Starring:
Date: May 25, 2014
Summary:
Following up on research, Saisho is on a mission to find some piezochakra crystals to use in her puppet. The search takes her to an old volcanic island, the site of a massive ancient explosion that may have resulted in the proper conditions for the crystal formation.
"Saisho Building the Puppet: Log 2"
Unnammed uninhabited volcanic island in the land of water
Starting log with correspondence between Saisho and Mizukage:
Dear Mizukage,
I would like permission to travel outside of Kirigakure, but still inside the Land of Water in search of materials for a new puppet I am creating. I would like to ask permission for this travel as I am still in the academy. In addition I would like permission to ask for assistance of one of the shinobi of the village to join me. I have not yet determined who would be best but I do not expect this to be a thing that has much risk other than from natural dangers. If you have someone you think would be best to assist me I would greatly appreciate a name.
If you would like more information on the puppet I am attempting to make I can provide additional details. I understand from the instructors that I need special written permission to go on this search while still in the academy but I feel that constructing this new puppet will be a good part of learning for my duties as a shinobi for the village.
I look forward to hearing from you and await your reply.
-Tsuko Saisho
Reply:
To: Student Tsuko Saisho
Your request for travel at this time has been granted. You may travel outside of Kirigakure with an escort in the interest of procuring the elements necessary. Your escort will be Okumo Amata.
Restricted Travel: Road of Fear, The subsurface of the Dark Cavern, The Obsidian Tunnel
You must go out, locate your materials and return within two days. If you cannot collect them in that time, arrangements to have them gathered or to extract them can be made at a later date. As for the information regarding your puppet, wait until final bluepprints have been drawn up and submit those.
Stand in strength, Tsuko Saisho.
Yondaime Mizukage, Okumo Meruin.
Begin Actual Log of Mission:
Saisho had the formal permission letter from Meruin in hand, metaphorically as she headed to join up with Amata. She had already gotten permission and access to a small boat as apparently the hunting expedition is going to take the pair off of the main island where Kirigakure is located. A small group of scrolls is tucked into a satchel that Saisho has slung over her shoulder as well as a few other items that seem geared for rock excavation. She looks rather excited as she practically bounces around on the docks as she waits for Amata, eager to get started within her limited time frame allowed by the Mizukage.
Appearing at the appointed time, not a minute before nor a minute after, Amata walks along with her hands idly tucked into her coat and hmms as she watches the bouncing girl, "You seem…eager." She nods her head as she looks at the student before her before nodding forward, "You want to go and get on our boat or simply wait here all day?" And with that Amata is already moving, the woman seeming somewhat refreshed by the eager student.
Saisho nods and smiles, "Thank you for coming along Amata-Sama, I know this is probably a lot to ask but the Mizukage granted me a leave from the academy to go looking for some very special things. I have two islands that may have what I need and two days to get there and back. So… I am…" She watches Amata head towards the boat, "Um, yes, please, let's go!" She says with a wider grin and hurries to get on the boat herself. She sits and quickly pulls out a map, a bit crude looking like a hand made copy of a more detailed one. "So we're going first to this island which is a ring left by a big volcanic eruption a long time ago. Its the closest so I thought we should start there, cause if we find what I need there then we don't have to go to the far away one?" She offers as she then works on untying the boat and getting it going. "Thanks again for coming along. I really mean it."
"Of course, our youth is very important to me." She nods her head, "We must have you eager and willing to learn." She nods her head, "Searching for things. I am more than pleased to help a young mind explore and seek out new things." She nods her head and then smiles, "Especially if you are willing to work for it." She then nods, "Besides, I'm sure there'll be plenty of opportunities to learn along the way." She chuckles and nods.
Once the boat is under way, a small sail unfurrowed and the wind guiding the ship towards the first island, a small compass used to guide Saisho's steering, she says, "Yes, I have done some research. I found some interesting stuff and think that if I am right I may be able to figure out how to use some very rare rocks that come from really big volcanic erruptions. I'm looking for some special crystals. They may be in volcanic rock, or in the sand on the beaches if we're lucky." She explains.
Amata nods and she hmms, "And from what I have heard, this has something to do with a puppet." She nods to Saisho and peers at her, "Are you, like Ishino, a puppeteer then?" She hmms and peers at her, "Or are you making something for him?" Her head tilts back, causing her whispy hair to slide in front of her face a bit even as she idly settles in a spot on the boat, letting the girl do all the steering.
Saisho nods, "Yes, I am a puppeteer, and so I am trying to make my own special puppet as part of work in the academy. So this is for me. I have been working very hard on plans and trying to make it a very special puppet. I already have gotten some silk from an Okumo who was kind enough to give what I asked for, and I am trying to track down a Kaguya who might be willing to contribute some bone for plates to use in the puppet, but the crystals are key, if I can find them. I don't know if I will… but with luck… with luck we'll find enough of them so I can use them." She says cheerfully. "I did a lot of reading and looking up things before I asked the Mizukage if I could do this. I'm very glad he said yes." She contributes as she continues to steer the boat. It will take several hours so she'll make small talk if Amata wants, as she guides the ship, otherwise it should pass fairly uneventfully.
A smile and a nod, "Do not lose that, Saisho." Amata nods her head as she looks out at the water, "Not the crystals, the plates, the silk or the puppet. Those can be rebuilt. Don't lose your curiosity." She nods her head, "That is very hard to rebuild." She then may make small talk but for the most part, Amata seems to be pleased just to watch the water move for now.
The island starts to come into view, and Saisho has to redirect the ship a bit but was pretty on target. The island is really not much left. A rocky ring with a few worn out inlets with sand around the rocks and a lagoon in the middle of it all. Saisho directs the boat until it slides up so that one end slips up on to the sand and she lowers the sail, "We should pull the boat up a bit so it's in place and… then we can start looking! Um, let's see… so the crystals might be almost any color. There are really three ways to find them, but so… um, if you put pressure on them? They should release some chakra, or so the old scrolls say. Like a small charge of it. Or if you put chakra in it changes the shape slightly. That's what makes the crystals so special." She explains. "But… I don't know what color they will be. The old scrolls had different colors. Some clear, some black, and all kinds of other colors so… I guess we just start looking for anything that looks like a crystal to start with." She thinks, "Um, you're an Okumo? Do you think your spiders could help look?" She suggests a bit hesitantly.
A tilt of her head at Saisho as she is directed by the girl and the Okumo woman seems to simply chuckle a bit at how into this the 7 year old is. She idly helps to move the boat up on shore some. She idly shifts herself slightly, rolling her shoulders and then takes a few steps further on to the shore, looking around and then nodding, "Well, of course but you said that they react to chakra, yes?" She hmms and then nods her head, "Any type of chakra? Even, say, lightning chakra?" She peers at the girl for a moment before idly turning her gaze in a different direction.
Saisho pauses, "Um, not sure…? I mean, there isn't any story about lightning chakra. Isn't it just lighting once you let it go? I don't know anything about lightning use really." She admits, "I think more if we find a crystal we can kinda… use a hammer on it and see if it gives off a 'spark' of some kind, and that would show us?" She ventures, "This is kinda a lost thing. I mean, it's not really common and I had to piece together a lot of old part stories to figure this out. It might be a wild goose chase…" She admits as she looks around the beach.
A finger immediately shoots toward Saisho's mouth to shush her and she shakes her head, "It is by no means a wild goose chase. Science and ideas all came out of so called 'Wild goose chases'." She nods her head, "Ideas and creations, thoughts and learning are all things that start with a mere spark of an idea and you have started that by trying to find a new way." She then stands up and smiles as she looks around at the island, already spiders have started crawling this way and that from her, "Remember, Saisho." She nods as her eyes gaze the various spots and she rolls up of her sleeves, "There's no failure. Even when you find the path that won't take you where you wish to go, you have succeeded in finding out what /not/ to do to get there."
Saisho grins and nods, "Okay so… can your spiders help look for crystals then?" She asks as she starts to climb over some of the craggy old volcanic rock with a rock hammer in hand as she peers through the dark volcanic stone and taps here and there, "That's make it go a lot faster I bet, but… don't want to get them in trouble or anything… Still, yeah, could help…. you have any other ideas on what to do to look faster?"
A shrug and the spiders were already leaving her form, searching and moving, even before the girl asked again, they had been leaving her for the various spots they can try to reach. She nods her head, "Saisho, they are already searching." She chuckles and shakes her head, "I was going to release a cloud of static electricity over a wide area and see if anything reacted but you seemed to think that wouldn't work and this is your journey." She nods, "Other than that, my talents are merely visual." She nods and chuckles even as she idly starts looking around.
Saisho hrms, "I don't think that would work, the electric thing. Just look for anything that looks like a crystal, you know… um, smooth sided, probably will look like it grew in the rock under a lot of heat and pressure? If you spot any metal bits in the rock it probably will be near those, if the scrolls are right. I wish I could have found a better description but all there were were some old drawings and those didn't really help much." She admits, then starts to look in earnest herself, tapping rocks, and feeling around then moving to another little area, careful to try to avoid stepping on any of Amata's spiders.
Amata's spiders are very good at avoiding all possible interactions with feet. They seem very aware of their surroundings. Amata herself is idly moving along, checking rocks here and there, looking for these key points and hmming, "Well, you say that you are looking for crystals and they may be near to metal bits." She taps her chin, "Do you think perhaps then that some of them might have gone into the water, inside the rim?" she points to the lagoon, "It stands to reason, that if these things would be here on a former volcano that they'd be closer in than out." She idly starts walking toward the lagoon side a little more. She starts looking there even as spiders just push along, poking at various wrongs, moving along when they don't find the criteria they have been left with.
Saisho nods, "Yep, you know… I bet it's heavier than the rest of the stuff too… which means it'd sink, right? So it'd probably be… well, in the center now that I think of it, the deepest point in the center? Maybe under some sand." She says thoughtfully, "I can swim, and it doesn't look /too/ deep, but… not sure how long I can swim under there and look. Wish I was able to manipulate water like some of the other students." She says as she tilts her head, "Any ideas on how to get down there and dig things out? See what's sunk down in the sand in the center?"
A glance at Saisho and then she taps her chin and idly hmms, "Well, spider webbing is notoriously hard to wash away. Water doesn't have a great effect on it." She nods her head, "And I can walk on water." She idly takes a few steps out, "Now, if you can swim and I can walk on water…and…" She idly pulls up a pouch and holds it with a smile, "…I believe this makes up all the elements necessary." She nods her head, "You hop on my shoulders, I walk you out, you swim down with this pouch, I give you a bit of rope to work with?" She hmms, "Find out if you can get any crystals from the center of the lagoon?" She hmms.
Saisho grins and nods, "Okay! I can't walk on water yet, I can do trees but not water." She says, with a bit of pride since most of the other academy students haven't gotten that far, "Um, so yeah, if you carry me to the center… and then I go down…? The water looks pretty clear in the middle. I'll have to dig a bit in the sand but if I find any clumps or stuff I can bring it back up and we can see what's there?" She says rather cheerfully about the whole prospect! "So… um, let's give it a try!"
A look at Saisho and she nods, "Excellent." She idly brings back several spiders to have them start spinning webbing, "Come now." She nods and gestures, "Lets get going then. We don't have an infinite amount of time to prove your hypothesis." She nods and grins, "We had better not dilly dally." She chuckles and idly continues spinning the webbing rope.
Saisho nods and as Amata allows will climb up to let her be carried to the center and looking down says, "If we find them I might have to make a bunch of trips to get all I can." She explains, "But I have two days so if we find some here I can spend some time getting them and we can head back tomorrow. But if not here then maybe we can still get to the second island. But I have a good feeling about here. This was a much bigger erruption so more likely to have them from what I read." She will swim down as soon as the pair get to the center, eager to find out if she's right.
A nod and a smile and she idly offers the girl the pouch after carrying her out, "Go on then, find out if you are correct and if not, we'll simply move on." She nods, "Fill it up as best you can. Remember, I have you on this line." She idly ties it around the girl's waist before letting her down, "If something happens, I'll pull you up." She nods and then idly waits above as an anchor point for the girl.
And with that, down she goes, Saisho diving in eagerly, not worried about getting her clothing wet it seems as she doesn't change or anything. With a few hard kicks she's half way down to the bottom of the sand, then another few and she's reached the black sand and starts to try to sift through it, eyes open under the water despite the sting of the salt water. She seems rather determined to find /something/ down there. In fact she seems so eager she's staying down perhaps longer than she should.
For her part, Amata simply watches from the surface, staying there and idly holding the end of the silken rope. She holds it in her hand, watching carefully at the girl before she ponders her a moment and then tilts her head, watching for signs of struggle or problem, not quite yanking her up yet but preparing to do so if the girl doesn't turn around before very long.
After about a minute, Saisho seems to have something… and so after about two minutes she pops up, gasping for air, "I found something!" She's holding up a small octagon crystal about five inches long and about one inch around, "I don't know if it is what we want but it looks like it could be." She says as she brushes some of the water from her face, and tries to climb up to hold on to Amata, "Need to hit it with a hammer or something to see if it gives off any kind of chakra… May not be able see it but we should probably be able to feel it if I hold the crystal when I hit it."
A hmm and then she ponders and hoists the girl up a bit with the rope, helping her to get into a good spot and then she reaches to look at the crystal. She ponders and then idly holds out her right hand, the spiders creating a sort of silk version of brass knuckles and she nods her head, "Ok, want me to give it a good shot?"
Saisho thinks then says, "We should put it against a hard rock, and have you hit it while I'm holding on to it to see if I can feel the pulse of chakra?" She suggests, "If it works, then I can try to get more of them. I don't know how many there are down there but the more I get the better this will work…. I'd love to get a big pile but I think that might be too much to hope for. But come on, let's go back to the rocks and give it a try?"
A nod and she starts that way, walking along the water and dropping off Saisho as soon as they are shallow enough. She then looks at her and hmms, "Now, I do wish for you to be very careful. I won't hit it at full force." She nods her head, "I can crush rock with this attack easily. So, just stay very still when I punch."
Saisho nods and sort of holds the crystal out at full arm's length, twisting her body away a bit so she can hold it with her fingers but only risking them and staying very still, "Okay, go ahead…. if what I read is right you won't actually be able to break the crystal but you might break the rock under it…" She explains, "Um, the harder you hit? The more chakra it should make, if it works right." She adds.
A nod and she smiles as she watches the girl prepare, "Just be careful…and I won't be hitting it as hard as I can." She nods, "Or else I might break you." She chuckles, "Keep in mind…if this isn't your rock than I very well might break it." She then smiles and then sends a hand flying toward the crystal, it's almost an odd punch, her arm seems to straighten suddenly and she sends it slamming right into the crystal.
As the hand hits the rock, the crystal, Saisho gives out a yelp. Not because Amata hit Saisho's fingers or anything but more a yelp of surprise as a 'shock' of sorts reacts out from the crystal. It actually manages to knock the smaller girl backwards from the crystal, her grasp slipping from it as the hit sort of semi-embeds it in the stone. Amata is bigger of course and probably not as effected as Saisho, but still in letting go of the rock she ended up sitting on her rear and looking up with a really goofy grin on her face, "That's it! That has to be it!" She says as if she's just made a huge discovery.
A smile and she nods her head as she looks at the crystal and then at the girl, shaking her head a little, "I believe you might have found what you were looking for." She then idly rolls her shoulder slightly before looking at the girl and smiling as she nods to her, "Want to go back to the center and go for more?" She hmms and nods her head, offering out the pouch, "Lets get as many as I can."
Saisho nods and grins, "Yes!" She practically leaps up! With some effort and taking most of the rest of the day before Saisho thinks she has all she can find and pulling up some plain rocks in the mix that have to be thrown back or discarded, Saisho manages to get a rather nice collection of various crystals to work with. All in all a very very productive day for the student, with the aid of Amata. Saisho insists on spending the night on the island to keep looking the next morning and to take advantage of the full two days Mizukage gave her to work with but in the end it seems like the girl is very pleased with the results. She keeps thanking Amata at almost every chance and obviously is having a hard time containing her enthusiasm.
