Starring:
Date: June 25, 2014
Summary:
Once more the snake is up to no good and now the Shinobi of Suna (and Ei) try to stop it only for Sora the Ferret to get in the way…or perhaps they get in his way.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Ferret Summon - Ferret Vs Tsuchi while Snake poofs away"
Village in the Land of Wind
Appearing in another village, this one larger than the last, Tsuchi is with some others trying to find the location of the snake that had previously attacked a village none too far from this one. Patrols stated they had spotted it heading toward this village and when word got back to Tsuchi, she set out with whomever she could find to help toward this village. The village is known for its festivals that bring it a great deal of trade to the area of Sunagakure and as such, it's very important to put a stop to this snake before things even get done. As she arrives, Tsuchi states, "We need to be careful. That little furball might still be in the area and if he is, he'll be trouble for sure. We can't let his pride or hunt or whatever he is doing get in the way of us doing our job."
Right at that moment, a squeaky voice pipes up from the top of a nearby stall and stares down at the group, "Little furball?! You pink haired jerk! I oughta kick your teeth in!" The ferret stands up to his full 3 foot height and crosses his arms over his chest as he stares down at the group, "Are you lot going to be in my way again?"
Having gotten a little information on the hunt, Moe decided to join Tsuchi and Co. to assist in her own job on attaining a summon contract. The snake clan wishes to end the feuding between itself and the other animal clans, or at least ease it, and Moe's supposed to be instrumental in this. "Got it. I'll try to talk it down through whatever means I need to," she says before looking to where the ferret calls out from. She quirks an eyebrow then looks back to Tsuchi. "This is your game, my dear. What would you have us do?" Despite being older, Moe still respects the parameters of who's team leader in a mission, something she hopes will rub off on the rest of them.
Ayumu did kind of owe Tsuchi, so when the request for aid came he accepted with only one snag in mind. The idea had terrible, bad, and other negative words written all over it. Still, Ayumu did not wish to leave Ei's sight or vice versa; especially not after his shadows called him away over nonsense. So, he doesn't hold back on the honeyed words or pleading eyes when it came to getting Ei onbard with the impromptu mission. Rather or not he would come to regret this or not only time could say…
"Oh look Ei! Either my nose is decieving me or I do indeed smell and hear a talk'n ferret." Ayumu exclaims and 'incidently' riling up the little furball that much more.
The green-haired woman had given in fairly easily to the pleading looks from her love. There was nothing to be done. She followed after him the whole way, though Ei doesn't look at all happy with all this. In particular, she made it a point to ignore Moe's very existence the entire time, her lip curling slightly in what can only be said is disgust every time the woman speaks. Of course, she doesn't seem to like Tsuchi much more than that, but she respects her as much as necessary for now. Looking up at the ferret, she simply blinks. Still, despite ignoring that the Kuroki said it, she does agree that it's up to Tsuchi on how to handle the defensive creature. She does say, "Not decieving you, my love, I promise."
A sigh at the creature and Tsuchi simply looks at the others, "We can't let this guy get in the way again. I need-"
She is interrupted, and rather rudely by the ferret as it steps up, "Me get in the way?! You got in MY way!" The ferret glares at Ayumu before saying, "I am Sora, soon to be warrior of the Ferret clan!" He states and huffs.
A sigh escapes Tsuchi and she looks at the ferret before saying, "Just ignore him, find the snake and make sure it doesn't interrupt trade."
Almost immediately the ferret makes a few gestures and fires off a zap of lightning before the group and states, "You'll have to get through me! The snake is mine!"
Tsuchi growls, "Gladly!" She states and then looks back at the others, "Find the snake, I'll take care of the furball."
Watching the exchange between Tsuchi and the ferrett, Moe lifts an eyebrow faintly then shrugs her shoulders and nods. "Got it." She then turns to Ei and Ayumu, smirking at them and giving a wink to Ei before thin tattoo lines begin to spread from her tattoos over her body. "Let's see what we can find then, hmm?" she asks as she turns and begins to walk, using the hairs to try to detect any unusual activity that may lead them to the snake. Of course, Ayumu could be a lot of help in that regard as well.
The Iga had been admittedly ignoring, or at least, playing the blissfully unaware act whenever it darn well suited him. But that ever wandering spirit of his brought him right back to those little tics his love displayed towards the rest of their merry band. A glance to all three woman is subtly, followed by his attention jerked towards the ferret and Sasaki pair again when something about becoming a warrior gets mentioned. Mischief touches the corner of his lips an instance later; lingering well after the ferret chose to try and startle the group with a bolt of lightning.
"By your leave, Cap'n." Ayumu replies with a mock bow, then straightens out to follow Moe. "Shouldn't be too hard less its travel'n underground… Speaking of 'over'looked things, names Ayumu Iga by the way. And this here fair lady and love of my life is Ei Fujiwara." Ayumu says, making with the small talk when he /should/ be focusing on the mission. He wasn't neglecting his duty however. A few sensory organs he had nestled in his forest for a hair were slipping out from his ponytail at random intravals and scattered about for the search.
One of the group, at least, jumped a little — just a little — as the lightning flashed in front of them. However, Ei is quick to move on as if nothing happened, following after the Iga as she looks… well, like she feels possitively soiled following that wink. With Ayumu introducing her, she turns her head away to look around in search of the serpent. No words leave her mouth, though her eyes definitely show the way she feels and it's none too pleasant.
At first, it's too rough to tell where anything or anyone might be in this village. There's a lot of constant movement by traders and a rather large market area where product that is going to be moved in bulk to Suna and beyond is laid out. However, in reality, Moe is the first to notice something odd. It's the tattoo hairs she uses to try to sense things. She notices the odd vibrations in the ground. Seems Ayumu might not have been too far off.
As he releases his eyes out into the world, he will spot it nearby, a hole in the ground. The hole, if he should choose to follow it, is heading directly toward that large market where all those people are.
Meanwhile, behind the group, the sound of wind and lightning will be heard going off all over the place. Seems the fight between ferret and shinobi has begun!
Noting that odd vibration, Moe furrows her brows a bit then looks to the other two. "… I'm thinking you're right about it being underground, which could mean serious trouble," the Kuroki says with a sigh as she tries to better pinpoint the source of the vibration to figure out where the snake might be. Whatever reason this snake is attacking trade, she hopes to be able to stop it before it causes too much trouble and gets itself killed.
The wink and Ei's reaction confirmed just what he needed to know. It also had a way of grating at the man's nerves as well that something 'bad' seemed to have happened to his love. A private war begins waging inside, only to be pressed to hold as both Moe's words and his own eyes near some sort of hole in the ground. Rather than say anything, Ayumu merely motions for the duo to follow him towards it. Meanwhile, a few of the eyes are dropped into to investigate ahead of the group. A bit of mental tweaking later and the 'focus' of the eyes shift to pick up different frequency to compensate for the lack of light as they progressed further along. "Note to self, more ears next time." Ayumu murmurs softly.
Following after Ayumu, the green-haired woman considers what to do in this particular case. She's a wind user… so it being in the ground really damages what she's able to help with. Ei sighs softly through her nose, but tries to focus on how she can help. "Do we actually know anything about this snake? Is it venomous? Does it just squeeze its victims? Both? How big is it?" She sighs, more at herself this time. She should've been asking these kinds of questions before, but… her prejudices were too strong today.
It seems that Tsuchi and the Ferret will be busy a little while at least. Tsuchi is at least leading the fight out of the village to prevent too much collateral. Though, it's still quite loud as things go on behind them. Ayumu might even be familiar with some of the fighting. He's had to deal with Tsuchi indrectly.
Meanwhile. the group will notice that the hole is wide enough that a tree trunk could fit comfortably into. The thing is clearly quite large and even as Ayumu follows after it with eyes, they will find that if they follow his eyes underground and Moe's senses they will find it does indeed fit to that market. There's even some clues to its whereabouts. The path of the tunnel. The vibrations. There's also those horrific screams of terror coming from the market as well as that guy that just ran by the trio screaming 'Giant cobra!' as he ran by. The little things.
It seems the discovery was a bit late. Moe groans a bit at the prospect of actually having to fight this enormous state as she looks at the hole while the screams ring out. "Well…. I suppose we've got no choice," she says, sighing a bit then turning to take off toward the market. The hairs remain on her skin as she moves hurriedly toward the market, eyes scanning for where the giant snake is currently attacking in hopes to get there before it causes any serious damage.
The lightning and wind show in the background could only go unnoticed to a point. Even though Tsuchi and Sora slipped away to prevent collatoral damage, the last explosion of elemental fury still haunted the Iga. It splintered his attention severly. To make up for it, Ayumu starts to form a special seal, only to hold off as Ei made some pretty valid points. "More than likely venomous with this being the Land of Wind in all. So—" Then the screaming starts, eliciting a heavy sigh and a facepalm from the Iga.
"Yeah…" Ayumu mutters in agreement, and yet does not follow Moe immediatly. Instead, he turns to Ei and after an extended moment of gauging the pros and cons for options that flit through his mind, he steps in close for a quick peck to the forehead, then steps away just as fast. "Go with Moe and back her up. I need to check out things from a different angle." He states, forming the seal again. A few seconds later, three exact copies of the Iga poof into existence. It was a trick he reminded himself he needed to teach to Ei soon… but not now.
Unless given an overpower reasoning to not follow through with the hastily made plan in mind, two clones would assist Moe and Ei from the surface, the third would keep a closer eye on Tsuchi, and the original would continue on to the tunnel and go on from there.
A drop of sweat slipped down Ei's face as she heard the screaming but she shook her head lightly and was about to follow after Moe, expecting her boyfriend to be doing the same. He doesn't, however, and it gives her pause. She smiles faintly at the kiss to her forehead, but looks quite displeased with what he wants her to do. "Fine," she emits, shifting to quickly end up near Moe. She doesn't speak to the woman, but glances at her before shifting to try and go the opposite direction of people still running away.
Ayumu will find the pair of Tsuchi and the ferret just in time for the Ferret to blow Tsuchi back with a blast of wind that sends her flailing away quite a ways as the ferret scampers off toward the town and the market, trying to get after his target. Right after him, Tsuchi uses her wind step to follow after only for the ferret to start doing the same, both of them moving at high speeds toward the market.
Meanwhile, the pair of Moe and Ei arrive at the market along with the pair of Ayumu's to see a cobra snapping up a horse into its maw and swallowing it whole while some guy runs off screaming and crying. People are scattering all over even as the cobra turns to notice the quartet arriving and hisses before it whips up its tail and flicks its tail left and right before it goes from being one cobra to being three cobra. It seems Ayumu wasn't the only one who could clone himself here and then the cobras attack by…well, spitting an acidic venom at the quartet.
Spotting the snake swallowing the horse up, Moe blinks a bit and glances over at Ei. "… Be careful. This thing doesn't look like it plays nice," the Kuroki says before looking up to see the snake kicking into another gear. That… is gonna be trouble. Her eyes narrow a bit before she seems to shrug as if to say 'poof it' and charges at the creature. Tattoos of snakes rise off of her, creating shields in front of her body to guard her from the incoming venom as well as sending long versions off of them to attempting to try to bind the creature up and yank it to the ground with two pairs of snakes coming at it to wrap around a pair of its necks.
"Who wee, quite the rivalry those two have." The Ayumu clone says aloud as the duo clash one final time, then break apart to take care of the snake. Tempted thought it is to simply watch and wait, the clone bends the wind about him to his will and gives chase. Unlike the pair, it has more than just a single jutsu to accelerate it, and hopefully cut off the ferret before it reaches its target.
Meanwhile, the other clones waste no time entering defensive maneuvers. One shields itself with a barrier of wind while the other encloses both Ei and itself with hair, shielding them from the acid spray for now. Still, parts of the barrier melts away despite the coating of chakra meant to help displace attacks. "I'll focus on defense. Help brother Jo with the attack." The clone states briskly as the surviving hairs return to normal. Protective much, yes? But not a plan that wouldn't upset Ei… hopefully. Meanwhile, the afformentioned brother Jo begins barraging the clones of the giant snake with a barrage of wind clones.
"I noticed," Ei murmurs. It's not intentionally rude, but… it is what it is. As the clone of Ayumu protects her, she blinks and glances over at it. Nodding to him lightly, she forms seals to cause wind to bear down on the snakes, attempting to keep them in place with Macroburst. She /tries/ to be careful about where Moe and the other clone is… but she may just make the Kuroki's movements a /tad/ more difficult.
As the group attacks the snakes, Ayumu's clone is only able to cut off the ferret in time for it to get in range to see the aftermath of the attacks. The bunch attacking the snakes causes all the snakes to burst into smoke and the snakes are gone. All of them were clones it seems, a look around would notice that there is yet another hole in the ground where the snake seems to have escaped through. Even as the clones burst though, the Ferret lets out a string of squeaky growly sounds that sound something like cusswords but perhaps in another language.
Tsuchi shows up a moment later and grumbles, "Got away again." She sighs and shakes her head even as she looks at Ayumu clone with a frown only to be cut off before she can speak.
"This is ALL your fault!" The ferret points up at Tsuchi and she blinks indignantly at the ferret.
"My fault?! If you hadn't attacked me we'd have gotten that snake!" Tsuchi declares.
When the snake disappears in a burst of smoke, Moe blinks and looks around, only to see a big hole again. She sighs a bit and reaches up to rub her temple. "This is really going to be a pain," she grumbles before walking back over to where Tsuchi is arguing with the ferret. "Is this pipsqueak still prattling on about taking that giant thing on by itself?"
The vibrations felt through the tunnel walls is enough to tell the tale of above… but not all. Since his clones were still alive, Ayumu could only infer for now that the team was alright. In the meantime, he would focus back on mapping the tunnels, and if need be, seeing to their collapse so that the snake didn't reuse them in the future. Or, you know, some silly kids decide to go exploring it later.
"If I may interject for a moment?" The clone that cut off the weasel in the first place asks. Meanwhile, the other two with Ei and Moe split up. One goes to follow the snake at its own peril, the other checks over the other two to make sure all is well. Mostly, anyways. Moe kind of walked off before he had a chance to find out more. ( . .)
Ei just sighs heavily as the clones poof out of existence. Why was she even here again? Oh, yeah, that's right… As the clone checks on her, she looks at it and just… shakes her head. "I'm fine," she assures it. The one that's walking off, though, she almost calls after, but… she's /mostly/ certain that it's indeed a clone and if it wants to get itself killed, then… well, that she'll leave to be Ayumu's personal problem. Adjusting to walk slowly over to the argument, she just sighs lightly. "So, please explain to me why you can't take aid," she requests, staring at the ferret.
Even as the feeling that Moe and Ayumu will get is the snake is far out of the village. It didn't want to face down this large of a group. It used its clones as a method of escape. Even as it does, the Ferret continues to make angry noises at Tsuchi until Ei speaks to it and it turns on her and then on Moe, too. It growls and then shakes a tiny fist, "I am a Ferret warrior! I must bring down my first snake!" It declares and nods its head and then spits on the ground, "I don't need any help! I am powerful!" It hits its chest with that fist and then points at Tsuchi, "And she has interfered TWICE!"
Tsuch points at the Ferret, "I was here to save people and also in that last village! I have a responsibility to the Land of Wind to do my job and you are just…a little annoying furball!" And she shakes a fist and the Ferret growls and Tsuchi leans down to glare at it and it leans toward her face to glare back.
As the ferret and Tsuchi argue, Moe just glances between them and shakes her head. "You know, the snakes are trying to stop all this hatred," she interjects. "They want to stop the senseless warring being the clans. Instead of focusing on killing each other, maybe you should be thinking about that. You could be the generation that stops the bloodshed among your kind."
The clone in immediate pursuit can only go so far and endure so many attacks from clones before finally succumbing. The memory of its ventures, and that of its death return with force, snapping the Iga's head back there. With a weary groan and shake of his head, Ayumu accepts the fact the snake wouldn't be making a return trip with those type of tactics in mind. So, he focused purely on sealing the tunnels up as much as possible.
Meanwhile, the two Ayumu clones left up top eventually just try their best to phase intot he background and let Ei handle things. If she could handle a bunch of street urchins and rambunctious Iga kids, then it only stand to reason she would be the best mediator for the job. "Moe-chan… We — I.. whatever, mean no offense, but how do you know that?" The clone asks, honestly confused.
Ei's attention does turn toward the Kuroki for the same reason as Ayumu's clone questions, though she does shoot it a look when it uses the honorific 'chan' with Moe. Taking a deep breath, she looks at the ferret and then to Tsuchi. "You are a warrior of your people. She is a warrior of her people. You both want the same thing, when it really comes down to it. Don't you think your people would be more impressed if you could say you worked with a human… and possibly outdid her?" She raises a brow, glancing at Tsuchi with a slightly apologetic look. She can only hope the other woman won't take offense to the suggestion and see it for what it's worth.
The ferret shoots Moe a cold glare that would make the Hatfields proud were it a glare shot at one of those darn rat McCoys. He then looks over at Tsuchi again before something Ei says gets his attention. He squints at her and starts toward her with all the menace that a 3 foot tall ferret could muster…which frankly isn't much. He then stops glaring and steps back and puts his hands on his hips. He looks to the side, thinking on it before looking at Tsuchi again and then back at Ei before hmming, "That…could work." He states and then squints at her, "She is good with wind and lightning."
Tsuchi watches this unfold and looks at Ei with a jaw dropping before huffing and looking to the side. She doesn't seem offended as much as that sigh shows her exasperation. She crosses her arms and looks at Ei then at the ferret before nodding, "That'd be acceptable." She nods her head and then looks carefully at the ferret.
The Ferret looks back and then gestures, "I'm Sora!" He declares and then nods, "And I will work with you human to prove that not only can I take down a snake but also that ferrets are superior to both snakes and humans." He chuckles and nods.
As Ayumu speaks to her, Moe shoots him a glance and frowns. "Don't you think that's a little cozy a way to be referring to a woman you don't know in front of the woman you just referred to as the love of your life?" she asks, obviously referring to the difference in their ages, her age being nearly double his. "I know from speaking to a representative of the snakes," she says as she looks back to the ferret, frowning a bit at it as it seems set on killing the snake instead of trying to make peace. "… I see foolish prejudice is not restrained by species."
A shiver went up the spine of the Ayumu collective. By instinct, they knew it had something to do with Ei, though only the one that made the error(?) let worry show in his visage as it turned back to look upon Ei. Before he can even get as far, Moe not only brings it to the surface, but also… wait, yeah, that pretty much summed up what happens. Still, one clone has the nerve to laugh at his downtrodden 'brother' and recieves a piercing glare for it in turn. "It is.. t'iz why I do it only jokingly!"
"Not really helping things, brother." The other clone quickly counters.
"Well, at least I'm trying." Is the clone rebuttal through clenched teeth. Both glare daggers at one another, ignoring the patching up between Tsuchi and Sora.
Ei just looked at the ferret as he came up to stare at her. Although she was physically looking down at him, her posture was not. She gazed upon him as an equal before smiling at his agreement. "Wonderful. I do hope you can both do well and prove yourselves in whatever way you seek to." She offers Tsuchi a nod in understanding before about-facing on the Ayumu clones. "Yes, yes, very funny. I give aid to one partnership and you two make another one for me to fix. Don't make me kill you," she murmurs in a horribly sweet way, smiling all too brightly at them both.
A look at Moe and then at the ferret and the ferret shakes his head at her before looking to Ayumu and Ei. He along with Tsuchi both shrug and then she glances at the ferret before shifting some and looking to the ferret, "Ok, well, you and I gotta find those snakes then and get this over with." Sora nods back to her and crosses his little arms, "Yeah, over with."
Tsuchi then looks at the others, "So, any of you want in? We do need to wrap this up." She looks to Moe, "Pro-snake or not…you gotta admit this one is causing a lot of trouble."
Moe glares at Ayumu again, her eyes rather harsh as she says in a flat voice, "I really hope she has a lot more patience than I do for your sake, else you're going to wake up some morning to be served poison in your drink." She looks back at Tsuchi then, sighing and pondering a moment. "I… need to make contact," she says before turning to step away, hoping that this particular snake is a rogue of the clan that they themselves want dealt with, or this could turn messy… At least she got a good look at him before he left.
Ei's death threat is a little too effective. Both clones immediatly clasp one another tightly and peer back and stare in fear of the little Fujiwara before turning to one another, then to Moe, then briefly to Tuschi and Sora, then finally back to Ei again. "Ye-yeah, we're.. the boss'll be in as soon he's done clearing up the tunnels." One clone says, still embracing his brother clone. Said opposite nods furiously in agreement, spares its partner in crime an extended look, then both cancel the jutsu holding their existence together, thinking that their creator might be better off having all the details this time around.
Ayumu is, in a word, very displeased with his clones.
He could no longer put off shedding Ryoji once and for all…
Ei's attention returns to the rest of the group, much more calm now. It's not that she dislikes any of her love's separate… aspects. In fact, she often finds them quite amusing… when they're not embarrassing her. "Ah, well… Yes, I can attempt to be of assistance. At least this way you can say you trumped multiple humans, Sora-san," she says as a bit of a joke. Then she shifts to wait for the true Ayumu to return.
