Starring:
Ryuk, Abiku
Date: November 20, 2010
Summary:
Ryuk and Abiku meet for the first time, and Ryuk seeks help from the Inuzuka for their special abilities.
"Rosemary Shakedown - The Meeting of Ryuk and Abiku"
Toshiba Forest - Clearing [Konohagakure]
Toshiba Forest - Clearing [Konohagakure]
^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*
A circular opening at where when the moon is full perfectly shines and lights up this clearing. Surrounding this clearing are thick and tall trees with branches extending outwards. Further inside towards the center there are long patches of grass and several flat rocks one can sit on when resting. There is one single rock formations extending towards the west and back into the forest.
Animal life here are snakes slithering in the grass looking for squirrels or birds as prey while spiders can be seen within the tall grass and rocks. In the sky it is often that one or two eagles might be seen circling the area looking for rabbits. Finally, the rare deer comes here to feast on the grass while rumors of a predator lurking in this area is also known.
^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*-^*
The sun was on slowly but surely on its trajectory downwards and the Konoha air was cool in the forest. It was a pleasant afternoon for training and the likes, of which one shinobi was ever to be found doing just that. Hyuga Ryuk sat cross-legged at the base of a tree, still and silent, clearing his mind of all thoughts, desires, and woes. He had reached a level of peace and oneness in his meditation, and suddenly he rolls forwards, attempting a daunting and incredulous feat. Looking up with the byakugan, with veins formed around the eyes "Eight Trigrams: 128 palms!" Casting out sets of strikes into the air in front of him. This was just training but he had to practice every day to master the new technique, a very powerful one at that. Coming to a stop he lowers his arms and stands straight but relaxed, letting his muscles and chakra settle back into a normal state after using such speed and accuracy. He bows, as if there was another present, but it was only out of respect for the technique and power he wielded. Looking around passively, the breeze blows by causing his kimono to flutter slightly with the wind.
As the wind blows the forest surrounding the clearing would rustle with life. Abiku and his nin-pup Tohime-chan were doing some training of their own. The nin-dog darts ahead of her master who was throwing shuriken and kunai at her, requiring quick left and right movements in some kind of agility training. As the pair enter the clearing they crouch and stare at each other…
Ryuk noticed a pair in the area, and when he stops he notices their movements had stopped too. The air was silent as ever save for the wind and natural life surrounding. Placing his hands together under the sleeves of his kimono he bows. Slowly bringing his head back up he says in a soft tone of voice "Hello, I do not believe we have met. I am Hyuga Ryuk." It was not customary that he introduced himself, it was only of the truest nature that he did so.
Abiku and Tohime continue to stare at each other in a 'stand off' mode. After a moment though Abiku relaxes and straightens up, motioning Tohime to his side before looking over to the Hyuuga, "Yo," he says simply at first, studying the other shinobi, "Inuzuka Abiku, and this is Tohime-chan." he says with a wide smile that shows his slightly elongated canines, "Hope we didn't bother ya, I'm working on Tohime's agility. I don't want her to get lazy and fat." he says teasingly. The nin-dog noses at his thigh afterwards with a faint grunt of disapproval.
Ryuk nods and says "You did not interrupt me. I see that you are training as well, forgive me as well if I have interrupted you." He looks at Abiku and Tohime and finds that they are about the same age as him if not a little younger, and wonders why they have not met. "I have met another Inuzuka recently, your clan is very sturdy. You too, have a very good nature, I can see that you will help the village along the way down your path." He nods to the dog "It seems as though your agiliity training is going very well."
Abiku inclines his head to the side, Tohime doing the same as Ryuk speaks, "Phew man, lighten up." he says with that same toothy smile as he approaches and attempts to pat Ryuk on the shoulder, "We do what we can. I also help out at the Ninja Academy. Clan member is there and doing pretty well so I try to help her along as well as give the kids some more specialized training that might end up being useful down the road." he says with a firm nod.
'Lighten up' Ryuk has heard that before, he is not sure why, but he doesn't stop to think about it now. He will have to meditate on it later. What he does think is that while he didn't know Abiku was an academy teacher he now realized this is one of the ways he was helping konoha. He nods "Just like your clan mate Kegawa, you have a mind set that will lead you to greatness, for the good of our village. It is of great importance for our young ones to learn the right way, and it is very respectable to hold such a position as an academy teacher. Perhaps you can help me with some guidance, I do not know where to find a fresh stock of rosemary for my mother. It is a shrub that she said grows in the forest, but even with my byakugan I can not find it. It has a strong taste, when it is dried a wonderful smell. Can your inuzuka noses help me seek it out?"
With a faint shrug Abiku doesn't seem to be worried with greatness as his attitude and demeanor remain calm and non chalant, "If you have some I can use then I could probably track it down for you. Tohime-chan and I are pretty good at finding stuff." he says with a single nod.
Ryuk bows lightly and says "Thank you, I would greatly appreciate it if I can find this flower. My mother has done so much to help me that I would despair to pass up a chance to help her." He draws from his sleeve a rosemary leaf, and hand it to Abiku. "There." Watching the two of them and their reactions he says "I will come with you, wherever this shrub is to be found."
Abiku nods, "Don't worry about it. It'll be some good practice." he says, sniffing the leaf before lowering it down for Tohime to take a long smell of the flower, "I think it's thi—" Abiku starts to turn and Tohime whimpers, getting his attention as she 'points' in a different direction, "Yeah, we'll trust her on this one." he says with a grin motioning for the Hyuuga to follow along, "So you're a chuunin too?" he inquires as they start to make their way into the forest.
Ryuk watches as Tohime seemed to pick up the trail of a scent of rosemary, and nods starting to follow the way the pup showed them. Through the forest they tread with ninja steps on their way to discover the supply of an herb that apparently held great importance for Ryuk. "Yes, I am a chuunin by the standards of Konoha. I am a guardian of the people, mainly of my clan. I am from a branch family of Hyuga, which means I serve to protect the main branch." Wondering if they were getting close to the shrub, if he should activate his byakugan, but he put trust in the pup and her owner.
Abiku listens to Ryuk as he speaks hrming a little, "I'm a member of the Gamma Branch in my clan. In other words, I'm a dog trainer." He explains as they continue to move along through the forest. After a short while he starts to turn to the left only to have Tohime growl lowly at him, "Oh, that way? Well excuse me for not having as good of a nose as you." he says in protest, ruffling the top of his nin-pup's head as the move right towards the scent, "I'm a Chuunin. But I think I still have a lot of things to work on, I don't wanna screw up too bad y'know?"
Ryuk noticed that Tohime had a good grasp on the trail of the scent. He continues following along, with the pup as an escort along with Abiku. "Yes, we always learn from our mistakes, this is the way of life. It is true for everyone, even the hokage, I believe, though Hokage-sama has a way in which she deals with a dilemma where she can muster all her strength and wisdom for even a small task." He says and focuses in mind on the task at hand, and as they walk he notices something, more than strange, it was downright uncanny. His mind and body clicks into gear, the veins on his eyes swelling as the byakugan activates and he starts spinning. Kunai fly from all directions at the group, and Ryuk uses the heavenly spin technique to defend their position. Coming to a stop leaving a circle mark in the ground beneath, he picks up a broken string, and a straight look at Abiku that said they had walked into a trap, it was an unmarked training field full of them.
Abiku and Tohime both instinctively drop into a four-legged style stance as Ryuk deflects the incoming shurken, "Phew, that was close." says Abiku with his toothy grin as he and Tohime both sniff the air. This time Tohime starts to head off in one direction and Abiku lets out a grunt/whimper of his own, "You're slacking off Tohime-chaaan~" he teases, quite confident in the scent that he managed to catch, "Be careful though… I doubt that was the only trap in the area." he adds as he takes point and beings moving.
"You are right, Abiku-san. That was a very dangerous trap. I also think there may be more of them, so I will watch with my Byakugan as we keep moving, but if it is only set up for training then it is a test of our abilities that we must pass, for we must find this rosemary shrub." As they pass through the forest, it was not just a thought that it was littered with hidden traps. They would seek out another trip wire, they were able to evade it completely. When stepped over however, a seal posted and camoflouged to a tree surfaces and activates with the kanji for smoke. With their field of view completely forsaken by the smoke they would be in a tight situation, if it was not for the Inuzuka's nose and Ryuk's byakugan. They would not slow their pace, but suddenly "Watch out!" Ryuk alerts the pair in front, as a few rows of spiked bamboo shoot up raising from a trap on the ground to impale the feet and lower body.
With a single deft motion Abiku pivots and jumps back out of the way of the impending spikey doom, "Man, this was definitely not a training ground for lower ranked shinobis." he says, carefully eyeing his surroundings as he sniffs the air and places trust in Ryuk to help him find and defend against any remaining traps they might encounter, "It's this way." he says, Tohime offering not protest as they both are apparently very confident in the direction of the fabled rosemary bush.
"I am sorry for bringing you into this trap field. It is very important that we find what we are looking for, but I do not want you to get hurt. If you do not wish to continue, I understand. If you dare to embark forwards, then I am indebted to you Abiku, and Tohime. Be very careful." The scent leads them to a clearing, and all seems quiet and natural. The rosemary shrub was close, and Ryuk looks around. At the other side of the clearing, he saw the target they were seeking. He looks at the other two with a plain expression, yet satisfied, as he was sure they saw it too. Though, there was chakra under the ground in the clearing. He puts out an arm to stop the others from walking "Wait…" He goes by himself to check if the coast was clear. When he makes it half way across to the bush of herbs, a training device is activated. Wooden Dummies spring up, more than a dozen surround the Hyuga. It was not a dangerous trap in the sense of surprise, but this one could hurt, it became apparent when all the dummies attack Ryuk with full force. He was in fact surprised at their level of technique and power, he dodges and stances in the juuken form, attacking the dummies with strikes but he couldn't hold them off by himself, thankfully he was in the company of another strong couple of chuunin.
Abiku pfffts a little, "A few traps aren't enough to scare me off. Besides, you make it sound like you really want this so I don't mind helping out by doing something I'm good at." he says with a smile. As he stops and the perverbial poo hits the fan Abiku does not hesitate to jump to Ryuk's aid. With a single deft motion he produces a set of kunai from the pouch behind his back and hurls it to either side of his fellow chuunin, the kunai's aimed precisely at the training dummies necks which is easily pierces allowing penetrationg into another dumming leaving four of them headless on the ground. Not pausing after his initial success Abiku jumps into the air with his arms out stretches to catch another two dummies from behind and topple them into piles of firewood, "You're good at finding traps." the Inuzuka teases the Hyuuga as he places his back to the other shinobi's, "Not a problem though. The three of us are more than enough for these toys." he states as he drops into the Inuzuka's trademark fourlegged fighting style with Tohime at his side.
Ryuk hits a bunch of dummies with chakra enforced juuken strikes, knocking them over. If it wasn't for Abiku's accurately placed hits he could have been hit himself. When they were finished with their attack combos, Ryuk jumps to stand next to Abiku and says "Thank you, that was a difficult situation. Now I just have to gather the rosemary." He walks to the bush when the dummies start clinking and moving, standing, and putting themselves together. He lets out a sigh and says "It seems I was mistaken…" Dashing into the fray he lets out a combination of strikes, when the dummies jump back up and pile him. He uses the Heavenly spin to get them off his back, and takes a moment to study the situation with his byakugan, when he realizes something "The tags give them chakra, take off the tags, located behind their head.!"
Abiku narrows his eyes as the dummies begin to come back to life, "Guess it can never be /that/ easy." he says, shaking his head a little before he and Tohime leap back into action. Their first assault isn't quick enough to remove the tag however the following two are more than enough to separate the tags from the dummies, "There's the first group. Try not to get too hurt before we can get that bush for your mom." he adds, taking up a defensive position near Ryuk with Tohime at his side now.
"Good Work!" Utters Ryuk, then focusing. He knew that if they could disable the dummies they could gather the rosemary, but he also knew they would have to concentrate to take down the high level training dummies. He anticipated their attacks, attempting to dodge his torso from left to right, moving a right foot back to dodge from the waist, finally he sidesteps, and moves to grab the tags.
Abiku and Tohime dart away from one another, weaving around the various attacks launched at them by the training dummies only to land and lash back with their own fast attacks. The sole purpose of their attacks was clear, remove the tags from the heads. Bam Boom POW! They are successfuly in their flurry of attacks, almost matching to Hyuuga in skill for now, "You're moves are fancy. I try to keep things a little more straight forward." he says in a teasing fashion as he surveys the area around them again.
Ryuk stood with limbs loose in the stance of the gentle fist having beat the dummies and removed their tags. He watched as Abiku and Tohime finished off the remaining dummies, and cocks his head to the side with a neutral gaze at Abiku "Simple and swift, that is a good quality for a ninja to have." Apparently he didn't reckognize Abiku's comments as teasing, his focus was now on the Rosemary, this time walking towards it with no interruptions. "Good work Abiku, this was a good test of our abilities, and we were able to find the rosemary thanks to you and Tohime." He moves to harvest the herb, then stands and bows to the pair of Inuzuka "If we can prove ourselves this good on the field then we will make a fine team." Placing his palms together he says in a soft and sincere tone "Thank you." The sun was starting to delve below treeline, and what was some individual training had turned into a more intense, surprise training session, and at the end of it all they had accomplished the task they set out to do. It was a very successful day in Konoha, at least for one Hyuga.
