Starring:
Date: September 5, 2014
Summary:
Akiko discovers a cat beneath the ruins of a recently destroyed building, but for some reason it doesn't want to come out of its hole!
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Cleaning Up: The Cat and Her Friend"
Sunagakure Village Center
After the battle in Sunagakure, a lot of the work has been turned to handling the lost information, but also into fixing the more immediate consequences of the fighting: the rubble strewn around the streets, the destroyed buildings, and the chunk missing out of the Dome. Many of the village's ninja have been thrown at fixing this problem. One of them is Akiko, sent out to check a specific building for suvivors and, if they are absent, start cleanup.
Akiko yawns a bit as she makes her way to the designated building. She had woken up recently only to receive the task that she must check up this one building. Well, hopefully she doesn't run into trouble… Kotone is lazily flying over the girl's head just a bit in front, Akiko having tasked her friend with looking out for any survivors. The girl herself focuses some of her chakra, trying to focus it to her eyes so that she can see better anything that might move.
Akiko's initial examination of the area shows her nothing interesting: all there is to see is a pile of rubble. Apparently, the fighting was particularly intense here and has levelled most of the building. The only thing to see is a pile of sandstone, wood, and what seems to be fragments of fixtures and furniture all piled up to about half again Akiko's height, all covered in a thick layer of dust.
Well, there's nothing to see. Might as well start cleaning up. Kotone gets to take a break for now, Akiko doing most of the cleaning up since the debris is rather large for a bird of Kotone's size. She doesn't move particularly fast, wanting to take her time so she doesn't accidentally cause more rocks to tumble onto her.
After about fifteen minutes of digging through the rubble, Akiko hears something. It sounds like the rubble shifting, which would make sense with all the movement, but then it becomes apparent that the sound is too constant and too repetitive: it sounds, rather, like a scratching or a scraping a little bit away from where Akiko is clearing the rubble away.
Akiko would continue for a bit when the sound first came up, but after it continues for quite some time, she starts to get nervous. If it's a person, then she needs to get them out, right? But what if it's a member of the Silence? Well, she keeps clearing away the rubble, Kotone now nearing her friend so as to keep a better watch while the Hayato works.
As Akiko comes closer, the sound becomes clearer, but not much louder: a repetitive, scraping sound, as of something small scratching a loud surface. This allows Akiko to get closer and closer to the sound until, eventually, after carefully dislodging and pulling out half a broken tabletop, she opens up a tiny crack. From that crack, she hears a plaintive, "mew?" followed by a hiss: apparently, the cat trapped under the rubble has noticed Kotone and has little gratitude for the bird.
Akiko hears the mew and peers into the crack she made. Upon seeing the cat, she makes an 'Aww!' sound. "Don't worry, little guy, I'll get you out." She starts to dig with renewed energy, though is still trying to move carefully. It would do no good to crush the cat! Kotone eyes the feline a tad warily, but the cat is safely inside that pocket of space under the rubble. No threat.
As she shifts the boulders away, light shines into the cavity where the cat is hiding, allowing Akiko to see it's larger than what she first expected. Just as she has dug a hole that's probably large enough to pull the cat out through, there's an alarmed cry from Kotone nearby: a nearby part begins shifting and collapsing. While the cat itself seems to be in no immediate danger, the still-dark cavity beyond it might be sealed off by the collapsing rubble…
Well, that's unexpected. Akiko notes that the cavern is larger than she thought and just starts to pull the cat out when that rumbling begins. Feline!! Why can't she know earth Jutsu… She tries to think quick, pulling off some of the heavier rocks that seem to be above the cave-in area.
Crumble… crumble… shshshshshsh… the rubble shifts while Akiko works, but removing the heaviest of the rocks seems to at least halt the collapse for now, if not prevent it entirely. Instead of running out like you'd expect it to, the cat gives Kotone another hiss, then withdraws deeper into the darkness of the hollow. After a few seconds, it starts mewing from there.
Akiko mutters something about cats being insensible, pulling more rocks from atop the pile. She continues like this for a while, mostly intent on making sure the whole thing doesn't collapse on said cat. "Kotone, do you have any good ideas?" she wonders aloud. Of course, Kotone just gives Akiko a look that says 'I am not helping that cat…'
As she clears away more rubble, Akiko finds the cat huddled up near something that, at first, appears to be a dusty pile of rags. Then, she realises that it's part of a human, a shoulder and an upper arm, sticking out from the darknesss. It's a good thing she cleared away those rocks: if the rubble had collapsed any further, the cat's friend would likely have been crushed beneath it.
With alt of the rubble cleared, Akiko is able to see the person. "Kotone, could you go for help? I can get most of the rubble cleared away myself and keep an eye out on these two." The bird bobs its head in a nod and takes off to try and get some help from whoever might be nearby. Akiko, true to her words, continues to remove rubble. While she does, she calls out to the person in the rubble. "Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
The figure doesn't appear to be responding, but as the cat squeezes tightly to it, there's a slight movement, and a groan: apparently, the person is only partially awakened by the animal's touch. The animal turns towards Akiko and turns its head, giving her a worried, "Mew?"
Akiko looks worried at the lack of response, but then there's a groan! Yay! She continues throwing rubble off the person, trying to now dig over to where this person is. The cat's worried mew is responded with her lost comforting tone. "It's okay, I can get your friend out. I sent for help, so don't worry."
Digging out the trapped person is a tiring job, but not very difficult now that Akiko can see there is someone down there and knows what to look out for. The cat doesn't leave its friend's side until they are entirely dug out, and although he has multiple breaks and injuries, he is not in immediate danger: a team of medic-nins soon arrive, summoned by Kotone, and carry the injured man way, the cat running along with them and still refusing to leave his side.
