A land most remote and mysterious

Missions:

Sailing the Great Sea was an harduous task, considered by most to be really dangerous with the pirates, strong currents and large tempests oh so frequent in the large body of water, making travelling by boat a dangerous enterprise. At the very least, Oyu was comming from a land that far away, sailing from the land of Honey from his most recent travels. After almost a week of sailing and living on the small rageddy boat he hired to sail him to his new destination, Oyu Otsunato was exhausted, but also eager to arrive. The trip was also a frustrating experience for Oyu, as they were caught in a tempest in this very day. Indeed, as the only passenger of this small fishing sail boat, or should we say Junk boat. The rest of the crew, hired to travel the man in question, were all working very hard to keep the ship afloat amidst the storm, while the old Otsunato was tempering with a puppet of his, a creation he was most proud, having almost finished it.

The puppet in question was resting on a small wooden table, shifting from left to right as the ship would sway agressively under the powerfull waves crashing on its side, as well as the strong gales of the tropical mayhem outside. It was all small, a white little girl dressed in dark crimson red and charcoal grey kimono, almost finished. The puppet was to bellong to a set of two, a duo, representing a mother and her child, a metaphor for death, and the cycle of life. But the more he worked on it, trying to finish the last details, the more Oyu grew frustrated with the swaying, making him incapable of doing his work properly. 

After sighing loudly and dropping carefully his tools and brushes to paint the puppet, the tall man looked outside for the first time in long hours. Of course he already knew that the boat was caught in a bad situation and tempest, but what he saw outside was beyond what he tought the situation was. The waves were now so agressives that each time they would hit the hull of the ship, the man would have trouble to stay on both of his feet, shocked to his core by the violence of the unchained ocean. As the crew outside the cabin yelled more and more, seemingly on high alert to save their ship, Oyu finally understood the gravity of the situation. He quickly jogged toward the door of his cabin, as books, scrolls and any other small loose object started to spring around, roll on the floor and create a total chaos under the tempest beating of the boat. As he openned the door, a large splash of water pushed Oyu to his knees back two metters inside the cabin, making him almost fall under the pressure. The reality on the deck of the ship was totally different: men barely stood on their feets, and were assaulted by such heavy rain and wind that it was as if they were fighting with the very nature around them. Not versed in the art of sailing, Oyu simply looked at the working sailors trying to assess the situation.

It was then that, in all suprise, a rogue wave would hit most of the deck, breaking and tearing appart any small wooden structures like railings, cords base attached to the mast, and would swipe the poor sailers and mariners with it, making the sea swallow them hole, and gulped directly by the cataclysmic waves into the abyss of the ocean. Part of the wave entered the cabin, breaking totally the door and flooding the cabin, sending Oyu against a wall, crashing into it, breaking his left arm with the brutal impact. With the water now washing all away, and Oyu being seemingly the last one left alive on this forsaken boat, the grey haired man would look all around, being stranded on a boat in the middle of the sea, and would realize that this would probably be his last moment within the world of the living. As he went slowly outside of his cabin, walking in an unmotivated way as he didnt want to die, but still brave enough to face the situation, Oyu stared at the agitated sea, the dark and rummaging clouds over his head, and the torrential rain falling. In a moment similar to divine punishment, the largest wave ever seen by the man who traveled countless of time by ship and by road would form, reaching dozens of meters high and directly comming toward the ship. Without much more power, Oyu would simple start to laugh at the wave, having found nothing else to react to it, unleashing his opinion of how ridiculous sometimes destiny and luck can be. 

As the large wave hit the boat, the Otsunato man was thrown away toward his cabin by the enormous amount of water crashing on the boat, tearing up the wooden vessel in shreds and smashing the man trough the wood again, making him fall consciousness, and totally black out.


The sound of soft waves, warm waters slowly caressing his legs, as his face and cheek was resting on some fine and soft white sand, conforted Oyu. Confused, the man retook consciousness slowly but surely, catching his breath and spewing water, coughing up the salty substance immediately. As he looked around himself, his brain caught up on the situation: he survived the shipwreak and tempest, and was stranded on a beach, face down on in the sand, in the middle of the night. 

The island seemed like an untouched paradise, with soft and white banks of sand, beaches and lagoons stretching wide and far, with a turquoise and teal sea calm waters gently caressing the coast with its waves. Farther than the beach started vegetation, consisting of palm trees and dense tropical jungles, all a shade of dark blue for now, illuminated only by the pale shade of the luminescent moon atop their head, a shining beacon visible like never before from this island. Indeed, the night sky, compared to other places, was a scenery unique to the island. The moon appeared larger and central to the sky, with dozens of bright white and pale blue start shining around it, with almost nebula like cloud of silvery light surounding the scenery, making it captivating and enthrancing. 

As he looked everywhere to see a sign of life, Oyu got up on his feat, and dusted his face and clothes with his valid arm, groaning a the pain of his limp and broken left arm. His face was that of someone both really angry and mad at life, but also amused at the turn of event, seeing it as the gods were litteraly playing with him. Indeed, in the shipwreak, Oyu lost everything he owned and crafted. His whole puppet collections, his project almost finished of a duo of puppet, and all his personnal belongings, gone, in an instant, swallowed by the sea to be lost forever. But at the same time, the man survived the event, in an act of almost divine intervention, leading him too at his intended destination, the island of Moon. While no signs of life could be seen around him, Oyu simply leaned against the base of a palm tree, looking at the distant sea waves, and started to fall asleep, completely exhausted from the day of adventure and trauma he just went trough.

''Hey you! Grey hair, weird clothes!"


''Yeah! You! You alive?''


''Wake up! I need help!''

A voice most disturbing, at least from the point of view of a waking up Oyu, still confused and dazzed from his previous experience. As he oppened his eyes to see the bright daylight of the tropical island, the grey haired man was instantly blinded, not used to such an intense light, reflecting on the now warm white sand to make it even more luminous. As his eyes adapted, he could see a small pirogue a few meters far into the water, with an old man on it trying to fish. Confused but still polite, Oyu would look at the man who was calling for his help, even if he didnt look in distress.

''Mister! You are awake now? Good!'' would say the man, agitated.

''...Y-yeah. Very awake sir. Is uhh... Is this the Island of the Moon?'' asked the tall Otsunato, scratching his head as he got his bearings and went on his foot, standing up to talk properly to the man.

''Sure is! Now come on here! I need help to fish, otherwise my wife will beat me senseless if i dont get anything...'' Said the man, desperate for some help. While the man was desperate, he wasnt stupid. He saw that Oyu was clearly stranded and really scraping for survival, and would notice it, letting it show in his demeanor.

''So humm maybe I could also lend you some of the fish and my extra water gourd too... And if you help me catch enough fish, i can give you ryo too, how's that sound?'' offered the man, a generous offer for such a small task.

''...S-sure. I have just the right trick to help too.'' Said Oyu, his voice calm as he was exhausted, not in his usual upjumpy attitude. As he would remove his large cloak and vestments, keeping only his sandals and pants, putting them all at the base of the palmtree, Oyu would approach the small boat, and start to swim to get to it, before climbing into the pirogue. 

''... Alright. Im here now. So hand me the baits, I'll catch you 10 fish at the same time, you wont even believe it.'' Said the tall man, smiling faintly at his remark, managing to be cocky even when injured and stranded.

As the man passed him the small pot with other fish parts to use as bait, Oyu started to effortlessly create chakra threads, the very basis of puppetry, his art form and way of fighting as a shinobi. With each hand holding 5 strings with each a bait tied to it, Oyu simply raised his arms toward the water, extanding his hands to let the bait and chakra threads simply sink into the water. After a few seconds of waiting, the grey haired man would return his arms rapidly toward his chest, pulling the threads and sending 10 freshly caught fish toward the inside of the boat, all landing them in the bottom part of the pirogue, twitching and secured.

''Well god damn my life as a fisherman, you actually did it! AHAHAH! You crazy chakra infused bastard, how can I do that too?'' said the man, amazed by the technique and efficiency of the chakra threads.

Laughing at the excitement of the man, Oyu looked at his, brushing his own hair with his hand in a handsome maner, proud of himself.

''Ahahha, well for that my friend you need to master the art and way of the puppets! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll take 2 of those fishes, the water and money, and be on my way.'' Said the Otsunato man, pressed to move on with this situation and to find the source of the rumors about the island of the moon. Oyu would cloth himself back and leave, getting deeper into the island, following the small dirt trails that spanned into the thick forest. 


As he kept on moving from this moment, rapidly slicing his fish into sashimi and eating it on the road, Oyu was starting to feel like the people of this island were either not numerous, or hid very well their presence. The island looked like it was desert, devoid of civilisation and any people living there, outside the locals, who were more similar to tribes and indigenous people than shinobis and advanced cultures of ninjas. As the trail spanned farther in a serpentine fashion, the tall grey haired man continued to walk slowly, his hands stuck into the large folded pockets of his coat, hidding his whole body under the vestments, with only his head stiking out of the large open colar. Along the way, Oyu could see the true magnificence of this place. The trees were lush and full, with the brightest green leaves and vines, flowers of iridescent colors, shining under the moist sunny air around him, filled with droplets on their petals. The path itself was surrounded by grass like plains covering the ground, littering it like it was a large natural carpet, made out of tiny hundreds of thousands of blue flowers dancing under the gentle wind, making it seem like the large fields and plains were waves of water, enthranced in unisson to perform their best dance, moving like hair underwater, a magical visual movement. Stoping a moment to bask into the beauty of the island, Oyu saw in the distant sky a large shape. If his vision wasnt mistaken, amongst the large puffy clouds decorating the bright blue sky was the silouette of a fish, swimming in the air and prancing around, diving in the very air and clouds. Keeping his gaze focused on it, Oyu approached as much as he could the position underneath the flying fish silouette, getting himself on the top of a small hill covered in moonflowers in the prairie and field covered with them. 

With a now clearer sight, the Otsunato puppeteer realized what it was. A large traditionnal Kite, made out in the form of a heavenly royal white Koi fish, a symbol of success and grand realisation. It seemed fate smiled to the man, as this lost Kite of exceptionnal quality would arrive nearing him from the heavens above. With a gracefull dance and swing of his fingers, Oyu brought forth 10 strings of chakra from both of his hands, each fingers being attacked to one, and made the threads of blue energy attach to the flying kite, guiding it trough the sky, enjoying the breeze and the sign of prosperity. Floating 30m above his head with grace dancing in the wind, the Kite took a direction of its own, enthranced by the strong gales above the tree line, seemingly posessed to go into a direction of its own, heading straight towart the center of the island, deeper into the valley of densely vegetated jungles. Following suit with his chakra threads still attached to the Kite, Oyu felt compeled by destiny to walk toward the path the white fish took him, as a sign of prosperity, he took it as a strong symbol of fate taking the reigns of his life for a few moments, and being someone willing to alsway explore and open his mind to new adventures followed without hesitation. 

Indeed, the good fortune was much needed by Oyu, whose arrival was less than glorious. He was stranded, and if the island didnt prove to be what he expected, he would be stuck here, prisonner of this tropical apparent paradise, but that could well be a hell on earth should the rumors about the other wanderings shinobis be false, and should the resort he was seeking to buy and settle down too proved a hoax too. After following it for almost an hour trough thick and rich vegetation, thanking his chakra magical threads to not entangle into the trees and vines, the old Otsunato man arrived at a small encamplent filled with denizens, who looked more like the locals than the settling people he heard about. 

There were stalls and tents, all looking like a semi permanent settlement, trading food and supplies like wood, tiles, potteries and such, as well as equipments to fish and harvest wood and food, but also weapons and armor to fend of bandits and criminals alike, as well as wild life who was probably really savage in these parts. With the sky starting to darken, Oyu pressed his footing to arrive sooner than later, not wanting to get caught under the heavy tropical torrential rain. In prevention of the destructive power the rain  would have on the kite, Oyu reeled it back toward himself until it would reach him, and grabbed it to get it down from the air. It was intrically made, with folded hard paper resistent to most heavy winds, but water would really damage it. Happy with his new posession, the tall man folded it carefully and placed it in the large folding of his vestments, keeping it secure and dry at the same time. As he approached the stalls, he saw a man working wood and weapons alike, a true craftsman. Intrigued by his talent and the prospect of getting his puppets back again, the puppeteer navigated trough the crowd to approach the artisan to look at his wares and craftsmanship. 

As soon as he arrived, Oyu browsed the selections of tools, weapons and such. He looked at first for weapons fitting for a puppet, able to be easily implemented into a mechanism or being one in and of its own. He also looked at carpentry and woodworking tools, chisels, files, small saw and carving knives, as well as mechanism parts, like gears, chains, or chakra infused steel. He would need to recreate his lost puppets, as they all sank into the bottom of the sea when his ship wrecked into the coast of the island of moon. Of course, being a forever creative mind, Oyu would also have rumbling ideas to create new puppets and not only re do the old models and collections, but this would have to wait. For the rebuilding of the puppets, he would need a lot of premium quality wood, idealy the most hard and resistant wood, like snakewood, ironbark or the likes. These wood essence were rare, but it seemed the man had some to sell, so those types of trees must be available localy on the island, which to Oyu was a godsend. After browsing too the types of fine alloys and metalwork fine enough to create his puppet, the Otsunato man knew it was all enough, and that materials wouldnt be a problem. After buying a few things essential to his survival and travel from the locals, Oyu asked the direction of the derelict and abandonned bath house and went that way, walking all the way to the center of the island, where the rivers crossed in the valley to join in a beautifull clearing, perfect to settle.

After walking for a few hours, Oyu pierced trough the vegetation to arrive at a place that was a total contrast to the rest of the island, which was almost abandonned, savage and uncivilized. This place was the large construction site of a dozens megastructures, fortifications, buildings and whole districts being built, scafolding being the most large indicator of the soon to be completed shape of the structures. Walking slowly as he watched everything, Oyu was suprised tho to see almost no one in the construction site. It showed signs of activity for sure, as there was gear laying everywhere, posts left full for the next day, and plenty of other clues. But in truth, the night wasnt really active, with barely one or two person walking in the streets being paved, the whole site put on hold for the moment, as Oyu arrived in the middle of the late night, or early morning should we say. Without being seen, he walked slowly the paths all around, until he arrived at what looked like a large watery surface, a bassin of immense proportion naturaly set into stone, with multiples ponds composing it, bubbling away with steam and vapors as the natural heat warmed up the waters, making them rumble in the night. Beside the impressive hotsprings was a small and derelict building, dating clearly from before the arrival of the settlers here, which was but the size of a large house, barely containing enough facilities. With the paint almost all scrapped off, it took some time for the heavy cloaked man to realize that this was it, his resort to invest and rebuild. It was unlit, seemed full of mold, holes and the wood seemed to be barely holding the weight of the place itself. As he looked at it, he smiled, but inside of his head, he was sighing. 

This would be a big project, something of a lifetime. After all, he was getting old, and settling down was the right thing to do. He had acquired all sorts of experiences and skills while traveling the world, and this would be his Magnum Opus, along with his puppets. He would make it a haven of pleasure, of relaxation and channeling of the spiritual energy, but also a place of entertainment, and enjoyment, with the warm perfumed waters relaxing the muscles, the theaters and shows relaxing the mind, and the company relaxing the heart. As he entered the place, the stench of rot, mold and putrid flesh assaulted his nose, making him gag almost immediately in response, his every sense attacked. The place was clearly abandonned and ruined, with putrid wood everywhere, plants overgrown into the cracks of the structure, and flies everywhere. There must have been some food leftovers when it was abandonned, or even worse, some people who were left here, cadavers rotting away in the place. Scouring the place with an attentive gaze, Oyu inspected everything, checking one room after the other, trying to find the source of the stench and flies. After reaching a private room of inside baths, the tall Otsunato man found the source of the horrid stench: in the room, as soon as he slided the paper and wooden door, Oyu saw dozens of dead bodies rotting in a pile inside the bath, the water tainted in a browning hue, with thousands of flies everywhere. Immediately backing up, Oyu knew exactly what to do. In almost an instant, acting out of reflex and survival of his nose, he tossed a poison grenade filled with an abrasive toxin which attacked flesh, and locked the door behind it, before running outside while he waited for the whole interior to be gassed, and the remains to melt away, draining with the water in the bath plumbing, before pressing on to clean the rest of his now acquired property. 

This was a rocky start, and after cleaning for a few hours again the most horrible part of what was left scrubbing, brooming up the dust, uprooting the grass trough the floor and planks, as well as getting rid of the stench, Oyu could see the sun rise in the distance over the construction field of the village, realising that he worked and cleaned troughout the whole night, exhausted of working all night for multiples hours on end. As he dropped his broom and started to relax, allowing himself some respite, the tall puppeteer soon walked toward the exit of the resort establishment, seeing the start of a new day, his signal to stop working and to take a break. As he sat on the steps in front of the estate, looking and admiring the sun rise, the man close his eyes, and exhaled slowly, taking in the air of the tropical paradise, eager to meet the others, and gratefull to finally be at his destination. He was now ready to tackle his project of creating a place for everyone to enjoy the arts, may it be music, poetry, puppets show, theater, dances, and all other type of refinements, all combined in a place of luxury, offering drinks of the highest qualities, as well as foods and meals extravagant and conforting. He would make this ruin into a palace and realm of pleasure, confort and culture, heard and renowned trough all the world, attracting people from everywhere, and gathering talented people. This place would also serve as his home, and his personnal workshop for his puppetry, altough this part wouldnt be opened or known to the public, making the resort a veritable labyrinth of secret passages and hidden rooms, always giving the advantages to the staff and the owner.

Oyu Otsunato wrote:

[EXIT]

TWC: 4037

Claims:

• +4 E rank missions done
  
• +4000 ryo
  
• +40 AP (bonus ap total: 40)
  
• +40 stats points (176 total stat points)
  
• +39 stat points going to chakra (new stat point: 150 chakra)
  
• +1 going toward speed (new speed: 16)
  
• 4037wc going toward Specialty Artisan (4037/5000)
  

Approved