Lithium [p]

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

It had been no more than a day ago that Hiruzen had encountered a group of men that had stolen from the people of Kumogakure while leaving a family of three without a father. During that fight, Hiruzen had been put in harms way yet again, almost dying in the process when facing an insane shinobi that manipulated an explosive substance. While his first impulse had been to restrain them and have them sent to prison, the shinobi and his lackeys had attacked him, only to be taken down one by one before the leader of the criminals started throwing bombs around. Tearing through his own people just to get to Hiruzen, he had eventually managed to take the man by surprise, pulled him into the earth and watched him drown as a result of a bomb that went off in a nearby stream that caused the water to flow into his earthen trap. It had been the first time in years that Hiruzen encountered a threat that almost ended up killing him. That said, it had also been just as long since Hiruzen had taken a life. What made this time different from back then was that he had a choice this time. Hiruzen had willingly chosen to let the man drown as opposed to saving him and locking him up in a secure facility. While Hiruzen was not responsible for ending his life, he had chosen to let the actions of his adversary be thing that killed him in the end. At the time, Hiruzen was glad that he had killed the man for what he had done to the people that trusted him enough to follow him into a village while stealing and murdering people. Once he had actually seen the last bubbles of air rise up from his watery grave, he felt like he had gone too far in avenging the dead. It was for that reason that Hiruzen decided to speed up his plans and go to the temple first.

After several hours of traveling across the country and moving up the mountain, Hiruzen finally reached the narrow pass leading into the Lightning temple grounds. Upon reaching the gate that had been enhanced by the Sealed Iron Wall jutsu, he had to wait for one of the monks to notice him and use their chakra to open it up. When he went through the narrow passage, he noticed that Gankotsu the warrior ape did not even come down to stop him in some way. Whether the monks had seen his approach or if Gankotsu simply refused to work for the temple was something he was not sure about, though he was glad that he was not delayed further. Waiting for several minutes before the gate was finally opened, Hiruzen wandered into the temple grounds in search of Guroda, the son of Hideo and current head of the lightning temple. Luckily for him, he did not need to wait a very long time before he was greeted by the same monk that had given him a tour when he first came to the temple. In a way, he was quite happy that this was the man sent out to greet him because he already knew about everything that had gone down during that time. From the lock-box containing the notes of Hideo and Tetsuo in regards to the deciphering of glyphs he had been entrusted with and the chess match between Hiruzen and Guroda that resulted in Hiruzen winning permanent access to the temple. Whether he had just been playing into Guroda’s cards by winning or if he had won fair and square was something he was still working on in his mind, though he knew that he had no time to ponder on it. He had to get to Guroda as soon as possible, so he followed the old monk that lead him into the very top of the temple where Guroda was already waiting for him.

“Ah Hiruzen, I’m glad to see you’ve returned. Since you were here early this year, I am sure you’ve managed to work with the word wall in our basement. Did you come back to ask for guidance or have you come back to inform us of your progress on the matter. Surely you’ve managed to use my father’s work to decipher what the glyphs meant, or did I overestimate your abilities?”.

For a moment, a silence fell over the room the two men found themselves in, a silence that was lifted once his guide closed the door behind him. Something he had noticed when he was in the lightning temple a couple of months ago was that Guroda had been unlike any other monk he had ever met. He was focused on his goals and was fixated on getting results as fast as possible. When one considered that Hiruzen had been away for several months, it was safe to say that the Head monk had been very patient with him already. When he voiced his possible overestimation of Hiruzen’s abilities, the young Uchiha narrowed his eyes as he sat down in the chair that had been set out for him.

“I’ve done a lot more than just decipher the content of your temple. I had deciphered them a week after I first saw them, though they were complete gibberish. It is why I decided to go to the Hidden Leaf for a while, to clear my head and see if there was anything under the Fire Temple as well. It turned out that there was a room there as well, and while it was different from what was written here, it made about as much sense as these. Luckily, there were some people that helped me once I got yet another useless list of words out of that place. With their help, we learned that the meaning of the glyphs was as followed. “All hail the Vajra of glory and sacrifice. All hail the instrument of divine righteousness. All hail the exultant and glorious celestial jewel. All hail the swift thunderbolt of exalted strength, virtue, and glory. Homage to all-pervading diamond thunderbolts. Utterly crush and devour. All hail the glory of Agni. All hail the radiant divine all-illuminating light, bursting and streaming forth in all directions. Glory to Divine perfection. All hail A ra pa ca na. May all those who preside over warriors be my vanguard. All hail Tamon-ten, armor-clad punisher of evildoers. Clad in iron, listening to many teachings of Sanrō”.“.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

With his explanation given, Guroda seemed pleased with what he heard as there had been progress in the quest his father started decades ago, only to die believing that it had all been for nothing. When Guroda explained his motives to Hiruzen for the first time, he was not at all surprised that Guroda had the same drive to complete this quest as Hiruzen did. While Guroda’s father had already died, Hiruzen’s grandfather was still alive to see the results of the quest he had started when he was as old as Hiruzen was now. The urge to finish what his grandfather had started was enough for him to see this through, though somewhere along the lines, he had started enjoying the whole journey. Meeting and helping new places and it’s people, making friends, rivals and enemies and most important of all, gathering information from all the places he went to and adding it to that which he already knew. To put it in simple terms, he was glad that he could learn so much about so many different things on a quest that took him from one corner of the world to the other. The whole treasure hunt had started becoming a big part of his life, so it was safe to say that he no longer did all of this for his grandfather. While Hiruzen was not a religious man, he did enjoy learning new things from various sources such as religious scriptures and teachings. No matter what the origin might be, any knowledge was welcome in the eyes of the Uchiha. After all, knowledge was power.

“So this can all be linked back to Tamon-ten. Did you know that various temples consider him to be a god of warfare and the vanquishing of evil? Our temple is one of the few that still considers him that way, just like the Samurai of the Iron Country, though they call him Bishamonten, patron of warriors. The people at the lightning temple call him Vaísravana and believe that he is the chief of what they call the “Four Heavenly Kings”. Unlike our religion and that of the Samurai, they believe that Tamon-ten is a pacifist that works together with his three companions and commands entire legions of supernatural beings or Youkai to protect what we call the Dharma. From what I am hearing, I am thinking that your final destination is in Mount Sanrō, though I can tell by looking into your eyes that you already know that, don’t you. Right now, the question that is on my mind is, why did you come back here?”.

As expected, a man with the wits and the religious background managed to figure out what Hiruzen needed a monk and a Sennin from the Hidden Leaf to do for him. Guroda started explaining things that Hiruzen had already read about in his childhood along with what he had learned during his time at the Fire temple. While his intention had been to educate the young Uchiha, Hiruzen had already learned the majority of it beforehand. While most of it was already known to him, he did not know that the Samurai of the Iron Country believed in the same god as the Lightning temple. In fact, he did not even know that they had a religion to begin with. All Hiruzen knew about them was that they were supposedly the mortal enemies of the Shinobi in the past and were trained in the art of countering Ninjutsu with their weapon expertise. When the question as to why he had come finally came, Hiruzen knew exactly what he had to say in response. He had been working on his response ever since he had left the fire country and started moving towards the lightning country. The young Uchiha knew that not just about everyone could become a member of the temple just because they felt like it. While him feeling like it was only a fraction of why he wanted to train under Guroda and his followers, he believed that Guroda might be persuaded into teaching him if he believed it would get him the results he craved.

“I have reason to believe that the jutsu used to seal your gates, the “Sealed Iron Wall”, is used at the final location where I will finally discover the meaning behind the word walls and why they were written in a language made up from so many others. Without the power of your temple, the Gift of the Hermit group, I will have no way of entering the lost temple of Sanrō. So even if I do find it in that massive mountain region, chances are that I will not even be able to enter the place, in turn making all of this pointless. That is why I came to you, I need you to teach me how to use and master this power for the sake of completing what your father and my grandfather started. That is why I am willing to spend as much time here as is needed, as long as I can learn to control the gift of your temple.”.

Bowing his head before Guroda for the first time ever, something he had not even done when they first met told the older man that Hiruzen was in fact serious about his request. While what he had told him was only a part of the reason why he sought this power, he believed that it would have been sufficient for the man. If he got this power, he would be able to cease hostilities by using the power of the temple and act to end fights in a non-violent manner. When he had no other options left, he would be able to use it to take people down while shining as bright as the sun. That way, all the people that saw him would know that he did not act as a shinobi or a member of the Uchiha, but as a servant of peace. Hiruzen knew that a lot of people were very religious in these hard times, so seeing someone who wielded a power related to their “gods” would help make people see that he was not out to take their wealth or hurt them. They would finally see that he just wanted all of the fighting to end so the Hidden Cloud could become like it had been in it’s golden age, the way the Hidden Leaf was now. Looking at Guroda, he could see that the man was busy formulating his response. Right now, all the Uchiha could do was hope that the things he had shared with the man were enough to let him enter the temple as a student rather than a visitor.

“I have heard stories from your grandfather when he visited last month. He told me about how you were used as a weapon for the sake of the clan while also acting for the village to make sure that the people who loathe you and your family are kept safe. I know for a fact that you are one of the people that wants peace more than anything in the world, the kind of peace that will stop all hostilities between the shinobi clans and the civilians. It is for that reason that I will teach you how to perform this gift, not because I want you to get into the last temple. While I would want nothing more than to have my father’s life long quest finished, I am still the head of this temple. Because of that, I can’t just teach someone the most sacred power of our temple because I feel like it. Now, I suggest you find yourself a spare room so you can rest up from your journey. Tomorrow morning, we will begin preparing you for your pilgrimage to the top of Mount Kyousei. When we start, you will do exactly as I tell you and will not fight it no matter what. We do this by the book or we don’t do it at all, do not forget that Hiruzen.”.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Doing as had been instructed, Hiruzen turned away from Guroda after bowing one last time. Once he left the room, his guide had still been there, waiting for him to come outside. As it turned out, he had been listening to the entire conversation just like last time and already knew where he had to take Hiruzen. While he could not help but think that it was strange to have someone listen in on all of their conversations, he figured Guroda trusted the man enough to know about this kind of thing or he would have never allowed it in the first place. Following his guide down the stairs, they entered a long corridor that had many small rooms on both sides. These rooms had nothing more than a mattress on the floor and a thin blanket. While it was a far cry from the comfort Hiruzen had gotten used to in his own home and in the guest room he had been using during his time in the Hidden Leaf, he was tired enough from his journey to not care whether he slept on a mattress or on the floor. Putting his clothes in the corner along with the weapons he had bought and the letters and gifts he had to take back to his family in Kumogakure, he wrapped himself in the awfully thin blanket and went to sleep without problems. Sleeping from nine to six, he did not wake up until he heard the tolling of a bell that knocked him out of his slumbering state. Not being used to things waking him up back in the compound, he believed that this was one of the things he had to live with during his time in the temple. Rising to his feet, the first thing he saw was that all of his belongings had disappeared overnight, meaning someone had been into his room while he slept. Looking around the room, all he could see were robes located where his own clothing had been. Taking the oh so subtle hint, he put on his new outfit and opened the door.

Noticing that a lot of the other monks were already ahead of him, he went after the others in order to blend in as much as he possibly could. Being the only person with hair, blending in might have been impossible already, though he still wanted to keep as much attention away from himself as possible. Walking into a large mess hall, he took his seat at a table with five others that were busy talking to one another about the amount of praise chants they had done before having breakfast. Treating it like it was some sort of competition, Hiruzen soon stopped listening to them and looked at his food. Staring down on his food, he saw a glass of yak milk, a freshly baked piece of bread and a slice of yak cheese. Knowing that all Yak milk products were high in fat, it seemed fitting that they would eat it at the temple. Fat was an important asset when it came to long training exercises so the practitioners had something to burn. Many believed that the monks held Yaks because they were used to the terrain and were in some way easier to breed, though that was obviously not the reason for it. Yaks were however highly intelligent, would come when called and served as a very useful working animal that produced the kind of milk that kept the monks of the temple strong. Preparing his food, Hiruzen did not really like it at first but eventually got over it by the time he finished his meal. Working down the milk that was still cold, it left a strange taste in his mouth. Being among the first to leave the mess hall, Hiruzen was greeted by his guide that called for him, telling him to follow him to the back of the temple. Doing as had been instructed, he went to the back of the temple with his guide. On the floor, he saw various carving knifes and tools, small logs and several colors of paint along with a multitude of brushes. Staring down upon them, he had no idea as to what he had to do with them.

“I’m glad to see that you did not mind wearing our ceremonial robes. Rest assured, all of your belongings have been stored away at a safe location and you will get them back at the end of your training. Now, onto your first real assignment. Master Goruda told me that you will begin your pilgrimage to the top of Mount Kyousei soon, so we need to prepare you for it. Today, you will make your personal Hide, spiritual markers you will along your trail as you travel up to the very top of the mountain. Not only is it a sign of your spiritual journey towards enlightenment, it will let future monks know that you have been there before so they will know what road not to follow if the markers suddenly stop coming, meaning you've met your end and stopped placing them. Though I do not believe that you will perish so easily, the mountains are dangerous and you must not underestimate nature this far up. Now, you have all the materials you need in order to make your personal Hide. You have three hours to make fifty markers and make your way back to the courtyard for the early afternoon meditation.”.

Believing that his guide had just been joking around, he could tell by his facial expression and the sound of his voice that this pilgrimage would not be a laughing matter. Shaking the implication of him dying as a result of nature, he pulled his attention back to the matter at hand. Pondering on what his own Hide would look like, he figured that the most personal thing he could make would be the Uchiwa design, the war-fan shaped crest of the Uchiha clan. Starting to carve into the wood, he started making sure every single piece of wood was carved into the same shape as the next before continuing to add what little detail they needed. Next, he made sure every Hide had the same colors as the next while working as precisely as he possible could. Hiruzen was no artist, so he had to fix several of them so that they would not look like failures when compared to those that turned out great. Taking him almost three whole hours to make fifty similar Hide, he raced towards the courtyard and took a seat moments before the monks started their Om hymn. Seated in the lotus position, Hiruzen closed his eyes and copied the sound made by those around him. While meditation had never been one of his skills, the melodious chanting around him seemed to entrance him and make it a lot easier to keep up his own chanting and eventually lose himself in the ebb and flow of the crowd. When the chant suddenly stopped, Hiruzen opened his eyes to see that the monks had all started getting up and started their daily chores around the temple grounds. While some went to stand guard, others went to the Yak stables or their farmlands to work the fields. When he went to look around to see what time it was, he was shocked to see that he had been meditating for well over two hours without ever stopping once.

While this had been a big milestone for the Uchiha that had once claimed to be incapable of meditation and focusing on absolutely nothing for more than a few minutes at a time, now was not the time to celebrate. Signing in with one of the veteran monks, Hiruzen was to work on the fields and to tend to the fruit trees and shrubbery. Many shinobi would consider this a form of punishment, though Hiruzen had done this kind of thing around the Uchiha compound several times a day as part of his daily chore routine. Watering the plants, pulling weeds and fertilizing the soil with Yak manure, Hiruzen spent the entire afternoon, or what was left of it on the fields. When the bell sounded again, It was time for him to have a well deserved dinner. Entering the mess hall, he noticed that the monks he had been working with on the field had become a lot more friendly towards him. Asking him how his day had been, Hiruzen talked with the other men and considered the whole discussion to be quite pleasant. Eating his Donburi, he drank his Yak milk and waited for the bell to toll again. When it did, Hiruzen returned to his quarters and closed the door behind him. On his bed, Hiruzen found a book about Tamon-ten called ”King of the North, Lord who hears all”. Figuring that Guroda had left it there for him, he started reading it until he fell asleep. Knowing that he would need to get up early to perform the same routine again in the morning, falling asleep early seemed like a blessing to him.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Several days followed in which Hiruzen worked with the other monks of the temple, repeating the same routine each time with very little changes in pace. Aside from working on the farmlands, he had been working with the other monks to train young Yaks and prepare them for their future tasks and even stood guard on top of the wall. He had pretty much tried every chore these monks had in store for him once or twice in the week he spent there in preparation for his pilgrimage. At the very end of the week, Hiruzen woke up to the bell yet again. As he got dressed, his guide had been waiting for him to get dressed and seemed to have news for the Uchiha. Taking a moment to speak to the man, it seemed that he had some good things to share going by the look in his eyes. As a shinobi, as well as during his short time as a monk, he had become a lot better at figuring out what people were experiencing just by looking at their face, the look in their eyes and their body language. Sitting down on the mattress he had slept on for the seven or eight nights he had spent in the temple, he allowed his guide to enter the room and share with him what he knew.

“Hiruzen, lord Guroda has informed me that today is the day of your pilgrimage. Before you are allowed to start, he told me that he wanted to go to the top of Mount Kyousei himself to prepare the final ritual, should you make it that far. While he makes the preparations, I am to give you a different task. You are to come with me to the mountain pass where will do a short tour in the garden of statues. Before you are allowed to go up, you need to know your lore, the lore of the mountain and our sacred trials. For now you should go and have breakfast, I will see you at the garden of statues in an hour.”.

As Hiruzen had grown accustomed to, his guide disappeared about as soon as he had come once he had passed Guroda’s message along to him. Though he had no idea why, he could not help but think that the old monk disliked Hiruzen for some reason. Having no real reason as to why he should be disliked by the man as far as he knew, one of the main things that gave him the idea of being disliked came from him never really sharing his name with him when Hiruzen told him who he was. Aside from that, there were also the slight jabs he took at him whenever he spoke of how Hiruzen would “most likely not die” on his way up the mountain or how he “probably would not make it that far”. Whatever the reason for his behavior might be, Hiruzen figured that it was not really that important. Hiruzen was a guest at the temple, so he could not confront someone that stood so high in the ranks and was basically the right hand of the head monk. Doing exactly as he had been told, Hiruzen went to the mess hall for some breakfast, taking his usual glass of milk, his freshly baked piece of bread and a slice of cheese. While he truly didn’t like it much when he first came to the temple, the yak milk products had grown on him to the point where he actually looked forward to it during his days as a monk in training. Even though he had not been working with his shinobi tools for a week, he had felt physically empowered as a result of all the work he had been doing on the farmlands and training yaks with his bare hands as was the way of the temple. To say that he had gotten stronger during his time in the temple was an understatement, seeing as his mental capabilities had grown the most.

Learning to let go of the comfort and luxury he was used to back in the village, spending time away from his duties as a shinobi and as an enforcer of the Uchiha clan. All of these things helped him free his mind from the shackles that held him down, though he could not help but think about the fate of the village and his clan when he was not there himself to help out. Worrying was one of the only things he had done when he went to bed during his time in the Hidden Leaf village, worrying about his own village and his relatives. Whether it had been intentional or not was something Hiruzen did not know, though he personally believed that it had been Guroda’s intention all along to make him work hard all day while meditating and getting used to a new environment to make him forgot about his problems back home. As he started eating, he spoke to some of the other monks about the pilgrimage to the top while trying to get his hands on some of their own personal experiences. While a lot of them seemed unwilling to speak up about it, there were a few that decided to open up about their personal experiences up in the mountains. Some spoke of how they had gone up into the mountains and ran into strange otherworldly creatures that seemed like they had walked right out of a religious text of the temple. There was one monk in particular that told him about how he and his brother had gone up the mountain together to become monks of the temple, though he had been the only one to ever get back from the mountain because he had chosen to make run for it. While Hiruzen was not one to believe in scary stories that had most likely been made up, he did believe the man that said that his brother had died up in the mountains.

This particular story made Hiruzen slightly more careful about the task at hand. Even though he had personally been trained as a shinobi and was a member of the Uchiha clan with the fully matured Sharingan at his disposal, the fact that people had died on the way to the top of the mountain was a very unwelcome thing. Not being the kind of person that would shy away from a fight when it was presented to him, he wanted to complete his pilgrimage and become capable of manipulating the Hermit chakra that would allow him passage into the hidden temple at Three wolf mountain in the Iron Country. He knew deep down that the power of the temple would serve him well in doing far more than just opening the way into the last temple, it would become a tool for him to use in fights he got himself into from this point on. Being the kind of person that welcomed any kind of power as long as it would help him reach the point he wanted to be at, he planned on using this power to bring peace to the Hidden Cloud so that it could one day become more like the Hidden Leaf had been. If he wanted to do all of that as he had planned, he would need to go up the mountain and beat any obstacle in his path. Even if it meant facing death, he was going to see this through and come out of it as a better man, monk and shinobi. Once he was done having breakfast, he thanked the men that had been so kind as to tell him more about their experience on top of Mount Kyousei, he left the mess hall and went straight towards the garden of statues. Arriving a bit earlier than had been discussed, he sat himself down against a large tree where he would wait until his guide arrived.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Leaning against the tree, he could not remember the last time when a tree so big and old felt so warm and comforting. It reminded him of a Senju he met back in the Hidden Leaf that had been talking to a tree before he started to meditate under it. At the time, he had considered it to be a strange thing, though he no longer felt like that after spending so much time in their village and in the temple. Waiting around for several minutes, the old monk arrived on the exact time they had discussed. Wondering why Hiruzen had arrived early, it seemed that he did not really care a whole lot about him being more than on time. Getting up from his seated position, he walked away from the tree and went over to his guide to see what he had to do here. From the look in his eyes, the man was not exactly happy about him leaning up against the tree. When he looked around, it was pretty much the only tree on the entire terrain around the temple. Had he been paying attention to it sooner, he would have come to the conclusion that this was some sort of holy tree before he had used it as a resting place.

“Pay attention Hiruzen, as you will need to know about this before I am allowed to let you take the Hide and head up into the mountains. That tree you were leaning on earlier is known as Yamadaifu. It’s name means “Mountain Father” and was called this because it is from this tree that all other trees in the mountain from this point on have been planted. The tree was planted when the very first monks built this temple up here after they took it with them on their journey from a place unknown to us that lays far beyond the borders of the Ninja world. Whenever a new monk passed the sacred trials of their pilgrimage, they get to plant a part of this tree up in the mountains, this being the event that lead to the creation of the Sakaki forest above our temple. Should you make it to the top and pass the trials, you too will plant a tree of your own. Follow me, there is more.”.

The story behind the tree was quite interesting to him, especially the thought of the entire forest above the temple in the mountains being grown from the same tree was interesting in his opinion. When he looked up to the forest there, he could tell that those he could actually see from this point were all at least a hundred years old. The people down in the Hidden Cloud did not even know that there was a forest at the peak of the mountain, though that was mostly because it could not even be seen from where the village was. The village itself was already so high that it was in fact hidden in clouds, though the peak of mount Kyousei was even higher than that. Following Hiruzen to a place where a fair amount of statues stood in a manner that made them look out over the temple grounds, he figured that this was why the place was called the Garden of statues.

“These statues you see here were made to resemble the former and current head of the temple. The one right here is Guroda, though you already know that. The others you see here are Guroda’s father and his ancestors all the way back to the founding of the temple. Others you see here are former monks that have died honorable deaths in service of the temple, giving their life for the cause. To name some of them, the one you see here is Roshi. As you can see, he was a bear of a man that could lift boulders and toss them at something as if they were mere pebbles. They said that through his devotion and hard labor, his skin became as hard as the rocks he tossed. This one here is Ayako, one of the few women we have ever had in the temple that also became one of the twenty statues in this sacred garden. She spent most of her time meditating, originally joining the temple to control her own chakra that had been matched with that of a Jinchuuriki. Her skill with the Hermit chakra was so great that she held off an army of shinobi together with Roshi during the era before the founding of the villages. While they died defending the temple, they had killed several hundreds each before they finally retreated from the temple grounds.”.

Listening closely to the story told about the heroes that had protected the temple during it’s time of need, he printed the names Ayako and Roshi into his brain. While they were heroes known only to the monks of the temple, Hiruzen believed that people like that deserved to be remembered by everyone who heard their heroic story. Besides, hearing about how these two monks managed to beat so many shinobi inspired him even more when it came to getting the gift of the hermit group for himself. If these people could take down so many shinobi, it made him wonder about the things he could do with it. There was no doubt about it that he would be able to restore peace to the village once he got such a powerful weapon to do his bidding. When his guide finished explaining all of this to Hiruzen, he continued walking to an old gate that was made in the image of a Torii. While everything had been maintained perfectly, the gate was old and covered in moss, making it seem like the gate was not a part of the garden. Behind the gate, he could see a path that went up into the Sakaki forest and most likely up to the peak of the mountain where Guroda would be waiting for him.

“Now that we have gotten to the last part of the tour, through this gate lies the road leading up to the very peak of Mount Kyousei. Beyond this gate is where the boundaries between what you might call imagination meet reality. As you head up to the peak, you will leave your Hide once every one hundred meters to mark your journey. You may have heard about some of the people that never came back from the mountain, and I just wanted to take this opportunity to inform you that this is very true. The mountain peak holds many secrets even I nor lord Guroda have not figured out, which is why he went on ahead. This tonic will increase your susceptibility to the other side, allowing the spirits of the past to commune with you as you venture further and further into the Sakaki forest. While the spirits are capable of communicating with you, so will the creatures that dwell in the shadows and crevices of this mountain know of your approach. Whether you believe in monsters or not, you may very well meet your end against one of them if you are not open to the possibility of creatures existing that you don’t believe in yourself. Lord Guroda told me to prepare you, so take your Hide and start your journey when you are ready. Once you pass through the gate, you must keep walking and not look back even once or you will certainly fail. Now I must be on my way, good luck Hiruzen.”.

With that, the old monk bowed his head and went back to the temple. Leaving Hiruzen in the garden with nothing more than his hand-made Hide and the tonic he was supposed to drink before heading up to the peak, the first thing Hiruzen did was smell the beverage. As the rancid smell entered his nostrils, he had to fight the urge to throw up right where he stood, though he managed to contain himself before he did so. Putting the tonic down, he put the duffle bag with his Hide over his shoulder while pondering on what the old monk told him. Had anyone else told him this story, he would have declared them mad and would just laugh at them, though this was not one of those times. He could tell by the look on his face that he had been entirely honest when he told Hiruzen about the fact that there were “Monsters” living beyond the gate in front of him. Picking up the tonic, he poured it down as fast as he could before tossing the empty bottle into the grass and passing through the gate while he still had the guts to carry on. Not looking back as he had been instructed to do, the Uchiha made his way to the peak to get his prize.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Wandering through the Sakaki forest, Hiruzen felt like the day had been going by a lot faster than it normally did. When he had come to meet his guide, it had been roughly seven in the morning, though the sky was already darkening with every step he took towards the top. Believing that the tonic he drank might have something to do with the way he perceived things, he decided that it would be best if he just kept wondering on towards the top without wasting any time on such trivial things. Leaving a Hide behind every one hundred meters as he had been told to, the road he had been clinging to for at least an our suddenly stopped for no reason. With the woods becoming increasingly more dense, all he could not even see the dark sky above him through the thick layer of leaves between him and the sky. Blocking out what little light there was, Hiruzen soon arrived at a place where two distinct roads were formed between the trees. Only capable of picking one of them, he went with what his guts told him and stuck to the right. Having no food or water, he was glad that he had eaten his breakfast this morning or he would most likely pass out and possibly die because no one would be able to find him this high above the temple grounds. Walking down the road for several more hours, he could not shake the feeling that he had somehow gotten lost along the way. One of the most annoying things about this whole journey was the fact that he was not allowed to look back by the orders of the old monk. While he did not know what would happen if he was to actually do it, he decided that it was best to just stick with his words and move forward.

As if things were not bad enough already, he suddenly had to choose a new direction yet again. As he had first gotten to a part where he had to pick left or right, he now had to pick either right, left or straight ahead. Forcing him to rethink his strategy, he felt like he should have long since gotten to the top of the peak already and had just been walking around in circles. Standing still as he started pondering on what road to take, he heard whispers behind him coming from the trees. Turning around to see what caused these noises, he saw that the road behind him had disappeared as well. No matter where he turned, all he saw were different roads to take in a full circle around him. Forming the seals and executing a Genjutsu release, he soon found out that not a single part of this was an illusion. As the whispers started getting louder, he could see movement in the corners of his eyes. Turning to see what was going on, he saw small creatures that were no bigger than a dog crawling out of the shadows beneath the trees. Bodies as black as the night and glowing eyes as red as blood, they showed sharp fangs and claws as a handful of them came up to Hiruzen with the intention of attacking him. Moving very similar to carnivorous pack animals, they were moving around him to get in his blind spot before they would make their attacks. Having none of his tools to use, the only thing he could use to defend himself was his Ninjutsu. Activating his Sharingan, he looked at the little cretins and saw that there was no chakra inside of them, meaning they could hardly be considered alive. As more of them started showing up, Hiruzen used what little Taijutsu skills he had to fend off the little attackers for as long as he could, though he was not prepared for something like this.

Whenever he hit one of the monsters, they turned into smoke and relocated themselves before coming right back to attack him. Whatever was going on here, it was not natural, nothing about any of this was natural. Believing that these were in fact the monsters his guide had told him about, they must have been the reason why several monks had gone missing during their pilgrimage over the years. No matter how fast and agile he was, it seemed that whenever he took out one of the little monsters, two more would take his place and come to attack him. Being the warrior that he was, Hiruzen refused to give up and kept ruthlessly attacking the monsters that were so eager to attack him. When the monsters were about to overtake him with sheer numbers, a bright golden light came from out of nowhere, reverting all of the monsters into their shadowy form and sending them back to the shadows. Knowing that this would only hold them back for a moment, he saw a golden figure standing at the end of the road that went straight through the center. Trying to focus on the person that stood in the center of the light, he could not believe his eyes. He saw the smiling face of his mother. It was his mother that protected him with the golden light that sent the demonic cretins away from him and allowed him to keep moving forward. Waving at him to come over, she started walking away from him. Believing that she was trying to guide him out of the forest and up to the peak, he chased after her as fast as he could, not even paying attention to his surroundings at all. Rushing through a calm forest that once had been filled demonic creatures preying on his soul, a strangely calm feeling came over the young Uchiha as he left the forest behind and walked straight into a clearing.

Looking around him to see where his mother had gone, all he could see now was a small clearing leading towards a cliff. Wandering over to the edge of the cliff, he was able to look down upon the temple. It was so strange to think that it had taken him so much time to get to this place while it seemed like he had only been walking ten kilometers. Being so happy to finally have gotten out of that dreadful forest, he had completely ignored Guroda that stood a few meters away from him. When he turned around to look away from the cliff, his Sharingan finally registered his presence. Walking over to the man, he bowed his head as an honorific, though he was mostly just glad that he had gotten this far. Feeling the anxiety flow out of him, the young Uchiha had finally gotten to safety and would now be able to learn the gift of the hermit group right here at this summit. Without saying a word, Guroda just nodded at him and walked closer to the cliff. Drawing a circle around a flat rock, he drew various symbols into the ground around the symbol before dropping a small stack of wood from his bag and putting them on a pile. Wondering what was going on now, Hiruzen waited until Guroda called for him.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

Shutting down his Sharingan, Hiruzen looked on to see what Guroda was doing. Recognizing several of these symbols from the word wall, he figured that what the man was writing down was written in a language only the monks of really understood or used so outsiders would not understand the meaning behind them. That was when it hit him, he had followed his mother all the way to this place, so she might still be here somewhere. Looking around like a married man that lost his wedding ring, he almost went back into the forest to see if she had gone back to fight the demons that attacked him. When he faced the forest, the weirdest thing happened. The entire place looked completely different from when he had been inside of it. The trees looked far less shady, there was a lot of space between them and he could actually see the sky again. Again, he was shocked to see that the dark sky had cleared up completely with a sun shining like never before to boot. Right now, nothing made sense to Hiruzen and it felt like he was going crazy. Turning to Guroda, he felt like he might very well be the only one around that could help him now. This was because he had personally gone through the same thing in order to become a monk, but mostly because he was the only other person around.

“Guroda, did you see my mother pass through here? On the way here I got stuck in the maze and had no way out because I looked back when I heard something whispering and moving behind me. When I did, I was attacked by some kind of demons that I could not kill. No matter how many times I attacked them, they just reformed and came back stronger. There was nothing I could do to kill them or get rid of them, at least not until my mother came and saved me. When she arrived, there was this golden light that destroyed the demons and sent them back to the shadows. After she destroyed the monsters, she started leading me here, though I can no longer find her…”.

At first, Hiruzen believed that the man would just respond to him by calling him crazy, though this didn’t seem to be the case. Simply continuing with his work, Hiruzen set down against the trunk of a tree while thinking about the things he had seen. It was strange to see Guroda working on his ceremony preparations like the things Hiruzen were all normal to him. To think that a man like Guroda was living in a world where things like these were normal made the young Uchiha think that it might not be a very fun existence. What was even stranger was the fact that the demons Hiruzen had faced on his way up to the peak of the mountain had never ventured out of their territory and into the temple grounds to attack people at night. Of all the things Hiruzen had ever fought in his life, he felt like these things could actually have killed him while he could do absolutely nothing about it. When he had done battle with the explosive manipulating criminal, he also had a big chance at dying in battle, though he never felt like the fight itself had been utterly hopeless. The fight against the demons had been the only one he had ever been in which he felt hopeless. That said, he had kept fighting until he could no longer move because that was the way he had been raised in the village. When Guroda finally finished setting up the symbols, Hiruzen suddenly sensed a sweet smell. Looking around him, he saw that several standards with incense had been lit while he had been spacing out.

“Your mother is not here Hiruzen, it was all an illusion. The tonic you took at the gate was a very dangerous hallucinogenic drugs that make you experience your every day trouble in a physical form. The incense you smell dissolves the effects of the drug so you can think clearly again. Now, to explain your hallucinations. The maze you saw was the physical embodiment of you feeling trapped. No matter what you do with your life in order to better yourself, your clan and your village, you always ended up running into more problems you had trouble solving, basically being the endless loop of the maze you described. The demons you faced are the people that keep tugging at you to do things. The village that wants you to keep the civilians safe, the Uchiha clan that wants you to act as an enforcer and the villagers you want to help but want you to disappear from the face of the earth. You’ve tried to fight your negative feelings, the feelings that include hurting the civilians that target your clan, hurting the relatives that keep making you fight and hurting the village that makes you help the people that want to see you dead and buried. No matter how hard you struggle. Your mother died so you could enter this world as a healthy baby, even though the doctors decided it would be best if she gave you up so she could live. In doing so, she chose to let you go and went against the wishes of everyone else. You beating all of that with the help of your mother proves that you Can put yourself ahead of all of the things that tie you down and allow you to become your own man again. If you want to be a free man, sit down on the rock inside of the circle.”.

For a moment, Hiruzen felt like he had been mocked when he was told to take drugs. This obviously angered him a lot as it might have contributed to the monks never returning from the mountains and damaging his brain during the duration of the drug and it’s effects on him. Once he got past that, he felt relieved that he had managed to beat the things that tied him down in his daily life. Knowing that he could become his own man after all of this time of doing what other people told him to was liberating. In a way, he felt sad that his mother had never actually been here, having a lot he wanted to ask her and tell her, though he would never get that chance. Taking a moment to catch his breath after running and fighting ghosts that were never there, he got up and walked over to Guroda. While a part of him wanted to punch him straight in the face for feeding him drugs, he knew that it was to help him make up for all of the years of training he had missed out on because he had only started the path to the gift of the hermit group a week ago. The fact that Guroda even considered helping him get the gift of the hermit group was something he was already really happy with, so he had to let this thing slip for now. Having nothing left to say, he sat down on top of the flat rock and waited for instructions as to the things he should do next. The strong scent of the incense made the entire place smell great while the sun combined with the gentle breeze made the circumstances around the peak great for meditation.

“The last thing you need to do now is to reach your personal place of Nirvana. While I could put up a story on how Nirvana is a spiritual place of peace of mind, I would try to find the place in your mind that brings you peace. Forget about the things that tie you down and focus entirely on the things you wish to achieve in your time on earth. By achieving the things you want most, you will be able to pass into the afterlife and be reborn. You have faced your own demons and lived to tell the tale, you’ve gone through the physical trials for a whole week and strengthened your body and your mind in the process. Right now, you need to focus on the things you want most in life and remember the things you have conquered during your pilgrimage. Once you reach peace of mind and realize for yourself that the path to that which you want most is open for you and you alone, that is when you will awaken the power you seek. The incense here will help you enter a state of meditational trance as soon as you begin while the symbols will block out all outside noises once the technique is activated. In this meditational trance, you will find your way to power and your enlightenment. The only thing you have to realize is that once you enter this meditational trance, you can not afford to break your meditation, or you will never be able to reach for this power again. Now, I will be on my way back to the mountain, come see me once you have either succeeded or failed.”.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

As soon as Guroda left the peak, the seals were activated and everything around Hiruzen become completely devoid of sound. Entering the lotus position, he closed his eyes and started meditating. Thinking of the things Guroda told him earlier, he believed that was right when he told him that Hiruzen had grown in both a mental and a physical way. The training of young yaks had been a very physical task, not to mention the hard days of labor on the farmlands he had behind him. His chores around the temple had helped him not only maintain but also increase his muscle mass that would help him in his days as a shinobi, as long as he worked hard to maintain them from this point on. Once the incense set in, he suddenly found himself walking through the streets of the Hidden Cloud. Knowing full well that this was a vision of what he wanted to achieve in the future, he looked around him while wandering through the streets. As the people he passed by looked at him smiled and waved, he felt like he had gone back in time to the days when he was still a student in the academy. No matter where he looked, everyone seemed happy and there was no unrest among the people of the village at all. Looking high and low, there was not the slightest shred of criminal behavior or aggression to be found. When he saw people of the Uchiha clan interact with the civilians without any aggression, he instantly knew that this was the thing he wanted most. While everything seemed just great to him, he could not help but wonder how he would reach a place such at this. When his vision started getting blurry, everything in front of him turned dark. As soon as his vision returned, Hiruzen saw that he was no longer in the village but instead found himself in a far darker location that seemed devoid of all life.

Standing on a massive stone staircase leading up to an old building made completely out of the same stone slabs that made up the stairs he was standing on. From what he could see, the entire place was lit by torches and the building itself stood in some hollow space inside of the earth, probably in a large cavern. Having no idea as to where he was or why he had come here, it seemed like a strange choice to go to the bottom of the stairs. The best choice in his opinion was to go up the stairs and see what awaited him at the very top. Moving up the stairs at a steady pace, it seemed like he could not fully focus on the place because it didn’t seem to truly be there while being there at the same time if such a thing made sense. Striding up to the stairs, he reached what seemed like a temple that held architecture designs of several religions he had seen so far. Seemingly having Shinto and Shugendo based designs, he also saw a lot of things he had never seen before in his life but believed to be a part of a religion he just never heard of up to this point. Looking around to see anything he recognized, there was nothing he could really relate to aside from the religious architecture. When the great earthen building started churning, the massive gate started opening itself up, shooting a blinding golden light through the cracks that blocked even Hiruzen’s eyes. While he could not see what was happening, he constantly heard the churning of the gate. That was when his ears picked up on something else, faint footsteps that seemed to be getting closer to his position. As the churning stopped and the light died down, Hiruzen opened his eyes and saw a golden figure standing no more than a meter away from him. Incapable of making out any physical features, he saw that the being reached out to him.

“Find us when you wake up…”.

As soon as these words had been spoken, Hiruzen felt the hand of the glowing being place his hand on top of his head. A moment later, his vision become obscured entirely by the golden light coming from inside of the building. Feeling his enter body heat up, his vision turned black as he snapped out of his trance and woke up in the middle of the night. Looking at his own body, he saw that he was emitting a golden glow from every inch of his body before it eventually faded away into nothingness again. Being a bit skeptical at first, Hiruzen could feel that something inside of him had changed for the better. Trying to mold his chakra, he could hardly believe that what he was feeling was his own at first, though there was truly no other explanation for it all. While it did not feel like he had reached a state of “Nirvana”, he felt calm for the first time in years. Knowing that the things he had in mind, the peace he wanted for everyone and the power to physically make it happen were up for grabs as long as he kept his objectives in sight truly made him feel more at peace with himself. While the world around him would never change on its own, he knew that it was up to him to seize the power he needed in order to make these changes happen with his own two hands. That said, he would need help when it came to taking such drastic measures, something he understood all too well. In the Hidden Leaf, peace had been achieved because of people such as Mana, Kiyomi and Meiko that worked hard in busting crime around the village while they had various measures of keeping the peace and maintaining a more than stable economy that in turn made the citizens of the village happy with their lives. Being happy like that kept people from straying from the right path and heading down into a life of crime, something he had seen all too often in the Hidden Cloud.

Feeling like he had ascended beyond the average human being, which meant a lot when one considered that he was already considered a genius even among the Uchiha clan, he stepped out of the sound blocking barrier and went back into the forest that had scared him so much on the way up. Experiencing the entire place as a whole new forest, the entire place gave him a feeling of serenity now that he was no longer afflicting by the hallucinogenic drug he had taken to start up his journey. Looking for the right place to plant his own Sakaki tree, the young Uchiha found a small spot that seemed to get enough light for a tree to rapidly grow in. Not wanting his tree to grow up in the shadows of others like he had when he was a child, he smiled a bit as he dug it into the ground and let it fend for itself. Now that he had passed all of the trials and planted the tree, he had finally finished the ceremony and could return to the temple. Guessing that it was roughly an hour or two past midnight, he went back into the temple and went straight to bed. Figuring that Guroda could wait until morning to hear the good news, he dropped his clothes in the usual corner and pulled his thin blanket over his body before falling asleep almost instantly, giving him very little time to gloat.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

8 Posts & 10810 words.
Mission Completed & Put up for Evaluation.