[Arimura Kasumi]

template by punki of adoxography

my heart beats in patters to a broken sound

i'm a free animal, free animal

They would walk into the forest with an attentive pace, Inari following behind the wild haired woman curiously. Eventually she would catch up but would have to keep up fast to match the woman's surprising speedy pace. 

Inari asked a question about the animals of the forest and Kasumi turned her sanguine red eyes to her analytically. Curious girl, asking about the creatures surrounding them and not asking the obvious which every lunk that came through the forest asked her - 'can you be beaten?'. It showed that she had a greater mind beyond herself and was thoughtful about nature. Kasumi made a 'hmm'ing noise in the back of her throat as she took a sudden sharp left and walked into a treeline that seemed impossibly thick. 

"Follow my footing, dying girl, or you'll end up lost again..." Kasumi called out as she disappeared into the forebodingly heavy bushes and trees. And if Inari managed to follow Kasumi quite literally toestep for toestep, she'd find the path had opened up just slightly. If the girl took a wrong step though she'd find herself trapped in the forest without a clear direction. 

As they walked along the beaten path Kasumi eventually decided to answer her question. 

"Animals in my Hut are the only ones who seek out my aid, I do not control the creatures of this wood. The beasts and giant predators that haunt the depths are not at my beck and call. They do respect nature in their own way though... but I would not like for you to meet any of them in this thicket." 

Her voice was factual, but her tone had a lilt to it. Something foreign, southern. They would walk for an age, or at least it would feel like it with the heavy treeline pushing into them. Kasumi seemed at ease, however, not bothered by the cracking of branches and rustling of leaves all around them. They were in the wild and well off the beaten path. 

Eventually they would come out to clearing, seemingly popping up out of nowhere. In fact it was precisely where it was meant to be. One might have thought they had traversed to another realm; sky was a pale blue and dark, almost like they were stood in the clearing at high moon. A silver hue cast shadows over the occupants of the field. Here, there was no wildlife. Here there was no life at all, except the heartbeat of Inari and Kasumi. 

And in front of them? Stood a myriad stone statues, all too realistic and all in anguish or meditation. Kasumi wandered out into the midst of the statues, footsteps making nothing but a light crinkle on the grass. 

"Do you know what these are, dying girl?"

[Kimura Inari]

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Inari followed, doing her best to keep up with the woman, whose strides were strong and sure. So unlike her own, which were smaller, softer and lacking the confidence with which the sage moved. She seemed to have acquired herself a new nickname. Dying girl... It didn't sit well with her, not as well as she thought it would have, a small part of her still wished for it to not be so, but it also brought with it sorrow and bitterness about a life unlived. She couldn't expect herself to remain positive if she let that small spark grow, so she would cling to the other part of her, the more militaristic side, telling her to do what she could and make the best of it. [break][break]

She scrambled on, almost stumbling straight ahead when the woman took a sharp left, almost finding herself stuck in brambles before she carefully placed her feet where the other had already left a soft imprint of her foot. They'd walk in silence for a moment before the sage summoned the chuunin's attention away from the path and their feet. Of course, the idea of all the wild animals seeking out the sage for help was an idyllic vision only seen in children's books. She simply hummed to signal she had heard the woman. [break][break]

They walked through the wood, brambles catching on here and there, but the duo would wander deeper and deeper into the wood and slowly the song from birds and occasional rustling would quiet to an eerie silence. Mocha eyes locked on to the woman, unsure what they were doing here, but as the sage moved from the centre of her vision to reveal a sea of stone statues. Some contorted into odd shapes with painful expressions, others seemingly at peace in meditation. Eyes glanced at the sage before studying the statues further. They all possessed an eerie sense of realism Inari had never seen in a statue before, whoever had made them was extremely skilled at their craft. [break][break]
The woman asked and the question only served to put the chuunin slightly on edge, why would she ask? [break][break]
"Statues."

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[Arimura Kasumi]

template by punki of adoxography

my heart beats in patters to a broken sound

i'm a free animal, free animal

The clearing was silent. No birds chirped and no wildlife stirred. The place had an odd sense of sadness, stillness - a graveyard. And it was precisely what the place was. Kasumi wandered slowly through the statues, looking at each form with contemplation as Inari took in what she saw. 

"Nature," she began with a voice that hinted at wiseness beyond her perceived age, "is cruel. It demands more than what it offers and very few are capable of surviving those demands."

Kasumi had, in the process of explaining, wandered towards Inari. If the girl had been inspecting the statues, Kasumi would not stop her simply come to a halt near to her.

"This place is a proving grounds of sorts, it is where all of the Followers of the Snake Sennin test their abilities. The statues that you see before you are those that came before. Many of them have been here since before you were born, others, before I was born." 

Kasumi turned her gaze to the flame haired girl. 

"Others have been here less than a year. Nature has a high price to pay in order to be able to utilise it at your fingertips, but those that succeed become something not of this world. What do you feel, dying girl?" she would ask, once more using the moniker that Inari didn't appreciate. 

The Sage did not elaborate if it was a test, nor that she wanted to see if the girl had an affinity for the ancient chakra that ran through the place. 

[Kimura Inari]

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As Kasumi moved so did Inari, albeit more hesitantly, while the elder strode through with more grace and confidence, Inari took careful steps. Almost afraid to disturb something. The air was weird. Charged somehow, as if the very chakra in the air was dense enough to be felt. Her imagination, surely. A gentle hand came to brush against the cheek of a young-looking statue. Younger than her certainly. Mocha eyes studied it as she listened to the woman. [break][break]
A Proving ground could mean many things, but since it belonged to the Snake Sennin, it could only mean these were once humans. As she said. Inari pulled her hand back, looking from the statue to the sage, a bit unsettled by the fact. What did she want her to do? What did she feel? She would look to the petrified teen she had been inspecting. What had they felt? Had they felt the slight hint of goosebumps she was feeling? Although if that was due to the newly found knowledge or the strange energy of the quiet place was a coin toss. Inari couldn't tell the difference. Unsure of how to answer, she simply said what went through her head. [break][break]
"Unsettled, even more so now that I know all these ar.. Were humans. How did they end up like this?"
[break][break]She looked up at the Sage, her brow slightly tense with worry, how could they have ended like this? Some looked peaceful, others frightened. Clearly their final moments had been different.
[break]

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for Arimura Kasumi

OOC NOTE

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[Arimura Kasumi]

template by punki of adoxography

my heart beats in patters to a broken sound

i'm a free animal, free animal

Unsettled was at least a truthful answer, but not quite the one the Sage had been looking for. Perhaps the girl was taken in too much by how the oppression of the clearing they were in felt. It had been a long time since Kasumi had first entered the clearing, but it had taken her breath away too.  Kasumi watched Inari carefully, skirting around the edge of the statues slowly, watching as the dying girl looked at the statues with a little more scrutiny. 

"Natural chakra is what a Sage uses to grant them their abilities. But it comes at a cost. If you do not master it and let it overwhelm you, this is the result. This place is a memorial for all those who thought they had what it took to master nature." 

Now she'd given more clarity on the place they were standing in, the woman would cross to Inari and motion to the floor, following suit by hunkering down and crossing her legs together. If Inari copied her they'd be sat opposite one another, knees just touching. 

"I'd like you to feel your surroundings, not what you feel, but what this area provides. There is natural chakra in the air all around us, it is why you feel like it is hard to breathe. But if you can push past that, use your own chakra, force the surroundings around you to react to you. Not too much, but just the right amount to bypass the heaviness."

She'd give the girl a few moments to situate herself and ready her own mind. And if she did and began to push her own chakra out into the mixture of natural chakra? She'd ask, her voice quiet:

"What do you feel?"

 Her answer was more important than Kasumi let on.

[Kimura Inari]

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To master nature? It sounded impossible. Nature was supposed to be this unstoppable, constant force. Capable of great feats even if they weren't swift and flashy, the world was wonderful and capable of miracles if you were willing to understand and open your eyes to them. The statues were people who had danced with the world and all its might, but fallen out of step. A fatal mistake it seemed. She was far from truly understanding what had transpired here, but she had an idea. [break]
The Sage's words explained further and she invited her to sit, knees touching and the entire situation stirred something in Inari, an almost nostalgic feeling which brought forth an old memory of playing in the fields until you were exhausted enough to just lie there and listen. [break][break]
On the other's request she would close her eyes and try to feel the world around her. The heavy sense of natural chakra, as the Sage had explained, obvious and for a few moments, it seemed to simply be a wall you couldn't scale, break or otherwise tamper with.
[break][break]Push past that...[break][break]
Inari was used to sending bursts of chakra out to ensnare enemies in illusions, but... Would it be the same here? She tried. Her chakra coming out in a dome around her, much like when she changed the environment to confuse opponents. Hr chakra met the wall as well, but... Then she found cracks. Or perhaps it was her own chakra engaging with the natural chakra around her? Nah, it couldn't possibly be that. [break]
She did manage to find a new place, a more peaceful one. A place where it felt as if the heartbeat of the earth beat below her, the whisper of trees were conversations. Or at least it was what her mind thought would fit the most and be most interesting.[break][break]"Life. And peace. if that makes any sense. It is... " Her brows furrowed slightly in concentration. She was missing a word for it. A city could be peaceful, but this was another thing altogether. A different, more ancient kind of peace.

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Arimura Kasumi

[attr="class","iwbtr-credit"]SELKIE

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[Arimura Kasumi]

template by punki of adoxography

my heart beats in patters to a broken sound

i'm a free animal, free animal

The dying girl would concentrate. Kasumi felt her chakra breach into the air around her, trying to grasp at what she could feel. Feet would move to stop beside Inari as Kasumi reached down to touch the girl on the forehead as she pressed out with her chakra and described what she could feel. 

"Touch the statue before you. Their souls are long gone from this realm, but their residual passing remains. I will grant you a small fraction of my chakra in order for you to keep pushing beyond the wall in front of your chakra. Force your will onto the statue. Tell me what you feel."

It seemed the girl didn't have any choice. But then again she didn't have any choice over her impending demise either, it seemed. And so the Sage would push natural chakra upon the girl, only a small portion, to allow Inari a glimpse into the world of raw energy. Perhaps what Kasumi could have explained was there being a high chance if the girl did not have the affinity to control the natural chakra she too would turn to stone just like the statue in front of her. 

Should she succeed? There would be a very brief moment where Inari would experience the last dying breaths of the man in front of her, cruel and as harsh as it was, but a pivotal moment for the dying girl to understand what destiny laid before her.

[Kimura Inari]

[attr="class","graves"]

[attr="class","image"]

[attr="class","lyrics"]Never be ashamed, my love,
all hearts are open graves

[attr="class","postcontent"]


The other moved, Inari didn't register it right away. Too lost in the sensations of the world the sage asked her to peek into. It was no good. She was supposed to be on alert, all the time. You were never truly safe when you knew what went on in the shadows... The other's voice and touch would bring her back to the world and she would do as instructed, still feeling as if she had one foot in the odd floaty place where up and down were ever-changing and the pressure of raw energy threatened to spill over and drown her. She went through the motions, felt the rough stone beneath the skin of her fingers, felt the surge of power go through her as the sage injected some of her own chakra, just enough to help her step past the threshold. 

She felt streaks of peace, of energy flowing and spreading through, like ripples in a pond. The power spread. Her skin buzzing with energy, her eyes squeezed shut. Her breath remained steady. Steady as her heart. But was it hers? Or this... morphed statue she was beside? Everything seemed alright. She had never felt more alive. But... As if a cup overflowed, the peace turned to liquid panic, then the realization of... something. She felt her legs grow immovable, then the rest of her lower body, only when she felt it creep up over her mouth and past her eyes did she pull away from the statue. She would look between the statue and the sage. The peace she had felt was gone. The power too... her heartbeat like a frightened rabbit in her chest. 

 "Wh-what was that? It felt like... As if my body froze in place as if..." 

She looked to the statue. 

"As if I was turning to stone..."

❄

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[Arimura Kasumi]

template by punki of adoxography

my heart beats in patters to a broken sound

i'm a free animal, free animal

Dying girl would go still, chakra would be accepted like a well and the girl would siphon without realising. Nothing to the mundane eye would change, but to a sensor? A world of patterns and glorious vibrations - natural chakra was always intrinsic and wonderful, like an unsung symphony. And Inari was experiencing it through, mostly, first hand. 

Wisdom. Relaxation. At first. That was what Kasumi had expected and she anticipated what would happen next. Dying girl, unfortunately, would not. Panic overcame the tranquility and the vibrations would turn erratic and dark as the energy overcame the memory. Inari would go rigid, like a step into the past, and Kasumi would remove her hand from the girl silently, reptilian eyes watching to see whether Inari too would go the way of stone. 

A danger, for sure, but the dying girl had seemingly survived. Eyes would open and contact would be made with the Sage. Confusion, then surprise. And then confirmation of stone. 

"Sages can push beyond the mortal realm, in a sense. We ascribe to a level higher than shinobi and owe a fealty to nature itself. In return for that dedication we are granted the power to protect nature. If you deviate, or are not strong enough to receive the boon..." she'd pause and tilt her head towards the statue. 

"All of the statues in this garden are failed Sages to some degree. They either tried to take power for their own good or were not strong enough to answer its Calling. If you had not been strong enough to accept the Calling, you'd be stone currently," Kasumi would say matter of factly, revealing she knew the danger of allowing the girl to tap into natural chakra, "what does that make you, Dying Girl?"

[Kimura Inari]

[nospaces][googlefont=Roboto:400,400i,700|Montserrat:800]


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[attr="class","se-LIGHTVER"]

[attr="class","snakeEyesPost"]

[attr="class","snakeEyesHeader"]

you kept rolling

snake eyes

[attr="class","snakeEyesBody"]

The strange wildling woman was… Radiant. For a moment, it was as if the world was clearer, the color of the woman’s hair dancing like fire. Skin shimmering with a faint trace of scales. Perhaps it had all been her imagination, but in that moment, where the sage was standing -peaceful- she seemed as vibrant as the energy Inari had felt all around her. [break][break]
Mocha eyes fell away from the woman, seeking to study the statue. Had it been ambition or weakness which had driven them to challenge the world around them? Her words echoed in Inari’s thoughts. What, indeed, did that make her? Certainly not a sage - someone who mastered the dance with nature. No, at most she was… But she couldn’t be. She had never been destined for anything great. And yet… dipping her hand into the other world had felt like life had returned to normal. A normal she couldn’t truly remember anymore. Her eyes once again sought the sage’s. [break][break]
"A candidate. But… even nature can’t stop death.” [break][break]
She dared nor nurture the hope springing to life in her chest. Death was part of nature, to defy it was unnatural. So what could she do with this information? She was not well-versed in the world of sages and nature chakra, she certainly didn't have time to dive headfirst into a new art form. [break]
Slowly, her heart sank in her chest. This - a sage's world- was interesting. The small girl residing inside the shinobi would have jumped at the chance to live in a world where everything was as vibrant as the sage had been, where she was free to spend her days exploring meadows, feeling the grass under her feet. Perhaps if they had met when she was just a child, her story would have been a different one...

[break][break]

notes
--

[attr="class","snakeEyesCredit"]SELKIE

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[Arimura Kasumi]

template by punki of adoxography

my heart beats in patters to a broken sound

i'm a free animal, free animal

There'd be explanation and confirmation from Inari, but it was laced with doubt. The Sage would smile knowingly at the girl. What indeed could stop death? The woman would tilt her head to the side, wild orange flames dropping down her shoulder as she looked over the girl. 

Apprentices could be found in the unlikeliest of places, though Kasumi had never thought such a whelp of a child would have what it took. But then a memory flashed back to her as a child, lost and malnourished wandering through the swamps of southern Hi no Kuni and the snake scales that had followed her and led her to safety. Not all Sages needed to look powerful to be powerful. 

"And you think nature cannot defy death?" she'd query mysteriously, "of course nature comes hand in hand with death, but there are certain... avenues one can take to offset nature. A Sage is a champion of nature and without them, nature would surely be overcome. Sacrifice reaps benefit."

Of course... the woman couldn't defy every single death. But there were rumours that Kasumi could shed her skin, step out unharmed into a battle. She knew too that on deaths door she could defy her own fate. For a price. But it was certainly possible and death didn't mean the end of all things. Yet. To defy death meant a bigger sacrifice over all. 

"There are ways, but you will not be told them. Not until you make a commitment to the natural energies of the world and to cast off all other duties to potentially become what I am."

It was an offer like no other.

[Kimura Inari]

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[attr="class","se-LIGHTVER"]

[attr="class","snakeEyesPost"]

[attr="class","snakeEyesHeader"]

you kept rolling

snake eyes

[attr="class","snakeEyesBody"]

The woman, the one who was renowned as a strange one, but… beneath all the jibes and comments on her appearance, lay a fearsome reputation. One Inari had only heard whispers about here and there. It spoke of a woman… No. A snake. A god. Something which seemed to know all, to rise not when the people needed her, but when nature found itself at the mercy of the humans’ need for destruction. She was rebirth. The one who would let a forest fire rage if the land needed, it, but just as swiftly stop it if it did not. [break][break]
Mocha eyes grew with wonder, with apprehension. For how could someone like her, small, mediocre in ability as of late, become someone who could hold a candle to such a being? It was simple. She couldn’t. Not as she was and certainly not as what she would become did she not move from the path she was on now… Did she dare attempt to fight? To carve a new path through territory she did not know? [break][break]
Part of her, a small ember of the will of fire, urged her to accept. [break][break]
"All I can do is listen. And try… if you will have me.”[break][break]
Hesitant, but with more conviction than before. If the woman would indeed have her, she would devote herself to it. It couldn’t possibly be worse than her shinobi career was now. She had planned on retreating into the hills anyway. So what if she followed this being around? If anything, she could provide the sage some entertainment.
[break][break]

notes
--

[attr="class","snakeEyesCredit"]SELKIE

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