Starring:
Taiki, Ryo, Naru, Ryoji, Sosuke
Date: January 1, 2013
Summary:
Taiki and a selected team go to find a group of med-nin who were collecting herbs who apparently disappeared.
"Disaster in Miati Forest"
Miati Forest
It is early morning, the day after the New Year. The air is crisp and cold, and there is snow on the ground covering the landscape in a blanket of powdery white wetness. The guards at the gate seem to be going about their business, though they look rather bored, and seem to be watching Taiki and his ninken as he leans against the gate post. They know why he's here, obviously, but the normally… odd Chuunin seems, for lack of a better word, serious. He's finally dressed in the winter version of shinobi guard, with thicker material and a second layer of thick, durable clothing underneath the normal layers. He is waiting quietly, looking off into the woods, though every once in a while he'll look back into the village. What is he waiting for? Three people, chosen by the mission office, that he is supposed to lead on a recovery/delivery mission. Simple enough, right? Maybe, but Taiki does have some things on his mind.
Ryo arrives on time as he is suppose to. This is the first mission the bald headed boy will have actually been on since returning from Kirigakure. The place seemes to have changed him a bit. Now he kind of understood what those who have lost people felt. What's worse is no matter what those around him say, he's still feeling the responsibility he had promised into. Yeah, there were things on his mind as well.
As he approached Taiki, he offers a slight nod of the head. It was time for buisiness. "Who else are we waiting on?" he asks.
And so, it was with great trepidition that Ryoji accepted another one of Konoha's generous short term contract for recovery/delivery. A simply enough task to be certian and just a 'minor' detour. Still… something just kept bugging him long after he made his way to the village gate with but a few minor changes to his usual wardrobe: A thicker, white cloak and light combat boots. For those that knew him well enough his hair has also undergone a transformation for red-brown and spikey to platinum blond and jelled back. But alas, a minor detail.
His also arrives a little late compared to others but surely they'll forgive his tardiness. After all, the late arrival of a teammate can actually be conviently beneficial overall! Or so he heard somewhere. e.e "Ah, that would be my lovely self." Ryoji bowed deeply at the waist with a flourish. "Names Ryoji, man of the people and, ah, I'm at your service overall." He stated, picking up his head first to wink at the duo before rising to his full height once more.
With the blistering winter taking hold, Narusegawa was forced to to put away her usual clothing, her normal black dress and raven tank top was instead replaced with a traditional Konoha flak jacket, high collared and wearing black garments underneath rather than the usual dark blue. The outfit bulked up her form quite a bit but it was still comfortable to wear. As the new usual her eye's were covered, but she appeared to be having a better time navigating while being blind…
"Taiki-kun?" Narusegawa revealed her presence as she made way towards the group, only his chakra seemed familiar to her at the moment, it was difficult for her to tell just who else was around her at the moment. This mission was going to help her get her feet wet and dealing with her affliction.
Taiki looks back at the other two people joining them, then nods his head in their direction for Ryo's sake. "Them," he says as he stands up fully.
"Hello, I am Chuunin Inuzuka Taiki, med-nin in training, and these are my partners, Shinobu" he says, indicating the larger white dog, who is about the size of a small horse, "And Nozomi," he adds, referncing the smaller, red-furred dog who is about the size of a fully-grown Malamute, though she looks more like a husky than a malamute. "It is nice to meet you Ryoji-san."
"Hello Naru," he says friendily enough. "Ryo-san and Ryoji-san will be joining us today." Now that everyone has been identified, he continues. "This /should/ be a simple recovery-slash-delivery mission. The hospital uses several types of ink for its day-to-day activity, and at least three kinds for its seal work. The problem is we are running low on a rare plant extract required for one of those three inks. Without that plant, the number of diagnostic scrolls will drop dramatically for the hospital. As a result, a group of med-nin has been sent into the Miati Forest to collect this herb, which is only harvestable in certain times during the first part of winter. The issue becomes that this plant grows only in certain conditions, and is in quite high demand by several villages. So our job is to go to the Miati Forrest, meet up with the med-nin there, and make our way back home. Problem is, there have been no reports from the on-location team within two weeks, so it was decided that the couriers would be someone… formidable, just in case there's a problem. Any questions?"
Ryo had heard of Naru's predicament, but this is the first time he had actually seen her with her eyes wrapped. He offers a slight shake of his head before speaking. "Hello Naru." He then offers a slight bow to Ryoji. Taiki's explanation of the mission starts off good. The ending is not exactly something Ryo liked hearing. Why would someone else really want this ink? There were a few reasons that came to mind, but none of them really seemed good for the mission. It seemed like someone was trying to sabotage the village. "No questions." Ryo replies.
'That voice' Against his better judgement Ryoji sharply turned around to face Naru; only to be struck speechless at the sight of her. While by all accounts from what he sensed she was fine, there was the simple fact that her steps were too tenative for someone bearing Uchiha blood, dimmed though it might have been by their personal experiences and so on. In fact, if he was not so inclinded to — Ryoji cuts off the line of thought with a weary shake of his head and murmured, "Not this time." Despite what was implied the Iga had every intention on investigating the matter further.
Afterwards the gentleman joker(?) persona is adonned once more albiet without the same flare as before.
Twice over he found himself mentally cursing with ever utterance of his name. With an exasperated sigh and a shake of his head, Ryoji accepted whatever punishment fate deemed would be necessary for slipping up so severely. "Sev — " He caught himself and 'glanced' in Ryo's direction, pausing out of curiosity as well as to remain polite to one of his 'hosts'. He bowed his head in shame soon after. "A soldier to the core.." is murmured followed by the Iga stepping forward and replying directly with, "Several actual. Such as how many mednin are supposed to present? Names? How about a description for what exactly are we transporting as a safety measure? And.. Hmmm… Ah! And lastly for now, were there — oh whoops! Sorry, just those two since that last one might be on the sensitive side, neh?" Ryoji chuckled awkwardly as he scratched just behind an ear.
"…! Nice pe-a-ah-friends ya have there by the way!"
With Taiki's help, Naru began to understand just who was who she was dealing with, and while Ryo was someone she definitely expected, Ryoji-san was a name she certainly wasn't. "Ryoji-dono…?" Narusegawa uttered quietly, tilting a ear in his direction. His voice an antics was something she was familiar with. What the heck was he doing in Konohagakure? Ei wasn't here so that only met he was up to no good. " I didn't expect you of all people to be helping out here in Konoha, I hope that you aren't having any issues…at home," Naru spoke softly to the man, a sly grin forming along her lips. Something had to be up for Ryoji to be working in the area, or at least that was how she felt. She then looked off to where Ryo might have been, nodding in his direction. " I hope you are doing better than the last time we spoke, though you always had been pretty resilent," Naru complimented her final attention going to Taiki. " I don't have any questions either, though things do seem suspicious,"
Tiaki seems to just listen as he takes in each person's comments. Once Naru finishes speaking, he looks off to the forest for a moment before saying, "There were five med-nin including three newbies of genin rank, one experienced genin, and one semi-experienced chuunin. The chuunin's name is Hachigamo Tao. He is not a combative type, like most med-nins. Our training tends to emphasize support roles to avoid injury, for we can't heal you if we're hurt ourselves. In fact, only the experienced genin, Nanoha-san, is a combat medic. The others follow the more traditional route. And, before you ask Ryoji-san, I am combat capable myself."
That explained, he says, "Besides indigenous wildlife, which can be dangerous to the unwary, all the major villages use this kind of ink. The hot summer appears to have had some effect on the other locations where this herb is known to grow, but our collection point seems to have suffered the least. So we may well be walking into a sticky situation. This is why the hospital has asked for a combat-capable squad at this time. We are to try to avoid a fight if possible, but if we do have to fight, then it is best if the people sent were capable."
Ryo listened and offered a nod of his head. "If they have recieved no word from the group, perhaps we should talk on the way there." he suggests. While it might have seemed out of place, the boy was eager to get to some possible combat. He wanted to have something else to focus on. He really did not know Ryoji and Naru's predicament sucked. At least he knew she still had some power at her finger tips. Later they would have to speak more. He wanted to know more about what happpened. His eyes then focus on Taiki as he held final say of if they started now or not.
By some glorious miracle Ryoji managed to hold his composure long enough to listen to all that Taiki had to say and even bow his head slighly in understanding. With his obsession, his hunger sated for the time being Ryoji was unfortunately left to weak to suppress the belatedly side-effects of Naru's question. A spine tingler without a doubt… BUT one he quickly recoverd from nevertheless. Mostly, anyways. "My dear Naru-chan it is always a pleasure.. I think? Hmm, probably? Eh, well, something along those lines, neh?" He chuckled half-heartidly and shook his head. "T-things are fine at home by the way, merely differing obligations that needed to be tended to by both parties at the moment… though I must admit it would've been more preferable if it was more balanced." He added albiet with the last portion comming out barely bitterly and barely above a mutter with the Iga choosing to turn away as well.
He turned back only after Taiki's last unintentional jibe causes finally seeks in. Was Ryoji combat-capable? Not in the STRICTIST sense but… well, there was hope things would work themselves out in without anyone important dieing, one way or another. "… Yea, let's just.. *sighs in defeat*… after you Leader-kun."
"Both parties hmmm? I can feel but to think you are hiding something but I won't pry…" Naru replied back, a tone assuring that her curiosity at the moment had been saited. Upon those words she couldn't help but to agree with Ryo, she also was ready to get the show on the road, more or else anyways to see if she still had what it takes. "I will follow closely behind… Hopefully we won't run into any problems along the way, if so we should be able to handle it…" Naru was actually incredibly confident as of late, she knew a how everyone fought, they had all grown to be quite powerful of course Ryoji was a wild card, but he even trained her at one point. " I'll follow your lead, Taiki-kun,"
"Arrow-head formation. Me up front with my ninken to the sides and behind. Naru behind me, Ryoji-san followed by Ryo-san in the rear. Let's go!" Taiki had situated this formation for a couple of reasons, but mainly so his ninken could help point Naru in the right direction if needs be. He nods once, then takes off, with his ninken taking off when Naru does.
The trip to the edge of the forest is pretty uneventful for the most part. Taiki answers any questions the others may have, but otherwise is pretty much silent. True to Taiki's purpose, the dogs help Naru by ensuring she's following easily enough, though they let her do everything she can on her own. When they finally reach the edge of the forest, Taiki cals for a halt both verbally and with hand-signals, since his voice won't carry very far at the moment due to volume. "They should be about another kilometer inside the forest, but until we know the situation, be silent and watch for traps."
"Great, why do I always get the rear?" Ryo half heartedly joked. He was just glad to be moving. The vanguard position was actually a highly trusted position. Mainly because whomever was placed there had to be able to defend the group from attacks from behind. They were unexpected meaning whomever was there had to be paying attention and quick to inform the rest of the group.
The trip seems to go fine until Taiki calls the group to a halt. Ryo had not seen any real signs of trouble. But now that they were closing in on the position, things were likely to grow hectic. Ryo builds his chakra up before activating his sharingan. He was not about to be caught off guard. Especially with the other Sharingan user in the state she was in.
Ryoji's only response is to smile at Naru and pray that their are never left alone with each other. He just wouldn't be able to — "Jiji-san!!" Ryoji winced then turned towards the source of the outcry; only to be forced to practically catch the genin messenger. "Calm down geki and tell me what's up?", Ryoji asked grumpily. "Ya, ya, ya been re-assigned!!" Ryoji sweatdropped and looked to the others, already set to go for the most part. "… *sighs*… There goes the inn fee… Alright show me the way, but I hope ya got someone to — " " — Already set up Jiji-san! Now come on because ya don't have all day now!", The genin interjected then took hold of the Iga's wrist to try and drag him away. With little success at first. "Hai hai." Ryoji stated, though he resisted just long enough to sense his replacements approach before relunctantly allowing himself to be dragged away.
Narusegawa trailed closely, her eyes were able to pick up a few signatures here and there, keeping herself in step with Taiki and his ninken, though as they got closer towards their destination Naru began to keep herself on guard, bits of chakra began to flood into her body as she prepared herself for a just in case scenario. " Do you see anything? Ryo-kun?" She asked curiously though Ryoji's sudden outburst and the arrival of the genin messenger had caught Naru's attention. Always with Ryoji interesting things tend to happen and suddenly he was reassigned to another mission? " How convenient…" Naru uttered quietly to the man, shrugging her shoulders as he had began to move along. " Hope we get a chance to meet some other time, Ryoji-dono," Naru insisted though she became suddenly interested in seeing their possible replacement.
Sosuke passes up Riji and the messenger that was dragging him back. Sosuke nods softly to the messenger and Ryoji before looking ahead to the platoon he would soon be joining. Sosuke enters professionally just as he's been instructed taking note of each individual before him attempting to distinguish the leader. Given the positions it appears as though the man with the brown hair of the Inuzuka clan was in charge. Sosuke wouldn't approach him yet he would stand at attention and bow briefly "Tsukinamida Sosuke, Genin of Konoha. I'm currently here as Ryoji-san's replacement. It's an honor. I have been briefed of the mission prior to my arrival." He looks between Ryo, Taiki and Narusegawa before setting his gaze on Taiki. "I'm ready." he nods once for confirmation.
Taiki nods and then says, "Inuzuka Taiki, Chuuin medic-in-training, and my partners, Shinobu and Nozomi. Okay, same formation as before. Tsukinamida-san, you are behind Naru," he says, indicating Naru just to be sure the young genin knows who Taiki is talking about. "Let's go." With that Taiki leads the group into the forest. One thing everyone would notice right off the bat, it is quiet in her. Too quiet actually, the normal sounds of the forest are strangely absent.
Ryo shakes his head towards Naru, not that she can see it. "I am not picking up anything with my sharingan. The area seems clear." he states as he continues to follow behind. He raises an eyebrow at Ryoji. It seemed off that the guy would leave, but now they seemed to have a replacement. Fair enough he thought to himself. He'd keep an eye on the new guy just incase.
"It's very nice to meet you, Tsukinamida-san, I don't think I've seen you around in the village as of yet," Naru greeted with a nod of her head and a slight smile, it wasn't going to laste too long however as they were in the thickey of Konoha's spaning forests, and something for some reason just seemed off. Her eyes carefully peered around, though there wasn't thining she could see, not really any other chakra sources aside from the normal. "I see…" Naru whispered quietly under her breath, if Ryo couldn't see it then perhaps Taiki would smell it. As for herself she merely got herself ready, the focusing of chakra forced the slight unraveling of her seal, her aura becoming off.
Sosuke falls in line behind Naru "I've not seen you either." he replies looking ahead so they can move on. Sosuke doesn't notice anything but the absence of something to notice. It was rather quiet and he could see that the others have taken note of that as well. Sosuke begins to operate with more scrutiny as such a situation leads him to believe this silence isn't coincidental. However it seemed as though there are two Uchiha among them and an Inuzuka as well. If anything was awry then one of them should've noticed something. Sosuke looks ahead to Taiki looking as if he has a question, but the young man keeps his voice down for now.
As the group heads further into the forest, one would notice that the lack of sound continues. No birds, no insects, no animals of any kind. Only a breeze that rustles the leaves on the trees above. Sharingan and sight-based perceptions show nothing, save the above-mentioned animals being still and hiding wherever they are. Even Taiki's smell- and sound-based senses fail to pick up more. Even the normal predators of the forest seem reticent to make any kind of noise.
The lack of scent and hearing causes Taiki to pause before moving on. He holds his hands up to stop the procession, then says, "I should be smelling something by now, but I don't. Continue forward, but slowly. Keep alert." The dogs fan out a bit more, as if trying to sniff out /something/.
Narusegawa kept at her heels as they went about sensing anything that would prove to be useful, Narusegawa didn't have much for sensing, instead she just looked around as much as possible, hopeful that at least "something" she would be able to pick up upon. Her ears remained quite focused as well, listening out for any unusual sounds that might break the silence. She was definitely determined to get a grasp of the situation. For now she remained quiet, following Taiki's orders and procedding with caution.
Sosuke halts when Taiki gives the order and starts to glance around. Sosuke finds the silence isn't a result of absence of presence but the contrary. Sosuke thinks the birds and other animals are silent because a threat exists. Sosuke looks to Taiki as he gives the order to press forward cautiously. Sosuke leans forward slightly towards Naru "Do you think we're being watched?" he asks. He'd have asked Taiki but the man seemed to bbe trying to find the answer to that question right nnow along with his companions. "You'd think we'd have seen someone or something by now. But the creatures of this forest must've noticed it."
Eventually they come to the meeting place Taiki was given the location of, and he once again calls a halt. The area was obviously a camp at one point, but the tents were destroyed, large, deep holes were found in the ground, and cargo nets were suspended in the trees. All around, everything that could be broken was, and the contents of several containers were either missing totally, or gone completely. The cargo nets, however, are untouched. The dogs sniff the air, along with Taiki. "There's human blood here… and something… else. Not human. The blood is old…" Taiki continues to look around and then says, "I'm going to take a look at the cargo nets. Everyone up into the trees, and investigate from a height. Don't tread into the camp on the ground."
Ryo moves into the trees and scans around the ground. "There is no sign of chakra in the holes. Thats not ninjutsu. Even in the claw marks there are not even feint traces of chakra. The tents are all empty." the bald headed boy states. The claws marks were big enough to be a bears possibly. Not that he figured a bear could do this. "Something is really wrong here."
Into the trees? Right somewhere where she couldn't really see… She pondered quietly about just what it was that was going on but decided to follow the lead anyways, after some carefully evaluation she dug her heels into the ground and leaped up into the trees above, almost barely grabing along one of the branches and holstering herself up into a still position. " I wish I could tell you…Tsukinamida-san… All I can say is keep your eye's peeled… " Naru become more intent on using her ears to find something, closely paying attention to anything that might attract her attention. For now there was nothing.
Sosuke heads to the trees after Taiki gave the order. He did note the campsite area and the condition it was in. What struck him as peculiar is what was missing verses what remained. Sosuke kept his eyes peeled as Naru suggested but when Ryo states his perception on the holes Sosuke blinks distinctly. He shifts from tree to tree to get a better look and possibly notice something else, if able. But when he finished he would focus his attention to Taiki.
Indeed, the holes look dug, by something with massive claws, easily the size of Shinobu. Whatever happened was not recent, the entire area looks like it has been this way for a while. Yet that eerie silence continues on. Taiki makes his way to the cargo nets, careful not to touch the ground. One of them looks empty, but not torn up, the other two are filled. Taiki looks at the contents of the first net and says, "These are some of the other things they were here to collect." Making his way to the second he says, "We have some of what we came for here, but only about half of what we would expect." Suddenly the limb Taiki is on gives way, and Taiki tries to catch the net, but he can't hold it. He jumps to another tree, and makes that. The net hits two limbs beneath of it, breaking one in half while the other snags the net. When the limb hits the floor, huge brown blurs dash out from the holes, grabbing the limb and dragging it into another hole quickly. "What was that?!" Taiki says as he stands on the tree trunk thanks to tree climbing skills.
Ryo spots the brown blur and makes some firestyle hand signs. He was aiming for the hole this thing was heading towards. Soon his hand curls around his lips and a small fireball is sent towards said hole. He was hoping for it to hit close to the brown blur in order to stop it so they could see what it was. Even if it did not, he'd get a good test in of it's abilities.
Narusegawa wasn't able to see this brown blur that was causing this issue, there was was a glint of chakra however,, something her eye's was able to pick up on and even more so once Ryo's fire began to evelop the entire area, the explosion taking form and blazing out like a tornado blaze. "Watch where you are shooting that thing!" Naru exclaims at Ryo as he suddenly goes into the offensive, she hoped the technique he used didn't destroy anything in the process.
Whatever attempted to torment the group and did damage the the camp sight had to be subudued definitely, prompting Naru to motion through a set of hand seals, the seal about her body began to expand, stretching just enough to cover along one half of her face, the rest of it unseen due to her flak jacket clothing. "I will see if I can capture it…." Suddenly her jutsu flickered and she would attempt to wrap the brown blur with invisible wire, or at least that was how it felt like. It would restrain the thing briefly if hit in order to determine what it was they were dealing with. "
Sosuke tenses when the limb supporting Taiki gives. Thankfully he caught himself. However he noticed something had emerged from the hole. It was small and fast, he couldn't get a good look at it. He was impressed to see how Ryo was able to aim and attack the creature before it returned to the hole. Sosuke noticed that Ryo's attack however irritated the subterranean scavengers. Sosuke would look to what Ryo had attacked to see if he hit his mark. "There's more of them, a lot more. Subterranean and it seems they're sensitive…very sensitive Ryo-san's attack seems to have irritated the others below.'
The miniature fire-ball turns into a conflageration that sends an impossibly hot column of fire up into the air, sending birds and insects alike scattering out of the area. The brown blur is caught in it briefly, but quickly escapes with massive burns. But before it can reach another hole, it is pinned down by whatever Naru did. To put it succinctly, this creature is a mole, or would be if it were normal sized. Instead, it looks like it could come out of the forest of death back in Konoha, for it is easily the size of a grizzly bear, and unlike its smaller cousin, the teeth on this beast would indicate it is an omnivore. It can eat meat as well as vegetation. The mole soon breaks free of the trap, and scrambles into a hole. "Good work," Taiki says to the group. "Now, does anyone have any idea where they came from? Any conjectures?"
That was not exactly what Ryo had expected. Then again he was not sure what all he had truly expected. He's not too worried about Naru yelling at him. "That was my only explosive jutsu." he states to her before looking at Sosuke. "They are earth creatures. Chances are they fear fire quite a bit." Now his attention turns towards Taiki. "I have no idea. I cannot fathom where they come from. Maybe something out here causes them to grow to this size."
Narusegawa sighed after her jutsu had taken hold of the beast, though it wouldn't work for entirely too long. " I'm not sure what this thing is… Or where it comes from but my jutsu doesn't hold it indefinitely… If you are going to tie it up or kill it… It needs to happen… Just as she had spoke the beast managed to break free from her stun. Despite it escaping away it didn't appear to be causing any problems now, perhaps the fire did manage to keep it holed up for now. "It might be afraid of fire, though I'd have to imagine most things out here are,"
Sosuke glances towards the others after the mole-like creature returns to the hole. He was certain everyone got a good look at the beast. Sosuke nods to Ryo "I'd wager they're more sensitive to the light of the fire. They're basically blind but light can irritate them. That is if they're anything like normal moles." Sosuke look to Taiki and shrug at his question. "I can't think of anything." Sosuke looks to the cargo nets "You think they caught wind of something in the cargo and attacked the platoon before us?" Sosuke asked. He looks back to Taiki "I believe you said something about half of what we came here for missing."
Taiki nods slowly as he watches the "mole" head back into the hole. "Yeah… the other cargo net, the empty one, was offloaded by humans, or something with a great deal of intelligence. I'm going to seal what we have left," he says as he pulls out a storage scroll. "Everyone else look around, see if we can find any survivors. Alert me if you can find anything important, but don't move it or touch it. We need to know the fate of the med-nin before us."
At the orders Ryo takes off into the trees scanning the area with his Sharingan. Eventually he spots a feint chakra trail on some cloth. It's blood soaked but appears to have been clothing at one point. He's not sure what piece of clothing due to the tear marks. "I got something!" he yells to the rest of the group. As instructed he leaves it along until there is at least back up there.
Narusegawa sees something not to far away from them, as she looks around to see if she spots any sort of patterns of chakra that might be able to signify life her eye's catch something faint and old, very close by to where Ryo ws settled amongst the tree. " I se… 'something' very close to Ryo-kun… You might want to be careful… I really can't tell what it is from here…" Narusegawa warned the squad, keeping her own distance and just being tenative at this point. It might have been nothing, her eyes could have been playing tricks on her…
Sosuke begins his search much like the others until Ryo calls out having found something. Sosuke makes route towards Ryo and arrives after Naru. He manages to spot a glint of light. He points it out first and goes to investigate it. Sosuke ventured closer by treetop until he was right over the area. As he peers down he is witness to a gruesome display or carnage and gore. Bones splintered and cleaned of flesh lie there. These bones where human bones and they were all that seemed to have remained. Sosuke covers his nose and mouth with a hand briefly and coughs once. He then looks back to Ryo and Naru. "Over here." The location was about 90 degrees off from Ryo's and Naru's location from where the team approached. Sosuke lowers his hand and peers back to the glint which upon further inspection is shown to be a Konoha headband.
Taiki is being very quick about sealing the supplies. Once he's done he heads over to where Naru and Ryo are and walks down as close to the ground as he dares get. "It's about a week and a half old, likely a shirt for someone around 14." Then, using a kunai, he leaps over to where Naru is and clears away some debris. A vial containing a dark green liquid is uncovered, and Taiki takes a close look at it. "Antidote of some kind, the label is half-missing. By the chakra charge, it was probably for a created poison…" The picture Taiki is getting so far is very grim, but he continues on, motioning for Ryo and Naru to follow to Sosuke's location.
Upon reaching the location, the dogs both stifle whines while Taiki looks decidedly ill. "Okay…. I've seen enough. We need to get back to Konoha, for another team to come to do cleanup and investigation, also to get rid of the moles. There's no helping the med-nins now." Taiki's face is impassive as he walks up the tree, but Ryo could tell its because he's holding back his feelings. "Our mission was to get the goods, and there's too much here for us to clean up on our own. I hate to say it, but the mission takes priority. We're heading back to Konoha."
