Rice Trail... [Bijuu]

"I appreciate it..."

"Ho ho ho ho, no need to thank me, it may be a bit risky but I'd say it's worth the risk! You've done so much for us Vice."

His eyes shifted to the corner of his eyes. looking to the ground bellow him as is steadily slid in and out of his view. He sat on the back of a covered wagon. Drawn by a large horned water buffalo, the wagon was full with tier after tier of shelves, each filled by bags of rice. They were coming from Rice Field Country on the first stop of many in what would be a tour from country to country, village to village, selling the rice from the early crops. An elderly couple sat at the front of the wagon, both too old to work the fields themselves but not old enough to bark orders at their younger sons and the many employee that they had taken on to their farm. He himself only traveled along for the sake of the ride. He had been moving between the string of 'lesser villages' on his way to Wind country and eventually "Sunagakure" where he would be looking for exactly what he had been searching for, for as long as he considered himself free; information.

As for the old mans comment, he wasn't too happy with it himself. It wasn't that he necessarily had developed a conscious, he just didn't necessarily like something that wasn't completely the truth. First of all, he called himself by Vice, and he introduced himself as this, but hated being called 'Vice' for the fact that it wasn't his name. The only name that was completely his was that given by his clan. Even what was considered his real name was only given to him due to his file name; formed as a code of sorts by the scientists and Hunters that at one time probed at him for the information that he so ironically wanted to track down now. Vice... was a lie, and for people to respect that was unfortunate in his eyes... how dare they be so naive.

Second of all, they were so thankful. He didn't want to be thanked by anyone; he was simply making a living, and doing the little things it took to empower those who would one day take the place of those that were currently the power. If he was helping them, it was only a coincidence that it was also in spite of the great nation. Though it was quite the double standard that he was also taking advantage of their thanks to get himself into Sunagakure without having to be known by anyone. It was their obligation that was his tool, and one that he himself despised to use.

Upon approaching the gate, he would simply slip into the rice storage, cover himself in his cloak so that his chakra couldn't be sensed, and wait for the clearance. On the other side he would just jump out and he wouldn't ever have to associate with these two individuals again. Now, however, he was forced to take his time humoring them with the occasional answer to a question. They were obviously a couple, and an old one at that, as they would go seamlessly from a harmonious conversation about how things were either or weren't like 'they were before' into a full blown argument and then back again. This repeated itself on their little journey and the him, like the giant Water Buffalo that pulled them, did the best he could to drown them out with thought...

There were a few beads of rice that had scattered the ground of the wooden wagon. grains that didn't belong anywhere and he admired them in his day dreamy state, moving them about to make pattern within the system of rice only for the wagon to eventually hit a bump or something and the resulting shake to interrupt the small formation of rice. He sighed, looking up into the air as he feet dangled out of the wagon's back, hanging into the air over the ground under. The sun above was beaming bright and it seemed as though since the moment it took its place in the sky it was stubborn to come back down. The day lasted forever as in thought, seconds last an eternity.

But what was it exactly? He had spent time in a small rice village of farmers. These individuals entire livelihood existed around the growth and production of these plateau style rice farms. A platoon of families that all had nothing more to look forward to then the next days plucking and placing of rice in the flooded stack like planes that extended into intricate irrigation systems that seemingly carved out the valleys of this country. It, like all of the rest of the Great Nations Continent that he had seen, was a gross exaggeration of what one would expect; an extreme in it's own right. However, this place had its own troubles as well;

There was not a single shinobi among the farmers, and those passers through that found this little gem as an amusing side account for financial growth decided to move on in as well. A group of Sunagakure shinobi that were more bandits then ninja had taken over this operation by force and was currently making these people pay a tax on the rice that they grew, oppressing them with their cruel mentality. With Rice Country not having much of a military, and the farms themselves being so vast and rural from anything that would be considered a real threat to them, the bandit shinobi were able to set up their little operation and cash in on those who weren't able to defend themselves.

Traveling on foot at the time, Vice had only passed through there on his own personal tour through the country himself. Here, he rested, when he was both told and saw first hand of the cruelty that was going on by these rouge shinobi. For Vice, he had more then enough personal reason to take action. To him, this was just another example of how the system that the great nations had installed was draining the world of its life and using those who were smaller then it to boost its own greedy and gluttonous power. It wasn't long before he confronted and defeated these many shinobi; wielding nothing more then traditional jutsu and common weaponry against his kaguya clan techniques. He made sure the each was killed, so that no information of the event would make it back to the hidden village itself, and in the process was freeing the people of the rice valley from their oppressors. He wasn't trying to play hero, he just wanted to make the shinobi of the major village suffer for what they had done.

However, during this time he also heard many rumor about Sunagakure itself. He had been in and through Wind country but for obvious reasons of his Missing-nin status avoided going near it. Besides, navigating the rocky northern terrain was more of a chore then he wanted to exert himself doing. With his curiosity peaked and the convenient travel arrangements of the distributing matriarch and patriarch of the institute, he was more then happy to accept their praise as long as he could have a faster and easier way to get to Sunagakure and investigate these rumors; rumors of war. He could endure these two in the mean time.

So he rested and waited on the wagon as they navigated through the elevations of the mountain range of Earth Country on the way to the Wind Country. With a pause and something of a delay, he answered back to them, "No big deal... Just doing what I have to do."

"Well you are a good lad because of it."

Pfft... how naive for old people.

"So... what exactly was that tale you told me Pa-sama?"

The old man insisted that everyone call him Pa for the fact that he was the eldest of the rice farming community and thus felt himself some sort of eldest familiar. One of those 'cool' old people that go by there old person nickname instead of their respective name, like a teacher who insists to be called by their first name.

"Ohhh ho ho ho. Curious I see young man? Well look through my things; the poem is there! Have a read for yourself, I don't at all remember it by heart."

"You don't remember anything you ol' coot!"

"Aiiiya! Who you callin' an ol' coot you hag!"

And so they went on, jumping into their festive little argument. The trail itself was becoming more smooth. What was once the rugged Earth Trail was becoming gravel and in the distance one could see further. What was once unstablility that clouded site was now more open earth terrain, leading to what was in fact one of the largest deserts on the planet. This was a living desert unlike any other that was slowly consuming the life around it. It was amazing that it would devour anything that was alive that wasn't in the shelter of the hidden village. It was a beast in it's own write.

Vice stood from the edge of the wagon, marching back through the rows of seemingly countless rice grains. He came to what was a suitcase with the few things that they took along with them for their trip. This was an assortment of clothing though for the most part wasn't anything of obvious worth. There were a number of papers, filed loosely; different parchments and receipts from transactions for the purpose of documentation. These were obviously stacked and he actually attempted to keep them in some sort of order as he fingered through them. It wasn't until he came to some in the back, written not on paper or scroll but rather leather; obviously older then the others that he began paying serious attention to them.

There were many that were old, and probably of some importance some where, he didn't have interest in them all. He looked through them, one by one. He had vaguely remember the jist of the old poem; enough so that he could easily pick it out when he saw it for himself. The first time he heard it, it was read from the mouth of the old man 'Pa'. Though even as he skimmed the leather parchments, there was nothing among them that he was looking for. He almost looked back upward to inquire about the location of the document, he saw one more thing that wasn't a part of their collection of clothes. There was a single hard covered book and was under it all, and from the shuffling of the papers he had found it. It was an old mythos book, filled with religious and spiritual information, it only made sense that this would be the location of all the information.

"This book?" he asked, giving clarification to his assumption.

"W-why yes I believe so." Pa answer, though without even bothering to turn around to check himself.

"What page?" Vice asked.

"Ehh, just check the table of content, I don't remember."

"There you go again, getting old!" His wife responded, jump starting their arguing again. Vice sigh lightly to himself as he looked to the front few pages. There was in fact, no such table, and to top things of, he took note of the fact that he didn't even know name of it, thus even if he found it he wouldn't know what he was looking at. He was forced to skim this as well, page by page flipping through the book to find the one poem. He walked his way back to the edge of the back of the wagon and sat once again in the position that he was before; his feet dangling off the edge. There was plenty of time to scan, but this was very limited by the fact that the sun itself was about to set... and as he stumbled upon the parable, he read it quickly to himself...

"The first elemental god the one that breathes the life into the world the one who was taken down by the man of sand the one who sealed the god away from the world in the shrine that shares his element. This god stricken down by the man of his own priesthood. Turned to tea with no redemption shall be awoken when thy riddle has been solved. The god of life one who was 8th in power the last to fall and the first to disappear. This one shall be the first to awaken by the opposing forces and the man who has sealed him into his prison. The riddle of wind is first to those who beseech the quest to find the beast.

Everything beyond this point I beseech is a truthful lie that I so do say when I shall die. I behold the key to the gods of our world. Nine that slumber and the first on the breach to be quenched. In the par-chest of lands with the flowing air constantly shifting the landscape the beast of wind sleeps with no regrets. The higher slumbers in a place that brings satisfaction to the old and even causes drowsiness to ensue from the sound of its whistle. With the item scattered amongst the old in an open market. The item holds sand but once filled it does not awaken the beast. Only the hero's tear can awaken the beast and awaken the monster to where the tear falls. The beast will arise with full flowing anger and if one shall not prepare they shall fall. However if one does not acquire the hero's tear and lets the container empty the container shall be forever lost to them."

Now... he had little time to memorize it to the best of his ability and decide what it meant. He read it once simply for the novelty of it. There were parts that made perfect sense and others that weren't as straight forward. One could almost here how the intonation of the text was a result of being copied or perhaps translated from another script. After the first and then second go through, he took a second to scan it a bit more closely. It was separated into two halves, and he would start by taking one at a time. Annotating wasn't at all difficult for him as he did alot of literary analysis in the past few years;

"The first elemental god the one that breathes the life into the world"

From this he could take this was an elemental power, obviously, and the hint further of what 'breathes life'. There were many element to life itself and any number of elements could be considered a member of this category. Lightning was on small scale the product of life; the energy that kept people and things moving and alive. Water was what maintained life, as it refreshed and replenished it. Earth could be considered the body of life; the solid flesh and bone that gave man form, and wind was... the breathe of life, quite literally. It would make sense if the first line referred to the wind. Fire was the only element that wasn't necessarily tied into the ideal of life. Perhaps the destroyer of life, but nothing that maintained it.

"the one who was taken down by the man of sand the one who sealed the god away from the world in the shrine that shares his element"

Now, this was a bit more difficult simply because of the lack of punctuation to decipher exactly what belong where. It was a run on sentence of sorts and most likely a translation error. Now, the 'man of sand' he wasn't aware of but sand itself was everywhere, and this was wind Country. Perhaps the shrine was wind country itself, and the man of sand sealed the 'god' away in the country of the wind... which would make it obvious that the element was in fact wind. He had a feeling that the 'man of sand' would eventually become important, but didn't yet know what to make of it.

"This god stricken down by the man of his own priesthood."

Most likely referring to the "man of sand", though it insisted that they had the same sort of beliefs spiritually though the word 'priesthood'. This would be too much of a clue though, as a straight forward and specific priesthood would most likely be symbolic instead of literal. Until he could get more information on the person that the text referred to, there wasn't anything he could do to pick it apart.

"Turned to tea with no redemption shall be awoken when thy riddle has been solved."

The riddle was most likely the text itself, though the rest made little sense. It seemed as though this too was an incomplete sentence in itself, and lacked the noun necessary to make it so; 'turned to' as in, depending on, was a possibility, though to depend on tea was questionable, and literally turning to tea would be more directionally inclined. Perhaps turning was an action of conversion; to change from something to tea? The word 'redemption' supported this, as it also had spiritual ideals behind it's meaning. But no, there was no relevance in tea, the drink. There was a tea COUNTRY, which was south of Fire and Water Country, and would be worth at the very least making note of as he continued reading. In any case, it will still very sketchy to make any sort of straight forward assumption from that.

"The god of life one who was 8th in power the last to fall and the first to disappear. This one shall be the first to awaken by the opposing forces and the man who has sealed him into his prison."

This was much more straight forward in terms of information. It would be the second weakest apparently, if there were in fact nine. The first to appear would make it indeed the first to trigger the series of events that would lead to all of the other 'gods' coming to life. The 'opposing forces' were also something of a hint, though it was impossible to say exactly what those opposing forces where. There were far too many opposing forces to be considered without knowing exactly what it was referring to. It was almost if it was talking in circles on purpose but it instead of getting frustrated over the details of it, he looked to the deals of the 'man who sealed him into prison'. The prison was referred to as a shrine earlier, and the man was most likely the 'man of sand'. If that was the case then how could 'he' have a place in the awakening of it? It was curious, and raised a blurry shroud over what was before considered understood.

"The riddle of wind is first to those who beseech the quest to find the beast."

This seemed more like a way to cap things off. It did say the riddle of the wind, which helped to confirm the element as well as the country. He was headed in the right direction so far, however for how long? There was an entire 'nother half worth looking into.

-Everything beyond this point I beseech is a truthful lie that I so do say when I shall die.-

This was interesting in which it seemed as though the author seemingly referred to himself, or perhaps the author was taking a new role, switching from a third person view to that of another individual. This could be anyone at this point and it was something worth looking for in the future.

I behold the key to the gods of our world. Nine that slumber and the first on the breach to be quenched.

Once again appearing as ‘I’, it refers to someone speaking to the reader. The person who was said to hold the key was also, previously, known as the ‘man of sand’, who they said was the ‘man who sealed him into his prison.” It was only assumed that perhaps this was a message from the man of sand, who was taking the role of author from this point on, by the ‘beyond this point’ comment.

“In the par-chest of lands with the flowing air constantly shifting the landscape the beast of wind sleeps with no regrets. The higher slumbers in a place that brings satisfaction to the old and even causes drowsiness to ensue from the sound of its whistle.”

This basically spoke of confirming the location to wind country, though the idea of regrets went along with the earlier note of redemption… The second line of the to be much more straight forward in specifying, however. It was a real sort of riddle; a place that brings satisfaction to the old. The causes of drowsiness from it’s whistle. Drowsiness was associated with sleep, and few sounds short of a lullaby were meant for sleep. It was a riddle that may be given further clues the further he went into the text.

“With the item scattered amongst the old in an open market. The item holds sand but once filled it does not awaken the beast.”

This was interesting. Now, and what had never been previously seen before, was the ideal of some ‘item’. This was one to be filled among the old; perhaps the same old that are satisfied. This probably referred to an item needed to seal the power away, it only made sense it after all that’s how it always worked right?

“Only the hero's tear can awaken the beast and awaken the monster to where the tear falls. The beast will arise with full flowing anger and if one shall not prepare they shall fall. However if one does not acquire the hero's tear and lets the container empty the container shall be forever lost to them."

And not only what was potentially a sealing method but also something that seemed to be a method of unsealing it in the first place. It refers to a ‘hero’s tear’ something that was unsettling because he was not a hero, nor had he ever remembered having cried before. Hopefully it was in fact some finable, literal object, not something that was also poetic in nature. There was also a warning of sorts, that if one couldn’t have the hero’s tear before the container was empty that they would lose the opportunity. There was perhaps a method in finding each, making it something of a quest. Find the first and then having a limited amount of time to find the second, while having a time limit in order to do so. It was something of a challenge, especially when he didn’t know how true this was or wasn’t. It was silly to be chasing around rumors and myths, but to yield the sort of power it promised, he was willing to take this parable seriously. After all, he had nothing to lose and plenty of time in his life time to make his ultimate goal a reality.

Before arriving, however, they passed through something of graveyard. It was a large cemetery, and in his opinion, there was more chance of starting his search here rather than somewhere else. After all, in the heart of Sunagakure there was too much urbanization for someone to have not uncovered something like this in the past. He leaned back, and yelled to those who were giving him a ride.

"Hey Pa-sama, I'll be getting off here..."

"In this dreadful place?"

"Yeah, something just caught my attention. Thank you for the favor."

"Ohh well, thank you as well! I hope you find what you are looking for Vice-chan. Come visit the farm sometime"

"Don't call him by that, he is a grown man!"

And as their arguing began, he curled the book that he had found over his wrist and, knowing he was stealing from them, he jumped from the back of the wagon and walked the opposite direction along the trail as the wagon slowly disappeared into the distance. It was an odd sort of twilight here. The sky was blanketed with starts and the moon itself was enough to light the area; its glow illuminating the sand and reflecting to make it seem as though one could see. Though visibility was lowered, the area was still luminescent enough to view the landscape. This was interesting, as even though they had traveled deep into the sands of the desert, this place was a bit different;

The ground here was dry, barren dirt; not sandy like the rest of the desert. It seemed as though the entire plot of land was cleared and kept cleared of the sands. The tomb stones rose high into the air as memorials to those fallen over the years. They weren't traditional either, but large, quadrilateral prisms with their messages at head level. It made sense after all, as the shifting sands would eventually cover and re-cover the tombs as they were tossed around by the wind. If the memorials were made tall, then they would peak out no matter how high the sands rolled in. It was also smart that the graves were made on normal earth, as one could only imagine the horror of unearthing graves that were once buried in sand; only for them to be dug up by the winds that blow away the layer of sand.

But as he strolled through this area, having ignored his curiosity for the moment as he read the many names and numbers, dates and messages that paid tribute to those dead, he noticed that this cemetery was quite old itself. The people were laid to rest here were many generation dead in fact. It was interesting to think that even though so much planning went into the design of this place, it was somehow abandoned by the desert, or perhaps, spared by it. It was only then that he had an idea. 'Satisfaction to the old', 'drowsiness'. Maybe a place where the dead were buried granted the old satisfaction. That when they old die they find rest here. But the whistling sound? It was worth a look at least, and his quest had to start somewhere. Though there wasn't enough light to read, it was still fresh in his mind from his earlier analysis. He looked about for anything that may line up with the previous clues...

He started, walking about looking for what was possibly the "man of sand" being one of the many buried here. Perhaps there was an artifact of the graves themselves that would display a clue as to his identity and coming one step closer to solving the history behind the mythos riddle.

(Ready for first check.)

Completely off good sir ^.^