The Desert

Posts : 132

The air was hot and dry. Hiryuu's forehead dripped with sweat. He gulped in hopes that his own saliva might quench his thirst. Hiryuu was miles away from any type of fertile land. Ishii led the charge, taking him to some unknown location. Pain gripped his legs and the heat seemed to pay no attention to Ishii besides a few exasperated breaths. Hiryuu ground up his pain in his palm, pushing forward after his sensei.

Some how they were still within the Fire Country territory. Ishii warned him about the freak desert they were going to wander into, but Hiryuu expected it to be less challenging. Nothing lay here but sand, dried grass and stones. Trees were few, magnificent creatures that somehow collected water out in this vast empire of sun and sand. They'd been running so much Hiryuu's memory recorded the change in temperature. Ishii only stopped once it got hot enough for her.

According to her map, their location was at the near the Tea Country. This land had been isolated from any ninja activity was a freak of nature. The Fire Country was known for its plentiful vegetation but this area was void of any of that. Hiryuu noted the horizon, a dark green area off in the sky. Ishii had let him to some bastard desert in the middle of no where.

“So here we are,”

Ishii obviously knew what was going on, but never told Hiryuu anything. Despite the blazing sunshine and heat, he was still being kept in the dark.

“Sensei, where is here?”

She clapped her hands together, activating chakra between her palms. An echo spread across the land, as visible as it was loud. Nothing changed for a few seconds, the sands as dry as ever. She looked on him with a mothers affection but a sensei's hope, removing a scroll from her pouch.

“I had a hard time thinking about what would be good for you. You have the Byakugan. You don't need any type of scouting power and you're up close...”

Hiryuu's anger rose slightly, he stifled it to save face for his sense. Hyuuga clan members rarely dabbled in anything that didn't involve the Gentle Fist. Why had she brought him all the way out her to break customs? If the Hyuuga Elders got wind of any of this, they'd have him rip up the summoning contract and demand that he be put on a different team. But of course, she knew just as well as he did – Hiryuu was curious. That curiosity was the only thing that drug him out of his bed in the comfort of his room.

“Sensei...”

She silenced him with a finger on her lips.

“I understand, Hiryuu. I know good and well. Don't let someone tell you that the Gentle Fist is all you need. As well as you can see, you also need to realize that trying to see everything at once is impossible. If the Gentle Fist was so strong, why aren't your clansmen filling up our elite spots? You Hyuuga certainly train enough for it.”

Hiryuu's response was muted, she had a good point.

“It's your decision at the end of the day. I can say I brought you out here for stress training.”

The sand began to shift at first, moving side to side as if mimicking an oceans waves. As vast of an area this was, Hiryuu braced himself for what he thought was an incoming sandstorm. The sand began to move in stronger waves, pushing out from a center point about ten meters away from them. Ishii pressed her hands on the scroll and a plume of smoke emerged in front of her. The sands began to divide, separating until fur began to come from ground. Soon, a nose, a face, teeth and the body of a badger crawled from a gigantic hole in the sand.

An ugly creature stood before them, dwarfing them in it's shade. Badgers were usually a lot more woodland in their appearance. Most of them had gray fur with black and white stripes for hiding in the ground. This one was dark black all over, save for some gray on the top of its back. Its claws were grubby and sharp, just like the jagged set of teeth in its mouth. He sniffed the air until he caught sent of something, rushing out towards whatever Ishii summoned. It folded its paws and sat down at a dead snake the size of a industrial sewage line. Through the spattering flesh and sounds of ripping skin, it spoke.

“Ishii, you have brought a child here?”

She smiled as if they were old time friends, pushing Hiryuu up in front of her.

“Child, you have need of me and my kinsmen?” Hiryuu blinked hard, blocking his eyes from being hit by a piece of wet flesh.

“Oh, you don't?” It interrupted.

“This one is a Hyuuga,”

“Ahh! The Byakugan...”

Its tail rose up and then slapped the ground, parting a wave of sand in its wake. Ishii tapped his shoulders, signaling him to use his eyes¹.

Underneath their feet a myriad of tunnels painted a picture of art Hiryuu had never seen before. Countless numbers of badgers swam through he earth as if they were fish in the sea, digging everywhere. A normal sized badger dug his way to the surface, burrowing out of the ground just between Hiryuu's feet. It sniffed his shoes, walked around Ishii and him for a second and then looked at the larger badger.

“I guess. I do owe Ishii,”

Ishii laughed, Hiryuu of course was still bewildered. What exactly was going on and why was he involved again? This creatures voice was nasty and pinched, no different from some stuck up jerk.

“You see Hiryuu, these guys will help you bring out that power you've been hiding. Your earth element. A lot of people are unlucky like yourself, stuck to a particular element with no real application to their main style of fighting. But these badgers thrive in the earth and not just in the sand. They're capable of digging through rock like its nothing. With your Byakugan, they take away the need for you to constantly monitor things and they bring an increased level of coordination only few can hope to match.”

The badger piped up, while Ishii pulled some odd quills from her pocket.

“These are special needles, you put your earth chakra and them and they'll let me know what you want to do, based on how many you throw, don't throw or whatever we decide before hand.”

The badger burrowed in the ground, Hiryuu followed with his Byakugan. Underneath the earth he was no different from a shark, moving around as if the ground in front of him had no resistance. He'd burrowed just underneath Hiryuu's feet, but to his surprise he couldn't feel a thing. He resurfaced and went back down, barely breaking up the earth. Upon closer inspection, Hiryuu realized he was kneading chakra with his paws, softening the earth with them as he dug. He was about to ask the obvious until Ishii threw one of those needle things off in the distance.

And then it happened.

Her fingers filled it with Doton chakra. Once it struck the ground, it released a wave of pulsing energy across a vast range. The summoning picked up on this location and headed exactly towards the mark, where he emerged. He understood the strategy instantly.

The badger and Ishii smiled (if badgers could smile, then this one did) in reaction to Hiryuu's expression. A summoning scroll popped in front of the little one, rolling out on its own.

“If you're ready...”

Hiryuu bit his thumb, blood pouring out as he stepped forward.

“I am ready.”

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[EXIT]