Starring:
Rockpath (emitter), Hige, Kajiru, Zankuro, Zori
Date: June 20, 2015
Summary:
Some rumors of a rampaging bear have circulated to Konoha, so a team’s been sent to look into it.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Bear Hunt - A Big Bear Encounter"
Land of Fire
Hige, with his new status of Jounin, is probably extremely busy now that he's been promoted. And sadly for him, things can really only get busier… He's been sent a messenger hawk with his assignment, the note saying that he would be overseeing Kirryu Kajiru and Sarutobi Zankuro. Rumors have it that there have been sightings of a giant bear in a nearby area, and it's been mauling many innocent folks. The team would have to figure out how, but they need to stop it from attacking further. The map would show Hige the rough area the bear has been sighted (north and west).
For the life of him Hige can't figure out why he got put on this mission, unless there were just no Chuunin available with good tracking abilities. Or if they were worried Kajiru might go crazy with someone else? Who knows. Regardless the pair prepared, then made their was to the gates to meet up with the rest of the team. And there they wait, Hige with his arms crossed over his chest looking out into the forest, Konsho cleaning…himself.
Zip! Kajiru appears in a rush and immediately spins around Hige once before declaring, "Here!" She then nods her head and sniffs about, "A bear, huh? I bet I can take it!" She nods her head and then dances about a little, "It's goin' down!" She nods and then peers up at Hige, "Ya know, I believe my first mission was fighting a bear." She nods her head and then frowns, "It had babies." She hurrms, "I hope this one doesn't have babies."
Zankuro and Hige must be linked somehow, because even /he/ can't figure out why he got on this particular mission. So WHAT if helped slay that one lycanthrobe, slayed a hog whose very body melted steel from extreme heat, and managed to navigate his way past a forest that literally ate folks? Anybody can do that! But alas, he held back complaints, and just showed up at the meet point as expected, arms folded and all ruffled. Literally, his hair wasn't gelled back today, so now he had to keep blowing these few errant strands out of his eye sight. "It better not. Already got enough on my conscious as-is." Zankuro grumbles out.
Konsho barks a greeting to Kajiru when she appears, the pups tail wagging cheerfully at the sight of the girl. Hige just nods to her, "Yes, it's going to go down, though hopefully we won't have to kill it." It's just a bear, after all. When Zankuro arrives Hige quirks a brow at the other boy. "Enough on your conscious? Too much so to actually take care of yourself huh?" He gives Zan a smirk. Then there's a gleam in his eyes as he adds, "Speaking of things on your conscious, I've been meaning to ask you about a particular set of twins…" He lets tht sit for a moment before he pulls out the map, "Alright, we've got the location and dates of attacks. We'll start at the most recent and see if we can catch a scent, then branch out from there as necessary. Questions?"
Flipping on to her hands, she walks along on her hands for a moment as she nods her head, "Ok, so we got a spot then. Lets go to that spot, find da bear, and stop da bear." She nods her head and then flips back to her feet before looking to Hige, "You think we won't kill it? I mean, what are we gonna do? Give it a stern speaking to?" She then tilts her head.
"Yeah man, way too much stuff stress'n me out, ya know?" Zankuro continues on mockingly before cracking his own smirk back at Hige. That of course gets quickly wiped from his face when the twins get brought up again. The Sarutobi visibly pales, and remained silent on the matter. Thankfully, whatever it is about the twins doesn't weigh on him for long, because he is soon literally and metaphorically shaking it off. "Capture or scare, maybe… And yeah, I got a question. When you say branch off from there, you don't mean as in split up do ya?" The rotund teen asks warily.
The team would set out and travel. The village wasn't too far, at least, destination taking only forty minutes or so to get to. There's nothing really stopping them, either. As they start to bear the village, they would get to see many days-old bear tracks. It was clearly a larger bear than most, but who knows why it was moving. Branches and twigs and the like were all crushed in its wake. Maybe some of the villagers have some clue as to what's going on! I mean, they even have a few victims getting hospitalized/cared for.
"I'm kind of hoping that if we feed you to it, it'll decide that nothing tastes good around here and leave," Hige says offhandedly to Kajiru in a way that really makes it hard to tell if he's joking or being serious. "When I say branch off I do mean split. Into pairs. Konsho would go with you Zan, and I'd go with Kajiru. If the scents and tracks are hard to find we'll need our noses in different directions." He glances between the two, then nods, "Alright, well let's get a move on." Hige takes the lead, Konsho takes rear guard, and they travel at a decent clip. But not too fast to leave Kajiru or Zan behind.
When they near the village Hige motions for them to stop so they can look around at the obvious signs. "Big bear…" He puts his (admittedly smaller than average) hand inside one of the paw prints for comparison. Hmm. The teen looks up to see which way the bear headed from here, then glances at the village before standing again. "Let's go see if we can find out what started all of this."
Looking at Hige, Kajiru sticks her tongue out at him before rushing off, "Maybe we should just let the bear smell you and then it'll kill over!" She nods her head and then rushes off. When the team finds the bear tracks, she huhs and puts a foot inside the track and peers at the track, "That's big." She nods and then grins as she looks it over, "I hope we get to meet it now! I wanna wrassle with it!" She nods her head, "That should be fun!"
"What are you talking about Hige? I'm freak'n delicious!" This he exclaims with absolute pride while patting his belly a few times. And with his question answer but heart still filled with lingering worry, the Sarutobi takes off after the duo, er, trio, leaving Hige to defend himself. In fact, he might've join in the heckling. But then he saw how big Konsho had gotten, and well… yeah, not a word more from the chuunin. He does on the other hand gather up his chakra reserves in case of those dastardly bandits or recluse decide to get the jump on him along the way.
Once they arrive and Zankuro sees the extent of the damage, the fluffy teen can't help but let out a drawn out whistle at the sight. "You? Wrestle a bear?" Zankuro scratched at the scruff on his chin. "Hmm… Think anyone around here would be willing to pay to see that, Hige?" He asks, eyes alight with greed and mischief for a moment. I
"No wait, nevermind. Shall we split the load? You talk to the chief.. mayor.. boss, whatever, and I'll chat up the injuried?"
"Don't be jealous of my great scent Kajiru. Maybe when you get older you won't smell like you've been rolling around in claw all day." Hige pauses, glancing back at her warily, "Wait, have you? That might explain things." He stares at her a second, then shrugs before looking to Zan and nodding. "Yeah, sounds like a plan. Take the bear wrestler with you. I'll see what I can find out from the village elders and Konsho…" he glances at the pup, "do your thing." With that he leads them towards the village. Konsho goes with them for now, traveling at Hige's side.
"I can take a dumb ol' bear!" She declares as she walks toward Zan. The tiny girl glares up at Zankuro before turning her attention to Hige and then sticks her tongue, "Dogs do that, not awesome Kirryu." She nods her head before she looks to Zankuro again. She then sighs and shakes her head before walking off with him toward where the injured are, "Fine, lets go find out what these people know and stuff." She then starts sniffinga t teh air a little.
'What have I done?' Zankuro grows pale once more from Kajiru's words, for in that moment he realized that encouraging her might not have been the best idea. Hige doesn't make it any better. Shaking his head wearily, the Sarutobi walks on to the.. hospice? Hospital? The one building that sounded as if a bunch of folks were groaning inside? If need be, he'd ask around first before finding both himself and Kajiru wandering around for no good reason. "Excuse me," He asks one of the resting healers. "Hate to pull ya away, but uh, mind stepping out with us for a sec? Its about your—" He glances over at one of the injuried patients. "Bear.. problem." He whispers. If that ain't enough to pique the woman's (man's?) interest, well, he'd look to Kajiru nudge her to give it a try.
The village elders are a trio of elderly men who are in their fifties or so. When Hige asks to see them, they let him and Konsho enter their 'office'. "Welcome to our village," they say calmly and in unison. "Is there" "Anything" "We can" "Help you with?" they all ask, changing who speaks every couple of words. Oh boy, this might be a nuisance…
One of the medics, a young woman looking to be 16 or so blinks when she's pulled away. "Hmmm? What do you want to know?" the healer asks, looking as innocent as innocent can be.
Hige enters the elder's office alone, leaving Konsho to do what he does best. Be freaking adorable! The pup starts wandering the village, letting kids pet him and what not, and generally just looking like an innocent little doggy. Really he's listening to any gossip that might be going on from either kids or adults. They'd never expect a thing.
Semi-feral eyes slip from person to person as they talk and he idly wonders if knocking two of them unconscious would cause only one to speak. Alright that's not a very proper way of thinking, but still…"We're here at your request about this bear problem. What can you tell me of the creature? When did it start attacking? Did anything happen around that time which might have upset it?"
Looking at the path Hige takes, Kajiru hmms before they arrive with the medic. Looking to Zankuro and then at the medic, Kajiru nods and steps forward, "I need to know all you can tel me aobu thtis bear!" She nods her head, "And make it quick, there's a bear out there that needs to be taken down and I'm gonna be the one to do it." She states all this from her massive four and a half feet tall as she crosses her arms over her chest and stares up at the medic.
Zankuro facepalms hard the first time, then softly a second and third time before lifting his head up and just grinning weakly. "Basically, what the little miss has said. Even if its just rumors or stories will take it." He adds, then after a moments pause his eyes grow wide as a thought occurs to him. Using all his considerable charm, Zankuro does a quick hair flip, followed by combing back some of the more errant strands the rest of the way back. Then with a swarmy smile he says, "And do not fret, young miss. As experienced ninja, we won't fell you…. or this village."
"Well, it showed up about a week or two ago, roaring," says one elder. "A few of our men decided to go out and set some bear traps." "But they ended up getting killed in the process." "A few others, who were a bit angry…" "Decided to attack." "And that's why we have a few injured men," they say, switching off from one speaker to the other.
Those that wander the village are suddenly encountering a larger-than-usual puppy! a lot of kids go over and play with Konsho while the moms look on, not really knowing what to do but gossip. "I can't believe your husband decided to try and chase after that bear," exclaims one. "Well, it's better than yours! He got himself killed!" hisses another. "I heard the bear was as large as a house!"
The medic blinks at Zankuro and Kajiru, ultimately speechless. "Umm… Well, I heard that the bear was as big as a horse. Or was it a house… But it was huge. And vicious. And apparently it could talk! I think that's a load of poppycock, though."
"It showed up roaring? And did it attack anyone before they tried to chase it down?" Hige asks, looking between the three elders with a faint frown. "Where exactly did these men go who were injured? Do you know where the bear is staying?" If people from this village couldn't even trap a bear there was either something strange about the bear or something very 'special' about the people.
Konsho makes friends! The puppy lets kids pet and climb on him, giving rides and licking a few occasionally as he goes. Of course he's really listening to what the adults are saying more than anything but it doesn't even seem like it at this point. He just seems to be a cute puppy having fun!
Looking at the medic person, Kajiru nods a little, "Well, a talking bear, eh?" She hmms and peers at the medic before looking back at her partner in crime. She glares for a moment before looking back at the medic, "Where mgith I find this so called talking bear? I would have words with it! Then I'll make it my partner!" She declares and thrusts a finger into the air, "After I wrassle it, of course."
Zankuro didn't know what to say after Kajiru's reply, so for awhile there, he stood there silently in shock. By the time he does return to his senses, Zori arrives along with another chuunin. A Sarutobi by the symbol on his jacket. Zankuro can't even get so much as a greeting in before the chuunin pulls him aside for a few moments, and whispers something heatedly in his ears. With a heavy sigh, Zankuro turns back to Zori and Kajiru and simply says, "Looks like you'll be taking over for me here Zori. Uhm… Kajiru here can feel you in on things if'n the ain't told'ja yet."
It is all he has time to say before being nudged along by his kinsman until they gained enough room to take off.
As Zori arrived with the Chunnin, he notices that Zankuro was being whispered something to his ear by the Chunnin. Zori listens to what Zankuro had to tell him. Zori's blank face turns grim as he looks around "Kajiru… Oh..my" in a dark tone. Zori looked around for a moment and saw Kajiru he grinned widely walking up to her. Once he arrived a few feet in front of her he doesnt say anything to her, he just glares at her with a serious look, grinning wildly. In Zori's mind he wants to beat up Kajiru so bad, hes trying to suppress the memory of him going to jail.
"Well, no. But it did run over a few of our villagers" the elders say hesitantly. "I mean, if some didn't get injured when the bear initially charged through, I doubt we would have minded much…"
The medic gives Kajiru a bit of a look. "Umm… Just go out into the forest. It was traveling west of here last I hear." When Zori comes in with the rather evil-looking face, the nurse coughs. "Now, I'm very busy. Please leave and don't disturb the patients.
Luckily Konsho spotted the trade in personel and notifies Hige, who gives a small bow to the village elders before saying, "Don't worry. We'll take care of it. Keep your people in the village for the rest of the day." With that he turns to leave, arriving at the hospital almost an instant later. "Zori, Kajiru, outside." He says simply, waiting for them to arrive before looking over Zori. "Best behaviour. One thing wrong and you're muchking the stables for a week." His eyes shift to Kajiru then, "What did you find out?"
Glaring at Zori as he speaks, Kajiru squints at him and then licks her lips. She then nods to the medic, "We'll leave." She then walks outside and considers, "I am getting a little hungry." She glances at Zori and then Hige shows up. She blinks at him and nods with a grin, "That they have a house sized talking bear that is going to be wrassled by me before I convince it to be my best friend." She nods her head and then points out to the west, "And it went that-a-way." She nods her head and then moves that way, pops down low and starts sniffing at the ground, "We can catch it, I bet!"
Zori notices the glare from Kajiru, Zori just glares back even harder. Turning it in to a Glare Contest. Zori wasnt backing down expecially when Kajiru squints her eyes and licked her lips. But luckily for Kajiru, Hige had arrived. Turning his head over to Hige's direction he gives him a nod.Walking to the outside area he responds to Hige "…Alright then" turning his head back over to Kajiru giving her a michevious look. Turning his head back over to Hige. Zori assumes they want to find the bear. He just waits and stares at the Inuzuka.
Hige looks between the two before he nods. "Let's see this bear before we decide if there's going to be any…'wrasslin'." Hige smirks a bit, then nods before motioning for them to start moving. "Alright Kajiru, sniff it out. Let's see what we can find." Yep, he's going to let her take point while he takes rear guard. The teen waits for the others to go before him, following after.
A nod to Hige and then looks back to Zori to stick out her tongue as any mature shinobi would do. She then begins to sniff it out and starts off in the direction of the west, trying to find a trail with her nose, and then move on that trail to her future bear.
Kajiru would be able to sniff out the bear. Same with Hige and Konsho if they set their minds to it. The group would get to make their way westwards, towards the second village. It seems the next village was boarded up shut, as there is a huge bear right in front of its entrance, rawring. "WHERE IS HE?! I KNOW YOU HAVE HIM!! YOU ALL ARE JUST HIDING HIM!!" The giant bear charges agains the village's wall, but said wall has been built well enough that it is able to withstand the impact.
When they arrive at the next village Hige frowns a bit as he sees the bear attacking the village wall. "Don't get too close yet Kajiru…it seems upset." Not following his own advice, Hige vanishes, reappearing inbetween the bear and the wall before it can ram it again. "Please stop. I'm Inuzuka Hige of Konohagakure. What is going on here?" It's a talking bear, which means it's intelligent, and he's not about to kill an intelligent creature. Best to find out the details first…
Blinking at the sight, Kajiru is wide eyed and surprised at first. She then starts to shake and her hands clap together a couple of times as she bounces on one foot to the next, "Neat!" She declares and then Hige speaks up and she pouts, "Awww…" She then watches him race over to it and then she grumbles and races up to, though from behind and points at the bear, "Bear!" She declares, "You should not attack people's villages like that!" She nods her head from her 4'6" tall and then puts hands on her hips, "If you do not stop I will be forced to wrassle you!"
When Hige appears in front of the bear, he might be able to see that it really could be considered the size of a house… if it stood on its hind legs. Right now, it's probably double that of a normal horse. The big bear peers down at Hige, sniffing at him with a small gust of air. "They took my clanmate!" he accuses before suddenly Kajiru is before him. Her words make its beady eyes blink. "Wrassle… me?" Then he rolls over, causing a small quake through the ground as he starts laughing very very loudly.
Despite it's size none of the three shinobi seem overly afraid of the giant bear. For Hige and Konsho that's because they have faced worse. For Kajiru…well, perhaps stupidy. Still, it doesn't look overly vicious. Just worried. "What evidence do you have that they took your clanmate?" He asks of the laughing creature, arms folding over his chest. "Do you wish me to investigate the village for you? I can tell you that continued attacks against it will not be in your favor. Wraslin' aside."
A twitch comes across the eyebrow over her right eye. She glares at the bear as it laughs at her before she stomps her foot and then points, "I will!" She declares and then nods to what Hige before has to say, "And yeah, what proof you got they got your clanmate and also how is it you are talking and also…" Kajiru steps a few steps forward, "Will you be like, my partner?" She hmms and tilts her head as she watches the bear.
Eventually the bear stops laughing and peers at Hige. Then he hangs his head. "n… no…" he mumbles. Then the bear starts whining. "But I don't have anything else to go on! He could be any-bear." *Sniffle* "Umm… partner? Umm… I'll think about it. For now, I'll just keep searching…" Then he gets up. "I'll… try not to bother any other villages," he offers, hoping that he can wander off without much issue. "Tell the other village I'm sorry that my brother killed one of their people and injured others…"
Hige nods to the bear as it starts to see reason. "I will help you search for your clan mate, just make sure you don't bother any other villages. If you need to see me I'm in Konoha." Hige looks back at the village with a faint frown before glancing at the bear again. "Let me do a quick search of the village, see if I can pick up any strange scents, alright? You three stay our here and…wrassle, I guess." Konsho is staying, just to guard is all. Hige jumps up and over the village wall to do a little exploring…just in case.
A look to the bear and she huffs before nodding to the leaving bear, "Think about what I said! I could use a giant bear partner!" She nods and then blinks as Hige tries to offer to search the village while the bear waits. She then looks to Konosho and walks over to pet him a little before looking back at the bear. She considers him, "Are you going to go or did you still wanna wrassle?" She hmms and then peers at Konsho, "What about you? I'm bored…"
The bear is just about to leave when Hige says he'll explore. "You will? Great!" The bear plops down where he is and waits patiently until Kajiru comes up to him. "Wrassle? Yer kinda tiny…" he says, holding up a paw to the girl. She was like… about the size of his paw. Yeah, he's got huge feet! Deal with it! Or maybe that paw is just closer to his eyes than Kajiru. That makes more sense. "Well, let's wait on that doggie."
Hige wouldn't find any bear scents, sadly. Even the villagers would have said the only bears they've seen were the two giant ones. Likely the big bear's brother and big bear himself.
Hige does a brief search, even questioning as to which direction the other bear went before thanking the villagers and promising that the bear wouldn't attack again. He returns a short time later and looks between the three still there. "Unfortunately your clan mate isn't here. They said he passed by however, so we have a lead we can start to follow, if you'd like." Yes, he's offering to help because it's the thing to do! "Who won?" He adds.
A blink at the paw and she puts her hands on her hips, "Size doesn't mean anything." She shakes her head and then nods at the bear. Then she huffs again and looks to teh gate as Hige comes out. She then points at the bear, "He lost because he refused to wrassle. I win by default." She nods her head and then looks at the village again before she hurrms, "What is it that happened to your clanmate? I mean, like, where is he?"
"Umm… Well, we can look later. I'm tired." Because it's winter… and bears hibernate in the winter. There's a big yawn, and then he ambles off. "I'll tell you later. Good night," he says, likely going to search for a cave or something to hide out in.
