Lord Buma, a master of the Order of the White Lotus, has lost contact with us entirely after one distress message. Use your messenger hawk to locate Buma's manor in the Land of Lightning and help him out in whatever way you can.

- Professor Ivan

This was the message that Kashizudoto read as his eyes glossed over the paper. He had just trained his messenger hawk, who he had dubbed "Hawky", to fight in battle, something that Professor Ivan had laughed at, as no one had done something as ludicrous as that before. They had been out in the Valley of the Mountains for their third week of continuous training when Ivan's messenger hawk had tracked them down to inform Kashizudoto of his first assignment as a member of the Order of the White Lotus.

Luckily for Kashizudoto, the Order of the White Lotus accustomed all of their messenger hawks to the scents of all five masters of the Order. Therefore, Kashizudoto simply released the bird into the skies and started following it, trekking through the rocky terrain of the Land of Earth while the hawk flew through the air to track down this "Lord Buma".

While traveling through the dangerous Iwa wilds, he could only wonder what would cause someone with the rank of "Master" within the organization to completely lose contact. Whatever was the situation, it must've been extremely tough. The letter also mentioned that Buma had a manor; perhaps some maleficent force had the manor surrounded? Perhaps there was a natural disaster? The details were murky.

Eventually, they reached a nearby town; upon seeing it, Hawky swooped onto Kashizudoto's shoulder and screeched. Yep, the hawk needed some rest after so much flying. The tokubetsu jonin knew that the life of the man known as Lord Buma was likely in danger, so he found a map at the town hall. Apparently, the town was located near Iwa's port city on Aisu Bay. Rather than wasting time travelling to the Land of Lightning on foot, having to trek through the minor lands of Waterfall, Iron, Rice, Hot Springs, and Frost, each presenting their own inherent risks and delays to the journey, Kashizudoto decided that it would be best for Hawky and him to board a ship at the nearby port city that would sail from Aisu Bay through the waters of the Land of Snow to a port at Gaikotsu Bay in the Land of Lightning. Indeed, the two did so, arriving within a few days of plentiful rest and decent food. When it came to luxury, the tokubetsu jonin was a simple guy and didn't demand much of his food and living quarters, so the arrangements on-board the ship left him satisfied. Anyway, he had too much worry about this "Lord Buma" to care about pleasantries; he spent the days on the ship trying to get all the sleep that he could so that he wouldn't end up in the Land of Lightning as he had in the Land of Earth, especially on such an important task as this.

Once they got off the ship, the hawk flew off into the cloudy skies, presumably in the direction of Buma's manor, with the tokubetsu jonin following close behind; as a result of the training that they had in the Valley of the Mountains, the hawk was actually a little bit faster than the shinobi who trained him! However, after a few hours, the hawk's pace slowed tremendously as he decreased his altitude in the sky. This must have been the destination.

WC: 602

[Exit]

Travel: 600/600