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| - She sat among the tree tops, watching the forest below. The woman had chosen to remain within the Land of Fire's borders, despite having moved considerably west of her former target after her research had been completed. Even now, she marveled at the connection between herself and the surrounding forest. Never had the young woman been so in tune with her surroundings, the heartbeat of the landscape keeping time with her own. It was truly an enlightening feeling, one that confirmed her decision to leave Kumo was in fact a good one. Despite having a loving family there, she had never felt completely comfortable with the place that she had called home for almost all of her life. I should add poet to the list of skills that I have accumulated, Kurumi pondered thoughtfully, a pleasant smile warming her face. It was clear she felt at ease, that is until the quiet was broken by the slightest of disturbances on the forest below. There, she saw a man picking his way carefully, scanning the landscape for something in particular. The young woman was about to ask him what he sought until she noted a particular band marking him as one of their own. "When will they realize I never plan on returning home?" Kurumi whispered softly, a small wind disguising her voice as it ruffled through the leaves. At that point, she carefully weighed her options; the young woman knew he would most likely be a powerful opponent, yet she wanted to test her newfound abilities against him. With a couple of handseals, a decoy emerged from tree she was leaning against. Once that was completed, Kurumi sank in the tree's embrace, completely disappearing from sight. She would decide later whether or not it was time to escape from this group that continued to persist on her return. Once she was effectively concealed, the clone continued to watch the man, before nimbly reaching a lower branch. "To what do I owe this audience?" the young woman asked, staring at the man below with something reminiscent of cool disinterest. Perhaps she would persuade him to leave her alone, not that he would notice the difference even if he succeeded in his objective. "Well well well. If it isn't the infamous Kurumi of the Yuri clan. From what I can tell, you've been up to a lot of things missie. You've tried to escape countless times, all failed. This time though, you can very well escape, by using your heritage. But in comparison with kekkei genkai, your Wood Release is dead meat to my Dark Release. And anyways, you've gotten in enough trouble to the point where I have to come and get you. Lord Raikage only orders me on serious missions, and since I'm not even really his subordinate, he usually relies on his Jōnin group and the Kinkaku Force. For that matter, you're noted as strong, but you're early in training. And for my attitude, you've piqued my interest to the limit. I guess I can train you, but you have to really come out into the open, and then we'll talk about it, shall we?." Kurumi jumped down from the tree branch to land on the floor below before stopping short of the man. "Why should I trust you?" the young woman asked, her voice dripping with boredom. She knew the Dark Release was a dangerous asset indeed, but also knew she was capable of overcoming it should the situation call for such an action. Either way, she was not impressed so far with the newest tormentor that she had the misfortune of crossing paths with. "You seem quite content with boasting about your superior power yet all I see is exactly that; words." Kurumi noted in response. "Say I theoretically accept your offer, what would I stand to gain from the experience that you tout so highly?" the lady asked, a small yawn forming on her lips. It would seem that she found the talker to be uninteresting, yet Kurumi remained alert all the same. After all, lax demeanor would paramount to suicide and a return home, something she wanted to avoid. "What I do grant you, is protection from Kumogakure. I grant you the power of senjutsu, dark chakra, and even some of my "weird" tricks. You have piqued my interest indeed. I can also further awaken your power in the usage of your kekkei genkai Wood Release. It's eiether decline, or say yes. If you don't, well, I can't do anything further to help you but say I lost you. So, to the matter at hand, yes, or no?" Kurumi paused to consider. While she had made leaps and bounds with her personal KG, there were still aspects of it that needed greater attention to detail. It still amazed her just how powerful an individual the First Hokage though she knew it would take a while even with her intellect to reach such a monumental level. In particular, her interest was piqued when he mentioned senjutsu; it was a necessary component for some of Hashirama's most potent abilities with his personal limit. While she wasn't sure about dark chakra, the other offerings sounded incredibly appealing, particularly for one with her hunger for knowledge. Particularly having some level of protection from her former village would help her grow rapidly in peace; after all, it is hard to experiment while on the run. "Consider it done." Kurumi smiled as she closed the gap; the deal was too good to resist after all. With that, the clone sank into the ground, leaving the man alone temporarily. The real woman emerged from a nearby tree before dusting herself. "Where are we headed first?" she asked. "Before I answer that question, I'm going to start a training with you. First will come my skills. Then will come enhancing your Wood Release prowess. After that, I'll teach you some senjutsu, my recollection of it that is. I'll guide your path in it to where you want to learn senjutsu, no worries. After that, maybe dark chakra, but by the looks of your face, it seems you don't care much about it. But using it could enhance your prowess over abilities. And where we're going, is up to you now. Kurumi ran through what he just said. "Let's see some of the quirks that you have, besides the Dark Release and Dark Chakra. While the latter would definitely increase my abilities, I know of its rather costly side-effects, so I'll skip it thank you. As for our next destination, how about you guide me to the senjutsu place you speak of? While I know senjutsu can be taught to a limited extent from individual to individual, I want the whole package, and in order to do so, it is necessary that you make your way to an establishment of senjutsu containing beings with the jurisdiction to give the full package." Kurumi pondered aloud. She waited patiently for Hebi to showcase his own abilities. "Besides you never gave me your name, so I believe it would be a good idea to do so." "Our next destination, will be Shikkotsu Forest. After that, we'll go to Ryūchi Cave. And my name, that's Hebitsukai. I don't know what else you could call me, but, shall we go?" Kurumi eyed him for a second; despite his original mission, he willingly abandoned it to teach her. For now at least, she would trust him; should anything go awry however, she had ways of making herself disappear once more. "I'll call you Hebi," Kurumi responded before beginning to walk along, her relatively long strides allowing her to cover ground with ease. "Let's," she said to his question, her long brown hair flowing in the gentle wind. It was going to be an interesting thing, this so called senjutsu. Starts to run, nodding to Kurumi for her to do the same, as they go ahead, he makes a simple decision to go to Kusagakure first, for some thing. "We're going to make a short pitstop at Kusagakure, to hone some simple skills with simple training. It'll take about two weeks. Don't worry, those Sage learning dojos aren't gonna go anywhere. So, come along..." He keeps running, thinking at the same exact time.
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