There was certain rhythmic monotony to the duo’s trip. Mana’s pace had slowed down significantly, she was trying to be more careful and mindful of her surroundings. Last time she left the archive it was completely totaled. It was very likely that there’d not be a breath of air between the massive stone pieces that filled the underground facility. If an object as ancient as the Summoning Contract of the Bailong was even in the archive to begin with, it’d be either completely turned to dust or greatly damaged at this point.
With Mana being used to the monotony of her steps clacking in tandem with the thuds of her companion she was instantly made aware of the fact that Zairyo had stopped moving and began looking up. The magician’s own gaze followed only to greet a swift blur of brown feathers that latched onto the swordsman’s arm and hesitantly began clawing at it, causing irritation but still not breaking the skin, rushing the wielder to take away the contents that the hawk had carried.
“What is this?” Mana wondered out loud.
“My orders. My servitude for my village is what separates a man who is constantly journeying and is simply absent from the village affairs from a rogue ninja who is having people sent to take care of him. I am still a subordinate of my village, most of the times…” the man replied indifferently as his eyes struggled to read the letter’s contents due to the rather difficult to work with lighting. The Sannin pocketed the letter and gently flicked the hawk on the top of his head, it must’ve been a way to commend the animal for breaking through the difficult upper layers of the forest as the hawk let its voice be known and expressed in joyful pride.
Soon the bird departed.
“I thought the Sannin are as good as retired, do you still take orders from the village?” Mana stopped walking as the Sannin’s explanation confused her.
“Technically Sannin are considered ninja of great value that have paid their dues. They take up the missions they themselves want to be part of, in a way, they do not get orders. They get suggestions of open jobs that may require their expertise. That being said, I was not a Sannin my whole life. I’ve been receiving orders from the village through messenger hawks for many years, all the way until I’ve become Sannin.” Zairyo sighed, the magician’s curiosity must’ve really begun to get to the man.
After a brief pause the kunoichi turned around and kept on walking, carefully looking around to identify clues around her that may have helped the magician identify the archive or at least that she was getting close.
“So you’ve been making the grass waver for pretty long, huh?” Mana asked, still keeping her eyes occupied.
“Ever since my team spirit died out. I was a bit older than you when I left, at first ninja were sent after me but after several encounters and proof that I haven’t deserted, given the circumstances of my background, I was allowed to work while constantly on the move. I’d like to think I have made myself useful…” Zairyo closed his eyes beginning to recall the memorable moments of his past deep in his mind. Even with his eyes closed and his mind fleeting the man managed not to bump against a single tree in a forest infamous for its thickness and cruel conditions.
The magician’s emerald gaze met the man’s eyes once they opened but then wandered off and began surveying the environment again. The Sannin sighed, he knew quite well what exactly the girl wished to ask but didn’t.
“My team betrayed me and tried to kill me. After the Second Great Ninja War ended, the mood with the young brats was not too pro-ninja village and pro-war. Young kids right out of Academy died out by thousands, entire classrooms sent to war and eliminated in their entirety. The desertion rate was so off the roof that they began skewing the statistics. I refused to desert with my team so I was betrayed, taken out and left to die. My teammates may have been deserters but they were also wimps who couldn’t finish me off. I think that the Third Hokage may have gotten a bit squeamish of forcing me work, he just let me work it out the best way I saw how. If he had pressed me with orders and reminders of the “ninja way”, I’d have snapped too, I think…” Zairyo recalled.
Judging from the man’s voice it didn’t look like he had that much hidden negative feelings or pent up suffering towards the events he described. He was talking of his team like they were already dead, granted, it could’ve been because they were, but his lack of grief or regret for his past was so evident that it rudely clawed at the listeners ears.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to dig around painful memories.” Mana uttered more like out of habit, sad but knowing full well that her words would likely fall on deaf ears.
“Everyone’s got a dark past, everyone’s got painful memories. The people who do despicable things for that reason I really cannot stand… I think those two statements are in direct relation to each other.” Zairyo looked on before reaching out to Mana’s shoulder and stopping her in the girl’s tracks before pointing forward. “You’ve gotten distracted.” He stated more as a general statement than a scolding.
Ahead, past a vast layer of bushes and low hanging trees laid the tough wrangled chitin shell of a gigantic centipede. A very common yet lethal predator of these grounds. Mana leaned down hoping to avoid getting noticed by the insect but Zairyo did no such thing.
“Where there’s one there may be more. It wouldn’t be wise causing a big ruckus so close to the archive. I still hope there are some stones left unturned there.” Mana suggested that the man took a more cautious approach but Zairyo just glared at Mana before returning his strict eyes back at the centipede. The magician peeked through the leaves and kept on staring at the static centipede that just stood there completely straightened out before seeing what Zairyo saw and what she should’ve seen sooner.
The centipede was a scarecrow. The chitin shell was completely scratched out and rid from its fleshy contents, the goo was evidently rid somewhere else as it would’ve emitted too bad of a stench not to notice immediately. For now the magician couldn’t tell what the armored shells were filled with but it certainly was no living being. Someone killed a centipede and left this as a tool to scare off smaller animals and inferior predators from pestering the killer as they did something else.
“This is bad.” Mana whispered. “If that person can take out a centipede and chose to do this, likely to avoid conflict, that means they also wish to save themselves from trouble. What other reason would someone capable of killing a larger predator have for doing this if not wishing to preserve what’s underground and very sensitive?”
Zairyo smiled. He must’ve been pretty impressed by the magician’s perception. “We’ve no time to waste then, let’s move and try to pick up our pace.” The man nodded before disappearing in the upper layer of trees. Mana sighed, the last thing she needed was a struggle to keep up with the man, she was nowhere near as fast or as strong as even genin that were her peers. She always came out on top due to sharpness of her thought or knowledge where to strike rather than how strong. And yet the girl followed, to the best of her ability.
A calm breeze managed to make its way past the thick layer of leaves and down to the stuffy stench of the ground level of Forest of Death. A rare gust of fresh air managed to do the same. With a quick appearance of two figures all the smaller rodents that thrived because of how small and inconsequential they were, nearly impossible to catch and keep hold of by the colossal predators that lived here, scattered in fear.
“What’s wrong?” Zairyo asked as Mana kept on wandering the area looking at every corner of every tree. “You stopped, I had to blitz a good twenty kilos back for you…” he asked for a clarification.
“This is it. This is the place.” The girl explained as she kept on searching for the faintest clue as to where and what could’ve remained of the hidden archive she once visited.
As the Sannin’s eyes wandered around he noticed countless more centipedes cut down and into smaller pieces by the shells of their hardened armor. Like a field of chopped up predators that alerted anyone that whoever did this was not going to play around. These were also still gooey and dripping with the smelly innards of the creature they were peeled off of and filled with… Something else.
“That’s not the smell of centipede goo…” Mana realized as she turned her attention from the total lack of any remains of the archive to the field of insectoid remains stuck up on sticks and left hanging. Each one of them was as large as a human being so it did have a certain degree of creepiness and fear factor to it.
“Don’t get distracted!” Zairyo shouted, “Is the archive here, or not?”
“It… It has to be…” Mana returned to the beautiful and pristine smooth grassy plains that laid where there was once ruins of an archive that had its own building as well as an underground facility. “It was here, this makes no sense, there was supposed to be at least some stony remains of the building. The way it looks now… Unless I was wrong, unless I got lost…” the magician looked away beginning to feel bad about wasting the Sannin’s time. Once again she found a way to screw up.
“Are you okay?” Zairyo asked, his voice lacked empathy but it was curious and did have some feeling to it, Mana just wasn’t sure what exactly it could’ve been.
“Not even remotely…” the magician admitted. “My friend paid the price for my gift, my sensei hates me and I am beginning to think that I’ve wasted your time…”
“What are you talking about? You got me right where you said you would get me.” Zairyo smiled with a half-assed grin. Almost like he mocked the magician.
“No!” Mana shouted out. “No, this can’t be it!” she walked past the stage of self-pity and began getting angry. “There has to be more to this place.”
“There isn’t. The Bailong scroll is just a big dud, my sources lied, let’s go home.” Zairyo sighed and began trekking back with his hands in his pockets and his multiple swords, tied around his belt, dangling.
“B-But that person, the one who killed those centipedes and that snake…” Mana wrapped her hands around her face, closed her eyes, even while her visual orbs were closed they were running around as she rapidly ran through multiple scenarios and theories in her mind, none of them making even a remote nick of sense.
“It’s not here. It’s gone. I can’t see anything here but pristine well maintained grass and pear trees.” Zairyo coughed, he had stopped in his tracks and angrily looked back at Mana, “Now let’s go back. You’re wasting your own time you could spend trying to catch up with your teammates who are now being trained quite extensively.”
“Wait… Pear trees?” Mana looked up noticing the sudden change of the flora in the trees that the surrounding area contained. The girl placed her hands together in a hand seal position, “Dispel” she whispered as the smells of citrus and fresh air, also freshly cut grass as well as the sights of a well maintained forest ground decorated with pear trees faded like smoke.
“It was an illusion, not even a very good one. I’d have expected a genjutsu user identify one faster. Your mind really wasn’t in the game.” Zairyo once again just stated the fact coldly without any judgment behind his rather judgmental words. “Team problems and being the odd one in your pack is nothing special, you’re the one who gives it too much meaning. Trust me, Hanasaku doesn’t really hate you deep inside, neither do your friends. Maybe they think you’re awkward or weird, Chestnut may not even like you but they don’t care enough about you to hate you. No one truly hates people that don’t mess with them with malice. I don’t hate my own team that betrayed me because they didn’t betray me because they hated me, they betrayed me because they wanted a way out.”
Mana looked down feeling a bit ashamed but then she just smiled to herself before her face changed back to bitterness.
“That still doesn’t qualify as “training”.” She bitterly noted. “As far as I’m concerned you still ripped me off…”
“Was worth a shot…” Zairyo shrugged. “Still, I may want to pay you back, you may be useful in the future and useful people need to be kept happy so that they keep helping you in the future.”
“And that’s just… Mean and… Objectifying to people in general.” Mana noted once again with disdain in her voice, not malicious one but more of the playful variety.
Without playing along Zairyo walked up to the demolished and caved in stony building of which only caved in floor remained. “What are the odds of the scroll making it?” he wondered.
“Not great…” Mana replied while sadly shaking her head.
“Earth Style: Mole Cricket!” the man chanted out weaving a pair of hand seals with his single hand while firmly holding the other on the endless layers of stone. The demolished stone pieces all shrieked in pent up pressure built up inside them before exploding in violent shrapnel that all got reduced to mere dust before it could hit anything. As the stone dust collapsed only a wide hole leading to total darkness remained.
“Stand back, arsehole, or de girlie gets it!” a loud and very distinctively south-western speaking voice alerted the Sannin who stood up from his accomplishment of opening up a hole to the archive without demolishing it any further and gazed upon the situation he ended up in.
Behind him holding Mana hostage with a long one edged blade to her neck and a knife to her lower abdomen was a good half a person sized rabbit standing on two feet. The rabbit had a darker and grittier shade of pink as its dominant fur color, a scar on one of its eyes and wore a very traditional warrior armor not seen on any ninja for hundreds of years. Its facial features looked pretty seasoned and serious despite its overall cuteness.
“It will be very difficult to “get her”, having in mind she’s holding you hostage…” Zairyo closed his eyes in disappointment in his enemy’s skill as the person that the rabbit held as his hostage erupted in flower petals and a kunai was pressed against the rabbit’s own throat from behind.
“Goddang it, damned hatchlin’!” the rabbit cursed. “I’ma kill ye when I get outta dis!” he kept on cursing which contrasted his cuteness. With a metal slick sound Mana’s kunai found its way back in one of her hidden pockets while the magician grabbed the rabbit by its throat and began smothering it.
“Oy, oy, oy! I’m an esteemed warrior of de ninja-rabbits, tasked ta return da long lost Rabbit Contract scroll! You will stop treatin’ me as a pet and unhand me at once, ye filthy hatchlin’!”
“Can I keep him around?” Mana asked enthusiastically giving her companion the puppy eyes.
“As long as you can keep him from killing you.” Zairyo shrugged.
“Wait, what did you say your mission was?” Mana wondered after letting go of the giant two legged rabbit that angrily stared at her trying to behead the girl with sight alone. The rabbit reached for his sword but an annoyed growl by Zairyo made the ninja animal reconsider engaging the two ninja and further irritating the high ranking shinobi. Zairyo’s immense hidden power and high rank was emanating so clearly that it soaked right through the rabbit’s cells and was apparent even to a non-sensor.
“I am Usuzoku, the Rabbit Swordsman! I came from faraway lands ‘ere ta recover a Rabbit Contract scroll stolen long ago, unless we sign da Contract with a powerful ninja, I fear we may go extinct and forgotten…” the cute rabbit rogue explained with utmost urgency in its working lagomorph cheeks.
“Wait, you mean to find it here?” Zairyo looked at the rabbit in confusion.
“Aye, de scroll is ‘ere alright. The sneaky mongoose that dun stole it brought it here, where it remained hidden for centuries with the ninja rabbits unable to sign another contractor.” Usuzoku nodded, despite his eyes being absolutely adorable, he was clearly believing in what he was saying and had absolutely no doubts that the scroll was here.
“Hundreds of years is a long time to not look for a stolen scroll…” Mana teased the rabbit, she just couldn’t help but feel more cheerful around such a peculiar and strangely cute looking creature that felt as deadly as it was dainty.
“Ye stupid hatchling broad, we were deceived by de filthy mongooses! We had no idea it was ‘ere ta begin with! Then there was also the matter of pride “ after beating the mongooses we kinda felt like we didn’ need no humans. We rabbits are a proud species of ninja animals! We figured that humans would line up to be our partners after beating dem pesky mongooses!” Usuzoku freaked out once again threatening Mana with his longsword before backing down himself. If rabbits could have growled, that was exactly what the pink furred rogue was trying to do at Mana.
“There was a war between ninja rabbits and ninja mongooses?” Mana asked curiously.
Usuzoku just screamed out loud with a cry of lost hope with a good mix of unhealthy pent up rage built up in her face. Then he turned away and hopped up to Zairyo who was just indifferently looking down at the ruined archive and back at the rabbit.
“So I assume it was you that lured that snake here? Killed those centipedes?” Zairyo looked around wondering.
“No, it was a filthy mongoose that dun did it! I found ‘im and lopped its head off, I did! The darned bastard must’ve known I was sent here and came to relocate the scroll. Mongoose spies are slimy but intelligent “ they are everywhere and know everything. They musta done somethin’ to make humans forget about us too, no one went lookin’ for us for ages!” Usuzoku growled angrily before nodding to himself.
“Who cares about any of this? I came here for the Bailong Contract scroll, not ninja rabbits…” Zairyo sighed in dissapointment.
Usuzoku pulled his ears hard, yanking them down in frustration as his jaw opened wide in shock. “Ye mean ye ain’ even gonna sign our contract!?” the ninja rabbit shouted out in surprise. “Yer a damned solid ninja, we need summoners to thrive and return to our former glory!” the rabbit almost resorted to pleading but then he remembered his pride and quickly jumped back.
“I can sign it…” Mana raised a possibility.
“Screw you!” Usuzoku screamed out in frustration.
Mana looked aside disappointed that the cute rabbit refused her, “Fine, can I then maybe at least help you find the scroll? Most species hold their Contract scrolls in their respective sacred grounds and summon them when they need it.”
“We did that, it was stolen by mongooses, ye filthy hatchlin’ broad!” Usuzoku shouted back at Mana.
“Say, how powerful are you, rabbit?” Zairyo wondered.
Usuzoku stabbed his sword at the ground letting it get stuck in the forest soil as he leaned against it proudly. “I can split dis Oyth with dis ‘ere sword as I stand!” he bragged.
“Fine. Someone like you sounds like something a fruit of “training” would be like, wouldn’t you say, Mana?” Zairyo asked the girl only for the magician to nod in energetic agreement. “Therefore, if you sign this Rabbit Contract and acquire the ability to summon ninja rabbits, I will, by definition, have trained you…” Zairyo concluded his suggestion to Mana. Usuzoku visibly didn’t like where this was going.
“The kid expressed genuine wish to help you finding your scroll. That’s ninety nine more shits than I will ever give. Now let’s go down there and look for that scroll.” The Sannin annoyingly ordered the magician and the rabbit before leaping down into the hole he made earlier.
Mana smiled before looking teasingly at Usuzoku who just sheathed his sword behind his back and crossed his hands around his chest.
“Fine, I guess I’ll let ye allow yerselves ta help me, just dis once ‘ere time…” he concluded before following the magician behind and hopping into the hole together with Mana.
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