Questions Answered [p]

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

After the hour he was allowed to spend on his own in the library storage room, Hiruzen had come to find out quite a lot about what had been inside of the box, though he did not nearly have enough time to look through more than half of it. Several of the scrolls he had found contained weapons along the line of swords and even a suit of armor, though Hiruzen could not unseal them at this point in time. He was capable of using Taijutsu, had some skills when it came to using certain kinds of weaponry, knew how to set up a good Genjutsu and was well versed in the use of Ninjutsu, though he did not know how to unseal something aside from the basic ninja scroll. What he thought was quite interesting was that there was also a journal inside of the box, one written by Hideo, the now deceased leader of the temple and occasionally kept up to date by his grandfather, Tetsuo. In what little time he had, he had been actively reading through it. It had started out rather boring, seeming like nothing more than gibberish for the first couple of pages, though things started picking up as he was reading through the slow parts and got to the point of the journal. In their old days, the two had been spending a lot of time in a room that was locked away several meters below the temple in a room that was arguably older than the temple that stood on top of it. While the journal had been mostly speculating as to what it's origins were, both his grandfather and Hideo agreed that the room was very likely the reason why the temple had been built there in the first place.

Using Hideo's vast knowledge in the religion practiced by the various temples all over the shinobi world and Tetsuo's analytical abilities granted by his Sharingan and knowledge of ancient clans, the two had spent several years documenting things they had found out about in their journal. Reading that they had been trying to figure out the language used inside of the room, a great deal of numbers and letters had been decoded and turned into text that seemed like pure nonsense when taken out of context, which currently was the case. Unless the whole thing was figured out and converted into something that could be read in a proper language, it would all remain gibberish. Reading the subtle jokes that had been written into the journal, he imagined that the two had been friends for a very long time, though that was something he had to ask his grandfather about some other time. The relationship between his grandfather and the temple had become a lot more clear since he had started reading the journals, but a lot more remained to be done. With the discovery of the hidden space below the temple, the strange writings and symbols and the box of stuff belonging to Hideo and his grandfather, he had a lot of things to think about, things to come back for sometime in the not too distant future. For now, he would go with the monk and meet up with Guroda, the current head of the Temple of Raijin and leading authority. Believing that first appearances were very important when meeting people, that went double for this occasion.

When the monk guided him out of the library and into the room where the head of the temple was awaiting his arrival, Hiruzen had expected a lot more. Noticing a man that had a rather stoic expression on his face, a shaven head and ceremonial robes, he figured that this man was roughly the same age his father and his uncle were. Having expected some room that was filled with religious artifacts and figurines, he instead found out that the personal quarters of this man were in fact very different. Having several sets of chess and Shogi set up in glass casings, it did not take a genius to figure out that this man was into tactical games that tested one's mind. Seeing sets made entirely out of glass, gemstones and even gold, it was safe to say that this man was both a collector and most likely a strategic mind. While Hiruzen was not a collector, he too was quite the strategic mind, capable of figuring out weaknesses in defenses, knowing what to exploit and where to strike in very little time. Knowing that they had at least one thing in common, the monk started talking.

"Your Holiness, I bring you Hiruzen Uchiha, grandson of Tetsuo Uchiha. As you might have heard, Tetsuo requested that we allowed the young Uchiha to take a tour throughout our temple and meet up with you. We arrived a bit late because he wanted to spend some time with the lock-box your father and Tetsuo left behind when your father died. He... managed to open the lock on his own.".

Remaining fairly unimpressed until the monk spoke of the box Hiruzen had opened, he raised an eyebrow while gesturing at the monk to leave them and close the door. As soon as the door closed, Guroda rose out of his seat and looked at the Uchiha standing before him as if he was looking for something specific. Whether he had been able to locate what he had been looking for or simply couldn't, he sat himself back down in his seat, waiting for Hiruzen to take a seat as well. Looking one another in the eye for a moment, Guroda finally started talking to him after building up some tension.

"So, I see that you are Tetsuo's grandson. When he asked if you could come over for a tour of the temple, I was not exactly up for it. When someone your age comes here, they tend to start trouble or disturb the peace by being loud. When Tetsuo suggested that you might be able to open the lock-box and figure out the situation regarding our basement, I decided to give you a chance. You see, I told Gankotsu to meet with you at the gate and annoy you to see if you would turn tail and run, or if you would still try to move forward. So far, you passed every single one of my tests and even managed to open the seal mechanism on the box. You've been given a taste of what goes on here, you know what is in our basement and know that it is incredibly old. I can personally figure it all out if I get the journal my father left behind from the box by claiming what is mine by right, or you can take one final test and show me what you can do. Do you accept?".

Letting the words of the head monk sink in for a while, Hiruzen had some trouble believing that this had been the work of someone other than his grandfather. For the longest time, he had believed that his grandfather had been responsible for setting all of this up, though it turned out that it had all been Guroda's doing. Pondering on what he meant when he spoke about a final test, there was only so much Hiruzen could come up with. Having no intention of losing the content of the box to someone that never left the temple, he could not turn down a test when he risked losing everything if he declined. Looking around one more time, the young Uchiha got a pretty solid idea as to what the final test would be.

"If you are planning on inviting me to play a game of chess, I will do my best to give you a challenge. It's been a while since I last had time to play this game, so I hope i'm not too rusty. That said, I don't intend to let you just have the content of the box I opened without putting up a fight. Whenever you're ready, feel free to set up the board and we'll get started.".

Just like that, an interesting game of Chess started between two people that had proven on numerous occasions that they were more or less the brightest among their own people. Whether it was a game of chess, checkers or shogi, Hiruzen knew several decent strategies that could tip the scales in his favor within the first four moves, something most of his adversaries did not see coming before it happened. Though the exact level of skill and strategic thought inside of the man's head was not known, he was not expecting to face as much competition as he actually got. Losing several of his pawns in the initial skirmish, the first thing he did was position his Bishops so that he could take down the queen and possibly even the king if the defenses started weakening in front of them. His second thing on his agenda was to put his pawns in a manner that would allow his Rooks to immediately take down those of his opponent and several weaken both the left and the right side of the playing field. Once he managed to put all of that in play, he started playing around with his remaining pawns and his knights, harassing Guroda enough to eventually drop the defenses on his right in order to take down one of Hiruzen's knights. Sending his rook to take the enemy rook and strike a serious blow, forcing the man to take some of his defenses and position them in a manner that would at least protect the king and queen. Prepared for this, Hiruzen had his bishop standing ready, because once Hiruzen took the enemy bishop that stood in his way, the Queen would have to make her move.

Striking the bishop off of the board, Guroda sighed, now seeing what Hiruzen had been setting up from the start. Normally, the young Uchiha would not go all out against someone, though there was a lot at stake here. If he lost, Guroda had the right to keep him from ever entering the place again and losing all the research material inside of the lock-box. Forced to move his queen in order to avoid being check'd, Hiruzen lost his rook, but his plan had been successful. Moving his bishop to take the queen, the most powerful pawn on the entire board had been secured along with the right side of Guroda's defenses. Realizing now that he had been placed checkmate with the placement of the remaining knight and the two bishops locking the king in place, Guroda smiled as he looked up at Hiruzen from the board. Having no choice but to surrender, Guroda put the board away. From the looks of it, the man was in a rather good mood, which was quite strange, considering he had lost the match. Hiruzen was a quick thinker, needing very little time to come up with elaborate plans and ideas that should aid him in taking on strong enemies. After all, he had been fighting the Raikage and managed to hold out for quite some time, even wounding him with a smart little trick at the start of the spar. While that was all something to be proud of, he would not talk about that with anyone other than those he really trusted. Watching as Guroda rose from his seat again while extending his arm, the two shook hands as a display of sportsmanship.

"You have earned my respect, Hiruzen. I take pride in my skill as a tactical mind, though you have managed to beat me, a man that is at least twice as old as you. By winning, you have earned yourself the right to come back here whenever you want, that much I can promise you. Take whatever you want from the box, but make sure you don't lose anything. When you do come back, I will be expecting you to take me up for another match.".

With Guroda's blessing, Hiruzen could now stop by the temple at any given time in order to do his research. While he was still training hard to become a powerful shinobi, he did not want to just train his body, he wanted to keep his mind just as sharp as his kunai and shuriken if not sharper. The mind was a dangerous weapon when used right, arguably more dangerous than a weapon or even an army of simpletons. Spending only a little more time in the temple, Hiruzen went on his way back to the village, taking several scrolls and the journal from the box, leaving the rest of it behind for the time being. He had made sure that the box had been locked back up again, so even if someone was to get into the temple, they would never be able to open it without an eye such as his own. Heading through the passage, he looked up once to see if he could spot Gankotsu, still feeling bad for him. Unable to do so, he just continued making his way back home as the day had been long enough.

Age : 32 Posts : 1178

2202 words written [1200 needed]
End of Training