Starring:
Tsuchi, Kiji, Kaio, Yuriko
Date: June 18, 2014
Summary:
A joint team from Suna and Kiri go to try to stop a giant snake, only to find out the snake is more than it seems and another is hunting it.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Ferret Summon - The Cobra and the Cute Ferret"
A small village in the Land of Wind
Having collected her team from both Suna and Kiri, this time she has someone new with her. Running along, Tsuchi smiles back at Yuriko, "Welcome to Suna. If this is your first time, then truly welcome." She laughs and glances over at Kiji and Kaio, "You two ok?" She hmms and then smiles at them with a nod. Her eyes go forward as they approach the town, her pace slowing some. The village itself, from afar, doesn't look like much. They are coming around a mountainous, rocky area of the desert. Not large mountains but high enough to hide a spring and to give a town shadow from time to time. As they approach, they can see there's only a few buildings and a place where they keep livestock. The land is fertile due to the spring in the area.
As they slow, Tsuchi states, "The folks here say it's a large snake. Unnatural, too. They say it's too large and has a hood like a cobra." She nods her head, "It may not simply be just a snake."
Kaio was happy when he was released from the small hospital on Kirie: The village unerved him. He still wasn't able to forget the punishment that he saw on the arena. As soon as he was allowed to leave, he gattered his puppet, its scroll and quickly went back to Suna. He'd only arrived when he'd received the call from Tsuchi. He happilly set out again, happy to see a known face. "Yea, I'm fine." He replies to Tsuchi as she asks.
Kiji kept pace wiith Tsuchi easily, her wounds from the ill-fated mission outside the Land of Water were now simply marks left on her wrists and ankles, all other signs were erased by her healing which had finally returned to normal. It would normally have been near impossible to scar the Shimizu but the poison they had used slowed her healing down enough that she was left with some temporary scars this time.
As they travelled she was suprised when Tsuchi asked if she was alright. She nodded affirmative and glanced around, her eyes shading into thier serious deep blue. She had been watching Kaio actually as they moved. The boy had seemed quite upset over the medic's punishment so it was curious to watch him.
Despite it being December, the desert was unnaturally warm, the air dry and… uncomfortable. Lacking any moisture in the air at all. It was all so unusual to Yuriko, having grown up in the Land of Water, only further annoyed as sand seems to have this unnatural ability to get everywhere. In a different way than the beaches she's used to. Yuriko makes a face to herself as she pulls her hood a little further on her head, protecting her snowy head and pale features from the unrelenting sun as they walk. Her bright aquamarine eyes constantly shift around them as they travel, spying the town they creep up upon while Tsuchi explains about the snake. Giant snake. "Sounds like a summon animal…"
A look to Kaio and a nod before she looks to Kiji. Finally Yuriko speaks up and Tsuchi nods her head as they approach. "I was thinking maybe." She nods her head, "We have had problems with them in the past. Not snakes but summon creatures." She then lets out a breath, "I'm hoping it is simpler."
She walks up toward the entrance to the village where a young man dressed nicely enough approaches them. He bows and smiles, "Hello. I am…Ton." He nods his head, "I am the head of this village. I am…well, we are grateful to have you here." He nods, "Most…are staying inside out of fear and I'd very much like to join them." He clears his throat, "You have…our cooperation and can go anywhere if helps you get rid of this pest." He then bows again and retreats, heading toward a building to duck into.
Tsuchi smiles at the group, turning, "Well, you heard the man, lets start by heading toward where they keep their animals. We can either pick up a trail or we might find it. Either way."
As they walk, Kaio smiles to Kiji. "How are you doing?" The boy asks casually. "I was on Kiri before I was called here." He coments. "Its too moist for me." The boy smiles. "What is on your mind?" He asks. As they reach the village, he just nods to Tsuchi. "Affirmative." He aknowledges, following along witht he group.
Kiji been keeping an eye on Yuriko too, though more because of the girl's age. She knew the Kaguya was well able to protect herself and could easily kick Kiji's behind across the desert, but the 17 year old Shimizu still kept an eye out for her as they moved. The girl appeared uncomfortable in the sand of the desert. Unfortunately, Kiji knew little to nothing about how to protect against it. "After we return Yuriko-san if youwant I can bring you to thier bath house in Sunagakure." She smiled lightly at the young Kaguya then turned her attention forward again.
Kaio's words bring her attention to him then and she bllinked. "I am …. fine." She had to think about it for a second as he had caught her off guard there. She blushed lightly and looked to the side. "I was just thinking about things. The medics at the Kiri Medical Center patched you up nicely I see." She looked like she might say soemthing else then stopped as they were approached by Ton.
The village headman made her frown to herself. He sounded so scared .. so weak.. and he was suposed to protect the village? How could such a man be in charge? It irritated Kiji and she pondered asking Tsuchi about it. The Chuunin was speaking thena nd she listened. She nodded and stepped forward. "I will see if I can sense anything unusual, Tsuchi-san."
The girl stepped forward and performed the proper seals before extending her awareness around her, searching for anything odd or strong with chakra.
Hearing her name, Yuriko turns her head to glance in Kiji when she speaks up, offering to take her to a springs after the mission. The little girl ponders this for a moment before shrugging her slender shoulders, glancing at Kaio as he pulls for Kiji's attention in turn. Exhaling a small breath, her bright eyes blink up at the village head, supposedly. He didn't look all that strong to Yuriko, and admitting that he wanted to go inside where it was safe… no Kaguya in their right mind would ever do that. She makes a face to herself, but just begins to silently follow Tsuchi as she begins to lead them to the animals. "I have a little bit of training in tracking…" Yuriko offers quietly. And she did, technically.
"Good." She smiles to Kiji and then nods to Yuriko as well. They are slowing as they approach, Tsuchi looking around for signs of these snakes only to hear something odd ahead. The cattle they have here sounds like it is distressed. That makes Tsuchi look up and start moving that way, "Do you hear that?" She asks of the others. however, Kiji won't have to hear. It doesn't take much for her to sense chakra being used up ahead. Yuriko will notice that there does appear to be some odd tracks that look mroe akin to a snake than anything else. The most telling thing sit the noise though.
Even as they round the corner of the building that was hiding their sight, they will see what it is that they people were so scared of…it's a snake that could be more in the 20 to 25 foot range and it was pissed as hell. A cobra by the looks of things and its hood was full flare out as it raises up and hisses before striking toward the floor and misses the bite but still hits something. Something else indeed. At around 3 foot in height as it gets knocked back, this little furry critter lets out a hiss of its own.
Tsuchi looks back and then states, "Move quick!" She declares and immediately herself goes through a few gestures and then spins around to kick out a gust of wind that rushes off toward the snake, attempting to blast it back.
Kaio nods to Kiji. "Oh, yes. They made a good job. Who would ever thought that a rice delivery would have turned into a long hospital stay?" He asks, obviously finding some humor on that. As the village leader retreats, Kaio whispers in a low voice: "It isn't surprising that the people aren't outside with this kind of leader." He frowns as he sees the snake, quickly touching the scroll on his back, summoning his puppet. He conects his Chakra strings to it and Azura imediatelly is in motion, four blades sprouting from its four arms, poison dripping from the blade's tips. It goes to attack the snake, delivering a sires of quick, coordenated strikes, as all of Kaio's atention is focused on controling his puppet.
Kiji could easily sense the creatures ahead and was about to warn the group when they came around the corner and saw them instead. Immediately Kiji gathered her chakra about her. She slid her right fist along her left forearm, the ring she wore cutting nicely into her skin. The blood did not fall, though, like it might for normal people. instesad it pooled aqnd gathered along her arm and wrist, preparing as she stepped forward, eyes locked on the snake. She saw Tsuchi move and went in behind her, used to the Chuunin's movements by now. As she ran she reached over with her wrists nearly touching and blood pooled about both hands now. She lifted her hands and the blood formed a mist then suddenly needles. She sent one cloud to the left and one to the right. Half way to the snake they broke apart and she effectifely attacked the thing from 4 directions at once. if she could only get blood into the thing she could work….
The tracks lead around the very edge of the building, and… to the towering snake, hood flared at the creature that it's pitted against, in what she can only assume to be a mongoose of some kind, since snakes and mongoose don't have a good history with one another. Yuriko blinks her bright eyes with some surprise at this, before everyone else around them begins to gather up energy and take charge.
The little girl frowns at this, confused as she looks from them to the snake, pausing as she considers the situation. The snake may have taken some of the flock to survive, but if it was a summon animal, did it even want to be here in the first place? Yuriko frowns to herself, gathering a little bit of chakra even as she calls out to the team leader, "Sasaki-san!" she tries to make her voice heard over the fighting. "Can you tell if the snake is a summon animal? If it is, try to use a seal to send it back!" There's no point in fighting it if it could just be sent back after all.
The snake hisses angrily as it suddenly has to slither to the side as the wind blasts the ground where it was. The puppets blades just barely miss the thing as it moves and then the blood comes in and that first bit of blood rain cuts into it only for the scales to stop the rest. The creature hisses out, "You have alliesssss?!" It calls out and then shakes its head, "This is…not over!" The voice it uses is whispy, deep but not nearly as loud as one might expect. Its hood ties against is neck tightly, making it look normal even as it shifts and the ground seems to open up even as it attempts to simply slither into the earth to escape.
The 3 foot tall 'mongoose' goes wide eyed and then calls out, "NO!" He, at least it sounds like a he, makes some moves with its paws and jumps up to attempt to send a few shocks of lightning at the escaping snake, seering its scales even as it seems to be moving into the ground.
Tsuchi spins around and attempts to send a blast of wind via another kick right toward the hole the thing is escaping into to try to knock the snake up out of its hole. "One problem!" Tsuchi calls out, "I don't have any seal training!" She grins back and shrugs.
Kaio frowns as his puppet's blades miss the snake. He sins surpsied by the fact that the snake cantalk and even more surprised by the fac that the 'mongoose' can talk as well. The boy just steps back and waits for things to appen, staying silent.
Kiji blinked as the snake talked tot he ..mongoose? Precious thing looked like a ferret to her.. a big ferret… And it spoke. But she knew better than to become distracted in a battle. She hissed as Kaio froze up and drew more blood from her wrist. Forming it into a slightly fumbled cloud of blood needles she motioned toward the hole the thing was aiming for. Much to her disgust she ended up landing the blow but only AFTER he snake had made it's escape. The blood impacted the ground heavily and stayed there like so many large red crystals and Kiji glowered, her eyes hinting at that gold tone with orange ringing the irises. She did not look happy at her miss….
The snake talked.
Yeah. That happened. Confirming Yuriko's suspicions that it was a summons animal. Besides the huge size of it in any case. It tries to escape, much to the verbal protesting of the mongoose/ferret, and the girl frowns to herself as all of this seems to happen in a blink of an eye. "Hm." Taking a few steps, the young girl calmly joins the others. "Since Sasaki-san doesn't have any seal training, does anyone else know about seals?" she asks. "Or know someone that does know about seals?"
The snake writhes as blood cuts through its scales as it escapes into the hole, causing it to writhe as it slithers into the ground and leaves blood staining the sand. Judging by the movement, it is moving away from the village now, causing the sand to shift as it uses Earth Jutsu to burrow.
The Ferret though seems to have something to say about all of this as it turns and moves on all fours toward the group, "Look what you did!" It screeches out and stands up to its full height, which still puts it smaller than Yuriko. It glares at each in turn before saying, "Who is in charge of this mess?!" It puts paws on hips and glares.
Tsuchi looks at the others, watching the snake as it slips away before looking at the Ferret who glares at them all, "I guess…that'd be me." She isn't sure really how to address a ferret that talks even as it steps forward to get right up into Tsuchi's face…which is impossible but it tries anyway.
"Then you cost me my kill!" The ferret announces, pointing a paw.
Sighs in relief as the snake escapes. He looks at the ferret now, but seeing that -it- or -he- isn't addressing him, he decides to stay quiet, being the shy boy that he is. He feels curious about the talking snake and replies to Yuriko: "I don't know any seals, unfortunately."
Kiji narrowed her eyes at the ferret-mongoose as it confronted Tsuchi. She remained silent but as it started for Tsuchi the Shimizu gathered her blood about her wrist, preparing… If the thing made a threatening move she would attack. She had been on a few missions with Tsuchi and did not wish to see her
.speaking, his hears and eyes open for all sights and sounds.
Kiji raised an eyebrow at the ferret as it berated Tsuchi. Sora hmm? Well Sora was just annoying Kiji and apparently Tsuchi as well. Yuriko seemed to be fine with talking to the thing and Kaio just looked stuck.. or stunned.. or in shock. Kiji made a 'che' sound. When Sora stuck out it's tongue and Tsuchi stepped forward Kiji was moving with her right hand to grab the Chuunin and hopefully restrain her. "Tsuchi-san, our problem is the snake. If that..Sora.. gets in our way we can just end him as well."
Yuriko blinks once, and in the process of Sora the Ferret's speech she couldn't help but lift her hands to clasp over the front of her mouth, trying to hide the smile that just naturally came when he bristled. Soon storming off, but not without sticking out his tongue at Tsuchi before disappearing, off to find the giant cobra. Turning, she glances at Kiji and listens. "Again, why don't we just send them back to their realm or wherever. They're both summons animals, it shouldn't be too hard." Yuriko shrugs. "Easier than killing them I think."
A glare at Kiji before Tsuchi glares back at the retreating Ferret. She raises a hand and waves it at the thing in frustration, "Not worth it." She then looks at Kaio, "Give it up, that thing is gone." She nods her head and then looks to Yuriko and nods her head before looking after the ferret and nodding, "We ought to look into it, yeah." She nods her head, "That is probably the easiest way if their realm isn't in ours." She nods her head, "And if they were summoned." She nods her head, "I think they had to have been summoned to be sent back…sometimes they come on their own like the scorpions and wolves that were fighting in the desert a few months ago." She then licks her lips, "For now, we'll have to keep an eye open and increase patrols in this area."
Tsuchi huffs, "Come on, lets go."
Kaio nods to Tsuchi. He reseals his puppet back on its scroll and begins to calmly walk alongside Tsuchi.
Kiji expected the glare. Actually she'd expected to have to dodge a punch for grabbing Tsuchi's arm, but she'd take a glare any day. Releasing the girl she glanced between the team members and sighed, the orange fading from her eyes, leaving her with just golden colors. "Yuriko-san," She looked at the girl seriously. "I did not answer you earlier. I ave no knowledge of seals." Then she sent a raised eyebrow at Kaio who seemed to be unfrozen at least. And finally back to Tsuchi. "Forgive me." She bowed formally at the waist to the chuunin and leader of the party appologizing for laying a hand on her and for possibly going against the eaders wishes.
Yuriko dips her chin slightly from beneath her hood. "Probably the best thing to do, find someone that knows about summons and could help us with the snake." she agrees with Tsuchi. The other begin trailing after their team leader, though the young girl pauses and glances over her shoulder, in the direction of where both the snake and ferret had disappeared to, before she turns forward again. Taking up the last of their little team.
