Aya stood at the foot of the maze, though she was not happy about what she needed to do, she needed to get it dome, she had known that the kids had released the white rabbit and since then she had tracked it back to the warrens which the small creature had likely slept. The road was long and it was nightmarish, Aya had heard of the things which went on and lived deep within the bowles of the earth, and she didn't like the thought of it for a single moment. Looking down, and analyzing her own weapons she had to make sure that she was ready, she didn't have her armour on her, but she did have her weapon changeling and her arrows, which would hopefully be more than enough to deal with anything crawling beneath the depoths of the earth. The walls of the place were no bigger than her own height if you took the roots which penetrated down from the top of the roof, creating a canopy of green and brown tangling vines which lined the walls and top of the caverns, even at the entrance of the hole. Aya then remembered what the villagers had said about the insects which lived here... But, fighting through the negative emotions which consisted most of her thought patterns, she had to think of the poor kids which would go without their white easter rabbit if this went unattended... Aya could not help but feel however from her last experience with the hare of legend and myth that there was something about it that made it different from all the other rabbits in the wood, whether the rabbit was blessed or holy, or perhaps something more like a nin-ken from the world she was used to, a rabbit which had the power to use chakra much like that of a ninja... Aya could never know, but, what was for certain was her determined mind to reach it

thus she activated her sage mode.

The blue lines traced over Ayas body lighting up the night with a radiant blue clow which penetrated her clothing and weapons like starlight as she took a single step forward, leanging her weight down on a single leg, ready to fast track her way into the maze, leaning forward and coiling her leg like a spring, the tension wound itself up, the ground braced below the ninja as if it was readying itself for the force which was about to explode into action above it, the climax built up in moments which felt like years to the undisturbed earth until finally, with a flourish of power never seen before by this land, Aya rocketed into action, charging straight forward into the maze, using the power of her sage mode in order to react to the twists and turns in the maze before she reached them, meaning she knew where the corners were and would be without the need to use a sensory jutsu as well as without the need to use her eyes in this dark space she had invaded... And make no mistake, Aya was the invader here, this place was home to the man eating insects of this world, not the foreign ninja of ice which they would have never seen or sensed before. Aya activated the powers of her mask as well as the Gakabe technique to create an array of butterflies which would search out in the immediate area around her for any possible dead ends through the tunnels... Aya was not the best navigator, and she felt like going into this she was going to get lost more than a couple of times.

Racing through the earth ways she had come across a couple of insects which had been as large as small dogs and even on particularly nasty earwig which had been as long as some of the longest eels which aya had seen in water country. This place was not for the feint of heart, though, that being said, Aya moved and operated at such incredible speed, many of them could not see or react to her movement as she charged through the tunnels more like a gust of wind than a potential prey for them to hunt and feed on. Aya only hoped that there was not some kind of swarm of amazing giant ants which would be more than capable of overpowering her with numbers. Several times Aya flinched at the sight of an ant like creature only to find that they were alone in those tunnels. Thanking whatever god she knew that there were not hundreds more where that came from. But, she felt like she was getting closer, the winding nature of the tunnels as well as her mask picking up on the movement from the insects deeper was giving her a bearing into the nature of the tunnels and the natural patterns which were being formed as she went along. The Tunnels were complex but there was a pattern to them, after a while the tunnels became predictable and Aya stopped running into the few dead ends which she was already meeting. So, it was not long before she came to the mouth of the Rabbit's hollow, seeing the rabbit lying there being shone on by a solitary ray of moonlight coming down as a beam and no doubt scaring away the insects which would be more than happy to dine on the young rodent.

Aya looked at the rabbit and smiled. it was not often that you saw a sight like this, as well as the natural wonder and splendor of the hollow which it had dug out for herself. The walls were almost like polished stone and the rooftop itself glistened with the water dripping from the roots, casting rays of light which cascaded over the halls when any of the drips caught the light of the moonbeams. Here Aya began to approach the rabbit, reaching down and picking the little guy up with ease due to the sheer silence of her own movement. The Rabbit looked a little shocked as Aya picked it up in her arms, though, with the same calming and soothing motion of stroking its ears as before, it quickly became docile and melted into the mizukage's arms. Looking up at her as its breathing steadied and it rested against her cool breast. Taking a running step, Aya began to make her way out of the maze again, following her footsteps backwards in such a manner, remembering now which ways were the dead ends so not to follow her more misleading tracks and waste any more time than she had to. The insects which seemed to be rummaging through the tunnels lo longer appeared hostile to Aya, and she was actually able to get closer to some of them, while many of them were rather repulsive when it came to simply how they looked some of them seemed to have their own form of whimsey around them, one particular enlargened lady bug in particular was a rather friendly critter. Aya thought that maybe the rabbit here was more special than she had origionally taken for granted, there was a slight chance that the bugs of this area had been looking out for the little guy while he slept, ensuring that the children would not get their little mits on him while he was under their watch...

though even aya thought that was a little far fetched for this place.

Once she was finally above ground, Aya made her way back to the village, the adults seemed rather pleased that she had bought the rabbit back for the children, Aya gave them a little bit of a warning about what she had seen in the tunnels, and would hope that the children, if they lost the rabbit again would not go down into the warren maze, as the things down there would more than likely eat them for breakfast without a second thought. The parents laughed and agreed, noting that Aya didn't seem to have a single scratch on her body... But... such was the way of things. Aya had to figure a way to move on, and decide what she was going to do from this point onwards, though, after being in the mess of the warrens, what she really needed was a damn shower, looking around for a hotel of some kind in the township, she managed to find one, paying the inn keeper she moved to a room and threw her clothes off and onto one of the beds, diving headfirst into the bathroom and steaming herself with a nice waterfall like shower, followed up with a long herbal bath... the luxury was not lost on the Mizukage and all of her worries melted away like the snow in summer. A smile broad across her face as she hoped and wondered what other people would be doing at this time in the afternoon, her mind wondered to Strafe, to tenmei, to the other people she had not seemed to see in an age... hoping that many of them were still alive and doing well.. especially some... she hoped that her mother would be able to come to this town and experience the treasures of sugar country, though, it was unlikely her mother would be able to find her way here... even aya didn't know how she got here for sure...

though one thing was for certain...

aya needed this...

[1582 words]