Starring:
Date: May 25, 2016
Summary:
Mysterious lava pits have emerged around a village in the Land of Fire. Being the lava expert, Daisuke goes to check it out with Hige traveling along as support.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Great Bubbling Lava Batman!"
Land of Fire
A mission had come across that was rather odd and called for a bit of a special case. There's reports of very tiny bumps appearing around a village on the southern edge of the Land of Fire. That's not so troubling. The troubling part is that each bump appears to be spewing up tiny bits of lava that are starting to threaten crops, and more of these bumps are appearing every day. When it comes to lava, it comes to Daisuke. And with Atsuro busy, somehow Hige was volunteered to be the Hokage's little eruption boy for this mission. And so he waits with his two ninken at the gates on this cool autumn morning.
Walking along the streets of Konohagakure in the morning was always a treat for the Hokage. There were a scattering of people waking up and prepping their storefronts for the days business that greeted him along the way, but for the most part it was quiet, it was peaceful. In times like these he couldn't help but feel proud that his aunt's dream of a peaceful place for all ninja in the Land of Fire to reside in was slowly taking shape.
Eventually the walk ends and Daisuke arrives at the main gate to spot Hige and his dogs. He nods to them and says, "I guess we are teamed up today, huh? It has been awhile. Shall we get going?"
"Quite a while," Hige agrees, pushing off the gate as Daisuke nears and dusting himself off a bit. "Let's get going." He turns towards the forest, then pauses and looks back before motioning to the pure white fluff of a pup that's sitting next to the taller-than-Hige Konsho. "Not sure if you know Kizoku yet. That's Kizoku." The pup has a rather regal look to his posture and even goes so far as to dip his head in acknowledgement of Daisuke. Konsho's tail just wags happily as he let's out a "Hiiii!" Super big, still a puppy in most aspects.
"Alright, let's go. From the sounds of things the faster we get there the better. Let me know if we're going to fast for you. All that desk sitting and such." Hige grins back at Daisuke, then takes to the tree tops and Kizoku hops on Konsho's back to not slow them down before the ninken follow.
Daisuke nods his head, turning towards the forest as well before Hige looks back and motions to the new pup. "Nice to meet you, Kizoku, and hello Konsho, hope you are both well." he says in a friendly tone before turning back to the forest. He chuckles at Hige's comment about speed before he points out, "That's why I can just sit on my butt and ride my nimbus if I am feeling lazy." As Hige takes to the treetops Daisuke follows suit, catching up and running alongside him, stretching out those leg muscles.
"Ahh, that's right, you can cheat," Hige acknowledges as they move along. "Well in that case…" Hige drops to all fours and launches himself forward further and faster. Konsho follows behind everyone just to make sure that Daisuke really can keep up, either physically or with his jutsu. At least it won't take long to get where they're going at this rate.
"Cheating, a more efficient way of travel, it's all a matter of perspective." Daisuke says to the Inuzuka, noticing him drop to all fours like other members of his clan that Daisuke knows, and because of this knowledge, knowing what Hige was going to try to do. For now, the Hokage keeps pace physically, though as he approaches Hige from the side he turns to say, "Don't tire yourself out before we get to the location now. I don't want to hear any complaints."
"Oh it takes a lot more than a little running to tire me out. I'm more worried about you. Your old brittle bones and all." No Atsuro, then Daisuke gets the old man jokes. Such is life. Hige continues to push all the way to the village they're heading to. It makes for a shorter trip if nothing else. When they arrive there's the definite aroma of sulfur in the air for Daisuke. Which means it's ten times worse for all the Inuzuka. "Pahoehoe…" Hige mutters, plugging his nose with a hand as he stands and looks around.
Pimples of risen earth are all around the village in no obvious pattern. Crops are already mostly dead from the gasses and whatever else might be poisoning the ground thanks to this new 'discovery'. Doors and windows are closed as people appear to be barring themselves in to try and escape the smell. The village looks completely empty.
Daisuke smirks and turns to focus on the direction they are going at the old man comment. They continue pushing on until Daisuke begins to pick up the hint of sulfur in the air. As they arrive on the scene, Daisuke frowns as he surveys the area. "Well, it is certainly not a good sight to behold. Now we need to figure out if this is a natural occurrence or man made and hostile in nature." he says as he turns to Hige and smirks. "I'm sure that nose of yours is enjoying this area to its fullest." He locates the closest pimple of earth and starts heading towards it.
Hige glowers up at Daisuke at that last comment. Poor Konsho and Kizoku are staying back away for the moment, not wanting to get sick from the overpowering stench. A downfall to the powerful Inuzuka senses. Hige says nothing for now as he just trails after Daisuke, using his eyes to scan the area. The pimple of earth is quite literally oozing lava at this point. It's very slow, but it's also very obviously lava.
Daisuke approaches the pimple to examine it, placing his palm on the ground to send out a short burst of chakra into the ground to see if the vein of lava runs deep or if not. If not, he would suspect foul play and start looking for other evidence. If it did run deep, this village would most likely have to be relocated to another place as mother nature is a vicious beast sometimes and there is no use fighting.
The vein is fairly deep, but not nearly as deep as it should be in order for the pimples to be a natural occurance. No, it runs a good ten feet down before Daisuke would find a hole in the earth filled with lava that is slowly being forced upwards by the earth shrinking around it. Somewhere someone is either slowly forcing the earth up or has it somehow set to do so. Perhaps some well placed seals.
Daisuke stands back up and looks over to Hige. "It seems we have a manmade issue here. The lava only runs about ten feet under, and I bet all the other lava spires are similar. The earth underneath is forcing the lava up above ground. We should look for some kind of jutsu or perhaps seal work. If no one is around and this is a jutsu that can be maintained like this, that is the most likely situation." he explains to the Inuzuka and his dogs. "It will take us a bit longer than if we had a sensor that could detect chakra, but I think we will be ok. Let's look around."
"Can't you just…move it?" Hige asks, his voice coming out high and tinny as he continues to pinch his nose closed to avoid the smell. But barring Daisuke doing some magic it leaves Hige to start searching around as well. He splits away from the Hokage with Kizoku, leaving Konsho with the man since he's the dog that can speak human. Konsho looks very unhappy however thanks to that overpowering stench. "What should I look for?" he asks, even his normally always happy tone sounding a bit down.
"Once I moved the earth back it would just start contracting again. We need to find and disable the jutsu." Daisuke says to Hige, adding, "Look for seals or maybe scrolls, or just something odd that you wouldn't expect to find within a small farming village." The sulfur may have been giving the dogs a hard time, but Daisuke had literally been within the heart of a volcano so either his sense of smell was burned or he was just used to this amount of it. With that he goes off with Konsho in tow to examine another one of the lava spires.
Hige just nods to Daisuke before he moves off with the small white pup, leaving Konsho and the Hokage to explore the next pimple. Konsho looks around as they travel, tail between his legs as he tries to spot anything that might be off. Normally his nose would be a great tool here, but it's really not helpful at the moment! Who knew just /looking/ for something strange could be so hard?
When Daisuke reaches the pimple he'll find the same thing as before. A bubbling oozing mess that's slowly being closed. However something odd is going on with this one. It's larger than the previous one and part of it seems to be siphoning off through a small hole in the tunnel.
As Daisuke rises from the ground after sending another pulse into the ground, he 'Hmmms' to himself. He turns to Konsho and says "I think we may have found something. Go grab Hige." He waits for Konsho to head off before he begins to sink into the ground, using his Hidden Among Rocks technique in case of any harder rock type surfaces below. Within the earth he can get a better feel, and investigate this small hole. He stays clear of the lava for now, though any chance he has, he would love to investigate it further while coated in lava himself.
Konsho runs off to retrieve Hige, leaving Daisuke alone to do what he's going to do. The siphoning hole is pulling some of the lava away and making a new crater a good hundred yards from the original. It's quite likely that the person doing it would be at that location. Luckily it's not even a minute before the Inuzuka group returns and looks around for Daisuke. He ain't about to go sniffing around though. He waits for a few moments but has the two ninken split to check the area while they wait.
Daisuke traces the hole's direction and gets a good idea of where it was going. He then pops his head up above the ground next to Hige and says, "BOO". Whether he gets him or not, he motions in the direction they are supposed to go as he rises out of the earth. "This way." He waits for the ninken to get back to the group before he heads off towards the location the siphoning hole is going
Hige looks rather annoyedly unamused at the attempted scare. He's already got a headache from the smell, he doesn't need Daisuke making it worse. "Yeah, you're scary enough without that," he mutters while the ninken come back. It's then they had off in the direction indicated. That leads them a short ways out of the village, behind some currently (and surprisingly) green bushes.
"You know I am." Daisuke says with a smirk, referring to the beast not his looks. He heads towards the area where the siphoning tunnel was going and has a quick look around before he spots the green bushes. "Strange place to see plants doing so well in this area." he says, sniffing the air to make sure they were still within the sulfuric gasses. He motions to Hige before heading towards the bushes and crouches down to spy through them. His eyes widen briefly as he spots a man in a Konohagakure headband before his face hardens a bit. "Looks like two, one asleep over by that tree. Think you can be of use with all this sulfur in the air? We need them alive but detained for questioning."
Hige was referring to other things, but he doesn't comment as they head off. The Inuzuka silently follows after Daisuke, having plenty of practice in this. When Daisuke makes his report Hige just nods slightly. "Can't track worth a tube here, but I can still fight." Although alive is kind of disheartening. He glances towards the bushes, then looks back to his ninken. He glances between them and while nothing is said it almost seems like he's giving them orders somehow. "Ready to go," he whispers a few moments later.
Daisuke nods his head to Hige before looking back through the bushes towards the men. "I'll get the one in the headband, you take the sleeping man." With that order relayed, Daisuke begins sinking back into the ground, intending to sneak up to the man to disable him quickly without him being able to react or call out. Once within the earth, he uses his heightened earth sense to predict the best path and follows it, carefully looking out for anything unusual or pockets of suspected lava that he may have to react quickly to.
Hige nods to Daisuke before he and his ninken vanish in a burst of speed, moving around behind the two men in preperation. After counting a few seconds for Daisuke to get in place and then waits for the Hokage to make his appearance, a fraction of a second away from the sleeping man in order to make sure he didn't cause any trouble while Daisuke worked on the other foe.
Daisuke silently rises from the earth behind the man enough to free his arms. He watches the man's movements as his hand reaches out, small sealing characters appearing on his fingers. He uses a Northern Heavens seal to attempt to disable the man and begin to suck his chakra dry if he is able to touch the back of the man's leg to apply it. Hopefully Hige was watching and is already taking action, but just in case, the Hokage would rise completely out of the earth as to better react to any unexpected results.
Hige was indeed moving though at first when he grabbed his victims arms from behind the man didn't move, taking a moment to wake up and looking quite frightened. The one Daisuke had didn't even shift until the other man woke up, only then seeming to realize something was wrong. Very wrong. "W-what's going on?" he asks, stopping his chakra flow even as Daisuke drains what remains. "Where am I?" His eyes widen when he sees Daisuke. "Hokage-dono?"
"You are being detained for questioning in the sabotage of a village belonging to the Land of Fire. Cooperate and we can find out what is going on." Daisuke tells the Konoha-nin, urging him forward to go visit with Hige and his captured man. "Lets see what your man has to say about all this, Hige." he says to the Inuzuka before he looks down at the man the he had in his custody.
"Hokage-dono, I don't understand!" The man objects, but he cooperates and moves wherever directed without complaint. "I'm a guard from Konohagakure…I'm not even sure why I'm here!" Hige looks from the Konoha nin to the other man, who looks like he might be crying in fear.
"P-please don't hurt me! I was captured by this shinobi! He made me come with him as a captive!" The blubbering man says from the ground where Hige has dropped him, though he watches him carefully. The Inuzuka glances up at Daisuke and quirks a brow questioningly.
"Alright, here is what your options are. We get the truth and someone may go to prison for awhile depending on their reasoning. Or we let our interrogation squad destroy your minds getting the answers from you, and believe me you cannot hide the truth from a Yamanaka." Daisuke says to the two men. He then looks to the man who was sleeping that Hige picked up. "I find it odd that you would be 'captured' by this man, who seemed to be doing some pretty mindless work while you were sleeping off to the side. Would a captured man be the one sleeping on the job and not escaping?"
"H-he knocked me out!" The man on the ground gets out a bit haltingly around his tears. "He knocked me out and left me at that tree until he was done! Then he was going to take me back!"
"That's not true!" States the Konoha shinobi. "Hokage-dono, you have to believe me, I didn't do anything to this man! I don't even know who he is!"
Annnd Hige stays quiet and lets Daisuke deal with it, just watching to make sure neither of these two fools try anything stupid.
"So this man, bedraggled as he was looking, was just doing all the work here and not using you as manual labour. Cut the cinder, man." Daisuke says, shaking his head lightly. "You both are going back to the village. I suspect an ability to control is involved so both of you will be looked over by the Yamanaka, and probed if necessary. If you have nothing to hide, this will not be a problem for you."
The blubbering man on the ground sniffles a few times and slowly starts to stand. Then he starts a hand seal but doesn't even get to the first one before Hige's grabbed one of his hands and crushed the bones within. "This one doesn't seem to be entirely telling the truth Daisuke," Hige muses, actually grinning as he looks at the man who is now really crying thanks to his broken hand. Hige steps forward and with a swift move knocks the man out, then throws him over a shoulder, leaving Daisuke to deal with the other one. "You want Konsho to carry him?"
Daisuke doesn't seem surprised at the man's actions once given no way out. Someone was going to crack, and he was pleased that it was the man with no markings and not the Konoha-nin. He had the utmost confidence that Hige would handle the man within a moment and so he turns to the Konoha nin and puts his hand on his shoulder. "You will still need to be questioned, to make sure everyone is ok and you are fit to return to duty, but if everything works out the way I think it will, you should be fine." he says to the man. "For now, we will take you back to the village." He turns to Hige and shakes his head. "I will be taking this one to the hospital to get checked out. I will send a team to help remap this land and its soil so the villagers will be ok, and send some food aid for now. Time is important, so I will be taking Nimbus. Race you?"
Hige watches as Daisuke speaks to the still somewhat shaken and very confused Konoha-nin but in the end he just nods. "Alright, I'll be dropping this one off in a nice cell on the way back." Hige turns to prepare to leave, then pauses when Daisuke mentions a race. He grins over his shoulder - and then he's gone in a burst of speed, leaving Konsho and Kizoku scrambling to catch up.
