Starring:
Freyr (emitter), Kurome (emitter), Takeo
Date: June 2, 2015
Summary:
Takeo is forced to face his final tests to see if he is worthy of his summoning contract.
Staff note: the conversation Takeo had with Isobu in this scene was, in fact, a genjutsu, even though Takeo attempted to break out of such and concluded it was real. Takeo does not have a telepathic link with Isobu.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Takeo’s Turtle Quest - The Final Test"
Land of Earth
Takeo returned to the real world with a certain sense of relief. There woul still be pain, and he'd still need to find some new sort of energy to fill Isobu's prison and forever close that chapter. However, he'd acknowledged that he was holding onto the past, clinging to a friendship that could never be again and all that came with it. The young man defied his preicament after realizing that the elder was right, that he was missing something. Recogition that he could still go on, that he could receive tutelage from the Turtle Clan, and that he could still uphold those ideals he stood for on his own merit.
For the last time, until some new energy should flood the metaphysical prison, Takeo leaves Isobu's cavern and opens his eyes to the ocean. From his perch seated upon the flat rock, he exhales a sigh into the salty ocean air. "Well, whether they come back or not, that needed to happen," Takeo tells himself. "No denying the emptiness, but it can be filled with something new."
Takeo would be forced to wait at least a few days with no word from the Turtle Clan. Since this is something that Takeo would need to figure out for himself, no distractions to his internal struggle would be brought. Finally, Harukaze would slowly rise out of the ocean, causing waves to crash upon the shore and would look at Takeo. There is a long moment of silence as the waves slowly recede back into what they were before Harukaze speaks.
The Great Turtle's voice booms out, "Have you sought your inner self? What have you learned?" Hundreds of turtles begin to appear, including Takeo's own Tamotsu as they all stare intently on the young man, hanging upon his answer.
Takeo unfolds his legs and rises upon the rock so that he may first bow respectfully to the elder turtle. "Harukaze-dono," he says, slowly rising thereafter. As he does, the young man witnesses the remainder of the clan emerging to hear of his response. Well, one way or another, they'll hear of his success — or his failure.
"I've learned many things in my time here, great lord," the Tokubetsu says, raising his voice a bit so that all may hear. "You said that I did not believe in my own strength, and you were right. That is why I returned to the place within me where Isobu once way, to part with him in my own way. I told him that I would find some new kind of power to fill that void and close the chapter for now. Otherwise, I learned that I needed to let go in order to learn those new things. Otherwise, it's like my mind is buried in the wet sands of the shore."
Takeo takes in a breath and breathes a noiseless sigh. "What happened was tragic, but I still have things I can do to honor my ideals, and that's not all. The void left inside of me by Isobu's removal is very real, but if I let go of him, I can fill that place with a new kind of energy. Perhaps something I can pursue with the Turtle Clan." Takeo realizes he's been carrying on, but this is a rather important matter to him.
"The point being, Isobu was an important thread in my life. Someone tugged on the string in the tapestry, but it didn't unravel. I'm still here, just with need for a bit more work."
Harukaze and the Turtle Clan listen carefully to the answer Takeo gives. The Great Turtle takes his time to consider it, like everything a turtle does, he thinks slowly, giving great weight to each thought as a wise turtle would. Finally after a long pause he says, "Very well, I will test your character and see if you are worthy to make a contract with the Clan. Prepare yourself, the test will come when you least expect it. Go now and walk along the beach… you will know when the test starts."
With those omnious words, the turtles all begin to vanish into the ocean as Harukaze begins to slowly descend underwater until Takeo is left once again, alone on the shore, the water lapping the sand near his feet.
Takeo figures he at least made some small measure of progress. After all, Harukaze came back when he did't have to; did the great turtle have some way of reading his change in heart and will? "Well …" No matter. He'll never grasp something as ancient as the turtle elder. Instead, he aims to best follow his instructions in pursuit of the mysterious trial.
After scooping up his robe and throwing it on, Takeo steps down from the flat rock and begins to walk along the shore. His eyes are open, naturally, but part of him simply takes in and appreciates all of the natural wonders around him. The sand underfoot, the rolling of the walls, the tinge of salt in the air, soundds of various animals. There are plenty of wonders back home, of course, but a beach - particularly such a remote one - is something he's seldom had the pleasure of visiting.
As Takeo travels, the sun begins to descend into the horizon, and the stars begin to appear in the night sky. As Takeo appreciates the scenery, it slowly becomes clear that something is different, the sound of the surf cannot be heard, indeed there is no sound whatsoever. As he continues to walk, Takeo would come to a crossroads of sorts, with a signpost and leaning upon the signpost… is Isobu. It's clear that he's not PHYSICALLY there, as he's bonded with a new host, but as Takeo was once his host, there will always be that connection between them.
Isobu looks up when Takeo arrives and waves a hand, "Yo Partner…" He looks at the young man who was his former host and says, "You look like <bubble>."
Takeo stops short and just /stares/ for a moment. Was this real? Was it even possible? So few Jinchuuriki had survived losing their Bijuu, he had nothing to research during his recovery back home. There he is, though, big as life. It can't be denied that there's a sense of elation at this chance for contact in a situation other than being torn away from each other, Isobu struggling to relate that he must let the turtles teach him.
"You don't look so great yourself," says Takeo with a faint smirk. "Is your new host a little rough around the eges? It can't get any worse than I was back then. Oh, and no offense, but …"
Taking his hand to his mouth, he snaps his teeth shut, burying one of his fangs into the soft part of his palm. It hurts like essay, but that's the point. Past experience had taught him that the Turtle Clan was excellent at Genjutsu, and the crossroads symbology … Well. One must be safe.
But it does nothing except hurt and Isobu speaks up, "Sorry partner, it doesn't work like that… It's me, I'm here but not. We still have a connection, you and I, and because you and I were together for so long that's never going to go away. It's why I'm here… and why I'm your character test." He stares sternly at Takeo, "I'm here because you just don't seem to get what it is I wanted you to do, and I'm here to help you put you on the right path, because I hate seeing you so screwed up."
He motions to the crossroads, "There's two paths, one is the one that'll lead you to where you want to go… the other will send you directly back to Konoha, do not pass GO, do not collect a summon. But before you choose, we need to talk, you and I, about you and about me, hey?"
"So, you're saying that you could just pop up and visit me whenever you like? This something to do with having been a master?" Takeo further queries, "Does it work in the opposite direction? If I'm with your host, can I make contact with you?" This is less attachment than curiousity, by his tone. He's experiencing something which could be committed to paper for future hosts of Bijuu, those few fortunate enough to survive and recover from separation.
Ah, but the test. Right. Taeo listens to what Isobu has to say, eyes shifting between the paths. "You wanted me to pursue more than just a summon with the turtles, I know that much. Does the path lead there, as well? I'm sure as pencil not going back to Konoha having achieved or learned nothing. Not after I endured months of torture, not after I came all the way here."
Once more, Takeo opens his mouth, but he slowly closes it. A gesture offers Isobu the chance to continue with what he needs to say.
Isobu moves from the signpost and says, "Uh… yeah? Being a Jinchuukiri means you're soul-bound to me, you survived the Recluse because I sacrificed a piece of my soul to keep you bound to this plane of existance. Because you were as close as a brother to me as anything, and I didn't want those scum to win. Look inside yourself, that place that you feel is 'empty' if you look hard enough, you'll find it… that little spark of me that I left behind to save you."
He taps his foot then and says, "As for why I sent you to my kin, I wanted you to figure out that you weren't nothing without me, that you didn't need me to be complete. I wanted you to understand that even though I'm now with someone else, that doesn't mean I'm not still your friend." He huffs a breath, "I sure didn't send you here to replace me with some turtle to fill a PERCIEVED void inside yourself." He glares at Isobu, "So here I am… to smack a bit of sense into your head, because Harukaze-sama WANTS you to have Tamotsu, /I/ want you to have him. But I also want you to be able to stand on your two feet, I also don't want you to try and fill something that isn't empty. Maybe it's not as full as it once was, but that don't mean there's nothing there, or that that void is all that defines you. You get what I'm saying?"
Takeo stops short once again as Isobu explains how the situation works, and how the Bijuu felt about him. When he's addressed as a brother, he can't help but offer a grateful bow quite unlike their typical interactions. "Thank you. I feel the same way about you. As well, thank you for my life, it appears," Takeo says before pulling himself back up. "The doctors in Konohagaure thought I was done for as first. They had to piece my chakra circuits together like shattered glass. Everything I could do with you is gone, all but one thing. That special way you'd taught me to control water is still there. One day, I might learn to do something with it again."
Once again, quiet. There was so much want to have more in the way of final words than they'd had, it's hard to not carry on. "I understand what you're saying, but understand that I didn't know anything was there," Takeo says, lowering his head a bit in shame. "I'd sworn off going back to that place, because it seemed like trapping myself. It was just an empty cave within me now, and you weren't there. We couldn't talk, all of the great things we could do together weren't possibly anymore …" He grits his teeth to give pause to his own emotions, and then lifts his chin. "I'm sorry that it happened the way it did. For those three days, I did everything I could to keep them from stealing you away. I wasn't just worried about us, but what they might do to you, too."
Takeo shakes his head once. "If some part if you's still in there, even if it's just like a grain of sand I can't see, then I'll leave it there. I also want to bring Tamotsu back with me." A pause. "I think these turtles can teach me things, though. I've seen how they use jutsu, and it's interesting. Maybe I can learn to live with being your frien at a distance, not having you in my life, but I can't learn to just be normal. Never have been, never will be. I'm chasing a new way of doing things, and I think the beasts can help. It's more a new future for me than a betrayal of you."
Isobu sighs and walks over and gives Takeo a hug, "Don't feel bad partner, what happened was traumatic for both of us. I was hoping you'd have managed to find me by now. Had I known you were so shattered I'd have come to you sooner, but I also had to adapt to a new host and figuring things out on my own. It's not like there's a manual for this stuff right?" He smiles and pats the young man on the shoulder and says, "All I ask is that you move on without me and realize that you are whole and complete and that if you ever need me or want to talk to me, all you have to do is look inside and find that piece of me and I'll be there." He steps back and indicates the paths and says, "Now it's your turn to choose… a strong genjutsu has been placed around here, one you can only break once you manage to find that piece of me in the cave inside yourself that you believe is empty. When you find and when you can believe that though it's not full like it was, you are complete and you aren't as lost as you think you are… you'll find the right path." He back away and says, "Don't be a stranger hey?" He winks at Takeo and then vanishes. The paths remain, with nothing to distinguish them from each other. Takeo will have to look inside himself and do what Isobu asks in order to find the right path.
"Tell me, was I right that they could help me learn-" Takeo starts to ask the question, but Isobu vanishes before he can finish. Well, this was unexpected, the entirety of it. Some tiny part of him was still Jinchuuriki, in a way, if this was true. Only enough to keep him alive and to maintain a telepathic bond, but it was something. However, now Isobu understood his own position. He had to learn a new way of doing things other than water manipulation. It was his nature to be unnatural.
A hug from an enchanted turtle is at least encouraging for the task ahead. Maybe it had all actually been part of some really elaborate Genjutsu, he didn't know, but … As Takeo thinks on it, he does actually recall Isobu pouring energy into him while he was dying. Was that when the transfer happened? Faith in his 'brother' drives him to try, even if it's a falsehood.
As Takeo presses a hand to his stomach, over the raised scar in the shape of his Jinchuuriki seal, he turns and starts down the path which supposedly leads bac to 'where he wants to go' in the end. Right now, he wants to gain and learn quite a bit, so that seems the proper choice. As he walks, part of him focuses upon that metaphysical cavern within his stomach. How could he have missed a piece of Isobu, particularly if that little piece is what's keeping him alive? Had he just not ventured far enough into the darkness of the place?
For the moment, it had to be an intense mental search from the exterior, so that he could also walk down the road.
As Takeo walks along the path, it wavers until finally, it changes to show that Takeo has walked in a complete circle and is headed back to the beach where Harukaze and the rest of the Turtle Clan is waiting. It seems he has passed the test.
It's always a little daunting to see the great army of the Turtle Clan assembled, each one different in shape and size, with all eyes on him. However, there's a certain satisfaction in how this has come to pass. His hand slips away from his scar and he low before Harukaze, offering him the additional gesture of respect that would indicate.
"If it was your work which helped me to speak with Isobu again, great lord, then I thank you," Takeo says, raising his voice so that the massive entity can hear him. "It has offered me closure of a sort, and now I see why I survived to face any of these trials. Isobu is still within me, some part of him. He gave it up so that I could live on, and so that he and I would remain connected."
Takeo remains in his bow, for he has more to say. "I will find a way to carry on with my life. If you and he would do me the honor, I would wish to form a summoning contract with Tamotsu and have him be my new companion in life." A pause. "I'm also confident that I can learn the way in which your people use chakra. It could be my new path. My usual is to be unusual, after all. This is assuming you would grant me the privilege, now or one day."
Only then does Takeo rise from his bow, body righting itself to his towering height.
As Takeo walks along the path, it wavers until finally, it changes to show that Takeo has walked in a complete circle and is headed back to the beach where Harukaze and the rest of the Turtle Clan is waiting. It seems he has passed the test.
It's always a little daunting to see the great army of the Turtle Clan assembled, each one different in shape and size, with all eyes on him. However, there's a certain satisfaction in how this has come to pass. His hand slips away from his scar and he low before Harukaze, offering him the additional gesture of respect that would indicate.
"If it was your work which helped me to speak with Isobu again, great lord, then I thank you," Takeo says, raising his voice so that the massive entity can hear him. "It has offered me closure of a sort, and now I see why I survived to face any of these trials. Isobu is still within me, some part of him. He gave it up so that I could live on, and so that he and I would remain connected."
Takeo remains in his bow, for he has more to say. "I will find a way to carry on with my life. If you and he would do me the honor, I would wish to form a summoning contract with Tamotsu and have him be my new companion in life." A pause. "I'm also confident that I can learn the way in which your people use chakra. It could be my new path. My usual is to be unusual, after all. This is assuming you would grant me the privilege, now or one day."
Only then does Takeo rise from his bow, body righting itself to his towering height.
The large turtle nods slowly. "Yes… Your final test…" he murmurs, voice shaking the earth. "It is often said that the best way to learn your companion is to fight them. Please… Take to the ring. Do not be afraid, for we turtles are steady as rocks." That's all that is said as the turtles on the shore form a ring, and Tamotsu approaches Takeo and simply watches him. The turtle's chakra is focused, took
"We have to fight? You all seemed to be the peaceful type," Takeo says, lowering an eyebrow as he looks at the turtle army forming a circle around them. He can't help but mutter, "I somehow doubt Kaido's going through all this for what he was chasing." Still, tradition is tradition, and he's trying to become part of the Turtle Clan family.
Shifting about so as to take up a loose stance, the Tokubetsu takes a moment to focus and then exhales a light mist. They're on even terms here, the turtles with their earth and he with an ocean of water to draw upon at will. He makes a hand sign and pulls ambient water from the wind, forming two rings which circle diagonally about his body, preparations to be used in battle later. "I have a feeling you'll be kicking my choice, Tamotsu. Even when I was Jinchuuriki, I told people I was bad at fighting. I'm a peacemaker, you know?"
Tamotsu gives a small shrug of his shoulders. "It is easier to find who we are and what we can worth together with." Then he moves, surprisingly fast for a turtle. His front leg is suddenly on Takeo's chest, aiming to knock the Tokubetsu over. Once this is done, Tamotsu uses his other front leg to put pressure on Takeo, knocking him back with a burst of chakra that would probably hurt since it drive the Inuzuka into the ground. Thankfully, the ground is sand, so it won't hurt /that/ much.
Takeo suddenly finds the previously languid Tamotsu to be very, very fast. So much that the turtle's front claw is about to smash into his chest. A very hurried hand sign coalesces water in the air to form a chakra reinforced wall, pushing back that forceful blow. Another divides the two rings of water flowing around his body into several ribbon-like forms, all of which shift to intercept the burst of chakra.
When the rings are once more two in form, Takeo exhales and restrains himself to a sparring maneuver. One of the rings expels a thin spear of water aimed at Tamotsu, strong enough to be felt but not so much as to be genuinely dangerous.
Tamotsu steels himself, the earth coming up to coat him and absorbing the water. He is undamaged, at least, so that's good. "Skilled with Water… Good." Then there's more chakra involved as he tries to lunge forward in an attack to slam Takeo down to the ground, the turtle only getting up so that earth can surround him. With that, he does something akin to a turtle body slam, hammering Takeo even further.
Takeo laughs lightly as he repulses his opponent with water, not because of his success, but because of what Tamotsu says. "You think it's good? That's great, because it's all I can do anymore! I teach our young how to use water manipulation in the village, the few born with an affinity," he explains, still carefully moving around the turtle with the rings of water spinning about his body. They quickly split to repel the body slam and the surge of earth, pushing both away. Takeo retorts by loosing a bullet of water at Tamotsu.
Once again the earth rises, and it surrounds Tamotsu easily to absorb the water. "You have learned all you can from me… You should show me your skills another time," he rumbles, the armor crumbling from his body. Then there's a *POOF*, and a large scroll appears before Takeo. It falls, unfurling itself to reveal four names written on its paper with blood. "Sign this, and you may summon me."
Takeo shakes his head once. "I very much doubt I've learned everything I can from you. You've done some things I'd like to learn. Just the same, Tamotsu, it's an honor much appreciated." He bows low before the spike-shelled turtle before kneeling to examine the scroll with a smile. "Nice work. I learned how to do this before I set out, but it seems you've already got them prepared …"
Taking fingertips to one of his fangs, he pricks them until they bleed. Thereafter, he signs his name upon the contract and applies his fingerprints. "There. It seems we're now as one, Tamotsu. I hope you found me to your approval."
Takeo rises from his knees after having signed the contract, turning in each cardinal direction so that he may bow before the encircling army of the Turtle Clan. He's part of the family, now. He then shifts to approach the massive elder, to whom he offers the deepest of bows. "Great lord Harukaze-dono, I offer you my gratitude for your hospitality and … all other things you have done for me," he says, some of which were more significant than they might have seemed at the time.
"I will be certain to treat Tamotsu with respect and appreciate his companionship. If I may," he asks of the elder, "I have one other request before I leave to let my home village know I am safe and well."
The Great Turtle watches Takeo as he signs the contract. "Just take care of those you call upon," is all he requests. Then he begins to sink into the water. "And remember what you have learned on this journey. Use it." Then he disappears, the water flowing into the pit of space he left. The turtles begin to *POOF* one by one until only Tamotsu is left. Even the scroll is gone. The young(?) turtle looks to Takeo. "Well? Where we going?"
"If I may ask, I would like to learn to use chakra as your … people … do …" Takeo slowly tapers off, discouraged by the elder's disappearance beneath the waves. Well, it wasn't a denial! He takes in a breath and rises, turning to face Tamotsu. "Maybe you can teach me, when you feel more comfortable with me. I promised Isobu I'd find a new path, and your people seem so much more at one with nature."
He walks up the beach and retrieves his satchel of supplies, long forgotten, slinging it over his shoulder. "I don't know how long you can remain with me before having to go back to your people, but we're headed for Konohagakure. It's a fairly long trip. We cut across the Land of Earth and into the Land of Fire, which is my homeland …" Takeo carries on like that in a friendly fashion as they walk along, leaving the beach behind for now.
