It had been two hours. Two hours since Toshiko begun his travel from the village of iwagakure, through the shortcut, and then directly to kirigakure. Though it was said to be a shortcut, It didn't take any time off of the trip. It solely provided a path for Toshiko to follow that would lead him rather easier to his destination. it was a route from iwagakure directly to the outside of kirigakure, which was a quite far distance to go either way. He Found himself quite exhausted, following the somewhat barren, rigid path continuously hour after hour. The heat from iwagakure was nearly unbearable to travel in. Almost as worse as sunagakure was with it's dry, humid air and clammy temperatures. As the transition from iwagakure occurred, Toshiko now found himself in a somewhat empty space with a path embedded through it's center, headed directly for Kirigakure. He stopped for a moment to take a break, as it had all taken most of his energy out of him. he sat down on the path, and slowly converted to a laying position. He stared up at the sky, his line of sight meeting the bright luminescent sun, and the thin array of clouds that aligned in the sky. The sun was no longer a painful bright light that Toshiko's uncovered regular eye couldn't see, but with the passing time dimmed down, beginning to set as the time went on. The sun was setting. By the looks of it, he was halfway there. he'd make it there by nightfall if he was lucky. He took the next few minutes to rest, thinking to himself as he did. It was strange. How the thoughts of all that he had gone through up to this point would randomly pass through his mind at unexpected times. How he'd be in the middle of something, and automatically think back. Think back to the good, and even the bad. As if all his past traumatic experiences had caused him to go through the process of forcing his evidently suppressed emotions out from within, sometimes providing him with overwhelming remnants of nostalgia, or mere pain and discomfort.

with this strange procedure his mind put him through, there was basically no telling what he could have been forced to endure mentally, and honestly it made him paranoid of his own mind. luckily, it didn't last very long, and usually he kept himself occupied with other opportunities and jobs to keep himself focused on that. After a bit of being lost in his own trace of thought, he came back to reality. Taking in a deep breath as he realized where he was again at that moment. No longer in his past, but back to living his present. He sighed. It was such a bittersweet feeling to go through all of his memories at once. He was glad none of his haunting ones popped up in his head. he hoped that it'd stay that way. He stood back up to his feet, dusting off the back of his black jumpsuit which had been lightly stained in the dust and dirt that laid upon the track he had been walking on. it was nothing major, but Toshiko hoped that it'd rain soon to wash his garments off while he was on the trip. He was halfway to kirigakure, but he knew he still had a long ways to go. Why hadn't he prepared for this? Only thing he had on him was half empty bottle of water that he'd been carrying on him for a lengthy amount of time. He took off the cap, and took a quite long sip. When he was done swallowing, the bottle was a quarter full. He'd have to save the rest for later, just in case this walk would last even longer than he originally perceived it to be. He put the cap back on, and placed the bottle in his pocket. The clouds were now completely covering the sun up in the sky which had still not fully set, but was beginning to. the light sky blue shade was toning down a bit, but not by too much. Dammit. He was running out of daylight, and he didn't want to be roaming around at night in the outskirts of a foreign village he'd never been to before. He had no idea what could be out there, and part of him didn't even want to find out.

He had replenished a bit of the energy he had used to walk this great distance during his travel, and the soreness in his legs had subsided a bit. Toshiko had always been the type to endure more than most individuals usually could, both mentally and physically. He could handle traveling a great distance such as this one, but in no way shape of form would it be easy for him to accomplish. There was no point in procrastinating any longer was there? He got ready, looked off in the distance at the long road before him, and then started running at full speed, determined to get to the village of kirigakure.

He went on at full speed, moving in multiple 15 meter bursts repeatedly for the next 20 minutes, covering a half of the rest of the distance. After that duration of time, he became exhausted once more, stopping again in the road to take a break. He had made a substantial amount of distance in a seemingly short time. Instead of laying down, Toshiko looked off into the distance. Close, but yet at the same time away from his current area, upon the horizon he could see the village of kirigakure. A large grin came across his face at the site. He was almost there. It was a long, tiring journey, but he was almost there. If he kept up, he'd be able to make it there before night... Or was it already too late? Within those twenty minutes of moving at full speed, Toshiko didn't seem to notice as the sun had set completely, allowing the moon to take the sky for a few brief moments, only to be covered in an abundance of murky clouds, not allowing Toshiko to see anything that would lay beyond them. Using his only visible eye, he looked up towards the sky. Light, mellow rain began falling down from the clouds, and onto the barren shortcut. Toshiko felt the rain moisten his dry skin and hair, seeping through his black jumpsuit and allowing the dirt to seep off of him. It felt soothing, calming his body temperature. As the drizzling rain hit his eye patch, it moistened and hit the pupil of his sharingan eye. It felt strange, causing toshiko to twitch a bit from the irritable feeling of the eye. Hmph. It seemed that Toshiko still wasn't fully used to his new sharingan implant. He'd only used it twice. Maybe the more he used it, the more he'd get used to it. At least that was what he hoped.

Toshiko was enjoying the environmental change. It was good to have a bit of a change from the rest of the villages with their insanely unbearable temperatures. Toshiko cracked a smile, overfilled with joy due to the fact that he was almost done after his hard day. Only about another mile to go, and he'd be in the village, finally able to rest for a bit. He sighed, looking up to the village and noticing a very large, dark cloud that took up the majority of the sky, heading straight towards Toshiko. Shit. He was so close. Too close. The dark storm was bearing a large storm within it, moving literally all over the outskirts of kirigakure. What could he do? He thought to himself, timidly as it was moving at an alarmingly fast rate. Could he move around it? No. It was too wide and moving too fast. If he tried to circle around he'd just waste more time than he should. Maybe he should just wait it out. allow the storm to past. No.... Toshiko wouldn't. He had spent way too much time on this. way too much time struggling to make it to kirigakure. He was going to get there, and was going to get there now. He gave off a devilish grin, liking the idea of being presented with a challenge.

He ran forward, full speed directly into the eye of the storm, and finally into the border of kirigakure. The rain was falling down harder and waster than the light drizzle from the clouds before. Within a couple minutes of running through the rain, Toshiko's hair was soaked, his black jumpsuit was soaked, the rain seeping deep enough to reach his skin, leaving it strangely moist for a few moments and damp. After he was halfway through the immensely wide and long cloud, Toshiko was no longer enjoying the mass amount of rain. It was immensely irritating to his eye. there was an abundance of trees in the immediate area, and Toshiko ran directly for them in the hopes that they'd provide him cover from the insane storm. He couldn't have been more wrong. Just as he thought he could have gotten a little bit of protection from the outrageous storm, thunder began to clap, echoing all around the entire area. The loud thump made him jump, frightening him for a bit as he stood underneath the thickest tree that he could find, attempting to squeeze the water out of his hair. The thunder wasn't left by itself, as then an immense strike of lightning hit the stump of the tree on the left of Toshiko. The loud noise startled him, causing him to tumble over to the right as the tree came collapsing over to the same side as Toshiko.

Quickly, he hopped out of the way, missing the tree by just a few feet. As the tree collapsed, Toshiko got up to his feet, bolting out of the array of trees and now found himself back out in the open path of the brutal storm. IT was no longer moving forward at the same pace, and even if it was it was of such a great length that it would take the same amount of time to escape it for those who were stuck from within. This was bad. Toshiko could barely take the harsh course of nature being admitted right now. His fun exploration of kirigakure wasn't off to a good start. There had to be a way. Something he could do to get out of this. He needed to find something. He focused his eye, attempting to see his way through the marshy rain through the dark to the best of his ability. There wasn't anything in sight really. nothing but the rain, the cloud before him, and the outlook of the entrance to the village, which was somewhat closer than it had been before. Despite that, Something else began to happen. the great winds from the storm blew up dirt from upon the ground, thus blocking what little view Toshiko had of anything. He was stuck in the middle of an insane storm, and he couldn't see? Things were getting worse by the second. He couldn't even see the entrance to the village anymore? Where was he? He wandered around, navigating the best he could. His one open eye was being blinded by the rummage brought up from the winds, and the water from the rain blinding him completely. After aimlessly moving around for what seemed like a long time, Toshiko finally found something. While seeing with only his perception, hands, and sense of direction he had found something. a wall. Was it the wall to the entrance of the village? Toshiko didn't know for sure, but he didn't care either. It was shelter. At least, the closest thing he would get to shelter for now. he found an open space by following his hand alongside the wall, going through it, and realizing the surface had a roof. That was good. He was finally out of the rain. He wiped the water from his face to the best of his ability, regaining some of his vision in his regular eye. One thing was for certain, he was utterly soaked. he could hear the heavy rain from outside, and the the lightning striking the ground nearby. As Toshiko panted and attempted to regain his stamina.

Where the hell did this storm come from? When was it going away? He didn't know, and honestly it wasn't the most important thing right now. at least he was out of it right? he could see clearly now. He was in what appeared to be a cave. It was dark, empty. Nothing to accompany him but the rocks and pebbles that lay upon the floor. There were two logs upon the floor, stacked up together and with a bundle of rocks around them. A campfire...? Had someone already been residing there? No. It couldn't have been.the logs looked like they'd been there for a while. Maybe someone came along a while before Toshiko. It didn't matter at that moment anyways. He took a long, deep sigh. Allowing himself to calm down and rejuvenate as he waited out the storm. The only source of light was that from the repetitive lightning strikes that hit the ground in front of the cave that he resided in. he couldn't manage to sustain himself in a cave where had had little to no light to allow him to look around. He stood up, looking toward the pile of sticks that had been piled up to make a camp fire.  Doing the tiger hand seal, he inhaled deeply, converting his oxygen into his katon chakra, and then exhaled a single stream of fire unto the campfire.

It actually worked better than toshiko wanted it to, lighting the camp fire and even igniting some flames around it that eventually died out due to not having anything to keep them going. Toshiko smiled. Now he could see better. He took one of the thicker sticks out of the camp fire, and put the other end of it into the camp fire once more to light it, creating a torch. being next to the heat source was helping him dry a bit faster.he looked back outside the cave. The storm was still going on, and didn't look like it was letting up any time soon. Dammit. It angered Toshiko. He had gotten so close to the village, and then this had to happen? it seemed like it was literally meant to happen solely to piss him off. Or at least that's how he interpreted it. he turned to the other side of the cave, and due to the light noticed how it was deeper than it originally appeared to be.

Toshiko decided that he would travel deeper into it, curious towards what the insides of the cave would hold. He made his way along a thin, narrow path, following down until he reached the next part of the cave. This section of the cave was different from the entrance. It was larger, the width was greater, and there was something strange upon the wall that was directly in front of Toshiko

At first, he couldn't make it out. He had no clue what it was until he brought his torch closer to it. he saw what appeared to be a series of drawings in chronological order, lined up from top to bottom. At first Toshiko couldn't understand them, and then decided to review them one by one from the first to the very last. The first one appeared to be a beast. An abnormally sized creature, taking the appearance of a lizard like creature. It had a strangely shaped head, two over sized wing, one on each side. Giant and yet short feet and arms, each one with claws attached to them. It was sketched into the wall with blue, along with the rest of the drawings.

Toshiko knew what the beast was of course. It was a dragon. He'd read about them in fantasy novels that he used to read with his mother when he was little. Of course, he expected them to be nothing more than that. Fiction. Why were they being sketched into the walls? Who had put these drawings here? These were all questions that needed to be answered of course, but Toshiko would take the time to complete observing the drawings beforehand.

The second drawing included multiple  dragons rather than the single one from the first, 3 in total. In front of them was a entire group of humans. The dragons seemed to detest them, gathering together and preparing for an attack. The third showed the humans who apparently were no hostile, bowing down to the dragons, one of them apparently attempting to communicate with the dragons.

The Fourth marking depicted the humans and the dragons together, though there were much much less humans than in the previous marking. There were only 3 of them, one along with each dragon. Toshiko couldn't tell what they were doing by the looks of it. It seemed as though they were meditating or something along the lines of that. Were they training? The markings were confusing Toshiko greatly. There obviously was a story being told within them, but what was it's purpose? Could it be true?

The Fifth marking displayed the 3 dragons and what appeared to be their 3 human students. The three humans had strange, glowing auras around themselves, and the dragons were hovering over them. Toshiko had no clue what it meant? Had they achieved some kind of heightened power?

The sixth marking showed the three humans returning to the rest of them with the new power that they had apparently obtained from the dragons. They began teaching multiple other individuals within the same techniques.

The Seventh showed select individuals among the humans who overall disagreed with the dragons, showing so by separating themselves from the humans who utilized the power they obtained from the dragons themselves.

The Eighth would give  the viewer the image of two groups at war. The regular humans, and those who had obtained the power from the dragons. The regular humans apparently decided to attack the dragons instead.

The ninth showed the humans attempting to fight the dragons, Not able to over power them, but managed to weaken them greatly

The tenth showed those who had gained the dragon's power fighting to defend the dragons against the regular humans

The Eleventh Showed the Weakened Dragons dispersing and completely disappearing

The Twelfth showed the conflict ending, And the land separating between regular humans, and those with the dragons power.

The Thirteenth and final marking showed an abundance of long, lizard like creatures with 4 legs and tails emerging up, and going towards the land of those who have the dragon's power.

Toshiko finished observing all of the drawings, and as he pieced the tale together and came to the realization of what was depicted, he couldn't help but think of it as anything but mere fiction. Despite that, it was quite the captivating story, managing to take Toshiko's mind off of the current situation he was in. By that time, his clothes had dried a bit more, but he could still hear the storm raging outside. It was starting to irritate him

"God dammit! When is this storm going to end?"

Just as he spoke the words, the loud sound of something snapping in half could be heard from behind him. Toshiko jumped, quickly turning around to see what the noise was. There was nothing. Nothing but a broken stick on the ground. a stick that had been burned. From the campfire? Toshiko had only brought the torch he made. That meant something. That meant that something or someone else was in there with him. Once Toshiko came to this realization that this was the case, He was already quick on the move, moving forward towards the wall of markings until he reached it, turned, and put his back against the wall. That was the best place to be if there was someone else in there with him. His torch allowed him to see about 5 meters in front of him. He had to stay attentive. His perception was decent, but for some reason, he couldn't sense his opponent. anywhere. Why was this? Toshiko didn't have time to think, as in the blink of an eye, his torch was knocked out of his hand as a flash came by his face full speed. He could barely even see it. All he knew was that his torch had been knocked to the ground, and then went out entirely. He was stunned for a moment, but then came back to his senses and opened his eyes. It was pitch black in the room now. he didn't have the light from the lightning and the moon to allow him a little insight on his surroundings. Shit. What could he do?

It angered him. He couldn't even rely on his senses at the moment. He felt vulnerable. He wanted it to anger him. He wanted to feel prideful in his moment of distress but he couldn't. all he could do was hope that he would be capable to anticipate the next movement. He couldn't just stand there in the dark. He had to take action. he was standing directly in front of the exit to the room, he knew this because he hadn't moved out of the path of the doorway since he got in the room. If he just went straight backwards, he'd be able to get to a safer place. He took a deep breath, And then did a single speed burst directly towards the door. as he was 5 meters from the door, he was met with a blunt strike to his face. The force behind it was so great that it made his eyes roll back in his head. He became immobile, fell to the ground hard, and almost immediately lost consciousness.

It was a weird feeling. It was simply experiencing nothing as time went by. Staying still and irrelevant as time goes by. Incapable of perceiving your surroundings, or being of any use. being unconscious was boring, and yet peaceful at the same time. It was weird. Toshiko kinda liked it. Though, he wouldn't remember he did when he woke up of course. It was just utter oblivion for a while. Or at least that's what it felt like.

"What are you doing? Kill him! You don't know what he is capable of! End his life before he wakes up and has the chance to kill us all!"

"I knocked him out in a single punch. I'm pretty sure that he won't be able to do much damage to all of us"

"Wait...... He's Waking up!"

Toshiko could hear the nameless voices of people who were all around him as he slowly came to. He opened his eyes, and looked around a bit. He saw the cave that he was in before he got knocked out, nothing but the ceiling. Where were those voices coming from though? Just his imagination? He sighed, and sat up. He wasn't prepared for what he saw. As he sat up, he came to stare at 50 other individuals staring right back at him. Toshiko didn't initially know how to react. He felt a bit scared, but also confused at the same time. All 50 of the people were strange looking. They all had blue, scaly skin, Blue Hair, And Red bloodshot eye pupils. There were two of the strange people directly in front of Toshiko. The one on the left Seemed to look angry and timid towards Toshiko, while the one on the right was quite nonchalant and calm.

"The intruder is awake!"

The calm one told the other to hush with a simple hand gesture, smiled, and then turned his attention to Toshiko before speaking.

"Who are you? I found you trespassing on our home"

Trespassing? He must've been the one who knocked toshiko out. Toshiko felt a small welt upon the right hand side of his head where he was struck. it throbbed a bit once he cringed.

"Wait.... I think there's been some misunderstanding. I wasn't trespassing. "

Toshiko intended to continue, but took a pause to grunt in pain over the wound on the right side of his head. Damn. This guy, whoever he was had gotten Toshiko good.

"Then what were you doing near our home? You were reading the sacred scripts! You've stolen our secrets! I say that we kill hi-"

"And i say that you shut up and give the trespasser a chance to explain himself."

The calm one stared at Toshiko with a slight grin upon his face.

"well? Who are you, and what were you doing in our cave? What you say next decides whether or not i slice you open right here."

Toshiko didn't know who he was dealing with. He didn't know these people, he didn't understand what they were, and he had no way of knowing how possibly dangerous or safe they could be. He couldn't take any chances. He was by himself. if they asked him to comply, he was on the grounds to do so.

"Okay. My Name Is Uzumaki, Toshiko. Special Jounin of the village hidden in the leaves. I was.... I was on a travel. Originally i was in the village of sunagakure, but then i was ordered to travel directly to kirigakure. I took a shortcut from iwagakure, went around kumo and headed for kiri. when i was halfway to the village. a bad storm hit. I found this cave near some ruins on accident and i just wandered into the room with those markings on the wall. I wasn't trying to intrude on you or hurt you or steal form you or anything. It was just on accident."

The nonchalant blue man was quiet for a few moments, taking time to take in the information that he had just received. the timid one who seemed to have it out for Toshiko wasn't buying it. Before he got the chance to speak, The other one said something.

"hmmmm...... i believe you...An uzumaki of the leaf village?Uzumaki have larger chakra pools than normal. Is that correct?

"Yes that's correct."

"Don't believe him! He's lying! He's come to our home to steal our ways of senjutsu! He wants our way of the dragon!!"

Way of the dragon? The markings on the wall. ... The story. Could they have been true? Were these people the descendants of those who learned the power of the dragon? What type of power was this? Toshiko wanted to know more than anything.

"Well. Is that True Mr. Uzumaki, Toshiko?"

"No. I swear. I didn't even know about it when i first came to this place. I swear. But please. If you don't mind me asking. What is senjutsu? What is the way of the dragon?"

The nonchalant blue man cracked a smile.

"Senjutsu is the way of nature. Those who have senjutsu are able to utilize chakra known as senjutsu chakra by becoming one with the world around them. Those of our clan have done so by learning the way of the Komodo dragon. He become one with the animal, and then become one with the rest of nature."

It sounded so strange, and yet so amazing. A power like that. To be one with the world around you sounded amazing to Toshiko.

The nonchalant man let the silence stick for a few more seconds, and then spoke.

"Uzumaki Toshiko. Would you like to learn it?"

Murmurs from the crowd of individuals from the clan sprung out over the area. the timid man became overfilled with rage at the thought of the idea.

"No! I refuse! An outsider can not learn the sacred ways of our clan!"

"Are you telling me you don't think it would be entertaining to witness? Be honest with yourself. If you don't think that he's worthy, we can get him to prove his worth. The pit."

Shocked gasps erupted throughout the members of the clan. Even the timid one was a little bit shocked when he had heard that.

"you may face him in the pit. If he lives, then we teach him the ways of senjutsu. If you win, you get to kill him. That is, if he agrees to all of this of course. Do you agree Uzumaki?"

Toshiko had to think about it. he ahd an opportunity to learn a new way of jutsu that would probably be one of the strongest things he could possibly obtain. It seemed like a good idea, but this thing called the pit. It sounded risky. Was it too risky? No. Toshiko had faith in his own abilities. He'd participate in it. It was worth the risk. Toshiko stared up at the nonchalant member of the clan.

"I want to learn! I want to learn the ways of the dragon! I will participate in this pit. I agree."

The nonchalant blue man began laughing as the timid one also cracked a smile of satisfaction.

Okay then. Let's get this over with. I'll drop him into the pit, and rip the head from his dead corpse."

The nonchalant one cracked a smile.

"we'll see. We'll see. Well we shouldn't be wasting time now! Let's take him to the pit."