The cursed forest? [solo]

Mission: Don't Play with Nature! (C-rank)

Stat page:

It was pitch black. The crescent moon was high in the sky, but its light didn’t reach the alleys. The darkness of the night surrounded Kouga like a robe. He couldn’t see much, but that also meant others couldn’t see much of him. He stayed clear of the well lit main road and stuck to the alleys and rarely used passages he knew so well. Ever since his patrol training with the Nara girl he couldn’t get the supposedly cursed forest out of his head. He had to take a closer look. Since he didn’t want anyone to know he was outside, using the gate to leave the village was out of the question. So how else can one leave you wonder? Climbing the walls. It sounds stupid, the walls are quite tall, around 10m. But this wasn’t the first time Kouga did this, and presumably not the last. His father always loved mountain climbing and took him quite a few times with him. Because of that he has his own set of climbing ice axes, which combined with his (admittedly weak) chakra control made climbing Konoha’s walls isn’t the hardest of feats.

He arrived at the wall, checked if anyone was around, and when satisfied that no one is looking, he started climbing. He sank one of his axes into the hole between two of the large bricks it is made of, and started pulling himself up. He pulled his knees up to his chest and his feet were flat on the wall, so his chakra filled soles had a bigger area of contact with the smooth surface. He would search for a good place to sink in his ice axe, followed up with his respective foot and try to do that with his other side as well. Slowly but surely he was getting higher. By the end of his climb his newly forged sword started to feel heavy on his back. Nevertheless he finally got up to the top. He sat down for a bit, grasping for breath. He still had to climb down on the other side, which was arguably even harder. Especially starting it. Once he was finished with his break, he let himself down the edge facing the outside world. He let go with one hand and used that hand to find something to grasp with his axe. Once that was done he took the same position he was climbing up, and started doing the same motion, only downward this time. Soon enough he was close to the ground and hopped down. “Infiltration successful. Wait no I just left something undetected. Defiltration? Ah whatever I’ve done it.” With these thoughts he jumped up on a tree and started off in the direction of his destination.

As he got closer to the forest Shikako mentioned his excitement grew stronger and stronger. What could he find in there? Was it really dangerous? Was he making a mistake? His heart was pounding in his head as he was reaching the spot they stopped so she could warn him. He halted for a moment, collecting his courage. In the darkness the forest looked indeed very scary. He heard a plethora of sounds coming from all angles. He thought about going back, but in the end his curiosity proved stronger than his fear, and he got going again. He jumped from branch to branch, on edge, always waiting for something bad to happen. But nothing did. He got deeper and deeper, and slowly started to relax. There was nothing here. He got all worked up for nothing. Of course there is no such thing as a cursed forest. Now he felt stupid for believing something like that. After a good 15 minutes he stopped, and decided to turn around and go home.

Well, superstitions always worked like that. Someone started saying something, god knows why, and everyone got afraid, so no one tried to disprove it. Now Kouga did disprove this, even though unintentionally. He really did want to find something interesting here. Lost in thought he accidentally almost hit a tree, but managed to change directions in the last second. He looked back, just to see his sword scratched the wood. As he kept on going he started to realize how tired he was. It truly was a bad idea to come out here in the middle of the night, instead of getting a good night’s sleep. As he was fantasizing about his bed, he started to notice something was not right. He should be back around the edge of his patrol route by now, and he wasn’t. He slowed down and tried to be more aware of his surroundings. As he cautiously moved forward he noticed something weird and stopped to investigate. The scratch on this tree was very familiar, looking very alike to the one his sword made quite a few minutes ago. He was a bit perplexed, but kept on going forward nonetheless. A few minutes later, still pondering the oh so familiar scratch, he noticed another. He went closer only to find that this one was looking the same. Is someone ahead of him scratched all these trees? Or was he going in circles? Going in circles would explain why he’s not closer to the village still, but he never turned. How could this be? Is this the curse of the forest? It lets one in but never let them leave?

He had to calm down and think. He never turned, yet he was going in circles. What could this mean? Genjutsu, maybe? But who cast it? He didn’t see anyone. Then again, he was tired and very much preoccupied with his thoughts. And even if it was a genjutsu he had no idea how to break it. He never was very adept at it. Though his teacher in the academy did try to teach him things about it. Fuck he should have listened better. He had to remember. Obviously genjutsu release was the main thing, but sadly he never did learn to use that. As he was pondering this he heard the sound of cracking trees. He looked in the general direction the noise but couldn’t see anything. He tried to hide his presence and get closer to the source of the commotion. Could this be a part of the genjutsu as well? He had to be careful. As he was getting closer he heard a screech that spent chills down his spine, and someone... whimpering? Someone was in trouble. An overwhelming sense of duty washed over him, and as it did, it washed away his fear. He sped up somewhat, but still did his best to stay hidden.

He wasn’t ready to see what he found. A collection of eight long, black, hairless legs ending in needle sharp points. A giant abdomen with spinerets facing him. It was a spider. But a god damn huge one. His blood froze. “Calm down it’s probably part of the genjutsu.” – he thought to himself. Then he spotted the child who looked to be around half his age shivering in front of the monster. This might have been an illusion as well, but he couldn’t risk it, he had to help. Without really thinking it through he launched at the spider, hitting it with his sword from behind. The beast gave a painful screech and spun around to face him. Good, the kid is safe for now. But he wasn’t. One of its claws at the end of a giant leg was headed in his direction surprisingly fast given its size. His body moved on its own, barely dodging the attack. Getting hit by that would have been a painful end he was sure. Painful end. That’s it! His teacher was once talking about how intense pain can break weaker genjutsu. Now, how to cause intense pain to himself. He bit on his tongue, hard, and instantly felt the salty taste of blood in his mouth. The pain came a bit later, and was intense, but in his adrenaline filled stupor he barely registered it. The spider noticeably did not disappear though. So either the genjutsu was too strong, or the monster was real, which was decidedly the scarier option of the two. Not that either of them left too much hope for his survival. But his time to access the situation has come and gone, the beast was on the offensive again. Now that it was over the surprise of getting hit in the back, the spider started moving towards Kouga, while stabbing with its legs and fang. He was desperately trying not to get hit. He got out of the way of a leg parried a fang attack, but couldn’t do more than to save his vital spots from the next sharp claw. As the spider’s leg penetrated into the flesh of his shoulder, and knocked him back, he felt surprisingly calm. He felt the numb pain in his new wound, and in his injured tongue. He knew this could be the end for him, but there were more important things. “Fly, you fool!” – he shouted at the child, who was still visibly in shock, but he didn’t move. That meant he couldn’t die just yet. He tightened his grip on his sword and hacked at the leg in his shoulder, cutting it straight off. The spider recoiled in pain giving Kouga enough time to get back up, but he doubted he could dodge another one of its attacks. He heard shouting, then realized it was his voice. He was already rushing at the monster which appeared to be scared. Kouga felt some semblance of pride and satisfaction at the thought. As he was striking at the spider’s prosoma, he saw it trying to block with one of its legs, and felt a sting in his left calf as it got penetrated by another claw. The block attempt proved to be futile, as the sword just cut right through it and into the monster’s head. Blue blood sprayed out all over him. The beast gave the biggest screech yet, and then collapsed, never to make any sound again. As the battle was over, Kouga’s strength quickly waned and his injuries started to burn. He wanted to scream, but he didn’t have the stamina to do it, so he fell down right next to his opponent. He felt it fitting even through the veil of pain, then slipped into a deep sleep.

It was pitch black. He slowly started to hear muffled sounds around him. Some people were speaking. His whole body hurt. The memories of his fight started to came back. Was he dead? Is this the afterlife? He silently collected his energy to be able to open his eyes. Once he did everything was blurry. His eyes started to focus, and now he could see the ceiling. So he was inside somewhere. The building looked like it was made from pise and it looked rudimentary and old. He managed to rotate his head, and saw mahogany furred things. Were those foxes? He tried to sit up but couldn’t and all that happened was him giving a grunt. The foxes turned to him. One of them stood up on two legs and walked closer to him. “I know everything is strange, but you’ll be all right. One of our younglings tried to play a little prank on you before you attacked that monster. He was the one to take you here after your battle. Your courage made a big impression on him.” – the fox explained in a high-pitched, decidedly female voice. “What... about...  the kid?” – Kouga managed to utter. Her face didn’t give away any feelings. “He’s all right. It turned out he was the one who accidentally enlarged the spider using his father’s chemicals. I still don’t really understand how it all works. Fascinating, really. But you should rest some more. You’re lucky to be alive.” And these were the last words Kouga heard before drifting off to sleep again.

[exit]
[claims]
TWC: 2003
- 10 strength stat
- 10 vigor stat
- 1877 towards crafting Korei, finishing it. Already had 623 from here and here.
- 126 towards learning Body Flicker (126/500)
- 4000 ryo and 20 AP from the mission