o.o Tried to make it epic. .-.
Riku was still sprinting, even when he came to the edge of the vast ocean, numerous miles from where he originally fought Kabuto, who, at this point, must have escaped. He stopped at the edge of the water, standing in the sand and looking forward, but seeing nothing aside from water, nothing past the rain that poured down all around him.
Reaching in his pocket, he took out the paper. The words only moved slightly this time:
Riku looked ahead, squinting to see if there was something that he was missing, but he could see anything. Guessing that it was because of the rain coming down so powerfully, Riku focused chakra in his feet so he could walk across the water.
But he soon discovered that he didn?t need it. There was... something else that was allowing him to walk. It was like... an invisible platform. As he continued he felt himself sloping upwards, constantly going further and further upwards until, when he looked down, the water seemed so much further away than it should, but still, there was nothing to be seen under his feet.
This whole thing was starting to creep him out.
~
What seemed like hours later, the path seemingly endless, Riku arrived at an extremely high mountain.
Somewhere along the path, the rain had stopped. No, it hadn?t stopped. He looked around, he could still see the rain, he could still see it pouring down around the area, just around the mountain but above him were perfectly clear skies, the sun shone down brightly on the large mountain in front of him. He still stood on the invisible platform, but in front of him was a ridiculously large mountain. The platform stopped in front of the mountain, where a trail started that led up the large, silvery mountain.
Higher up the mountain, though, instead of going up to a peak, it spread back out, like a humongous platform at the top of it. Large enough for a village to be situated on top. Riku looked at the path, and quickly focused chakra in his feet so that he could run faster and ran up the path as quickly as he could, spriling and turning as he did.
~
Making his way up the large mountain, Riku noticed that it had, at first, spriled inwards, the mountain getting thinner and thinner as he went up as if he was at its peak, and suddenly it went back outwards, gradually becoming wider.
Finally, the path had finished, and Riku found himself facing a staircase.
And as soon as he walked up it, he saw the most magnificent thing of his life.
As soon as he went up the staircase, on either side of him was a long path that went around a large, grassy area that had a big fountain in the middle. On the outer side of the path, meanwhile, were pillars that stood as tall as the Hokage?s mansion in Konoha. No, several times taller than that even; he couldn?t even see the tip of any of the pillars. There was the staircase, and then six pillars ran along either side of the circular platform, and then stopped at an area that Riku couldn?t see because of the fountain. The fountain, meanwhile, had to be a few times larger than Riku. At the bottom was a stone base, and then it rose up to become thinner and spread out again into a smaller stone area, this one shaped like a bowl and filled with water around a thin pole. It rose up even higher to another smaller stone bowl which spilled water out into the larger two. The pole continued to rise up and at its peak; several holes were in it, 10 in total, which shot out small streams of water to the other bowls.
Riku chose to walk along the left side of the fountain, along the path and marveling at the architecture, and suddenly, he noticed a large gate, a tunnel actually. The tunnel was decorated though, to seem like an entrance to a village instead of a cave. There was a giant door that blocked the entrance, a golden one framed by a red, wooden bar.
In front of it stood a single man, sitting on the bottom part of the fountain and facing the door. He wore a long robe, a white one that had strips of blue going down the middle, where the robe seemed to have buttons, as well one going down the sleeves, around the collar, and around the bottom of the robe near his grey shoes. His hair was the same grey color as well, and went down to about the ends of his neck, with strands of it covering his face. He didn?t seem old, but it was more like... experienced, but in no way out of shape. Maybe early 40s, perhaps 50s. In one hand he held a book, and as Riku turned and saw him, he turned his eyes to look upon the boy, and closed the book gently, while getting off of the fountain.
?Took your time didn?t you?? the man said, ?Must have been weeks since I sent you the message.?
Riku looked at him curiously, unsure of how to reply, or what to say, or what to do, all due to the fact that he was unsure of whom this was.
The man looked at him for a moment, and then walked forward towards the gate, ?Come, we?ll talk more inside.?
Riku reluctantly followed, as the giant gates opened, revealing a large case of stairs. Riku moaned and the man looked back at him, still walking and laughing slightly as he did so, ?Tired already? Trust me, all of the travelling you just did is nothing compared to what?s going to go on here.?
Riku let out an even more audible groan this time, and the man chuckled again. The tunnel, Riku noticed, was a marvel as well. But everything that he?d seen in the last few weeks was amazing though. The tunnel was made out of some kind of stone that seemed more like a mirror. The mirror-gems were crystal clear, and just by looking in one direction of the cave, Riku could see almost everything around, in front of, and behind him from the mirrors from all sides of the tunnel, including the top and the stairs actually, reflecting off of each other.
Upon exiting the tunnel, Riku was surprised yet again, and was wondering how many times he?d see the ?most amazing thing in his life.? This area was a platform as well, but it was so large that he couldn?t see the edges of it, if it did, in fact, end. Unlike in the other area, he couldn?t see the rain, it was like they were higher up than clouds, higher up than precipitation could fall from. There was only the bright sun, giving the entire place a warm, literally and figuratively, feeling. In the center of the platform were clear plains, plains that seemed to continue even beyond the areas where there were more doors and gates that were apparently houses. Riku counted thirteen gates in all. He guessed there was one for each sage.
The thirteen gates were all differently decorated. The one that was exactly in front of him and the tunnel seemed to have two doors that resembled two large books, and were framed by pens and such. Another one was a giant shield that had a line going through the middle, where it would probably split in half to open. The next one was a normal gate, but in the middle of it, where it would split in half to open, was a tree. Each gate had something peculiar about it, something that seemed to give you an impression.
?Like it?? the man said, walking up to stand next to Riku.
Riku nodded, unable to form words in his mouth, and if he could, he knew that there was nothing that would describe this spectacular place. The robed man grinned at Riku and began to walk ahead towards the book-gate.
As they walked in, the area sloped back down a bit, but then they were in an extremely large room, much bigger than Riku would have ever expected. It was a library, actually. The biggest one Riku had ever seen. There were thousands and thousands of novels and encyclopedias and the like. The two walked to the upstairs portion of the library, where there was a table with two chairs on both ends of it. The table was situated on a balcony-like area, but still was in the library and went inward, hanging over the first floor, rather than outwards.
The man motioned for Riku to sit, and as the young man complied, he took a seat as well, ?Hello there.?
Riku tapped his hands on the table awkwardly, ?Uh... hey.?
The man seemed to wish to get right down to business, and put both of his elbows on the table so he could lean forward, ?Riku, what do you think we are??
Riku was a bit taken aback by the statement, ?What? Why? Did I insult you??
?No, no. Not in that way. I mean, what do you think we are, or for now, what or who do you think I am. Ninja, samurai, anything like that??
Riku relaxed again, ?Oh, well... The message said you were sages, but... All of this... It makes me think that your some kind of... some kind of...?
?Gods?? the older man finished for him, raising his eyebrow.
Riku gulped and nodded.
?That?s what I mean. I just want to clarify this to you, we?re not. What we are, simply put, are masters. We have spent much of our lives training, perfecting our passions until we, truly, became the greatest at them. Do you know what I am getting at here??
?Not really, sir,? Riku answered slowly.
?That we have nothing that you do not. We have no skills that you cannot posses, no knowledge that you cannot gain, no jutsu that you cannot learn. Riku, you can posses the knowledge that all of us have, just as your master... nearly did.?
Riku raised an eyebrow at the nearly part, but decided to keep the conversation moving and leave that for later, ?So... what is... all of this? Why is all of this? Where?d it come from??
?Where?d it come from? We built it, basically. Years and years of construction. Why did we do it? It?s purely that each one of us has so much passion for our area of profession that we?ve become more skilled in it than many thought possible. For example, I, Jian, the Sage of Knowledge, have a far more superior collection of knowledge and information than any could ever have. Of course, this falls under general and historic knowledge. The sage of weaponry, who, by the way, will be doing most of your training, has more knowledge of weapons and more battle prowess than I?ll ever have. The Sage of the Elemental has a vast range of elements, in fact, he posses all known elements, and even some that have yet to be discovered by other ninja. He even has elements that were at first to belong only to those with a specific kekkei genkai. And so on. Each one of us will train you, and like I said, there is no knowledge or skills of ours that you are unable to obtain. We have nothing that you do not, we simply obtained mastery over what we have. Your master has gained much from each one of us, his skills in all areas of weaponry, his vast range of jutsu and elements, and, of course, his large amount of knowledge. Yes, that does mean that I?m going to make you study.?
?So... why me?? Riku asked, ?I mean, I know that my master trained under you, like you said. But... why??
?Because you need it,? Jian answered simply, ?As stated in our message, you have more foes after you than any others, well, any others that are unfit to fight against those powerful enemies. You are the sole target of Akatsuki, and no doubt of other small villages who have alliances with that dreaded group. You need our training more than anyone right now.?
?Wait, so if you guys are so strong, why can?t you just swoop down, destroy all of the... bad guys, and leave?? Riku asked.
?There is only one of us who will actively participate in battle. The Sage of Weaponry. We prefer to keep ourselves out of conflict unless battle is absolutely necessary. We thought it was at first, but by training you, we can knock down two birds with one stones. You?ll be safe, and you?ll be able to battle Akatsuki much more openly and with a much greater chance of succeeding.?
Riku nodded, gathering all of this information in, ?So basically, I?m going to be training with all of you for... how long??
Jian thought a while before answering this, apparently not expecting the question, ?Well, it depends on whenever you?ll need to go back I suppose. Whenever you need to return to Konoha to help them. But it would be wise for you to stay as long as possible.?
?By the way... what was that about the truth? Of Shinru and of me and of everything else??
?You?ll find that out soon enough. I?d rather you begin most of your training before finding it out. Less distractions.?
Riku swallowed at this answer, but he knew he needed to train, and was in no position to refuse to train until he learned this truth, even though he was tempted to do so. They were offering to train him, these apparently amazing masters, and he couldn?t refuse this.
Riku thought for a moment, and looked up, ?So when does my training start.?
Jian smiled at this, seeing that Riku was good to go, ?Dear child, we started as soon as you read the letter. Your journey here was the warm-up lap.?
The Sages
Riku was still sprinting, even when he came to the edge of the vast ocean, numerous miles from where he originally fought Kabuto, who, at this point, must have escaped. He stopped at the edge of the water, standing in the sand and looking forward, but seeing nothing aside from water, nothing past the rain that poured down all around him.
Reaching in his pocket, he took out the paper. The words only moved slightly this time:
Forward.
Riku looked ahead, squinting to see if there was something that he was missing, but he could see anything. Guessing that it was because of the rain coming down so powerfully, Riku focused chakra in his feet so he could walk across the water.
But he soon discovered that he didn?t need it. There was... something else that was allowing him to walk. It was like... an invisible platform. As he continued he felt himself sloping upwards, constantly going further and further upwards until, when he looked down, the water seemed so much further away than it should, but still, there was nothing to be seen under his feet.
This whole thing was starting to creep him out.
~
What seemed like hours later, the path seemingly endless, Riku arrived at an extremely high mountain.
Somewhere along the path, the rain had stopped. No, it hadn?t stopped. He looked around, he could still see the rain, he could still see it pouring down around the area, just around the mountain but above him were perfectly clear skies, the sun shone down brightly on the large mountain in front of him. He still stood on the invisible platform, but in front of him was a ridiculously large mountain. The platform stopped in front of the mountain, where a trail started that led up the large, silvery mountain.
Higher up the mountain, though, instead of going up to a peak, it spread back out, like a humongous platform at the top of it. Large enough for a village to be situated on top. Riku looked at the path, and quickly focused chakra in his feet so that he could run faster and ran up the path as quickly as he could, spriling and turning as he did.
~
Making his way up the large mountain, Riku noticed that it had, at first, spriled inwards, the mountain getting thinner and thinner as he went up as if he was at its peak, and suddenly it went back outwards, gradually becoming wider.
Finally, the path had finished, and Riku found himself facing a staircase.
And as soon as he walked up it, he saw the most magnificent thing of his life.
As soon as he went up the staircase, on either side of him was a long path that went around a large, grassy area that had a big fountain in the middle. On the outer side of the path, meanwhile, were pillars that stood as tall as the Hokage?s mansion in Konoha. No, several times taller than that even; he couldn?t even see the tip of any of the pillars. There was the staircase, and then six pillars ran along either side of the circular platform, and then stopped at an area that Riku couldn?t see because of the fountain. The fountain, meanwhile, had to be a few times larger than Riku. At the bottom was a stone base, and then it rose up to become thinner and spread out again into a smaller stone area, this one shaped like a bowl and filled with water around a thin pole. It rose up even higher to another smaller stone bowl which spilled water out into the larger two. The pole continued to rise up and at its peak; several holes were in it, 10 in total, which shot out small streams of water to the other bowls.
Riku chose to walk along the left side of the fountain, along the path and marveling at the architecture, and suddenly, he noticed a large gate, a tunnel actually. The tunnel was decorated though, to seem like an entrance to a village instead of a cave. There was a giant door that blocked the entrance, a golden one framed by a red, wooden bar.
In front of it stood a single man, sitting on the bottom part of the fountain and facing the door. He wore a long robe, a white one that had strips of blue going down the middle, where the robe seemed to have buttons, as well one going down the sleeves, around the collar, and around the bottom of the robe near his grey shoes. His hair was the same grey color as well, and went down to about the ends of his neck, with strands of it covering his face. He didn?t seem old, but it was more like... experienced, but in no way out of shape. Maybe early 40s, perhaps 50s. In one hand he held a book, and as Riku turned and saw him, he turned his eyes to look upon the boy, and closed the book gently, while getting off of the fountain.
?Took your time didn?t you?? the man said, ?Must have been weeks since I sent you the message.?
Riku looked at him curiously, unsure of how to reply, or what to say, or what to do, all due to the fact that he was unsure of whom this was.
The man looked at him for a moment, and then walked forward towards the gate, ?Come, we?ll talk more inside.?
Riku reluctantly followed, as the giant gates opened, revealing a large case of stairs. Riku moaned and the man looked back at him, still walking and laughing slightly as he did so, ?Tired already? Trust me, all of the travelling you just did is nothing compared to what?s going to go on here.?
Riku let out an even more audible groan this time, and the man chuckled again. The tunnel, Riku noticed, was a marvel as well. But everything that he?d seen in the last few weeks was amazing though. The tunnel was made out of some kind of stone that seemed more like a mirror. The mirror-gems were crystal clear, and just by looking in one direction of the cave, Riku could see almost everything around, in front of, and behind him from the mirrors from all sides of the tunnel, including the top and the stairs actually, reflecting off of each other.
Upon exiting the tunnel, Riku was surprised yet again, and was wondering how many times he?d see the ?most amazing thing in his life.? This area was a platform as well, but it was so large that he couldn?t see the edges of it, if it did, in fact, end. Unlike in the other area, he couldn?t see the rain, it was like they were higher up than clouds, higher up than precipitation could fall from. There was only the bright sun, giving the entire place a warm, literally and figuratively, feeling. In the center of the platform were clear plains, plains that seemed to continue even beyond the areas where there were more doors and gates that were apparently houses. Riku counted thirteen gates in all. He guessed there was one for each sage.
The thirteen gates were all differently decorated. The one that was exactly in front of him and the tunnel seemed to have two doors that resembled two large books, and were framed by pens and such. Another one was a giant shield that had a line going through the middle, where it would probably split in half to open. The next one was a normal gate, but in the middle of it, where it would split in half to open, was a tree. Each gate had something peculiar about it, something that seemed to give you an impression.
?Like it?? the man said, walking up to stand next to Riku.
Riku nodded, unable to form words in his mouth, and if he could, he knew that there was nothing that would describe this spectacular place. The robed man grinned at Riku and began to walk ahead towards the book-gate.
As they walked in, the area sloped back down a bit, but then they were in an extremely large room, much bigger than Riku would have ever expected. It was a library, actually. The biggest one Riku had ever seen. There were thousands and thousands of novels and encyclopedias and the like. The two walked to the upstairs portion of the library, where there was a table with two chairs on both ends of it. The table was situated on a balcony-like area, but still was in the library and went inward, hanging over the first floor, rather than outwards.
The man motioned for Riku to sit, and as the young man complied, he took a seat as well, ?Hello there.?
Riku tapped his hands on the table awkwardly, ?Uh... hey.?
The man seemed to wish to get right down to business, and put both of his elbows on the table so he could lean forward, ?Riku, what do you think we are??
Riku was a bit taken aback by the statement, ?What? Why? Did I insult you??
?No, no. Not in that way. I mean, what do you think we are, or for now, what or who do you think I am. Ninja, samurai, anything like that??
Riku relaxed again, ?Oh, well... The message said you were sages, but... All of this... It makes me think that your some kind of... some kind of...?
?Gods?? the older man finished for him, raising his eyebrow.
Riku gulped and nodded.
?That?s what I mean. I just want to clarify this to you, we?re not. What we are, simply put, are masters. We have spent much of our lives training, perfecting our passions until we, truly, became the greatest at them. Do you know what I am getting at here??
?Not really, sir,? Riku answered slowly.
?That we have nothing that you do not. We have no skills that you cannot posses, no knowledge that you cannot gain, no jutsu that you cannot learn. Riku, you can posses the knowledge that all of us have, just as your master... nearly did.?
Riku raised an eyebrow at the nearly part, but decided to keep the conversation moving and leave that for later, ?So... what is... all of this? Why is all of this? Where?d it come from??
?Where?d it come from? We built it, basically. Years and years of construction. Why did we do it? It?s purely that each one of us has so much passion for our area of profession that we?ve become more skilled in it than many thought possible. For example, I, Jian, the Sage of Knowledge, have a far more superior collection of knowledge and information than any could ever have. Of course, this falls under general and historic knowledge. The sage of weaponry, who, by the way, will be doing most of your training, has more knowledge of weapons and more battle prowess than I?ll ever have. The Sage of the Elemental has a vast range of elements, in fact, he posses all known elements, and even some that have yet to be discovered by other ninja. He even has elements that were at first to belong only to those with a specific kekkei genkai. And so on. Each one of us will train you, and like I said, there is no knowledge or skills of ours that you are unable to obtain. We have nothing that you do not, we simply obtained mastery over what we have. Your master has gained much from each one of us, his skills in all areas of weaponry, his vast range of jutsu and elements, and, of course, his large amount of knowledge. Yes, that does mean that I?m going to make you study.?
?So... why me?? Riku asked, ?I mean, I know that my master trained under you, like you said. But... why??
?Because you need it,? Jian answered simply, ?As stated in our message, you have more foes after you than any others, well, any others that are unfit to fight against those powerful enemies. You are the sole target of Akatsuki, and no doubt of other small villages who have alliances with that dreaded group. You need our training more than anyone right now.?
?Wait, so if you guys are so strong, why can?t you just swoop down, destroy all of the... bad guys, and leave?? Riku asked.
?There is only one of us who will actively participate in battle. The Sage of Weaponry. We prefer to keep ourselves out of conflict unless battle is absolutely necessary. We thought it was at first, but by training you, we can knock down two birds with one stones. You?ll be safe, and you?ll be able to battle Akatsuki much more openly and with a much greater chance of succeeding.?
Riku nodded, gathering all of this information in, ?So basically, I?m going to be training with all of you for... how long??
Jian thought a while before answering this, apparently not expecting the question, ?Well, it depends on whenever you?ll need to go back I suppose. Whenever you need to return to Konoha to help them. But it would be wise for you to stay as long as possible.?
?By the way... what was that about the truth? Of Shinru and of me and of everything else??
?You?ll find that out soon enough. I?d rather you begin most of your training before finding it out. Less distractions.?
Riku swallowed at this answer, but he knew he needed to train, and was in no position to refuse to train until he learned this truth, even though he was tempted to do so. They were offering to train him, these apparently amazing masters, and he couldn?t refuse this.
Riku thought for a moment, and looked up, ?So when does my training start.?
Jian smiled at this, seeing that Riku was good to go, ?Dear child, we started as soon as you read the letter. Your journey here was the warm-up lap.?
