Wandering Forest

First topic message reminder :

This forest is known as one of the largest forest in the lands. It is so thick and large that it has been known that people enter into this forest and have never come out. Due to this fact, the people gave the forest it's name of Wandering Forest since you will wander around aimlessly, never knowing where you are goin.

The Wandering Forest might have been big and forbidding to some, but to Hitomi, it was home away from home- and since that silly soldier, the silly man, hadn't given a thought to let her into the village because he was so busy staring off into space, the little girl decided to visit the beloved woodland. She held onto the parasol Amazora had given her rather carefully as she traipsed around the trees, shaking water off herself as a dog would after a rain shower.

Unconsciously, she shifted her shoulders, an unknown but common shiver/itch running down both of her shoulder blades. She thought about going to The Tree of Life, but decided against it. After all, the day had only begun for her in the Wandering Forest. The energy of her body, her unceasingly leaping and lively chakra, thrummed within her veins, making her feel even more alive than usual. It was, indeed, a magnificent day to be alive; and the overwhelming responses from her chakra channels were conducive to the heady excitement.

The rain clouds had left the sky, leaving it clear, clean, and blue. The sun shone gently upon the forest, making Hitomi grateful to be there. However, it was still cold- and Hitomi's skin was almost blue in its excursion from the freezing rain.

"I wonder how Ame-chan is doing. Kage-sama must be kind to her."

TP

(WC: 1540, TP: 227, Total: 1767)

It was strange- even for Hitomi, that her chakra levels were becoming so high. Her existing chakra levels upon an ordinary basis were already extraordinarily high. Now, however, they bubbled even higher, as though she had chosen a prize soldier pill and had swallowed it. Firstly, Hitomi was far too young- not to mention quite lacking in rank- to buy soldier pills. Secondly, she did not exactly require a soldier pill at the time- and there seemed to be no other stimuli that would provoke a rise in chakra levels. Of course, Hitomi did not think of these; she merely started feeling strange and thought it strange that she was feeling, indeed, strange. She started jogging, trying to jog off the chakra. This, however, proved to be insufficient, as the levels were still increasing. Shrugging, she broke into a run, at which point her skin, unbeknownst to her, started *glowing*. Yes- and it was not as though it were glowing in health. Nay, it (the glow) was expanding in size, with a white nimbus outlining her figure and accentuating her already very pale skin. The nimbus expanded and faded from white to a blue-purple, or quite indeed, indigo. The faster Hitomi attempted to run, the more intense and even larger the aura became. Soon, she was sprinting blindly, racing towards a random spot in the forest and breathing rather hard. Still, she did not feel *tired*; quite the contrary, she became more and more *energized*, and the chakra began to even hurt. She tried her very best to hold back the scream of pain bubbling from her vocal cords and succeeded…until she found herself right on collision course with a large tree. The pain of crushing herself right onto a trunk that felt as hard as the iron of her kunai as well as the increasingly painful push of her chakra levels released the scream…and, well the scream released a detonation of sorts.

“AAAAH!”

BOOM.

A very LARGE and VERY indigo detonation that created concussions within the wind and earth that could be felt from a long, long ways away.

(WC: 1540, TP: 557, Total: 2117)

(New Technique discovered and learned! E Rank: Seishou Iro – Chakra Coloring, Mitsukai Clan Kekkei Genkai Technique)

((Not to train on your parade, but you only gain TP in training grounds/in fights, and this is neither ^^;
Also, erm, I think you mixed up WC/TP counts XD))

Novaix wrote:

((Not to train on your parade, but you only gain TP in training grounds/in fights, and this is neither ^^;
Also, erm, I think you mixed up WC/TP counts XD))

Teehee, liike Novaix, you have like really great eyes!

But...like, you didn't really like rain on my parade, like not even if I was like really wrong. 'Tomi's like a wandering nin, who like gains TP from anything she does like outside a major village. It's like right under the part in the training systems where like the regular training rules are like put. Thank you for like the reminder, though!

And, yeah, like I didn't really mix those up even though I get like why you'd think I did. XD Like, I just combiinned the counts because like I like keeping track of like ALL my WC counts, TP or WC eitherwise.

The blast had made the winds blow with a renewed fury. Hitomi groaned in an almost raspy way, her tear-streaked face contorted in pain. She tried to sniff- but gasped in renewed pain as reverberations of blood and throbbing from her now broken nose emanated from the broken cartilage and bone. The tree’s trunk had left its mark upon the girl who lay sprawled on the ground.

"Owww...."

She looked up at the mammoth tree that she had run into, quite by accident, of course. It had to be one of the largest, if not the largest tree in the Wandering Forest. Hitomi could also hear a faint humming coming from the tree, as though it were contemplating life in the forest as well as swaying in the wind. Now that she thought of it, it was swaying far too much for a tree of its size- and its humming was rather loud. It did not stop her from trying to get up, to stand upon its mighty roots. A hand she extended towards the tree to press upon its smooth-barked trunk, so that she may lean upon its mighty girth and facilitate her move back to proper posture. If she was also looking for a way to recover from pain and chakra explosions, it was certainly one of the biggest mistakes she ever made.

The moment her hand contacted the trunk, yet another explosion occurred. This time, the explosion light was pure white laced with golden rays- and it emanated more intensely- nay, more primarily from her back. The pain returned in epic proportions with the light, and once again, poor Hitomi could not help but scream, even more loudly, in agony as she arched her back, left hand upon the tree, right hand clutched in a fist, body draped upon the ground and the tree’s earthy roots.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

The sound of ripped fabric drowned desperately in the scream and the roar of the light; light converged upon her back, materializing and becoming more concrete, as though it were forming into an object, or rather two, upon her back.

Light also swarmed Hitomi’s pain-ridden face- repairing her broken nose and cleaning away the scarlet blood.

Feathers of light danced upon the wind, creating a whirlwind of light, of feathers. Golden, indigo, and white light flickered prominently in the whirlwind. It was a spectacular and impressive spectacle that went on for about a minute, lighting the dark skies for miles around. It dissipated as soon as Hitomi collapsed, exhausted and breathless. The wind died down, and Hitomi’s delicate frame was sheltered by two large, white wings that seemed to emanate a wholesome glow of light. Their light pulsed rhythmically in unison with Hitomi’s heartbeat, and curled around her body, protecting and comforting it from the chaotic changes it had weathered.

Whether she knew and liked it or not, the little wandering kunoichi Hitomi was a Mitsukai: a human-angel hybrid, and would face much unwanted attention from others if she wandered into any form of civilization with her wings exposed. She would have to learn how to seal them- and that would not come easily.

Around her limp hands, circular bands of light formed, gleaming dangerously as a warning to any who came by and meant their owner any harm. Even unconsciously, Hitomi had stumbled upon a stroke of luck: someone or something was watching over her.

(WC: 1540, TP: 557+566-200= 923; TECHNIQUE LEARNED: Halo Chakram, C rank, -200 TP)

It seemed an eternity before Hitomi's frame moved, ever so slightly. The girl herself had slowly begun to revert back to consciousness from her knock-out session. She heard faint crunching as she came to, but felt far too comfortable on the ground to really care and take heed.

Hitomi tried to move her fingers. They twitched, and then clutched at themselves, attempting to form a fist, a loose fist.

"OUCH! Oww...."

Her fingers had wrapped themselves unwittingly around the sharp bands of light that shown even more brightly when she had taken a hold of them. They drew blood and had made shallow cuts upon her pale palms and fingers. As soon as the pain had hit, Hitomi leapt up, sitting, in surprise. She blinked, biting her bottom lip, wordlessly commanding them to go away. They dissipated with the sunlight, causing Hitomi to take in a breath of relief.

Then, she turned around, still clueless about the appendages that extended, prominently, from her back.

".....Ame-san?"

At this point, Hitomi was sufficiently confused. Firstly, she felt abnormally light and heavy at the same time, Secondly, she was located in a portion of the Wandering Forest she was actually unfamiliar with. Lastly, but certainly not least, Amazora stood in front of her, left arm hanging off on a strange angle, holding a *kunai* while staring at her.

Nevertheless, Hitomi was never one for being rude. She carefully picked up the now..."sparking" umbrella from the ground and presented it to the cautious ninja.

"Ame-san, it's your umbrella. I'm sorry, I think I got it dirty, but at least it's not broken. And why are you staring at me like that? And why are you here? I thought you went to go see Kage-sama. Where's Red?"

Hitomi's shoulders slumped in relief when she saw that Amazora did not mind too much the damage done to the umbrella. She silently swore to herself that she would either have the umbrella fixed or even customize a new, battle-worthy one for the kind girl when she had the money and opportunity.

Her sense of peace, however, was short-lived. It was murdered by Amazora's next statement.

"Hey, um, I think you got cancer."

For a few seconds, Hitomi gaped in disbelief at her friend, mouth firming in preparation for a retort, that it was incredibly impossible for her, a healthy thirteen-year-old ninja, to have something as ridiculous as *cancer*.

"Cancer? Oh, come on, I'm-"

Her statement broke off abruptly when she *finally* noticed that Amazora, despite her broken arm, was gesturing- nay, pointing at....at her back?

Hitomi reached a bleeding right hand toward her spine. What she expected to be thin air...turned out to be something smooth and slightly warm. She gasped in shock, her face blanching violently. Her other hand reached for the other side of her back, finding that the same applied for the other side of her back. Extending from her back were wings, that if extended to their maximum length, were a little over seven feet long per wing, startlingly large for a fledgling Mitsukai.

She screamed in confusion, and then muttered to her wings, clutching at them,

"Go away, go away, go away!"

Almost immediately, the wings faded, leaving behind little trace of their appearance. Hitomi's breathing had accelerated, almost as though she were hyperventilating- and, as such, she did not notice the disappearance of the appendages, nor the new burning sensation right behind her left shoulder, where a newly marked, indigo-colored tattoo appeared to reveal her heritage when wings would not.

She involuntarily collapsed into a sitting duck position on the ground, rocking back and forth as her voice faded and her breathing rapidly hitched back and forth, back and forth. Amazora's next words went unheeded; Hitomi was not in any state to consider candy, or even Amazora's repulsion towards Red.

Clearly, Hitomi was not taking the transformation well at all.

(WC: 1540, TP: 923+649-100=1472, NEW TECHNIQUE LEARNED: Wing Seal, D Rank, -100 TP)

"Okay, you, man the fuck up! Who cares if you're a mutant freak? You're going to get up on this twiggy legs and you're gonna get out of this forest before a hyena or a jaguar comes out to eat us, y'got it? Now ain't the time for PTSD or a blue screen of death or your personal shit."

Hitomi shrieked shrilly in adverse surprise when Amazora's umbrella made contact with her body. Pushing the umbrella away with her fairly prodigious physical strength, she gasped after hearing those words, staring at her hands, which were now glowing with indigo, white, and golden lights.

"Not even I know where we are, Ame-san. I've never seen this tree before. Out of all the places we could be, we're both in a place I am unfamiliar with in the Wandering Forest."

After finishing that sobering statement, Hitomi then gestured uncertainly at the umbrella that she had contacted with the gauntlet-like shroud surrounding her hand.

"Ame-san...I think I kind of damaged your umbrella again..."

As she spoke, her feet started shining in unison with her hands. Both glows solidified- both her hands and feet were armored, with chakra, as it were. The chakra around her feet became something akin to iron...WHITE iron.

The most surprising, however, was yet to come. The TREE behind Hitomi started shining, its green energies filling the area. A shining white outline began to form at the base of its roots, which, in synchronization with the tree, started growing, growing, and...growing. It did not seem to stop until the roots were as tall as the two kunoichi themselves; and the hum of the tree had become all-too conspicuous. Hitomi turned around and once again turned white. This was not a normal day.

(-400 TP, TWO TECHNIQUES LEARNED: Gauntlet Strikes and Angel Boots, both C Rank, -200, -200 TP)

(WC: 1540 WC, TP: 1472-400+292= 1364 TP....UPDATING PROFILE)

Something about the tree *drew* Hitomi to the base of its roots. She started scrabbling, slowly, to a gap in the roots, where the ground actually appeared and led her down, down, down, where despite the depth, there was more light emanating from the tree than anywhere else. Amazora might have been thinking about how following Hitomi would definitely warrant a second thought, but if Amazora also was curious about what fantastic event would occur next, she need not have worried about following Hitomi.

"Ame...Ame-san?"

By now, wherever Amazora was had she not followed Hitomi to the base of the roots, she would have felt a great rumbling and writhing from the roots as they separated and made way for a path and (was this even possible?) great doorway leading *into* the tree.

"Ame-san, I think you'd wanna come see this. It's so cool!"

From the "down, down" came an "up, up". The entrance led to a steep staircase grown out of the tree's wood, leading up and up and up. Hitomi had climbed for a while before remembering that Amazora's physical condition was not to be trifled with. She made her way down again, to attempt to help her up the steps.

"Don't worry, Ame-san, I don't think it means us any harm. He's telling me to go up and then find him. The tree, that is."

Whatever Hitomi was hearing from that song, it was apparently growing stronger by the minute. An idiot would be able to tell that the thrumming from the tree was a summons.

Hitomi giggled when she heard Amazora's last statement. The tree's humming also seemed to throb with deep-throated and sonorous chuckles, which made Hitomi grin even more. She hefted Amazora's good right arm around her shoulders, and since Amazora was much taller than she was, it was fairly easy for her to support her friend and even speed up her progress up the steep staircase. Before long, even Hitomi was breathing hard and blinking sweat out of her eyes. Her thighs burned, but the tree's humming encouraged her, refreshed her.

"Come...on.....let's....keep.....on....going...!"

It seemed a long time, but before too long, Hitomi and Amazora had reached the top of the stairs. The sight was something to behold...they were standing in a gently glowing atrium. It was glowing green- the light of healing chakra. The light emanated from a source in the middle of the chamber, a massive source of multi-colored-chakra that pulsed and hummed in approval. With little warning other than an expansion of area, the body of chakra sent out a stream of green light that split into several different branches, so to speak. They gestured toward Amazora.

"Thou art injured. Wilt thou accept my help? Thy friend hath carried thee far...let not her labour be in vain, prithee."

Hitomi could only gawp at the source.

The chakra source seemed to overflow with merriment, and the tree itself shook in tree-laughter.

"Ah, thou art a saucy one. Thou doth not have a 'match-box' in thy pockets, for thou wouldst done so before journeying upward to greet me. And...I am thy only route back to thy village. Thou hadst become truly lost in my woods. I shan't lead thee back unless thou hast agreed to the healing of thy injuries. What wilt it be, little one? Sauciness or common sense?"

A sigh seemed to ripple through the tree, along with some additional laughter.

"Such wit and intelligence and yet much foolishness thou harbors within thy mind...very well. Farewell thee both well, little ones."

The chakra source expanded- and with a flash, both of them disappeared from the inside of the tree.

((Back to the Iwa gates...I can like only hope that like Nyrax is there to let us in. ))