Starring:
Kitaru, Mogura
Date: November 11, 2012
Summary:
Mogura heard word of some treasure to be gained in the Land of Water, so she headed there only to end up unfortunately tagged with a local patrol shinobi, Kitaru. Together, they entered the rumored site of the treasure where Mogura's hopes were raised and dashed once she was made the fool upon seeking out her prize.
"Fool's Gold"
Dark Cavern [Land of Water]
A good map is a way to start learning things, especially about different countries. No, not culture wise, but geography is just as important. Understanding the way nature works is a good way to keep alive and Mogura has been having a bit of trouble with this lately. She needs an updated map since the one she's working with is fairly simple in nature. A good effort, but not enough detail to really be of any use to her. She grumped and slipped the map away in a pouch while staring down the cave that was in front of her.
Rumor had it that there was some treasure to be found here in this cave and she had the intent of getting her hands on it. Only thing is, she has nothing to utilize for this cave. Then again, she wonders if anyone has made a map of this place anyway. Not /every/ place will have some detail. Hmm.
While sitting out and studying the place, she takes note of it and the barely perceptible wind coming from it. At least she knows its oxygenated. Feels a little moist too. Another good sign. Guess she ought to make her way in and find out what it is.
Someone was within the land of water. Considering that those who were sensitive to such things picked up on this person engaged in unusual activities, one of those shinobi would be dispatched to figure out what's going on. Thus, Kitaru found he was sent after the person who was near the cliffs. As was normal for him, he'd cloak himself in that genjutsu, the simple matter of making him not show up was useful when trying to avoid trouble, or spy on a person. Walking down the cliff's face, he'd watch Mogura as he got closer, picking his footing carefully as he literally walked down towards where she was at. Only when he'd get closer, figuring she was probably not immediately hostile, would that gen be dropped with a light cough. "Pardon me, Madam. I have a few questions for you, if I may?"
Mogura looked over her shoulder to the new guy and then back to the cave. "I bet you do. What do you want?" She regarded him in a slightly calloused manner. Not disrespectfully, but a bit rough much like her personality. "I'll have to ask that you make it quick. I have some business to tend to in that cave," she states.
Kitaru would chuckle lightly. "Hai. I don't wish to hold you long either. Basically, you're in the Land of Water. Since you have made the things that be seem to respond to you, I am here to check you out." Hopping off that wall, he'd flip neatly, landing lightly behind Mogura. "So, since you are in a rush, how about we keep it simple? Name, reason to be here, how long you plan to stay? If I fill out the report properly, there should be no further issues.. We will have someone trail you, but they should stay out of the way, hai?"
Mogura frowned. "Things responded to me?" She questioned and smiled beneath her mask. "I do have that kind of personality. Haha! Things respond to me. Yes, in fact they do," she nodded. "Joking aside, I am Mogura. My reason being here is simple. I have heard there is something in that cave that needs retrieving. Treasure of some sort. I aim to get it. The length of time I plan to stay is the length of time it takes me to get what I'm after. Is that all acceptable?"
Kitaru would actually flip out a small note book, jotting down the answers she had for his questions. Pondering for a moment longer, he'd finally shake his head. "I don't see anything wrong with that. If it is indeed a treasure, then a tax collector shall be along to verify costs and obtain the proper tariffs for it. Otherwise, you should be all set, hai?"
"Tax collector? What?" Mogura was disappointed. "If I find it, it's mine to keep. There ain't no taxes or tariffs that should be put on it," she grumped. "If they wanted to do all of that, they should've sent you to get it. Since I was the one that figured it out, it should be all mine. Bloodsuckers, the lot of you," she folded her arms. "I may not feel like paying."
He'd laugh at that, Kitaru giving her an easy smile. "Hey, if it was my choice, I'd let you have it. I really don't care. I'm only telling you this because I have to tell you this. It is what it is, hai?" He would shrug, jotting down another note in the pad. "As for the feel like paying.. well, all I can say about that is the people that would be making sure you pay would be of a multitude and power that it's easier to just pay, instead of trying to fight a losing battle, hai?"
Mogura considers the implications for a few moments. "It's still mine." She stared down the cave, perhaps a little angry at this whole turn out that has managed to sour her taste of going in for the hunt of this treasure. "If they want it, they can come get it. All their multitude and power can just scare it out of there, yeah?" She muttered to herself quietly. "How well do you know this cave? Better yet, how well do you know this land? I need a good map."
Kitaru would follow along at a leasurely pace behind Mogura. He looked about the cave curiously enough. "I know the area well. I know most of it because I patrol a lot of it. Part of the whole shinobi world thing, hai?" He'd shrug slightly, glancing back at Mogura. "As for this cave, it's something I did not know about until very recently. So I have not explored it that much. However, this particular stroll is giving me plenty of time to satisfy that particular curiousity, hai?"
Mogura finally turns to face Kitaru and scope him out a bit. She lifts a hand to scratch her chin a bit before shrugging and pointing to the cave. "You first, then. I'm the guest here, so proper introductions are in order." Turning back toward the cave, she'd walk over and find a place against the wall allowing Kitaru to take the path forward inside. "So, in you go! I've got something to find in there."
He didn't budge, a soft chuckle given with a small shake of his head. "My apologies, Mogura-san. However, I am assigned to watch you. That is hard to do if you are behind me while I go into a cave I do not know, hai?" He would shrug slightly. "I would also be able to claim the prize that you have mentioned often, being within the end of this cave system, if I was to go in there first. Afterall, I believe posession is nine tenths of the law?"
"What kinda doim" Mogura paused. "Individual," she cleared her throat. "I'm not going anywhere until I get what's rightfully—what?! Nine tenths of what law?" She just had to know. "Just slit my wrist now 'cause all this is drainin' my poor blood, but whatever. Let's just go in here and find whatever it is." She grumbled all the way to the entrance and inside. Her voice echoed off the walls somewhat as she did so. "Followin' me…nine tenths…foot in arse…."
Kitaru would snicker with a shake of his head. He'll definitely have to pass that one line along. It sure got the miner riled up. Following after Mogura, he'd head into the cave systems. One sphere pulled from that belt across his chest, he'd hold it up, charging chakra into the glass sphere that would cause a purple glow to start emanating from it. As that glow grew with the chakra flow adjusted, he'd make sure to hold it high enough to provide light for both of them. Of course, Mogura probably already had her own light source.. but between the two of them, he's not the miner. His steps were silent, much akin to normal for a shinobi as he'd follow Mogura into the embrace of the cave's darkness.
Mogura looked over the cave as it was bathed in a soft, purple glow. She looked back at the one responsible for the light and scoffed somewhat. She didn't need him following her around in here, but—what is that smell? Despite having a mask on to filter such things, those kinds of smells still managed to find their way in. Despite the strength of the scent being of lesser impact, it still had enough weight to make her wonder what was up with this place.
"I'm guessing a bunch of things die in here often. It smells horrendous," she remarked. "This place must host something dangerous. On that note…this treasure just became a great deal more interesting…" She adjusted her goggles on her face as she looked at a spider that skittered away. There were a few situated around the cave mouth alone.
If she runs into more, she thinks she might hit the jackpot.
Kitaru would look about, a small pulse of chakra causing a brief flare of light, revealing the dead bodies of animals. With a nod, the light returned to that regular light he had been holding. "Hai. It looks like you are correct." A handkerchief was pulled out of a pocket to be set over his mouth, the orb planted on his head long enough for him to tie it off behind his head so as to try and ward off potential issues from breathing such air. Intersting enough? He has no issue balancing the orb on his head. Once done, he'd pick it up again, the light having never flickered with his actions. "Where to then, Mogura-san?"
"I know I am…" Mogura stated simply enough. "And I don't know where to go. I don't know this cave well enough. All I have is a limited amount of information about the place and what may be inside. In short, it's a crap shoot that I'm even here, but I decided to take a look because most people wouldn't. Besides, if I'm going to get my hands on something, I want it to be me first who gets it. Besides, I think I'm starting to get an idea of what may be around here…" Her voice trailed off as she followed any spiders she saw. She was hoping to see an increase in number as she continued.
"I'm looking to get to the nest of these spiders. I think we'll be able to figure something out from—I mean /I'll/ be able to figure out something from there. You are still not included in my spoils."
Kitaru would raise a brow at Mogura, his voice barely muffled from the makeshift mask on his face. "If it is an Okumo setup, then I'm afraid I won't be able to allow you to take it. Clan secrets and all that, hai? So we will see what happens when we follow your leaders to their end." Kitaru would shrug and keep going after her, The light played out on the spiders, tracking rather nicely against the diminutive creatures as they'd scuttle about the walls and head for whatever destination Mogura thought they might be going to.
"Okumo?" Mogura inquired. "Who are they?" She knew of the clan, but considering, she needed to be careful about what she did and didn't know. "If I get to the nest, I may learn something. I don't know what I'm gonna find until I get there. Even the treasure is beyond me," she shrugged. "So, I'll know when I get there." She continued along the passage way where the spiders appeared to increase in number and size. She thinks she may have to fight her way through eventually. She's sure some of them are hungry and don't mind attacking someone they perceive as a threat…or meal."
"They, Mogura-san, are the ones who control spiders. Like the ones you're not contemplating attacking.. and would have a nest in a cave such as this.. for example." A soft chuckle was given under the handkerchief with that casual shrug. Kitaru didn't seem to mind the spiders at all, it seems neither did the insects bother with him either, a small berth given with his steps. Then again, the genjutsuist had trained with an Okumo for a good portion of the start of his career, so why wouldn't he be relatively at peace with spiders?
"Eh," Mogura muttered. "Don't care for 'em. Spiders are spiders, but if they control spiders, that makes this…bothersome." She rubbed her neck gently, seeing that something had ended up on it. "Some sort of slime…" She looked up and saw nothing hanging from the ceiling. "…I'm going to need more light this way. Since you followed me, the least you could do is make a better lamp." She pointed upward. "I'd like to know what's up there."
Kitaru would smirk at that. "How much do I get of the take then, if you do have a treasure you get to walk away with?" Chuckling lightly, the joke obviously that he'd take anything at all, he'd focus himself with a small nod and once more do that increased chakra push to cause the sphere to light up brighter. The purple light would slowly caress over the area they were in, eventually reaching whatever was on that ceiling.. and whatever happen to drop the slime on the back of Mogura's neck.
"None," Mogura stated bluntly. At the increase of light, she looked up to see spiders nestled on the ceiling. "Huh…" She wished she had a pipe to smoke right about now. "I see where the slime is coming from and…it hasn't burned me so I'm guessing it's something else…" She slings it off her hand toward Kitaru. "Something is in here, I know it…I think I'm in the nest. It's…unassuming. Hmph," she grumbled and looked around. "You know the clan, right? What can you tell me about these spiders?"
Kitaru would let the light fade back to that regular level, after she finished her exploration. A laugh given with a shake of his head at her 'none' comment. "I know of them and I trained with one, yes. I can't say I know the spiders, nor could I explain what they are doing or why. I am not part of the clan, I simply was associated with one for a time in my past, hai?" He'd shrug slightly, "Sorry, but I can not help you with that."
"Useless…." Mogura whispered softly to herself. "Alright, lightbrite. Let's get this over with. I'm going to need a visual of this area over here…" She pointed out a small corridor. "And keep that light going. I want them to know I'm here…because it lets them know that I know they're here. This makes sense, right? Of course, it does," she nodded. "The main one is around here somewhere and aims to kill it."
Kitaru would raise a brow at the nickname. A small shake of his head was given. "I'm sorry Mogura-san. As there isn't payment involved for an actual mission to support you and I would rather not have to explain to an Okumo why their pet spider is dead.. I'm not really sure I can help you with that. Now on the other hand, if there was payment involved, it might be a separate story.. I'm sure you do understand, hai?" Kitaru would shrug slightly, that light glowing a bit brighter, so it would at least cast the animated walls into the light with the spiders moving all over them.
Mogura hung her head. This just got a lot worse. "Okay, okay, I get it. You don't want to have all their hate on your head. That's fine…" It's not fine. "I'll just…disable 'em. It won't bring any real harm except some stuns. How's that work?" Just as she finished the statement, the lead spider dropped from the ceiling and clicked loudly behind her. It was enough to cause an actual breeze to push her hair aside." She stood silent for a few moments before pointing out to Kitaru saying, "I blame yo—" She's cut off before she could finish and is knocked aside with a leg across the area.
She regained her footing well enough saying, "Feisty. Must be a female. I don't think she likes me encroachin' on her territory."
Kitaru would wave towards one wall of spiders, that casual request for them to move out of the way. The silk was slick and with the multitude of small spiders, wouldn't be surprising in the slightest if it did stick a little to his clothes. Either way, he'd lean up against the wall, cleared of spiders so he didn't hurt any. The sphere continued it's glow, a grin was given towards Mogura with a light shrug. "Hey, I did try to warn you.. Okumo like their privacy.. it might be a treasure in here, hai, but you're going to have to deal with the guardians to get it."
"Oh yes, it's completely fine to sit around while I'm being attacked!" Mogura shouted. "But that's okay!" It's not okay. "Since you can get out of here unscathed, then the least you can do for me is keep that light going." She maintained her position up against the wall she'd been knocked into while trying to figure out how to take down this spider. Those legs are the only thing going for her. The only question is how she's going to manage striking all of them?
While thinking, she's assaulted by one of the miniature spiders, which she deals with quickly enough with a swift, yet fluid strike, popping it off the wall and leaving it stunned on the ground.
Kitaru would chuckle lightly, a small shrug given. "I'm not here as a hostile attempting to invade.. I'm just doing my job of inspecting an unusual person, hai? It's not my fault you can't deal with spiders properly.. Attacking tends to make them cranky.. so I really do offer my warmest advice to not attack.. Indeed, if you struggle, the web only gets tighter, hai?" He'd raise a brow as he watched Mogura dealing with the insects. "On a sort of related note, it is interesting that spiders are not normally the hive mind type. The fact that they work together is quite an impressive situation, don't you think?"
"It attacked me!" Mogura remarked. "And that one I dropped to the floor. That was pretty fun," she cackled. "But joking aside…" She started to take her situation a bit more seriously as webbing started flying around. "Impressive? No. Annoying? Yes." She tried to evade the leg of the female spider once again, but found herself to be knocked clear in the gut yet again. On the ground, she'd get a shot of webbing to the legs that restricted her movement. As she reached for the webs, she touched them and had an epiphany. "These…" She looked up to where the spider was. A…not so big of a distance away. "These webs are amazing!" She endured another shot, but cut through that one quickly enough with some quick work with a kunai. Now to try and remove herself from these…
Handsealing as quickly as she could, she decided to bang her fist on the ground and knock the female spider up with a pillar of earth to slow her down so she'd have enough time to cut herself free of the webs. "This web is…is…y'know, I don't really like this situation." she switched subjects quickly only to return to her original thought. "But these webs feel…really nice. The silk this spider produces is fantastic! That is my treasure. Yarr!" She finally cut herself free and whipped herself back onto her feet.
"I'm going to need….buckets full of this stuff!"
Chuckling slightly, he'd push off the wall to get to his feet. Casually dusting off his arm, a small nod was given in response to Mogura's declaration of desiring the silk. "Very well, Mogura-san. I will put in the report for you as well as the request for access to the silk. I'm sure you can come to some sort of good arrangement with the Okumo to obtain access to the silk." He'd turn, the light going with him of course, before pausing and turning back, covering her with the purple glow once again. "Ah, mayhap you should leave with me for now and take care of getting the silk from the clan, instead of fighting the guards, hai?"
"But, but…but…" Mogura was sad now. Why couldn't the treasure just be hers to get? In the end, she had to actually share this stuff! "Bah, fine!" She almost decided to drop the battle, but she wanted to show the main spider what's what, so she steeled herself against it's mandible that also doubled as an extra leg and decided to strike back and disable that very mandible with what seemed like a gentle tap of the fist. It didn't seem like much visually, but physically, that mandible was not going to be used for a little while. "Alright, I'll come with you. Feh." She turned away and began to high tail it out of their nest before she ended up stuck here.
"Well go fend those little pric—precious little fiends off me! Do that wavy thing you do since they don't seem to mind you much."
Kitaru would grin then, a small shrug given. "Alright. That costs extra, however." Focusing himself this time differently.. He would basically cause her to fade out. It wasn't possible to do all the spiders at once, but it wouldn't take all at once, instead, it'd only be those who would start to rush her to attack. Each time they did, she disappeared, confusing the critters and allowing them a clean exit. Him they ignored, mostly because he was known it seems. Although he had also not done anything like try to get something of the spiders too. Either way, once sunlight was close, he'd stop that drain on the light, allowing it to fade so the sphere could be returned to his chest belt. "Are you going to camp near here then, Mogura-san? I will tell them that you are seeking a parley."
"Wait, I changed my mind. Don't do it!" Mogura remarked, but it already happened. Now she has to give him a cut off the profits. Bah! Once they escaped the cave, she took a deep breath and inhaled the fresh air of the misty outdoors before sighing it back out. "That was…the worst hunt ever. That is not going on record," she states aloud. "I'm not campin' anywhere! I spent less than 30 minutes in that place and got my arse handed to me by a spider whose silk I have to pay for! That ain't treasure huntin', that's deal cuttin'. It ain't the same thing. If I was gonna get some money out of that, I'd have to convince some sap to bank on it." She grumped. "But I might still turn a profit some kinda way. It's all in the presentation." She paused. "Eh, I guess I'll parley. I think that silk is still a good investment and I'm sure there's a guy out there ready to strike it rich."
