The Swamp of Sorrows, one of the most dangerous places in all of the five nations. Located pretty far up north within the Land of Water. Smelly, ugly, and full of things that can kill people, it's no wonder why so many do their best to avoid this place. Many have perished within the swamp's dark recesses. Civilians, shinobi, and criminals alike. Despite having such a horrid reputation, there are still some who come to visit this marsh of macabre melancholy. Jumping from tree branch to tree branch was the giant form of Zaiaku, his pace steady and quick as he traversed through the living deathtrap. As per usual, he wore very minimal clothing. His attire was comprised as his old shinobi pants, his sandals, and the Sunagakure headband around his waist. Tied around his left leg was a small pack, holding his kunai and various other small weapons. His grey skin appeared darker than usual, for it was around 6:34 PM. The sky was beginning to turn dark, if not very mildly. One could still plainly see their surroundings around them, however, their colors were of a darker shade. The sky was a light blue, slowly turning darker by the hour.

The trees which Zaiaku hopped bore light, soft leaves which stood out of his way for the most. The bark was hard and a dark brown in color. Some of was falling off due to the constant moisture or from wild life. Along the water filled areas were crocodiles, mosquitoes, turtles, and swamp dwelling fish. Lizards, snakes, bobcats, and raccoons prowled on land for food and shelter. Knowing this, Zaiaku simply made his way forward before finally stopping on a particularly large branch. Despite the dangers that lurked, Zaiaku was here for one thing: silence. He needed to just get away from everything and think. Kirigakure was filled with people and commerce, distracting him from his own thoughts. Out here, however, there was only him and the sounds of nature.

Sitting down and laying against the tree, Zaiaku closed his eyes and allowed his mind to wander. He began to remember certain things. The scruffy face of his father. The gentle visage of his mother. The tom-boyishness of his sister. Each image haunted the Jiendo, causing him to sigh as he lightly shook his head, trying to think of something else. His consciousness slowly shifted to Aiden and his well being. How sadden he was at not having someone like him. How he literally has no reason to stay in the village. How he might leave. Zaiaku growled at the last thought, forcing it out of his mind. He couldn't stop thinking about what happened and how he failed to comfort his lover. His lover which he.....knew almost....nothing...about. That doesn't matter. He thought to himself as he came to reality, expecting to hear the chorus of frogs ribbiting to the dogfights of flies. Yet....he heard nothing.

All the sound that previously accompanied Zaiaku was now...gone. He furrowed his brow as he looked towards the ground, trying to see if there was anything off. There wasn't, resulting in Zaiaku climbing down and looking about,  seeing nothing amongst the trees of the swamp. Soon, though, he would find something add. A bundle of trees had collapsed, obscuring the view above or around them. They weren't totally down, however, pressing against each other. They formed a sort of triangle opening which radiated light. Moving close to inspect, Zaiaku would that the triangle only reached his waist and that he was too big to enter. Grunting in annoyance, Zaiaku would get on his knees and look into the opening made by the trees, his huge body obscuring the view from behind. Looking about he saw a clearing amongst the trees, light from the slowly setting sun illuminating it. In the middle of it was...was....something...some sort of creature. The fuck. Zaiaku thought as he squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look.

WC: 676

The murky waters of the swamp rippled, but there was no sound. Something was moving in the water, one thin green moss-covered leg after another. Its movement was sluggish, but with great reason. In front of this five meter tall creature, lying on a floating log was a large round frog, croaking. The wooden mossy head of the tall creature lowered to look at it. The frog's croaking slowed. It eventually stopped all together, possibly feeling something was wrong. The amphibian shuffled where it was as its legs began to bend. And then, right when it hopped away, five small wooden tendrils the size of typical pencils rushed from the surface of the log the small aquatic creature was just on.

With ease, it pierced the flesh of the midair frog, the wooden tendrils now coiling around it much slower than when they shot out. As the mossy tendrils squirmed, soft crunching came from within the wooden coil. Small streams of blood fell from below the bundle of wood, into the dark waters. Soon after, the frog was revealed as the wooden bundle was undone. The frog...had been reduced to bones, almost void of all flesh. As the wooden tendrils retracted back into the surface of the log, the skeletal remains of the amphibious creature fell into the water.

The once thin wooden legs pulsated, thickening and thinning in a rhythmic flow. If anyone were close enough, they would be able to see thick black veins underneath the top wooden layer of the being. Within the veins were liquidized flesh rising towards the chest, supplying most likely its 'heart' with the nutrients absorbed from the frog earlier. The pulsating of the legs ceased, and the moss-covered creature stood, finally raising its head from the log the frog once rested on. It remained still for a moment, insects of different species buzzing near and crawling on its body. Light shined eerily onto it from the sun above.

Its head turned sluggishly, its wooden exoskeleton creaking as it did. In its sights, it saw someone looking right back at them. It remained still, maintaining its gaze on the male. And the moment that they would look away, the mossy creature...would suddenly vanish. If they did not look away, and someone else were to arrive, they would vanish regardless. The only evidence being left behind of their being would be a small ripple in the swamp waters.

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Word Count: 1306

It was....large. Very large. It's limbs were long and skeletal, with the arms seemingly reaching below the creature's knees. It was various shades of green, ranging from yellow-green to dark, due to the vegetation that grew off of it. With it's irregular head and rather malnourished torso, it seemed to be humanoid in-nature, walking with an unhurried pace through the water. Though tall and undoubtedly peculiar, the creature did not seem to pose any threat. After all, it was simply trudging through the swamp. Nonetheless Zaiaku felt something when watching it. A certain feeling in his chest, constantly nagging at him. He felt as if he wasn't suppose to be looking at this alien being. As if such an act was taboo. He merely shrugged them off at first, figuring it was simply his mind struggling to identify just what the vermin could be.

That theory was thrown out the window, however, as Zaiaku soon came to witness the horror of the enigma's nature. A mere frog, croaking on a log, felt threatened and tried to the hop away. The result was it being skewed from multiple angles before being wrapped in what can only be described as wooden tentacles and stripped of its meat. The beast-man was could only gawk at the spectacle as his heart began to pump faster. This...thing..was a threat. An impressive one at that. Animals go silent when its around and try to escape. None try to fight it.

Zaiaku's claws dug into the bark of the dead tree, his eyes intently watching the treeman as it slowly reared its head. The two locked eyes for a single instant. None moved or made a sound, similar to how two predators observe each other before striking. The stare only lasted for a few moments, however, for Zaiaku abruptly turned around when a voice was heard, startling him. Sweat trailed down his head and his eyes were wide as he looked at the person for a mere second, saying nothing and not taking in their appearance as he quickly turned back to the creature...only to find mere ripples in the water from where it stood. With a blink the giant slowly stood, fists balled up as he slowly turned around. He didn't look at the newcomer, however, or even listened to them. Rather, he was constantly looking about his surroundings, his unnatural eyes darting from place to place. His chest was visibly rising and falling as he took a step forward, still looking everywhere. Whatever that thing was, Zaiaku was sure it wouldn't be the last time he'd see it.

WC: 449
TWC: 1,125

The swamp’s mist rising from the water’s surface ever so slowly was disturbed by some 'invisible' force. The mist parted, making way for…something. It was fast, and there were no sounds made by its movement other than the soft rippling of the water, indistinguishable from the ones that were naturally occurred. Standing from afar, about fifty meters away from where it had been, was the mossy being. With its black ‘sockets’, it watched now two figures. From where it stood, the two could probably see it. It wasn’t making much of an attempt at hiding. Though, if one of them spots the creature while it was looking at them, it’d just move again just as fast as it did before.

The head of the moss-covered being turned to its left, the wooden exterior creaking during. Just to its left was something dark struggling underwater. It flopped around, creating similar quite ripples the moss creature made earlier. This flopping, most likely, could be heard by the two. However, due to the similarity in sound, there would be no need for alarm. Eventually, it surrendered to its fate, its body going still. The tail of what typically would belong to an alligator remained to be the only think floating above the murky water’s surface, the body of the animal dragged underwater by wooden roots. A red cloud formed in the water gradually where it had struggled. Then, wooden roots crept onto the tail, dragging it down as well.

Like before, the moss creature’s legs began to thicken and thin. Its head remained where the alligator was, watching as pieces of its skeletal frame rose. Like the frog’s, flesh was scarce on the bones. Creaking came from the green moss creature as it turned its head back to the two. Had they spotted this being while it was preoccupied with the gator, it’d maintain eye contact with them until either of them blink or look away. Unlike before, the eye contact would create a soft hum that scaled in volume the longer they looked. This is so that they would become distracted and preoccupied with the source of the humming, allowing for escape. This was one of its natural evasive tactics that it seemed to rely on the most. Preferably, the mossy monstrosity would hold off on moving until both were blinking and or looking away. This is so that they wouldn’t know where it had gone, on the off chance that they could see it’s already near untraceable movement.

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Word Count: 559

With the darkness slowly creeping more and more around them, Zaiaku went ahead and let out a silent exhale. Though this was indeed a dangerous situation, it would do no good for him to be this anxious. He had to relax while maintaining focus. Loosening his fists he noticed that the young woman was now standing on his right side, staring somewhere else intently. Following her gaze Zaiaku would have some difficulty making out the figure in the distance, namely because of their current lighting situation. Nonetheless the shinobi knew just what he was looking at. As he stared down the beast, however, he noticed that the thick silence of the swamp was slowly being replaced by something else. It was low, hardly audible. From what Zaiaku could make out of it, it seemed to be humming. Not only that, but it was slowly rising in volume. His face contorted into a sort of scowl, not at all pleased by the sound or the situation at hand. He never took his eyes off the creature, however. Rather, he moved slightly closer to the woman as she began to speak.

Proposals? What they should do? If he could, Zaiaku would laugh at the question despite the severity of this predicament. Licking his dry lips, Zaiaku would begin to whisper back to the woman. "That thing controls plants or somethin'. I saw it suck the meat off a frog as if it were a chicken leg." Zaiaku blinked and shook his head, wanting to forget that image. The clean, almost pearly white bones of the frog gently falling out from the mass of tentacles. It was practically glued to the back of his eyelids. "If we run we'll have to be quick when on the trees. From what I can tell, the damn thing moves fast."

Without averting his gaze, in-case the creature was still there, he would reach down into the small pack that rested against his left leg. Silently, he would take out two kunai, held via his index and middle finger being inserted into the small loop at the end of their hilts. He would hold his hand slightly out to the woman, offering her one of the small knives as he proceeded to a ask a rather appropriate question. "Know any fire jutsu?"

WC: 387
TWC: 1,512

OOC: Sorry for taking so long. A lot of stuff has been happening and I just recently got the chance to sit down and work out something of a post.

The mossy creature stood in the middle of the swamp waters. No sound, save for the quiet ones coming from the crawling beetles within it, still was not made. Its head was still facing the direction of the two it had been watching. The reason is as primal as they come. Humans, to this day, still hold the highest nutrition. While true, other organisms may excel in other departments, such as iron, humans are the most likely to have a balanced scale. Humans...were kind of like a sentient vitamin capsule that holds all of the daily needs. A fortunate sight as well, there were two in front of it.

Though, on the negative side of the spectrum, these two were not the average beings. Years of stalking prey had taught the moss creature a thing or two. Chakra is present in just about anything. Trees, humans, animals, chakra is available just about anywhere. Though sometimes, some animals' chakra pools are slightly larger than others. The ones with larger chakra pools proved to be the first to respond to threat, or the quicker and stronger ones.

The same applied to some humans. Some, such as a child, had the same chakra pool as a goldfish. While others, adults, compared to that of a dog, or even a buffalo if in fit condition. Then, there were the ones that had an amount never seen before in the wild. This would be the case here, the two humanoids in front of the creature...having a slightly higher pool than the average human. Their chakra amount, whether they know it or not, was their only saving grace.

To the wooden being, chakra levels resembled a 'difficulty level' so to speak. It, preferable, would want a normal human to devour, rather than...these two.

The swamp waters below started to ripple as the wind began to circle the treelike being. The ripples grew as the winds swirled harder. Then, what sounded like a airy scream came from the wind. The nearby swamp trees swayed as the ripples changed into waves, as if pairs of invisible hands belong to past humans were splashing in the water, desperately trying to leave the moss creature. What sounded like thunder in the distance echoed as the abnormal being was...suddenly gone. If someone had blinked, they would have missed their leaving.

Where its legs had stood, the swamp waters refused to fill for a moment. A trail of parted water led further into the swamp, sluggishly being refilled by the water. The wind started to slow, and the trees began to relax. The waters became calm, and then eventually the ambient swamp sounds resumed.

Whatever it could have been...was gone.

/Exit/

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Word Count: 591
Two Tomoe Sharingan ➡ 240/250