Earth Deities Spear

Reo walked slowly into the country of Iwa. He could see the terrain shifting around him, so he didn’t react the same way he had on his first trip to Konoha. No, this time he was prepared for the terrain. He had been so shocked upon entering Konoha that it was as foresty as it was, but now he was beginning to see that each country had its own fauna and ecology. Suna was a desert, and a terrible place to build a country. Of course, Reo was no Missing-Nin. He still valued his country greatly. He just had other things to take care of at the moment.

[Post 1: 108 Words]

The biggest issue the young ninja was facing was that he had no idea what to do. He knew that he wanted to travel to each village and grow stronger. Stronger. Stronger. He didn’t desire power for the sake of power – as was hinted in Kiri. He desired it so that he could save the world from the dragons in this scroll. The problem was that the translation given to him by the Hokage didn’t help as much as he thought it would. Heiki had told him that the scroll could be used in a land surrounded by liquid sapphire, so perhaps he should be looking for that? All the translation said was just the summoning chant. Well, that’s what it sounded like. Where could the “land surrounded by sapphire” be? Saphire was a blue gem, so perhaps it meant land surrounded by water? Reo had just been in kiri but had heard of no such place. There were plenty of islands in the world, but did it mean any island or a specific one? Saphire was a rather specific word choice, as well.

[Post 2: 184 Words]

Gah! Reo swung his arm into the canyon wall next to him. It was a tall wall of rock, and there was another similar wall on the other side. In fact, canyon would describe accurately what Reo was walking through – he thought. It was his first time seeing such a structure. The rock shook and even cracked a little but showed no signs of falling down. That was good. Rocks falling on him seemed less than pleasant.
 
Still, this place was quite amazing. Reo hadn’t noticed when he walked into the rocky canyon, but now that he was paying attention – it was quite a sight.

[Post 3: 105 Words]

 The rocky walls rose easily thirty feet into the sky. They were sturdy, as Reo’s punch earlier had proved. That wouldn’t have held up if it were made of sand – and Reo would probably have found himself dead right around now due to sand collapsing on him. That would have been embarrassing.
 
Still, Reo was incredibly frustrated with his lack of information. He had asked around a little bit in Kiri – but not enough to draw attention to himself. No one seemed to know anything. Now, this figure known as Apollo was coming after him in order to steal the scroll. Apollo would probably not stop at the bandits he had already hired. No, Apollo would probably continue to pose challenges for Reo and he would have to fend him off.

[Post 4: 131 Words]

Of course, if Reo could find Apollo then things may become easier. Surely someone sending that many after a lone Genin wouldn’t make such a bold move until they knew the location that the scroll had to be used at. To do otherwise would be nothing but pure folly. Sadly, the bandit leader hadn’t known much about who this Apollo was.
 
Red hair. That wasn’t much for Reo to go on considering how many people lived in the various countries that Reo had visited – let alone the countries that he had yet to visit. It would be impossible to look for someone by the name Apollo with red hair among this many people.

[Post 5: 113 words]

Besides, Apollo probably wasn’t his real name. Reo continued to walk. His feet pounded the stone beneath him and Reo was over-aware of how loud it sounded. Perhaps Suna’s desert wasn’t so bad. A desert could mask noises. This rocky canyon only served to amplify it twofold. First, the rock served as a way of creating loud noises with every step he made. Second, the noise bounced around the craggy walls of the canyon.
 
Reo sighed and turned his head to explore his surroundings. There was no use brooding over things he couldn’t change. He might as well focus on his trip to each of the major villages and try to learn as much as he could about the liquid sapphire, the Ryu Caller, and Apollo as he could along the way. So, Reo began to take the scenery in.

[Post 6: 140 Words]

He was surprised by what he uncovered as he walked through the canyon and stared at it. Along the canyon wall, there were names. Each name had a short biography – or description – of who they were and what they were famous for. The walls around Reo were serving as a monument to the fallen Shinobi of Iwa. As he walked, one thing stood out to Reo. There was a name at the far end that was written a little larger than the rest. Beneath that name, was written a title – Tsuchikage. The position equal to Kazekage within Iwa. This person was important.

[Post 7: 102 Words]

Reo placed his hands on the words and closed his eyes. He could almost feel the spirit thrumming within the stone.
 
Almost.
 
Reo opened his eyes and continued to read. Beneath the title there was only a single sentence. “Wielder of the Kanayama – Trident of the Earth Gods”.
 
Reo’s ears almost visibly perked up as he read that. A trident that belonged to the gods? Well, that piece of equipment may serve him well in his fight against Apollo. Either that or it was a piece of equipment that deserved to be locked up for all eternity, as with the Ryu Caller.

[Post 8: 102]

Reo began to walk away, but stopped himself when he noticed a few words scribble beneath the sentence about the Kanayama. The words were smaller – almost as if they weren’t intended to actually be read. Reo almost wanted to say that the words weren’t there a minute ago.
 
“Located in the stone forest”. Reo glanced at the rock. This was Iwa, a village of stone. Perhaps the souls of their ancestors resided within stone? If so, then Reo may have connected with the soul of this kage in some way when he closed his eyes and placed his hands on the rock.

[Post 9: 102 Words]

He could have sworn that the location of the Kanayama had not been there mere moments ago. He could have sworn.
 
Reo continued on his way out of the canyon. Soon those rocky walls lowered into the ground and were as nothing. The area around him actually reminded him much of home when he left that canyon. Sparse vegetation. A blazing sun. There wasn’t much water to speak of. All in all, it was like Suna if you replaced the sand with rocks. Of course, there was one major difference between the two other than rocks versus sand. The landscape wasn’t as flat. Suna had rolling hills and sand dunes everywhere due to the uneven pileup of sand that gets shifted by the wind. This had none of that, instead it had much larger but rarer structures placed throughout. They were pure rock and looked as if they were carved from some giant statue.

[Post 10: 154]