Starring:
Hiei, Hiroyasu, Ogosokamaru
Date: April 18, 2013
Summary:
Team Ogosokamaru is tasked to deliver a message to an old hermit living in the mountains. Ogo uses the journey to train his two Genin
"Moving Mountains"
Outside Kumogakure [Land of Lightning]
It was the crack of dawn. With this time of year, in the mountains, that made it still dark and very early in the morning. Ogo had informed them well in advance (last night they would have received word that they had a mission in the morning, which was probably six or so hours ago). He stands at the gate, hands in his pockets looking out into the dark morning sky and horizon, waiting for his team to get there. Team. Weird saying it even after a little while now of having them with him. He'd had the chance for several days to train with both of them. Maybe not waiting for tomorrow to give them some time to rest after training (that would have been yesterday when he told them they had a mission… after a long day of workouts and even an attempt at getting Hiro's ninjutsu stronger by flexing it… again and again like muscle failure drills). So, in the dark, cold morning air he waits.
Hiei was totally wrecked. And being from a clan that specializes in taijutsu and ninjutsu, that was saying something. He walks into the area with a jaw cracking yawn and his eyes are half-lidded. Not only did Ogo-Sensei attempt to kill him yesterday by making him puke up his stomach's contents from all the running, but he's told that he has a mission at the crack of freaking dawn and he is definitely not a happy shinobit right now. Anyone who might speak to him as he makes his way to the gate gets nothing but a grunt.
Hiroyasu attempts to walk in a straight line, the rope cradle holding his 'weighted companion boulder' strapped to his back. He meets up with Hiei, "Good morning, Hiei" he says with a drone trying not to faceplant and be the Hiro sandwich between the ground and his weighted companion. He comes to a stop at the gate, rubbing the back of his bald head "Good morning, Sensei" he says in his most exuberant tone which at the moment sounds monotone.
THe sounds of his two team members made Ogo turn around and look at them. He's not chipper this morning. Or maybe this -is- him chipper. "We are leaving on a mission, and you are limiting yourself with weight?" Ogo waited after he spoke to Hiroyasu for either a response showing he understood what Ogo was talking about, or a response that showed he didn't. Maybe complete silence and a dumbfounded look on his face could tell him that, or Hiroyasu taking the rock off of himself might as well show his learning or understanding ability. To Hiei, no greeting or response to his presence yet.
Hiei grunts in response to Hiroyasu's greeting. The young shinobi is pointedly staring at Ogo. His blue eyes aren't as bright as they usually are, the exhaustion is the reason for this. In his head, he goes through several scenarios in which there might be a reality where he could beat up his teacher to make himself feel better. Since this wasn't likely to happen, he opens his mouth to speak, only to yawn again. "Let's get this over with." Is said in a dry voice as he shoulders his backpack and prepares to move out towards their destination.
Hiroyasu stretches for a moment, releasing the straps setting down the boulder "My Mistake Sensei, you told me not to part with it." bowing his head down repeatedly "forgive me, forgive me, Sensei!". He cuts his eyes to Hiei 'Maybe if you ate less ramen you'd be healthier.' he sneers.
Ogo pulls his hand out of his pocket and rubs his chin a couple times, and then puts his hand back in his pocket. "In training. This is a mission." He pulls out his hand from his other pocket. Between his forefinger and middle finger was an envelope with just a name on it. Something Chihayu. "We must deliver this," other hand from first pocket once again, holding out a map in front of himself, "To here." A red 'X' was in the upper lefthand corner of the paper, with a dotted line squiggling across and around the whole paper with three emblems of a big rock that looks like a face, a waterfall that parts down the middle, and a.. a tree that's really short with a heart on the trunk. It looked like behind that tree was a house. or next to…. kinda hard to tell when it looks to be drawn by a two year old. "Here is the map and the letter. One of you will navigate, the other will keep the letter safe at all costs." Now he waited for them to take the map and the letter.
Hiei growls under his breath, commenting to Hiro. "And if I broke your face, maybe you'd talk less.." However, he falls silent when Ogo-Sensei explains the mission and looks at the map so that he can see the direction they were supposed to go. He nods slightly. "Hiroyasu is better at reading a map, so he should navigate." He holds his hand out. "I'll take the letter, Sensei." He pauses. "Are there any pitfalls we should be on the lookout for?"
Hiroyasu reaches forward taking the map in a gentle grasp, "Who provided this map Sensei?" he asks looking at it again trying to make heads or tails of it, he adjusts his glasses several time, but now matter how hard he tries the drawing does not become any better, and it wasn't the lack of sleep or the exhaustion, It was just that poorly drawn. "Any preparations before be leave Sensei?" he asks.
Ogo looks at Hiei and Hiroyasu in turn when they take the items. Well, Hiei didn't take it so it was dropped into his hand if it was beneath Ogo's. If it wasn't, well, he'll be picking it up. He clears his throat at Hiei's comment about breaking Hiro's face. And to Hiro about preparations, "You just did it," pointing at the rock now on the ground. "If that's it, we go." He turns around, and looks up the path that's slowly lighting as morning creeps in. "It will make more sense the further we go." In reference to the map. And Ogo was waiting for something now, because he wasn't starting on the road.
Hiei exhales heavily before bending to pick up the letter and stuffing it in his pack. He opens his mouth to ask another question, but decides against it. Answers weren't forthcoming, so he'd just have to wait and see how things played out. He glances around and then back to Ogo when he says lets go but doesn't move anywhere. "What are we waiting for?" Then it occurs to him. He motions for Hiroyasu to take the lead, he was the navigator afterall.
Hiroyasu nods "As you wish, Sensei" he says looking at the map, maybe he had it upside down..not likely, he pushes the map into inside of his shirt pocket. Although it wasn't his nature,but the blank faced team members waiting on him, he begins walking down the mountain path, the only way out of the mountain so this part was easy!
As the navigator starts them down the trail, Ogosokamaru follows behind, hands in pockets with as laid back of a posture that they have seen him in, which still looks staunch and somewhat grumpy. He doesn't have anything to say right now, so he just follows Hiroyasu along the road off the mountain.
Speaking of which, the map Hiroyasu carries now looks like it winds and bends in a natural manner around the certain type of mountains that are in this range to the northeast of here. The same direction as the map. This is probably why. A small trail that looks like it hasn't been used in a long time leads off to the left from the main path through darker parts of the mountain passes.
Hiei doesn't speak at all. He was glad that Hiro had gone along with the idea of being he navigator. Unlike Ogo, he didn't look all calm and laid back. He was still trying to fully wake up. He takes a canteen of water and splashes a little on his face to make him more alert. As he walks, he attempts to use the motion to stretch his muscles out. Hopefully, there was no trouble..and if there was..he wasn't sure if he felt up to snuff.
Hiroyasu pushes the glasses up on his nose, "The turn should be up around here, Probably some goat trail or worse" he says pointing to the turn off to prepare their rocky adventure amongst the cloudy cliffs. Normally, he might make some rousing conversation but it seems that his team ate something sour. "Sensei, what exactly is a Goat-Ogre? Are they common around here" he says curiously.
"Highly uncommon as far as I know." Is all he replies about the fabled creature. "Kinda like Unicorns and snipes. Now, oversized goats, yeah. Somewhat common, territorial which is odd, because they are the only ones who want each other's territories because of the smell." If he was joking, it wasn't showing.
The path itself was narrow. And the first turn would take them up and around a circular spire-shaped mountaintop which was common over in this area. Granted that's after a near straight uphill climb for about forty meters. Ogo has no problem climbing up since he uses treewalking to do it. "Put the chakra into your feet. Too much, you fly off. Too little, you fall off." And stepping up he went.
Hiei begins attempting to simply muscle his way up the path. However, that doesn't prove to work too well. He misses a step and slides down onto his stomach. His face has a streak of grime along the side of his cheek as he shakes his head. "You say that like it's supposed to be easy." However, that doesn't mean he's going to give up. Pushing himself back up to his feet, he dusts himself off and tries again. He concentrates on controlling his chakra, something that he was quite good at dispite being called a bit of a brute back at the academy. It's slow going, but he manages to finally pull it off the second time. He comments through clenched teeth. "Here…we…go.."
Hiroyasu, attempts to step up on the rockface, following the directions to best of his ability. Which wasn't much in the grand scheme and slides right down in comical fashion landing seat first. He grunts for moment rolling back to his feet, giving a second try this time he flies off landing gut first into the dirt. Insanity is trying the same thing expecting a different result, so he hefts up his sleeves and attempts to muscle his way up like his teammate, he grasps a rock much to small for his grip and tumbles down landing on almost squaring on his head, his shoulder sharing some of the force. "Ugh, Stupid rocks.." he mutters dusting himself off before finding a better grip and scaling up a small section.
After the wall, atop which Ogo was looking up the path, squinting against the morning sun peeking between mountain peaks in the distance. "Waiting on you~" he muses idly before Hiro would get up as well and then they would be off again. Around the spire mountain peak a couple times, then on an old wooden bridge that felt like it was going to break at any moment. The far side had a narrow path, this one curving to the left and there was a waterfall hitting a portion of rock that had worn away into a pool that cascaded down the mountainside into consecutive pools. "Ah, perfect."
As they round the bend, there's two goats. One drinking, and one… doing what drinking leads to into the water. Ogo watches, tilts his head to the side, and looks at the boys. "Well, here's your chance to stink and swim, or walk." And over the water he goes, going a bit more into detail on this one. "It's just like on the wall, but you just have to push chakra out." Over the water he starts to walk. SLowly though. "Put down a foot, and secure it and try to put more and more of your weight on it until you can stand just on that foot, and move your other foot onto the water." By this time, he was across the small twenty foot pool that now had a slight yellow discoloration. The goats were long gone when Ogo got across.
Before attempting this task, Hiei takes a moment to center himself and focus his chakra. He takes a couple of steps back and then takes off towards the pool. His foot is placed solidly on his first step, but he looses focus for a moment and sinks up to his ankle on the second step. Doing a little leap into the air, he rights himself by placing a firm third step on the surface of the water and catapults himself over onto the other side. He lands in a crouch and nods faintly. "Piece of cake."
Hiroyasu takes in a deep breath, calming his mind, focusing on 'if Hiei can do this that he can as well'. Pushing an even level of chakra he runs across the surface not stopping to admire the view or the conquering of a successful goal. He leaps off the slightly rippling surface touching his foot on the other side. "That's is more what is expected of me. I will never earn it back" he says rubbing his bald head for moment. "Good Job Hiei" he says with a nod to his only slightly damp teammate.
Ogo's reaction to both of them successfully crossing the water was less than any team member would expect from his or her Sensei. Ogosokamaru merely turned around without a word, and waited for Hiroyasu to continue the walk up the mountain trail. Ogo's lack of congradulations might be an expected one on a mission. Maybe he'll congradulate or praise them later. But it didn't seem like they should plan on it at all.
Hiei holds out his fist to Hiroyasu after he makes it across. "You made that look easy." After 'bumping' fists, he gathers himself to follow Ogo-Sensei. He frowns slightly. Where was the positive reinforcement? He shrugs to himself…the only emotion he's even seen out of this guy is annoyance…and it was directed at him. He runs a hand through his hair and then continues on as he asides to Hiroyasu. "Is it weird to you that we're getting training while on a mission…and when we're not on a mission, all we get is back-breaking physical training?"
Hiroyasu returns the fist bump then goes to wipe the sweat from his brow and pauses to pull the map from his breast pocket, giving it a once over to familiarity himself with the terrain ahead. Thumbing the corners of the map, he folds it carefully and places it back into his pocket. Taking the lead on the trail, when Hiei gives him an actual sentence, am interrogative no less. He has to compose himself first before saying "Not really, I have always heard that you learn best on the job, these are real examples and applications not something you practice wondering why, right?" he asks back.
Hiei's question to Hiroyasu and the answer in return were really nothing of consequence. A young age means curiosity of things that seem to make no sense without full explanation. But, at the end of Hiroyasu's sentence, Ogosokamaru utterly dissappears. Or, in a flash of quickness he is no longer in front of Hiei, between the two Genin. He is now behind the other Genin, leaning down. He very calmly leans down and says something into Hiei's ear.
"Is it wierd to you that I have ears?" he steps past Hiei to continue following Hiroyasu, "And reasons."
Hiei hmms softly and then shrugs slightly. "I suppose so." He comments while walking a little ways behind Ogo. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about it. It's just not the way I was trained. By my father or at the academy.." And the rest of his sentence dies on his lips as Ogo simply disappears and is suddenly behind him. His eyes widen slightly and a trickle of sweat drips down the side of his face. He swallows slowly. "M-my apologies, Sensei. I was only seeking Hiroyasu's opinon and just making conversation. I didn't mean anything by it." He also wasn't aware that he was heard, either. At any rate, he continues walking after the lecture by his teacher. He mutters to himself. "I seriously need to learn how to do that.."
Hiroyasu returns the comment "Well this isn't the academy, and Sensei isn't your father or mine, He is our Sensei. It's his team so it's by his methods." he says before being cut off by the shutting apology before turning around forward keeping his eye from making contact with either of them. "Nice View!" he says seemingly on purpose as a tension breaker.
Ogo's stride brings him behind the two genin on the trail, walking nonchalant even though he made it a point earlier to them that this was important, a mission. So for now, he just walks. Up ahead was a strange rock formation jutting out of the side of the mountain. If one looked closely enough, it almost looked like eyes and a nose.. maybe a chin right there…
The trail splits after it passes the face-like structure, with signs that have fallen off of a post and now lay on the ground. One says the same name that was on the envelope, and the other says 'Monster Goat Territory'.
Hiei coughs slightly while rubbing his nose with a finger. "You've got something on the end of your nose, there, Hiro.." As he walks he pauses at the rock formation that looks a bit like a face. "Huh." He comments before moving on until they reach the split in the trail. "Hmm. If both signs have fallen off.." He looks down one way and then down the other. "Which is the right way?" He would very much rather avoid a confrontation with monster goats.
Hiroyasu wipes his nose "Thanks, Hiei" he says before looking down at the signs. He tries several tricks in his head to make a guess but they just look they fell off and have probably been kicked about and moved by rain and wind. "I'm not really sure, let me check the map" he says pulling the map from his pocket to look at trying to get his bearings. "Monster Goats" he mutters tracing his finger along the route on the map.
Ogo stands there on the trail behind the two boys, watching where they are looking and attempting to find out. Hiei's question is met with "The answer is right in front of you. No need to ask me." And he pulls some rations from a fold of cloth, probably hiding a small pouch in there somewhere, and he begins gnawing on some jerkey. "We haven't got all day, navigator."
But alas, the map only showed a curve to the right after the face. Both paths did curve to the right after this split. Undiscernable by the map which way to go with what they can see.
Hiei snorts faintly. "I wasn't asking you, Sensei. I was thinking out loud." Then, he pauses, and thinks about what he just said. "I..I mean, I understand Ogo-Sensei." He squints his eyes shut, and after a moment when the physical strike doesn't come, he opens one eye and backtracks several feet. "It's all yours, Hiro." Is stated quickly.
Hiroyasu's brain begins to spark like a lightning storm amongst the Kumogakure, He exhales a long breath and takes in a long breath from his nostril, the rancid waft of ripe goat with just a hint of moist dirt. "I smell something musky to the the left. I vote right" he says making sure to secure the map back into his pocket. "Thanks, Hiei. Your rancid ramen breath reminded me" he says with a shutter.
Ogo walks past Hiro, and leans down to pick up one of the signs. the one that said the name. "Right it is." And he holds it in front of Hiei. His other hand pointing just above the second letter in the name, then moving to just above the fifth letter. Was he mocking him on spelling now? No. Nail holes on the sign. Ogo drops the sign and starts walking on the right path, not waiting for the navigator or defender to keep up.
Hiei watches Ogo match up the signs to how many holes are in the signs themselves. He shakes his head and shrugs. "Okay, so I missed that." He then grumbles. "And I didn't even have ramen this morning.." He adjusts the straps on his backpack and strikes out walking again. Now definitely feeling a little surly after being shown up by Hiroyasu, he walks with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.
Hiroyasu says "Missed that on the first inspection, Sorry Hiei" smacking his cheeks for a moment in anguish before moving to take a stride behind their rampaging..err trail-blazing Sensei, and "I know you didn't Hiei, I was just kidding.. Sorry if I offended you" he says turning his nice meter to medium. "Forgive me, Sensei. I have shamed your instruction." he says bringing his hands together in a prayer steeple as he walks to catch up.
It was apparent Ogo was just ready to finish this. He didn't say anything to them, and kept walking up the path. After a few more curves with a good steep incline exascerbating any soreness that was already there this morning, and now with the sun beating down on top of their heads, there was a small thing at the end of this straightaway that looked almost like a short person.
Hiei pauses in his walking to stretch his back and pop his neck. Reaching over his shoulder, he massages the sore muscles in his shoulder for a moment as he looks on ahead. He does a couple of calf raises to stretch his legs more and then moves at a brisk. When Hiro apologizes, Hiei shrugs. "Don't worry about it, man. It's been a rough day." He moves on towards the short person at the end of the straightaway at a brisk walk.
Hiroyasu rolls his shoulders, and a few wide strides diagonally, then he remembers something about an stubby tree from the map, "Is that the Tree Sensei?" which is probably more a rhetorical question than a serious one. "If so then our delivery point is not too far off Hiei" he says to his team member as encouragement as he knows the pain that they are both sharing at the moment.
The tree marked the beginning of a very small trail heading to a house nestled in the crook between two short peaks, making it hard to get to any other way than this one. And that's saying something. The front door opens, and there stands a very short… man? .. woman? Either way, they were very elderly by the looks of it and Ogosokamaru would stop at the tree in the middle of the trail. "We've arrived." Is what he says as he starts walking towards the house.
The old person squints. Looks at them, and hops down their steps and then contradictory to the pep with which they hopped down, they start limping and pull a cane out from behind themselves, and begin walking very slowly towards the group.
Hiei had never been so glad to hear two words when Ogo said 'we've arrived'. Nodding to his sensei he leans against a nearby tree attempting to catch his breath from the expending of energy just to get here. He glances over at Hiro and raises a brow slightly at the old person coming towards them. He wasn't the only one that noticed how they jumped down those steps, right?
Hiroyasu cuts his eyes to Hiei for moment before taking a moment to do a mental inventory of everything that has happened. He was tired, covered in dirt and luckily not wet. "Hiei, did you notice anything strange?" he whispers to his teammate as politely as possible.
Ogosokamaru looks at the two genin for a second, then back to the elderly person. "Elder Fuuga. We have your delivery." He makes a hand gesture behind him for whichever of the two genin has the envelope to hand it to the elder.
The elder gets up to Hiei and Hiroyasu, and squints even more, putting their face right in the boy's faces, one at a time. No toothbrushes around here, and the halitosis might be so bad it has it's own halitosis on it. With a breathy voice, each of the boys gets a greeting of their own, "Heya there kiddos. My my ninja are getting shorter and shorter every year!" Yuckmouth.
Hiei steps forwards and withdraws the envelope from his backpack. He hands it to Elder Fuuga and when the old man gets in his face, he winces and plasters a fake smile on his face. "Pleasure to meet you." Is spoken quickly as Hiei begins to hold his breath. He breathes through his mouth, taking small quick breaths. If he had a mint, he would definitely offer it to this guy. However, he does at least try to remain respectful.
Hiroyasu bows his head in respect, but also to get some air from holding his breath. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance!" he says before taking a second to glance at Hiei and Ogo before bowing his head several more times as was his usual custom.Didn't stop him from comparing the stench to the only thing that was probably worse, the balding goat.
Elder Fuuga looks at the envelope, and opens it so slowly, that a turtle could have gone to Kumogakure and back by the time Fuuga got the letter out of the envelope. The short elder looks at the three of them, and just nods, picking up their cane and turning around to leap, yes leap, back onto the portch, and extremely slowly sit down on a small rocking chair. "If you're looking for the quick way back," he/she pointed their cane the opposite direction from the one which they arrived, "just go that way, and it's a straight shot to Kumogakure. Straight shot back to the village. Been there as long as I can remember."
Ogo nods to Fuuga, and turns around to start walking that direction. Literally, if they didn't notice it when they were coming up, one can see the trail going at a casual slant all the way down the mountains, complete with new bridges and tunnels through mountains that looks still new and upkept. Much easier than the way they came.
Hiei narrows his gaze at the old man when he says there was an easier route. He looks in the direction that he points the cane and sees the slant with new bridges and tunnels. His gaze slowly shifts to Ogosokamaru. For a moment, there was murderous intent in that gaze. The Genin keeps his comments to himself and simply turns to walk in that direction while adjusting the straps on his backpack. Even if it took him twenty years, there would come a day when he would get even with this man for his torture.
Hiroyasu looks in the direction they came from, before looking at the quicker and easier route. Shrugs for a moment "What's that over there!" he says pointing off in the distance, his other hand slides into the recess in his belt grasping a kunai knife… before he decides it isn't time for that "That cloud looked just like a bowl of rice!" he places his hand over the top of his eyes to block out the sun "It went behind the mountain.. oh well." he says moving to match stride with his teammate.
It was only a matter of minutes.. maybe an hour at most and they were already at the bottom. A runner from the front gate of Kumogakure could be seen heading up the trail, holding… an envelope. "Ogosokamaru-taichou!" He arrived to them, and handed Ogo the envelope. "Another message for Fuuga-sama." Ogo accepts it and holds it out to the side where Hiei is standing. The messenger huffs and breathes heavily, "Is it.. true? Did Fuuga-sama show you any of his mastery of earth manipulation techniques? Did he move a mountain?"
Ogo turns around and looks at the mountains, which now… don't have that trail… and the bridges are no longer there.. or the tunnels. Just the single, long lone 'scenic route' that they had originally taken. "I guess he did." Ogosoakamaru states plainly and without worry.
