Spying [Mission, Cloud, Travel]

[tetsu]

[ooc: character will begin here, is searching for the Fire Village.]

The silent movement of the young ANBU boy was quick and agile- through branches and around trees he moved at a rapid pace, himself merely a blur of darkness as the dark robe flowed around his body. Indeed, even Nagare's movement would be difficult to trace via sound. It was as if life itself ceased to exist. He was here for one reason, and one reason only- Ordered here by his ANBU captain, the shinobi was to scout out the Land of Fire for any potential dangers to the Country of Lightning and report back on them. Nagare's white eyes seemed to flicker back and forth, taking in information, strategic points of attack and defense, as well as ensuring that he was not seen.

The main goal here was also to potentially locate the Village of the Leaf. Although it is well known throughout the world that it lies within the forests of Hi no Kuni, discovering the exact location would indeed be trying, due to the fact that such an intense area to cover would be taxing on the body if he spent too long out here. It also increased his chance of discovery the closer that he got to the city- however, he was ensuring that he was being careful.

He had entered the forested area quickly after entering the Fire Country. It hadn't taken long at all, actually, before he was moving rapidly to avoid detection, eyes noticing traps and other shinobi as they passed. Indeed, Fire had great military power with its' number of shinobi, but the Village of Cloud knew better than to be scared of numbers... it is the quality of the shinobi, not the number of shinobi, that gives a village its true potential.

That being said, Nagare knew better than to start a quarrel if it wasn't needed. He was a single unit moving in potentially hostile territory, so he was avoiding contact at all costs. The scouring of the lands was long and difficult, though, and it wasn't long until the sun had began to set. Choosing a secluded location within the forests that he was traversing, Nagare then did a quick scout around the area to ensure that there was nobody watching him and then slid slowly into a large hollow tree trunk. There was room inside of the tree for several individuals and was very high, giving it even the potential for individuals to sleep higher up in the tree.

Nagare assumed that this location had been created by Leaf ninjas as places to hide during their scouting missions and what-not. It was an amazing shelter, and Nagare made sure to make a mental note about it. It was then, though, that he heard voices- laughter from two females and a male from the sounds of girl. Cursing inwardly, Nagare quickly activated his chakra, moving up the tree trunks innards rapidly, until he reached the final height of the area and crawled into the little space that had been carved out as a sleeping location.

He heard the individuals below moving into the trunk, but Nagare knew better than to look down to see if they knew he was here. It wasn't long, though, until he heard the talking begin to die down and eventually he heard the soft sounds of sleeping. Shinobi were light sleepers, though, so Nagare stayed in his perch, catching quick cat naps in the slightly cramped location that he was in before he was awoken at the morning by the sounds of the groups' departure. Waiting for about an hour to ensure that they were really gone, Nagare then softly slipped down the trunk of the tree and left it, eyes wandering about for any signs of traps.

Seeing none, Nagare decided to continue then, looking for the village. He moved with the same silent alacrity as the day before, being careful to not even snap a twig under his feet. Finally, he found a river and from there he pulled out his canteen, taking sips of the water from it before slowly refilling it, all the while being careful about the sounds he was making. After this was done, Nagare moved back into the trees, but decided that he would follow the river to see where it led... villages had to have a nearby water source in order to survive, so this might very well lead to them.

However, he couldn't stay too close to the river or else he would be found for sure. Moving a greater distance away, just far enough that he could continue to listen to the sound of the streams, Nagare then began to move southwest, following the river's course throughout the day. He listened for the sound of the stream continuing until, finally, it began nightfall once more. Although he could not find another one of the tree trunks that he had found last night, Nagare did find a fairly secluded place and continued to hide himself by not building a camp fire. His was not a life of luxury, indeed, but those were the breaks.

He slept well that night and awoke the next morning undisturbed. Stretching his limbs, he then continued the search, moving his body as fast as possible while making as little noise as he could- which, again, was not much. It was like a ghost was wandering through the shadows, his black cloak staying within the shade of the forests great trees. He continued to follow the river's path until, finally, he heard it stop. Taking a look towards the sun, he discovered that it was some time after mid-day, meaning he had been searching nonstop for almost a full three days.

The land of fire was large, but not that much larger. While it took longer to search it than to move across it in a straight line, Nagare knew that he had to be somewhere close to the village sometime soon. Deciding that it was getting to be a little hot, Nagare moved towards the rivers end and filled his canteen once more before moving back into the somewhat distant forest innards so that he wouldn't be exposed by random passerby. He then sat down for a moment to catch his breath.

[OOC: Rose, you're the Hokage and as such you get to decide when someone has found the Hidden Village. My character has stealthed his way through a lot of your land, and as an ANBU he is truly good at that. Please also note that Heero allowed my character Lash to find the Hidden Sand Village at about this amount of effort, but the decision is up to you. ^_^]

[Nira]

(Um, Cloud village is allied with the Leaf country, they know where Konoha is -_-)

[tetsu]

(OOC: Alliance doesn't mean we know the location of the village. o.o;; it just means that we aren't attacking each other.

Edit: It's been stated that no village knows the location of the other, they're hidden. We have an alliance, which means that we aren't going to attack each other and also that we will most likely aid each other if one or the other is attacked. However, we don't know the terms of the alliance nor where it was met at, and as such we can only go by the most basic terms of alliance until a meeting between the emissaries of the two villages can really meet and RP it out, ya know? Because of that, we just have to assume that the location of the villages is still hidden.)

[Nira]

(Good point.)

While the ANBU rested a bit, a bush near him started to wiggle. After a while a small... purple bird with a note in its beak began to fly through trees toward the east.

(Not much, just starting something for a summon and for a new plot me and my friend planned, following it would be the best choice.)

[tetsu]

As Nagare sat and rested, a bush in his vicinity began to wiggle. Frowning a little bit, he quickly stood and jumped up towards a branch above him, hopefully allowing him to dodge in case there as an incoming projectile. However, he was surprised when a small purple bird came out of the bushes. It had a note in its beak, which was odd enough for any bird, because even messenger birds were trained to carry notes on their legs. With his eyebrows furrowed, he watched as the bird quickly took flight at that point. Curious about it, Nagare decided then to simply follow the bird.

Taking off east, Nagare moved with both speed and stealth as he followed the bird. Noticing that it was moving in the same direction without any turning, Nagare was beginning to wonder if he was falling into a trap, but that was when he noticied that the bird was beginning to slow down. Nagare slowed his pace down as well, curious as to what would happen next, but not curious enough to give up his position, even if he was in friendly territory.

[Nira]

"Here birdy!" said a girl's voice as the purple bird landed on someone's arm. "Did you get the Hokage's letter? Good girl." said the girl. "You must had flown a long time coming from the leaf village, all the way 23 miles west from here." She added, reading the note. "Ok birdy, go on the Hokage is way out North in Tempa doing some research on your friends, not long till she gets that summon down... oh, and she may need to send some ninja to the Earth of Lightning country within the month, something about an alliance, but that doesn't matter, won't it be wonderful? To had the forest of Trion back again."

For now what she said was not important, a swish of red hair signaled her leave, and the Leaf village location was revealed.

[tetsu]

At the sound of the girl's voice, Nagare's whole body seemed to simply stop moving. Becoming as small as possible, Nagare's black cloaked body became one with the shadows, hiding his presence from the girl. It didn't take long for him to notice her location then, either, as the bird itself flew towards the shinobi. Nagare also took note of the words that they might be sending an emissary to Cloud soon to further enhance the terms of their alliance. Noting away that crucial bit of information, Nagare then waited for the girl to leave before slowly taking his own leave.

This heightened the important information that he had now to three things: the hollowed tree trunks, the location of the village, and finally the pending emissaries. Moving around quickly then, the shinobi Nagare decided to do a basic perimeter check of the village to view for any potential weak points, striking places in case a war was ever waged. Nagare himself noticed one spot of the wall that seemed to be slightly shorter than the rest of it because of the terrain, and so he took a note of that as well.

Moving backwards then, Nagare began to take off, retracing his steps back to his location. For days he traveled then until he found a large area within the forest that was cleared. Deciding to stop here and rest for the night, Nagare pulled out a scroll that had been given to him and quickly made the notes that he had taken so far of the country. Included in the scroll was a map of the Fire Country, where Nagare then marked the location of the leaf village. Noting the clearing's size, it was the perfect location to create a short-term base of operations no matter what the situation was. It was near a nice source of water as well as fairly secluded. By sheer luck Nagare had discovered it, but he was sure to mark it in his map as well.

He then slept for the night, awakening the next morning refreshed and relieved. The most dangerous part of his mission had been completed already, but that didn't mean anything. He still needed to make it out of Fire and into the Claw countries, knowing that scouting that area was important to the defense of the Cloud country, Nagare then began his movement, passing the hundreds of trees in a repetitive motion until, at last, he was out of the Fire Country.

[The Care Bear!!]

Moved

[tetsu]

Now that he was in truly friendly territory, the allied lands of Sound, Nagare became much more lax about being seen. The two counties were strongly bonded by their alliance- friendly without any hint of suspicion. Although Nagare would ensure to scout around the area to see if anything was wrong, he wasn't on a mission to gather information on Sound and as such his passing through the country was fairly uneventful.

Passing through all the different rice fields, Nagare even stopped to wave at some of the people and to let them know that he was no danger. Although it must have been curious to some of the sound shinobi was to why a Cloud ANBU was moving through their lands, it was obvious that he was moving back to the Cloud border and as such he wasn't detained in any way, shape, or form. Indeed, the day passed quickly, and with that done, Nagare entered the Claw country.

[;; edit: Claw Country apparently doesn't exist in the forums, only on the map... O.o;; Um, I guess I'll just border patrol for a while before heading back to Cloud.]

[tetsu]

There had been a large amount of movement between the countries lately; some actually powerful shinobi, while a few were not really worth noting. However, it was Nagare's job to take note of them and to avoid detection. He did this, careful to watch how many people were entering... Frowning a little bit, he decided that it was all simply becoming too much. He had to go and see what was going on in his village; things could be disastrous there right now. Moving as fast as stealth would let him, Nagare, who had been patrolling the border between Sound and Lightning, moved into Lightning and began to move towards the village.

However, with the number of people that had been entering lately, it became prudent for Nagare to first gain the location of their camp. If they were invaders then they would have to have a base of location... if he couldn't find one within the early regions of the Cloud country, however, then he would then move on towards the village to ensure that they were a peaceful delegation or even simply just passing through on their way to Snow village, perhaps.


[exit]