Anika stood deep within a cave in the river country. She was given the location as a tip on "ancient knowledge will be found here" from a strange, cloaked old man. Despite the sketchy nature of the situation, she decided to check it out. The cave's entrance was located on a cliff side, next to a running river. The entrance was tightly sealed with a rock over the entrance, containing fuuinjutsu. Odd. Quickly, she unsealed the rock, and it fell beneath the water, slowly and ominously. Slowly, she walked inside the unsealed room.
It was a large room slightly smaller than an oval shaped football field. The water receded about halfway into the room, where an earthen peninsula jutted out. On the back wall in the center, a opening to more cavern the size of a normal doorway could be seen. Naturally, she walked over to the tunnel, and continued forward.
It was getting dark now that the opening of the cave grew farther and father away. After a handseal, a small orb of fire appeared to her hand; illuminating her way like a torch. The tunnels were winding, with weird glyphs on the walls, sporadically. She paused occasionally to try and decipher them, but she was unable to. It must have been some kind of old complex language. Being in the cave around a half hour now, she was really wondering when all this downward cave traveling would end up in a result. Soon after, she noted a bight light at the end of her path. Quickly, she ran to it.
'Click...Click...'
It was a large room, similar to the previous room, however it was completely illuminated by torches on the walls. Someone had been here recently. On all the walls were the glyphs she couldn't decipher with some pictures scattered here and there. It was beautiful. Anika walked to the wall and traced some of the symbols with her hands. Continuing to do this, she walked down the wall wondering what they could mean. Almost tripping, Anika regained her balance and looked to see what she tripped on. It was a purple scroll. Naturally, she bent down and opened it up.
In the beginning, it was a key for each symbol lining up with a phonetic way to pronounce something. It was a long key; seeing as there are many ways to pronounce things. Upon further scrutiny, she realized not only was it a code, but a language. Opening the scroll further, it began to read like a diary entry.
The EntryShow
So far what I've gathered from this place is that some thousands of years ago, the legends are correct. The cataclysm did occur, spurring life to Genma and humans themselves. Bloodlines were formed under the crossbreeding between Genma and human along with the ability to form ninjutsu. The Ancient Panel confirms this. According the the Panel, from what I can decipher, the wellspring still exists, and is still active. It is not as active as it was when the genma were first created, but it's still a rift. It is pumping out chakra at a rate of -insert long equation Anika skipped over reading cuz it was too long-. If one could harness the power of the wellspring, they could easily level countries. The damage output would be fanatic. The problem is getting to the wellspring. It is located
It was her companions, Sora and Takiwa dressed in a weird garb. White cloaks with weird glyphs were scattered across their clothing. No smiles, no happy to see you, nothing. They were not there to simply say hi. They were her newborn enemies.
"Seems like you want an explination." Takiwa began, "You're going to die anyway, so you might as well know the truth. We are a part of a syndicate, one that wishes to harness the energy of the wellspring, to well, rule the planet. What you're looking at behind you is a coded transcription from a genma of long ago on to all the secrets of the planet. How it got there, we're not quite sure. Which genma wrote it? We haven't gotten that far either. We haven't even decoded what the whole thing says. But we do know the approximate location of the Wellspring, and have. For years. We say approximate, because the location's description in this cave gives a rough guide over miles of area. You were taken as a child near this dig as an exploration but weren't disclosed of your uncle's true intent. We were ambushed by another opposing group, but many of our members were wiped out at that time, along with the rebel group as well.
Your uncle was a member of our syndicate.
That's when we met. All the Kirigakure and Iwagakure ninja? All a genjutsu created so you would not know the truth. We let you see all the dead bodies in hopes you'd never come back. We are closer than ever to finding it, and well, we can't have you knowing this. It's protocol to exterminate individuals who gain access to our intel without being a member. While it was nice knowing you, this is our goodbye."
The two formed handseals, as Anika did. She was still in shock a bit, but she had to fight. Her life depended on it. Quickly, she breathed out a large layer of hot steam covering the battlefield. From the new opponents direction, two large boulders came flying at her. Ducking, they just barely missed her. One of the ninja stayed put, while another ran behind her.
"Are you forgetting who taught you sensory, you ignorant girl!
Thats right. Takiwa was a sensor, but Sora was not. Judging by the vocal place, it had to be Takiwa behind her. Feeling a rumbling beneath her feet, she dodged another spike, but just barely, as it grazed her left thigh. Forming handseals, she quickly inhaled gathering steam in her mouth. As the target sprinted in range, she let out a large burst of steam in it's direction, which, she heard Takiwa scream in agony. Her steam across the battlefeild fading, on the ground before her was a old man, blackened in body; skin practically melting off.
Analyzing his condition, Anika was unaware of Sora about to deliver a suckerpunch-style roundhouse to her face from behind. It landed point blank sending Anika soaring across the room and colliding with the wall. Attempting to recover from the kick, she looked over at the two ninja. Sora was clutching his father as he was telling him his final words. What he was saying, Anika didn't know. Sora was a mess crying. Anika slowly got up as his father took his last breaths. He put him down slowly as an evil glare crept across his face at his girlfriend. Or were they not dating now because of her killing his father. Awkward.
"He should have eliminated you..." Sora began, speaking quietly, "I feel like he didn't even want to dodge the attack...
I love you, Anika. I can't let you leave here and live. They'll kill you, and me. So as star crossed lovers, we're going to die today here. Together."
"Sora, you're delusional. We can do something. We can stop these people together. It will--"
"No. You're wrong! Our lives are over. Let's go to the afterlife together Anika!"
Sora formed handseals, and a rumbling as if an earthquake hit shook the cave. On Sora's right side a large boulder from the ceiling fell. And then another fell behind Anika. And then another to the left of Anika. He was trying to lodge them in there. She needed to get to the door and fast. Sprinting, she formed handseals creating a barrier around herself.
"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" yelled Sora, demonically. He formed handseals, and a large bolder few at Anika. Her barrier however, shrugged off the attack. Barely, she made it to the tunnel, as a gigantic boulder cut off the doorway. Off in the distance she could hear her former lover screaming as more boulders came crashing down more rapidly. The tunnel itself started to rumble, and a boulder fell to block her path. It was small, seeing as the tunnel was small. She could probably just blast them to bits and keep moving. After forming handseals, she ran forward punching the rock with her Yugiton chakra. It did as she hypothesized, and broke into a dusty mess. She darted forward obliterating the rocks in her path till she got to the entrance room.
The Opening of the cave was still visible but not for long. Boulders were filling the room, Anika was already having to dodge them. With handseals, she made a cuboidal barrier at the entrance, which was just in the knick of time; as the entrance collapsed around the barrier. She darted through the cube to the exit of the river and dispelled her barrier. Immediately, rock oozed from the opening. They cave and her teammates, her only friends, had been destroyed. Anika fell to her knees on the river's water top as all of this began to hit her.
"My Lords we have a problem."
"What."
"Out with it!"
"Two of our members compromised one of our greatest assets. The Ancient Panel Cave has been rightly destroyed. They are now dead as well."
"HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!"
"GOD DAMNIT WE HAVEN'T EVEN FINISHED YET."
"Which two. Takiwa? I mean, he's the only one not here..."
"Takiwa and his son, Sora. They were fending off a ninja who gained access into the cave according to our surveillance Fuuin. We should have locked it better. The woman killed Takiwa, and Sora managed to trap them in there. Himself and her."
"Well this is unfortunate"
"No, it's bullshit!"
"Those ignorant fools!"
"Roku-kun, are you positive the woman ninja is dead"
"We can't be for certain. There's probably around a 10% chance she made it out. We couldn't use the surveillance fuuin once the cave in happened. Sora used a highly advanced technique. It turned everything into unusable rubble. I couldnt even get in there with my doton. It was like as if the formation filled itself back in."
"I think she's still alive."
"How? It was a cave in. She's dead along with them. Why is this an option gentleman. Lets pick up the pieces that we have and the intel we've received so far and find our prize."
"If she could defeat our Takiwa, she could probably get out of a cave in. She's at least on his skill level."
"Do we try and look for her?"
"No."
"My Lord."
"My Lord."
"My Lord."
"My Lord."
"My Lord."
"My Lord, I wondered if you would be in attendance--"
"Quiet. All of you. This is a rather unfortunate event. We cannot punish the transgressions of those two, and it makes it harder for us. Forget about the woman. One person cannot convince the world in the truth of an an old wives tale. She has no proof but oral tradition. They will think she is crazy. She can't show them any of them panel, so in essence we are safe, our research is just put back a bit....
I think you all know what we must do now: We'll take a genma and see what was on the rest of that tablet."
"But according to our intel, all of them are in hosts. So you're saying we have to--"
"Yes. Go into a village and take their genma. "
"My lord, that's incredibly risky."
"I am aware. Which is why I am going. Along with Orna. Us two are probably the only ones who could pull this off. Pathetic ninja you are."
"I'll be back in a few weeks to call the summit when I have a Genma. Until then, proceed as planned."
"Yes, My Lord."
" Yes, My Lord."
"Yes, My Lord."
"Yes, My Lord."
"Yes, My Lord."
