Private AiT Exam: Prove Yourself [REQ Kamiya Akari]

[Tanatsu Neko]

A few days from their request at the wall, Akari would have a signature carrier pigeon arrive to her window one evening. The note was short and simple, a place and time to be there, a recommendation to bring supplies, and a signature. Nothing more and nothing less from the Anbu. She would know this was her chance to prove herself and enter selection, if she succeeded, she'd become AiT, but if not, then the opportunity may come round only once for her. It hopefully would spark a necessary fire in her to get this done and done right.

Spoiler: letter

Akari,
Take this letter as well as enough supplies to last you a few days to the Tear-Drop Oasis arrive the day after tomorrow. There you will find me, and the test will begin. Destroy after reading.

Meanwhile Neko sat at the oasis next to her fire. She poked and prodded the flames as she exhaled a long-drawn-out sigh. It had been a long time it felt since she was in the position that Akari was about to be in, but she needed to make sure this girl would make the cut. Everything about her said she was capable enough to kill but was she willing to survive. Either way Neko would have her answer soon enough and would know if she'd have another pupil under her wing. Though this one came with a whole new set of issues that her academy students never did.
She would put out her fire and call it a night after finishing her final preparations. In two days, she would know exactly what this girl was made of and if she had the heart to live this sort of life. But it would be useless of her to do so without a goodnight's rest herself. After all, the likelihood existed that she would have to intervein and cut the test short if things went badly fast. So, she too was going to need her wits.
[mft 327]

 

[Kamiya Akari]

Akari's time between missions felt very dull, filled with training improving skills she had already mastered. She only hoped that being an ANBU would speed the process up a bit since there didn't seem many people wishing to teach a potential rival new skills, especially one that was more or less an "outsider" to the village. She had a bloodline connection and was an official genin with graduation from the academy, but she was not raised as one of them. It was due to this, the many years of travel (in her short life) that Akari had developed a habit of always being prepared. Such was the reason when the messenger bird came to deliver the message, the snow-skinned blonde giving it a firm once over, that there was no panicked rush to prepare.

"Destroy the message? Hmm....Does this mean you too, little bird?" She asked with a bright smile, despite the sinister aura that permeated the air. Flame appeared in her hands as the letter burned, frightening the bird as it tried to fly away, though could not be fast enough to clear itself of the flames that licked its tail feathers, causing it to fly into the wall, before being able to put it out on the sand.

Akari paid it no more attention as the young woman turned to return home with a goal in mind. She put on her mission gear, identifying her as a main branch kunoichi of Suna and brought with her a bag filled with an extra change of gear, if necessary, as well as food and water. The desert was rather ruthless, but she was an expert in gathering resources no matter where she found herself in the Land of Wind. "Tear Drop Oasis. This should be entertaining, shouldn't it, little birdy?" she queried with a satisfied smirk as she set forth.

Maps, directions, and such were not much of a problem for her and she would arrive at Tear-Drop Oasis a day ahead of schedule. Waste not, want not, especially for time as she began her search to find the instructor she had only met a single time.

[WC 357]
[Topic Entered]

 

[Tanatsu Neko]

Neko's camp was easy enough to spot, mostly because it was the only one out there. She was standing at her fire stamping it out when Akari arrived, she would look up and smile under her mask. She'd pull the kettle off the embers pouring a cup of tea for each of them, she had remembered something of the level of trust her captain had in her, she intended to return the favor now. There was something sacred about removing your mask near someone, and the level of trust that would carry for Neko, who had not done so was immense.

"I see my instructions were met, welcome. Come and sit, I've just finished a pot."

She lifted the cup in an offer to the young woman as she approached. The rest of this was going to be a mess, but at least this part could be friendly. She knew that the trial to come would put her to work in a way she was sure Akari had not been yet, but she hoped to make a good impression before hand. Tea and conversation was an important step to gaining any sort of respect from Neko given her tutelage.

 

[Kamiya Akari]

A charming, quaint little town settled around the aptly named oasis in the desert of Wind Country, Akari could not help but wonder what the test were to entail. Perhaps it would be to slaughter this outlying village in order to monopolize the oasis for the village. It seemed unlikely, but it was not very hard for her to imagine. Akari had heard that other ninja villages tended to be "honorable", particularly within their own country, but she had never felt that sort of way within Suna. However, the white skinned girl would acknowledge there was a bias affecting her in that regard.

It did not take long at all for her to locate just where her examiner was, smoke being snuffed out under her foot from a fire, the blonde approached her with a trademark grin. "I do aim to please!" she said, drawing closer to the woman and her tea kettle. "Oh, how delightful! I am only too happy to accept your generous offer! And quite delicious, I must say!" ever so polite that it seemed off she was a shinobi at all with a charming, welcoming smile plastered ear to ear as she had taken a sip of the offered cup along with a seat. Even sitting, the difference in their heights were quite a sight to behold.

"I am quite eager to see what you have planned for this little outing. Quite eager, indeed! Perhaps there is even a reason you choose this place in particular?" She queried, remaining the polite and respectful tone. Akari kept the conversation very formal, at least on her end, for she was not yet ANBU and it would likely appear to be disrespectful to try and pry into the woman's personal life when she likely wished to keep it private. Of course, she attempted to be as disarming as possible to the woman who lived life in the shadows should the ANBU operative wish to inquire about her own personal life.

[WC 331]
[TWC 688]

 

[Tanatsu Neko]

Neko nodded at the question and turned to the woman. "Yes, actually. It's secluded, little to no foot traffic, and the perfect place for someone to be poisoned and disappear without anyone actually noticing. So here we are, your exam starts once the effects begin." She undid the clasp of her mask and took a sip of her tea, her face completely exposed. "if you survive this, then you'll have my secret. If you don't then you'll be just another one of the many who never have been found, so cheers"

The smile grew on her face as she sat down and leaned back to look at the girl. "Tell me then Akari, have you seen violence? death? Have you felt that hit of chemicals released in the brain just before your eyes shut and death begins to set in?" She waited knowing that in a matter of minutes this girl was going to be in her own mind further than she had ever been. The poison would bring her close to death without a real threat there of, but the hallucinations would cause her to create a test of her own. If there was anything the girl was holding on to, any darkness or demons, it would make itself known shortly.

Neko knew first hand the darkness she was describing, but she was curious how much this girl had lived before this moment. She was curious to know if the world had been kind, cruel, or just existed for her. Either way she was about to learn and witness the horrors of poor Akari's mind.

 

[Kamiya Akari]

It was quite the situation she found herself in, sitting alone a good ways from the little town in the middle of the desert. She had never actually thought much about the situation, but perhaps that was the problem in the first place. She had assumed the remote location was a test of her physical skills, but Neko started to explain herself and the world seemed to feel much more dark and devious. The blonde never once had much use for poison. Before arriving at Suna, she disposed of her problems with a blade or any other nearby weapon, if necessary, and poison was tricky to begin with. No one then had known her well enough to entrust a random child with this knowledge, it was unnecessary at the time anyways.

The academy touched on the topic, but not enough, it seemed. She put the tea cup back on the saucer, not wanting to risk it as the effects slowly started to creep up. Her crimson eyes started to get hazy to look upon as Neko began to question, but perhaps it might be surprising that the wide smile never wavered for even a moment, as if it were painted on. Perhaps it even grew wider after the ANBU operative removed her mask in that instance. "My, my. Isn't that a daisy. That was poor planning on my part to not suspect poison, my secretive friend," she said with a chuckle which grew louder and almost slightly maniacal before retiring with a grinning sigh. "What fun, indeed. I've seen much violence, death. I am from the Land of the Wind. A land of demons and monsters, perhaps I am one of them myself. I can confidently say, much of my blood stains the sand eternally throughout the nation in more ways than one. I've never been so close to death that I close my eyes willing to willingly accept it, I must confess. I wonder, is this a truth serum? What will I see with this drug? Oh, I quiver with anticipation. Such a new experience to learn from...." seeming to become a bit unhinged as she spoke, her mind opening just a bit further with each passing moment as the onset of the drug's effects grows stronger while she ever retained the smile and, by reflex, her hand reached for a kunai, gripping it like a knife.

[WC 400]
[TWC 1088]

 

[Tanatsu Neko]

Neko laughed as her form rapidly began to shift into nothing but mist that drifted away, leaving Akari to her own devices. However, Neko was not the only thing that was changing around Akari in that moment. The ground began to crack, stone walls rising from the sand as if they had been waiting dormant for this exact moment. In a matter of seconds the sky shifted from a pleasant blue to a bright red filled with cracking thunder and bolts of lightning. This was not the oasis any longer, but now a maze of cracked stone and smokey figures.
She would notice the walls slowly moving closer and closer, a narrowing passage before her as Neko's voice echoed out.
"Come now, this way.."
The voice floated on the air and was in no particular direction. Akari was going to have to make her way through this and find Neko, that is if she wanted to make it through selection. She would also begin to notice Neko's voice was not the only in this maze, but there were soft and familiar whispers that carried to her ears. Distant memories and lost stories from her home that were making themself known once more. This drug, and her willingness to open her mind to it, were making it so easy for the mind to make it's own monsters for the maze.

 

[Kamiya Akari]

The shift in the world around her was particularly unpleasant as the other woman started to vanish, even more rudely was the fact that she asked a question but did not respond to her answer in any matter. Despite the smile upon her face, the kunoichi inhaled deeply for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts as even the sounds of the desert world started to vanish and were replaced with thunder, walls being created from nothing as smoke started to fill her lungs and mind in one fell swoop. "All is an illusion, a game. The world is a stage for such games, for entertainment..." she repeated, as if some sort of mantra as she opened her blood eyes that were being unfocused by the drug.

She stood up, in a haze, barely wondering if she truly was standing or if this were a strange part of the illusion that had been created. The woman's voice appeared distant, calling out to her as the blonde's teeth grew in number, the corners of her mouth pulling back slightly as the back teeth started to grind as a separate distant voice appeared. She recognized it. Someone who had attempted something that ended with pigs ensuring he was never found and she gripped her kunai rather tightly.

It was just an illusion, a dream, nothing less and nothing more, such were the things that were playing through in her mind as she thought about the situation with utmost care, listening and remembering the direction her instructor had called her from, making her way slowly but surely. Several other voices started to draw closer, all ones from her past. All people who had passed from this life, all of them people she had met along her journey. A slight twitch of her eye was prevalent, yet she made sure to maintain her smile to keep everything in check as much as possible.

"An illusion on a stage, a trick hare, a rabbit from a hat. Such clever slights of hand," she muttered to herself as the first voice grew louder, now in front of her, a shadowy outline of smoke and stone. It wasn't real. She assumed it wasn't real. Still, it was better safe than sorry as she jumped with a spin, stretching her leg out and connecting with the smoke-clad figure's neck, it felt real and she could swear she heard noise as if it fell to the side, but her eyes told her that it vanished into wisps. That voice vanished and she pressed on.

[WC 427]
[TWC 1,515]

 

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