Starring:
Date: January 27, 2016
Summary:
Kenta's invited as a guest speaker at a medical convention! Atsuro, Taizen and Tatsuo goes with him. Unfortunately, the convention isn't so much a convention as a death trap…
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Fang & Talon - A Breach of Convention"
Land of Fire
The temperature is pleasantly mild on this winter Sunday, despite it being still early in February. There's only a little bit of snow on the ground, which thankfully makes traveling easier outside of Konoha, because it's an important day for Kenta. The young man had received an invitation earlier in the week to a medical convention, where he'll be one of the guest speakers. His successes at combining seals with medication ninjutsu is apparently something that can inspire new generations of medics. The invitation came as a total surprise to Kenta, but it's impossible to refuse, even though he privately believes that he'll make an absolute -terrible- speaker and role model. Nevertheless, Kenta accepted and spent a lot of effort on this upcoming presentation.
Currently, Kenta's marching down a lightly snowy road with a big rolled up scroll strapped to his back instead of his usual backpack. The scroll has all the painstakingly drawn diagrams and seals arrays that he's going to use in his presentation. That's another blessing about the good weather. There's no chance that his precious work will get damaged, even though it's four hours traveling from Konoha to the location that the letter mentioned.
Kenta has towed Tatsuo along, since both him and his grandmother think that a medical convention would be a good experience for a talented budding medic-nin. Kenta's grandmother would have been with them too, if it wasn't such a long distance. The more surprising additions to the group are Atsuro and Taizen. They're not medic-nin, but they've also received invitations to the event. Apparently, the Jounin Commander and his partner is well known for their support of the medical community, or some such.
Tatsuo was pretty darn excited! Not only was he getting to go to an event but he was going to get to see his sensei giving a speach in front of a bunch of people! It wasn't often that Tatsuo had a bounce in his step but he sure did today. "You're going to be great Kenta-sama! I can't wait to hear your speech! Did you remember to bring everything with you?"
Atsuro's not sure how he's supported the medical community enough to get an invitation to such an event, but with Kenta doing a presentation there, he's lost his internal justification for now attending. "It's very good, Kenta," says Taizen as they walk along. The dog is wagging his tail as he watches Kenta. "Yeah," says Atsuro, "I feel like they've insulted you though. I thought you'd be the keynote speaker for sure. Maybe I can complain to somebody."
Kenta nods his head up and down. "Ummm… I have the scroll and my speech in my pocket, Tatsuo. Back right. Umm… and I practiced the medical jutsu that I'm going to show to everyone, including the S-Rank one. That one uses a lot of chakra, so I'm going to have to get it perfect the first time. Umm… umm… ummm…" He's definitely the nervous counterpart to Tatsuo's excitement. In fact, Kenta looks almost like he's going to puke, for all that he's been in arguably -much- more stressful situations. But he's never given a speech in front of hundreds of people before either!
Kenta takes a deep breath. "Please don't say anything, Atsuro-senpai. I'm surprised I even got an invitation at all. Taiki-sama should have instead, except he's too busy to attend. They probably picked me because all the dozens others on the list can't make it and they still needed to fill a spot." The young man chews his lips nervously as he speaks and continues to march on. Then, he sees something in the distance. "Oh, look! I think we're almost there!"
"You're going to do great Kenta-sama! We'll be there to watch you every step of the way and help you if you need it, right Atsuro-sama?" Tatsuo asks, still seeming quite happy as he practically skips along the roadway. Yep, this is going to be a fun trip! When Kenta says they're almost there he blinks and looks ahead, shading his eyes with his hand to look ahead. "Already? Wow, we went fast!" He's definitely much more excited than he ever has been before…
"Poppycock," says Atsuro, "More like too scared. Don't read too much into it, Kenta, Taiki's just not as brave as you are." Definitely one of his stranger attempts at cheering Kenta up. "Tatsuo's right. You know all about what you're going to present, so nobody can do it better than you. You're gonna go in there and blow them all away." He looks up when Kenta says they're almost there and squints into the distance. "Hm, I've never been there before."
Kenta points at a blocky building that's getting larger with every few steps that the group takes. It's the only building around and sits on the side of the road with a picket fence surrounding it. It's tall enough to be three stories high, but the only windows that it has ring the top only and are too small to be good for anything except ventilation. The outside is all made of nondescript grey stones blocks. All in all, it's not very impressive for a theater, but it's definitely more than large enough to fit a big audience.
Kenta glances up at the sky. "Umm… looks like we're on time. It's quiet in the yard, so the audience must not have arrived yet. That means we'll be able to set up without any interruptions. I just wish that I'm not the first presenter…" Kenta looks more and more nervous as they approach the theater. No one's at the entrance to greet them, but the door's open with a welcome sign suspended over it.
"Stop worrying Kenta-sama. Being first just means that you can get it out and over with! And you'll set the mood for the whole event. So whatever you do is going to be what everyone's talking about." Tatsuo doesn't seem to think this is a bad thing at all and, well, he is definitely quite happy with the whole event. Or maybe it's just getting out of the village for a bit. Or a mixture of both! He runs to the door when they near and steps inside, hefting his small backback as he looks around for someone to talk to.
Atsuro's brows knit together as he looks at the building. Then he looks all around them. "I was expecting it to be in a more populated area," he says, "And maybe attached to a hotel or something. This is kinda an odd place for a convention center, isn't it?" He walks up to the door, he and Taizen both sniffing for some sign of other people being here before they go in. "Are you sure this is it?" he asks, "You'd think the sign would say something like 'medical convention' on it."
Tatsuo's in the entrance hall when he skips inside. It's dimly lit by some hanging iron scones and rather plain, but has a cozy feel to it due to all the rustic wood paneling. This is definitely not a high end theater, but more of a rural gathering place where commoners can gather for special occasions. No one's at the front desk to greet Tatsuo, but there's signs that someone was just there. A recently stubbed out cigarette sits on an ashtray there and there's a big bowl of complementary chocolates for guests. A sign points down the hallway with "Annual Medical Convention This Way" printed on it.
The place smells like it was recently cleaned to Inuzuka noises. There's a lot of lemon, pine and soap on top of the theater's natural scents. The cleansers doesn't hide that there were a lot of people moving in and out of the door within the last few days. This presumably would be the crew that set up the convention. The cleansers also don't quite hide a more musky scent underneath that's reminiscent of insects and vermin. Definitely not a high class theater.
Kenta shuffles his feet nervously as he files in behind Tatsuo. "Well, there's the notice about the medical convention, Atsuro-senpai," he says upon noticing the second sign inside. The young makes no attempt to move in front of his student. Tatsuo can keep leading on if the boy's so eager for the event. "Ummm… do we just…" Kenta looks around for a the person that left the burnt out cigarette. "Ummm… I guess we do. Maybe they're already inside already." The medic-nin starts shuffling reluctantly down the hallway.
Tatsuo looks around the front area and the desk, some of his excitement dying at not seeing people around as much as he'd expected. Oh well. He looks to the sign, then starts to follow it at a quick pace to see where all the people were. "I wonder why they didn't leave anyone at the desk to help get you to the right place."
Atsuro and Taizen step reluctantly into the building. Well, that sign /does/ say it's the medical convention. Problem solved, but if Atsuro gets a chance to bend the organizers' ears, he's going to suggest a better choice of venue next year. Doing his best to put on a brave face for Kenta, he starts walking down the hall after him, sniffing around to see if he can get any indication that someone has been here more recently than the cleaners. "Are we sure we have the right time?" Atsuro asks.
"We're here an hour before noon…" Kenta says. For some reason, the fact that no one's around makes him even more nervous than having the place bustling with people. He was prepared for that, but not for this. "Ummm… Tatsuo, don't move too fast. Wait up for us," the young man calls out to his student as he trots to keep up. "I wonder if something happened before we got here and all the staff is off handling it. It's a little too quiet in here." That's a good assessment, since there's no sound of any human voices or footsteps echoing down the hallway at all.
The entrance to the a auditorium appears when they turn a corner in the hallway. There's no one inside either, but the place is lit to show the hundreds of wooden seats bolted to the ground. There's a large decorative banner stretched over the stage, which spots a podium with a very large corkboard wall behind it. The corkboard's presumably where Kenta's diagrams would be tacked up. Besides that, most of the decorates are bundles of flowers in oversized vases along the perimeter of the auditorium and hundreds of huge helium balloons floating against the ceiling in a riot of colors. The buggy smell is thicker here, but all the flowers mute it somewhat.
Some of Tatsuo's enthusiasm is dashed as things just seem a little…weird, with no people. He slows his steps near the auditorium and finally pauses, his smile fading as he looks around from the door. "Um…where are all the people Kenta-sama. Atsuro-sama?" He looks back towards the other three uncertainly.
Atsuro and Taizen quicken their pace to hurry after Kenta and Tatsuo. "All the staff /and/ all the guests?" Atsuro asks. "We haven't seen anyone at all." His frown deepens as they come to the theatre itself. "Nobody here either?" Atsuro sniffs the air, trying to find something other than bugs and flowers. "Maybe we should go out and take a look around outside," Atsuro suggests, "It doesn't smell like there's been a gas leak or anything like that, but if nobody's in here, maybe they're out back or something."
Kenta pauses, not sure what to do. "But what if that doesn't leave me enough time to set up?" he asks in a slightly nervous voice. The young man fidgets and shrugs at the large scroll strapped to his back. He pops his head through the doorway and calls out. "Hello? Heeeello?" the young man calls out.
Nothing except the echoing of his voice. But then, there's a soft thumping sound from the direction of the stage. It seems to be coming from behind the corkboard wall. Thump! Thump! Silence. Then, the sound comes again. Thump! Thump!
Tatsuo looks around the auditorium area, only stepping a little bit more past the doorway before he makes a single hand seal. That's all it takes for a heavy mist to suddenly fill the area. A sensing mist. It's what he uses to find things and now Tatsuo is searching every day inch of the area. "No, someone should be here to set up with you. Something is off…"
"Well, we should take a look around here first, I suppose." Atsuro starts walking around the perimeter of the theatre with Taizen, both of them still sniffing. As he walks near the stage, he frowns, looking from Kenta to Tatsuo. It doesn't seem like either of them are making that noise. "Anyone else here that?" he asks, "I think it's coming from the stage." He hops up to the stage with Taizen. "Yeah, there's something around here." He walks up to the corkboard.
Thump! Thump! Thump! The sound is coming regularly now. It echoes outwards from the stage through the auditorium. It sounds almost like something's being kicked repeatedly. As Tatsuo's mist seep into every nook and cranny of the theater, he starts getting a sense of the general layout of the area. Much of it is what one expects - chairs, balloons, podium… Then, some of that mist moves around the corkboard wall through a series of cracks and he feels two prone individuals on the ground. They're kicking at the wall and lying in a way that suggests that they've been tied up.
At the same time, Atsuro and Taizen's sharp nose detects the same two individuals behind the wall. In addition to this, they also smell a sharply chemical scent coming from that direction that could only be the residue of some badly degraded chloroform. Bugs. Vermin. Flowers. People. Chloroform. And… something else under all of that that's naggingly familiar to Atsuro, but too faint to figure out right away. Whatever the case is, it's pretty clear that there might be some people in trouble.
Kenta moves into the auditorium and walks towards the stage to do his own inspection when the others in the group do. His nervousness has disappeared to be replaced by cautious suspicion. "Umm… hello?" he calls out again. "Are any of you able to figure out what's making that noise?" Kenta never reaches the stage, but stops about halfway there in the aisle. He closes his eyes and starts to send out some pulses of medical chakra. "There's signs of life everywhere… two people behind that cork board and…" His eyes flash open and he stares up at the ceiling. "Above."
As his mist settles on the people the rest of his smile fades into a deep frown and his dark eyes flash in the light. He's running towards where the men are being held while at the same time the corkboard would be yanked outward…or rather pushed outward from the inside by water. The mist remained as he tried to keep conscious of it all while also trying to help the men so he could find out what had happened. Only when he's halfway there does he skid to a halt. "There's signs of life everywhere?" he asks, glancing back at Kenta.
"We can smell somebody behind here," Atsuro calls to Kenta and Tatsuo, "I think someone got them with chloroform!" The two of them back away from the corkboard as the water pushes it out. Then once it's safely out of the way, Taizen steps up again to examine the situation. Atsuro stays back though when he hears what Kenta's said. "Above?" He looks up at the ceiling.
The pair of people behind the corkboard wall is a man and a woman. Both are tightly bound in ropes and gagged to prevent them from shouting. They're a bit bruised, but doesn't look to have been molested too much beyond that. When light suddenly floods over them, the bound individuals flinches even as they rock harder on the ground. Their eyes plead for Tatsuo, Taizen or Atsuro to help them.
Kenta starts jogging over to join the others on the stage. "Oh, no! These poor people!" Then, he pauses with one foot on the low steps that lead up onto the stage and flashes another look up at the ceiling. "We have to get them out of here. Something's wrong with those balloons. They're filled with tiny living creatures. Feels like…"
The door into the auditorium suddenly slam shut with a loud boom. At the same time, there's such a strong upwelling of chakra washing throughout the theater than everyone feels it despite not being sensors. Glowing characters ignite, racing along the walls until every inch is covered with seals. A barrier has formed to trap everyone inside in that instance. Then, a red mist starts pouring out from the oversized vases. The contrast of its color against Tatsuo's mist makes it easily detectable.
"What the-," Tatsuo cuts off as the door slams but then he doesn't hesitate before he jumps up to the man and woman, cutting them free quickly with a kunai. "Go, down there, by the others." His own mist fades now as he conserves his chakra and tries to get everyone grouped up together. "Kenta-sama, what's in the balloons!" It'll help if he can tell what they are. They might be able to think of a way to stop it.
"Conduct." Atsuro turns his attention away from the balloons. "Everyone stay away from those vases. Kenta, do you know what that red gas is?" Once Tatsuo has removed their bindings, he picks up the man and slings him over Taizen's back, then grabs the woman and throws her over his shoulder. They run them out to the middle of the theatre where things seem the least dangerous for now. "If Tai and I use tsuga on the door, will it be enough to break the barrier?"
The bound man and woman aren't very cooperative in their panic. They try to wiggle onto their own feet, but do a poor job of it. The woman crumples part way when he legs give out due to prolonged lack of blood flow. Her companion is dragged by her with a cry on his lips. They stay on the ground in wide eyed terror after that as they watch the red mist creep forward. The way they hold on to each other suggests a familial relationship. "Oh, no! No, no, no! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" the woman keeps sobbing over and over.
"Lots and -lots- of some kind of insects!" Kenta exclaims as he hurries onto the stage. There are no vases on it and it's also the highest point in the room, so that's where the mist would reach last. "Umm… it's only a guess, but that mist is probably either poisonous or will do something else unpleasant to us. We need to get rid of it before it reaches us.," he says in an urgent voice. The medic-nin glances at the two freed prisoners and tries to be encouraging. "Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen to us."
Kenta looks around the area to take in all the seal characters. "This is a very strong barrier and it's anchored directly to the building. But doors and windows are usually weak points. Atsuro-senpai and Taizen-senpai, it won't hurt to try breaking down the door, but don't breath the mist if you land in it. Tatsuo, are you able to hit one of the windows from here. That could suck some of the mist away if it works."
Tatsuo moves back down by Kenta after the man and woman are free and he quickly turns in place to take in a view of everything. "Just…let me know if those bugs are going to fall. I don't like that." After that he makes a single hand seal before he draws in a breath - and goes full Squirtle. Water shoots out of his mouth with enough power that it would likely destroy most other buildings and quite a few in a row. And it keeps coming! How he's breathing is anyones guess.
Atsuro puts the woman down, then takes the man off Taizen's back and puts him down too. "Stay calm," he says, "We'll get you out of here. Someone be ready to deal with those bugs if they break free." He pulls Taizen up onto his back, then makes a hand seal. With a loud pop and a cloud of smoke, they're replaced by a much, much larger dog that has two heads. It bounds towards the doors, then leaps at them, spinning at top speed to ram it with brutal force.
Kenta tries to calm down the two freed captives as the other shinobi work on their dire situation. Tatsuo's blast of water smashes into one of the windows high up that serves as ventilation in hot weather. Unfortunately, instead of smashing the glass, the water couldn't make it pass the barrier covering the window. In fact, the barrier starts drinking up the water like an extremely dry towel, or at least the chakra that generated it. Some of the seals begin to glow a bit stronger.
At the same time, the whirling cyclone of death that's Atsuro and Taizen slams into the reinforced door of the auditorium. Minute cracks spread out along the barrier, but instantly smoothes out again. An answering force repels the Inuzuka at least ten feet away to land among the bolted down seats. This puts them inside the mist. Even if they don't breath it in, the mist starts to numb their skin like a strong anesthetic upon contact.
"Ummm… -very- strong barrier…" Kenta gulps upon seeing what happens. "Give me a second. I might be able to figure out a way to shut it down." Just at that moment, there's a twanging sound and needles suddenly spray from hidden devices in the walls towards all the shinobi. The young man yelps loudly and tosses a seal tag to generate a wall that blocks all the needles aimed in his direction. Unfortunately, one of the needles make pass the edge of the barrier and strike the male captive on the arm. The man instantly goes rigid in paralysis while his wife (probably his wife) starts screaming. And the red mist is starting to lap at the stage by now.
Tatsuo stops his attempt, muttering curses under his breath as he wipes a few drops of water off his chin. He turns just in time to see Atsuro and Taizen get knocked into the mist which causes his eyes to narrow. Blue chakra starts to bubble around him, two tails forming behind as water appears out of the air all over the place. Some of it moves to stop those needles from hitting him while the rest starts pushing out from the center of the room in all directions. What he's trying to do is obvious as the water just barely avoids the balloons but otherwise leaves no space for the gas to get by. He intends to seal it away from them with his water. It even tries to push past Taizen and Atsuro to get the gas from them. Now he can't handle the bugs if they fall though…
The giant dog quickly scrambles away from the mist, back to where Kenta and the captives are, into the depths of Tatsuo's shield. With another pop, Atsuro and Taizen return. "We'll protect you," Taizen tells the woman, trying to calm her down. "I get most of it," says Atsuro, "This was a trap for us. These people were meant to lure us to the back of the stage. Then the doors shut and the gas comes out — " He slaps one hand against the other a few times, "I'm a little numb now. So it must have been meant to disable us. The bugs must be poisonous or something like that. The idea was to leave us paralyzed — " He glances to the man felled by the needle, "And let the bugs take care of us. But how do the bugs get out? And what's the point of such a complex trap? It's not like this isn't going to leave evidence; why not just use a bomb…?"
The reason why Kenta didn't form a barrier is because it'll only keep the mist at bay as long as he keeps maintaining it with his chakra. Once such a barrier is down, the mist would rush back in. Tatsuo's method, on the other hand, absorbs all the mist particles into that wave of water that was created and washes it out of the air like rain. All of the red mist disappear within less than a minute. The vases also stop producing it once water ends up dumped into them.
"Umm… I'm not sure. But the people that did this really wants to disable us…" Kenta kneels by the paralyzed captive to perform a quick diagnosis. "He's in no danger of dying, but those needles have very powerful paralysis inducing poisons on them for sure. It'll take me a while to remove it from his system. We don't have that time. But he'll be fine as long as we get him out of here." This statement is greeted with a relieved sob from the female captive.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! While the shinobi team tried to figure out what to do next, the balloons have started to explode one by one. The insects inside have been awakened by noise and motion. As they gnaw through the thin rubber to get out of their prison, bugs start raining from the ceiling. Big, ugly, shiny black roaches the size of a man's thumb. The roaches start scurrying in a dark wave towards the stage and the people on it as soon as they land. Little feet scrambling. Antennae waving.
Protocol, he knew them bugs would be coming before long! "Uh," he lets out, his voice a bit deeper thanks to the bijuu cloak and chakra. "Can you guys do something about those?" He's still too busy working the water and the gas, making sure none is left to effect them and also trying to make sure no more comes out. He needs to put that stuff down and out for now. One thing at a time…
Atsuro glances over. "I'm glad he's alive, Kenta, but we need to get him out of here before you can work on him. How do we get past the barrier?" He turns towards the roaches and steps forward. "I'll handle them," he says, "But get ready to put out a fire, Tatsuo. I'm gonna try and blast them away." He takes in a deep breath, then makes a seal and breathes out flames all over the roaches."
"Working on it, Atsuro-senpai. They're probably immune to poisons anyway, since they'd have to get through the red mist to come at us if that stuff managed to paralyze us." Kenta has his wind ninjutsu, but division of labor does make him the best person to decipher the barrier's secrets. The medic-nin looks around with narrowed eyes while the others handle traps and roaches. This is going to take a while due to how complex the barrier is and the fact that he can't walk around checking it out from all angles.
Thankfully, Atsuro's perfect for roach killing, just like Tatsuo's perfect for poison mist removal. The wave of fire washes over the leading wall of shiny black bodies. The intensity of the heat instantly create scorch marks on the wooden surfaces of the auditorium. It has a much more damaging effect on the roaches. Vaporized moisture inside each roaches body causes their guts to explode out of the crunchy exterior carapace like popping corn.
BOOM! The roaches are -literally- exploding. When the ones in the front burst from the fire, they spray a thick black liquid into the ones further back. This black liquid burns through more roaches like strong acid, which in turns burst and leave thick, oil smears on the ground. Oily smears that burst into flame even before Atsuro's jutsu touches them. Within seconds, the entire theater's on fire. The heat is intense enough that much of Tatsuo's water simply boils away. Choking black smoke that smells heavily of burning roach ichor quickly fills the area.
Tatsuo nods to Atsuro as he finishes putting the infected water in the vases and then leaves a film of water to cover the top and keep any more from escaping. He turns to see the theatre pretty much in flames and his jaw drops open slightly. "Watch out Atsuro-sama and Taizen-sama!" That's all the warning he gives before the chakra wraps around him more until Tatsuo is no longer there, only a turtle. And then he really /is/ squirtle! Just not as cute. Water shoots out of the mini beasts mouth rapidly, blasting into the base of the fire and not letting up. He's going to be tired by the time they finish this!
Atsuro steps back and off to the side. "Good thing Tatsuo's with us," he breathes. He starts to look around the theatre again, trying to spot anything that might be useful or dangerous to them. He looks over at Kenta, hoping the younger man has made some progress on the barrier. He was hoping that one of those bugs would stay intact so that they could examine it after this was done, but he's not sure there's any hope of that right now.
The blasts of water from Tatsuo waves over the strong flames and manages to quench a lot of it. Unfortunately, the oily substance inside of the roaches seem to be able to burn to some degree even on top of water, which means that the transformed boy would have to regulate the flow of water to keep the fire from splashing back into the shinobi and freed captives. Wherever the water washes against the walls, it's absorbed into the barrier as chakra. Tatsuo might not notice it at first, but tendrils of Bijuu chakra is also slowly being pulled from him towards the barrier and absorbed as well.
Meanwhile, Kenta has finally located a section of the barrier that's weaker than the others. "Over there!" the medic-nin exclaims as he points at a spot to the left of the stage. "You see how that chain of characters are different than the others. There gap between them are extra wide." The gap that Kenta's pointing out is about a fraction of the inch wider than necessary and not discernible to untrained eyes, even after it's been pointed out. "The flow of chakra won't be as efficient there. We need to concentrate on that section."
Tatsuo is far too busy on making sure they all don't burn to death to notice any of his chakra being absorbed. On top of that, the bijuu's chakra is so extensive that it would have to absorb a good chunk before he got exhausted…luckily. He's already a bit tired, but that's more because not only is he regulating the chakra and the water to make sure there's no backfire, but he's also managing the bijuu. This form still isn't as secure as the others after all.
Atsuro nods. "Got it," he says, "We'll hit it again. If you have anything that can help, go ahead. Just give the signal when you want us to attack." Once again, he pulls Taizen up onto him and makes a seal. With another pop and cloud of smoke, the big two-headed dog has returned and it's facing to the spot Kenta pointed out, leaning on its forepaws and ready to take off.
Kenta glances over to make sure that Tatsuo's handling the still flickering flames. There's a hint of surprise when he sees the tendrils of chakra getting sucked off his student, but it's not the time to dwell on it too much. As strong as the barrier is, it'll probably take more than a single blow to break through even a weak spot.
Kenta pops a red pill into his mouth. Then, he the sucks in a deep breath and starts to mold chakra into the shape he needs. Some of it would probably get absorbed by the barrier, but hopefully not enough to make a difference. A sharp-edged shroud envelops Kenta's hands the exact instance that he makes a slashing motion at the weak spot. Medical chakra rips forth in a scythe to slam into the improperly spaced seal characters. As expected, much of the chakra from his attack is absorbed, but enough force remains to create cracks that instantly start to heal. "Now!" Kenta exclaims to the Inuzuka.
Tatsuo/Isobu/Squirtle finally is done with the flames, at least enough for now. The remaining flaming portions aren't going to burn down the building anytime soon. It's only then that he notices some of his chakra is being absorbed by the barrier and he takes a few steps back without thinking. IT doesn't help much…but then it doesn't seem to be draining much just yet…and he needs Isobu's chakra for now.
The giant dog pounces foward as soon as Kenta tells it. It first takes a few bounds across the stage to build speed. Then it jumps. Chakra whirls around it with savage force as it starts to spin, hurtling through the air until it slams into the barrier's weak point.
The barrier stutters and shorts out upon the second impact from the Inuzuka duo. A hole blows open in the wall, allowing the shinobi and the two civilians to escape through it. As soon as they all tumble out into the open, Kenta starts to work on the paralyzed man. It takes him several minutes to remove the poison from the man's system, during which everyone have to be watching for additional surprises. Luckily, it seems like the trapped theater is the only surprise waiting for them that day. Whomever set it up probably assumed it'd be enough to handle the shinobi.
While Kenta worked on her husband, the female captive babbled on about what she knows between sobbing and thanking everyone. Apparently, a man approached them about setting up the convention a few weeks ago. All fees to use the theater were readily paid and extra was given to have the two owners hiring locals to set the place up according to instructions. The decorations were sent by their customer, so they have no idea where it came from. The same man that paid them arrived earlier in the morning to host the event, or so they were told, but proceeded to knock them out and stash them inside the theater, where they would presumably burn to death with the shinobi. Might be an attempt to get rid of evidence.
Tatsuo rushes out the opening after everyone else, the turtle barrelling through the opening before turning to watch and make sure nothing was trying to follow them out. Once he was sure the transformation faded and Tatsuo returned to two legs as the rest of the chakra bubbled away. It was only at that moment he realized just how much chakra it had drained and he flops backwards onto his rump as his legs feel a bit weak from it all. "Ugh, horrible. I hope we at least have a description of the people…" he mutters, glancing over to the babbling woman…
The dog pounds through the barrier and leaps out of the building to safety. It turns around to make sure everyone leave safely, then it splits back into Atsuro and Taizen again.
Letting Kenta handle the husband, Atsuro listens to the woman's account, taking note of every relevant detail. He already has one theory as to who this mystery man might be, but even if it turns out to be him anyway, this attempt on their life might have turn out to be exactly what they need to nail him to the wall.
Thankfully, the owners do have a description. That might be what condemned them to die with the shinobi. Since death didn't occur, they were able to reveal the details. In fact, the woman turns out to be a deft sketch artist. Some time spent drawing on the back of one of the giant scroll Kenta brought along for the fake convention gains them a sketch of the culprits face. As some of them might have guessed, it matches pretty closely with the physical description of Shou's constantly traveling son. Nail hammered.
