Double chapter update! now I may have rushed this a bit, so I might take this off when I reread it for mistakes. Anyways, read on!
Impervious
Testament
I'm not sure how much time passed by while I sat there in the park, but it was long enough for the sun to just be about down and some kid to poke my leg.
" Hey mister! Your music is nice and all, but it's kinda late." The young boy who dons green goggles on his forehead. Looks like a wild little tyke. I open up my eyes and say to him, " I suppose so. Thank you." And I lift myself up off the ground and started to head back to the hotel room, and to be frank, I don't even remember what I was playing for the most part. I must be quite tired today.
I get back to the hotel room, and it's already dark out when I reach the room. I bought a large peice of deer jerky from one of vendors on my way in for the night to tie me over until breakfast. While chewing on the salty meat I unlock the door and enter the room, to see it's still empty as Tsuma and I had left it. Figures she would still be out on the town having a ball, but I'm no dummy. Tomorrow is going to be a long haul for both of us since trials are never an easy feat.
I take off my short and shoes and do my pre-sleep ritual of washing up before I go to bed. just as I walk out of the bathroom I see Tsuma enter the room looking very tired, and happy. It just looks weird to see the expression of bliss on her face. What the heck happend? She notices me only after a few seconds and I speak up to say, " So, what did you do, huh? You never look that happy." Tsuma just gives me a weird stare and replies, " When am I not happy? It's just I had some fun tonight, that's all."
" What kind of fun?" I inquire with maybe a little too much haste. Tsuma plops her butt onto the bed and says, " Why should I tell you? You're not my parents or something." I sacastically reply back, " I thought I was your grandpan dear? Eh, but if you don't want to tell me, that's fine too. Anyways, we have a big day tomorrow, and about 5 days until the first phase of the chunin exams."
" Oh yeah! That's cool, but do we really have to go back to that creepy place?" Tsuma whines as she slips off her sandals. I sigh and grudgingly reply, " Yes we do. It will help you become stronger, smarter, and a better person hopefully." Tsuma frowns at my last remark and shouts, " How do you make this better?" As she uses her hands to showcase her entire body. " I have a few ideas..." I mumble under my breath, to which see quickly says, " You say something?" And I just shake my head and go to the opposite side of the bed from her.
" So are you going to make me sleep on the floor like an animal?" Tsuma asks in a very innocent tone. Jeez she likes to play the guilt card on you. I huff out, " No... but! I'm putting a pillow inbetween us. I don't want any funny business since you're, well, you." Tsuma takes her body plate off and replies, " Whatever. I just want a comfy bed, and you're like super old. Get over yourself." This time I frown and reply, " Just blow out the candle and go to sleep already." I slip inbetween the covers, and I take one of my pillows and jam it in the middle of the bed to serve as a divider between us. I'm not taking any chances with this insane girl, and hopefully the trials will have a "taming" effect on her. I can only hope. We both quickly find our comfy spot and go sound to sleep. I still can't wait to see her face when she realizes she has to fight "herself".
I wake up next morning, and I know Tsuma's still asleep thanks to her loud snoring. I should probably infest in something to plug up her nose in the future, or get another room if I have the cash. I slowly raise myself out of bed and unfold my shirt to reveal last nights jerky I stashed away inside. I quickly gobble down the rest of it, and put my shirt back on and slip my sandals on. I can hear Tsuma starting to come to, but it should be another five minutes or so.
Once I had packed myself all up, Tsuma finally dragged herself out of bed and trudged to the bathroom. After about 10 minutes she came out looking a bit better and refreshed, and she got dressed. Another 5 minutes of me dinking around with my guitar she's finally ready. " Tsuma, go get breakfast for yourself than meet me back here. I'm going to prepare the jutsu in the meantime, so don't take any longer than 20 minutes." She just waves me off and heads out the door without a word. Once she left I started to spread out the scroll across the floor. I put both my hands on the center of the scroll and I begin to pour chakra into the seal. This should make it a little easier when I use the jutsu in a little bit.
Tsuma arrives back just in the nick of time, and she sees the scroll all laid out infront of the foot of the bed, and me on the bed just playing my guitar. " So I take you ate and are ready to begin?" I ask her, and I recieve a nod. She's been unusually quiet this morning, but I don't think she is that much of a morning person anyway. I set my guitar down, and get off the bed to take a seat infront of the scroll. " Same drill as last time?" Tsuma asks me, and I reply, " Yep."
I preform the neccesary hand signs, and I send us off to the shrine. We arrive almost in a millisecond, and it feels like we had never left the place. It looks exactly the same as before with all ten shrines that have slightly different colors surrond the arena all at pivotal points. I stand up from the scroll and roll it up, and I say to Tsuma, " So lemme give you the quick rundown on all the deities here, then I'll go more in depth with the one your facing today, sound good?" And Tsuma replies, " Yeah, let's just make this quick. This palce is still really creepy."
" Great. Now there are ten dieties, and I'll say them in order starting at the northern shrine going clockwise." I point to the first shrine infront of us and I continue, " That is Hense, the goddess of pain and pleasure. Next is Acobi, the goddess of oath and abandon. to our right is Lemaign the god of hope and despair, and next to him is Pyth, the god of commotion and order. Behind us is Jevel, the god of health and atrophy; Yudrig, the god of impulse and bravery; also Roathus, the god of thirst and plenty. And to our left is finally is Micia, the goddess of loss and longing; Olak, the god of chance and whim; and lastly is Garmuth, the god of purpose and folly."
" Ok, so what is so unique about everything?" Tsuma asks, and I eagerly respond, " Well, as I said you will fight "yourself" in which they will use all your moves and techniques to your ability, but with a few differences. One, It's the god's mind that is controlling your copy, so there attack styles will differ along with there personalities greatly, and the other thing is they will have there special ability over you that coincides with what they rule over. It's complicated, so I think it's just better for you to do the rest of the figurering out." Tsuma seems to be taking in this massive amount of information greatly, and replies, " So I have to outsmart the god to beat them, and who am I taking on again?"
I give a warm smile, almost in an eerie kind of way and respond, " You got it. Brute force will do you no good, as for your trial god, it will be Pyth. Here's my tips on him. He was used to symbolize the bull back in the ancient times, so he's quite headstrong and can be prevoked quite easily. The special ability is he can move and attack faster than you at about 1.3 times your speed. Now, go to his pillar and awaken him for the trial." I finsh by pointing to the correct shrine, to which Tsuma runs over to. Once she gets there she turns around and yells, " So what now?" I shout back at her, " Place your palm on the indent in the pillar, and then apply a little chakra then step back." And Tsuma gives me a thumbs up and proceeds to do the deed.
After a few moments of doing the correct ritual, the ground begins to shake a little bit and Tsuma takes a few more steps back from the shrine. After a few moments the ground stops shaking, and a copy of Tsuma climbs out of the well-type structure. She looks identical, except for the facial expressions and posture. Once " Tsuma" had crawled out of the well "she" looked around and spotted the real Tsuma. " You dare challenge me you pathetic child!" Pyth roars in a slightly more masculine version of Tsuma's usually high voice. " Yes." Tsuma hesitantly repsonds to Pyth.
" Very well foolish child. I shall make you regret ever waking me up from my slumber!" Pyth roars in almost an animal like fashion and charges at Tsuma with incredible speed. Tsuma jumps out of the way just in time to shoot off a discharge of lightning at Pyth, who just absorbs it with the same lightning release. " Damnit!" Tsuma shouts as she lands across the stadium from her dangerous enemy. " Ha! You truly have no idea what you are doing child!" Taunts the god as "she" laughs at Tsuma. I shout at Tsuma, " Don't get rattled! Quick tip, taijutsu is the only thing never copied over since the deities prefer their own style!" and I get a swift nod from Tsuma, and a very dissproving frown from Pyth. " Stay out of this human! Don't think I have forgot our battle, Yushin." Pyth ominously remarks to me before refocusing back on Tsuma. Pyth always has been a sore loser.
The two of them charge at eachother, and they fight eachother in taijutsu for the next roughly 20 minutes. It seems evenly matched as both seem to be the close combat type, but Pyth is slowly picking Tsuma apart due to him figuring out Tsuma's style and his superior speed, which is forcing Tsuma to be on the diffensive. Just as I think things are going to end to where I have to step in and end the trial, Tsuma does the unexpected, and pulls a dirty little trick.
Pyth seemed to be growing over confident with each passing minutes, and got into a pattern of attack, which Tsuma seems to have figured out. She quickly ducked down and scoped up some of the musty dirt on the floor and tossed it into Pyth's eyes. " Argh! How dare you!" Pyth wails as he trys to ram Tsuma in a blind rage, only for Tsuma to grab Pyth's arm and slam him into the ground. She looks at me for what to do next, and I give her the notion to finish him off. With a slight pause, in one swift axe kick Tsuma breaks Pyth's neck and wins the trial. She a few seconds later falls to her knees looking very emotionless and dreary.
I run over to her and ask, " Are you ok?" I see a single tear flow down the exhausted girls face as she replies, " I don't know. Is this what I'll look like when I die?" I take a moment to assess the sitiation and softly reply, " No. That is how Pyth died, not you. Remember that. Now, take the body and dump it back down the well from where it arose. Only then is you're trial complete. Tsuma slowly brings herself to her own feet, and then picks up the corspe of Pyth/her clone and walks back to the alter. I follow behind her to watch as she drops the body back into the bottomless pit of a hole, and the pillar begins to glow a faint golden color.
" What does that mean?" Tsuma asks to me and I only chuckle a little before replying, " It is you're reward for defeating Pyth kiddo. just put your hand back in the indent to recieve your gift." Tsuma carefully places her hand in the indent and within a second the light dissapears, and Tsuma jumps back shouting, " Ow!"
She turns to me and yells, " What was that all about?" and I bluntly reply, " It was you recieving Pyth's blessing. Now you possess the speed that you saw him use in your match. Be thankful for it, since it will help you later on, and not all deities will give you there ability. It just looks like Pyth adored you're fiery attitude." Tsuma looks down at her hands, and then up to me and smiles. She has finally accomplished something to be proud of under me, and this will be something for her to remember when we look back at her journey to becoming greater. Unfortunately, it only gets harder from here on out, since all the other deities watch over this place and have been thinking up ways to defeat her when it comes there turn, like many years ago when I first started the trials. A long gruesome road has just begun for young Tsuma, and hopefully my advice can keep her alive to see the end of it.
Thanks for reading so far, and I hope you are enjoying this little tale. Next update should be in a few days, so care til then! Cya.
