Struggles [Contract Search]

[Kishinami Kou]

It was one of those days where nothing could keep Kuro inside the village. No news to be found, no rumors to talk about. No missions he'd show any particular interest in. Training seemed like an option at first glance, but it really always was. Training all day every day could result in problems too though, so he decided to put todays focus on something else. And that little something was his currently favorite hobby and in a way another sort of training. Today he wanted to make use of his creativity and drawing skills to try his hand at something he hadn't really done before, combining different sceneries next to each other into one picture. For that he travelled as far through fire country as possible on one day to make sketches of anything he might find that would catch his interest. One thing he knew was he would visit was the valley of the end, but other then that he didn't really gave anything to go on in terms of places one would recognize or want to visit after seeing a drawing of it. For simpe trees he could have stayed inside Konoha, but that was all he was getting at this time.

He eventually took a break. To him travelling with no real goal was a waste of energy. Why use energy when in results in nothing worthwhile? He got lost in his thoughts like he always would when having nothing to do and the fact he knew he was like that bothered him, he thought to much about useless things, instead he should use the time. Though it wasn't easy to change onesself and so using his concentration to look around his location felt like a waste aswell since it resulted in nothing. He opened his sketchbook to look at todays drawing so far. He realized that he had ony gotten to two sketches down. One depicting the valley and another showing a group of tree roots that had been located aboveground and in a way that made the trees look like giant wooden arms with claws on them. So he thought that looked cool, really anythign that was a change from nice and cute was welcome. Maybe he should go back to draw some buidings he liked and give people a chance, which ofcourse he disliked, humans were hypocrites in his mind, but he didn't wanna limit himself anymore. Knowing about humans was a necessity for ANBU anyways, judging them right and knowing about the human body were things that could decide about life and death.

By the time he got up from the tree stump he was sitting on, he realized it had gotten dark and that staying outside wouldn't be the most comfortable, so he initially decided to head back to the village, but turned around when something flashed in the corner of his eyes. Curious as he was, he headed towards the source of the glistening and couldn't help but let out a, "Woah." He stumbled upon a smal lake, not even that, just a bit of flowing water really, which came down the smallest of waterfalls. By day he would have competely ignored it, but now at night and moonlight it seemed like something worth drawing, so he got to drawing, but not only this motive, but also bigger and more intimidating variants of the same idea.

WC: 567

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]

The contract gods smile upon thee! You have discovered the Turtle Contract! do you accept?

 

[Kishinami Kou]

I do accept.

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]

The moon was still hanging low in the night's sky as the stars were beginning to shine one by one as the sun's light began to fade in the far off distance. Darkness, to most, was traitorous and filled with threats but to those who can observe beyond the superficial layer a depth of beauty could be seen. This was exceptionally true on nights like this. Views like this were rare and needed to be observed to their utmost potential, and that my friends would be where we found our hero tonight. Quiet yet firm foot steps would approach the illustrating man and if he were to turn his gaze to where they were coming from he would see a turtle with a shell about three feet tall and four feet wide. it's long thin neck supported it's blue beaked face which had a calm and tranquil look upon it. Slowly walking in the direction towards the man the turtle doesn't even appear to notice that the man was taking up that space. Regardless of this the turtle would continue to walk in the direction, each foot taking about ten seconds to pick up and move forward. It's shell was covered in a mossy substance and there appeared to be something in it's shell that looked foreign.

Upon closer investigation Kuro would be able to that the foreign object in the turtle's shell was a rather large fishing hook. Small cracks appeared to be healing from where the hook was impaled as it appears that the hook had been there for a while without successful removal. Acting as if the hook wasn't even there the turtle would stop right where it was and reached down with it's neck to grab a beak full of grass and weeds before it began to much it down. A soured look quickly appeared on the turtle's face as it coughed up the grass and shook it's head back and forth. A deep grunt of discontent would come from within the beast before it would once again begin it's journey. Walking forwards to an unknown direction.

 

[Kishinami Kou]

Silence enveloped him and was only disrupted by the light scratches of his pencil on paper. He has been completely engulfed by his drawings and only looked up when he eventually got finished on one idea and went to turn pages of his sketchbook. Only then he would notice something was different from before. Something in his environment had changed and he couldn't tell it at first glance. He blinked a few times as he tried to figure out what was there standing a few feet away from him. At first he'd have written it of as a rock, except the didn't move and it hadn't been there before. Then he thought f a ninja in disguise that had tried to approach him. The low light only provided by the reflections of the little water that was there had made it hard to tell, but when he eventually got up from his rock and approached the thing he realized how wrong he had been in his assumption. It was a turtle and a big one at that. He didn't even know if they could get this big.

The Izanagi approached the turtle and looked at it from up close. Hm, I wonder how you got here. How would turtles this big even live in a forest?" His glancing over the turtle stopped when he spotted some foreign object that didn't seem to belong on a turtles shell. "OH, hold still buddy." He said more to himself then to the turtle who probably couldn't understand a word he said. Carefully Kuro maneuvered the hook around, trying to not hurt the animal, but it had to be removed, if not the wound could get infected an the turtle could die. He wrapped the hook up in paper and paced it in one pocked, gotta get rid of it where noone would get hurt. If only he could be that nice to other humans.

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]

((OoC:I am so sorry for the delay, personal life hit me and my family hard but I am trying to come back now. This post isn't the best but I do not want to keep you waiting any longer.))

The turtle stopped as the man approached it but the slow creature didn't really seem to respond all that quickly. Slowly turning it's head to the young Anbu it stared at him blankly as Kuro spoke of how the turtle even lived in this forest. Little did he know that this was not the true home of our reptilian friend but he was, in fact, on a pilgrimage of sorts. The larger than average best's head bobbed slowly as it's half open eyes looked away. Letting out an odd 'mur' sound from it's mouth it seemed like it was giving Kuro permission upon asking the reptile to hold still. That was until the hook was actually removed. At this point a loud hiss would come from the scale covered moving rock as it's lids pressed shut and it's head tucked away in pain. It wasn't everyday that a shinobi, a human trained in combat, would take the time to show such a gentle create true appreciation. Slowly lowering itself to the ground the reptile's limbs would also be pulled into it's body leaving only the smallest portion of it's tail out and visible. This scaly thin rope like appendage was only about a foot long that quickly thickened as it approached it's body. This top of the tail was quivering, similar to that of a dog's when presented with something fearful. This turtle was scared and it was obvious as it let out soft cries that almost echoed from within the shell like armor in which it wore. The wound on the turtle's back actually began to bleed slighting as the removal of the hook would cause new tears in the once forming scab and scar tissues. The blood was the normal red but there were small speckles of yellow and orange which many knew to stand for an infection. If further inspection was taken the flesh under where the hook was once lodged was infected with this puss like slime. Even someone who was not an expert in veterinary studies should be able to realize that wound needed treatment of any kind.