Starring:
Noab, Soren, Naru, Ogosokamaru
Date: August 24, 2012
Summary:
An expedition underground has a close encounter of the bizarre kind.
"Cave Thing"
A cave in the Land of Fire
Eggs. That's the target of this mission. Not just any eggs, of course. If they wanted just plain chicken eggs, they'd have asked a farmer, not shinobi. Shoot, if it was even the eggs of any animal you could find in plenty in the local wildlife, a hunter could've done the job. But the eggs currently needed are those of a subterranean fish, found only in deep caves with large bodies of water. Apparently they're useful for certain types of medicine.
Noab leads a small team up to the mouth of a cave out in the countryside of the Land of Fire. "Here it is. According to the intel, this cave is known to contain the fish we're looking for, and no unusual threats. Stay sharp, though. There's always regular critters to worry about, and no telling what's moved in since the last time anyone's set foot in there."
Eggs huh? Interesting. How these translated into medicine, Soren was actually quite curious about, but the questions were for later, -after- they had collected the things. So Soren was out in his normal clothes, minus the normal cloak, plus a few scrolls on each leg, and a few at the back of his hip aswell, and an interesting implement he thought to bring along. It was a reel of ninja wire, tied on the hanging end to a Kunai. What was it's purppose? What could it possibly do? Well it's most likely just going to be used as a way to manpiluate a wire from range, but we'll see! Either way, as they arrived at the cave, Soren gave a nod. "Ok, how far down do we have to go? I think that should be the first question."
Narusegawa moved closely with the group, moving off towards the cave as she followed closely behind, her sharingan was activated as usual in its lowest power, picking up on anything that might be subtle or simply not ordinary. Her vigliance remained high, carefully oberserving the area as she looked into the cave from afar. " It looks pretty deep…" Naru whispered quietly under her breath, arms crossed along one another as her dress fluttered slightly with the breeze of the wind… The mission was interesting at the very least… Which was the main reason she signed up for the job in the first place. "Lets find this fish… Anything specific about it we need to know about?"
There is a third to the group, grabbed quickly for help. He followed a bit behind the group, easily catching up if they got a bit further ahead of him, and keeping his distance if they slowed. He was easily recognized, other than he has a mask on covering his entire face. His only saving grace is the Raikage signet ring he wears on a finger poking from his fingerless glove on his right hand, and the metal plates on the back of both of his gloves signifying his Kumogakure origin. The mask on his head was plain white all over, save the dark horizontal slit for sight, but it didn't give much on anything behind the mask, the shadows kept that to an absolute minimum. The hood on his cloak was pulled up and over, so not much of his body was showing anyway. He had bowed to Noab signifying the respect he showed to the host nation Shinobi, and accepted with that same bow the mission request from the Aburame clan head. He listened as the other's spoke, and behind the mask, Ogosokamaru already knew one of the group knew who he was. Well, maybe not from the change of his normal clothing color to the muted grey of the full-length, hooded cloak. Chakra signature and individuality is hard to alter for Ogo.
"500 meters," Noab replies to Soren's query. "Have to get down to the water table. As for the fish, nothing particularly interesting about 'em besides the fact that they're cave-dwelling. They're on the small side, and they eat algae and insects and stuff. No threat whatseover from them. They tend to lay their eggs in crevices or tide pools."
The trek down into the depths is fairly uneventful for the group. They light their way with glowsticks, rather than expending chakra for such a mundane need. Noab almost gets stuck once or twice. e.U; Fortunately the path to the underground lake is a known one that isn't too difficult to navigate. In time they reach their destination, and the hunt for fish eggs seems to be going pretty smoothly, when —
GIANT SCALY GREEN THING FROM THE ABYSS!!!
Yup, apparently this lake is now the domain of something like a cross between an alligator and a frog, and it doesn't like these fleshy surface dwellers intruding! (Or maybe it does, because it provides it with a nice meal). It announces its presence quite suddenly by bursting up from the lake's surface, whipping out a humongous tongue, and swallowing Noab whole! Oh noes, how will his team respond?! D:
Soren glances at the monster once, and then back to Noab. Well… this guy… certainly has a flair for the dramatic. Noab seemed to definitely be the kind who could handle himself, so Soren wasn't entirely worried, but. "Stun it. Try and get it to cough Noab-sama back up. Otherwise try not to kill it if you don't have to. We don't know what it may be, and we don't want to hurt Noab inside." he says, as he summons a couple Kunai, ready to fling. If need be, he'll throw them, aiming for the tendons holding the creatures mouth shut, but he won't risk hurting Noab-sama juuuust yet.
The whole situation was a bit surreal for Narusegawa, her eyes briefly looked over the group, Soren… Noab, and a masked fellow. She didn't pay too much mind to them at the moment, instead she kept silent after her questiosn were answered and moved quietly and deeper within the cave. Her eyes suddenly flash briefly however as their quietness was interrupted by the massive fishy beast slaming through the ground and pulling Noab into its mouth, though as Soren had ordered her to stun it her own genjutsu was already in place, attempting to bring the beast to a halt by forcing it into submission. "You all better work quickly…" Naru spoke simply, keeping a single hand seal while her genjutsu worked its magic, hopefully to keep it subdued… She was pretty focused…
The first reaction is insurmountably slow. Of course, he was far behind enough that he had to catch up first, and the masked figure walked past Narusegawa holding her genjutsu. Ogosokamaru's voice was a bit 'digitized' sounding from behind the mask. It might just be from the hollow area between the mask and his face causing it to sound unlike his normal voice. Unrecognizable in most cases except to those very attuned to it, and familiar with Ogo's voice.
While the beast would hopefully be stunned by the genjutsu, and after the other male in the group that wasn't swallowed had taken his action, the masked figure draws his hands from under his cloak, and makes a flurry of handseals, reaching in front of himself to place a hand in the water as a large arc of water would rise up to reach towards the mouth of the beast, attempting to pry the mouth open, an added bonus of the water around the beast rising up around it in what almost looked like tree roots made of water to help hold it down. Water user apparently. And not bad at it either, or at least he hoped well enough that this worked.
The first reaction is insurmountably slow. Of course, he was far behind enough that he had to catch up first, and the masked figure walked past Narusegawa holding her genjutsu. Ogosokamaru's voice was a bit 'digitized' sounding from behind the mask. It might just be from the hollow area between the mask and his face causing it to sound unlike his normal voice. Unrecognizable in most cases except to those very attuned to it, and familiar with Ogo's voice.
While the beast would hopefully be stunned by the genjutsu, and after the other male in the group that wasn't swallowed had taken his action, the masked figure draws his hands from under his cloak, and makes a flurry of handseals, reaching in front of himself to place a hand in the water as a large arc of water would rise up to reach towards the mouth of the beast in a pattern that looks like tree roots made of water to help hold it down. Water user apparently. And not bad at it either, or at least he hoped well enough that this worked. While still holding the dragon seal, he leaps towards it, heading straight for the closed maw, and grabs it. Attempting to strongarm it and force the mouth open with his own hands! Crazy dude!
The monster (guess we'll call it the Frogator) isn't much accustomed to prey that fights back this much — especially by means of messing with its mind. o.O On the one hand, it doesn't have much defense against that sort of thing. On the other, its brain is fairly different from a human's in structure, so it's tough to get a grasp on how a given frequency of chakra will affect it. At the very least, though, it confuses the Frogator long enough for it to be caught by Ogosokamaru's water technique, and subsequently have its mouth pried open! …But that doesn't last long, because alligators (and apparently Frogators) have VERY strong muscles for closing their jaws. After recovering from the assault, the Frogator snaps its maw back shut, with whatever consequences that might have for Ogosokamura's hands, and swings a clawed web at him to boot. >E
The mouth is open, even for just a moment, it's enough to get a handle on where the tendons would be that handle closing it's mouth. Well… let's injure them a bit. He flicks out a Kunai, using a chakra string to guide it as it curved through the air, attempting to cut into the muscles that closed it's jaws, even if it wouldn't have the power to do much damage, but upon the attempt at closing it's mouth, Soren leaps into action once again. Something like that could take a persons hand off! Even -if- it was weakened. So if Soren could make it in time, he'd gladly shove his own right arm into the creatures maw. You know… since it's mostly made out of ceramic and metal now.
Things didn't seem to be working well, at least in their favor at the moment, though her genjutsu did manage to work slightly, the after effects of attempting to bring the maw open for Noab to come out didn't quite work in their favor. " We need to slice it open," Naru explained fairly plainly, finally reaching down at the blade by her side, electricity began to move along the edge of the blade and finally she moved forward… With two strokes of her blade she cut around where the lips of the beast would be, hoping the lightning combined with her blade would be enough to slice at least a part of the beast open and send it into a frenzy.
The mouth coming down to get his hands was a moment of worry, but a look over to another who put their arm in the way was some help. Ogo put himself once again trying to pry the mouth open with the added help of the distraction of Narusegawa slicing the lips.. or trying to.
Now that's another new sensation for the Frogator — prey with a body it can't bite into! ;.; This might well leave some marks on Soren's artificial arm, but the Frogator's jaws, as powerful as they are, cannot clamp down fully on it. Its mouth also now bears the discomfort of having a kunai lodged in it! The Frogator frantically claws at its tormentors as they pry at its jaws and hack at its lips.
And an idea hits Soren. Duh… false arm, no chance of it getting torn off. Despite taking several clawings to the chest and back, Soren simply shoves his arm further down the creatures throat, reaching for it's uvula, trying to grab it. What's a better way to get something out of the stomach than making the thing cough it back up? Hopefully this worked, because those claws -hurt-, and he didn't particularly want to try the teeth either.
Naru had kept with her usual motion, her blade moved and circled at its maw, attempting to continue slicing it open completely to givve away and perhaps even make the beast give up and spit Noab out, her blade continued to surge with her shocking chakra, being enough to delibiate the beast while making it even easier to slice through the flesh of the frog thing… She kept her silence and remained forth…With enough luck they could all deat the frog completely in due time…
Ok, the mouth would have to wait for Ogo's attention. The gashing of those front claws did quite hurt. On the next roundabout of slashes, Ogo was pinned between the two front feet, hands, whatever you want to call them, now Ogo was playing inverted tug-of-war. Facing up at the top of the cavern that housed the underground lake, having a push-of-war against this big.. THING's paws. Whatever they're called, he's stuck between them.
"Get him out quickly, please," the voice from behind the mask says in a near comically calm voice with the undertones of 'hurry up before I'm turned into a scratching post!' Even shaking under the tremendous strength of the large creature's forelegs. That's it, we'll call them forelegs!
Do frogs or gators have uvulas? c.ca Well, whatever the case may be, poking around in the back of the Frogator's throat is certainly causing a gag reflex. x.x With all the pain it's enduring from the other stuff going on, this finally does lead to a gastronomic reversal. BLOOARGH!!! And one slimy Akimichi is suddenly ejected from the beast's innards. One slimy, irate Akimichi. >.U Noab extends his arm using his clan's signature technique and grabs his fallen battleaxe, then snaps it back and puts that momentum into a chop at the Frogator's throat. The heavy blade bites through the scales and severs some important arteries. The Frogator rears back in shock, spraying blood every which way (and fortunately releasing Ogosokamaru), then turns and crashes back into the lake.
Noab watches it go, then snorts. "Probably won't be troubling anybody for much longer. Good work. Let's get cleaned up a bit, then we'll finish the mission." -.U
Soren is now covered in frogator vomit. Awesome. u.ua Well atleast he got Noab-sama out of the gators stomach without killing the thing… wait… -_-a… Well… that was a good number of tooth marks for nothing. n.n;; "Huh…" he stood, examining his half chewed arm. "A creature like that was probably just following survival instincts. We could have left it in one piece." he says, as he watched the creature wander off. "And the blood… It's probably chumed the waters, either for something bigger, or for more of them. Let's try and make this quick, but everyone be carefull. We don't know what's down here."
