Nakotsumi Mana - Raider of the Lost Archive [Custom Mission]

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Spoiler:

“Just keep the hell out of the water, trust me…” father’s words echoed through Mana’s mind, the girl kept wondering what her father meant by that but it seemed like a rather peculiar advice to give given the situation. The advice was given after Mana told her parents about her newest mission that she was issued – one that required the young magician to venture all the way to what the villagers called the Forest of Death. It kind of made sense for the girl to try and get as much advice as she could about the place that seemed to creep out most of the people around, the training ground that was given a very odd number, considered by many as especially unlucky – 44. In fact there seemed to be an odd fear of number four everywhere in the village, in fact the hall she performed in didn’t really have the seats with number four or forty four so the fact that the training ground was given this name made Mana a little uneasy and it’s nickname didn’t make it any better. Of course the mission was of great importance so Mana still had this feeling that what she did was important…

In fact that was one thing she loved about her job as a ninja – she did something that mattered, of course her hobby as a magician made people happy – that matters a lot as well too. Yet the magical happiness that was given to people was something of an illusionary one, one had to dig rather deep to tie it to overall importance to village. Her job as a ninja on the other hand: Mana saved an important family from getting killed, she protected an important spiritual person of the shinobi world and now she will be moving ancient scrolls to the village from a secret archive for everyone to see and marvel. Not only did this mission feel good for kunoichi Mana but also for magician Mana as well – she will be helping displaying ancient masterpieces of art and science for everyone, in a way she will be a part of the chain that brings people joy and knowledge. That made Mana feel rather important for the village even if this feeling may have had little basis. After all this all “science” in these scrolls was so ancient that it qualified as myth at best…

It felt kind of strange going beyond village gate, it wasn’t the first time that the girl did it but it always gave the feeling of loneliness when she did. It suddenly changed from crowded and cheerful areas full of people selling, buying or just walking around into untouched by people roads surrounded by trees and bushes with only several ninja in between areas on the rush doing their missions. The desire to return to their village was just leaking out even if they didn’t venture too far from it to begin with. Only about half an hour later the huge hulking fence entered Mana’s field of vision. It looked rather weird: a part of forest circled by fence and sealed off from a larger part of forest. There was nothing odd in particular with the forest, at least nothing that could be picked up from the first glance. The chunin responsible for letting Mana in was waiting near the entrance to the forest, it appeared that the whole place was locked and sealed off though whether it was because of the discovery of the archive or it was locked the whole time was unknown to the Sorceress of Konoha. Without uttering as much as a word the kunoichi let Mana in, she probably knew Mana from somewhere as no questions were asked: maybe the kunoichi was supposed to let anyone in, maybe she saw one of Mana’s shows so she knew the young magician.

While initially the lack of difference from the usual Konoha forest and the Forest of Death was evident, the further Mana ventured inside, the darker it got. Mana had a saying she liked to whisper to herself when she had no clue what was going on, “The further into a forest, the more trees” and while this situation was far from where this phrase could have been applied as Mana knew perfectly what she was doing, still in the literal sense those exact words could have been said. The girl tried to be as vigilant as possible, being well aware of the flora and fauna of the place, it seemed that there were rustling sounds everywhere, every thin tree looked like a man stalking so it would’ve been lies to say that the Forest of Death didn’t give Mana any creeps. But then one rustling bush sounded far too real for Mana to dismiss and just as the girl faced it a wild animal jumped out of it. Initially it was too dark for Mana to tell what kind of animal it was but she decided it would be a good practice to try and avoid it’s claws and as Mana rolled sideways to dodge it’s pounce and took a better look she understood that it was the right idea. The animal was a tiger.

Most ninja wouldn’t really care about a single animal in more sense than one: on the one hand they wouldn’t care if it lived or died, on the other they wouldn’t consider a wild animal a worthy foe, after all they are ninja, what is some wild animal to that? Yet Mana cared about both of those things, she didn’t want to kill the beast and she knew that if she wasn’t careful her mission could end here. Knowing all too well that a tiger is pretty much one of the fastest animals she knew, Mana decided to attack before it gets a chance because she couldn’t afford to even get wounded – seeing how this place is crawling with insects and predators of various diets, Mana didn’t want to introduce them all to the scent of blood. Quickly making some handsigns with a hand behind of her as she held a kunai to be ready for a surprise pounce Mana let out a flock of lightning sparks. The intent was just to scare the beast off, wild ones are usually afraid of lightning and fire but one of the sparks hit the poor beast in the eye so it pounced forward going just couple of centimeters above Mana as she crouched to dodge and ran away…

Mana’s first impressions of the Forest of Death weren’t all that great to say the least…

Stuff Used:

Spoiler:

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

After taking just couple of steps forward to the direction designated in her map Mana felt the ground shaking. The girl looked around but she didn’t seem to pick anything up and the darkness of the forest definitely had something to do with it. As the small tremors intensified to the point that small pebbles were bouncing off the ground Mana realized that the loud popping sounds and bright light could attract creatures just the same as repel them and feeling the ground shake wasn’t a very encouraging sign. Swiftly Mana started picking up the pace but the loud sounds of tree branches snapping and rustling bushes made her turn around. Without any roars or alarming sounds except for the forest trees crumbling behind it a giant centipede emerged from the mass of tree branches and bushes forcing anything in between it and the girl out of the way. Mana covered her face to try and keep any dust or shattered wood out of her eyes as something told her she’d have to run for her life pretty soon and having something in your eyes wouldn’t boost the chances. Without even a thought of trying to take the creature on Mana just ran forward trying her best to jump over any roots on the ground and cut any branches in her way with the kunai she still held tightly in her hand from before.

Knowing very well that in a running competition the insect could without a doubt outlast Mana despite the girl being a little faster, but also having in her mind just how close she was to the ruins Mana just kept running. Eventually she stopped cutting the branches as it tired her out and slowed her down too much, the wild tree branches cut up her clothes, some started cutting her face and arms pretty sharply. On one hand Mana really felt bad about wearing her magician’s uniform on her missions since now she’ll have to get a new one but also she was happy it came with gloves as it provided at least a small amount of protection. It was difficult running for one’s life in a forest, if it was just an open plain Mana could probably see forward, seeing if her objective was close could give her strength to keep running but with all the branches and darkness in her way Mana didn’t have the slightest idea just how close the ruins were and the rampaging centipede reminded of it’s existence fairly often.

Suddenly Mana realized that she was in some sort of a building, the speed at which the environment changed was quite shocking so the girl stopped to look around. The wall looked old, there were vines all over, the vegetation had the entrance entirely overgrown and the young stage magician knew that she ran at the right direction, there couldn’t have been any doubt – this ancient building must’ve been it. Of course there may have been room for mistake still as the ruins were only marked on an empty hand-drawn map of the forest instead of an official one but most of the buildings of the Forest like the entrance post and some posts and lookout towers that Mana seen before were well maintained, not so much with this one – it quite qualified for being called a ruin. The girl turned around, feeling a little suspicious about the disappearance of her pursuer just to see it tackling the entrance. It’s head was just slightly larger than the entrance so it collided with it. As the smoke cleared Mana realized that most of the entrance was ruined and blocked by the head of the unconscious bug. It was apparent that if Mana is to exit this ruin, it will not be through the entrance area. A small part of the young kunoichi felt worried that she may be trapped but Mana tried not to lose hope just yet and wandered forward deeper into the archives.

What calmed Mana down a little was that the path seemed to be pretty straight forward even if it was quite dark, however some light was breaking through from somewhere up ahead. It was likely that all paths from all the entrances lead to the main hall where the scrolls were kept, it was also possible that there was only one entrance, in that case Mana would’ve had a problem but the girl tried not to think of that, she just followed the light. A little later the few rays of light turned into a quite the respectable source of light so Mana kept going forward. It was likely that the area was lit during the day since the vegetation was so rampant but the head of the giant centipede was obstructing it… Finally Mana following the source of light Mana found the main room where the scrolls were kept. It appeared that there were so many scrolls here that Mana’s bag wouldn’t suffice, her mission wasn’t to move all of the scrolls but to move at least some of them, the strong sense of duty of course fueled the girl to move as much of them as possible but she had to examine the room first.

It appeared that Mana’s worst fears came true – there were no other corridors out of there, the ruins were that simple: entrance, a large corridor and the main room it lead to. The torches that lit the area, left here by the people who must’ve discovered the area were only fueled by the little oxygen that came in from the few holes in the ceiling. Mana didn’t count on them holding too long but at the same time they didn’t have to – when the morning comes there should be enough light for Mana to find the straight corridor to leave this place. For now Mana had little to do seeing how her only exit was blocked by an unconscious giant centipede… “Well, at least I’ve got plenty of tales to read” Mana wondered ironically to herself. Actually reading through some of the scrolls didn’t sound like such a bad idea – she’d have a better idea which were worth more or seemed more interesting. The girl took one small scroll out of it’s hole in the wall that it has been placed in and scrolled it out, Mana sat near the closest torch and started trying to make sense out of it…

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

Mana ran her eyes throughout the scroll just to examine the writing. The language looked a little different, some words ended either abruptly or had some added endings, the names of characters sounded both ancient and somehow yet so local. With a little practice the girl realized that she can read those just fine which was great news – it meant the she had something to do until she hears that gigantic centipede moving out of the way of the exit also it meant that if Mana was capable of making sense from all this so will the ordinary village folk – Mana’s work will not have been in vain. Just for a test the girl gave the small scroll a read “Satsuharu the Great – son of Tsukunamo the Generous and Satsuhimassa the White rules these lands until the stars turn cold or the Great unfortunately flips over with his life. The Great deserves to rule for eternity or until his feet are thrown up for good for holding his own against the Tailed Beasts and scaring off the fighting two from our land to fight elsewhere and hopefully eat other nations. The humble author of this scripted monument hopes the Satsu family line will be remembered until hot sludge floods the world.”

The girl put the scroll away, she had no idea how valuable this scroll was as she has never heard of any events in this scroll so they had to have happened pretty long time ago but she had no idea how long since the event was still recorded in a scroll. Most myths are passed in stories by word so even if the scroll really was as old as Mana imagined it was a very unique document, carefully the young magician placed it in a tube she was issued to keep the scrolls in and put it back into the bag. Seeing how she was kind of bored, Mana decided to see if she could find some more records or stories about Satsuharu or how he scared away couple of Tailed Beasts – a battle like that must’ve had more record somewhere. Instead Mana found a bit larger scroll containing something about the hero’s mother and father, seeing how Mana may have to sit here until the morning or longer – the centipede could’ve killed itself which would’ve been a major problem, the young kunoichi decided to read anything that even remotely raised her interest…

“Satsuhimassa the White or the Spruce Queen was born many decades ago but remains young and beautiful to this day spreading joy to the land and her husband giving many children. When the Mother of the Great was a young girl she was sold as a bride for the stupidhead Garuru clan. After the wedding the poor young Spruce lead a disappointing life as the Garuru had as much skill in pleasing their mates or making children as little brain. Eventually however the Ever Forgiving Maiden fell in love with the dunghead and spawned Garuruhasa and Garurumika as well as Garuruhama who unfortunately died when stupid Garuru maids dropped him. The Eternally Loving loved her Garuru hellspawns as if they were Satsu purebloods and cared for them greatly seeing that they grow into bright and strong young people – lean and strong as the Spruce Queen herself. However as it was supposed to be foreseen Satsu waged war against Garuru and wiped the stupid ones from the face of the world. Unfortunately the Loving Mother’s husband died in the battle being slain like a Garuru dog he was by a strong and handsome Satsumakaka. In a moment of darkness of the mind, the Graceful Spruce of Satsu turned against their own as she instead rallied those Garuru that didn’t fight, mostly old and children and created her own clan.

As the righteous and incredibly handsome Satsumakaka brought her husband’s head before her claiming the White-faced Queen to be free of the Garuru shackles and was free to marry his swift and handsome self. Consumed by rage over her husband’s humiliation and death Satsuhimassa beheaded the nimble and handsome Satsumakaka with a single fast motion in front of her children and ordered her folk comprised of elderly Garuru bastards and children to bathe the saviors of Satsu clan - guards of Satsumakaka in boiling water and bury them alive. The Scorned All-Loving Queen personally split in two those who opposed the punishment. That same year the Everlasting Beauty conquered her own clan by creating a forest of spruces within the great Satsu palace and setting them ablaze. Having killed all of her kin the Gracious and Loving Mother decided to give birth to the new Satsu clan herself being the mother of her own people. To finalize her vengeance and demonstrate her resolve the Forgiving Queen ordered her son Garuruhasa to spit acid upon the Satsu land so that it becomes useless piece of melting rock until Hell freezes over and so Her vengeance was complete, over the next fifty years the Never Getting Old Queen became a mother for her new Satsu clan, after her revenge was complete, the All Loving One’s heart was once again open for love and she married the Tsukunamo the Generous whom she loved greatly, giving birth to Almighty Satsuharu as well. The new clan was so great that all other clans within the land united under it and the Queen ruled it all. This was the beginning of the story of our land. After her revenge was complete, the All Loving One’s heart was once again open for love and she married Tsukunamo the Generous whom she loved greatly.”

Seeing how the story in the scroll ended Mana put it away. She wondered from which land did this legend come from and just how much truth was in it. The powers that Satsuhimassa had could have been related in some way with the Senju clan, it could’ve been either been the fathering line or a separate branch of the clan. Mana was also surprised that this tale never once mentioned ninja, could ninja not have existed then? If they came into existence later, during Satsuhimassa’s rule, just how old was the legendary queen? How did the young Satsuharu fight off the group of Tailed Beasts? Despite the story raising many questions both of the interesting kind, ones that make you want to know more, and ones that make one dismiss the story as a tale entirely Mana wondered if she wanted to find any stories that followed seeing how graphic and violent this one was. It wasn’t that Mana was afraid of it, the young kunoichi was just disappointed that the world she considered magical was forged in blood and violence, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know how the story continued as it will most likely not get any more peaceful all of the sudden, after all violence could only birth more violence. Mana started putting the scrolls into the tubes, it looked very strange how many scrolls she managed to stuff there, maybe they were enhanced with fuuinjutsu of some sort to help her carry it all back? And so it happened that Mana found a scroll that in a way continued the story…

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

The fact that Mana found the scroll was a bit of an accident. It just so happened that a barrier of some sort prevented any more scrolls from fitting into the tube, forcing Mana to open another one. Seeing how this scroll was the one that Mana didn’t successfully contain she decided to give it a look. This scroll was unusual – despite being of average size it also contained some small drawings that were made with a lazy and unskilled hand. The style of the illustrator was strange: clumsy but precise enough to know what it was supposed to depict. Once again the young magician “turned on” her ancient language mode trying to sort out where and what endings were supposed to be dropped or added. After giving the scroll several test reads the girl finally felt confident enough to go over it again. It was actually just incredible luck that the scroll spoke of the same family at some point in the future but some mentions of previous events showed that this scroll wasn’t a direct continuation of the other one and there may have been a gap of at least several decades. Without troubling herself too much about what she may have skipped Mana just started reading again.

“And so it came to this that the once great and currently redeemed Satsu bloodline was considered tainted and hated throughout the land. The previously beloved Satsuhimassa was considered a foolish and twisted old hag despite looking not very much different than she did during the day that the great Union of Lands was founded. Blood feuds between other bloodlines, mostly based on beliefs and material bonds instead of actual bloodline of the family. The Union became a shadow of it’s former self as everyone considered themselves equal and Satsu clan below everything else. Hating the world that others created for him the future leader of the Satsu – Satsuharu left the lands of the Union instead venturing to lands that were controlled by no one, hoping that maybe someday he can create a world of his own where blood bonds meant more than material and vocal support, where instead of money and food family was the ultimate good valued by all just like in the old days of Satsu. The Forever Graceful Queen and her “king” remained in their temple built on an island that Satsuhimassa herself formed from spruce wood and Tsukunamo’s rock release.

Dark days however came upon the Union of Lands as the horror known today as the Tailed Beasts ventured into the vastly expanded territory of the Union and where initially the Beasts were passive about their territory, eventually they started going on rampages within the Union land, killing anyone they saw and anyone foolish enough to try and stop them. Many have tried to either fight the Beasts or bribe them with food but to no avail. Eventually they started accepting offerings in exchange for peace, this was a sour deal as any other Beast who didn’t receive offerings could’ve rampaged all over the land however despite being on the short end of the deal the people of the Union accepted whatever conditions that gave them at least the faintest shimmer of hope. Some tried begging Satsuhimassa and Tsukunamo for help but died in the cruel waters of the sea that the family formed their island on. As some disappeared, so many more kept trying, viewing the remote island almost as a place of salvation. Those that found themselves lost in the stormy waters didn’t feel despair, they felt happiness since they knew that they were safe out there and will die in the waters instead of their twisted trap of a village, that their lives will be claimed by thirst and hunger but they will not be mauled by one of those unstoppable monsters.

By a cruel twist of fate the Beasts themselves started to fight over their reign in the land, the boldest offenders being the Five Tails and Two Tails who dared to actually battle each other within the center of once great center of the Union. In the wake of their colossal battle any remains of the Union of Lands was swept away not a stone was left standing on a stone and not a single person survived to tell the tale of how horrible of a disaster this was. Seeing humanity in a never before seen like ruins, being scattered all throughout the world with their greatest village that unified all people destroyed the hope of salvation came from the most unexpected of places. As Nibi and Gobi were still battling over reasons known to only them as all other Beasts already left the wastelands alone, Satsuharu – the unexpected hero appeared after giving up on his quest to create a new world instead having decided to use the power obtained in his journey to reform the twisted and dark world around him instead of making a new one parallel to the dark, dreaming not of creating light nearby where darkness lies but making light out of the darkness”

The scroll ended there but Mana was really interested in finding a scroll that continued the story. Even if there was a lot of things that stumped the young kunoichi, things that made her doubt just how real this story was and consider that she was reading a work of complete fiction with not a single thing based on reality she still wanted to know how the story ended. It all seemed so impossible and fantastic at the same time to hear about a time where all nations were united under a single village even if they were all destroyed by some creatures Mana hasn’t heard about before and sounded like they were out of a fairytale about dragons and heroes. Mana has thought before why the village system works as it does and her thoughts were so similar to this story about how all people are different and don’t care about a village based only on material and trade bonds, hearing of how bad things went to such a unified construct of villages made Mana believe that no matter what portion of the story was based on reality if anything was at all, at least it had some philosophical meaning to it as well as being a pretty interesting story. The young magician put the scroll into another tube, one of many that were in her bag and started sealing all scrolls inside them while looking for one that continued the story.

Age : 32 Posts : 1495

As Mana continued to store the scrolls into the tubes before looking inside if they didn’t continue the story that she got invested in the girl noticed that some rays of light started coming in from the holes above. She also noticed that small pebbles were falling from the ceiling making more holes and leaving Mana wondering if it was safe to remain inside the ruins at all. Her mission briefing said that the ruins were rather old and unstable, also the giant insect that still blocked her path delivered quite the blow to the ruins which may have shaken it up even more. Still Mana wondered if she had any other options but to continue taking all the scrolls and finding the continuation of the story since she doubted if she had any way of escape. With those thoughts Mana noticed some similar clumsy illustrations on one of the last scrolls suggesting that it may have been indeed the scroll that the young magician was looking for. As Mana gave the scroll a little read that she did to most in order to determine what it was about in order to find out if it was worth taking it she realized that it indeed spoke of Satsuharu’s battle with the Tailed Beasts.

Unfortunately just as Mana tried to settle in near the same wall she noticed bigger and bigger pieces of rock falling off with some looking alarmingly large giving Mana the early warning that the hall may indeed be collapsing at some point. Seeing how much time the girl wasted on “translating” the language in the scroll to her own, Mana decided not to waste any time and instead of stuffing the scroll into the tube she just put it into her bag nearby the several scroll-like tubes that contained a remarkable amount of those small scrolls and wasn’t too heavy which troubled Mana before she left to the Forest from the village. With a hasty step Mana left some scrolls behind but seeing how many she’s taken the few ones that she didn’t paled in comparison. Mana complimented the ninja who made the tubes she put the scrolls in and invented the fuuinjutsu to seal them, Mana’s bag weighed almost the same as it did before and something told the girl that the difference was caused by the scroll she didn’t seal yet. As Mana left the main hall the thuds to the stone floor of the ceiling collapsing got louder and louder, the girl hastened her steps.

Just as she suspected the entrance was still blocked by the giant head of the centipede, Mana scratched her head trying to come up with a solution since the one she had initially sounded very unpleasant and trying to wait any longer just didn’t appeal to Mana’s love of her own life… The young kunoichi sighed as she realized that she had no other solutions and placed an explosive tag on the insect’s head, keeping another one close in the pocket of her jacket. As the note detonated making a hole in the centipede’s head Mana almost threw up of the idea she had. The explosion shook the ruins even more and now Mana was certain that it will collapse pretty soon. Still clenching the other explosive note in her hand within her pocket the girl went into the hole on the centipede’s head. The inside felt very slimy and sticky, but also warm and so thick that Mana had not even a dream of breathing until she found an exit. It also didn’t help that she had her eyes shut as she tried to make her way deeper into the insect’s body. As Mana dug through several yards of slime and was running out of air she put the other note on the inside of the centipede’s shell. The young magician dived down through the slime so that the explosion doesn’t damage her too much and activated the tag. The force threw her down to the other side of the shell and almost beat all the remaining air out of the young magician as she struggled with all of the strength left to get out of the insect.

As Mana fell out through the hole in the shell on the wet morning grass she took several moments to relax and wipe all the slime out of her nose so that she can breathe. Only the loud rumbling noises forced her to wipe the slime from her eyes and look at the ruins collapsing, leaving almost no sign except of a huge pile of rocks and a dead centipede nearby. A small thought occurred to Mana to try and look for the few scrolls that remained in the archive as it fell but it was quickly dismissed. As Mana caught her breath and started walking towards the gate that she entered trying to hasten her movement speed since she smelled of centipede goo. A small concentration of water looked very tempting but remembering what her father said forced the kunoichi to keep moving. Also Mana dreaded the idea of having to put on the gooey and torn uniform on her clean body again. The guard looked very interested in Mana’s adventure but the smell overpowered her and she just directed her to the village and withheld all questions.

As Mana made the small gap between the entrance to the forest and the village, she took off her slimy gloves and with almost clean hands took her unsealed scroll out of the bag, this time having just enough light to properly read it and feeling no haste or danger of rocks falling on her head…

“Satsuharu was a strong hero – having honed his skills to perfection during his absence to be strong enough to create a new world and protect it from becoming corrupted like his mother’s did. However he may have been as strong as he was or dozen times stronger the strength of a Tailed Beast still had no equals, had the Beasts not been fighting for several years and exhausted and had Satsuharu not had his arsenal with him even the Strong Oak of Satsuhimassa would’ve been incinerated instantly by their terrible might. However the Unwavering Oak possessed items of unknown origin with him, some forged by his own divine hands, some obtained from those whom he viewed as corruption to his perfect world, who had fallen to his superior skill and arsenal of divine weapons. Wielding all of his arsenal and being lead by his unrelenting will of creating a new world out of the ashes of the old one Satsuharu fought the exhausted beasts to a standstill.

Akutsumayoji – the Oak King’s trusted sword that could cut chakra itself mercilessly danced over the bodies of the Tailed Beasts, Meowataru the crooked scythe kept severing the tails of the Beasts only for them to grow back as the Oak Hero thought that tails were the source of the Beast’s strength, Koensara – Satsuharu’s armor blocked all the unrelenting blasts of energy that the beasts spat at him, at the very end the battle was finished with Butadzume – the staff that channeled the chakra of Savior Satsu and blasted it at the Beasts like a cannon. After a long and brutal battle the Beasts retreated and Satsuharu collapsed, sleeping for several months. After he woke up he saw people gathering around him, waiting for his guidance in creating the world he dreamed of. Eventually Satsuhimassa and Tsukunamo moved their temple into a forest nearby the village that everyone rebuilt under Satsuharu’s guidance, they continue to watch over their son and his people to this day. This is the story of Satsu bloodline – our Heroes and Kings.”

[Mission Completed]