The Human Condition [Requesting Entrance]

[Tsukino Nanami]

---

[legend="[fontsize="25"]Part 1: Splitting of the Hollowed Crag[/fontsize]"]

BGM (Listen to it! It adds to the scenery)

The Beauty of the Mountain​

[col]An audible groan could be heard coming from Mana as she lays over Kibo. The sounds of her growling stomach was easy to hear and was felt by the large animal as it carried her through the rough terrain. Grabbing the long white mane of the creature, Mana asked while her face was planted in it's mane with a muffled voice. "Are we there yet? Why is this mountain so bare?" Mana asked. It also didn't help the the high altitude wasn't something she was accustomed to. Perhaps she came down with a case of altitude sickness.

The creature yawned while walking at a reasonable pace through the mountainous pass. Mana lifted her head from the fluffy tufts of hair of the animal she was riding upon and gazed upon the endless beauty of the mountains. Something about these mountains were magical. How pristine they were left Mana in complete awe. The beauty of nature was perfectly personified in this supernatural view of the planet in it's rawest form. Mana could help but push herself up to look at the magnificence of unmolested nature within Lightning Country.|

Kibo
Mana's Partner​

[/col]

What Mana sees​

"So this is the country where the Spine of the World is," Mana asked rhetorically. The scent of the air was sweet unlike the foul stench that Fire Country had produced. She wasn't born early enough to smell the sweet air of Fire Country nor tasted the sweet waters before everything became tainted with death and progress. Mana patted Kibo's side, signalling him to stop for a moment. Once the creature stopped, Mana hopped off of the creature's back and stood at the ledge of the pass and threw her arms to the side to take a deep breath inward. She closed her eyes and a smile came across her face.

Serene grace.

The mountains in Fire Country were nothing like these. Foothills when put into comparison. Something about being so high up has it's own strange beauty and terror. "Kami and his family ruined the beauty of my homeland, yet the people in this country learned to live in harmony with this place. They do not seem to destroy it for their own personal power. No. These people feel different," Mana said. However, her statement meant that they felt different when it came to their relationship with the planet.

"Kibo," Mana asked as she turned to look to her furry companion. "Do you think humans will learn to live in peace with the planet like these people have? Or do you believe they are all very much like Kami?" Mana asked only to see Kibo yawning with a wide open mouth. Her lips curled a little bit. What did she expect asking an animal something that deep. Most humans couldn't answer the questions properly so how could she expect an animal to know the answer to something like that?

Turning her back to the placid scenery, she jumps back upon Kibo's back and looks at the view once more. "Let's go, Kibo. We should get going," Mana said before leaning forward as Kibo began to run towards the gates.

Several moments later...
Kibo returned to a walking pace as the two of them approached the gates of the village. Now the rumbling in their stomachs were both heard. "Ugh. How much further?" Mana asked as she was, again, slouched over her companion. Lifting her head up for a moment, she noticed the gate.

"Finally," spoke the woman as she sits up while riding upon Kibo like a horse. "Is there any way a couple of weary travelers can enter your village? We are very hungry!" she shouted out to any gate guards that might be present.

[Requesting Entry][/legend]

 

[Senka]

It was indeed Senka's duty, but she preferred to stalk the townspeople for any and all trivial events they witnessed, meaning she was only rarely on gate duty. Despite her strange nature, the higher-ups for some reason accepted the way she behaved, ignoring the fact that ANBU had to be uniform and unquestioning in their execution of orders. Senka was not a cog in the machinery but rather a chess piece in a complex three dimensional puzzle in the image of a machine. Regardless of whether the final product worked or not, she was out of and apart from it, serving as an extra that might never become necessary, but may prove a great asset before the final picture was constructed.

On one of the rare days she actually fulfilled her duty as a gate guard, Senka spotted a tiger-lion-wolf with stripes, a mane and an extended snout approaching the gates of the village hidden in the clouds. She sat on top of the gate, emulating people who believed themselves to have an air of mystery and coolness in doing so. However, she found that it was all but practical for stopping people who tried to enter, especially for her, as she could not hope to remain in one piece if she were to jump down to ground level.

"Halt! Wait down there, I'll come down to you in a moment, I just need to..."

Senka disappeared towards the other side, where she arduously climbed down a hidden ladder and emerged at the side of the gate, walking almost mechanically like a puppet. She liked to act as if she had bad control over her body, as it gave her an even more doll-like appearance. Now, if she would only acquire the taste for frilly clothes and cute accessories, the illusion would be perfect.

"But that's not the kind of character you had initially planned, am I right? Now you're just too lazy to draw me with frills, you bum."

She yelled towards nowhere in particular, before turning her attention to the newcomer riding on her strange hybrid beast.

"You are hungry? Yes, the village has places that provide food, for the right price, of course. I just haven't gotten around to reading all their descriptions yet, so I can't recommend anything."

Anybody would think Senka to be strange after such remarks, but surely, nobody would truly understand what trains of thoughts she chased like a mad dog.

"But first, even if I don't like it, I have to follow protocol. Who are you?"


[Topic Entered ; Marked for Training ; 424 Words]

 

[Rakujo Yumeko]

For a while, Yumeko had walked around the village before she decided to head out to the gate. As she walked to the gate, she would notice a few different things, though once she had arrived there, she would soon notice that there was a woman sitting on some sort of animal like a horse, as well as what seemed to be another Shinobi. She stood back as she listened the shorter one ask just who the woman was, and would stay back for a bit as she waited slightly. Her silver hair, has a long braid on each side of her face with green bows at the ends, slightly moved as a slight breeze went through the area. She would wait a few moments before actually interacting with the two.

 

[Tsukino Nanami]

[legend="[fontsize="25"]Part 2: The Doll-like Guardian[/fontsize]"]

BGM (Listen to it! It adds to the scenery)

Human Circus​

Turning her head to look upwards, the woman gazed upon the strange looking humanoid figure approaching her way. A puzzled look crossed her face. She didn't know whether to call this human bizarre or to call this doll very human-like. Regardless of the answer or the outcome, Mana just continued to gawk in both amazement and confusion at the confounded object barreling it's way towards her. The rickety movements baffled the woman for a brief moment before instinct kicked in.

Mana lowered her head down and whispered to her partner, Kibo, "Kibo, get ready in the Dragon Carry Stance. It might be a hostile puppet," Mana said as the beast took an offensive position, pushing all of it's weight upon it's hind legs and baring it's fangs at the strange creature approaching them. ~What kind of...~ Mana thought to herself before the abominable automaton spoke. The voice didn't betray the creation's youthful appearance. Leaning back over, the woman whispered into Kibo's ear to tell it to back down.

The more and more this.... thing spoke to her, the more questions piled up that receive no answers. ~What is this thing? If it's human, why is it acting like a puppet? If it's a puppet, how can it talk so clearly~. She pushed her hips forward as if commanding Kibo to take a few steps forward to allow her to get a closer look on the thing. Then the thing spoke again, causing Mana to pull back once again. However, the creature mentioned something about food, but the thing was of little help. It did mention there was food within the village and ways to access it. Hopefully with the amount of Ryo she obtained from the pirate ship's crew, she could afford herself and Kibo some good food and a nice place to stay.

The shinobi are a rather strange breed, so she could easily blend in much easier with Kibo than she could within the Port City. There wouldn't be glaring eyes, insults hurled her way, and there wouldn't be vegetables and other food products hurled in her direction. As ugly as the world is, the shinobi have their own brand of strange that Mana felt more accustomed to. They do not judge as much as the non-shinobi, but the brand of ugly posed by the shinobi is much different. Much, much different.

The brand of ugly the shinobi pose is that of power, lust for money, and a more cloaked terror than the civilians could uphold. At the very least, the ugliness within most civilians is outright and in plain sight. Shinobi are underhanded, conniving, and deceitful with their ugly. If anyone could be used as an example of power-hungry, planet deteriorating degenerates, it would be Kami; the former Hokage of Konohagakure.

And then protocol kicked in. This little girl is a gate guardian within the village of the clouds? Has this place resorted to pre-pubescent children to protect the gates for them? Perhaps that might sound sad, but shinobi are still their own brand of weird. A pre-pubescent child could even be more powerful than she and Kibo combined. To think that the village would entrust their gates to someone who hasn't even experienced actual combat.

"I am Hasegawa Mana. I was the Medical Sennin of the former Hidden Leaf Village," Mana stated. What she said wasn't false, she was the Medical Sennin until the fall of Konoha and the corporation. "Before the village was overtaken by civil unrest," spoke the former Medical Sennin as she shifted through her still raggedy clothing; haven't the opportunity to change in the Planeswalker garb that she bought in the Port City. The clothing was still in the leather satchel strapped over her shoulder, hanging by her left hip. Like her father, she was left-handed.

"But..." Mana commented with a brief pause after the word. "What are you?"[/legend]

 

[Senka]

In an instant, at the mention of the village hidden in the leaf, Senka's eyes sharpened and her previously aloof expression cracked up, showing something dark hiding underneath. It lasted for barely a second, as she brought her surgical mask's expression back under control; however, her expression underneath it was horrifying at best, the stitches of her Glasgow smile stretching to their utmost limits under the contortions of anger.

This person, who had named herself Hasegawa Mana, was a former member of the village she herself hailed from. Not only that, but she was also the former Medical Sennin, who surely knew a lot about what had happened in the village to have resulted in the outcome that had place Senka on her path of vengeance against an unknown horde of beasts in the form of men.

"I'm Ootsuki Senka, I'm an Anbu of the village. Which reminds me... I'm not supposed to tell anybody my name, so keep it to yourself, please."

Senka said with a deadpan empty expression and in a monotonous voice, completely unconcerned about somebody learning her name despite her position. She had seen worse in her out-of-character days.

"And I assume you are taken aback by my appearance. I walk like this because I was just resting and still have to regain control over my limbs properly. Those scars are from when I died once. Also, despite all appearances, I'm actually seventeen years old."

Every single statement was accompanied by an expression of a differing grade of seriousness, with the last being the most serious. Even then, she did not in particular care about what people thought of her, as long as they respected her the way she wanted them to; if they did not, she would make sure they did.

"Now, what are you here for, other than for food? And don't get me wrong, that's an admirable reason in itself. It just doesn't suffice as a reason for those who watch the gates, or so it appears. And since I need to emulate them to be considered a proper Anbu, it doesn't suffice for me, either."

 

[Rakujo Yumeko]

Yumeko stood in the same spot she had been in when she had stopped when she noticed the two people at the gates. As the two spoke, she listened that the one who seemingly wanted to enter was Hasegawa Mana, who used to be the Medical Sennin of Konohagakure, before it was overtaken by civil unrest. The ANBU had told the woman named Mana of her own name, which was Ootsuki Senka. Yumeko sighed slightly as Senka spoke about how she had died once and all the scars she had were from said experience.

She took a few steps forward before speaking. "I think the main thing is we'd be able to let her in, as long as she's able to prove who she is. I think it'd be a similar thing as with the Kirigakureans that have arrived as of late." She said, looking from both the ANBU, and back to the seeming Konohagakure Medical Sennin.

After she spoke, she had crossed her arms as she watched the two, as well as keeping the odd animal that Mana had with her. She was surprised at how it looked, but didn't underestimate it in any way as she kept her focus mostly on the two women while she waited for, mostly, just Mana's response.

 

[Tsukino Nanami]

[legend="[fontsize="25"]Part 3: Little Pig, Little Pig, Let Me In[/fontsize]"]

BGM (Listen to it! It adds to the scenery)

Exclusive Club​

The stitched up creature decided to give her life's story. Mana wasn't at all entertained to hear about the girl's life story in less than a short paragraph. If Mana didn't need anything from this village, she would rudely pick her ears and look at the product that she dug up. Not because she wanted to, but as a sheer symbol of disinterest and annoyance. However, she decided against it since she would rather enter the village of Kumogakure. Though, a rather plain look crossed her face until the girl mentioned that she had died once. The neutral expression turned into a raised eyebrow; skeptical of what she just heard. One does not simply die and walk out of hell. Unless, of course, you're someone cursed like her mother.

Mana heard the inflections in the puppet's voice change with each passing phrase. One growing more and more serious (or shall we say irritated) the more she spoke. Though, the sound of the girl's voice growing frustrations doesn't betray the full emotion that the girl was displaying. Looking up to her eyes showed more than what she needed to know of the girl's true feelings. It is difficult for one to make an expression without showing it in their eyes. Mana didn't care about the feelings of the zombie doll, nor did she care if her strange gawking pissed her off in any way. However, the short story that she stated made the entire novelty of the girl's appearance completely go away.

And then protocol. Yay! Mana wasn't very fond of protocol even if she had enforced protocol liberally while she ran the hospital of Konoha. It would make sense since following standard protocol at the gates is just as important as it would be in the hospital as it can potentially save all of the lives within their care. So as much as she disliked the idea as a whole, she still understood why the child had to do it. Doesn't mean she likes it anyway.

Mana didn't have any real reason to be in this village. She was simply traveling to observe humanity for now; the shinobi being the next target of her judgment. To go from village to village to judge whether or not the shinobi world, as a whole, should be purged. What happened to Leaf was something deserved to the village. The raping of the planet and it's resources and the greed of the humans that poisoned the landscape. What happened to Leaf was well deserved. But what of the people that didn't fall into the greed of Yamaguchi Kami? They deserved everything coming to them due to their lack of action.

And then the girl continued to talk with more self-proclamation of his/her/it's position as ANBU. The woman's eyebrows curved inwards and her face crunched towards the center slightly in annoyance. An audible groan could be heard from Mana. Letting her face return to it's neutral state, Mana opened her mouth to say something only to be interrupted by another stranger. With this, she closed her mouth, huffed out of her nose and turned to look in the direction of the voice. At this moment, a look of annoyance could be seen across the woman's face. Not a look that would show her anger towards the situation, but more towards her impatience and lack of amusement. More delays.

She heard the woman speak before turning to look towards the rag-doll that originally spoke to her. Mana reached into her satchel and poked around inside for a small booklet and grasped it between her index finger's knuckle and the padding of her thumb and held it at face level with her elbow bent. A bright and shining word ~passport~ could be seen in a gold inscription with the emblem of Konohagakure centered on the pamphlet. The passport had a thick leather binding upon it.

"As the late-comer mentioned and in case you didn't know, Konohagakure had also fallen into decay due to a civil war. I am but a pilgrim at the moment, much like the other shinobi and civilians who made it out alive. I have come here to seek temporary sanctuary. I can also teach the medical shinobi how to create Techni-Chroma prosthetic limbs and other medical practices. All I seek right now is a safe place for myself and my companion. I mean this village and it's inhabitants no harm," Mana said. What she said was only half of the truth. She did seek sanctuary but she didn't really have much intent on teaching the medical community anything. Her objective is to judge these people, not to help them; not to intervene in their discoveries.

"So will you allow me access?"[/legend]

 

[Senka]

The third party that had joined their company soon after Senka had initially greeted this newcomer named Mana, spoke, as the former perceived, out of line. Unlike the stitched up girl, this one was certainly not on gate duty and had no say in the matter, considering the fact that as a foreigner, especially from a village which could neither validate the identity of nor be held responsible for this particular individual, Mana fell under Senka's jurisdiction.

"Since that is too much to explain... just leave it to me, will ya."

Senka closed her eyes in utter annoyance, breathed in with a light hissing noise and stated sharply without turning around, before she opened them again to look at the leather booklet that Mana produced.

"And..."

This time she had her emotions under full control, making them show a mixture of annoyance and anger on her face, as she turned her attention from the passport back to the person holding it.

"I am well aware of... that village's downfall. I was in it when it happened."

Senka could discern some untruth within Mana's words, but as she could not pinpoint which statement had been false, she took them all for lies. Yet she did not deny her entrance, and after checking the passport's content, looked up to the woman ten years her elder, her eyes expressing a definite warning. If anything should happen directly or indirectly because of Mana, Senka would not be as lenient as she had been by letting her in. And surely, the woman in question would understand that within the stitched up girl's mind only extremes existed.

"Move along."


[Entry Granted ; Topic Left]

 

[Tsukino Nanami]

[legend="[fontsize="25"]Part 4: Ascending into the Clouds[/fontsize]"]

BGM (Listen to it! It adds to the scenery)

Entering Peacefully​

[OOC: Yup, I broke posting order. I'm that impatient]
The woman curled her lips upward. It was strange really, if that little puppet was in the village during the downfall of Konoha, how did she not see or hear Mana? She was the only one attempting to stop the fighting on all sides through use of her song magic. It was strange though. Strange that the weird puppet girl couldn't hear the song that resonated throughout the entire village nor take notice of the blinding light Mana cast upon the village to mitigate the anger. However, her Song of Alteration [Pacifism] "Cry of the Planet" couldn't soften the hearts of the men and women who found themselves embroiled in the conflict. The people must have truly been tired of the oppression created by Kami's iron grip.

Mana patted the side of the large animal and leaned over to whisper into it's ear, "That one is full of sunshine and shit, isn't she, Kibo? Too bad we are only here for observation, otherwise she would make a great chew toy hm? But it is also strange how easy it was to get into this village, hm?" Mana asked her companion with a slight chuckle afterwards. Kibo, however, stood there adamantly without a change of expression. Kibo probably didn't understand exactly what Mana was sayingAfter patting it's side a bit, she moved her hand up to the head of the beast, which was covered in a deep layer of soft white mane-like hair. Mana's stomach grumbled once more before she let out a groan.

"Let's hope these people aren't afraid of you, Kibo. We need to remain on our best behavior here, because we are entering a village of killers. We can't possibly kill all of them without us dying either. So try not to kill any children while we are here, alright?" Mana continued to speak silently to her friend. She leaned over and laid on the creature for a little while, all while placing her leather-bound passport back into her satchel blindly.

Mana turned her head in the direction of the woman keeping her distance above. The third party that entered. With or without this one, s he would have been able to enter. Just use a little bit of lies and most people will believe it; especially if you appear desperate enough. Placing her hands upon the creature's back and pushing her body back up to a seated position, she stares up at the silver haired woman and smiled a bit. Her left hand raised and pointed at her.

"Would you kindly be my guide around the village?" Mana said in a passive aggressive manner. The tone was a command disguised in the form of a request. After asking that question, the woman lowered her hand and placed it upon the creature's back before she gave the command to move forward to Kibo. With the command stated, Kibo acknowledged by moving forward into the Village Hidden in the Clouds.

[Topic Left][/legend]

 

[Rakujo Yumeko]

Yumeko listened to Senka as she had spoken, apparently having been aware of Konoha's downfall. She learned more and more things this day. She then watched Mana as she had spoken quietly to the animal friend that she had with her. The only line that the woman had spoken to her was for her to be her guide around the village. She sighed a little, as she walked into the village with Mana.

[Topic Left]