Symone: A Naruto Side-Story - "The Heart Of Rain"
Chapter Twenty-Three: A Witness To The Temple!

A morning of sun had set across the woodlands as Symone is seen waking up from the ground which had been covered in brown, crunchy leaves, attempting to stay quiet as she held her mouth, hoping Renji and Mikomi would stay asleep for a little longer as she looked around for Nova, seeing footprints in the nearby dirt that lead out towards the other end of the woodlands. Symone looks down, seeming saddened as if her thoughts had something to tell. "It sounds like... this girl... could she be...?" were the words Nova had spoke after hearing about Symone's unknown ability, thinking of it in remembrance as she thinks to herself, "I thought maybe I could learn something about me from him. He seemed to... understand a little somehow... I think?". As Symone walks forward a little, trying to see the beautiful bright blue sky for the first time since the enormous battles of last night, she finds herself looking to the glow of white, fluffy clouds as she smiles a little. "It's good to wake up and know the world can still be beautiful...eh?" spoke a familiar voice as Symone turned around, seeing Mikomi standing afoot behind her. "Sensei... You're up! I didn't hear you. Did I wake you?" she asked as Mikomi replied, "Nah. It was just my time to wake up I guess. I feel fully recovered, too". "What about Renji? Do you think he's alright" asked Symone as she turned to Renji's body, sleeping on the ground as he rested his head against a tree. "Well, it looks like that guy Nova had a change of heart for some reason and ran off... so we need to allow Renji more time to rest. Then... we can go after the Kumogun Temple with as much strength as possible" spoke Mikomi as Symone replied, "True, but it is a good thing that Nova was here to begin with and knew the woodlands enough to conjur up some medicinal leaves to help Renji cure himself". "Yeah..." replied Mikomi as he asked, "So, how about you? Is your chakra back, and are you feeling okay?". Symone smiled, admiring the fact her Sensei had cared enough to ask, feeling close to him as if he was family... which he seemed to actually be now as she replied, "I'm absolutely fine. No serious injuries, but my chakra needs a little more recovering. I still feel a tad weak. I think my hunger is part of the problem". "True... we could use some food to get all of our strength back. We should go search for something and prepare ourselves a meal while Renji sleeps and leave him anything we find" stated Mikomi as Symone replied, "Sounds good, but where will we get any food? We don't even know where there's a lake for fish, and unlike Kusa, this place seems like the type that wouldn't grow food" as her curious smile returned to her young and vibrantly pretty face. "Follow me... we'll find something" stated Mikomi as Symone nodded in agreeance, taking off in a quick flash with Mikomi.

Moments later in the woodlands, about half a mile away from where they camped out, Mikomi and Symone are seen walking through thick bushes and plants as Mikomi yells to a short-distanced Symone, "Come here! I found our breakfast! A lot of it, too!". Symone rushes over to look at Mikomi's findings as she looks down to where Mikomi's eyes had been seen as she asks, "Umm... Where? I don't see anything" she states as she narrows her eyes. "All of this! These plants! They're called sporophytic plants, which is a certain plant that reaches a stage of development in which it grows a coat of seedlings. They're also a very nutritious and delectable meal" states Mikomi as Symone replies, "Where... gonna... eat... plants?...". "Yeah! Pull them by the few from the bottom and be careful not to rip them in the center. Carry as many as ya can" replied and stated Mikomi as Symone replied, "O-okayyy". with a sarcastic, curious look plaguing her facial expression as she grabs handfuls of these plants. As she finishes doing what seemed to be weed pulling, Mikomi had decided to walk off as Symone hesitantly noticed, grabbing a few more of the plants, catching up to him as she thinks, "First he makes me pull weeds in the morning... then he walks away from me... and now we have to eat the plants I spent a few minutes pulling for us. This seems so... wrong. Why doesn't the lazy bum do some of the work himself? Psh!" thought Symone as she had a saddened, angered expression on her face that was all in fun as they walk off together side-by-side.

Within the morning mist, Nova was seen leaning against a tree, holding onto his sides as he narrowed his eyes forward to a gap in the tree's straight ahead from his current position. "There's no better time than now I guess. It's time..." thought Nova as he was seen walking forward slowly. Nova reached the end of the woodlands looking down a short distance from the Kumogun temple as ninja's had jumped down from the tree's above. Nova counted them in his head, with six being the total number as he closed his eyes and asked, "Can I help you, my men?". "Yes... you can... you can tell us... why it is you decided to abandon the lord!" stated the ninja behind Nova in question as he opened his eyes in. Curiosity plaguing him. "So you believe following me and finding this information out will have me grobbling to your feet, do ya? So did you tell anybody?" Nova asked as the ninja in front replied, "Nobody knows, but we've been following your actions all night and keeping tabs on you, as ordered by Genburori-sama... but now we noticed you trying to make a move quite hesitantly, so before you do something too hasty, we're gonna have to stop you... teichou-sama... if that's alright". "If it's alright?... Sorry men, but it isn't alright. Now what?" replied Nova. "Then... we're gonna have to-" spoke the ninja to his right side as he was interrupted by the swift speed of Nova's leg smacking into the center of his body as he goes flying back with a few cracked ribs and apparent internal bleeding, emanating from out of his mouth as he then moves to the two ninja behind him, discarding a kunai he had kept in his belt as he whirls it around his pointer finger, slicing through the throats of them in quick succession and speed, killing them almost instantaneously with precision as the two ninja's who were originally in front of him hurl shuriken at him, but quickly, Nova throws his hand behind his head, slapping the shurikens away with his kunai as the chinging of metal was heard, blowing out sparks as the thuds of impact ot the flesh was heard. As Nova turned, he had seen the two ninja with the shurikens slapped in their foreheads as they fell dead. Nova then turned to his left from his current position with a smirk as he looks to the last remaining ninja just standing there. "Well? Aren't you gonna stop me?" asked Nova as the ninja fell in fear, trying desperately to discard a weapon from his side pouch, but Nova darted over quite fast to him, stomping down with his foot on the ninja's arm, disallowing him from removing any weapons as he smiles, swinging the kunai in the air a few feet as he holds his palm for a moment, concentrating a very small amount of chakra within it as the kunai falls back down into Nova's hand. The ninja looks up to him with brightened eyes of shock as Nova then allowed the chakra to flow freely through the kunai as he extends the glow of it through the heart of the beaten ninja, killing him as his flesh burns apart, leaving a large circular hole left in his chest as he stops the chakra flow, swinging the kunai, roughly placing it back under his belt. Nova then looks ahead towards the temple... "This is it. Katrice... I won't dishonor you" spoke Nova as he narrowed his eyes in towards the temple even more-so as he walks off through the patchy grass area, looking at the ninja guarding the temple.

Back to the camp grounds, Symone and Mikomi are seen walking together back towards the sleeping Renji as Symone places the plants she picked on the ground. Mikomi walks up to her as Symone had looked to him. "Now what, Sensei?" asked Symone as Mikomi replied, "Now... you watch me do this, and then you know how to eat these". Symone stays silent as she watches as Mikomi picks up one of the plants and sits down on the ground. Mikomi takes the plant, ripping apart the bud on top and splitting it down the center evenly until it reached the bottom of the stem. As he peeled it apart, dozens of seeds were seen stuck on it's innards. Mikomi rips off the bud as he takes one half of the stem and holds it sideways to his lips, sucking across it with his mouth, taking in the seeds as he chews them, swallowing as he states, "Ah... this is good. Reminds me of those rainy days with Tsuchi-Sensei when it was difficult to catch fish. Try some Symone!". Symone picks up a plant and does as Mikomi did, a little hesitant at first to taste this odd meal as she splits it as well as she can, sucking in the seeds and chewing as she stated with a full mouth, "HOO! THESE ARE GOOD!" as she smiles joyously with her eyes closed tightly. "See? It was worth it!" stated Mikomi as he smiled, eating more of the seeds in the plants.

Moments later, only about a quarter of the plants are left on the ground as Mikomi and Symone are seen laying flat on their backs upon the dirt as they both belch at the same time. They look at each other, and break out hysterical laughing as suddenly... "What the hell kind of way is that to wake someone up?" Renji spoke, rubbing his eyes as he had stood up. Symone and Mikomi look to Renji as they both in sequence say, "We're sorry!" as they wave their hands forward in forgiveness. "Christ... you can wake an army up with that kind of gas... anyway, where's that Nova guy?" stated, then asked Renji as Mikomi replied, "I can't tell you. We don't know". "Good. Maybe he ran off and realized the fight against that asshole is MY fight" stated Renji as arrogant as ever. "So Renji-san, how are you feeling? Are you healed?" asked Symone as Renji replied, "I'm fine. I can't even feel any of my injuries, but I'm low on chakra". Symone picks up a plant and extends her hand out to Renji, signalling that she wanted to give it to him as he walks over, taking it from her as he just holds it to his face, staring at it. "What the hell is this? Why the hell am I holding a plant?" asked Renji with an arrogant curiosity as Mikomi replied, "It's food. You eat it. It'll get you the nutrients you need to regain chakra faster". "Is that so?" asked Renji as he took the plant, eating the whole top of the bulb as he chews it vigurously... slowing down to a stop as he makes a face of disgust, spitting it out everywhere as he screams, "THIS IS FOOD? YOU EXPECT ME TO EAT THIS SHIT!?". Mikomi and Symone laugh hysterical for a moment as Mikomi states, "That's not how you eat it. Split it in half and suck in all the seeds", giggling a little as he did so. Symone blushes red a little from laughing so much as she watches Renji split the plant in half, ripping off the bulb to another as he sucks in the seeds, chewing and swallowing like a beast, apparently being very hungry as he goes straight for more. After eating about three of them, Renji stops, dropping it as he finished as his eyes became very serious as he thought, "Bangai... if only you were here, you'd never let me eat something like this, would'ya now, buddy?". Mikomi and Symone stop their laughter as Symone asks, "Renji-san, are you alright?". "What? Oh... yeah, I'm fine. Hand me another one of these disgusting plants" asked and then stated with a sense of disattention as Symone hands him another.

Reaching the doors of the Kumogun, Nova gets greeted by the ninja's unknown as to the deception he is leading on as he nods his head to his men, entering the temple. As Nova walks in, he walks over to the red carpet that lead to the stairs that lead to Genburori's throned chair. He follows the path to the red carpet, seeing the back of Genburori's head in the chair. Nova stops... looking to Genburori's position with a detesting look in his eyes. "Hmm...?" Genburori sighs lightly as he tilts his head to the side, feeling the presence of another being, still turned backwards in his chair. Nova smirks with a sickening intent in his curved lips... this is it. The moment has arrived and Nova confronts the man who confined him by the idea of a deal.

Next chapter, a showdown will begin between the devastatingly angry and powerful Nova as he finally realizes his moment for action is now as he faces off with Genburori. Will there be a battle, and will it ensue as climactic as Nova had hopes for? How will Genburori react? As for the others, they seem to be regaining what power they can conjur, in no direct hurry to invading Kumogun, unknown that Nova had taken it in to his own hands. Waiting for Renji to gain back most of his chakra, Mikomi and Symone wait patiently until they're ready to begin their trip to find the temple. Stay tuned, or die! Kai!(Release!)