Stretching the Legs [Contract Search]

[Shirai Sadao]

It had felt like an age since he had left the academy ground most of his time being taken up by his training with his new teacher. Following his gut he wandered the forest, looking at the great trees surrounding him and wondering if he had ever taken the time in recent weeks to train himself with his own methods or even taken time to relax. Pressing his hand against the bark of a nearby tree and feeling the soft evening breeze brush against his cheek he couldn't help but smile at the serenity of the moment.

"It's been sometime since i came here, grandfather always had me in tow back in those days."

His smile faded as he began to stretch and a childish grin crossed his face tilting his head back to look up what he assumed would be a good enough challenge as he cracked his knuckles and began to bend his legs ready to leap.

"Train the body as much as the mind, what could go wrong"

Jumping and grabbing onto the lowest branch he could reach he began to climb the tree attempting to make it up as quickly as his arms and legs would allow him, finding it a lot easier than he used to in his younger days. As the thought passed through his mind the moment of distraction was more than enough to knock his concentration off the task at hand and with the rate he was climbing has little time to react to what happened next.

Reaching out to grab nothing but air his eyes went wide as he realized he'd missed the branch he'd reached for as all he could do was let out a defeated sigh, his rapid decent back to the earth below was a swift one his face one of disappointment and disapproval and if he had time to cross his arms he more than likely would have.

"What could go wrong he says, Famous last words as always"

These disgruntled words were all he had time to say as his relationship with the ground below the tree became more than a bit intimate landing with a great thud as his legs rested against its bark.

Laying there he could only now realize that while he was up there it may have not been the best time to let the mind wander, taking a moment to catch his breath as he opened his eyes to look up to the rays of light passing through the gaps in the leafs as he listened the the chirping of nearby birds as he lifted a hand wondering how stiff his body would most likely be after that screw up.

How many times had he been here in the past, laying in the dirt and mud at the request of his peers to get where he was now, placing his hands behind his head content with his new found bed in the dirt he took a deep breath of the fresh air, seeming somewhat content with the presence of nature around him.

[WC:511]

 

[Haku Yuki]

YOU FOUND THE SLUG CONTRACT! DO YOU ACCEPT OR DECLINE? ​

 

[Shirai Sadao]

I accept the contract

 

[Haku Yuki]

Kuji - The "Super" Slug​

Today was going to start out just like any day in the life of Kuji. He was going to sit on his favourite branch, chew his favourite leaf a little and maybe, if there was the time in between, have a nap. Life for Kuji was good that was until everything that he knew up to that point in his life was about to change. Little did the tiny slug know that fate had put into action a series of events that would shatter reality as he knew it.

After a particularly eventful afternoon of eating, which for a slug was pretty eventful, Kuji was taking a nap. Below him as a strange hulking something, this something was, in fact, Yukio an Academy student from the village just beyond Kuji’s tree. From his perch, if he was awake, he would have seen the boy trying and failing to climb the very tree that the slug had curled up on to nap. Unfortunately for Kuji he was not if he was what happened next wouldn’t have been nearly as astonishing. Yukio grabbed from the branch above him his hand, he failed to find a good hold but his fingers, however, caught the branch causing it to flick up. The momentum of this action dislodged the little slug sending it flying upwards into the air, it was at this point Kuji woke up. His open his eyes slowly, one by one, the sight of him so far from his branch or in fact anything first came as a bit of a shock, then he felt the air on his under belly it was a strange feeling but he liked it. Kuji hung there, it only for a few seconds but to him, it felt much longer. He was overcome by a sudden feeling of joy in his mind he was the world’s first flying slug, which of any slug or otherwise was a bit of an achievement. His hopes of this soon ended as he too began his descent downwards, now the up bit Kuji didn’t mind, the newly discovered falling wasn’t something that he was overly keen off.

Kuji opened his mouth and yelled closing his eyes tight as the speed of the fall picked up. His descent was halted by the same thing that caused it, there was a wet slap as his body collided the forehead of the boy that had set all of this in motion.For a few moments, there was nothing once he was sure that he was no longer falling her open his eyes, once again one at a time.

”I’m alive!” He shouted loud with elation, he slid his slimy over the new fleshy surface that he found himself on. ” I’m the world’s first flying slug. I need to tell everyone!” he shuffled along again leaving a thick wet slime trail behind him. The sudden realisation dawned on him that other than his branch and leaf he didn’t know anyone.

 

[Shirai Sadao]

After laying there for a short time Yukio felt truly relaxed stretching his shoulders as he went to sit up but was taken aback by something slimy suddenly slapping him in the face as he flinch causing his head to snap back and bounce off the soft earth beneath him.

As he regained his senses he could swear he heard a voice looking around for what could have spoken before ending up cross-eyed looking at what seemed to be a tiny slug making its way across his face. He went to speak but his words escaped him as he had to double take to the sky where the tiny creature had seemed to come from finally managing to construct a sentence with some semblance of sense.

“Did you just fall from the sky or more importantly did you just speak to me?”

Comprehending the moment he learned it was better to expect the circumstances than attempt to understand them as he made the effort to hold bad the many questions flooding into his mind at this moment. Watching the slug shuffling along his face with purpose before smiling and carefully sitting up as to not disturb this seemingly happy beings new found adventure across his head.

Taking a moment to brush himself off as he sat up he looked around to see if there were anymore, curious if the little guy had any company with him and if so what they were doing falling from the sky.

 

[Haku Yuki]

Kuji was a little startled when he felt the surface that he had softly landed on start to move, to his knowledge the ground didn’t move. It was in this moment that he was pretty sure that the thing he had landed on wasn’t the ground at all, the fact was only made clearer as Yukio sat up changing the slug perceptive of the world, and he was taking too kindly to this new sideways view. He slid himself across the boy’s face to the top of his nose, looking to the giant’s eyes leaving a thick trail of slime over the side of the Yukio’s face.

He heard whatever he was on start to talk it was a rather loud booming voice or at least it was to Kuji. His eye’s stared into the eyes of the young Shinobi, Fuji blinked, with his trademark one eye at a time blink, there was a brief pause before the slug screamed.

“The ground doesn’t normally move or at least it didn’t last time I was down here!” He shouted slightly panicked but also a little confused at the hulking mass that he had perched on. “And of course, I came from the sky, I am Kuji, The Super Slug, the only slug in existence that can fly. Or at least I think I am, I know actually know one slug and that is me so I don’t really have a fair basis for comparison” He slid his slimy body further up the boy’s nose. “And what are you Moving Pink Ground Blob? Speak or Kuji shall be forced to smite you down!” He pointed his stumpy arm thing to the boy's eye trying his best to sound threatening.

 

[Shirai Sadao]

Watching the slug crawl across his face he had wondered if the voice he heard had been a figment of his imagination that was until it perched on his nose and after a short period of time after he spoke began screaming. To the slug this may have seemed like a normal scream but to Yukio he couldn’t help but find it rather cute, sounding to him like a high pitched squeak.

He waited for it to declare its name and what it actually is though strangely enough the slug also declared itself a flying super slug, something Yukio didn’t quite know what to make of but accepted the slugs reasoning all the same. As he responded he attempted to speak a bit quieter than before hoping not to terrify the slug again.

“Well hello there Super Slug Kuji, I am the ninja Hyuuga Yukio though as to you being the first slug to fly” He looked to the sky taking a deep breath as is though about what to say “I’m pretty sure your very unique in that respect, not even I can fly”

Finishing his response Yukio brought his hand up to his face, offering the little slug a more comfortable place to sit on rather than the uneven area of his face.

 

[Haku Yuki]

Kuji puffed out his chest and put his arms stumps on what in slug anatomy could only be described as his hips, he looked back into the face of the Yukio, trying his best to make himself look bigger than the thing in front of him. He wasn’t really sure what a Yukio or a Ninja was but if they couldn’t fly then they must be a pretty pathetic species. He could fly and he was a slug.

“Well I am mighty, maybe I shall not smite you after all,” He jumped off the boy's nose and onto his hand much preferring the no longer sideways viewpoint now seeing the largeness of Yukio. Compared to the slug he was pretty big, but Kuji was a Super Slug so he wasn’t phased but its hugeness. “So Yukio Ninja, what has brought you to my forest, if you are looking for food I can offer you leaves and maybe bark. I have not tried bark for I lack teeth for the biting,” He opened his mouth to show the boy that what he said was true. He gestured to the tree behind him “They are the best leaves in the forest, you are welcome to help yourself, but don’t touch my leaf for it is mine.”


He slid himself across the palm of the boy once again leaving a thick slime trail in his wake. “Yukio Ninja, use your meat platform to raise me to that branch, I will get you a sweetest of leaves”. Kuji sat waiting for Yukio to oblige pointing his arm stump upwards to one of the lower hanging branches. “How many of you live in your tree, I assume not many for you are very large and would take up many branches?”

 

[Shirai Sadao]

He watched Kuji puff out his chest and suppressed a chuckle seeing as such things would be rude but he admired the little slugs guts at trying to size him up. He took the time to take in what the slug said not quite sure what to make of his confidence but letting him have his way all the same.

“Well thank you gracious Kuji for not smiting me down, Though I shall point out to you that Ninja is the name of what I do not my name”

After the slug had moved itself to his hand he looked up at the tree he fallen from thinking it would be rude to deny the mighty Kuji’s offer for food putting on a smile and trying to sound as sincere as possible.

“Well I’m sure the leaves of this forest are of the highest quality, though I myself have not tried either before and you can be certain this leaf you have claimed will be yours alone.”

Hearing his request Yukio smiled lifting him up to the branch requested of him making sure he was placing him on the one his stumps had pointed at letting a small gust of wind from his palm to help Kuji hop up onto it.

“Well I come from a place called the leaf village, though we don’t live in trees it is still the same things as a home just a lot bigger. It has to care for quite a few of us”

 

[Haku Yuki]

The slug felt his body slowly raise up as Yukio obliged him by fulfilling his request, he looked down seeing that it wasn’t his hand that was moving Kuji was flying again, He grinned smugly looking back at Yukio, he grabbed a leaf for the boy and handed it to him, the action would have been a lot smoother if it hadn’t gotten stuck to him by his slimy coating. Kuji, still hovering, listen intently to the boy describing how other Yukio Ninja’s lived in a village made of leaves, which to him sounded grossly impractical. If they lived in leaves did that mean that ate their village? It soon dawned on the slug that his knowledge of villages as limited to exactly none, so probably wasn’t in a position to comment on the impracticalities of it.

“So your Village of Leaves has more of you living in it? You said there was many of you? How many?” Kuji was a little lost with the concept of there being more that just him living in one place. Kuji had been alone most of his life, it had been like that ever since his parents meet an unfortunate end to a Blackbird while he was still in his egg, to say the Kuji’s life was sheltered was an understatement. “I would very much like to see this Village of Leaves and meet the other Yukio’s, however, if I, Kuji, the Super Slug, leave here what would happen to my leaf and branch? I cannot let those go unattended they might leave me like all the others have,” He looked at Yukio. “Yukio shall stay here and look after my branch and I will travel to this Leaf Village. Now I must fly away. I have a journey to undertake,” Kuji tried crawling away but due to being suspended in the air and the lack of any form of friction in the air, wasn’t getting very far. He was starting to doubt his flying abilities, after all, his heart began to sink a little. “Well my large friend this is a little awkward isn’t it.” There was a pause as he laughed uncomfortably, “I think maybe my umm journey can wait, not because I cannot move, I umm have simply changed my mind” He crossed his stump arms definitely.

 

[Shirai Sadao]

He watched Kuji hover for a moment seeing how pleased he was at the prospect of flying he smiled a cheerful sigh escaping him as he wondered what was going through the little slugs mind. It seemed like he really wanted to fly for all such things didn’t seem possible it was the act of trying that mattered most, had he not done so many months ago he would not be going through the process of becoming a member of the ANBU branch. As Kuji Spoke Yukio lifted him a little more to help him get his feeling for flying a gentle smile on his face as he looked back to the way he had come a moment to where his village resided.

“I have never truly counted how many people live in the village, though I suspect it is many more than I could remember.”

Hearing the hovering one speak of his leaf and branch he wondered what he could do for him to let him see the world beyond his tree, finally coming up with a few ideas of how to help him but not sure what would work best for Kuji.

“Is there non who could care for your leaf and tree while I take you to my home? Or maybe we could take them with us and that way you can always have a moving home to see the things you wish so much to see”

Seeing that having him hovering was stopping him from moving he finally lowered him back down to his hand, listening to his uncomfortable laugh Yukio spoke with an understanding tone.

“I see you very much wish to fly and that you’re having trouble doing so right now but that doesn’t mean you can’t try, it all starts with a single step and you will find out more about yourself along the way. If you really wish to see my village and see new things, meet new people then I will take you. I have no doubt you can move if you try but it will always take practice. I had to do the same to become the ninja and person I am now”

 

[Haku Yuki]

The silence continued, Kuji felt his body being lowered again till it came to a rest on Yukio’s palm, he slid across it enjoying the feeling of being able to move again. He looked at the boy grinning awkwardly, he wasn’t sure what had happened but he had to keep up the appearance of being Super in front of his new large friend.

“In fact I think we will stay, here have this leaf!” He shoved the leaf at Yukio face causing it to get stuck to the boy’s face with his slime. “Your Leaf Village sounds boring anyway. Come we shall stay here, you can have that branch there right next to mine, though you may have to get smaller.” He pondered how to make Yukio smaller “I mean you don’t truly need all those long gangly things right” He pointed to the Yukio’s arms and legs “We can just take them off”

In his tiny brain, he started putting two and two together, he was starting to believe that his claims of being a flying slug might not have been entirely true. Kuji left heart drop as it dawned him he wasn’t so super after all.

“I have something to tell you,” He sniffed his eyes filling with tears. “I have lied to you! I am not a flying slug, I don’t even know what flying is. My whole life has been a lie!” The slung began to weep, his tears slid down his body dislodging more thick slime on the boy’s palm. Kuji grabbed the Yukio’s sleeve wiping his face in the fabric. “I am a fraud, I don’t even think slugs can even fly!” He blows his noise on the sleeve covering him with yet more slime. “Why can’t Kuji ever be happy!” His weeping had turned into loud sopping.

 

[Shirai Sadao]

He watch Kuji enjoy his renewed ability to move around, smiling as he watched the little slug grin to him and listened that what he had to say intently, looking up at the tree and back down to Kuji before pondering once more.

“Well I am grateful for your gift of this leaf; such things should be kept safe”

Taking the leaf and holding it in his other hand he listens to Kuji’s proposition happy about the effort he is putting into keeping them together feeling he had made what could only be called a friend though wasn’t sure how anyone would think seeing this strange budding friendship of Slug and Human.

“Well we could take them off but it may hurt me somewhat, I do need them to move around though you’re right I would need to get smaller to live up there in the trees with you.”

While looking at the tree and branch he had been offered he heard Kuji break into tears, confessing that he could not fly and convinced his life was a lie to this point feeling the slime coat his hand he seemed to let it happen. Wiping it off at this point would be more than a little rude while his new friend was having a life crisis.

“Well that might be true maybe slugs can’t fly but you are not alone in that respect, for I cannot fly either it’s not something that anyone can do but just think you can still do many things that even big beings like me cannot. You can stick to any surface and climb it with ease meaning you can still get as high as the sky so long as there is a place high enough. It may not be the same as flying but it’s still more than a bit impressive so cheer up you haven’t lost everything to be happy about. In many ways you are still Super.”

 

[Haku Yuki]

Kuji stopped bawling for a few moments and look and Yukio, a thick stream of snot and slime running from the slugs face. He sniffed blowing his nose once again in the sleeve of the Shinobi coating it in other thick coating mucus.

”You really mean that I can still be super, even if I can fly?” The slug looked at the boy wiping the residual tears from him face with his arm stumps. ”I guess I am still super, I mean I can eat a leaf in 2 days, most slugs would take at least a week”
Kuji began to ponder was to what other special talents he possessed, other than his record beating leaf eating speed. ”I also taught myself to crawl and to talk,” Kuji began to smile again as he recalled to Yukio all the things that he could do. ”I can hang upside down to, and burp my name, see watch.”. Without giving Yukio time to either agree or protect he demonstrated this skill burping his name loudly in the direction of the young boys face ”See and I can do this!”. Kuji put his arm stumps in the air, then processed to try and touch the end of his tail as he awkwardly tried to fold his body into a slimy ball. Little did Kuji know, or did anyone have the heart to tell him that other than talking, everything else he listed was skills that every other slug had. But as Kuji didn’t know any other slugs in his eyes they where unique.

A few moments passed as he recounted his talents which included crawling, burping, talking and being able to hang upside down but to name a few. He felt himself cheering p as he spoke to the human boy. ”Tell me Yukio what can you do that makes you a Ninja?” He questioned the boy finally beginning to get his head around the complicaed naming system that these huge mans had.

 

[Shirai Sadao]

Yukio smiles as Kuji begins to stop crying, doing his best to ignore the fact his hand and sleeve were becoming something similar to an actual slime. He nodded to Kuji upon hearing his statement.

“Yes you can still be super, see your already able to name some of the amazing things you can do. And teaching yourself to do things means you are very clever too, a sign of good potential I have heard”

Yukio knew that any slug could do some of these things but couldn’t help but admire the slug’s determination and dedication to being super in his own way but hearing his question back to him Yukio leaned back a little a pondering look on his face as he thought about how to describe being a ninja and what it meant.

“Well that’s a bit of an interesting question, no Ninja is the same and we all have our own little quirks to us. I think at the heart of it all it’s about knowing that being a ninja is what you want to be, training to be strong and doing all you can to see your goals through to the end. Anyone can become a ninja. You learn how to do a bunch of cool things to like Jutsu”

He looks for a branch that isn’t Kuji’s and with a swift movement of his free hand cuts on to the twigs off it with a swift winds Justu.

“We do what we can do help people and make the lives of others better to by taking missions in other lands and our own”

 

[Haku Yuki]

Kuji looked at Yukio as he spoke about being a ninja and about how they came in different types, he was more than a little confused as to what he meant by them not all being the same. Then again Kuji wasn’t entirely sure if slugs came in different types the only other slugs he knew where his parents and even then, he didn’t get to meet them, he simply saw them through the shell of his egg. Now it was just him and his tree. He watched in amazement as the boy made the twigs and leaves on the hand float off his hand much like he did previously, so it looked like this ninja was a flying one.

“So you can make stuff fly?” Kuji asked quizzically. He placed a tiny twig on his own hand trying to copy Yukio and make it fly, he didn’t have as much luck as the Academy student. He glared at the twig and threw it to one side. “What other things can Ninja do other than making stuff fly?” He asked as he jumped off the boy's hand and began his way slowly back up to his branch. “How do you learn to be a Ninja, I would quite like to be a Ninja?” Kuji looked at Yukio, his vision was now sideways as he slides up the tree trunk. “I think I would be a very good Ninja” He smiled at the boy.

 

[Shirai Sadao]

"I'm not so much making things fly as I am pushing air from my hand and making them float, it took a long time to learn how to do it"

He smiles at Kuji his curiosity of what a ninja is reminding him of himself at a young age, constantly asking his grandfather what it really meant to be a ninja. Thinking on Kuji's question he thought of all the things Takeshi and Crimson Snow had taught him over the last few weeks, the things ninja can do being numerous but some being somewhat hard to explain and on many occasions being difficult for him to understand.

"Well with enough training a Ninja can do many things, breath fire, pull up the earth or even create waterfalls for a short time. We can use our Chakra to do this and everything has this, you, me, all things live and moving."

He attempted to keep the detail to a minimum not wanting to confuse and overwhelm Kuji with too much information even he knew how that felt from when he first entered the academy.

"So if you really wanted with enough practice and effort you to could be an amazing ninja and I'm sure you could be just as good as the rest of us"

 

[Haku Yuki]

Kuji cocked his head looking at the boy now having reached the safety of his branch, making things float seemed an awful lot like making things fly to him but then again he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer so he wasn’t going to question Yukio about it further. He listened to the other things that ninja could do such as breathing fire or creating water from thin air, they sounded a lot more super than Kuji did that was for sure. Kuji as boy spoke, closed his eyes shut concentrating every part of his body to summon fire from his mouth, he could feel a heat inside his head and opened his mouth half expecting to see a plume of fire emerge from his mouth it did take long to realised that the heat he was feeling was from a headache from over-concentrating.

He looked down at the student from the branch grabbing a half chew leave and putting it into this mouth and began toothlessly chewing on the fleshy green part of vegetation. His eyes blinking one at a time as he chewed, Kuji did his best thinking when he was eating. He thought about everything that Yukio had told him about the huge mans and nin-jars, as well as all this about charka. He looked around his branch realising that he world now seem very small, before this boy arrived and disturbed him by sending him flying off his branch he life was a simple one he would wake up eat a leaf rinse and repeat, but Yukio introduced him to something else. The whole world as he knew it had been completely shattered by him learning there was something else other than this tree and branch.

The silence between them only lasted a few moments but it seemed much longer to Kuji, he had finally made up his mind about what he was going to do.

“Yukio, I want you to take me back with you. I want to be a ninja,” There was a pause “That’s if you want to take me with you. I mean it’s cool if you don’t want to I mean I have a load of other friends so I don’t care if you don’t, I’ll just hang with them instead.”

 

[Shirai Sadao]

Yukio looked up to Kuji watching him move around his branch, he hadn't spoken to him for very long but that didn't really matter to him. He had known Kuji for a shorter time than he had most of his current teammates and still managed to talk to him more. What that said about Yukio was up for debate the fact he could talk to a slug more than other humans was somewhat concerning but he didn't care much a friend was a friend didn't matter what race they were.

Meeting Kuji's eyes as he looked down to speak to Yukio he listened to the request, something he had not expected. When he had first met Kuji he seemed content with remaining on his branch and had even asked the young ninja to stay with him at one point but this allowed for opportunity to show Kuji the world in all it's splendour.

"Of course you can Kuji I see no problem with you accompanying me back to the village, you can train and I have to become stronger and one day become the super slug you want to be"

He waited for Kuji's response walking over to the tree and leaning against it so if he agreed to come he could simply crawl down onto his shoulder.

 

[Haku Yuki]

A huge smile came to the young slugs face was Yukio agreed to take him back to the village with him, he began looking around his branch looking for this belonging to start packing for his journey, he saw that other than his half chewed leaf there wasn't really anything that he wanted to take with him.

"Perfect, I shall just grab my leaf for the journey and we shall be on our way." Taking the leaf in his hand he began his slow descent down the tree again back towards the forest floor. He shuffled himself off the branch and onto the main trunk of the tree sliding his body vertically down leaving his trademark trail of slime.

Little did the two know that it wasn't only Kuji that had been alerted by Yukio's attempted to climb the tree, hiding high up on the thick foliage of the tree sat the large black shape of a winged predator. The Black Bird had been watching the preceding with an interested eye, while cautious not to make its move while the bug was on the shoulders of the large human now that it has left the safety of his palm it was the perfect opportunity to get itself a tasty juicy snack. Spreading its wings that bird took flight, gliding from the top of the tree to the branch that had previously housed Kuji it cocked his head looking at its future meal.

"Hello there bird," Kuji addressed the newly arrived creature happily, not knowing that he was going to be its lunch. Letting out a cry the bird grabbed Kuji in its clawed feet and left the tree taking the tiny slug. Kuji looked down at Yukio again from his new high "I think I am flying again Yukio, I will see you back at the village," He called back down to his new found friend before the bird took him away further into the forest.