Shattered Destiny:
Chapter 12: Frozen Tomb
"This is the place." Sensei says, looking into the crack in the ice. It's barely visible this snowstorm.
Lightning made a surprise visit to Shimogakure, we needed to be out of there asap and Frost had a mission for us to leave under the guise of.
There is a crack in a glacier with unnerving sounds coming from it, the woman who discovered it fled faster and informed the village asap. Lightning is searching the area for us for Frost, in exchange they won't assume that Frost is associated in the war.
They might know of Frost's involvement with Water but don't have any proof to directly involve them. Not without having Fire, us, and the other nearby 'neutral' nations retaliate against this violation. I don't know what the point of this war is particularly, but if it means we don't get caught and interrogated by Lightning I'm happier for it.
But we have to be careful, while one team of Lightning shinobi are in Shimogakure there's another team searching the countryside for us. "Will it be warmer in there than out here?" Zabuza asks shivering pretty badly.
Even with these Land of Frost coats it's still freezing cold. One by one we file into the crevice.
I take a single step into the glacier and-
Quest Started: Way of the Voice:
Obtain the dragonstone:
Dragonstone? "There might be something down here." I say seconds before a loud moan is heard.
"W-what was that?" Satu-chan asks, hiding behind Zabuza-san.
"Be ready." Sensei says pulling out a kunai.
I ready my tonfa as Zabuza draws his sword, once we're ready we push onward into a large chamber with stairs, braziers and strange flora. "It doesn't look like we're in a glacier anymore." Zabuza notes.
"I've never seen… well this!" I say examining the brazier next to the entrance. It looks nothing like anything found in Frost or Kirigakure.
"Why do the fungus glow?" Satu wonders idly. The fungus's aren't the only sources of light but still the room is illuminated with a pale blue light.
"We can figure all that out later." Sensei says, confliction on her face.
"What's wrong?" I ask…. Well someone was going to!
"We should leave and inform Frost of what's down here… but."
"What?"
"I also want to know what's down here myself, the architecture of this cave is different from anything I've seen, and I've been to the large nations."
"You have?"
"Before the war."
"What should we do?" Satu asks, adjusting her scarf.
Sensei is quiet for a minute, her internal conflict clear on her face. "Frost might not be happy with us for this, but for Kirigakure we'll explore." She sighs defeated.
"Why do we care if they get mad at us?"
"I don't want to be the reason why they ended our alliance."
"Won't they just assume we took a look around anyways?"
"And that's why I decided we should stay, stay sharp Team Four!"
"Yes, Sensei!" We chime.
"Stay in my sight, call out anything you find."
Zabuza runs up the stairs, Satu keeps looking at the fungus growing on the cave wall. "There's a box over here!" I call out the random crate stuffed into the corner… it's rotted somewhat.
Sensei is instantly here. "Someone was here, long ago." Sensei shoves a kunai into the crate and pries it open.
The two of us look inside. "What is that?" I ask, reaching into the crate to pull out one of the four gold coins inside. The tail side is weird, but it's definitely depicting a dragon.
"Let me see… Gold coins?" The mystery deepens. "Are they all the same?"
Together we fish out the remaining coins. "Are they currency?" I ask, turning the coin in my hand towards the head, there's a head on it.
"Nothing we use." Sensei drops the coins into a bag. "We'll take these to frost, and maybe one back to Kiri."
"Yes, sensei."
"Uhhh… Sensei?" Zabuza calls.
"Check up on Satu, I'll go help Zabuza." And with that, sensei vanishes in a blur again.
Orders are orders. "Anything interesting about the… glowshrooms?" I ask.
"They're producing t-their own light, that's all I know."
"You learned botany?"
"T-there were a few books in the orphanage." She turns away from me to examine a glowshroom farther away.
"How're you doing?"
"I-I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Keiki, Satu!" Zabuza calls out, does he sound unnerved or is it just me? "Get over here!"
"What's wrong!?"
"We're moving on!"
"There's more!?"
"Yeah!"
Without another word we hurry up the stairs, at the top of the stairs is a short corridor with swinging guillotines, and sensei on the other side of it.
Instead of searching for a way to turn the trap off, she's- "Is that a skeleton fighting Sensei!?" I exclaim with wide eyes.
"I've never seen anything like it before."
The blades are going too fast to risk going through it… but maybe.
-26 chakra. +40 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (128/150)
My fireball flies true, flying in between the blades and slams into the skeleton, blasting it apart. "Nice shot." Sensei says. "I was wondering if it was possible to kill it." She pulls a chain and the trap stops. "Quickly now."
The three of us hurry through the death corridor and into what I can only assume is a crypt. "Ug, the smell." Satu gags.
Stale air and rot makes for an amazing scent. Amazing in the 'I'm about to puke' kind of way. "You have a scarf, imagine how it is for the rest of us." Sensei says semi jokingly.
"Look out!" One of the corpses slides out of its resting place and immediately has its neck snapped by sensei, it drops to the ground and a few coins falls out of its mouth.
"Eeeewwww!" I'm pretty sure none of us were expecting that. Sensei wordlessly takes the coins and examines them.
"They're the same as the other ones."
One side face, other side dragon.
More corpses start coming to life. "Take them out before they get a chance to retaliate!" Sensei tells us.
-5 chakra. +8 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (136/150)
-5 chakra. +8 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (144/150)
-5 chakra. +8 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (152/150)
Elemental Ninjutsu has leveled to 5 (10/175). +5 Character XP (9/175)
The corpse I'm frying is still getting up.
-5 chakra. +8 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (18/150)
-5 chakra. +8 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (26/150)
-5 chakra. +8 Elemental ninjutsu XP (34/175)
The burning corpse swings at me, reflexively I hold my arm up to block the axe, I'm lucky I never put the tonfa down.
-2 health. +5 Block XP (20/325)
The weight of the corpse pushes me back, my fire goes wide and I cut it off before it can hurt my teammates.
-5 chakra. +8 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (42/175)
The stray flames hits the undead Satu is 'fighting', it turns its attention from her to me and now I'm fighting two on one. I pull out my other tonfa and glance at sensei, who is fighting three corpses at once.
Compared to a jounin, the corpses are as stiff as… well-
-5 health.
I was struck in the moment I was distracted, the axe going into my arm and making me drop the tonfa as all feeling in my arm vanishes.
All but pain. "Gah!"
-26 chakra. +40 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (82/175)
-26 chakra. +40 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (122/175)
The corpse I spent almost all of my chakra on finally dies, the other one is now on fire and angry with me.
It swings at me and I roll out of the way, on my numb arm, as my arm hits the ground a wave of pain goes through me. The flames goes out before long and Satu jumps onto it's back, locking arms with the creature.
Zabuza jumps around to its front while it's trying to throw her off and stabs it through its chest, silence falls in the chamber as Satu drops from the falling zombie.
"Anyone hurt?" sensei asks, looking us over.
"Me, but it looks worse than it actually is." I say holding my wounded arm, barely any health gone but I can't feel my arm.
"Let me see." Sensei says holding my arm gingerly, but it makes me wince regardless. "That's quite the gash, will it heal?"
"It should."
"What about infection?"
"I don't know?"
"Let's get it cleaned and bandaged then, just to be safe."
Bandage applied. +5 health. Infection chance reduced.
"I can get infections." I say thoughtfully.
"Good to know you're still human." Zabuza says. "How do you just know these things?"
"It tells me." I answer without batting an eye.
"I know, you've told us… it's just hard to believe." Zabuza scratches the back of his head as Satu fiddles with her scarf.
"How well can you use your arm?"
I flex my fingers and rotate my shoulder, as a finisher I ignite my hand. "I'll be fine, but I'm low on chakra."
"Already?" Zabuza asks shocked.
"Firebolt takes a lot." I shrug helplessly. "Well, not as much as it used to, but it's still a lot!"
"How much is 'a lot'?" sensei asks, getting to her feet.
"Five Firebolts and I'm out." I give a rough estimate.
"I'll keep that in mind." Sensei hands me my dropped Tonfas. "Keep these close, and don't get distracted."
"... Yes Sensei."
"What now, Sensei?" Zabuza interrupts. "There'll be more of these things." he kicks one of the corpses. "Waiting for us further in, and who knows what else we'll find as well."
"Like the skeleton from earlier?"
"Just like that."
"Agreed, we're turning around and heading back to Shimogakure."
"Yes, Sensei!" We chime.
We left the underground ruins after taking a few glowshrooms as samples.
And then immediately turn around and hurry back, there're lights in the storm and Shimogakure said that they wouldn't send anyone out here.
It's Lightning, we can't risk having a run in or showing them that this exists. "Scratch that, looks like we're staying here for a time."
I raise a hand.
"Yes, Keiki?"
"What if whatever's farther in comes up, or if Lightning finds this?"
Sensei thinks about it, scratching her chin. The amount of time she spends deliberating is making me twitchy. I rub the bandage on my arm consciously.
"Looks like we're back to our original plan, reach the end." Sensei finally says, ushering us farther into the tomb. "If Lightning stumbles across this and suspects that we were hiding from them… It wouldn't be pretty." She shakes her head. "And that's not counting if we ambushed from below."
Sensei yanks on a chain next to the trapped corridor, causing the guillotines to swing again.
That should slow them down. "I know that you're durable, Keiki-kun." Sensei begins. "But that doesn't mean I'll take the lead, Zabuza take the rear."
"Yes, Sensei!"
"Satu-kun behind me."
"Y-yes, Sensei."
"Keiki, you're behind her." Sensei is eying my bandage.
"I'm f-"
"I know Keiki-kun, but if your Kekkei Genkai is as front loaded as I think it is, then you need to be in reserve."
"But-"
"Your flames pack a punch, we can't waste it."
I deflate. "Okay." That's just an excuse, isn't it? I've shown that I can recover from worse, it's not fair!
"Team Four, move out!"
We head into the next room, then go down a small spiral staircase. There is a table covered in cobwebs with cloth, tools and books on it. "How long have these been here?" I ask, wiping a layer of dust from the table.
It's completely covered, even the book is covered in dust. Sensei picks it up, it's cover has- "That's the constellation for Elemental Ninjutsu!" I point at the cover with wide eyes.
"I agree, it matches your description." Sensei nods, sticking the book into her pack. "We'll take a look at it when we're back in Frost."
"T-this has the same thing on it." Satu-chan holds up a rolled up scroll, the wax seal has the same mark as the cover of the book.
Sensei takes the scroll and blows off the dust. "Firestorm." She glances at me.
"What're you looking at me for? I don't know what that is!" I puff exasperated.
She looks down at the scroll and starts opening it. As the wax seal starts breaking the whole scroll glows an angry red, as if it could burst into flames at any moment. "Nobody touch this." Sensei stops and the seal reforms. "It's trapped." With the care one would give to a bomb, she pulls out a slip of paper and the scroll is sucked into the parchment.
"COOL!" I can't help but shout.
"Idiot!" Zabuza punches me.
-5 health.
"That hurt!"
"It was supposed to, keep it down!"
Sensei rushes to the archway opposite the room from us and presses up against the wall, listening intently.
I ready a pair of Firebolts, crouching up against the table with the rest of my team.
Two minutes pass, nothing. "Could they be waiting for us?" I whisper to Zabuza-san.
"Probably, a shout like that would definitely wake the dead."
"Very funny."
"I know, thanks."
"Doorway clear, we're moving!"
"Yes Sensei!"
Sensei enters the next room first, with us right behind her, with a shake of my hands the firebolts fade away, but the flames on my hands don't.
We enter a stairway leading down to a room covered in webs. "Keiki, would you do the honors?" Sensei asks me.
"With pleasure." I crack my knuckles and let loose a stream of flames into the web, whatever made this is enormous.
The webs covering the door burns away, revealing a large chamber with snow falling into the center of it. Egg Sacs and balls of web line the walls of the chamber, some of them are still moving. "I hope they're not people." I gulp.
"No spider in sight, but it's here."
"What makes you say that?" Satu asks, looking up at sensei.
"No spider leaves their web, this might be a summon." Sensei pulls out a pair of kunai.
I step up to one of the thrashing sacs and hold my hands up to burn it. "Didn't you hear sensei? We might be getting into a fight." Zabuza grabs my shoulder.
"I know… I know… but I need to know."
Sensei leaps back as the largest spider I've ever seen drops down where she was.
Frostbite Spider:
The name stays fixed at the top of my vision as a health bar three times the length of the name appears under it.
I throw a Firebolt at it.
-26 chakra. +40 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (162/175)
The spider reacts to my firebolt by staring at me as the flames die out.
And it's health bar barely moves.
This is going to take awhile. We scramble out of the way as it jumps for us, it's enormous body landing where we just were.
I throw another Firebolt at is as my teammates throw Kunai, Shuriken and Senbon at it.
-26 chakra. +40 Elemental Ninjutsu XP (202/175). Elemental Ninjutsu is now level 6 (27/200). +6 Character XP (15/200)
Authors Notes: And done, Sorry for the nearly two week wait! (I need to get better at that) but I finally finished! People who've played Skyrim will know quite a bit of what's going on already, but for those who don't, I will explain all that later… Trust me. Anyways: I hope you guys enjoyed this and the previous bits and I hope you'll stick around for future updates!