Starring:
Date: November 2, 2015
Summary:
Kenta, Daichi, Shinobu and Kame are off to offer their services as shinobi consultants. A recent series of strange burglaries at a small village nearby might be conducted by someone with shinobi training, so it's up to them to figure out the truth. What they discover surprises them and brings them under assault by a monkey that can clone itself.
"Fang & Talon - Monkey Paw Discount"
Land of Fire
Mission time! Mission time! But it's not time to get excited, because the mission that Daichi, Shinobu and Kame are being set on sounds like an absolute snore. The small team of Genin, overseen by Kenta, are being sent to a small village a little ways past Kadoma. The village is experiencing a splat of potential burglaries within the last two weeks, where small items inside locked homes keep going missing. The first few cases were ignored. The owners might have just misplaced their possessions. But when the disappearances keep occurring, village law enforcement (all of one grizzled militia guard) decided that -someone's- taking things without leaving a trace and that smells like the work of shinobi.
This is where three Genin comes in. They're to take the role of shinobi consultants. Their task involves inspecting all the houses to figure out whether a shinobi really is behind the burglaries and give their findings to local law enforcement. Tracking down the thief is a whole other matter and not considered part of the mission.
Kenta's looking over the files again as he leads the small group to their destination. They've been traveling for a few hours now and the village is already in view. The path that they're following leads them directly downhill and turns into the village's only road. Three more minutes of walking.
"Ummm… this is a odd list of things for a thief to steal. I mean, some of it makes sense, like the expensive jewelry, but why break into a house to steal…" the medic-nin says to the others. He quickly runs down the list again to pick out the odder things. "Two and a half pairs of bright pink socks. A sewing kit. Half of a berry pie. A single fountain pen that leaks. A bottle of perfume in the shape of a dolphin…" He pauses. "Well, that last one is actually sensible. The perfume's probably expensive. Any ideas before we reach the village?"
Daichi was excited to go on a mission, and he didn't care what it was. Shinobu, Kame, and Kenta were all also here it seemed. Okay they now were walking as Kenta spoke of an interesting selection of stolen items. "I don't know at all. I am not used to investigating stolen things. What do you think Shinobu?" He would look at her knowing that she probably had a better chance spotting anything then he did. "Whatever you have in mind I will follow at least Kenta."
"Umm… I might… be able to get a scent…" Shinobu would offer as she follows after the other two. The girl was as eager for the mission as she tends to be, meaning she probably seems scared out of her mind… Kame is happy, at least, acting as Shinobu's hat for the time being. The pup's tail wags a bit as she yips, Genjutsu aiding, ~It's weird, though! Maybe the person just wants to sell these things on the black market. Or maybe it's some random kid that feels like stealing!~
Shinobu and Kame had barely finished speaking their mind when there's a shout from the direction of the small village. "There you are!" A fit-looking grey-haired man comes running up the road to meet them, stopping them just short of the marker that tells weary travelers the place's name. It's hard to tell his age for sure, but the man's probably in his late forties or fifties. He wears a sensible uniform of broadcloth and leather that screams "guard" to the group, so the guy's probably the one that hired them.
"You four must be the shinobi from Konoha. Kenta, Shinobu, Kame and Ducki. I waited all morning for you guys. Glad you finally made it. The name's Mochi." The grey-haired guard's expression dares anyone to make fun of his name. For all that, he seems pretty friendly in the way that he speaks. "Odd, them sending a Jounin here, but I'm not complaining. Another house was broken into and stolen from less than an hour ago, so you actually came at the right time."
Kenta rubs at the back of his head and shuffles his feet. "Ummm… Nice to meet you, Mochi-san. I'm mostly supervising. My subordinates are experienced enough to identify the work of shinobi by now, so they'll be doing most of the assessment. I'll still give my opinion when needed, so don't worry. Hopefully, we'll be able to give you a verdict with no problem. Please show us what you need to."
Daichi looks up at the approaching man who introduces himself as Mochi. He stays quiet though not knowing if he should speak up, or not. He doesn't know much of how he should act, or what he should do in this situation. Much easier to just say there is a target. Now attack the target rather then what they are doing now which is more like a maze. You feel like one wrong turn could just put you into a dead end, and it would be much easier to just fight your way through the walls of the maze.
"Umm… Nice to meet you…" Shinobu says with a small bow in the guard's direction. Kame tilts her head and barks, though the genjutsu has yet to extend to Mochi. ~Like the food? Does that mean he tastes like mochi?~ Well, that'd be interesting… Regardless, Shinobu glances at her partner and frowns faintly, and the pup just hops off of Shinobu's head and gives herself a small shake. ~Ready whenever!~
"This way," Mochi tells them. He turns and makes a beckoning gesture at the group without looking backwards. "This is a peaceful place. I lived here all my life, except for a year when I went to Konoha for training. Wanted to be a shinobi, but I can't mold chakra, so I came right back to replace the previous guard after I received a little combat training," the man tells them conversationally. "Never thought something like this could happen. Our village is too small to be a tempting target. We deal almost entirely in potatoes. Best potatoes grown anywhere."
Mochi's strides are long - he's taller than everyone by at least a head - so they're going through the village at a very fast pace. It's just as small as the report says too… Two rows of single or double story houses that line the main road. Maybe thirty families total. That's pretty much it. It's idyllic in that small village way. Mostly old women and children are outside right now - the former washing clothing or doing other chores while the latter play with each other. All the menfolk and younger women are out farming. Mochi and the shinobi all get plenty of friendly waves to go with the curious looks. Happily barking dogs run all over, clucking chicken roaming freely and colorful birds sing love songs to each other. There's even a little soot-covered monkey sitting on a barrel, gnawing on a half eaten apple.
The group eventually reaches a house in the middle of the row. It doesn't look much different than any of the others. This one is a single story tall and made of clapboards. The window shutters are shut tight, so it's impossible to see through the glass-less windows into the interior. No smoke comes from the tin chimney that sticks out of the flat roof. There's a small porch right outside the entrance, where a water barrel and a rocking chair flanks the doorway. Whomever lives here left their knitting on the rocking chair.
Mochi's boots clomp loudly on the wooden porch when he steps up on it. He unlocks the door, but doesn't open it yet. Instead, he turns to the group to do some explaining. "A nice couple lives here, newly married. They're both out in the fields now, not wanting to get in your way. I took a look around, but didn't disturb anything. Girl came back to put together some lunch and found her best rolling pin missing. Hope you can get to the bottom of all this." He pulls the door open for them. "I'm going to stay outside. Holler if you need me."
Daichi was interested in walking around everywhere. Overall pretty cool place to live it seems. Although mostly he ignored his surroundings. He felt like he should pay attention to the mission instead of getting distracted by other things. It wasn't to long before they stopped at a house, and were able to look inside. Daichi felt he shouldn't be the first to enter mostly because he has probably the least chance to find anything, as well as not leading the mission in any way, shape, or form like Kenta is. "Okay Kenta what should we look for? Just signs of intrusion?"
Shinobu would follow Mochi, the girl scrambling a bit to keep up since she was fairly short. And Kame was even shorter, though she at least was on all fours and could cover a decent distance with a few hops and bounds. "Umm… When we get to the house… I can try and scent out something…." she offers. Kame yips a few times in agreement. Both of them glance between Daichi and Kenta, though, to make sure it was a good idea.
Kenta enters first and waits for the Genin to follow before he speaks. "Umm… we check the place carefully for clues. Shinobu-chan and Kame-chan, you two have the best senses, so I agree that's your main job. Daichi, we'll assess this place for weaknesses. I doubt that a shinobi's going around stealing all this stuff, so there's probably a way for people to enter without being noticed." The medic-nin closes the door tightly and braces his hands on his hips. He turns to survey the interior of the house.
Mochi or the residents had left the place illuminated for them. The windows are all tightly shuttered from the inside, so only thin threads of golden sunlight can be seen. Four small lamps that hang from the ceiling provide most of the light. It shows a single large room that's sectioned into different areas merely by where the furnishings are placed.
The left half of the house is clearly a living area. Hand woven rugs cover the hard-packed earthen floor to create a pleasantly soft surface for bare feet. There's a large bed in one corner, next to a vanity dresser covered in a sparse selection feminine products. A cabinet stands half open, because someone yanked out a bunch of clothing recently, which is now strewn all over the rugs. The tattered volumes on the house's single bookshelf are also in disarray, although that might be just the natural state here.
Meals are obviously cooked and eaten at the right side of the house. The hard-packed dirt is exposed on this side, since rugs are a fire hazard. There's a small fireplace instead of a stove. The fire's dead now, but some burnt logs covered in ash sit within the hearth. An empty cauldron hangs over the pile. While the fireplace itself is lined and housed within a covering of smooth river stones, the flute is merely a long tube of tin that runs up the wall. It's so narrow that the place must get very smoky when there's a fire burning, unless the residents leave the windows open. The dining table is placed close enough to the fireplace that it'll be benefit from the heat during the winter. Nearby is tightly shut pantry and shelves for cooking implements. The former doesn't look like it was fiddled with, but cooking implements are also strewn all over this half of the house, just like clothing litter the other half.
Daichi walks in behind the others, and starts looking around right away. "What would be the sort of weakness to look for." He goes to look at the areas that seem recently messed with. Of course eventually he moves to the obvious spot to check first. The windows which would be one way to get in. He examines the area around the window, and the window itself to see if anything looks messed with it.
Shinobu and Kame offer a small nod to Kenta before they go off and start to poke around the house for any unusual scents. They start in the bedrooms first so that they can figure out what scents are supposed to be there before they tackle the kitchen to find what doesn't belong. The pair would likely have to ask someone where the rolling pin is normally stored, but they wouldn't let anyone show them. They'd find it themselves to make sure the scent wasn't lost.
"Ummm… I'll check this side while you look at those windows, Daichi," Kenta tells the younger boy. He makes his way to the back of the house, careful to avoid the things strewn all over the floor. "Whoever took the rolling pin didn't seem to worry about making a mess and getting caught. I wonder if it was the same way at the other places. I'll ask Mochi-san after we finish up here."
Kenta methodically taps the boards that make up the back wall to see whether any of them are loose or whether there's any signs of recent damage. The young man slowly goes from one end to the other, pausing to check the back windows whenever he comes across one. "Umm… no sign of a break-in from this direction. It's the best way in though, since these windows face away from the village."
Daichi's getting similar findings to Kenta. The front and side windows are all shuttered tightly, secured by some good latches. There's no mundane way to unfasten the latches from the outside without breaking them. The gaps in the shutters and the windows are also very narrow, so someone would have to -ooze- in to make use of them. The couple that lives here seems to keep everything well maintained. The metal hinges are clean and well oiled. The wood probably receives regular scrubbing, despite the few smudges of dark ash on one window sill. They'd probably have noticed first if there's any defects.
Shinobu and Kame's noses prove to be the star of the show. When they pick through the house, they can tell that many people have visited over the last day. Two scents, probably the owners', are most prominent. Mochi's scent has also left a mark. Aside from that, there's those of several unfamiliar people, two dogs and even a chicken… though that last one smells a little bloody. Everything's overlaid by the residue of sweet wood smoke. When they start checking out the items on the ground, they notice that the smoky smell is stronger, but there's also a different scent hidden underneath. Whomever handled the objects left the tang of wild musk, fur and sticky fruit juices.
Daichi wasn't finding anything at all it seemed. "Are you sure someone broke in? This doesn't seem like it had anything happen. Maybe it is an inside job." He grins for a moment before frowing. "Although I guess it couldn't happen at every house." He continues moving now looking around, but he wanted to check the door as well so he does that next.
Shinobu hmms and latches onto the strange smell of … Weird things. The girl and Kame end up splitting up a bit to double check their findings match up, and then they're on the trail like a bloodhound! Which is kinda funny because neither of them have that blood in their veins…
Now that Shinobu and Kame are aware of the strange scent, they're able to track it better. It's all over the house, but it there must be a way to figure out where it first came from. Their tracking leads them to the door and the windows, but any scent on those are fleeting enough that the intruder probably just knocked against or touched them briefly. Eventually, they manage to isolate the source… and it's the fireplace. The scent seems to come from there, which also accounts for why they find trace smudges of wood ash in more spots that mere accident can explain. The logs and ash are slightly disheveled in a way that indicates something fell on it, but that something is probably very light. The tin chimney flute's not big enough for a full grown man, woman or even a half-grown child though.
Daichi moves over to the fireplace as Shinobu does to help check. Of course he only figures it out after she probably did, and maybe not until being told himself. He wasn't good at this kind of thing it seemed, and was pretty confused about the whole thing. "So do you know what happened? I am lost for what is going on."
Shinobu loses the scent once it gets to the fireplace. The girl frowns a bit, unsure where to go from there. "Umm… We… could look outside. And see… I think they came from here, but…" She has no idea who the culprit was! What a strange thief… Apparently they're small enough to get through the chimney…?
"Ummm… I couldn't find anything," Kenta tells the others. He rubs the back of his neck with a puzzled expression on his face. "It can't be an ordinary thief that got in here. But a rolling pin… You think it has something to do with the fireplace, Shinobu-chan?" The young man walks to the chimney to take a look. Unlike the Inuzuka, he can't smell anything out of the ordinary. "There's no way someone can come in from that chimney… Umm… unless they have a special jutsu to make themselves able to fit small spaces. I guess someone could have used earth ninjutsu to come up through the floor too. Let's look outside as suggested." He moves towards the door and opens it.
Mochi is sitting on the rocking chair outside, but he's not relaxing. His eyes are glued to the doorway. The grizzled guard jumps to his feet as soon as the shinobi makes an appearance. "What do you think, Kenta-san? I bet you think there's something strange going on too now that you had a look. I swear, no ordinary person could have gotten in, rummaged around and left without anyone seeing. Not in a village of this side. There's usually people in the fields, so it's hard to sneak up even from the backside of a house."
Kenta quickly holds up his hands. "Ummm… we have some thoughts, but nothing solid yet, Mochi-san. There's still a few things that needs to be checked out. We think that the thief might have come down the fireplace. Do all of the houses have the same type of fireplace?" Kenta pauses to turn to the others. "I'd like the three of you to check out the chimney and the roof while I speak with Mochi-san."
Daichi follows the others outside before listening to them speaking. He was thinking a lot now about possible causes of this, and when told to check up top with Shinobu and Kame he nods. He would walk to the side of the house, and start running up the side with tree walking until he reaches the top. Once up there he looks around for a moment before speaking to Shinobu since he figure they were out of hearing range of Mochi and Kenta. "Shinobu. Do you think someone could have a key to every house? Could be a way in without using shinobi techniques. If so then maybe some of the things on the inside were just to make it look like someone broke in somehow? Probably not." Then he continues looking around.
Shinobu wanders outside and starts looking around for any trace of a scent. Kame's got her nose to the ground, and both would circle the house. If they find nothing, they'd probably end up climbing the side of the house to look at the chimney like Kenta suggested. Shinobu would assist Daichi if he needed it! Otherwise the Satonezu would be left to his own devices. "If they had a key… They wouldn't need to sneak in… through here…" she tells him after some thought.
Kenta doesn't follow the rest of the group up to the roof, since he's asking Mochi about the rest of the incidents and sharing what they found so far. Luckily, his presence isn't needed at all. It doesn't take long before Daichi finds something odd. The chimney is merely a square tube of tin that sticks out of the light-gray slate tiles that covers the roof. There's a minor build-up of soot along the edges of the opening due to the amount of smoke vented every day, but that doesn't account for the clumps of wood ash scattered around it. The ash must be recent, since wind or rain would wash away anything more than a few days old. When Daichi looks closer, he'd find tiny prints on the slate too, marks made by tiny misshapen feet. Only the brightness of the sunlight allow them to be seen.
At the same time, Shinobu and Kame are able to catch wisps of the scent from inside the house. It's very faint, but it's all over the outside of the house. One particular spot on the outer wall smells exceptionally strongly of it. When they reach the roof, the scent becomes stronger, carried to them by a gently westerly breeze. Looking upwind reveals nothing extraordinary. There lies the rooftops of other houses. No one's in sight, only a few birds perched randomly across the area and that same sooty-furred monkey from before. This time, the little creature is sitting at the edge of the neighborhood roof and gnawing into an orange that it filched from somewhere.
Daichi was paying attention to the chimney closely before he noticed the prints and such. "Shinobu come look at this. There are some prints here. And all this ash around here. Seems recent." Then he would look more closely at that area to see if somehow someone could get in without being a shinobi at all. Like maybe a kid could fit in there if they could climb up…Probably not, but.
Shinobu blinks and makes her way to Daichi, looking down at the prints curiously. The girl would look up, trying to find … well, anything. Hey, a monkey! That was suspicious! Kame would immediately charge after the critter, too, barking loudly at it.
The monkey screeches when Kame jumps across the roof at it. It throws it's half-eaten orange at the ninken before it starts fleeing across the rooftops. Fast as Kame is, the monkey is just a tiny bit faster and more agile. It keeps managing to keep out of reach. Within minutes, it reaches the last rows of houses, scampers down the ground and starts going through the fields to the left side of the village towards a distance stand of trees. One thing's for sure. What the monkey smells to Kame closer up is exactly what the thief smells like.
Down on the ground, Kenta looks up with surprise. "Ummm… what's going on up there with all the screeching and barking?" he calls up to the others. Mochi's voice can be heard right on the heels of the medic-nin's. "Must be that blasted trouble causing monkey again. It's always into some mischief. Don't get too close to it. The ugly creature is aggressive and bites if you try to touch it. The only reason we didn't chase it off is because we can't. The children keeps leaving food out for it and now it won't leave."
Daichi looks up at the monkey as Kame chases after it. "Is it covered in soot? We should chase it." He would quickly hop after it. He wasn't nearly going full speed, but even then he had the weights on at the moment. He wouldn't get to far before making sure Shinobu joined him. If so then he would continue with her. If not he would stop to wait and see what they want to do.
Shinobu blinks a bit, then she follows after Kame, forming handseals to send two pulses of genjutsu at the monkey. It would see wolves leaping out from the trees and tearing out its throat, stopping it in its tracks if the genjutsu is successful at all. Kame just is hoping to get close enough to grab the silly critter!
"Eeeee! Eeeee! Aaahhhh! Aaaahhhh!" the monkey continues screeching as it tears through the grassy fields with the Genin hot on its heels. Kenta has broken off with Mochi and is running after the group also, but he's much further back due to the late start. The monkey had just reached the small stand of trees when Shinobu activates her genjutsu. The poor creature scrambles halfway up the trunk of a very large one with a crude treehouse nested in its massive branches when the genjutsu takes effect. It freezes in illusion induced horror and the paw reaching for the next branch grabs air instead. The little monkey quickly tumbles all the way back down to the ground.
Daichi would quickly chase the monkey, and when it drops to the ground he waits for the others to get there before doing anything. "What should we do about this monkey? I mean is it the thief? It is covered in the ash/soot at least." He pulls out a kunai just in case.
Kame would catch the monkey on her back (if she could) and then lower it to the ground. She peeks up at the tree it was running up and yips. ~Maybe we should look up there!~ she tells the others while Shinobu comes to catch up with everyone. The girl glances around, a bit lost, to try and see if she can do anything….
Kenta catches up and drops to his knees next to the monkey. He carefully feels it's neck for a pulse. "Umm… poor thing. It's stunned, but it should be OK after a few minutes. Monkeys are curious by nature, so that's not it's fault if it's the one taking things. Mochi-san told me that he doesn't think anyone really blocks their chimney except when there's rain, so all this trouble is really because of an oversight."
The medic-nin straightens to his feet. He cranes his head to check out the tree house. "Ummm… if it's the thief, then all the things it stole might be up there, so I agree that we should check the place out. Let's go up. I'm probably the best at tree-walking out of us all, so I'll carry the monkey. That way, the rest of you will have your hands free." He bends to scoop the stunned monkey into his arms. All that soot on its fur is going to leave marks on Kenta's vest, but he doesn't look too concerned. "Ok, let's go up." The young man starts jogging up the tree trunk.
Daichi nods slowly before jumping onto the tree. He walks slowly up to get to the tree house, and when he gets up there waits for the others to arrive at the top. "Who would have thought it was a monkey huh?" He laughs some at the thought.
Shinobu nods to Kenta and glances up to the tree… Got to climb that? She takes a breath and focuses her chakra, making her way up to the top so she can peek inside the tree house. "It… is a bit funny…" she says quietly. Kame stays on the ground to keep watch for anyone approaching, ears perked and tail straight behind her.
The tree house is not much to look at once they're in it. It's just a circular platform built around the enormous tree trunk with some poles to support a roof and only a railing instead of walls. The rough planks of the floor's warped with age and going grey from weathering. Everything creaks loudly when walked on. Some parts even make tiny cracking sounds, as if human weight alone is too much for the old wood to bare. In fact, there are some places where pieces of wood have broken off to create peepholes in the floor. Similarly, shafts of sunlight break through holes in the roof. The wooden railing around the perimeter of the tree house is also half broken. This is probably why no one thought to check up in this location. It's dangerous for anyone to hang around too long, especially children. Luckily, shinobi are much better at not breaking bones from falling!
"Look!" Kenta exclaims once they've gotten a look at the place. "That's all the things that were stolen!" Indeed, the thief had stashed all the stolen goods in the tree house. It's all over the place… Bits of jewelry and ribbons are tangled into small twigs in the branches or sprouting from the trunk. Three bright pink socks lie in different locations on the floor. A sewing kit sprawls open with half the shiny needles, buttons and spools of thread laid out around it. No berry pie, but there's a pie tin. A bottle of perfume in the shape of a dolphin sits in the sticky berry residue along with a collection of multicolored marbles, a whittling knife and someone's granny glasses. The missing rolling pin is next to the pie tin. And -everything- smells of smoke and monkey to Shinobu's nose.
Daichi looks at all the stolen things suprised. "Wow the monkey actually did steal everything. That is pretty funny." He chuckles to himself before looking around, and then at Kenta. "What do we do with the monkey though? It doesn't know any better at least. Maybe someone could teach it to be a good monkey instead." He smiles at Kenta before eyeing all the things again.
"I… think he kept using chimneys…. It smells a bunch like smoke…" Shinobu mumbles, covering her noses with her sleeve to try and escape the pungent smell. The girl glances back over the side and starts crawling down a little bit, wanting to get away. She didn't really want the smell of monkey stuck in her nose much longer. It was already stuck in her brain, after all…
As Daichi looks around the place some more, the boy spots something snagged on the broken end of a railing post. It looks strangely familiar, but it might take a second for him to figure out why. The object is a tiny medical band, too small to fit around a person's wrist, but the perfect size for a monkey's. The letters printed neatly on the grimy plastic can easily be read, even though the band snapped at a weak point: "Specimen 231989".
"Ummm… we can't let the monkey loose again. Maybe we can bring it back to Konoha with us. There must be someone there that knows how to deal with an unruly monkey…" Kenta looks down at the little creature in his arms. "He's actually kind of cute. Ummm… I mean, he -would- be cute after he gets cleaned up. His fur must hold the ashes from every fireplace in town…" Kenta tightens his grip slightly when the monkey starts wiggling a bit. It's starting move again now that Shinobu's genjutsu is beginning to wear off. "It's OK, we're not going to hu… Ow!!" The monkey springs out of Kenta's arms and disappears up the tree, where it's hidden by branches and the decrepit roof. The medic-nin holds up his right hand, which has a bleeding bite mark on it.
Daichi was not paying much attention to the monkey as he was eyeing the band nearby. He would walk over to it to get a closer look. Right as the monkey starts struggling to break free from the grasp of Kenta he notices the Specimen thing on the plastic. "Specimen 231989…." Then the monkey bolts up the tree with a good show of speed. "Kenta. Over here look at this thing. That Monkey. I think it may be something related to a past mission of mine. Two cats had this on their tails. A number and specimen wording. They grew from this small to the size of a small house I think. Either way they got big, and dangerous." He made a small size with his hand to show their orignal size.
Shinobu hears that there's something to do with previous missions. Hmm? She never heard of any such- oh, maybe it was just Daichi's mission. Well, that might explain thins. Shinobu climbs back up the tree to peek at what goes on, only to see Kenta get bit by the monkey. She frowns and makes a few handseals, casting a new genjutsu on the monkey that would keep it in place.
Daichi's warning is good effort on his part, but it comes much too late. The monkey disappears up the tree before Shinobu can freeze it in place again. There's nothing except a foreboding rustling from above for a few seconds. Then, all of a sudden, screeching fills the entire tree. It comes from over a hundred primate voices, all angry and not afraid to make it known. The sound is piercing enough to be painful to the ear. What comes immediately afterwards is even worse. Monkeys pour down from the upper branches of the trees in a sooty-furred torrent. Scampering. Flipping from branch to branch. Dropping onto the floorboards in a frenzy. Poof! Poof! Poof! More monkeys just keep appearing, literally out of thin air! Each monkey looks exactly the same as the last and they all charge strange for the shinobi to tackle and bite and gouge and yank hair out by the roots.
"Ahhhh! Look out!" Kenta exclaims when the flood of monkeys come charging in. He doesn't have enough time to throw a seal or make hand seals, so he surges chakra through his body to momentarily increases his speed. This -almost- worked, since he managed to sidestep the initial charge… but the agile monkeys bounce off the railing behind his previous location with acrobatic flips and slam right into him. One, two, three… fifteen. Kenta doesn't even have time to exclaim before he's sent tumbling off the treehouse with over a dozen monkeys mauling him and more monkeys are jumping off after.
Daichi was able to get out of the way of the assault by monkeys. He ended up on the side of the tree watching as the monkeys tackled Kenta, and they soared to the bottom. Daichi quickly pulled out a few kunai, and started assualting these dangerous monkey clones. "Kenta you alright?" As he runs down the tree to meet up with Kenta he slashes through multiple different monkeys with those kunai of his.
Shinobu blinks and jumps from the tree to avoid the incoming onslaught of monkeys, managing to use a the base as a sort of cover. The girl glances upwards at the monkeys while Kame releases a low growl that would begin a genjutsu: monkeys dying one by one, torn up by wolves. The biggest part of the horror might be that each monkey would see their companion die before they did.
Poof! Poof! Poof! The few monkeys that Kame manages to genjutsu falls over frozen before disappearing in a pop of air, but others of the little furry creatures keep going for the group. Daichi isn't faring quite as well against the the multiple assailants. They're crazily fast, agile and whipped into a frenzy, so his kunai mainly strike empty air. Most of the monkeys are going for the exposed two - Kame and Daichi - but it won't be long before some of them break off to attack Shinobu too. Ominously, there's no sound except primate screams and screeching coming from the ground. No answers from Kenta.
Poof! Poof! Poof! The few monkeys that Kame manages to genjutsu falls over frozen before disappearing in a pop of air, but others of the little furry creatures are unaffected due to sheer numbers and adrenaline. Four of them pounce on Kame and try to grab on to her fur, so that they can gnaw at the poor puppy with their sharp little fangs. Those paws are great for climbing… and also great for yanking at fur.
Daichi isn't faring quite as well against the the multiple assailants. They're crazily fast, agile and whipped into a frenzy, so his kunai mainly strike empty air. The monkeys keep flipping around and around, bouncing and jumping off the surroundings to strike at Daichi from different sides. One grabs him by the hair (they seem to love) that and screeches into his ear while swinging like a pendulum. Other swarm up his legs or batter at him with their little fists.
Most of the monkeys are going for the exposed two - Kame and Daichi - but it won't be long before some of them break off to attack Shinobu too. Ominously, there's no sound except primate screams and screeching coming from the ground. No answers from Kenta.
Daichi decided that for him to hit these guys he was going to have to be quicker, so he quickly slips off his weights. The only problem is doing that left him open for a mauling from the monkeys causing him to drop near the bottom of the tree before he caught himself. He quickly charges back up the tree to deal with a few monkeys who had attacked him. All he felt he could do was continue stabbing them for now.
Kame can't quite avoid the incoming attacks, helping when they start trying to yank her fur. She tries rolling over to get them off her back, then she and Shinobu turn into a whirling tornado that seeks to destroy all the monkeys. They work together, the Tsuga joining together to make it more powerful.
Poof! Poof! A few more clones disappear, taken out by Daichi's blade and the whirling Inuzuka duo. Unfortunately, the agile creatures manage to scatter as soon as they're retaliated against, so most of them get away unscathed. The Genin managed to cut down about one fifth of the clones, which are still being replaced, but at a slower rate now. Wherever the original is, he might be getting tired. Normal monkeys shouldn't have the capability to use chakra in the first place, much less have a reserve large enough to create so many copies of themselves.
Poof! Poof! A few more clones disappear, taken out by Daichi's blade and the whirling Inuzuka duo. Unfortunately, the agile creatures manage to scatter as soon as they're retaliated against, so most of them get away unscathed. The Genin managed to cut down about one fifth of the clones, which are still being replaced, but at a slower rate now. Wherever the original is, he might be getting tired. Normal monkeys shouldn't have the capability to use chakra in the first place, much less have a reserve large enough to create so many copies of themselves.
"Ahhhh! Get off me! Stop biting me! Ow ow ow!" Kenta can be heard hollering over the screeching of the monkeys. The group on the ground is still chasing after him. Jounin or not, Kenta's a mess of scratches and bleeding bites now. He also lost a few locks of hair, which makes him look even more disheveled than usual. The young man keeps dodging, running and creating chakra walls to stop his assailants. He -really- doesn't want to hurt them, but that's getting hard. Eventually, Kenta manages to pop one of his special black pills into his mouth. He dissolves it in his stomach and blows it back out as a cloud of sleeping vapors that covers the ground level of the grove in white mist. "Daichi! I need you to find the original and subdue him! He's probably hiding further up the tree! Shinobu-chan and Kame-chan, keep the rest of the monkeys busy!"
(Daichi barely make out the original out on the top branches of the tree throwing a tandrum while his clones maul the heck out of the shinobi below)
Daichi would nod in Kenta's direction when his orders are given. Luckily him having tree walking now helps so much, and runs up the tree dodging what he can. He throws a kunai as he gets within range of the monkey before trying to kick its feet out from under him to knock to the ground before. To add to that as it falls he will jump down to kick it hopefully sending into the grown below quickly.
Shinobu would just continue with her spinning terror upon hearing Kenta's orders. The girl eventually has to stop, but she just launches herself off of a tree branch towards another set of clones that appeared in her path. Kame is doing the same maneuvers from the opposite, both working together to get rid of the monkey menace. ~I don't get why all these monkeys are doing all this!~ Kame's voice would come through a genjutsu.
The wave of sleeping mist that Kenta sends out fails, since the monkeys all scamper up the trees as soon as they see the substance approach. But before they can counter attack, all of them suddenly disappear. The monkeys assailing Shinobu and Kame also disappear, some while flipping in midair to dodge their Gatsuga.
The reason soon becomes clear, because the original monkey is hurling down the tree with Daichi following after it. The creature barely manages to snag a lower tree branch and swings it's up onto it before it falls to far to break its own fall. "Ahhh! Ahhha! Eiiii!" There's blood on the little creature's face and foam coming from its mouth. The monkey's eyes also glow an unnatural red color. As it crouches on the branch, three more monkeys suddenly puff into existence. They launch off the trees at Daichi's face feet first.
Daichi was succesful at kicking the monkey further down the tree. Luckily his kick allowed him to get his footing back onto the tree right as the monkey did as well. As more monkey clones popped up they charged at Daichi, and he quickly jumped over the three clones deciding to charge right at what he expects is the head honcho monkey again. He throws multiple punches and kicks at it hoping to end this fight.
Shinobu skids across the ground, tearing it up a bit as she lands from her Gatsuga. She isn't bloody because everything she was destroying were clones, but she did make a few nice gouges in the nearby trees and ground. Oops. The girl spots the monkey and forms a few handseals, hoping to trap and exhaust the monkey as it moves. Maybe that'll work! After all, genjutsu works on monkeys. Instead of wolves, this monkey would see puppies that needed to be treated with kindness!
The red-eyed monkey snarls and ducks under all of Daichi's punches. It scampers up the tree trunk to land on the boy's back, so that it can bite Daichi's neck. The monkey's mouth is open to reveal all its sharp little fangs when Shinobu's puppy-based genjutsu takes hold. All the anger suddenly bleeds out of the crazed creature, leaving it looks momentarily confused… and then adorably happy. Instead of biting Daichi, it starts cooing softly and trying to pet the Genin's hair instead. The redness of its eyes fades back to a normal color.
"Ummm… Good job, Shinobu-chan. Daichi… I think you should get down here very slowly…" Kenta calls up in a staged whisper. He wipes some blood off his face and pops another of the black pills that he swallowed earlier. The medic-nin makes some hand seals, but holds the last one while he waits for Daichi to reach the ground.
Daichi gets grabbed, and looks up just as the genjutsu takes hold of the monkey. Then as Kenta tells him to get down slowly he does so. It takes him a moment before he is able to move away from the monkey, and he gets down near the others. "Ummm thank you Shinobu. For saving me from the monkey." He frowns lowering his head at the fact that he let himself get grabbed by it.
Shinobu would continue to keep the monkey in the genjutsu, not wanting to risk letting it start running around rampant. Thankfully, it seems that the monkey has calmed down for the time being… Shinobu glances over to Kenta and umms quietly. "So… What… should we do…?" she asks the medic with a small frown.
Kenta waits for Daichi to get down from the tree before he blows a plume of sleeping mist at the monkey, which has turned to pet the tree once its original target is gone. The little creature sniffs the air a few times before it topples off the branch. Kenta quickly catches it, but he makes sure to secure the monkey this time. He didn't previously because he didn't know the monkey's special, but now the ropes come out.
"Ummm… we have to take this monkey back to Konoha as fast as possible. I want to know -why- it was able to do what it managed to do. Daichi, you told me there were cats on one of your missions that used ninjutsu and might have been experimented on. This could be related. The monkey didn't act like a nin-monkey at the beginning, but it suddenly just went berserk and used jutsu that's difficult even for many shinobi." He shakes his head. "That's very alarming. I want the three of you to gather up the stolen goods. We have to return that to Mochi-san. I'll keep watch on the monkey."
Daichi simply nods to Kenta before gathering up things to take to Mochi. It doesn't take to long, and when he gets the chance he gets out the first aid supplies Kenta gave him before. Slowly to make sure he doesn't screw up he fixes up the few injuries he has from that small fight.
Shinobu nods, but pauses. Before she wanders off, the girl would focus some healing chakra into Kenta's body so some of his scratches and the like would heal up. Then she would dart off, healing her own injuries as she and Kame worked to grab what they could. Together, she, Daichi, and Kame would probably have everything! "Ready," she tells them, making her way back to the village to give the things to Mochi. Speaking of mochi…. *stomachrumble*
