Delays and Hikes [solo,nk]

It was about a week later, when they found themselves in the forest. Kozachi had the stupid cube in her backpack, and they were going to ask some really old animals about it. She’d laughed the idea off at first, but the more Anri had explained it to her, the more it made sense. Sentient, sage animals who had centuries of knowledge behind them? There was something suspicious here, though, something about the way Anri’s face muscles moved when Kozachi used her sharingan and her girlf- friend wasn’t looking. Oh, there wasn’t any lying involved. They liked each other too much for that. But there was something else here. Well, to be fair, Anri’s sister had disappeared, so there was probably a lot she was keeping to herself. Yeah, that had to be it, of course. 

So there they were, heading toward some kind of cave that Anri had talked to her about. She insisted on tagging along, of course, but Kozachi sometimes wished she hadn't. Well, whatever. This would have been fun if it had been in the winter. Nice weather, no bugs to speak of, so on and so forth. Now, though, it was no small difficulty to make the trek to the cavern. Anri had also asked her to bring some paper, but for what, she could not imagine. 

What was also suspicious was the fact that she still hadn't told Kozachi what kind of animals these would be. Were they cats? Rabbit? Ohhh, if they were cute bunnies, that might be nice. Kozachi liked small mammals... well, not all of them. She hated dogs. Some of her relatives had brought one over once, one of the small ones that she loathed the most. She'd made sure to give it a kick or two under the table whenever nobody was looking. It soon learned to avoid her, as such creatures should.

Anri, on the other hand, loved dogs, but not cats. It boggled Kozachi's mind as to how someone could hate cats. They were so much easier to take care of... and they were cute! Her own household had two of them, and there were no regrets about bringing them into the house. One of them was an orange outdoor cat. It had been a stray before, and didn't like being in the house, so they left her outside, where she would greet them whenever someone came home. Even a small "nya" of greeting never failed to be offered to the returning Uchiha clan member.

The other cat was a lazy grey one that stayed in the house. One of her constant nighttime companions, this cat's survival strategy was to take as much advantage of human hospitality as possible without angering its owners too much. This ended up being more successful than Kozachi would have expected. After all, the indoor cat didn't have to run around hunting mice and birds, she only needed to sit and mew loudly whenever she felt hungry, and the foolish humans would rush to do her bidding.

The girl wondered if there was a life lesson to be learned here. Let others do hard work for you? No, that wasn't the thing to do at all. It was an affront to her honor, and to her family name to be so abusive and lazy. Maybe in some cases, where manipulation was necessary, it might be excusable, but that certainly wasn't the moral of the story. Well, maybe it was just that honest people had work harder, but gained more reward in the end. After all, the outdoor cat was never sprayed with water when it transgressed, nor did it have to deal with the confines of walls and roof. It was also often amply rewarded for its efforts in hunting down small pests that made it into the garden.

Yeah, that seemed about right, she thought as she swatted more bugs away from her head. Behind her, Anri gave off a little "ooh!" of surprise. Kozachi turned, and found that Anri was pointing off to the entrance to a cave- no, THE cave some meters away. It seemed that in her reverie about cats, Kozachi had completely missed their destination, and it seemed that Anri had as well, almost. Well, it was good that they had arrived at last. 

"Should we eat before we head in?" Kozachi put the question to her friend. It had been quite the trek, and Kozachi was feeling a little peckish. She'd packed some food (and cake!) before leaving the house, but it seemed that they had no need of it now, as Anri was shaking her head vehemently. 

"Nonono! We shouldn't open up food here. They probably would... uh... not like it! Yeah." She was giving off that heart-melting grin again, but Kozachi was on guard now. What manner of creatures were these? Leaning against a tree, she spoke again.

"At least let's take a break... I'm pooped."

"Um... well, maybe. But we gotta get in there soon if we're going to make it back in time before nightfall, ya know?" Yeah, she certainly had a point. Still, they stopped to catch their breath for a few seconds. Wouldn't it be funny if they ran into Ken out here? She thought to herself. She wondered how he was doing now that he was some kind of strange renegade. At least this was a family issue, so she didn't feel too bad hiding it from Anri. Still, it plagued her thoughts every day. 

How was he doing? He had assure her that he was alive and well, but she was afraid that he'd keep slipping down the path toward the loser mentality. To see him become the worst kind of human being was something that she dreaded. Would she have to put him down if he became a threat to the village? Well, at the very least, these were all ifs and maybes. She didn't have to worry about them yet, and with luck, she never would. 

With all this forest around, there was also the worry that they'd run into Senju clan members. While the hatred between the two clan was over in most respects, some of them were still total asshats. Also, they bullied Anri for liking her. Not because she was an Uchiha, which would have been reason enough in the old days, but because Kozachi was a girl. Well, while Kozachi wasn't always there to help Anri out in such trying times, she certainly tried to be. Anri was also strong enough to defend herself, usually. The girl was sickly, and was prone to bouts of weakness. Kozachi only hoped that one didn't hit her while they were out here in the forest.

They'd been pretty lucky so far, though. Anri had kept up with her all the way through, and Kozachi's strength was a tad greater than that of the average be- well, human being. Speaking of, she'd met some people who channeled bear power and had pet bears. Large mammals like that could be scary, but their bears seemed cute and cuddly enough. Nothing like cats, of course, but a loveable bear was pretty good too. And meeting new people, of course, was a pleasure more often than not.

After a bit, they packed up and headed into the cave. As they continued further and further along, the walls actually started to become more structured, though there was something wrong here that Kozachi couldn't quite pick up on. First of all, this place reminded her of the shrine back at home, which was normal enough, but there was that weird smell. What was it? She'd certainly smelled it before in her lifetime, but couldn't quite figure out what it was. She was sure that if she was able to concentrate for long enough, she'd be able to remember it, but...

"... and you know how I really hate that. Oi, Koza, are you even listening to me?!" Anri was giving her the lil' cute pout face as Kozachi glanced over her shoulder at the other girl.

"Yeah, yeah... of course. Just trying to remember something important though." Well, now was the time to ask, she thought to herself, as they neared the entrance to some kind of large stone room.

"Ummm... by the way, Anri... exactly what kind of animals are we coming to see here?"

"Oh, uh.. haha... yeah, I probably shoulda told you that, huh? Uhm, it's snakes."

Aw, shit.

Now, normally, this is the part where our favorite character pops a one-liner like "I hate snakes" or something like that, but Kozachi didn't particularly hate snakes. This didn't mean that she loved them either, of course. Reptiles were weird in all sorts of ways. However, what she did know made her think of them in a somewhat objective light in that she didn't really feel one way or the other about them. Still, this was one funky lookin' snake that was standing on the top of the shrine before them.

Without much hesitation, Anri rushed forward into the chamber. "Heyyy! Grandpa creepy snake! I gotta q-" Kozachi gave her a friendly grab on the cheek. "Owowowow~~~ Don't do that!" 

Stepping forward somewhat more respectfully, Kozachi remove the cube from her pack. "O, sage", she began in the archaic, being careful to mind Anri as she rubbed her cheek where Kozachi had pinched her, "I come to you with a query." The snake, which had worn an outraged expression for a few seconds, seemed to be appeased by her demeanor, which was a good thing. Who knew what kind of creepy shit this guy could do.

"Well, young 'un"... shit, this guy was informal, "I thought you'd know already." He seemed to be glaring at Anri. Of course, this was probably because Anri had been really rude! Imagine if they had met their demise in this stupid cavern shrine thing. That would have been awful. But what did he mean by knowing the purpose of the cube already? Kozachi described what had happened. She'd seemed to fall into some kind of stupid genjutsu when she looked at the cube, but there was no change in her own chakra. So what could it have meant? Something that was false, but not false at the same time, maybe?

"Precisely what it is." The snake seemed to be nodding, not in approval, but more at their stupidity. Like this should have already been explained to them before. "It's a Soul Cube, kiddos. I don't know what kind of clan is capable of making this kind of thing, but they've gotta have some kind of... uh, advanced tech now, right?" The snake dude scratched his head with a... claw? Snakes didn't have claws, but she supposed that this was no normal snake, right?

"Alright, kid. I'll help ya'll out." That was unexpected. "But not her. She's.... nah, I'm not helping her." He indicated Anri, who frowned, more at herself than at anyone else, and scuttled out of the room, but not before telling Kozachi to get the paper ready, which she did. 

"Oh, ya came prepared. Good!" The snake took out a blood red pencil and began writing furiously in oddly neat lines on the paper. As she read what he was writing, the pieces started to click together in Kozachi's head. So, this was how some of the kids in the village got summoning contracts. Well, this was certainly a great boost to her assets. She did make sure to scan the contract and make sure it was normal though, with the added clause about the soul cube. Scrawling her name in blood, of course, she felt something click and new the contract was as good as it would ever be. The snake sage weaved a few handseals, and waved. Kozachi felt a jerking motion, and the next thing she knew, both she and Anri were back in Konoha, just as the sun was setting. Well, that was... convenient. Still, she needed time to bond with these snakes in order to use them.

[Closed
2000/2000 for Snake summoning
2/4 for pre-MS thread topics
10 stats]

Bump lmfao

..... You are still actually doing this....


Approved for the stats and MS thread claim.

Would you mind linking the snake contract?

Also, in the future, would you mind posting your TWC?

http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t32317-snakes-of-ryuchi-cave

Approved.