33 Leagues across the Sea

Subject: 33 Leagues across the Sea Fri Apr 29, 2011 2:43 am

How did Yakate plan to cross the entire sea between Sand Country and Marsh Country?

With style.

He stood as close to the coast as he could without letting the water touch his chakra-infused sand. Then, he began rising. Rising upon a pillar of sand, that was growing and growing, comprised of the sand that Yakate had gathered in the middle of the desert. He rose several meters, and then many more; in a few minutes, he was a hundred meters above sea level, and standing on a pillar of sand.

Yakate wanted to flaunt the position for a while, but the stress of maintaining sand at the base of the pillar forced him to continue.

The grains of sand at the bottom of the pillar began rising and - yes. The pillar was now floating in the air; but could it be called a pillar? For now, the sand was gathering at the very top of the pillar, a hundred meters above sea level, and flattening itself into a kind of platform. The vertical pillar was breaking down into a kind of cubic block of sand that was in mid-air - a block of sand that was ten meters in length, width, and thickness.

At first, Yakate was standing on top of the figure, his hands and fingers constantly moving about to coordinate the sand precisely into spots. As soon as the block had formed, his feet sunk into the sand, followed by his legs and thighs. His lower body was now stuck in sand.

Now for the fun part.

With a seemingly weak motion of his hands, the entire structure began accelerating in mid-air. It was moving over the sea, going faster and faster; and even faster, and a bit faster after that. It reached a constant velocity of 75 miles per hour; the desert behind him disappeared, and the vast sea surrounded him from either side.

The relieving feeling of the wind slapping against his face was well-deserved; the sheer strength needed to move a body of sand at such a speed took a lot out of Yakate, despite his extensive stamina. And his work was not done yet; he wouldn't make it all the way to Swamp Village if he consumed so much stamina already, much less attack it.

When it had reached a constant velocity, he began shifting the shape of the structure. Grains of sand from the rear of the block moved to the front, and pushed the particles at the surface offront to the back. The sand being pushed back gathered on the sides of the block, being unable to penetrate into the structure. Slowly but surely, the block was turning into a shape much like that of a hawk's nose; sharp, pointed, and spreading out towards the back.

This would keep air resistance to a minimum. And hopefully, the inertia of the heavy mass of sand would keep them moving at this rate for at least 30 minutes before intervention was required from Yakate.

Panting heavily, he caught his breath, allowing his hold on the sand to pause momentarily. A few grans of sand flew down into the sea, but the loss was acceptable - it was infinitesimal. Now, Yakate would sleep. Regain stamina. It would do no good if he was too tired to fight in Marsh Country. Besides, the structure would keep moving at a more or less steady rate for at least thirty minutes...

And at this rate, they would reach Marsh Country in a little more than an hour.

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Words: 589
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Comments: o-o Fun... Although I prolly go against the travel rules with this. :G It's supposed to take 'days' to get from one village to another. xD!

Subject: Re: 33 Leagues across the Sea Mon May 02, 2011 9:23 am

Zzz... Zzz...

... Ssshh...

A gust of wind aimed straight at his eyelids woke Yakate up. For a moment, he felt helpless and weak, and began bawling out like a baby. By the time he realized that nothing was happening, he blinked twice. Rubbing his eyes with his hands, he finally regained his bearings; he was flying at remarkable speed towards Swamp Village.

But... he didn't remember being this low before...

With a sinking stomach, he realized that he had overslept; the sand-block's inertia had finally died out. He was falling at an increasingly fast rate, and his speed was falling as well, albeit not as fast as his height. A pulse of chakra flowed through his whole body, and with tremendous effort, he caused the body of sand to fly upwards again.

To his great dismay, this caused the block to lose even more speed; it took more immense bursts of chakra to maintain the speed and keep the height rising. After he had deemed the height a safe one, he released his hold over the sand. The sheer relaxation in his body almost made him feel sleepy again; his sense of duty, however, kept his eyelids wide open.

Now, he had to analyze.

He could see the shores of Swamp at a distance: evidently, he had slept for about 45 minutes. If he had woken up when he was supposed to and upheld his speed, he probably would have reached the village in 15 minutes. Now, however, it would take... 30 minutes. This was an estimation, though.

30 minutes of travel didn't need his attention. On the other hand, if he fell asleep again, he might fly over Swamp Village, be noticed by Swamp shinobi, and get attacked. In the best case scenario, he might land at a stranded corner of Marsh Country; even then, he would be lost.

Hence, sleep was taboo for the moment.

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Words: 310
Total Words: 899
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Total Characters: 4934
Comments: ~.~ One more post...

Subject: Re: 33 Leagues across the Sea Mon May 02, 2011 9:36 am

'... Dear God, how is it that one finds it so hard to stay awake when moving at speeds faster than a cheetah?'

Yakate had been reduced to talking to himself: that was how bored he was. Yes, the prospect of finally dealing with Swamp Village excited him, but the calm before the storm - it was unbearable. Nor could he rest, for resting meant surely losing the battle before it started.

... He sighed. And closed his mouth as soon as he opened; a powerful gust flew into his throat, sending him into a coughing fit. But he was glad of the fit; at least it passed some time.

The closer he came, the more he came to appreciate that Sunagakure was truly unique. The villagers of his village had golden sands at their feet wherever they went; Swamp villagers, however, had to live in this stinky, murky, swampy land, where there was no chance of gaining any pleasant fragrance. Perhaps this served as a defense; the putrid smell stupefying any invaders. Yakate took this seriously, and began breathing more consciously.

At the appropriate distance, Yakate began his descent. At first, he wished to land in the middle of Swamp village and start a massacre. Now, however, he realized it would be smarter if he used the element of surprise; he attempted to land between two trees, a few miles west (from his line of sight) of the village.

He slowed the block down, using less effort than he had to speed it up, and smiled gaily as the wind became calmer upon his skin. The feeling of the overall journey was enthralling, had it not been for the fact that he was going to war right after it. He had to do this again some time...

Time seemed to be moving ridiculously slowly as he descended, but it seemed to pass all too fast when he crashed between the brown grass of Marsh Country.

But in spite of the fact that he had to regather all his sand, there was a sense of accomplishment with him. Finally, he had reached the dark country of Marsh.

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Words: 356
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Comments: ;D Finally...