Sweat dripped from Maikumaru’s dark skin. He wiped his brow. Boulders began to tumble at him. He clung to the mountains side, creating a strong grip that ripped into the earth, creating cracks beneath his fingers. He used his arms to swing himself further up the mountain. And straight at the boulder. With his fist, it crashed into the large rock, shattering it into pieces. He thought his experience among the mountains in Earth Country and Lightning Country would give him a leg up in this journey. But the mountains in mountain country were much more harsher than either of the two. Boulders were more frequent, and the ranges were outright ridiculous. But he powered through it with relative ease. As relative as it gets. Though he was the Tsuchikage, the council put it to him quite bluntly: he was a bit more on the weaker side than some of the Kage before him.Harichimo was known as one of the weaker Tsuchikage known to the council, while those before him, Karumo and even Tsuyo were able to achieve power beyond expectations. And so they relieved him of his paperwork for some time to focus on getting stronger. He has to be at a strong power. And he couldn't have agreed more. The Tsuchikage HAS to be able to stand against the most powerful Shinobi alive. He thought about his fight in the exhibitions of the Chunin Exams. He cringes at the thought. At his lost. His face hardened with determination. He slammed his hands into the side of the mountains, this time, his fist getting in deep enough to go up to his wrists. He opened his hands, ands slingshotted himself again, moving faster and farther up. He backhanded each of the boulders out of his path before reaching the top of the mountain. He knelt down in exhaustion. There was still much of a ways to go. He stood up and looked up. Before him was possibly the tallest mountain in The Land of Mountains. The mountain he was currently was easily dwarfed by the behemoth of a land structure.

Maikumaru decided to let himself rest. He sat down while on the top of the smaller mountain. He thought about his plans for the future. He was going to make more impressive power plays. There were a couple of ways that he could do this: he could either be diplomatic, or do it by force. Considering that Imai had already started to show his violent ways, and he had gained a large amount of allies, it was time for Maikumaru to go with the route that he was meant to go. It was time to bring about a new age for The Land of Earth. It was time to bring about the age of Warriors. He stood up. Maikumaru would have to get control of the Mercenaries Groups. He would want to integrate them fully into his plans. That wouldn’t be too hard. All he needed to do was get their leaders in line. Promise them a place in his plans. Maikumaru stood up. It didn’t matter. This was the ultimate opportunity. He clenched his fist. He was going to show the world what Earth Country is capable of. Not just Iwagakure, but all of The Land of Earth. He was going to bring about the age of Warriors. The Age of Victory. And Age of an Empire, Bound by the very Earth Itself. As his last thought came across his mind, his fist clenched and he knelt down. As he did so, the entire top of the mountain began to break and crumble. He was going to put a lot of chakra and a lot of his own strength into this jump. When he released himself from off the ground, he flew in the air at an unbelievable speed. He flew up in the air for a good minute before he saw the top. He didn’t feel himself slowing down. He reached out to the mountain, and buried his hand into it, causing rocks to fly everywhere in an effort to slow himself down. And then he reached to the near top. And then, he finally reached the top, the very top of the mountain was rather flat, leading him to believe that this was a volcano that had gone dormant long ago. He looked onward. The view was magnificent. He walked to the near edge. He let everything out of his mind. He let all his troubles, his ambitions, it all was suppressed. His body relaxed. He looked on the view. He saw the legion of mountains that gave The Land of Mountains it’s namesake. He took a deep sigh, and just enjoyed the view.

795 WC

“What the hell.”

Yukino had no control over her current predicament as she wiped the sweat from her brow. “I swear, I will kill them.” she said to herself under her breath. She found herself flush against the mountain she was currently clinging to for dear life.  Her hair was wild and unkempt with her clothes torn and dirty. The wind only made things worse as it continued to blow air in her face. “Damn it. Damn it!” she said to herself as she a took a moment to wave her hand around in an attempt to move the lactic acid around. Looking up, there were no immediate signs of respite, and she was too high to simply give up now. The mountain rumbled, though she ignored it and continued to climb.

Sweat droplets still found their way to her chin, and fell from  gravity exerting its ever present force. Her hand found another handhold as she strategically placed her feet and other hand in their own holds. As she climbed, she thought back to what her parents told her as they left her in the mountains to begin with. “This will help you advance to the next level. The faster you make it up to the top, the faster you get to come home.” She scoffed at their statement, though it was too late to voice her opinion on the matter now. “Even after already spending a week in the woods for no reason, they subject me to this! What the hell.” she breathed out, her focus split between her own anger and the mountain she was perched to.

Thirteen. Thirteen was how old she was. The standard age for most newly minted Genin, and yet, instead of doing some menial task that was called a D rank mission, she was here. Climbing, she was certain that most kids her age would’ve tapped out a long time ago. She herself wanted nothing more but to tap out. Her parents would never really know if she actually climbed the mountain or not, right? This may have easily been the case, however, something prevented Yukino from simply giving up. “They would probably say...it was my Will of Fire.” she choked out to herself as continued to climb. The blue eyed girl never liked to link her own determination to clan trait passed down from generation to generation. She didn’t know what to think in this case, in fact, she didn’t wasn’t thinking much at all at the moment.

The mountain rumbled again, though she was unable to tell the exact cause for it to do so. “An earthquake maybe? Just my luck.” she said to herself as she looked up once again. While she couldn’t necessarily see the top, she felt like she was getting close to her goal. Taking the time to shake her hand again, and wiping the sweat off on her shirt, she looked around at the mountain range. It was definitely a sight to behold. Looking like something a master painter would paint for his client. Or a picture a photographer would take to hang in his gallery. It was also here that she noticed how low the clouds hung. “No…” she began to say to herself. “I’m just..high up.” she said as she looked around, collecting her bearing for the first time.

Thinking about it now, she noticed how it was slightly harder for her to breath now due to the increase in altitude. The mountain once again shook, this time causing large boulders to fall from the spot they’ve sat in for tens of thousands of years. Without putting much thought into her actions, Yukino dodged the boulders using her superhuman speed. In comparison to an average girl her age, it would look as if she was teleporting around the mountain. While it was true that she could’ve done this much earlier, and may have even found herself on top of the mountain faster, moving at such speeds were taxing. She quickly found herself sucking in the thin air as she moved from perch to perch.

Not only was it hard to move at her full speed like this, it was hard to aim each leap so she could actually land on a perch. The mountain shook even more violently as she leapt up higher. “What is..going on?! Am I..causing this?” she said to herself in between in each burst of speed. Yukino could clearly see the peak of the mountain coming upon her as she dodged the large boulders that rained down upon her.  Soon enough however, she reached a point in which it was impossible for such large boulders to fall, being only a few meters shy of the peak. Even though she made it up here, she was sucking in a vast amount of air, though the quality couldn’t quite match up to her needs. The aforementioned Will of Fire reared its head, and was the only reason as to how Yukino was still able to move despite the conditions.

Her sweaty hand was the first to make contact with the top of the mountain, followed by her other hand. Her head slowly came into view as she pulled herself up, her core tight as she used it to assist her. Soon, her whole body was on top of the mountain, the sounds of her own heaving being the only thing she could hear. It was only now that she noticed her body was covered in sweat as she laid down on her belly. The moisture from her body creating a small pool beneath the parts of her body that wasn’t clothed.

Finding the strength, she pushed herself up on her elbows as her breaths began to steady out. Her head looked forward, opening her eyes for the first time since reaching the top. The blue eyed girl fully expected for herself to be the only thing on top of the mountain that day. Instead however, she found that there was another person with her. A dark skinned, muscled man who looked to be similar in age to her own parents if not slightly younger. One thing was immediately clear to her, this man was vastly stronger than herself. The air around him was oddly similar to that of the Lord Hokage, though Yukino couldn’t tell why. Making no moves, she simply looked at the man wide eyed before finding her voice; her nervousness and discomfort incredibly clear.

“Uuuuh, Hello?”

WC: 1,093

Maikumaru turned around. He was aware that many Shinobi would make an attempt to have a pilgrimage among these mountains. But he didn’t expect to see anyone else through these vast mountains. Maikumaru turned back around. It was no surprise. He was in the presence of another shinobi. He felt his blood boil. His demeanor, his outer appearance was the eye of the raging storm that was inside him. “We are shinobi. We fight. That is our duty. Our solemn duty.” He clenched his fist and sharpened his eyes. “A lot of shinobi come here. Looking for something. Either for the physical or the spiritual, they come through here. But regardless of why the come here, one thing is known for sure: they are warriors. We...are warriors.” Maikumaru fully turned around. He towered over the young one before him. The wind around them blew slightly stronger. It only frustrated his insatiable need for a fight. “As Shinobi. As warriors, we all have a way of expressing ourselves in our craft. Only through combat do shinobi show their true natures. They show their cowardice. Their rage. Their intellect. Their work ethic. Their souls.”

“I don’t know who you are. And from the looks of it, you don’t know who I am either. And I think it's time for us to be properly acquainted. The only way real Shinobi know how.” Clouds began to form, infecting the sky with their darkness. Maikumaru held out his hand. In the middle of his palm he felt a small sprinkle of water. He looked at the spec in his hand. He felt more drops assault his body. For now it had began to drizzle. But only a few seconds in, the clouds started to unleash a downpour. “Now this is more like it.” He grabbed a hold of his tank top, and tore it off his body. He threw the cloth aside. He separated his legs evenly, and kept his fists low, his chest facing her, breaking into his signature brawling stance. He tightened his fists, hearing the cracking of his own knuckles as he did so.

He was about to show this young shinobi who Maikumaru was. Maikumaru was headstrong. He was relentless, brash. The way he fought was an expression of his sometimes vulgarity. When he was younger, he was full of reckless abandon. He attacked relentlessly, and had little to no defense in his form. But as he got older, he got smarter. While he is still retains his relentless nature, he has grown to utilize and appreciate intelligent and primitive and reactive defensive tactics that would allow him to perform his melee style Taijutsu. It was a testimate to show how much he had grown as a person.

He rushed towards the Shinobi, full speed. Maik was a simple man, he wasn’t sure how weak or how strong she was. He was risking a lot by potentially underestimating her, but at the same time, he could alleviate any damage she could probably do. His fist rushed for the center of her abdomen. He was going to place less force into the initial impact. The attack would be more of a huge push off the mountain side. Weather the result may be, he would call out to here. “Tell me. What is your name?”

558/1353 WC