Welcome to Gaia! ::

Seiji closed his eyes and sighed. He put a hand to his face and thought for a moment. Was this girl serious? Did she honestly think that with the rebellion in Hidden Magic and the forces of the Angra Mainyu spread thin that they could even think to stop him? This girl needed guidance. She needed a Leader who could tell her how to live her life. Well, it was now or never, and with the girl hopping off of cliffs he knew it wouldn't be easy to convince her. But, he had to try. Without a second thought, Seiji removed the hand from his face and opened his eyes. "I didn't want to have to resort to this, but if it means convincing this girl to change her ways, so be it." Seiji jumped off of the cliff and started in a death drop towards the girl. Seiji quickly unsheathed his sword and flung it at the girl, causing the blade to land in the dirt just in front of her. The girl, obviously stunned, stopped in her tracks and looked up just as Seiji plummeted down in front of her, and landed gracefully on top of his sword like a cat landing on a pole. Seiji stood with his arms crossed and looked at the girl who was utterly astounded. "Now, let's see if I can convince you this way. You are aware of the rebellion in Hidden Magic, no? Well, the man who is heading the revolt, Hood, has recruited me. I am his pawn. And if you haven't noticed, the Angra Mainyu is losing strength. Their forces are spreading thin and their power is being overmatched. They will fall soon, and the first steps are in Hidden Magic... and here, in secret. Before you have time to tell your leader about this if you choose to leave, I will have liberated the Wasteland. Nobody can stop my plan now." Seiji flicked his hair and hopped off of his katana. He grasped it with his right hand, withdrew it from the ground and quickly sheathed it. As he started to walk past the girl, he stopped next to her, and didn't look over at her, he simply spoke. "If you still plan on leaving, tell your Lord of the Tyrants that he will soon lose power. However, if you and your ghostly friend want to stay and witness the downfall of the Angra Mainyu, I will let you stay. But be warned; if you are not accustomed to bright light in the middle of the night, stay away." With those final words, Seiji flickered back up to the cliff and walked towards the tarp. He pulled it away to reveal hundreds of clay spheres, and a large clay dragon. Seiji smiled and took out some clay, and made a dozen clay carrier birds, as well as some shadow clones. Seiji and his clones then started to put all of the clay spheres onto the backs of the carriers to prepare for what would be the shinobi worlds first air raid. And what a hell of a show it would be.

Hedoro strode deeper into the forests surrounding the village, unsure of just why she was going in the direction that she was. There was something, some reason, some vague but insistent force demanding she seek it out. At the moment she was trusting, perhaps too much so. So she simply did as instructed, following the slight voice in her head that urged her to ascend that hill, turn right behind the poplar, and then march on until she could see a fallen oak. She wasn't too positive on which type of tree was an oak or a poplar, but the voice seemed to indicate when it was time to move, so everything worked out as well as could be expected. As time went on, several hours passed. The day gave way to evening, and still the voice urged her on. She was beginning to get a little thirsty, so when her trek led her near a stream, she took a quick detour to stride into the deliciously cool water. She didn't need to bend down to drink, she absorbed the water into her through her legs and feet as easily as anywhere else on her body. Once that desire had been sated, she resumed the trek, frowning slightly. The voice seemed to have grown irritated over her brief detour, and it's annoyance was beginning to annoy her. She had been content enough to follow the voice before, but if it was going to get upset at her, then maybe she needed to turn around right now and ignore it? She gave it a moment longer, and it seemed to sense her mood, the aura of annoyance dissipating like fog in a hot morning sun. Instead it continued to lead her on. the sun had already fallen beyond the horizon, though some reflected light meant that she could still tell where she was going. Of course, she could also feel her way around in the dark equally well; only time would tell if that skill would be needed or not. The forest grew deeper around her, the trees larger and clustered even closer together. That didn't seem to make sense, normally when trees grew bigger, there would be more space between them, empty space where there wasn't enough sunlight to nurture sufficient growth. But this forest seemed to have it's own rules, ignoring the natural order. something odd was happening, and Hedoro didn't know what. The voice continued to lead her on, and now she moved on only to satisfy her curiosity, she was wondering what the great need was that had called to her from so far away. She had already traveled several miles, as far as she knew, there was nothing out here. No villages, no trade routes, not even a fabled hermit living in solitude. What, then, was calling to her? There was no way to find out except to keep following the voice. So she did just that. She continued moving through the now pitch black forest, her peculiar sense of feel the only way that she was able to move through it as easily as she did. A human would have already bumped into half a dozen trees, and likely fallen down that ravine she passed not too long ago. But she didn't. Instead, she kept going. Soon, she emerged into moonlight, as the forest gave way to meadows. The grass was thick and fairly tall, almost reaching as high as her waist. She continued on, barely pausing to take in the new features of the terrain. The meadows, too, gave way to a new terrain. Mountains. They started out fairly small, really just hillocks and mounds, but as time wore on, they grew taller and taller. Her senses didn't extend far enough to take in their entirety, but she could tell that if she kept going, she'd likely be walking through snow, up the side of a steep cliff that stretched far into the heavens. Hopefully her goal wasn't quite that far away. It seemed likely that it would, however. She pressed on, her stride necessarily lengthening as the going became steeper, soon she was struggling to simply stick to the steep incline, rather than sloughing down it like so much rainwater. She had to actually dissolve small divots out of the rock face to give her traction, a process that slowed her progress even further. But she kept at it. Finally, she came upon a small cave in the mountain. Without even waiting for direction, she stumbled inside, to take a moment to rest after the strenuous march up the cliff's side. After a moment to compose herself, she felt her surroundings. It was a shallow cave, the rear of which seemed freshly formed. A pile of rocks lay haphazardly placed at the rear, filling it from floor to ceiling. The voice's cry grew even more strident now, however, and only grew more so when she approached the rear wall. Now she could hear a real voice, too. Was it calling from the other side, was there more to this cave than what she could feel? Stepping forward, she grabbed onto one of the stones and pulled. It was heavier than she thought, but not impossible to move. With a tremendous crash, it came free, tumbling down to the floor, and from there, right out of the cave, and down the cliff. Soon, more rocks followed it, until there was a decent sized hole formed into the rock pile. Hedoro carefully crawled through, leery of another collapse. But the stones held firm, and she soon reached the other side. It took her a moment to notice the source of the voice, and when she did, she was astonished at what she saw. It was another being much like herself! Not a slime girl, but close, she seemed to eb a water spirit of some kind. She was in poor condition, though, she barely had enough water to fill a bucket, and as a result her own form had atrophied down to the size of a hand held device. In a weak voice, she explained that a recent rock slide had plugged up the source of her pool, and she was slowly wasting away. She hadn't had the strength to unplug the flow of water, and she was bound to remain within a certain distance of her pool, lest she perish. She had just about given up hope when she had sensed Hedoro's presence, and begged plaintively to be saved. Hedoro sighed, unable to refuse such a request. She strode deeper into the cave, where another rock slide had plugged up the rear wall. She got to work once more, this time being more careful about where she set the loosened stones. It was slow work, but she made progress. Finally, more than ten hours later, she had seemed to reach the end of the rock pile. There were just a few more larger rocks in the way, she knew she was close. Even though she was tired and thirsty, she pressed on, shoving at those last stones with the last of her strength. With a grating rumble, they finally moved. Bit by bit, until the last stone was sitting alone, mocking her. She growled liquidly and pushed against it desperately. With a muted, bassy rumbling, it gave way, and then was nearly sent flying. It had gotten wedged in place at the water's spout, and now that it had been loosened, the backed up water sent it flying against the far wall. The water, at least freed, rushed out and nearly swept Hedoro with it as it gushed into the hollow that had formerly been a pool. A loud cry fo delight, and the atrophied water spirit dove into it's resuscitated home, absorbing energy as it grew in size. Finally, it's pool was full again, and it turned to thank Hedoro for all of her work. She just tiredly shook her head, she didn't need to be thanked. But the spirit insisted, and pushed a small vial into her hand. She asked what it was, but the spirit only told her that it's contents would become revealed when the need was greatest. A bit puzzled, Hedoro nonetheless thanked the spirit and wished it well, before turning and beginning the long trek back to where she'd been before the call went out.
(1414)

Kawari looked around. This was Hidden Stone. As the name implied, it seemed a rather rustic village, difficult to get into. not that the villagers were any more unfriendly than at any other village, but just that the location was challenging enough that people generally only came here with a very good reason. She still hadn't decided if her reason was that good yet. In the meantime, since she had come this far, she might as well continue with her walk. She had yet to enter the village proper, perhaps once she did so, her opinion of the village might change.

Walking further into the village, actually entering it, she felt fairly confident that her initial guess was pretty accurate. The people here eyed her guardedly, ever wary of an enemy attack. There weren't all that many that would call Hidden Stone their enemy, but there had to be at least a few out there, somewhere. Obviously, she wasn't one of them, but they didn't know that, not yet. So she would have to get used to being viewed with suspicion. Again. She didn't let it bother her, however, instead just continuing to wander through the village, on the lookout for anything that might be interesting, anything that might make this trip worthwhile. It didn't have to be much, but she would like to have come away with at least something to show for all the work spent in getting here.

A few moments later, she had reached the opposite side of the village. Upon taking a closer look, she found a large clearing, with a few people standing within it. What were they doing? As she got closer, and her visual acuity sharpened, she was able to distinguish both as being local ninja, from Hidden Stone. They were either fighting, or sparring. She would have to watch for a while longer to make any full decisions about which one. The two ninja battled back and forth, trading blows that would have knocked over an average fighter, but still going strong. They sure made them tough here!

Suddenly, one of the fighters did something, crouching down rapidly. A moment later, the earth beneath them seemed to shift and ripple, a crater forming under their opponent, sending them down in a tumble. What was that?! She played back her memory, and zoomed in for a closer look. It seemed to be a Taijutsu technique, so she immediately began watching the video even closer, looking for each small movement to help her piece together the whole. If she studied it enough, she would make the technique her own. That would certainly be a fitting prize to receive from her trip this far away from more populated areas.

She continued reviewing the video until she felt confident that she had fully unlocked it's secrets. She walked a distance away from the field, to be out of sight of anyone who might be watching her. Then, she tried replicating what she had seen. Crouching low to the ground, she slapped a hand to it. A moment later, success! Not quite as powerful as the one she had witnessed, but still, a success complete enough that she felt confident in considering the technique her own. With that done, she took her leave of Hidden Stone. Maybe there would be more to learn at her next stop?

(550 )

The sudden spinning disk like blades wouldn't serve as much more then a deterrent for their over all movement. The blades spinning through the air would all soon attempt to separate into partial razor chord held together blade shards, and wrap around all four limbs of the Gaara. Thus they would instantly be severed from the body if the Gaara allowed it as easily as the man behind the attack hoped they would. A black cloaked figure slowly walked forward towards the male, his hand extended forwards with a pointed finger almost to emphasize the attack that he was using with the use of his Hidden Katana made weapon. Abaddon West grins beneath the hood of his cloak, as he lowers his arm and begins speaking in a twisted sort of arrogant tone. "Well.. Goodbye shinobi. I'm sure you had a pathetic and useless existence." He says simply.