Starring:
Date: January 20, 2016
Summary:
It was time for a new set of knives and Yama aimed to acquire them! The time was now and the ore fever was flowing through his veins. He needed a special kind of ore that could only be found in Onigami Mountain, so he hired his local shinobi to help! Unbeknownst to them, the mine they arrived at had a particularly percussive problem that would prove to be problematic to them.
"Ore in My Veins!"
Onigami Mountain [Kyuusen]
So, when you needed a mission, you wrote about it, right? Send it in and hoped somebody would pick it up? Yama had no clue and he was still learning, but he went to get his mission looked into anyhow! He needed help and he submitted for it like anyone else would! He didn't know if shinobi did these kinds of things, but he'd soon find out. He had everything prepared and ready to go and upon acceptance of his mission he would give them everything they needed. They were going to be away for a while trying to acquire what he needed, but he intended to pay well for what work was to be performed.
The time had come for him to acquire knives. The ones he had were well used and were far past the point of being sharpened and straightened. If he was going to prepare the most amazing bowls of ramen ever, he'd need the proper utencils to make that happen. Utencils made with the best kind of metal and he had heard tale that it could be found at Onigami Mountain! Cause the best stuff could be found in places named like this, right? Absolutely!
Shokku has been showing enough promise to be set up to go on a mission. It's nothing too difficult, but part of how genin grow is experience, right? So there he was, showing up at the mission time. He had a small pack with some gear to help with travel and would look around for the others expectantly. He was ready to go, eager even, but made sure to keep a reserve look for the one who requested the mission.
Akio simply sighed and walked along with the others here. He wasn't in the mood for a mission. And even if Kaneko said she did he didn't think anyone else actually cared if he was here or not. Surely it wouldn't matter to them if he up and dissapeared one day alone this time. With another sigh he looks up at Yama. "So…what exactly are we doing again? Be clear about it because the whole thing sounds..like a pain, and weird to even ask for." He just sighed once more.
Kaneko sorta stares up at the mountain. This is pretty cool! She doesn't think she's ever been so far from Iwa. The last time was on a patrol, and the time before that was when she was kidnapped… Stars know she had no idea where she was, though. So this is definitely the furthest she's been. "We're going to find materials for Yama-rama's knives! He wants to make sure he has good knives so that he can make amazing ramen for his ramen shop," Kaneko tells Akio. "I wonder if there'll be monsters in there… Or some bandits or something… I dunno if I want that or not, actually. It'd be a pain in the butt. Or what if we find the perfect amount of ore, and a grumpy old troll blocks our way D:"
"Yes! That is exactly why we are here!" Yama shouted excitedly. "For safety, we have another shinobi here with us. He is of a higher rank and will look after us as we go in. I'd have preferred him not to be here, but I don't make the rules," he gestured to the chuunin who traveled behind the group. "Now, I have a map of the area and there are some mines that have been said to be here. They were abandoned, but it's thought that there is still ore to be found there. We must be careful as we will be going deeper than the original operations here. No one knows why they were abandoned, but it's safe to say that it was just dangerous. That's where you all come in!" He nodded.
"Now, we should be on our way. We don't have time to waste." Yama marched onward to the mountain and up until he found the cave he was looking for. There were no problems with the initial entry aside from a few tools and other equipment left here from when it was utilized. There are still torches that were set up that have long since burned out, but with a little work, they could be reignited. "The ore here is very special because it is said to have been not of this land. Said to have come from the sky. Makes the best metal. Always stays sharp, very hard to break. That is what Yama desires! Who knows who or what we will find here?"
Shokku goes with the others, shifting his pack as they'd move along. Yama was able to lead where to go, that helped. Shokku could also help with the light by using the lightning to spark it. That should work, right? Looking to the others, Shokku would nod to Akio. "I'm learning more and more, Akio-san. I hope to get to where you are some day."
Akio looks over at Kaneko and nods before…shaking his head as if he understood Kaneko wrong when she spoke of trolls protecting the ores. But then he just shook his head once more before looking at Yama. "Okay. Sounds interesting I suppose. I will do my job and defend you then while you get some ore." And then he yawns sleepily. He wasn't sure anything would even be down here anymore. So he just grabbed a torch and lit it himself before following. His eyes shifted to Shokku. "Uhh…yeah. Kaneko is better than me though so." He shrugged.
Kaneko nods quickly to Yama and picks up one of the torches, lighting it with fire ninjutsu. She also has a pack on her that she may have forgotten to show off earlier… A few torches get stuffed into it just in case. "Really? From the sky?!" Kaneko says with wide eyes. "That sounds exciting! Let's go!" She then glances to Akio and frowns. "Not really. Akio-kun is better than I am. He's just super modest."
"What about being like me?! I am amazing too!" Yama spoke, lifting his arms to flex them. "You can't go wrong being like the tiger!" He took up one of the torches that were lit for himself and held it overhead. The path down the way was still littered with tools, rusted and worn. There were sacks lining the walls filled with rocks and likely traces of ore, but otherwise nothing significant enough to work with. As he picked one up, the sack tore open and the gravel within tumbled onto the ground. The sack had rotted over time.
He moved forward in the mine, lighting any torches that were unlit along the way and encouraged the group to do the same. They came across a small wooden bridge that would need crossing over a small pit. He tested the integrity of it with his foot. "This wood won't hold," he remarked. "We need bracing here. I know that you both work with metal," he pointed out to Kaneko and Akio in particular. "Could you create a bridge for us to pass with?" He looked past them towards Shokku. "I don't think I ever caught your name, forgive me!" He smiled. "Who might you be? I am Yami Yama!"
Shokku stares at Yama curiously. "I don't know you.. oh. Toujitakumi Shokku." He would bow to Yama then. With his own torch, he'd watch the rear.. yanno, just in case. They could handle getting across the pit without him. He's more of a.. blow it up type, anyways, right? "Akio-san sparred me the other day. I was impressed with his ninjutsu and so I am seeking to control like he did."
AKio frowned. "I could probably make a metal bridge. Would take me a moment. Kaneko…can you mold metal yet?" He wasn't sure, but he would sit down and pause. "Wait…we could just do earth because I know you can do that." And rocks started moving to the other side. Though metal was inside of it and on the sides to provide extra strength where it might be needed.
"I can't do anything with metal. Just sword-stuff." Kaneko would indicate the sword at her side - WHICH SHE MADE HERSELF!!! - before glancing to Akio. "I could try earth, yeah. I'm not great at ninjutsu, though. It's weak." She makes a handseal and focuses, trying to make the earth move forward and add on to Akio's forming bridge. She didn't have any metal to reinforce it, though…
Shokku saw they were working on getting the bridge made of stone and metal, Shokku would offer his own help. Gathering chakra, he'd focus himself and with those hand seals would send out that earth chakra to form those pillars, one at the end of the next, to help at least start the bridge across the gap.
"Hahahaha! Of course you do not know me and I do not know you, that is why we introduce ourselves!" Yama spoke with great elation and amusement. "Chakra control is always important, but from what I have learned, Toujitakumi take advantage of imbalance, yes?" He questioned. "Imbalances also have their uses. The world around us utilizes chaos and order to achieve balance, why not jutsu?" He grinned. "I am certain you will learn to handle it effectively. I find that to be impressive for your clan. Using imbalance to balance!"
With the combined efforts of the earth users, a sturdy bridge was created to cross over and Yama proceeded first. He was willing to test it to ensure it was safe for his hired crew. "It works!" He offered a thumbs up. The rest of the earth settling in crumbles and rolls until it finds its natural place. With a gesture of his torch, he urges the crew onward and deeper into the mine.
At this point, abandoned carts were left and it appeared that their construction was still sound enough to find some use. Yama took this time to place his materials inside of it to lighten his load and offered to do the same for everyone else's. He lit torches along the walls and saw that three different directions were available to take. "Ah, a junction! Let's see…" He had since turned over his map and began drawing a path for the one they'd taken from the entrance and up to this point. Wouldn't do well to go in and get lost here. "We should each split up and look at these tunnels. I will take the center. That leaves two others. Akio, you can take the left. Kaneko you can take the right. That leaves Shokku and Chuunin-san here to keep watch, just in case." He folded up his map. "We are only looking to see if these tunnels are sound. Look for anything that can hint at possible issues. Broken beams, pockets of earth, wayward materials. Anything," he stated. "Use your jutsu within reason to test things if you must." With that he made his move down the center tunnel. Just like their trip down here, the torches lining the walls would need to be lit to see further.
Shokku nods to Yama in agreement. "It. Well, yes. That's a basic way to see it. It's a little more complicated than that. My own style is.. my style too." Shokku mused for a moment, that sounded so cliche. Shrugging, Shokku helps with the bridge and heads on with them, stopping at where the tunnels split to look to the chuunin, then back to Yama and nod. He'd switch the torch to his other hand in preperation.
Akio frowned a bit. "Kaneko. You should at least learn to manipulate metal somewhat. I can help with that in trade for kenjutsu training." He smiled and followed Yama to the split. "Oh….great. Fine I guess I will take this path to the side." He did pause though to look around. This place was interesting. And an interesting that he himself did not like one bit. "Be safe all of you." And he made his way down his path with chakra being in the ground.
Kaneko moves swiftly across the bridge, glad when she makes it to the next side. They would continue and she'd be a bit nervous. Oh, look… A junction -.- Kaneko would frown a bit, but she nods to Yama's suggestion. "Alright," she says, starting to move to the right path. She would keep an eye out for anything and everything, tapping spots carefully every few steps.
There were vibrations in the ground, but nothing significant. As it turned out, there wasn't much in the way of vibrations to be wary of, but just a quick glance around revealed that the western path appeared to be stable. The beams here withstood the test of time and held up the tunnel around it. There were a couple of carts filled with gravel sitting in the same position they were left in years ago. Just ahead there was another opening that wrapped around towards the center path. The only problem is that the center path itself is blocked off with rocks. Not much to do about that, but it appears they tried to work around it. The eastern path was separate from the other two entirely, leading in its own direction and down deeper into the mine. There are traces of ore within the walls that grow thicker the further one proceeds. Looks like that one may be the choice path, but through all this, there is no clear explanation for why it was abandoned… Hm.
Yama returns to the junction and stands by the repurposed equipment cart, waiting for the others to come back and report their findings. "I wasn't able to explore my tunnel. It was blocked by fallen rocks," he explained as they'd come back. "What did you all find?"
Akio would of course return with a sigh. Not much really to be found for the most part. When he returned he got right to speaking. "Seems that my path was stable forthe most part. Had carts full of gravel from before and there was an opening that wrapped around towards the other..I assume center path. Though…yeah." He sighed and waited for Kaneko.
Kaneko doesn't return right away, sorta staring at all the ore that seems to be there. "Whoaaaaaa…" she says, eyes wide. The girl taps a bit at the walls with a kunai to try and fine the richer veins so she could make a full report later on. Once all is said and done, though, she'd walk back to the main tunnel. "Mine is full of stuff. Good stuff. Me and Akio-kun can easily mine it out, but we need a way to drag it back."
"Worry not, Akio! This is how mining is! Severely disappointing until you hit the motherlode! She is evasive!" Yama laughed. "But worry not, we have a cart. I have already placed the equipment inside and we don't need much ore to accomplish what we need. I only need enough for a set and a few chunks should accomplish that." So, he guided the team down the eastern path, making certain to mark their path down on his map once it was retrieved.
Pushing the cart along that he took, he set it in place in their chosen area to mine for ore. He reached inside and began to hand off pickaxes to the group. "Alright, let's get to work!" So, with his in hand, he found a nice vein to start picking into and struck it with seasoned blows, cutting into the earth and digging out pieces of ore. Each of the chunks fell around his feet, building up as he went along. In fact, he was striking with such force that sparks were flying around him! Looks like he was on the move! "I want to collect enough to have my set, but…it doesn't hurt to have enough to smelt and sell. Kaneko, you should have enough to take home too! We'll collect enough that we can have smelt down for each of us to sell off. This ore should fetch a fine price on the markeeaaaah!" He shouts as he's blown back against the opposite end of the tunnel. His pick followed closely behind and buried itself in the wall near his head. "….What in the world was that?!" Looks like those sparks weren't just his excitement afterall.
Akio frowned and sighed and just followed the other two before he started mining himself. Any sparks or similiar things he wouldn't even notice. He was just listening to Yama speak more and more. Honestly he couldn't decide if it helped or not for mining. Though eventually…. WHOOSH. Yama is sent backwards and Akio moves quickly preparing for a fight. "WHAT HAPPENED!?!?!" He looked around quickly. "Kaneko…be careful."
Kaneko would not use any tools to dig. She would, instead, use earth manipulation to remove the normal dirt and rocks from the precious ore. Then she would take the chunk of metal and tug it out of the wall, tossing it into the cart. "Wow… This is pretty awesome stuff…" she says admiringly. Then she blinks a bit when Yama suddenly goes 'ahhhhhh'. "Huh? What happened? Yama-Rama?" She would glance over to Akio, then nod, drawing her sword…
Yama rose up and dusted himself off and tried to get his pick out of the wall, but it was buried pretty far in there. It'd take some effort before he was able to yank it out, though the force was enough for him to stumble. He looked at the pick and then the wall he broke into and moved back over to strike it again. At certain points, the pick would hit the ore and cause sparks. He wiggled his mustache in a bit of frustration and thought.
He'd raise his pick to give the wall a good blow to bust out as much ore as he could and sure enough, another explosion came from it, throwing him and the pick back a bit. "Ah, I see!" He called out. "This ore is interwoven with another kind of ore. No wonder this place was abandoned!" He laughed to himself, but it quickly subsided as a chain of explosions began to rock the walls beyond the tunnel. Turns out, his last strike was enough to set off something extra. Dust began to fall from the ceiling as the walls shuddered from the explosions. "No time to lose!" He spoke, taking out a shovel from the cart to gather up the ore he mined to put into the cart. "Get whatever you can and put it into the cart, we must move out!" His statement was punctuated with an explosion at the end of the tunnel behind him and it was headed this way.
With enough ore shoveled, Yama encouraged everyone, including Chuunin-san to get into the cart as he placed all his strength into pushing it along the rail tracks as explosions rocked his feet and the walls behind him. Sure, there was debris striking his skin while he was at it, but he could endure. Literally. With the explosions quite literally nipping at his heels, he gathered up his strength and gave the cart a good punch to send it on its way once they were back at the junction and a straight path. This mine was set to collapse and he wasn't about to have everyone stuck in here!
Akio just used his earth manipulation to use pebbles to surround as many ores as he could and drop them in the cart(minus the pebbles) and then he moved with them. "Yeah we have to get out of here now!" He moved quickly. Or as quickly as he could and made his way behind Yama. Once able to get in the cart he would hop in and well…Yama decided to push the cart a bit and well…he seemed to be doing find so let him handle the pushing instead of getting in his way with ninjutsu now.
Kaneko would grab some more ore, then she would nod and hop into the cart quickly because things were falling on her head. Sadly, they were far from harmless. Pebbles keep falling on her head D: Kaneko would brace herself and keep a tight hold on the side of the cart while her other hand gripped her sword. "Go, Yama-rama, go!"
Yama made a leap for the cart and latched on, feet dragging along the ground until he gained his bracing and slipped inside. Now, it was just them, the cart, and the explosions that were right behind them. The cart shook violently with each explosion, but it also gained an extra boost from all that force. Well, at the least, this mine didn't appear to have anyone in it or Yama hopes that there wasn't anyone inside. This place was as good as done and he and his group should be the last out of there and for good.
The cart continued through the entry tunnel until it derailed and continued rolling across the ground and out into the open with the explosion exiting the cave behind them and scattering earth and gravel in every direction. At last, the tunnel fell apart entirely and closed off the mine forever.
"WE LIVED!" Yama roared out as he hopped out the cart only to fall to the ground, having had his legs rattled enough that his footing was lost. He hopped back up onto his feet and shook it off well enough. "And we got what we came for!" He held up a chunk of ore. Tossing it back into the cart, he retrieved a bag which was buried beneath the ore and stuffed it gleefully with their spoils. "There are more bags down there. Get them and stuff them full. We're going back home"!
With the bags sufficiently stuffed with ore, he called the mission to an end and led the team back home. They'd be paid well for their efforts…but no free ramen. He has to make a living!
Akio held on tight and made sure that he didn't fall out or something as well as trying to make sure Kaneko didn't. "This…is….bum..py." He tried to get out as he nearly flew out from it at this one blast, but luckily held on. Then they eventually did make it out the tunnel and Akio sighed and just sat there for a moment before hopping out…without falling over. "Woo… alright. Bags." He grabbed one and stuffed it before following Yama back. YEAH HE BETTER GET PAID FOR THAT YAMA!
