Iyata ever since learning from Kaguza Sensei about how to use a sword in combat she had been wanting to find something new besides the traditional Kenjutsu that she had learned fron Kaguza. She had been scouring the village left and right looking for a master of an opposing art that she liked and was finding that she was having a hard time. She knew that Ayakashi and Strafe knew different styles but they were busy individuals and because of that did not want to bother them with her petty want to further her knowledge. Besides she had a odd way about her wanting to seek out knowledge and expertise on her own and under her own conditions. As she has progressed from Genin to Jounin she had many trials that were laid out for her, none of which she could of overcome had it not been for the teachings of Kaguza Sensei. But she was a odd woman that for whatever reason felt it best to learn the hard way about things. She had remembered her father speaking of a man in the center of the village that as a child he would go watch practice his sword and shield technique with the younger Chuunin of the village. She would listen to her father for hours talk about how wonderful the man was with his craft that how fluid he could move his shield and sword together as if they were but a single weapon. It was this skill that she wanted to harness for herself and learn to be able to wield something together with her weapon to make it as one. She remembered these memories fondly because it was a one and off situation that her father and herself could sit down and have a civilized discussion on a topic not dealing with the medical trade that her mother had performed in so well for so many years.

Iyata had disappointed with her parents when she had told them that she did not want to follow in her mothers footsteps, she wanted to be a warrior and healing people was not part of being a warrior for her. It was not because she found the trade to be beneath her, the exact opposite she did not want the pressure of having someone’s life literally hanging in the balance and dependent on whether or not she could before the surgery required for her to save a mans life. So she took the opposite route as a young child and took to liking the way of the sword, she hardly received much encouragement from her peers seeing her as a women and not strong enough to wield a blade but she wanted to prove them wrong just as she would prove her parents wrong when all was said and done. She would prove to everyone that she would be just as good as the Bloody Seven from days old and would one day be able to lift up the sword of the seven and take her rightful place in the history books as one of the Legendary Seven. That was her goal and no one no matter how strong they were no matter how much she loved them no matter how pointed that they could make the argument would ever detour her from that dream. She promised herself long ago that when the chips fell that she would rise above the naysayers and doubtful and look among them and say I did it. No one was going to take that away from her, she needed to prove to herself that she was capable of getting whatever she wanted through hard work and perseverance.

So this is where she stood on the subject and would not dwell on it any longer her mind had been made up and she would move onward to the end result. Iyata found herself standing in the middle of the city and looked around for the man with sword and shield and was having a hard time being able to find him. She remembered her father describing him in detail but the looks to which he must of remembered had long been touched with age, so she was honestly looking for an old man that she did not have a single way to be able to identify him to someone to help her in her search. She walked around the city for what seemed hours with absolutely no success she found it frustrating because ultimately this man was one of the few people that would be able to teach her swordsmanship. She sighed softly getting frustrated at the constant walking and searching. She took a seat at one of the local ramen shops to grab a bite to eat. She looked at the cook as she took her seat down at the bar just inside the establishment.

“Welcome young Aisu…” the cook greeted her. Iyata blinked softly that he knew her family but realized that she was wearing the clan crest on her chest right above her heart on her training garment and felt less paranoid by knowing that. Iyata smiled and bowed her head to the cook and placed her order. As she waited for the order to be made she turned her ear to those around her listening for a mentioning of the old man that she sought out. She knew it would be a long shot but she also knew that a man with as much reverence as the man in her fathers story he had to be well known by someone. She was also told at a young age that the best way to find out information was listen to the old timers in her village. They were a wealth of knowledge and information that was not readily known, as they all liked to gossip more then women do. She came to the conclusion as to the reason that was, is that they had reached a point in their life where they did not care any longer about what they said, where it was said and to whom it was said to. They had lived their lives conducting themselves with poise and reserve that at some point they just lost the use of their natural born filter.

Her food arrived and she smiled grateful to the cook and grabbed up her chopsticks and dove into it with gusto. She spent a good ten minutes focusing on solely her food when something came to her attention, a group of men in the back mumbled something between the two. Typically she would not of cared much about it but she was curious, she took her bowl from the bar and scooted herself further into the back of the small restaurant and took up a seat a few down from the old men and listened intently keeping her gaze down at her food and just listened.

“Did you hear that Seto came back?”

“No I did not, what brings that old swordswinger back to town? I should probably go say my hello’s”

“I don’t know, I just heard the rumor he has returned back to the village…”He took a long draw on his pipe and blew a small thin stream of smoke from his lips. “But Good luck finding him, I heard he is somewhere outside the city holed up in a cave somewhere…least that is what I heard.” The old man chuckled.

“Really…”The other man smirked softly and shook his head, “Gensa your senile. Why would Seto be holed up in a cave somewhere, he is a very well embraced hero to the village.” The other man shook his head gently, “Apparently his granddaughter was killed… no one knows how or why, but Seto has taken it pretty hard. Last he was seen was in the forest wandering aimlessly, you know the one just outside the village.”

Iyata tuned everything else out the old men had to say she quickly finished her bowl of ramen and ran outside the building, it was the one and only lead she had at this point and she had planned on making sure that she followed up on it. She quickly made her way out of the village and took off running towards the large forest that was just outside the village. As she entered the forest she took care to remember that there was beasts that roamed the area looking to pray upon individuals such as herself, but she was not afraid she was elated because she finally had the tip that she had been looking for and was going to finally locate that old hermit and find out what he knew and what he could teach her. The only problem that stood in her way at this particular moment was how was she to know that this old man that she was tearing up the forest looking for the correct man. In hind sight she really did not know, but she had to take believe.

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To be Continued….

[Training: Bukijutsu Sub Spec: Swordsmanship | 1506/1500]

Iyata touched down about a 3 miles into the forest and swampland and took to a clearing that she would be able to take a seat and rest her aching muscles. She took the moment gratefully and believed she had made good progress for the movement that she had made from the village to her current location. She closed her eyes gently and smiled warmly, the excitement from being able to locate and hopefully coax the old man she was chasing after to teach her in the art of swordsmanship. She looked down near her feet and saw the water from the area of a small spring bubbling gently, she sniffed the air gently and smelt the sulfur and got excited. She had found a natural hot spring. She carefully eased her shoes off her feet and laid them gently into the water and began to soak the muscle and bones gingerly of her feet and ankles in the nice hot water. She breathed a sigh of relief as she could literally feel the ache and soreness wash away with the water. She decided to spend a few more moments soaking her aching feet before getting back underway. She once more placed her shoes back on her feet and stood up, once more making her way towards the promise land. She was quick to look around a moment before taking herself and running into the forest once more. She leapt from tree to tree running the gauntlet as it were. She was running out of time before she would not be able to continue on with this training, she had been given a small bit of leave to go away during her duties as a newly christened Jounin and was told that she could go in search of this hermit.

It did not take long to find a trail that had been travelled more than once, she found that it did not bare any sign of animal but it was human made. She was cautious because in this landscape it would not take much for her to play directly into an ambush which would ultimately result in her being attacked. She ran a hand along the tracks and nodded her head gently to herself getting herself ready for what laid ahead. She quietly and nimbly made her way along the path coming to a fork in the read, she looked to the left and the right trying to gauge which way she should take, she ultimately suspected that they both arrived at or near the same location. However she was intelligent enough to realize that there was a reason there was two paths instead of one. Her luck would be that the opposite path would be dangerous while the other would be safe… or the entire thing would just be dangerous and at this point she would die. She laughed softly as her mind was spinning tales in her head and once again she was getting ahead of herself, so caught up in what may or may not be that she was forgetting what needed to do and, what needed to be at this time was her to locate this mentor. She took a educated guess at which path would provide her the best opportunity and she took the right side of the pathway leading up towards some of the hills that were in the distance. Once more adopting a stealth like process she began to make her way up the pathway placing one hand on the blade which hung at her side, she was not about to get caught unaware.

After what had seemed like hours she was able to part the foliage of a low hanging tree and spy a small clearing with a cave in the distance. She had not run into any trouble on the way up and was grateful that she still would not receive much trouble, at least that was what she had hoped for. She walked through the parting of the trees that she had made and stood within the clearing. The signs around showed definitely habitation, she saw small tools laying around some were old and derelict the others looked freshly made or purchased. Her hopes began to soar that maybe she had in fact found the man she had sought after. As she walked further into the clearing she called out to the area around her.

“Hello!” She called out, she heard the return of her own voice echoing off the hills and mountain background. “Hellooo…Helloooooo….helloooooooo” She frowned softly and sighed gently. She stepped closer inching towards the cave not wanting to just blindly rush into someone’s dwelling. She stopped a few meters away from the entrance and gave another shout only to return with her voice coming back at her. At this point she would have to guess that the man she was looking for may not be in this morning. She would only guess that he was probably about in the forest and swamp area. She sighed softly and turned her back to the cave entrance a moment to look around. She was not interested in resting she still had to find this man, but her own exhaustion was beginning to take over and she knew that if she was to be accepted as this mans pupil to learn the ways of swordsmanship she would need to rest. It was then that she decided to rest her back against the wall of the cave on the outside and close her eyes…just for a minute to gather her strength once more.

Iyata ran down around the corner and saw a ghastly figure rise up from the ground before her, without taking the image into her brain she quickly skidding to a halt took a sharp right running down the entire length of the alleyway jumping over a garbage can and once more breaking out into the main street. She looked up in horror at the massive fires that erupted all over Kiri, tears swelled in her eyes dropping down to the ground beneath her. She turned and looked upward once more to see the ghastly figure approaching her like a poltergeist from the air threatening to consume her in the darkness that was his body.

Iyata quickly spun around and continued to run down the main street looking around frantically for anyone that would help her, they needed to fight in such a worse way. They needed to defend their home and kill the invaders and the quicker they were about doing that the quicker life could return to normal. Iyata looked into the distance and witnessed a sight that brought chills to her very core, The Mizukage’s head was mounted on a pike including all the Sannin and strongest Shinobi of her village. Near the Mizukage was Kaguza-Sensei’s head displaying a horrific scene. Iyata dropped to the ground wrapping her arms around herself in the middle of the street, her face twisted and distorted in pain and sadness tears streaming down her face.

The darkness quickly descended around her wrapping the cloak of darkness around her.

She was consciously aware that she was dreaming at this point and realized that she needed to wake herself up. But she did not know to what end did she keep having this dream over and over again. It proved not purpose nor did it tell her anything, even now as she was watching it like she was watching some story play out by actors did it tell her what needed to occur. It was then she felt something poke her arm she turned to look seeing nothing there, she frowned gently as she was poked again by some phantasmal anomaly. She suddenly felt the world shift sideways and she began to fall. She spiraled down and down into the darkness until suddenly she was met with a solid ground beneath her as she hit it…light appeared once more.

She opened her eyes as she looked at the ground her head rested on, the blur from sleep had glazed over her eyes as she searched to find the source that had pushed her over. Her eyes began to adjust and focus to see a older man with a white beard standing over her with a large stick in his hand. She grunted softly and slowly sat back upward and rested the back of her head once more against the rocky cave and looked up at the man the sunshine from above blinding her just enough for her to raise her hand above her brow to block the light from scolding her eyes. She looked at the man in front of her “I’m sorry…I must of fallen asleep…”she muttered tiredly. The old man said nothing just poked her with his stick softly, as if to check that she was in fact real. She sighed softly as the man pushed her with his stick. “Yes I am real…”She mumbled gently and went to stand up bracing herself against the cave wall. She was much more tired than she had originally thought, the man sensing this about her looked at her for a moment longer then shook his head his wild mane of white hair tossing everywhere. He lifted his stick up and motioned with it to the cave, he placed the stick once more tip down to the ground and walked into the cave. Iyata called after him, “Do you want me to come inside?” She asked, but the man did not respond and merely receded deep within the cave and disappeared from sight. Iyata frowned softly and looked around a moment or two but then decided to follow the old man into the cave.

Normally she would never follow a man she did not know into a cave, however she was sure that this old man would not pose a threat to her. As she entered the cave and looked over the walls she saw brilliant pictures carved directly into the wall that spanned what seemed like forever in one large picture. She smiled softly very impressed with the detail of this picture she slowly walked down the cave following the old man as he held a small lantern in his hand leading the way, “Did you make these?” She asked. But once more the man did not respond to her, Iyata pushed the urge to feel insulted aside…what was she not good enough to have a conversation with. It was these thoughts that made her feel angry towards the old man. She however could not care less she was simply fascinated by the picture she was looking at. It was not long before the cave widened out into a small chamber which was furnished with a few beds and a large table with a few accenting chairs. In the distance was a small chest which was locked securely. On the table was an assortment of scrolls and pens and ink which she would assume was his writings or journal. In the very back of the cave a long a wall stood a large scroll holder filled with different sizes and colors of scrolls some looked ancient others looked relatively new. She was impressed at the collection this old man had amassed out here in the wilderness. She looked back to the old man as he motioned with his stick at one of the chairs. She obliged the man and took a seat at the large table sitting down. She walked over to a small fire place that apparently he had put into the side of the hill and started a fire. As smoke rose up a small vent type system that he had carved out of stone. She was truly impressed with this old man he had such skill. He placed the lantern he was holding on a small desk nearest what she would assume was his bed and turned it off before walking back over to the table she sat at. As the light from the fireplace engulfed the area in a yellow light she felt more at home at this moment it was nice and warm and surprisingly enough inviting.

He walked over to a small pot of stew and dished some up into a bowl and made his way back over to Iyata and placed the bowl down in front of her. She looked at it a moment before returning her attention to the man, he motioned with his head that she was to eat it. She obliged silently with a nod of her head and began to partake of the food. She looked up at the old man as he watched Iyata eat in silence. She found it very odd that the man would not speak to her in the least, she was use to silent treatment while at home but out in the world she was not use to it and quite honestly it was enough to set her on edge. She looked back down into her wooden bowl and continued to shovel the delicious stew into her mouth and chew it, she had not realized how hungry she was, she could taste all the subtle ingredients such as carrots and celery and the potatoes oh the potatoes were amazing. She chewed on the meat option of the stew and thought possibly veal. As Iyata finished the bowl the old man was attentive to her and grabbed the bowl from in front of her and whisked it away and brought her a small loaf of bread. He once more took up his position at the opposite side of the table and just sat there on his perch watching her intently. She was officially starting to get freaked out by the old man, she was trying to figure out what his deal was.

“So do you speak?” she asked softly, the old man nodded his head gently but once more said nothing to her. She stared at him directly and lifted the bread up from her plate and took a bite out of it trying to figure out this man. She could not help but find that her frustration with the old man was growing further and further, “Look why are you not talking to me? instead you are just staring at me.” She expressed exasperated at the man. If she did not know better she could sense that he was humored by her outburst. Iyata sighed softly and finished off the loaf of bread and placed her hands into her lap she closed her eyes softly trying to center herself. “Sir..I am looking for an old man that goes by the name of Seto. He was once known as the most powerful swordsmen within Kiri. His style of swordsmanship was renown through kiri with such high regard.” The man starred at Iyata a moment before opening his mouth to finally speak.

“Child, I know of this man you call Seto. I have known him many years however I am said to say that the man you are looking for no longer lives..” Iyata blinked softly had to gasp for air as she felt like all the breath in her chest had been taken from her lungs by those simple words. Iyata suddenly hung her head gently in disbelief, “I have travelled so far and to what? Come up empty, damn it…I do not know of anyone else to ask to teach me those techniques…I expect to learn from the best, that is why I came all this way. I am the student of Kaguza the Captain of the Seven Swords of the Bloody Mist.” She said softly more for her own reassurance that this entire thing was not futile. She gathered her composure as the man allowed her to vent her frustrations. She looked up at the man and smiled weakly, “Well…if Seto is no longer among the living I fear I have wasted my time, and sadly enough your time as well sir. I thank you for the meal but I must search for someone else.” She said softly pushing herself up from the table. She turned to the man and bowed her head respectfully to the man and turned on her heel and walked down the cavern hallway.

The old man watched Iyata walk away and struggled slightly within himself and he shook his head forcibly and looked over to the locked chest over by his bed and frowned softly. He pushed himself up on the stick and walked after Iyata. As Iyata walked out of the cave and began to walk towards the trees that she walked through to come to the clearing she heard the old man behind her call out to her.

“Child..stop for a moment please.”He asked softly. Iyata obeyed the old man and stopped walking and turned around to look at the man wiping a tear from her eye hiding the movement by brushing strands of hair out of her face. The man approached her hobbling on the stick gently and looked up at Iyata before speaking, “Why do you want to learn what Seto know’s?” He asked softly. Iyata shrugged her shoulders softly, “Not that it matters much now, but I wanted to learn what he could teach me to help protect those around me. I know how to wield a sword but the art of being able to wield a sword and shield is lost on me…they said that when Seto fought it was like watching a masterpiece be crafted from granite or other hard stone…it was perfect each and every time.” Iyata finished softly. The man looked at her softly a moment before smiling to her gently. “I shall tell you what child, I know something that Seto had entrusted to me. If you can successfully complete a task for me I will be more than happy to share it with you, whatever it is.” He said softly to Iyata. Iyata smiled warmly and looked at the old man, she nodded her head softly. “I will be more than happy to take on any task that you need sir…what is the task that you need completed?” She asked softly allowing her excitement to boil to the surface. The old man chuckled softly and shook his head at her eagerness, she did not even know what the task was that he spoke of but she spoke with conviction and he could appreciate that.

He turned and pointed to the tallest mountain in the mountain range, “I want you to go to the top of that mountain range and pick from the Gouza tree a fruit that is purple and has fine blue fuzz. I will use this fruit for a poultice that I am currently working on. I am however much to old to be climbing mountains. Do you accept this task?” He asked her softly. Iyata looked up at the mountain range and blinked softly that surely was a long trek to undertake she whistled softly at how high up that mountain looked in the distance, she knew it would be much bigger once she actually got closer to it. Iyata turned and looked to the man and with a nod of her head she spoke softly, “I will fetch this fruit…”She said softly. She turned to take off after the fabled fruit. But the old man held out a stick blocking her path. She turned and looked at the old man expectantly. He merely smiled at her softly and inclined his head back to the cave…”In the morning you eager child.” He said softly as he turned around and began walking back into the cave, “You must conserve your strength and rest before such an undertaking my young child.”He said softly and hobbled back into the cave. She blinked softly and found herself eager to want to take on the task but knew that he was correct, she had no idea what she was going into face and therefore needed as much of her strength as she could muster to take it on. She took his recommendation and turned around in her steps and walked back towards the cave.

Iyata sat down inside the cave as the man prepared the bed across the room from his and indicated to her that, that was where she would be sleeping tonight. She looked at the man grateful for his hospitality and bowed her head to him. She walked over to the fire as it was still too early to call it a night and sat down in front of the fireplace and placed her hands up warming them softly by the fire. She felt the old man looking at her from the distance but when she glanced over her shoulder she had found the man tending or working on something or other not paying her any attention. She gave herself a mental shrug as apparently his odd ways had caused her to become slightly paranoid. She walked along the scroll case and looked at all the scrolls in the nice and neat rolled up form. “There is a lot of these here…”She said softly. The old man not stopping what he was doing smiled softly and nodded his head, “Indeed there are, those are mostly a collection that I have picked up from my travels, however a good bit of those are written by myself. Ya know when you are by yourself for so long you have a lot of things to think about, and in my age those things you think about have a tendency to slip your mind just as quickly as they come so I commit them to paper before they are lost once more.” He said softly running a few strands of leather into a pair of clothes he was mending. Iyata looked back at the man and smiled softly, she allowed herself to walk over to see what he was working on before walking back over to her bed. She sat down softly and laid out on the bed, she smiled softly it was nice and soft. “Sir, you said that you knew Seto right?” she asked softly and thought about something. “What was he like?” She asked curious about the man that was known for such things as he was. The man did not stop a single stich, “Well Seto was a down right fool at times, he was stubborn and allowed it to get the better of him most of the time. An when he was not letting it get the better of him he was too busy teaching people on how to improve his craft and study beyond what his limitations were.” He said somewhat with hostility. Iyata picked up the tone of his voice and decided it would be best to leave it at that, however the old man continued on.

“He was a good man in the end though at least that’s what I hope others saw, he loved his family and would not want more than to make sure they were happy. It was a real sad day when he found out his granddaughter had passed away…I believe a piece of him died that night.” He said softly and turned to look over at Iyata to make the comment that she herself looked similar to Seto’s Granddaughter, however he was pleased to find that she had completely passed out. The old man chuckled softly and stood up using his walking can/stick and made his way over to the young girl and pulled the blankets up over her covering her body curled into a ball. He gazed at Iyata for a moment or two before patting her softly on the top of her head and walked back to his seat, and sat down picking up his mending once more. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly hoping that the young girl was what he thought she was and by the looks of her she was.

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To be continued
[Training Bukijutsu C>B: 4030 /4000 ]

Iyata awoke early in the morning to see that the old man was already up and gone. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes slowly and sit upright in the bed. She stretched her arms outward and up allowing her muscles to work out the kinks she was feeling this morning. She stepped out of the bed and reached down grabbing her shoes she knew she had a long day ahead of her and walked over to the table, she saw a small bundle wrapped up tightly and a small note attached to it. She read the note silently to herself it was from the old man telling her to be careful. She smiled and folded the note and stuck it in her pocket and reached over peeking into the bundle seeing the food she was very grateful to the old man she took the food bundle and walked over to her small pack and placed it inside the knapsack and closed it up once more. She grabbed hold of her bag and swung it around placing it on her shoulders and turning and began to walk out of the cave. She looked up into the sky and saw the sun barely peaking out in the distance, she smiled softly and took a breath of chilled air into her lungs. She absolutely loved this time of the day it was cold and beautiful, and typically no one was up and around at this hour so she use to use this time to walk among the village and see the village from a uninterrupted point of view. She turned her attention to the distance of the large mountain that laid in the distance. She knew that it would challenge her entire being to grab that piece of fruit but ultimately she had no other choice she had to make her way up that thing and retrieve the fruit in order to learn what the old man had stored for Seto.
Iyata set out towards the mountain, she walked the distance between her and the route that she had seen the day before that led along the side of the hill the old man lived in which would wrap around the hillside and up towards the mountain range. As walked slowly along the trail allowing her eyes to trail off and into the distance looking at the rich forest and swamp land below as she began to ascend up towards the mountain range. She smiled softly as she saw the animals and birds of prey out in the early morning looking for their breakfast, she took a particular interest in one of the birds of prey she watched it drifting along the air currents around the mountain side she smiled softly at the majestic creature. She wondered idly what it would be like to be able to fly around the mountain free of expectations and duty, just doing what came natural to you and just survive. She turned her attention regrettably back to her task and began the long trek up the hillside. What seemed like days but was truly only a few hours based on the position of the sun above she reached the base of the mountain she needed to make her way up. She looked up high and higher into the air gauging the mountainside for any possible path upward. She frowned softly as nothing looked appropriate for tackling this quest, she sighed softly and found that she was finding herself more and more frustrated because there was literally no clear way to tackle this mountain to achieve her goal.

Seeing absolutely no way to get up the mountain from her current position she was forced to continue down the path she was walking down in hopes that it would wrap around the mountain and lead to a more plausible route for her to take. She shifted her knapsack on her shoulder and once more pushed onward into the jungle. She walked for another few miles before taking a rest inside a dense forest she walked slowly to a low hanging branch that resembled closely a trunk that dipped down through the trees and touched the ground, she placed her bag against the low hanging limb and walked over to a small river bed that ran the length of the forest and knelt down softly she ran her hand underneath the water a moment and smiled softly as she did not detect any sort of harmful bacteria and cupped her hands in the water bringing it up to her lips to drink from them. She tossed the left over water back into the riverbed and took a minute to rest. She suddenly felt like she was being watched, she turned her attention around scanning the surrounding area and was not able to see anything or anyone watching her. She frowned softly and waited a moment more before reaching her hand down and gripping the hilt of her blade that she had suspended on her hip. Something lightning fast came out from the trees above Iyata attempting to take her by surprise. The body attempted to slam her to the ground but to his dismay as gravity brought him down, Iyata was aware of it. Pressing the button located on her hilt and using a bit of Chakra with the button engaged the blade shot backward inside the hilt and as she leaned forward arching the hilt of her blade backward. In a matter of seconds the man impaled himself on the blade of her sword. She stood up slowly holding onto the hilt of the blade and turned around looking at the man who stood now in front of her. The frown on her face deepened further in anger and disappointment. “Did you honestly believe that you could ambush someone like myself and NOT be heard?” She asked softly. The man’s eyes widened in shock and gear gasped and gurgled on the blood his body was producing as she had been successful to impale him straight through his lung. His only choice was to cough up the blood that was collecting in his lungs.
“I…i…i…Was merely a distraction….” He gasped outward. It was at that time that Iyata was made aware of the others lurking in the forest. She ripped the blade out from the mans chest cavity slinging blood onto the ground around her. The man fell to the ground in a heep and she looked around, she was able to count a handful of sounds that were not normal of a forest. She sighed softly, apparently these people did in fact mean business, she quickly had to gather her thoughts she was easily out numbered but that did not mean she was outmatched, if the man that was laying on the ground gasping for his life was any sort of indication of their skill level she had the upper hand by a large margin. She decided that she would stand her ground for the time being, “Stop hiding…I am not a big fan of games…”She stated firmly. It was no sooner said that they all leaped from the trees as if a gang of monkies. She smirked softly and would not allow them to take the advantage of her, she leaped into the air and meet with the person she saw as the leader as she neared the man he brought up a sword in which impacted with hers in a blocking maneuver. She looked at him eye to eye for a moment, it was said that you could gauge a mans talent by the resolve of their eyes. This mans resolve was not more powerful than her own, it was at that exact moment that she knew she had the battle with this man. She quickly flipped her foot upward and caught the man in the stomach and off guard he went flying backward and collided with a tree and plummeted the rest of the way down to the ground.
Iyata landed on the ground and quickly decided that she needed her secondary sword, she quickly reached down with her freehand and was able to free the Katana from its sheath but not before one of the little bastard was able to catch her in the shoulder with a kick. She winced he pain as the attack connected with her shoulder, she spun around bringing the hilt of the sword around and nailing him square in the face, in reaction to the attack he reached up clutching his face as blood began to pour from his nose. Still in the rotation she kicked the man square in the stomach sending him cascading backward onto the ground into a pile, she ran forward deciding to play offensively and met up with another unsuspecting and began to exchange blade with blade as he two possessed two swords at his disposal, she was keeping track of the others that had gone to assist their fallen comrades but quickly turned around to intercept her. She frowned heavily and turned her attention back to the man, she quickly disengaged her swords with the man and made a efficient swiping motion forming and X with her swords and swiping outward and down taking him out at the legs, as he fell forward she quickly thrust her knee up and forward catching the man in the chin with her knee in the process she jumped forward over the man and began to block and glance the swords from his comrades left and right. She grunted with each impact and looked over the shoulder of the man she was engaged with and saw that they were drawing her aware from her knapsack. She wondered for a brief moment if that had been there plan to draw her away so they could steal her goods.

She quickly realized she needed to get back to her goods or she would literally be screwed over for her mission. She was able to dodge one of the mans strikes and slammed both swords at the flats into the mans stomach and ducked underneath him with her speed and shot out the opposite side and began to make a dead run back towards her knapsack. She ran as quickly as her feet would take her and saw the small area she was in previously coming back into focus, it looked as if her suspicions were merited she saw the man she had sent into the tree in the beginning reaching down to grab ahold of her knapsack. He turned and looked at Iyata with a sly grin on his face, she cursed herself for not realizing it sooner. This had never been anything but a robbery, Curses..Curses… she knew that Kaguza would be spitting rage at her right now for how she made such an error in judgment. She made sure to file this away as a situation that she would not talk to Kaguza about. She quickly closed the distance between herself and the man, however she quickly realized that something had changed in his eyes. He was intent to not allow her to keep the bag, she quickly met her with just the amount of speed to make it seem that she had been standing still. He caught her square in the jaw and caused her to tumble backward dropping her Katana on the ground as she slid along the ground into one of the tree trunks causing the opposite of the tree to explode outward on impact. The tree toppled to the ground with a loud creek and snap followed by a deafening crash. Iyata winced visibly injured by the attack, she had been setup from the very beginning and she was beginning to realize how bad she had fucked up. She pushed herself upward and glared at the man. He merely smiled at her and decided that in his heart of hearts he would give her a fighting chance to reclaim her bag and waved her forward.

That was the biggest mistake he could of made, he should of taken his prize and left but instead he allowed the Aisu to attack him…sheer stupidity. She launched herself from her position and ran forward but stopping just before him and slapped her hands onto the ground in tandem the ground beneath the man erupted as chains made of solid ice coiled out of the ground and snared the man anchoring him down to the ground. Iyata knew that it had taken the man by surprise, he struggled against the chains and growled with rage, Iyata cleared the rest of the distance between him and her. The man suddenly did something that she was not expecting lightning erupted from his hands and coursed down the length of the chains causing them to rupture and crack, in the same motion he used his strength and was able to shatter the chains entirely as he met with her in direct combat. He slammed another series of fist towards her, she was able to get her blade up fast enough to block the series of punches with the blade of her blade. However the impact from each strike caused the blade to ring out much like connection with another source of steel would sound. She suddenly wished she had some back up, she could sense the other henchman of his group becoming more situational aware of what was going on and knew that they would be making their presences known real quickly. She had to end this and quickly before his reinforcements arrived, She quickly threw her hand forward in doing so attached a chakra string to the bag that was currently in his possession. In doing this she quickly ducked behind him and spun around inhaling a deep breath and blew a shockingly strong stream of wind from her lips hitting the man square in the back causing him to fly forward. In the same movement she yanked back on the the string pulling the bag from his grasp. As the bag flew back to its owner she quickly took off into the forests. She could hear the commotion between the supposed leader and his people before they made a joint effort to pursue her.

She took off like a shot dodging in and around the tree limps attempting to put as much distance between herself and the bandits as she could. She kept her eyes ahead of her and her ears alert, as she led the group further into the forest. She reached into the bag as she travelled and made sure that everything that she had left with was still present in the knapsack and she was relieved to find that it was in fact in tact that he had not the opportunity to take anything out of it. She removed her hand out of the sack and continued to take off like a bat out of hell she had no idea which direction she was heading in but knew at this particular moment where she was headed was not as important as putting distance between herself and those people. It was suddenly that she realized she had left her Katana back in the glade. She shook her head becoming overly frustrated with the entire situation, she would need to head back there on her way back to the encampment and fetch her other sword. It was not of good quality like that one still in her possession but she knew she would hate herself for the rest of her life if she did not go back to get it.

As she ceased to hear movement from behind her she began to slow down her pace until she was entirely sure that there was no one following her. She stopped entirely and bent forward trying to catch her breath resting the palms of her hands on her knees she gasped at the air that was around her like it would be the last breath she took. Once she was able to gain her composure back she stood up right and took a look around the forest that she was in currently and was unable to locate any sort of land mark that identified how far she had travelled or where she currently was located at. She decided it would be best to head for higher ground to try and get her bearings. She quickly jumped up into a tree and began to scale the tree upward with ease until she reached the very top she rested along the top of the tree and looked around swinging herself around the tree looking at the area around her. She thankfully saw the mountain range in the distance and was even more grateful to realize she had not taken herself too far off course that she would have to work overly hard to get herself back on the path she needed to head into the mountain. She knew that if she wanted to get there before nightfall she would need to start making for the lost time she had misplaced while getting in the scrap with those people. She readjusted the knapsack on her back and quickly took off leaping from tree top to tree top using the branches up high as stepping stones as she took off towards her destination in the distance. She quickly felt herself feeling more and more like she had brought along someone to keep her company, even though she would probably be feeling like they were just holding her back the ability to talk to someone and not just herself would have done great for her current morale. However as she looked more into that thought she realized she would of looked like a complete idiot when facing that other guy not too long ago and realized she could of done without looking like an entire fool in front of someone else, and quickly changed her mind she was glad at this particular moment that she was alone.

She spent another hour or so getting herself back to where she needed to be, she saw a small hidden path among the vines and rock that looked like it led upward into the mountain side, she smiled softly and was thankful for her luck. It was about time that she came on some good luck, she closed her eyes and breathed a slight sigh of relief before walking up and into the pathway. This path was not as hard as she had originally imagined it would be, it surprisingly enough weaved back and forth up into the mountain. At one point she happened to cross along a small bridge that obviously had been placed there by someone else that had to go through the same stupid journey that she was going down right now. She crossed the bridge slowly holding onto the rope sides to keep herself from falling off the side of the rope. She was successful in traversing to the other side of the small gorge and continued down the pathway, it was odd to her that she placed so much faith and emphasis on the path to keep her heading in the correct direction. She pushed it to the back of her mind, she looked off the side of the mountain to see the distance she had travelled and by her judgment she could decided that she had made it up about halfway the length of the mountain. She sighed softly and looked up at the sky and saw that the afternoon was quickly passing her by. She decided that she needed to redouble her efforts to get to the orchard before nightfall. She originally had every intention of making it to and back from this orchard before the day had passed but she had run into so much trouble on her travels that it was no wonder that she just had not thrown her hands up in defeat and gone back home.

However she was an Aisu failure and forfeit was not an option for her if anything because she was an Aisu prompted her to perform at her best all the time. She would never disgrace her clan name by giving only half or a portion of what she had to offer. No only would she disgrace her own family but also the clan that she absolutely loved with everything of her being, it was because of this love that pushed her forward. She continued to climb the path step after step mile after mile. As darkness began to embrace the light and drive it away into nothingness she stumbled forward and crashed to the ground, she could literally not move anymore she had spent her energy in its entirety. She realized that she had in fact not even eaten today. She reached weakly into her pack and was successful in pulling out the nice bundle that the old man had made for her and pulled one of the loaves of bread out from the small parcel and ate it with vigorous hunger that shocked and surprised herself. She had never tasted food so good, whether it was the hunger, lack of energy or both this bread had tasted better now than it had the other day that she had it. She knew she was truly mental that it was nothing different, but damned if it didn’t taste like heaven. She choked down the loaf of bread and started to work on the last item in the parcel. She closed her eyes a moment allowing her body to absorb the nutrients and provide her muscles and body with the fuel that she needed to continue on. After she had rested for an hour or so she pushed herself upward and continued on the path. She knew that at this point she had to be nearing the finish, as she zig zagged her way up the mountain to the last stretch.

It was not long before she saw the small orchard in the distance, she smiled thankfully, she had never see such a beautiful sight in her life. She stumbled forward and looked around slowly at the area looking for the fruit that the old man had described to her, she was quick to spot the fruit that the man had told her to grab. She began to pick the fruit from the vines that drapped over the crag like rock which decorated the area. She reached down and picked up a piece of the fruit and inspected it carefully and wondered idly a moment what would happen if she took a bite of it. She had never before seen this type of fruit and was based on that logic naturally cautious. She sighed softly and stuffed it back into the bag and decided it was best not to test it and just decided that she needed to gather as much of it as she could get her hands on and head back down the mountain. She did not need to take a full amount of rest, a simple few hours would be enough to restore some of the strength that she felt was missing. Once she had completed grabbing all the fruit that she felt was necessary because she was not hiking her ass back up this mountain if it was the last thing she did. She threw herself and the now extremely full sack down on the ground beside a tree and closed her eyes gently. She had originally just planned to rest her eyes for a few moments just enough to get her enough strength to make the trek back down to the mountain base, but her body had other ideas. It was not but a few mere moments that passed until Iyata drifted into a deep sleep that robbed her of her senses. She had not believed herself to be asleep for very long but slowly her body began to rouse herself out of her sleeping stupor to look into the sky to see the sun rising in the distance.

She cursed herself and shook her head heavily she had overslept, she was now not going to get back to the old man until mid day instead of the morning like she had planned. She had already been gone for much too long and did not want to worry the old man more than what was necessary. She quickly gathered up her sack and took off at a run she began to make the long trek back down the mountain side heading back towards the old mans grotto.

As Iyata made her way back to the old mans place she decided it would probably be a good idea to make her way back to where she had dropped her sword with her confrontation with the thieves. She quietly crept up on the area keeping her eyes peeled and her sense alert for anyones presence but her own. She was relieved to find that there was not anyone in the general vicinity but herself. She saw her blade hidden underneath one of the tree trunks in the distance, it must have fallen underneath the tree in the scuffle and it was at that moment she was truly thankful for the luck she was receiving. She quickly travelled the expanse between herself and her sword and retrieved it from underneath the tree and slid the blade back into its sheath at her back and sighed thankful that the little bastards from the day before had not located it. She quickly turned herself around and began to take off at a dead run. She felt a renewed sense of vigor coursing through her body she was almost finished, she needed to keep her eyes on the prize and that prize was whatever was located in that mans chest. She quickly made good time with her strides timing them quickly to carry herself further and faster. She quickly found herself back onto the original path that she had taken to get to the forest. She knew she was only a few hours time away from the grotto. She quickly kicked into another gear and she found herself dead all out sprint. What seemed like a few short minutes passing her by she found herself once more jumping back into the clearing that she had originally found the old man in.

She saw the cave in the distance and something did not quite seem right, she placed her hands up to her mouth, “Hey Old Man….I am back….” She waited a few moments and approached the cavern. She blinked softly as she did not hear a response come from within the cave. She would be pissed if the old man had not return. She sighed softly and figured she would meet the man inside the cave, she began to walk back into the cavern dwellings of the old man and was shocked to see that the entire content of the cavern that she had slept in not only a few nights before had been entirely cleaned out. The entire cave was cleared out besides a small package located in the middle of the cavern. She blinked gently and walked over to the package and knelt down putting the sack of the fruit on the ground. She reached down and saw that there was a note attached to the package and she opened the note and began to read over what was written.

“Child,
I am assuming that if you are reading this note that you were successful in locating the fruit that I sent you off to collect. I am sorry that I am not here to retrieve that fruit, as it would of made an excellent addition to a yummy fruit pie that I had an idea for. But enough about that…”

Iyata suddenly felt herself grow even more angry and her hands gripped the note tightly on the verge of ripping it apart but against her nature she continued to read the note slowly to make sure she did not miss a single word.

“A deal is a deal, I have left you the item that I promised you. It is a scroll that has the detailed work of swordsmanship and Seto’s greatest achievements and practices. I hope this scroll helps you to achieve your goals and dreams in being able to protect those people whom you love so dearly. I leave you with this scroll but also a small token of my gratitude and that is…Thank you for allowing me to see my granddaughters beliefs live on in someone else and maybe we will meet again. ~Seto”

She stared at the note in disbelief that old man was actually seto, she could not believe it. She felt fury like she had never felt before but quickly realized that the fury she had felt was anger at herself for not putting the pieces of the puzzle together. She could not but help smile at herself and folded up the note carefully and placed it into her pocket with the other note he had left on the food he had given her. She reached down and opened the parcel and opened the scroll that was contained within. She looked at the heavily designed instructions and smiled with wonder. She rolled the scroll up once more and stuck it into her sack. She stood up and looked at the sack filled with fruit, she reached down and plucked the top piece of fruit from the top and placed it against her lips a moment then took a deep bite of the fruit and smiled gently as she chewed the sweet flesh of the fruit. She laughed softly and turned around walking out of the cavern leaving the sack on the ground for someone else to take should they need it, she had already received what she had wanted most of all…and also the best tasting fruit that she had ever in her life…to which she would forever call the Humble Fruit.

[Exit Thread]

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Training Bukijutsu B>A: 5024/5000
Unused WC:60