Starring:
Date: July 22, 2012
Summary:
As the blizzards of Konoha become more fierce a duo of Kunoichi are set off on a mission to find a girl who was swept up by the storm, and hidding deep within the cave, they must taverse through the cave while at the same time finding out a little more about themselves.
"Life in an Uncharted Cave"
Uncharted Cave - Land of Fire
The freezing cold temperatures and a blizzard coating the forests of Konoha in a brillant snow white, snow pounded hard against the land of Fire, and while many were safe in the comforts of their home, tradegy was also brewing within the forests of Konoha, and young child was heard to be swept up by the blizzard, her lost known location was just in the random part of the forest though with a cave looming near by it was possible to maybe…Just maybe she had sought to find refuge within the cave… Only two shinobi was able to be rounded up for the mission, Narusegawa and Arisu, who would find themselves standing at the mouth of the cave, deep within only darkness shrouded the area with no sign of any life existing within its constents.
Naru was adorned in her usual clothes aside from a cloak which she clung over tightly, she took a few steps through the snow while attempting to lead the way forward. " This will have to be the place right? I believe so according to what we have been told…"
"I believe for this cave to be entirely uncharted… There is still a lot of caves that have yet to be eplored, unfortunately I believe this is one of them," Naru responded back, her eyes lit up, the sharingan peering through as she attempted to pick up on something, but nothing seemed to come to light. " I don't see anything right now unfortunately but this has to be the place… We are on time limit but together…We will be able to keep ourselves safe right…Ari-san?" She smiled lightly though at least confident that they would be able to track down this little girl. " At least she is in here rather than out there…" Naru tugged her cloak a little closer and proceeded further, there wasn't a single light within the cave other than the illumination from the outside… But right…we will need to hurry,"
"We are properly conditioned and prepared to withstand harsh environments of neccesaary… I am sure we will be fine as long as we don't overextend ourselves in our search." Arisu frowned a little, "We should create a light source…" She slipped a hand into her cloak and pulled out a fairly thick piece of wood, before tearing a piece of the cloak off to wrap around the top. "If you would be so kind to light it… it will provide us heat, light, and will give the little girl something to spot us by should she be nearby…" Arisu hold out the makeshift torch for Naru to light, holding it away from her face to avoid being burned herself.
A light shade of blush filled Naru's cheeks as Arisu begins to make the makeshift torch, Arisu made a lot of sense, it was going to be interesting working with her in general. " Hai, I can take care of that," She face had turned into light smile and soon enough she motions through a pair of hand seals, taking a deep breath and expelling a light stream of fire, covering over the cloth until it ignites and sustains a blossoming fire. "That should do it… hmm?" She replies back with a soft nod and turns her attention deeper into the cave, it seemed to be quite normal… Deep, wet, critters moving about the cave, but there was still no sign of any little girl.
The blizzard outside howled, the wind from outside causing the torch to flutter, "…She is clearly not here, at the entrance… if she is in the cave, she probably went further in to try and escape the cold winds…" She moves forward, keeping the torch held high to illuminate the path, "Let's go…" She moves forward, but the cave seems endless… after a few minutes sge speaks again. "We should keep speaking… our voices will carry, and may draw her out… You have been doing several patrols lately… simply drew the short straw? Or did you volunteer?"
Naru was surprisingly rather silent, of course she was taking the mission very seriously, her eyes picking up on any subtle detail that might reveal the presence of life but in reality there was life all around them. Bugs animals, things of many sorts, it was harder to distinguish what might be been a human life, though as Arisu spoke about perhaps speaking more, it kept Naru just a slight bit flustered on the cheeks. " oh that is a good idea.. I wasn't meaning to be too silent," Naru insisted, " I volunteer, i beleive it is the least I can do while im not picking up on normal missions as of late, but missions like this, it is an emergency right? Thats when I like to step in…I suppose you can say i admire the danger now," Naru looked briefly at Arisu, the smile returning to her lips. " How about you? Are you picky about your missions as I am? Do you have any goals or ambitions that perhaps you want to accomplish in the future?"
"…I am picky… but that is because I do not see how I can help in many missions… not because I have some major goal for my future. In truth, I have not chosen any new goals for myself since I accomplished my goal of becoming a ninja, that was six years ago… almost seven." She stares straight ahead for a moment, "I suppose… I want to be the best Genjutsuist in Konoha… I want to be able to find something I can do to help, because I always feel so… helpless… even after becoming a Chuunin." She glances atNaru, then looks ahead again. "I'm sorry, I'm sure you don't want to hear about my personal insecurities."
It was interesting to hear, at least from Naru's perspective, she didn't even quite know Arisu's story at all, she didn't appear to come from any known clan within Konoha, it peaked another question that Nar uwas interested in speaking about, her eyes turned ahead also, listening to Arisu's current ambition as well as her insecurities. " You can talk to me about anything, Ari-san," With a slight pause in her voice she looks forward, taking a look through the cave, nothing seemed to really change, but the howling winds from the outside seemed to intensify, amplified by the hollow of the cave, it was actually quite erie… " Genjutsu… It seems like the path the both of us currently walk, and if you realyl want to, perhaps we can go on a few missions together? Sometimes you learn how helpful you can be when you are simply thrown into a situation,"
Arisu nods, "We could… Just like now, this is technically a mission… albiet an unplanned one. And I would not mind going with you on others… Of course, we wouldn't need missions either… I do not dislike being with you outside of shinobi duties… In fact I find that your company is quite enjoyable." She reaches out, grabbing hold of Naru's sleeve and coming a little closer. She does not turn to face her, but she had hoped that closing the distance would be an easy enough message to read even in the dim light.
A rush of redness flushed to Naru's cheeks as Arisu mentioned not minding hanging out with her outside of missions, of course it was a reason for Naru to be a little closer to Arisu, but to know that that wasn't even necessary… " You enjoy my company?" Naru questions suddenly though feels her sleeve lightly tugged and steering closer towards Arisu, the raven haired Uchiha almost hiccuped slightly, "I would like that… Though i have to say outside my life as a shinobi there isn't much for me… Its just the way i've grown up though..The way of the Uchiha…" She smiled and at least reached a hand up, she tugged a little shyly on Arisu also. " We need to stay close… especially if these winds keep kicking up,"
"Indeed. That is why I came closer." Was that really the reason? Her face wasn't betraying anything… but it was dark, even if she WAS blushing, it wouldn't be visible in this light. "Perhaps… You should consider your life outside of being a Shinobi… I am aware you come from a long line of shinobi, but that does not make you any less a person. I am certain you have wants and desires beyond your ninja training… everyone does." She soon wrapped her arm around Naru's without a word, resting her hand on the other girl's forearm… And then they come to a fork in the cave, two separate paths on either side of them. "…Well… This complicates things…" She frowns a little, looking from one cave mouth to the other. "We can split up… but one of us will be without a torch. or we can take each path one at a time… but we have no idea how far each one goes… or if they split off again."
"Life outside of a shinobi… Well I do play the flute when I have time… its one of the main other things I like to do on my spare time… I've been trying to tone things down a bit, and I have to say I think its been paying off, even a little bit…" Naru spoke softly, though as Arisu's arm wrapped around her she felt herself pulled closer, her blushed remained and her eyes stuck close to the floor, keeping her eyes glued to the floor every now and then looking up to check on something. " We should stick together… I don't wan to risk anything happening, or going seperate from you…" she kept a slight gripe on Arisu, though her eyes finally began to react, " I see something… there are some fresh impressions in the dirt alogn that path…"She points off to the left, "That might lead us closer to where we need to go..
Arisu looks up at Naru for a moment and then nods slowly, "Alright… To the left it is." She starts to move in that direction, gently tugging Naru along, leading the way with her torch in the darkness… Though it was starting to sputter a little more… That strip of cloth that she had used for the fire wasn't going to keep burning for long. "The flute…?" She glances back at Naru, "I think I heard about that from someone earlier…" She nods, "It's your birthday soon, right?" Arisu's intel-gathering capabilities strike again! Her ghosting to and fro at all times of the day paid off every now and then.. she'd always get small bits and pieces of information that she could use later. "I hear that your current flute is… looking a bit worse for wear, as well." She looks ahead again… and then blinks, "There is light ahead. It is not our own… I do not think that a child would have thought to bring in supplies while running from a blizzard though… or that they would know how to start a fire if they were lost in a cave… Unless they were specifically taught survival skills… Did we have any intelligence on the child in question?"
"How did you know about my flute…? And yes my Birthday does happen to be coming up soon… When is your birthday, Ari-san?" Naru spoke and questioned, she was definitely caught off guard about the question, and her other hand slightly rubbed the back of her head in idle confusion…Was that ghost girl spying on her? Was Arisu becoming more curious about her? Peering forward Naru felt more comfortable with a fire ahead, despite their own flame suddenly sputtering, though as they moved something began to move and crackle, almost as if they had been hit with an earth quake, the interior walls began to spaz and crack before them, until suddenly falling rocks and stalagtites began to ran from above, smashing into the ground, and also right on top of them… Naru reacted rather… swiftly, though reckless at that,
" Look out!" Naru exclaims tightly gripping along Arisu's hand, hopefully managing to pull Arisu along with her before suddenly she loses her foot, tripping to the ground and falling flat on her but, though she jerks Arisu quite harshly probably to bring the shinobi down right on top of her…
Arisu suddenly looks surprised as the ground starts to shake… and unfortunately for her, her lack of a sense of urgency fails to get her moving in anything resembling a reasonable amount of time… Luckily, Naru is faster… And though she may be somewhat reckless in her pursuits to get Arisu out of the way, and prevent her from being crushed to death. Unfortunately, (Or was it fortunately) That ended in the side effect of Arisu indeed stumbling and falling right on top of Naru… and predictably, she fell into what most casual onlookers would have called a compromising situation, with her face less than an inch from Naru's her eyes wide, and staring her fellow chuunin right in the eye.
She had managed to catch herself with one hand, placed just to the left of Naru's hip,but her other arm was caught in Naru's and so she had ended up falling, quite literally, into her lap, her body pressed up against the younger girl's all of a sudden. "I… Thank you…"
The light further in the cave vanished, leaving both Arisu and Naru in total darkness again… Their own torch had disappeared under the pile of rocks… They would have to come up with another idea…
The situation was nothing but awkward, she blinked queitly as they were now surrounded in darkness, yet Naru could still see Arisu, the traces of her chakra was the only sort of light she had, Naru's eyes began to fade away though, the illumination of red returned to their soft pumpkin hue. With their bodies pressed against one another naturally Naru arms lightly wrapped around Arisu, she pulled her in gently in a soft embrace, a part of Naru was daring for a swift reaction, taking control of the situation while another part of her resisted, still though she kept the closeness which had occured which simply teased her.
" Are….you okay? Ari-san that was a bit of a close call…" Naru whispered softly, their faces were still rather close, and Naru's cheeks had furiously burned red, entirely unnoticable in this darkness howver.
Arisu was shivering a little, and continued to stare at Naru wordlessly for a few seconds, her face never pulling away, as if daring Naru to make a move… And when she doesn't, Arisu slowly starts to close the distance… She practically radiates warmpth as it LOOKS like she's about to try and kiss Naru… But then a voice calls out from town the tunnel.
"H-hello? Is someone there?" It was definately a little girl's voice, and it caused Arisu to pause, and then push herself away from Naru entirely, recomposing herself as she straightens her Kimono and looks down the tunnel. She makes a few handseals and summons up a burning orb of silent, blue-green flame… just enough to illuminate her face. "Hello? Are you the child who got lost…? I am Aika Arisu, and this is Uchiha Narusegawa… We're here to take you home. Are you alright?"
"I'm.. I'm fine!" The echoing sound of footsteps come toward them, as a small pink-haired girl comes within the eerie light of Arisu's flame. She seemed a little scratched and bruised, but otherwise, she was is good health.
Arisu had collected herself fairly quickly as the voice called out to her, but Naru remained in that position, close… almsot frozen in place with her lips slightly parted from one another, finally she had let out a soft sigh, a bit of relief but at the same time a bit of disappointment. " Ah… Hello!" Naru soon calls out as she rises to her feet, dusting off her dress as she began to recollect herself, she examined the girl from afar, which by how things looked she seemed quite fine, and with the rest of the tunnel virtually intact it wasn't going to be too difficult at all.
"Right we are here to get you out," Naru spoke softly by Arisu's side, though luckly enough the illumination was quite faint.. She licked her lips moist, she could almost taste what would have been… "We should get going quickly…Before anything else in this cave starts to cave in due to harsh winds or what have you," Naru finalizes, she finally takes a lead forward, inevitably to retrieve the younger girl, and the trio would find themselves returning back to Konoha…
