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Today had good days and bad days, and today was not one of those good ones. The rain was fierce, bitter, cold. It was cold that bit through Hotarubi’s fingers in his human form, unable to stay in a rock form lest he lose the form. It was harsh, unending, and sapped the strength from his body as his eyes remained squinted, trying to work in all terrains and types. His fingers were numb, clenching them seemed to make the feeling coalesce into the entire hand as one big ball of numbness, he was starting to lose feeling. Even the shapes of the night were difficult to make out. One would have thought the temperate jungle environment made it warm and humid, and to a degree that was true: in the night, the canopy only seemed to trap the humidity, and the wind and rain brought the temperature down. A lethal combination. His body was soaked to the core as well – and he needed to take a break of sorts. He eventually made the executive decision after his concentration and general enthusiasm were failing to go sit himself under a tree until it calmed down enough to get back to some form of work. But the alternative, home, was looking mighty comfortable right about now.

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Hotarubi had been smart enough to bring a warming blanket. Not very stylish, but it was made of a great material that reflected body heat back into it. He had sat down cross legged, back as close to the underside of a tree as he could allow. And he sat there, unable to really make out much of the landscape before him. The dark hues of green and brown melded quite well with the darkness of the night and he only wished he had a better sensory type of ability that allowed him to perceive more of the world. But, it was calming in spite of how he felt about his rock body and water, and he let himself warm up – clutching at the material to keep it close to his body. The perturbing thought of being like this during a mission was damning. To wait in the darkness and outside the prying eyes of other predators. You kept quiet: but aside from the rain, Hotarubi could perceive no other animals. No snakes, spiders, lizards or other creepy crawlies that would have loved to turn Hotarubi into a meal. No, he would not become food today. Perhaps reflexively and out of comfort, trying to keep the rain off him, his body would turn back to stone and a sense of comfort returned.

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He was given little to no reason that he was being stared at – he was trying to use this opportunity to close his eyes, get some meditating out and let his core body temperature rise internally. He was attacked: something hit him. It was a strong force: not enough to knock him over but certainly enough to get a small noise of sound out – he didn’t know what was even going on, but that pressure was being applied to his body. Instantly trying to push back to whatever the force was, it curled over his neck. Hotarubi knew his area: this was a snake. There were quite a lot of animals, but the only one that would coil into someone? The pressure he felt was a snake. By this point, the silver-ish foil was compressed in his skin and making it difficult for him to even break his arm free of that. But, he had turned back to rock: a decidedly positive thing for the time being. He couldn’t see, so he would have to feel. Parts of his body were cracking from the pressure being caused. But, on his knees, wrapped in foil, there was little he could do currently as it applied its torque across his body, arms and neck.

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Hotarubi couldn’t help but feel this was shitty training. If he had been a human, this would have likely been it for him. His hands struggled against the coil and constriction, his arms trying to find a weak point in the scales. But, for better lack of word: his hand gripped through the foil. Fortunately for Hotarubi, he could feel it. The majority of its muscle was coming from the middle, and he was, for better lack of term – attached to this thing. He had a rough idea of where its head was. Thanking his use of the Yamakira bloodline, formed a slight edge with his hand – and thrusted at a particular direction. With the sound, and noise, and water sloshing around it was hard to tell whether or not there was any damage, but his strike struck true and glanced off the beast’s body. Taking advantage of the brief weak point created by his own strike: he was able to press forward and drop onto his front, further putting his own weight on the beast. Hotarubi himself was not a light thing, so with the majority of his weight on top of the Snake, Hotarubi began sort of shimmiying his body to almost flatten, much more specific hisses and turn of the Snake’s body – wildly curling and moving to try and knock Hotarubi off. But, being several hundred pounds was not easy: and he spread out his weight a bit more effectively.

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"You made a fuckin’ mistake-” Hotarubi was finally able to speak now, slowly climbing forward and shimmying toward the head of the snake and was actually winning in terms of the ongoing warfare: the Snake had lost what advantage it had gained by the night, seeing and feeling in the heat that was Hotaruib’s body. But now, he was relatively free with the remainder of its body behind him, he finally managed to grab hold of it’s head: on no account by first actually touching the inside of its mouth with his rocky fingers (disgusting) and then to it’s neck, and just repeatedly slamming it into the floor until the beast’s body had stopped fighting back so hard and was more taking on the damage. Hotarubi chose to end it’s life, dropping a fist on top of it’s head. Hotarubi could have been merciful, could have tossed it aside – but life wasn’t fair. It’s corpse would aid in the prolonging the life of the other predators of the forest. The rain was coming down heavily though, and he felt his composition getting melty. Melty being, moving his body was becoming difficult and slurry-like, he tried to retreat back underneath the tree. But, this time, there was no blanket – or what remainder of a blanket there was torn in several places in the ensuing fight against his body and that of the snake’s.

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So the next question was did he risk leaving the jungle knowing there might be other predators around? If so, he’d need to change back into a human form before it was too late, and he was encumbered and waterlogged. But being a human had its distinct problems. Spiders were unlikely to be out in this wetness but if there was one: a venom would easily penetrate through him long before he could turn to an earthen form. Problems, problems. Hotarubi would have to put some thought to it, not having really assessed the dangers correctly in being out in the jungle. Hotarubi would just have to try his best. He came to a stand, and would try and place the blanket over his head: the sounds of drops rapping against the foil material were nice. Being cold and wet was not, and to add insult to injury he tripped over the snake in trying to cross it. A few grumble words came from his mouth, and he couldn’t see anything. Where- which way was- he couldn’t tell. He sighed. He should have thought better about this. Nageku would freak if he realised Hotarubi’s mistake, not that he would ever admit it himself.

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Bumbling through the dark and in a relative direction that he could at least feel out was difficult. Whether or not he was moving further into the jungle was beyond him and he had to rely on his basic assessments when he entered the area to begin with. There had been a nearby water source that he had come to: so, he’d need to move away from that water source. That was the type of logic he was using. But, he was moving slowly, placing his feet ever so intricately in the places they needed to go, careful to raise his legs up high to make sure he didn’t catch them on branches. Keeping an ear out – feeling for his environment in the possibility there was another larger animal. There was a time limit as well before his body would start to give in from the water. So, he had to move at least quickly enough. By this point, he was more relying on his sense of hearing than his sense of sight: and he was also making good use of his sense of touch with that all so familiar sense he was trying to develop. Akira had given him a good idea- as did that other meditation person. So… he best suggested to himself that he tried to use this as an exercise.

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He kind of was developing the skill a bit, because he was using the sound and the noise to help feel out where he was going: learning how to best navigate through the dark, in the wet – noises were producing different things. It was a heavier rain if he was near an object, more open and loud rain when he wasn’t. That same feeling would need to be developed over more time, but he was glad he had even been training it at all. Hotarubi was sort of, feeling, everything around him. And it was working! He was able to not bumble around as he moved, as opposed to being completely in the dark. Sure, it wasn’t fine-tuned, it wasn’t perfect, and he certainly didn’t mentally see everything, but this was what it meant to be a shinobi: to develop those keen senses. Hotarubi was glad, even if out here and cold and in the dark and wet: that he had chosen to continue being a Shinobi again. Inside, it thrilled him from a perspective of being stronger than he had ever thought possible. This was just one task: and it reignited him with more passion and enthusiasm in the dull environment to keep moving through it.

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Hotarubi caught sight of a light as he moved: it made him stop, squint, and move around the tree he’d gotten himself by in the foliage. How long had he been at this? An hour? He had been lucky enough to actually move in the direction that was close to home, and the other sounds were wading away in lieu of more human like noises in the rain. But still, he wanted to make use of the sensory experience he’d just had in lack of his eyesight – feeling out his way. Under branch and thick thickets of wet leaves, or over a rock and between branches laid out to trip him up. And, eventually, he was in the village of Takigakure no Sato. Back in a place that was familiar to him, back on a road: he had come out on one of the roads – it was dark, the road relatively empty and he shook his head, the wet mop freeing itself of loose water particles. He smirked internally while his face looked monotonous: and he pulled the foil off his head area, opting to take on human form. The use of chakra was exhausting by this point, but he had succeeded in a new mission of sorts. "Oh fuck,” He forgot all of his equipment! He clicked through his teeth, mentally marking his position – he would need to return tomorrow. Back to a dead snake, and his remaining equipment out in the jungle somewhere. But today, he had tangled with the cursed vines and won.