Starring:
Meruin (emitter), Ishino, Kogarashi, Akane
Date: March 12, 2014
Summary:
Large crustaceans are starting to become dangerously prevalent in a certain section of the Land of Water. Here's how they get crushed.
"Crab Killing"
Coastal Road — Land of Water
The Mizukage has assigned a team to a simple clean up job. There have been reports of a cove off of the coastal road that is growing infested with a large number of giant crabs, the crustaceans beginning to hurt the population of various seafaring animals and harrying those using the road. The mission is simply to kill the ones in and surrounding that cove. It would be strange for Doihara Ishino to get sent on a mission like this one, something fairly far below his pay grade. But, this wouldn't be too bad an opportunity to test out the improvements made on HARPS, would it? Perhaps Meruin's thoughts had run that way. Or perhaps he was simply there to supervise Kogarashi and Akane, who had just recently joined together in combat. Either way, the job was theirs.
Assigned a lower grade along with two others to run with. Well, he was a seven and they got sent everywhere. Why not? Ishino mused as he'd walk towards that shore with Akane and Kogarashi, a small nod given as he'd pull out a fairly thick scroll. "It seems that this will be a useful trip. Both for flexing of your abilities, you two and my own testing as well." Carrying the scroll in one hand, he'd look between Akane and Kogarashi again. "Before we get there, how well can you two deal with mass group attacks? Both defensive and offensive? They're crabs, so we're not dealing with shinobi, but they're also large, so we will need to be prepared for such."
Akane blinked at Ishino's question, and pondered for a moment as she considered. "I have some control over lightning. Nothing for a mass of attacks and I would like to not use my poisons today as the meat can be dispersed throughout the village." She looked to Kogarashi for his assessment.
A look at Ishino and he hmms, "Well, honestly, I am not built to fight multiple enemies just yet. I'm more…built to fight one enemy at a time." She nods her head and then looks over toward Akane before shrugging, "Either way, I can deal with it. I will have to." He nods his head and then rolls his shoulders and smiles, "Really no choice." He then looks toward the direction they are moving, "And glad to hear we won't be ruining good meat…"
It did look like there was plenty of crab meat.
The cove actually hadn't come into view just yet, tucked into a sudden downward slope in the road that reaches right into a rocky area at water level. Despite the home being out of view, though, the crabs had already made their presence known. About 4 feet tall and wider than that, five of the animals could be seen simply lounging in the path ahead, idly interacting with each other and the dirt beneath them.
"One at a time. Well, time to see how well you can adapt then. I'll make sure they don't kill you." Maim, cripple? Whatever, but they won't die. Ishino paused at spying the first crabs, a small nod was given and as he'd unroll that scroll, he'd focus himself. A sudden hard surge of chakra as well as that *BAMF* of the summoning to have his hand resting on the leg of the HARPS unit. "Alright. Let's see if we can't get you close to the big one so you may end it one on one, Kogarashi-san. I've loaded a mild poison, sedative and easily cooked out, Akane-san. You may wish to expand your toxins." He'd chuckle lightly as he'd hop into the machine, powering it up as it'd stand up with him in it.
Akane nodded her head, watching with mild curiosity on her face as HARPS is drawn out… The man was starting to gather a 'mad scientist' image in her head… She, however, drew only a pair of kunai from her belt, gathering chakra around her. Her eyes notably deepen into a leafy green state but her aura does not shift. It seemed Kyoujin was along for the ride as well, but she wasn't taking control….
A look at the HARPS as it comes out and Kograshi nods his head before saying, "I should be able to take more than one." He nods his head, "I've…expanded my abilities. I don't simply attack up close anymore." He nods his head and then starts readying to move forward, "These things are just animals…we just need to take them down and thin their numbers quickly." He chuckles, "Big or small, they all taste the same…hopefully good." He grins.
Ishino chuckles softly. "Alright." Loading a scroll into one of the arms, the hand would shift it's form, going from hand to nozzles. Ishino planted his own hand on the proper spot within the suit to fire a wide barrage of senbon needles at the crabs. No poison to them, instead feeding directly from the scroll into the launcher. He'd save the poison for if it'd become needed. "Let's go then. The faster we clear them, the better."
Akane watched Ishino and his contraption shaking her head…. The difference between Men and Boys is the price of thier toys… No kidding. She shook her head a bit and called to Kogarashi. "I'll use my lightning and hopefully that will give you an opening, Kogarashi-kun." She took a dashing step forward until she could see the creatures, about 15 feet from them, and lifted her hands, shooting off two lightning bolts at the nearest creature.
Rushing toward the crabs as the other two use ranged attacks, he aims for the biggest of the group of crabs, likely the one to live through their attacks and he sends a blast of wind toward it to try to knock it upward and back. He rushes toward the crab and then slices upward into its belly to try to slice it across its underbelly.
The crabs were swiftly taken apart. The gatling fire of senbon from Ishino's machine began riddling the animals with holes, surprise and pain drawing out screeching whistles. Three were swiftly taken down, dead by the time Akane's lightning blasted a fourth backwards, sending it into convulsions. That only left Koga's with enough time to make any sort of challenge, raising heavy claws towards the boy before sudden, unexplicable winds pushed it into the air and his sword cracked the hard underbelly. The last of Ishino's senbon finished it off, tearing through the creature, an eyestalk falling bloodily to the ground.
Reacting to the cries of these, more of the crabs' piercing whistles rose up in a shrill chorus from where the cove was. Further down the Coastal Road, the path abruptly dipped down to a stony beach covered by dozens of the crabs, with more doubtlessly lurking in the cave in the ascending stone face.
"Good job you two." It was Ishino's voice, slightly amplified from the HARPS unit. A closer inspection would show metal disks on both sides that seemed to pulse with his voice. "We have more coming. Let's keep it up." A secondary weapon, the other arm used this time, had a panel open, allowing what could be described as a group of launchers clustered into a circle raise up. Spinning, Ishino picked targets and started firing. Thise time, he had poison on those senbon, but as he had mentioned to the others, it was a poison easily negated with heat. As such, he was trying one of the weapon systems that would be a real danger.. to something more than crabs.
Akane heard the senbon pierce the crabs out of her eyesight. She focused her ears, trying to hone in on the beasts, hoping that the creatures up here were taken care of. Ishino's words confirmed that there wasn't any more crabs up here and so Akane took a moment to send out her medical chakra, searching for the nearest crabs…. Both the searching jutsu and Ishino's attack told her where to aim next. she kept to the top of the cove wall for the time being, unable to see her targets, but as she was working with lightning.. She sent out the medical chakra once more and used that information for targeting, shooting the lightning once more from her hands…
The initial assault over, he hears the sound of the other crabs and races forward to see what is ahead of them. He looks around at the crowd before following suit with the others to use ranged assault upon the crabs before they get in close. He picks out a target or two and starts firing off a salvo of wind that are nearly as sharp as his own blade.
The ranged assault proved a fairly effective tactic. The large number of crabs were fairly closely clustered and as they began to rush towards the fresh meat that'd found its way near their den and children, it was difficult not to hit a target when launching an attack. Ishino's senbon slammed into the animals, piercing shells and putting poison into their systems. Akane's lightning strikes each found targets despite her partial blindness leaving her enemies outside of her field of vision, her vital senses allowing her to send them flying, galvanized. Kogarashi's blades of wind batter the animals, most of them simply temporarily unbalancing them, though some cut through eye stalks and some were even powerful enough to pierce the shells themselves, maiming or killing some of the crabs. Despite that, however, about two dozen adult crabs were still primed to attack and they would be on the shinobi in no more than five seconds.
Ishino frowns at the oncoming surge. Shaking his head, he'd pop the canopy of the unit. It'd lock into place, putting Ishino himself up that 20 feet to stare down at the crabs. A bit of focus, with a glare and it'd sweep outward, they knew fear. They would suddenly have a fresh, violent and compelling fear to demand they bow to the one above. "I can stall them. But you two will have to pick it up. Quickly."
Akane frowned as Ishino ordered them to pick up the pace. She was about to leap down into the fray when the fray came to her. She growled, her eyes deepening a shade, She jumped up and on top of the nearest crab, dropping to one knee and slamming her kunai into the shell where the brain was closest and using that as a point to point contact for her lightning. Once the lightning was discharged she left her kunai (as it would take too long for it to be pulled out) and leapt onto another crab, repeating the action. She found her job was far simpler when the crabs felt the power of the genjutsu. She glanced up.. cursed herself for being stupid, then simply continued what she was doing, recognizing this as a kind of repeat performance of the camp they'd eradicated…
Rushing forward as Ishino makes the crabs cower, he decides to focus on the very simple path of using his katana. He seems to rush forward and attempt to slice into as many as he can into the crabs before they stop feeling the fear from Ishino. He chuckles as he starts to slice and dice.
The crab that Akane first jumped onto and sent her kunai jabbing into lifted its claws towards her, six legs listing it to the side for a brief moment before lightning coursed through it and galvanized it, bringing a froth to its mouth and sending its limbs flailing. By the time she'd reached the second, however, fear had been pushed into the primitive minds of each of the crabs, drawing a keening from them all as they collapsed to the ground, leaving them open for assault from Akane's and Kogarashi. The woman continued killing through electricity, but the sword wielding boy had a little more trouble, blade often bouncing off of the shells of the crabs he came across, swung weapon only occasionally finding chinks or eyestalks, and managing to crack a shell every now and again.
Ishino steps back, he'd drop into the HARPS smoothly, the system immediately coming back online. The annoyance of having to search for needles in a sand pile was over-ridden by how many there was. Both arms got fed those scrolls, the sitting targets making it much easier for Ishino. Lining up the hands turned launches, he'd start spraying those senbon over the kowtowing crabs, seeking to pierce, as close to the brain as each could be done, that suit enabling him a much greater control of the attacks as he'd spread it out, to get as many as possible. The two were doing ok.. but this was a horde. it needed a mass beat down…. Where was Yoichi when you needed him?
Akane continued what she was doing, leaping onto a crab then stabbing a kunai into it's shell, electrocuting it — she hoped it didn't automatically cook the meat — and leaping to the next victim. Kyoujin was enjoying the ride, but it ws Akane that held the reins at the moment. Then she landed on a crab that had been pierced with senbon .. Then another and another. It seemed they were thinning the horde out. She sent out a search technique again, verifying that there weren't any more of the creatures near her alive and used that opportunity to leap out of the way, making her way back to the cliff to allow Ishino and Kogarashi to take down the rest of the creatures that remained. She would be too hard to direct in the battle now.
Moving alone at his own pace, which wasn't too bad a pace for a genin. He cut this way and that, taking out legs or eye stalks left and right. If he could, he'd slide into or stab through into a crack or crevice in the shells as he did all he could to bring all those crabs near to him down before they had a chance to attack back. He would look toward Ishino, "Tonight, we dine very well." He chuckles.
The collapsed crabs were simple fruit, all too ripe for the plucking. Doihara Ishino's senbon machine tore through them, sending shell and crab meat flying as it traveled along those that Akane hadn't already fried, killing the animals in a steady swathe. Kogarashi made better time as he began swinging his blade with greater purpose, eyestalks and some limbs giving way beneath his focused steel. Most of those he assaulted would not die immediately, if at all, but they would likely bleed to death or be killed at some point, regardless. It wouldn't actually take very long before all of those that'd rushed the intruders were killed or left lying immobile, leaving the cavern and the young inside undefended.
Empty scrolls. There was so many crabs there.. Ishino shook his head slightly. "What a waste. Too bad they couldn't just leave people alone." Frowning, he'd motion with the HARPS' arm. His voice switching to those external disks. "Kogarashi-san, Akane-san, go kill the young. I'll start gathering this into a pile to put into a scroll." There was a moment's pause, the *POOF* and Ishino was left standing with the HARPS system stored once more. "Overall, effective. We'll need to work on technique when dealing with armored targets."
Akane used her search jutsu once more before heading for the cave with the young in it. She would stay back and shoot lightning one after another at them. If it killed the big ones, it would leap between and kill the young ones too.
A blink at Ishino and then he nods, "Yep…time to kill the young. Somehow, this feels wrong…if they weren't so delicious with butter." And Kogarashi wanders off to help Akane deal with them.
