Chapter 2 – The Bleary Gates
There are few roads through the jungles of Rain country and only one that leads east from the hidden village of rain toward the fire country. One who walks west on that road is drawn into the jungle in a most literal way, as the verdant canopy deepens with every step and the plants become thicker and thicker. Sound changes, light fades, and all becomes a dour place where the sun can barely be glimpsed deep beneath the unending wall of green and brown above.
To those unfamiliar with such a crowded landscape the jungle can be disconcerting, confusing, and alien. Gone are the unadorned tree trunks of open forests. Every inch of bark here is covered in other things, moss, lichen, and stranger plants clinging to those sturdy boles, making their living in the air. The forest floor has no thick layer of leaves, instead it is infested by rot as fungi surge to breakdown all things at a rate many times that possible in dryer lands. The air thickens and fills with moisture. Even walking reasonably soon coats the body in sweat, for little evaporates in this place.
There were signs to distinguish one unfamiliar with this landscape ruled by life, signs the skilled could read on even the most assured and capable of visitors.
With such few roads there were always eyes, though they were not posted openly.
These eyes saw the purple-haired lady who journeyed their road and they learned many things quickly. A ninja for certain, it was obvious in the step, meter, and force of her gait, never mind that she wore the uniform of Hidden Leaf openly. The one who watched considered the clothes a lesser signal, for garments could always be changed, but the special pattern of walking, the casual readiness of the ninja, was not so easily erased.
A visitor from Konoha; it was a most complex puzzle to the one who watched. High in the trees she awaited, hidden by the shadow boughs and concealed against the dark green background by her garb, the unseen wraith and silent sentinel. Rare were ninja visitors from the country of Fire to the east, the righteous ninja of the Leaf, to whom the skulkers of Rain were allies but poor friends. Why should one come now, and alone? It was a puzzle to force a decision on the one who watched.
This purple-haired ninja, a remarkable color in truth, though very obvious, walked with forceful step and strong endurance. She would reach Ame, the only destination a ninja could possibly have in this land, soon enough. Leaf ninja had the right, according to the alliance, to make such a journey unchallenged, though of course a challenge could have been offered anyway. Those treaty words had different meanings on each side of the border. No, the watcher decided, that would not be the right course. Unusual and curious this situation might be, but the truth would have to come out in Ame itself, not accosted in the forest.
At last, unmoving save for the slow turn of the eyes as she tracked the leaf ninja, the one who watched made her decision. She would shadow and watch this one, tracking through the trees above, a place this leaf ninja was not watching, as so few often did, unused to how high one could go in these places. It would be left to the checkpoint further on the road to send word ahead to Ame and the head ninja.
Consider it a blessing mysterious one. She directed her thoughts with a thin smile beneath her mask toward her target. Hito Morino of the Morikeishu has your shadow.
As her second day of travel through the jungle wore on Yuugao was still continually startled by the difference of this place. Who would have thought that two lands dominated by trees could be so different, yet it could not be denied. The forests of the Fire country were nothing like the forests of this land of Rain. Those were familiar places, long settled and managed, clean and uniform. Out beyond the edges of the thin and dirty road rested something far different, something primal and un-mastered by the hand of man. Yuugao had not yet formed a true opinion of that darkened understory. There was something frightful and hostile about it, but also a strange seed of sensation drawing her toward it. Was it simply the exotic experience, or something more? She could not conclude anything at this stage, but Yuugao found it suitably distracting. She was grateful for that much, and dared to hope this place might give her what she needed. The separation was stark for certain, and if separation could heal her than this cool and tepid country might be the best of places for it; perhaps.
The road was mostly empty, leaving Yuugao alone with her thoughts. That was not a comforting state of affairs, for her thoughts were filled with grief and regret. She tried to focus on the jungle, or to go over in her mind the information on Hidden Rain she had read hurriedly before leaving Konoha, but it was difficult. Hayate's face resided always just a tiny dip below the surface of her mind.
Limited merchant traffic on the roads, apparently most trade went north to the Earth country at this time of year, and few idle travelers robbed Yuugao of company. She could understand why this road was mostly empty; the roads through the Grass country to the north were much easier and swifter. Though the jungles of Rain lay between many lands few traveled them willingly, preferring to use this land as a barrier instead. Such things supposed suited the Rain ninja very well.
Those travelers who were present avoided Yuugao and would not speak to her. Hardly surprising, but it was isolating. She was a foreign ninja after all, and people would want nothing to do with such a person. Aside from the two rain ninja at the checkpoint yesterday, who had asked a few brief questions and then waved her on, the leaf kunoichi had not spoken to anyone since entering Ame. The forest about her was most quiet as well, with few sounds beneath the greater trees or penetrating from the upper canopy high above. She began to dislike the quiet, and wished for the vibrancy of Konoha. Ame, which she should reach shortly before evening, could not come soon enough for her.
The jungle only grew deeper the closer one went to hidden rain, becoming wetter and darker. The trees grew to mammoth size here, and their branches so thick it was impossible to see to the top of any tree any more. Thick grew the vegetation, vines and brambles of a very pale green, starved for light but struggling on even so, filling the air with life in three dimensions. The air grew brutally thick, and filled with strange scents and vapors. Yuugao forced herself to maintain regular breathing, knowing she must get used to this and there was no time to waste.
Approach to Ame was signaled by a descent in the road as it passed into a great bowl in the landscape. The trees grew even taller, if that was possible, Yuugao suspected they might reach well over a hundred meters above the floor, something she had never seen before, for nothing in the Fire country came even close. There was majesty to such incredible size, age and power seemed to radiate off these trees in a manner not possessed by other, lesser, plants.
Water dripped down constantly from the canopy high above, a steady drip flowing constantly continuing even as it hit the ground. Yuugao knew a lake rested at the bottom of this strange bowl in the land, beneath the village of hidden rain. She could not avoid slowly becoming soaked by this water, the whole air seemed saturated with it.
The road turned a corner, a rarity on its mostly straight path, and the hidden village suddenly emerged.
Yuugao drew in a small gasp in spite of herself.
The hidden village of rain did not reside on the ground but hung in the trees, built upon platforms or carved into great trunks. Hanging bridges of planks and rope lay strung throughout a three-dimensional maze, terrifically confusing to the mind at first glimpse. The ground beneath the great trees was marshy and confusing, it was immediately clear that it would not be easy to walk. The road continued on through the village, but on a boardwalk of great logs laid there. This was an innovative defensive measure and Yuugao began to admire the cunning of the rain ninja in creating this strange and maddening place. To attack such a place would be terribly hard, with many false routes and traps of vegetation lying all about and a maze-like system of conduits that could be changed or removed with great rapidity. A dangerous place this, Yuugao decided.
A single ninja waited at the edge of that boardwalk, looking clearly bored with his posting. Looking at him Yuugao thought this youth awfully young, probably only a genin, and concluded that their must be other guards in hidden places above, behind blinds or other masking devices. Taking a quick glance she spotted one or two candidate locations, but nothing more. This, more than anything, made her realize her lack of experience with this environment.
When Yuugao continued on, her initial visual inspection of the village complete, the genin guard stopped her. "If you are passing through Konoha-nin, you must take the road," he explained. "But if you have business in the village I shall direct you."
His speech was formal, but fairly courteous even so. Yuugao knew there was suspicion behind it, but there was nothing to be done about it. She didn't have many kind words for the Rain ninja either so it was presumably fair enough. "I have business in the village," the leaf kunoichi replied. "I shall need to speak with your head ninja first."
"Um, right," the genin nodded anxiously, recognizing quickly that Yuugao obviously outranked him and trying to be careful. "Follow the spiral stair up the tree to your right first," he gestured and Yuugao nodded when she saw the narrow creeping staircase that wrapped around one of the great trees. "When you get to the third landing," the genin continued. "There will be several bridges. Take the northwest one, um, its direction is the same as the road behind me." Yuugao grimaced; it was clearly going to be necessary to keep her wits about her if even such simple destinations as the headquarters of the village required complex directions. It would not do to become lost in a foreign village. "That bridge will lead to another intersection of bridges; take the one on the far right. The office is in a bole in one of the great trees." He reached up and pointed unerringly through the gloom to a spot in the distance.
"I see," Yuugao replied, and moved to hurry on her way before forgetting any part of the instructions.
It actually did not turn out to be that difficult to follow the indicated path, but it was obvious to Yuugao that directions would be necessary to get to any specific location for some time, perhaps as long as she was in hidden rain.
The great, knotted tree bole that contained the head ninja's office was roughly fifteen meters above ground, so the leaf kunoichi's best estimate indicated. A door crafted not of wood or metal, but of water, formed the entry to this place. A pair of guards flanked the sole opening in the howled trunk of the tree. Those guards stood at the edge of a stream of water channeled down from above through a clearly ingenious system of gutters and channels, so a slow waterfall continually crossed the portal and anyone who traversed it would perforce get wet. Strangely the guards stood within the boundaries of that water, not beyond it, so they must surely spend their entire watch soaking and cold. It made no sense to Yuugao, but served as a true caution, striking her sharp and deep with the realization of how far she was from home.
"You are expected," one of the guards told her. "Hurry up." His voice was gruff and unwelcoming, as the eyes of all who walked about in this village had been. Neither ninja nor citizen desired her presence here.
Yuugao nodded in answer, and stepped through, accepting the cold caress of the water.
Blinking free of the liquid's control Yuugao found herself in a large open hollow, carved out from the trunk of the mighty tree. The room was dim, illuminated by only a few simple and weak lamps. Few decorations were present, nothing but a few rugs thrown across the floor, clearly used to absorb the damp rather than provide any true welcoming presence. Only a single chair accompanied by a small table occupied this apparently spartan place.
Or so it seemed until Yuugao's gaze happened to turn upward. The ceiling was anything but simple. The strange sculpture of lines and shades was confusing at first, though clearly masterful. It took a flash of recognition for the kunoichi to realize what the ceiling contained, one in each half of the sphere. These were maps. Fully three-dimensional in relief they hung up there, frightfully detailed and expertly crafted, beautiful as murals in their way, but far more useful. The hidden village in all its myriad complexity and the Rain country in flowing contour resided there, most potent resources to have at one's disposal.
The maps were also a distraction of the first caliber. They stole the breath of visitor's even ones as aware as Yuugao, leaving her to completely miss the occupant of that one simple chair, ceding time and awareness, and thereby losing the first clash of the subsequent conversation before it had even begun. Until when the chair's resident spoke did the leaf ninja recognize that she'd been deceived.
"Welcome, Uzuki Yuugao, to the Hidden Village of Rain."
Chapter Notes:
Hito Morino: this name is something of a play on words. Rearranged it reads Mori no Hito, meaning 'Person of the Forest.' This is partly a tribute to uKino's Journey/u where the lead character had a small automatic pistol by that name.
Morikeishu: roughly 'Forest Guard'
The layout of Hidden Rain, and the maps on the ceiling of the headquarters, are repeated from uForged in Water/u but this look at the village will be rather more thorough.