torrential, now appeared as silver curtain blanketing her view. Sighing, she checked to see if her clothes and gear had dried out over course of the night, knowing that even if they had, it wouldn't last if she didn't figure something out. Packing up her camp, and collecting her gear, Sora began to approach the exit of the cavern, but not forming hand seals and reaching out into the rain. With precise chakra manipulation, and taking full advantage of her Ice elemental ninjutsu affinity, she formed large umbrella sculpted of ice. Holding it in hand, she continued her journey.
Several hours would pass as she seemingly walked aimlessly throughout the storm, only before coming across a pathway surrounded by boulders, leading out towards a field overlooking the sea. Within this field, the ferocity winds threatened to sweep her off her feet, and yet Sora proceeded forward in the face of nature's fury. Upon reaching the other side, she noticed the field lead to a cliff looking out to see. Maintaining a safe distance from the edge, she looked out and bore witness to the full fury of the storm.
The pure force of the wind had caused the water to ferociously surge against the coast line, pounding against its rocky coast line. What was once a pristine sandy beach and natural habitats for turtles, had flooded for what appeared to be miles. Sora could see debris from a local settlement, crushed and scattered, all throughout what appeared to be miles of beach land. She knew she wasn't far from another settlements, and made haste for it. In her mind, she knew this one had to have weathered through the storm. From memory, it was further inland than this one below. Taking only a couple of minutes to locate it, a sigh of relief escaped her lips as she approached the settlement.
As she got closer, she began looking around and trying to picture the landscape how she remembered it. What was one farmland had now turned fields of mud, and their wasn't a settler in sight. Maybe they had left? Shaking her head at the thought, she continued until she came to the first house. Knocking on the door, and patiently waiting, her eyes widened as it opened and a soft voice questioned her. "What do you want? They asked. "I'm been sent from the cloud village, may I ask you a few questions?" Asked Sora, only to be answered with a swift reply. "No, go speak to the village chief at the long house." The voiced replied, before slamming shut in Sora's face. Tilting her head at this response and how quickly the settler brushed her off, Sora began to shake her head and walk away, towards a large wooden long house further down the pathway. She had no clue if this was the long house, but it was a uniquely designed building.
Appearing to be a 'long house' in terms of design, she continued to quickly navigate through the storm founding her way to it's entrance. Banging on the large set of doors, only to watch them fly open and to be met by a man with a spear pointed at her, stared and waited. "I told you people to leave this settlement alone!" The man yelled. Sora was taken aback by this act and confused about his statement. "I'm with The Hidden Cloud. I'm here on a mission, my name is Shun Sora. I'm a Chuunin." She stated, as she looked the man in the eyes. Silence befell the two of them, for a few brief moments as the man lowered his spear and motioned for her to come in side. "I apologize for earlier." he told her, as she entered into the long house; leaving her ice sculptured umbrella behind. The man shut the door behind her, and began walking towards a large sitting area filled with wooden tables, benches, and stools. "My name is Saitori. I'm the the chieftain of this settlement. Are you hunting that group that's been bothering us? I don't remember sending any requests." Said the man.
"This is the first time I'm hearing about any group causing trouble. I was actually sent here to investigate this tropical storm." She told him, only for him to look puzzled. "Why'd they send just you for something like that?" He asked. "A little while back, there was a strange weather anomaly happening within the thunder mountains. Somehow I got tasked with that and managed to solve the problem, so I guess this was just right up my alley." She told him, as she watched him motion out towards the building. A few figures made themselves known, a young woman bringing a few plates of food, a man bringing wood to a near by fire pit, and a older woman who sat down beside the chief.
Looking at the plates of food, and noticing the actions of the others present, Sora's brow raised at the situation. "Well, I can tell you something about this storm. I don't know if it'll help, but it's not natural." He said, only for Sora to immediately reply. "I can see that. It's ridiculously strong and out of season. It's completely unnatural." She told him, trying not to sound rude. "No, you don't understand. What you see and what I see are completely different. With my Byakugan, I can see that this storm is a massive burst of cursed energy." He told her, as silence befell them all. For a few seconds, Sora seemed stunned as this statement, only before processing this information.
"You're a Hyuuga, and your basically telling me that this is just cursed energy?" Looking at the man, as he nodded towards her. "Yes, it's hard to explain if you're not familiar with with natural energy. But to try and sum it up, the world is filled with natural energy. It's similar to chakra, but not quite the same and somehow a large portion of it has become cursed and this storm is the result of that." He told her, with absolutely confidence. Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, she realized that this could possibly be true. She wasn't an expert on the subject and had little knowledge when it came to natural energy, or even cursed energy. Folding her arms, and glancing down at the table, she began to process a lot of thoughts, but had a question to ask. "So if this is unnatural and involves cursed energy, what do you suspect caused this?" She asked him, not really expecting him to reply with any kind of certainty.
"It's possible that someone, or a large number of people, could have caused this. I don't know how or why, but that's more than likely the case." He told her, as the woman sitting beside him fixed a bowl of food and placed it in front of Sora. Placing her hands together, and bowing her head for a brief moment, Sora let out a smile as she smelled the food. Before eating, a thought dawned on her. "Earlier, you mentioned a group of people who you told to leave because they were bothering you. Do you think they could've had anything to do with this?" She asked, just before she began to stuff her face full of rice, beef slices, and smothered broccoli. "I don't know. Some of them did have an ominous presence though. It's possible, but I surely hope not. Things got heated a few days before this storm came about. If they're capable of doing something like this, then I may of made some terrible enemies for the settlement." He told her, while watching her scarf down her food.
The conversation fell silent for a while, as the other two people sat down at the table with them and all five of them began to eat. These people had been overwhelmingly welcoming towards her, unlike the person at the first house she visited. Nearly an hour would go buy, giving them all plenty of time to eat, and relax given the current situation, before Sora would pull out her notepad and begin writing things down. "Do you think you could describe that group that you mentioned earlier? I'd like to write about them in my report back to the village." She asked, as the man nodded. "Well, there were about six of them, all men appearing to be in their early to mid twenties." The chief would tell her, before grabbing his chin and leaning forward. "All of them had this unique yellow eye color and jet black hair, and they carried swords of various shapes and sizes. Shinobi, but more like the mercenary type.." He said, with a brief pause. "The leader of the group was clearly a Santaru. During one of our arguments, I watched his eyes glow a neon electric yellow color when he got angry. Another also happened to share some common ancestry to the Hyuuga clan, like myself"
"A group of shinobi, one being a Santaru, a Hyuuga descendant and some of the others giving off an ominous presence. That seems like it's adding up, but what were the arguments about?" She asked, after making that statement. As of right now, this was just a wild guess, but it made a lot of sense to her. "Well, they were trying to recruit some of the younger men in the settlement. Something about going out to sea, but they were also causing other problems. Oh and the leader would get drunk and brag about how he recently killed a thunder bird. Rather or not he was lying, the idea is kind of blasphemy." Upon hearing that, Sora dropped her pen and notepad on the table.
Her mind instantly went back to a few weeks prior, when she investigated the vanishing Lightning and found a young thunder bird chained at the foot. It was just feet away from a much larger carcass of another of it's kind. Sora was about the strike the beast down, thinking there was no other way to solve the problem, just before actually piecing the situation together. Perhaps the leader of this group is the one who had slain the larger thunder bird and entrapped the younger one. What had Sora gotten herself into? It was possible that this weather anomaly was somehow connected to the last, through this group. For Sora, it was still too soon to jump to conclusions, but she had a hunch she was on to something. "Out of curiosity, since you can see that this storm is basically just a bunch of cursed energy, do you have any idea on how to stop it?" She asked the chief, this time hoping her had some solid ideas. "I think it'll eventually just burn itself out. My plan is for our settlement to just wait it out. But there might be another way, if someone could somehow disrupt the energy field of the storm. Since it's cursed energy, perhaps holy energy or holy chakra could do it, but that would have to be done at it's center, which would require someone pass through the storm and make it to it's eye." He told her, as she seemed a little to eager.
Suddenly, the chiefs faced seemed puzzled at Sora's expression. "You're not considering it, are you? It's incredibly dangerous! No ship could make it through those waters, let alone hold up against the wind." With a slight chuckle, Sora replied. "I don't need a ship, I have a leviathan. Just trust me." She said, as she gathered her things and bowed in thanks for the food and information. Stunned with confusion over her comment, the chief slammed his hands down on the table. "Are you really that dense?" The Chief asked, questioning her sanity. Regardless, she made her way towards the long house's exit, opening it and once again embracing the furious storm.
[Wc: 2500+]
[Yeah, I will finish later; Tomorrow, I hope!]
[Mission Approval Link]
Supposedly, there was an odd tropical storm just off the coastline in the northern region. An event that wasn't unheard of, but given the current season, unnatural. This event had stirred concerns among villagers and shinobi alike, all across the country, but posed great risk to the livelihoods of some northern settlements. Equipped with her gear, consisting of her shinobi tools, camping and hunting equipment, Shun Sora embarked upon this new mission. Her journey to the northern coast was filled with peril as the further north she went, the stronger the storm began to in grow with rage and intensity. By nightfall, the rain began to lash against her skin as the skies filled with violent thunder and powerful gusts of wind.
She had made it to the northern mountain range, once again. With each continued step, she began to carefully observe the storm's behavior and take mental notes of it's erratic patterns of wind and rain. Going deeper into this valley, Sora located a nearby cavern and took up refuge within it for the night. Soaked from the storm, she quickly pitched her tint and started a campfire. Stripping out of her wet clothes, and changing into new Gi outfit, she used ninja wire to set up a clothes line beside the fire and hung her wet gear to dry. Pulling out her note pad, she began to write down her earlier observations as lighting crackled in the skies outside; illuminating them with brief burst of brilliant light.
Despite the chaos surrounding her, and the situation she had found herself in this night, Sora remained focused on her mission. In fact, as violent and relentless as this storm was, Sora felt a sense of comfort in it all. Once she finished writing out of earlier observations, she returned her notepad to her bags and placed a few cans of food next to the fire to warm. "Perhaps Raiden is angry at the state of things." She said, attempting to verbally point the finger of blame. Truth be told, Sora wasn't one for the super natural or cult followings. After a short while, her food was warmed and ready. Blissfully eating, while enjoying the thunderous booms of lightning, she began to grow tired. Her mind wondered if the storm would let up come morning, if even for a while; just to make the rest of her journey easier. Calling it a night, she crawled into her tint to rest.
Come the next morning, Sora found herself woken by the sound of the ferocious winds blasting at the entrance of the cavern, echoing all throughout. Disturbed and in a panic, she scurried to her feet and glanced towards the entrance. The storm from the night before had only gotten worse; what was once torrential, now appeared as silver curtain blanketing her view. Sighing, she checked to see if her clothes and gear had dried out over course of the night, knowing that even if they had, it wouldn't last if she didn't figure something out. Packing up her camp, and collecting her gear, Sora began to approach the exit of the cavern, but not forming hand seals and reaching out into the rain. With precise chakra manipulation, and taking full advantage of her Ice elemental ninjutsu affinity, she formed large umbrella sculpted of ice. Holding it in hand, she continued her journey.
Several hours would pass as she seemingly walked aimlessly throughout the storm, only before coming across a pathway surrounded by boulders, leading out towards a field overlooking the sea. Within this field, the ferocity winds threatened to sweep her off her feet, and yet Sora proceeded forward in the face of nature's fury. Upon reaching the other side, she noticed the field lead to a cliff looking out to see. Maintaining a safe distance from the edge, she looked out and bore witness to the full fury of the storm.
The pure force of the wind had caused the water to ferociously surge against the coast line, pounding against its rocky coast line. What was once a pristine sandy beach and natural habitats for turtles, had flooded for what appeared to be miles. Sora could see debris from a local settlement, crushed and scattered, all throughout what appeared to be miles of beach land. She knew she wasn't far from another settlements, and made haste for it. In her mind, she knew this one had to have weathered through the storm. From memory, it was further inland than this one below. Taking only a couple of minutes to locate it, a sigh of relief escaped her lips as she approached the settlement.
As she got closer, she began looking around and trying to picture the landscape how she remembered it. What was one farmland had now turned fields of mud, and their wasn't a settler in sight. Maybe they had left? Shaking her head at the thought, she continued until she came to the first house. Knocking on the door, and patiently waiting, her eyes widened as it opened and a soft voice questioned her. "What do you want? They asked. "I'm been sent from the cloud village, may I ask you a few questions?" Asked Sora, only to be answered with a swift reply. "No, go speak to the village chief at the long house." The voiced replied, before slamming shut in Sora's face. Tilting her head at this response and how quickly the settler brushed her off, Sora began to shake her head and walk away, towards a large wooden long house further down the pathway. She had no clue if this was the long house, but it was a uniquely designed building.
Appearing to be a 'long house' in terms of design, she continued to quickly navigate through the storm founding her way to it's entrance. Banging on the large set of doors, only to watch them fly open and to be met by a man with a spear pointed at her, stared and waited. "I told you people to leave this settlement alone!" The man yelled. Sora was taken aback by this act and confused about his statement. "I'm with The Hidden Cloud. I'm here on a mission, my name is Shun Sora. I'm a Chuunin." She stated, as she looked the man in the eyes. Silence befell the two of them, for a few brief moments as the man lowered his spear and motioned for her to come in side. "I apologize for earlier." he told her, as she entered into the long house; leaving her ice sculptured umbrella behind. The man shut the door behind her, and began walking towards a large sitting area filled with wooden tables, benches, and stools. "My name is Saitori. I'm the the chieftain of this settlement. Are you hunting that group that's been bothering us? I don't remember sending any requests." Said the man.
"This is the first time I'm hearing about any group causing trouble. I was actually sent here to investigate this tropical storm." She told him, only for him to look puzzled. "Why'd they send just you for something like that?" He asked. "A little while back, there was a strange weather anomaly happening within the thunder mountains. Somehow I got tasked with that and managed to solve the problem, so I guess this was just right up my alley." She told him, as she watched him motion out towards the building. A few figures made themselves known, a young woman bringing a few plates of food, a man bringing wood to a near by fire pit, and a older woman who sat down beside the chief.
Looking at the plates of food, and noticing the actions of the others present, Sora's brow raised at the situation. "Well, I can tell you something about this storm. I don't know if it'll help, but it's not natural." He said, only for Sora to immediately reply. "I can see that. It's ridiculously strong and out of season. It's completely unnatural." She told him, trying not to sound rude. "No, you don't understand. What you see and what I see are completely different. With my Byakugan, I can see that this storm is a massive burst of cursed energy." He told her, as silence befell them all. For a few seconds, Sora seemed stunned as this statement, only before processing this information.
"You're a Hyuuga, and your basically telling me that this is just cursed energy?" Looking at the man, as he nodded towards her. "Yes, it's hard to explain if you're not familiar with with natural energy. But to try and sum it up, the world is filled with natural energy. It's similar to chakra, but not quite the same and somehow a large portion of it has become cursed and this storm is the result of that." He told her, with absolutely confidence. Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, she realized that this could possibly be true. She wasn't an expert on the subject and had little knowledge when it came to natural energy, or even cursed energy. Folding her arms, and glancing down at the table, she began to process a lot of thoughts, but had a question to ask. "So if this is unnatural and involves cursed energy, what do you suspect caused this?" She asked him, not really expecting him to reply with any kind of certainty.
"It's possible that someone, or a large number of people, could have caused this. I don't know how or why, but that's more than likely the case." He told her, as the woman sitting beside him fixed a bowl of food and placed it in front of Sora. Placing her hands together, and bowing her head for a brief moment, Sora let out a smile as she smelled the food. Before eating, a thought dawned on her. "Earlier, you mentioned a group of people who you told to leave because they were bothering you. Do you think they could've had anything to do with this?" She asked, just before she began to stuff her face full of rice, beef slices, and smothered broccoli. "I don't know. Some of them did have an ominous presence though. It's possible, but I surely hope not. Things got heated a few days before this storm came about. If they're capable of doing something like this, then I may of made some terrible enemies for the settlement." He told her, while watching her scarf down her food.
The conversation fell silent for a while, as the other two people sat down at the table with them and all five of them began to eat. These people had been overwhelmingly welcoming towards her, unlike the person at the first house she visited. Nearly an hour would go buy, giving them all plenty of time to eat, and relax given the current situation, before Sora would pull out her notepad and begin writing things down. "Do you think you could describe that group that you mentioned earlier? I'd like to write about them in my report back to the village." She asked, as the man nodded. "Well, there were about six of them, all men appearing to be in their early to mid twenties." The chief would tell her, before grabbing his chin and leaning forward. "All of them had this unique yellow eye color and jet black hair, and they carried swords of various shapes and sizes. Shinobi, but more like the mercenary type.." He said, with a brief pause. "The leader of the group was clearly a Santaru. During one of our arguments, I watched his eyes glow a neon electric yellow color when he got angry. Another also happened to share some common ancestry to the Hyuuga clan, like myself"
"A group of shinobi, one being a Santaru, a Hyuuga descendant and some of the others giving off an ominous presence. That seems like it's adding up, but what were the arguments about?" She asked, after making that statement. As of right now, this was just a wild guess, but it made a lot of sense to her. "Well, they were trying to recruit some of the younger men in the settlement. Something about going out to sea, but they were also causing other problems. Oh and the leader would get drunk and brag about how he recently killed a thunder bird. Rather or not he was lying, the idea is kind of blasphemy." Upon hearing that, Sora dropped her pen and notepad on the table.
Her mind instantly went back to a few weeks prior, when she investigated the vanishing Lightning and found a young thunder bird chained at the foot. It was just feet away from a much larger carcass of another of it's kind. Sora was about the strike the beast down, thinking there was no other way to solve the problem, just before actually piecing the situation together. Perhaps the leader of this group is the one who had slain the larger thunder bird and entrapped the younger one. What had Sora gotten herself into? It was possible that this weather anomaly was somehow connected to the last, through this group. For Sora, it was still too soon to jump to conclusions, but she had a hunch she was on to something. "Out of curiosity, since you can see that this storm is basically just a bunch of cursed energy, do you have any idea on how to stop it?" She asked the chief, this time hoping her had some solid ideas. "I think it'll eventually just burn itself out. My plan is for our settlement to just wait it out. But there might be another way, if someone could somehow disrupt the energy field of the storm. Since it's cursed energy, perhaps holy energy or holy chakra could do it, but that would have to be done at it's center, which would require someone pass through the storm and make it to it's eye." He told her, as she seemed a little to eager.
Suddenly, the chiefs faced seemed puzzled at Sora's expression. "You're not considering it, are you? It's incredibly dangerous! No ship could make it through those waters, let alone hold up against the wind." With a slight chuckle, Sora replied. "I don't need a ship, I have a leviathan. Just trust me." She said, as she gathered her things and bowed in thanks for the food and information. Stunned with confusion over her comment, the chief slammed his hands down on the table. "Are you really that dense?" The Chief asked, questioning her sanity. Regardless, she made her way towards the long house's exit, opening it and once again embracing the furious storm.
[Wc: 2500+]
[Yeah, I will finish later; Tomorrow, I hope!]
[Mission Approval Link]
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