Starring:
Tomoko, Saeko, Ren, Ryuunosuke
Date: April 2, 2012
Summary:
Tomoko, Saeko, Red and Ryuunosuke went on a D-Rank mission to gather medical herbs in the forest outside the village. They successfully gathered the herbs but ran across a rabid bear that had to be put down after it had attacked someone.
Poster's note: Profanity filtered in obvious places.
"Herb Gathering"
Forest outside the Kohonhagakure
Everyone is called over to the hospital, and told they were going to be given a new mission there by one of the staff there. They are directed into the offices of one of the doctors, who also dressed as a jounin. The tall red haired woman is sitting behind a large desk as people come in.
Tomoko smiles as she looks around the hospital and is excited about her first real mission. She heads into the office and gives the doctor a little wave, "Hello." She then looks around to see who the other people are that will be going with her.
Responding to the call Ryuu show up at the hospital. There was a line as it seems many others were called as well. After speaking with he red-haired woman he is lead to a doctor's office. The hospital was a strange place for Ryuunosuke. The young man was often weary when he stepped inside one. The feeling of disease, real or not, would surround him and he'd become incredibly concerned with his health. Even now he's being careful not to inhale anything that seems biohazardous. Peeking his head through the door as is cracks open Ryuunosuke spots another genin. She seems excited. It was probably her first mission. "Uh hello?" he says moving inside the room. He's very cautious and observant. He didn't want to touch anything or stand too close to something. Even so the young Senju manages to patiently wait to be filled in on this assignment.
Ren didn't bother with the whole preparing for the mission before hand thing, or the process where the younger ones try to obtain the mission details before seeing their mission lead. That was all a pointless exercise if you asked her. Still, She was here to obtain a mission, do the deed and come back home in time for dinner - and possibly the making of balloon animals. The senju made her way into the hospital and around to the door of the head doctor.
Inside, the twin tails that hang down to her waist bob along behind her, eyes settling on the other two in the room and then onto the good doctor. She has no words for any of them right now.
Her feet slapping against the white tiles of the hospital, Saeko comes barelling down the hallway. A nurse somewhere yells at her to stop running, but she pays her no heed; she was late. Her eyes scan the doors. Nope. Nope. "That one!" She comes barelling into the room with all the grace of a dying gazelle. As she burst through the door loudly, she quickly comes to a stop, sweat trickling form the young girl's brow. "Sorry I'm late!"
The doctor looks the group over and just after Saeko comes rushing in she moves to open a drawer in the desk and taking out a scroll. She slides the scroll across the table, so the genin can take it. "I need you to go into the forest and gather these items for me. They are mostly medical herbs and stuff. This is a D-ranked mission, and it shouldn't be that difficult, though I shouldn't need to remind you that we take medicine seriously here and having the right medicine or not could make the difference between life or death for some patient."
Tomoko then reaches over to pick up the scroll and slowly opens it. It has a list of all the herbs and items needed, and an amount for each. Luckily it also has a description for each so that everyone knows what exactly they are looking for. She glances back towards Saeko as she comes in, "Hello."
Ren nods at the doctor and turns to observe the interaction between Saeko and Tomoko, a hand raising to scratch at her head. For a split second, Ren considers just leaving and letting the two who seem so interested in herb gathering handle it, but Hashiramako would probably yell again.
"There are five people here. So, you're one of the partners."
Ryuunosuke turns back to see the arrival of another. Distinctively if nothing else Ryuu would remember the long tails her hair was fashioned in. The pink beads gave away the gender, along with some features in the face. If not for that Ryuu would've thought her to be a man. He bows his head slightly and turns back to look at the doctor. Of course right when he let his guard down there was yet another arrival. A girl rushed in seemingly fatigued and late. Ryuunosuke wasn't aware of a time limit. Her sudden arrival made him jump a bit. He was already unnerved in the doctor's office. He sighs rubbing his head "What a day this is turning out to be." There is a soft smile on his face, a nervous smile at that.
The mission seemed simple enough. He tried to get a look at the scroll too while Tomoko inspected it. "Seems easy enough. We can find a lot of them around the forest." Ryuunosuke nods before looking back to doctor. He moves aside letting either Ren or Saeko get a look at the scroll. He'd be ready to go as soon as they were.
Saeko stands fully, quickly adjusting her quivers and bow on her form, trying to make herself look presentable after the fact. Her cheeks are flushed in embarassment at her behavior in front of her unknown peer and this jounin shinobi. She coughs a bit awkwardly into her fist and begins to fidget. "I'm sorry for being late." She bows slightly. Her attention is caught by the description of the mission.
"Herb retrieval. Got it." Saeko nods quickly, leaning in with a complete disregard of the concept of personal space to try and peek at the scroll. When the girl holding the scroll adresses her, Saeko just smiles at her before saying, "Hey! I'm Saeko. I guess I'm your partner for this mission."
The doctor looks the group over and nods, "Well there you go, you better get to it. I expect it to get done today, I don't want you to be wandering around in the forests after dark. It shouldn't take that long, as long as you stick to the mission and don't goof off." She then waves them out of the office.
Tomoko smiles as she gives the scroll to anyone else who wants to get a better look at it. She smiles as she looks to Saeko, "I am Tomoko, it is nice to meet you. This is my first real mission, but it doesn't sound to hard at all."
Ren nods at all of them, crossing her arms over her chest, "Right, well, Senju Ren. I suppose we should get going soon then, best to get the herbs in before the night like the doctor suggested." Her voice is the only feature that sounds girlish, light, melodic and sing song as it prances along. "Saeko, Tomoko and Ryuunosuke." She jabs a finger at Ryuu, "Not a bad bunch. So, who's going to take point?"
Ryuu waves at Saeko as she introduced herself. "Yo, I'm Ryuunosuke. Just call me Ryuu." his arm falls back to his side before looking to Ren. A Senju he has neither seen nor met before, that wasn't uncommon he was just a bit surprised to find out that she was one too. Turning his head back to Tomoko he goes for the scroll. "How many do we need to gather in total? Shouldn't take too long." he inspects the scroll. Ryuu shrugs "We're all eager to get started." Glancing between Saeko and Tomoko Ryuu attempts to figure the best way to approach this. "Think we'd be better off doing this in small groups?"
Saeko rubs the back of her head a bit awkwardly as the doctor mentions goofing off. She can't help but feel as if it was a jab at her personally; she was hardly being proffesional at the moment. "Hm? Oh, it's nice to meetchya too, Tomoko-chan," she says familiarly. "It's my first mission, too. In fact, I'm about four days out of the academy. Go figure." Her attention shifts easily to the voices of Ren and Ryuunosuke. "Nice to meetchya, Ryuu-chan."
When the questions of a C.O.A. is brought up, Saeko pipes up. "I got a good pair of eyes. I can take point. But I think you might be right, two smaller groups could cover more ground quickly. Maybe a wide grid pattern search while being close enough to see the other team?"
Tomoko smiles as she looks to Ryuu, "We need to get five of those black mushrooms with the yellow spots. Six of those red flowers, ten of the roots from those purple flowers. Five of those green pants with the tiny set of four leaves, and 3 ounces of some ugly looking red moss." On the scroll is much more detailed description of the items however.
Ren nods, "I don't think it hurts to split up since we're just outside the village. Should make the mission go by quicker as well. Which leaves us to distributing the teams, so who wants me as their partner?"
Ryuunosuke blinks hearing that Saeko was 4 days out of the academy. "Wow. Well then this should be interesting." he grins. He noted he was rather close to tray containing a few syringes. He inches awway fromt he tray carefully looking to be rather creeped out. The awkwardness only lasts a moment or two. Taking what Tomoko said into account Ryuunosuke nods. "Well let's divide the herbs among the two groups." he looks to Tomoko and Saeko. "I get the feeling you two would make a good pair so how about you guys go for the red flowers, four-leaved green plant…I think that's a clover, and the moss? Sound ok. Be careful though you might have an allegic reaction that you weren't aware of." He glances back to Ren "That leaves us with the mushrooms and the roots of those purple flowers." Ryuunosuke did well to memorize the details of each item. That way one group couldd take the scroll and double chheck just incase. "Everyone ok with that?"
Saeko whistles a little bit, impressed at the large number of herbs. "So, twenty six seperate specimens plus three ounces of twenty seventh. A tall order. Here is hoping some of them grow in groups." She listens intently to Ryuunosuke as he sets up the teams and gives them their assignments. She crosses her arms over her chest in thought. "Six red flowers, five green plants and some stuff that looks like someone barfed on a tree." She begins to notice Ryynosuke's awkwardness around the syringes and cannot help but grin. "Anywya, I think we should get out of this stuffy hospital and get hunting, ne Tomoko?"
Tomoko looks to Ryuunosuke then back to Saeko and nods, "We probably graduated at the same time then, though I guess from different classes." She nods as she looks back to Ryuunosuke, "Okay, we will do that then. Sounds like a good plan. We can set a meeting place once we get in the forest then split up." She smiles and nods to Saeko as she starts to head out of the hospital.
Ren comes up from behind Ryuunosuke and places her arms on his head, "How cute, you want to go on a mission with your cute oneesan." There's a chuckle as she watches the rest start the mission, "Don't forget to yell if you get in trouble or throw up a sign." She offers them both a wave before turning her attention back to Ryuunosuke, "Right then, so we roots and mushrooms. You ready to go?" Whether or not he is, she's already walking out the room with the others towards the forest.
Ryuunosuke nods closing the scroll. "Yeah that is quite a bit. All the more reason for us to split up." He says to Saeko. The young Senju lets everyone exit first. He didn't want to slip up and accidentally fall on something, not in a hospital especially. He was constantly watching the room half expecting something to go wrong. When Ren touched him he shudders slightly. He looks to Ren and chuckles "Well I don't want you goofing off." He sighs softly. She nearly gave him a heart attack. "Ready to move out." He'd exit the doctor's office behind her.
"Sounds about right," Saeko says easily to Tomoko. "Not that I got terribly good grades." She sighs and looks back and forth between Tomoko, Ryuu and Ren. "Alright, if somehting happens I'll send up a whistling arrow. If your not terribly far away, you should be able to hear it; it's loud as all hell." She quickly moves behind Tomoko; hot on ehr heels as she throws her hood up around her head; anxious to get out into the wilderness. "This is exciting."
Tomoko giggles as she looks over to Saeko with a smile, "I am excited too, first mission!" She smiles as she heads out of the hospital with the group and towards the forest. The forest outside the village should hold all the things needed, though any where right next to the village is found to be picked cleaned, probably from other genin running around gathering stuff, or maybe even some of the villages who deal in medicine. Though it doesn't take long to get a little deeper into the forest, where it is mostly untouched. The dangers are obviously miminal at this distance from the village and so as expected the short trip is uneventful.
Ren moves along with Ryuu at the other side of the mission area, looking around for the purple plants or the mushrooms. "Do you see anything Ryuu? I don't see any yet." She was taking the high ground, trying to find the plants and mushrooms by height rather than by ground. "hmm, there's a spring near here. Mushrooms like darker, wet areas right?"
"Well then…" Ryuu smiles and looks to Tomoko "Catch." he tossed her the scroll. "Just in case you need it. I've memorize the details. Most of them anyway, we should be fine without it." he explains. The whistle was a good idea. First mission or not Saeko had the basics down. "So meet back here once we've got everything?" he asks. Once that was decided upon he'd set out with Ren for the mushrooms and vines. As the hunt goes on he spots a few mushrooms and flowers. He'd have to check them closely to see if they were the correct specimen from the scroll. He nods to Ren "Yep usually. Fungi like moist dark areas."
Saeko follows along happily, making very idle chitchat as they go. She just doesn't seem to shut up the entire trip; talking about how she once killed a boar bigger than she was, how her father taught her how to use a bow, to her favorite food(beef okanomiyaki) and she even goes on about the recent chapter of Diamond: A Rarity, a manga about a girl who has psychic control over diamonds. It's honeslty quite the terrible manga, but she seems to like it. When they finally arrive she turns to Tomoko. "Alright! Let's get moving. The red flowers will be the easiers, and the green plants a bit harder due to the colouring. The moss shouldn't be too hard either. How about we spread out a bit? Say… Twenty meters?"
Tomoko smiles as she catches the scroll and gives a quick nod before heading out to look for the stuff. She nods to Saeko, "That sounds like a plan!" She carefully starts to wander through the forest, peeking through bushes and around trees as she looks for the stuff. She bends down and looks at some green plants and studies them a bit to make sure they are the right one, since there are several different ones next to each other. Most of the things on the list are not to difficult to find as long as you are careful and pay attention.
The mushrooms checked out, yellow spot and all. Ryuunosuke gathered what he could. "Found some mushrooms. I think all we need now are the vines of those purple flowers." He looks to Ren "Spot any?" Ryuunosuke glances up at the sun and sighs. "Wow it's already that late? Hey Ren!? I'm going to head back a bit early to speed things along. I have all the mushrooms. You just need to get the vines. I'm sure Tomoko-san and Saeko-san are nearly finished too. Let them know I went ahead." He informs. Turning to head back Ryuunosuke puts the mushrooms away a pouch. "Not bad. Had a decent team this time too." He grins
Moving through the woods just a couple dozen meters off to the side of Tomoko, Saeko is lazily walking about with her hands in her pockets. "So," she calls out loud enough for the other fresh genin to hear her. "Tomoko-chan, how did you do in the academy? Like, whats your skills? A poweful ninjutuist? A sly genjutsuist? Or a kick-butt Taijutsu specialist!?" She seems to be mostly paying attention to the foliage, her eyes darting perceptively around the forest floor and poking her head around trees and bushes. She seems very calm and at home in the woods. It isn't long before she comes across a patch of the red flowers; more than enough that they are going to need. "Score;" she says quietly before getting down beginning to pick as many as they will need. She calls out loudly, "Got the reds!"
Tomoko smiles as she glances over towards Saeko, "I think I did pretty good, though I guess my taijutsu and genjutsu might be lacking a little a bit. I am pretty good at ninjutsu, though I wouldn't say I was powerful or anything." She picks some plants then gets up and walks over to where Saeko is, "I think we are almost done, we should try regroup with the others." The gathering isn't to difficult and most of the stuff is easy to find if someone pays attention and is careful not to grab the wrong things. Though a few hours go by as the groups gather them.
Ren doesn't have a partner, only herself, so finding the remaining roots goes faster for her. Another thing she finds is an old hot spring she knew about. They would be okay for awhile right? Either way, happy hot spring ren is happy.
"This is the life."
After Tomoko and Saeko get their portion of the medical vegetation, the pair head back to the meet-up point to find Ren. "I don't think many people coming out of the academy can rightfully call themselves powerful." She chuckles softly, moving along with a content bounce in her step. They reach the meet-up point and after a bit of waiting it becomes apparent that Ren and Ryuu are not going to show up and the daylight is quickly fading Saeko takes out a special arrow; this one has a plastic fluted tip. She draws her bow back and fires it almost straight up. Ren should be able to hear the high-pitched whistle as the arrow screams through the air. When the arrow hits, the plastic tip breaks on the hard forest floor, but Saeko retrives the shaft. "That should bring them."
Tomoko smiles as she nods her head slightly, "I suppose that is true. Though we did finish our first mission, so we must be pretty good right?" She giggles softly as she watches Saeko get out the arrow. "Well at least I am sure they are done by now."
Almost at the same time that Saeko shoots the arrow, there is a loud scream that echos through the forest, and the combined sound causes all the birds in the air to suddenly take flight. If one had good hearing they might also hear a loud crashing sound.
Ren does hear it and much to her hot spring goodness dismay. Regardless, she puts herself back in order and arrives shortly there after with the roots and wet hair that smells like hot spring water. "I brought the stuff and I think you just killed
Saeko hunches down suddenly at the scream. She indeed heard the scream and her attention shifted to the direction of the scream. She turns her gaze to Tomoko and brings her finger up to her own lips to signify silence might be best. When the chuunin arrives Saeko motions for her to be quiet as well. She didn't kill anyone! She already retrieved the arrow. She takes about five arrows and holds them in the same hand she holds her bow in and begins to stealthily move towards the sound of the scream.
Tomoko quickly looks around as she hears the scream, not sure who that was. Though her first thought was that it might of been a team member, and with Ryuu missing that doesn't bode well, but Ren doesn't seem worried so she discounts that for a moment. She looks at Saeko and starts to follow her.
Not to far north of their current position is a path through the forest, and that is where they see the source of the scream. A man is laying on the ground, bleeding from deep cuts. He is laying near a wagon that is tipped over on its side and a half starved bear that is foaming at the mouth is smashing up stuff that was in the back of the wagon.
Ren smiles at them both as she follows along, sliding up and staring out at the injured man and the bear. "Welp, this is your mission. Whats the plan girls?"
Saeko looks at the scene quietly from behind a tree. When Ren speaks out loud she violenlty waves her arms in an angry gesture for her to stay silent. She spends a few moments obviously in thought. In very basic signing she points to herself and signs 'cover', points to Ren 'Kill' And points to Tomoko 'Retrieve'.
Tomoko is no where near as casual as Ren when she spots a person who may be bleeding to death, and a bear that might be rabid. Even if the bear was half starved it still looked pretty strong, and by the claws mark on the wagon it looks like it was the thing that knocked it over. She glances to Saeko and gives a slight nod and waits for them to get into position then she starts to move to grab the man.
Sarko slings her bow and climbs the tree she is hiding behind, getting a good fifteen feet up before she sees that Tomoko is ready and pulls a full twenty arrows into her bow hand, holding them point down and near the feathers. She takes a deep breath and holds a hand up with three fingers. Two. One. She flips around the tree and pulls the bowstring taught with a notched arrow. She starts shouting, doing her best to get the beast's attention while still firing arrows in it's direction, making very sure not to risk hitting the downed man.
The bear is easily distracted and growls loudly as an arrow whizzes by it. It turns to look at Saeko and starts to charge towards the tree. Tomoko uses that change to run by and over to the man. She does a very quick check to make sure he is stable enough to move, then grabs him and drags him away from the wagon in the opposite direction the bear ran so she can kind of use it as cover.
Saeko is absolutely unrelenting with her hail of arrows, firing them off at an amazingly rapid rate, already reaching forwards for the next arrow before the first is more than ten yards away, firing one shot in about half a second. This would become devestating as the bear comes to the bottom of the tree and Saeko would just need to fire straight down. "That's it you big pug, bring it on!" She is enjoying herself waaay too much.
Tomoko gets the man to a safe location, and starts to take off his shirt to get a good look at the wounds. She then takes a deep breath as she lifts her hands up in front of her and lightly places her hands over his wounds. She tries to focus her chakra as she focuses it into the wounds to stop the bleeding.
The bear growls and snarls as the arrows rain down against it. It is clear the beast is feral and insane from whatever sickness it has, otherwise it would of ran away in pain by now. It bleeds all over however as it tries to climb up the tree.
"Oh doberman, it can climb!" Saeko cries out loudly as she continually makes a pincushion out of the crazed beast. As it gets higher and within range, she slips her bow back around her torso and leaps from the tree. She keeps screaming at it. "Bring it on, big fat and furry! Woooooo!" She screams as she bolts as fast as her feet can take her in the opposite direction of Tomoko and the downed man, but only as long as the bear will follow her. She uses her small frame to move between the trees and underbrush to slow the bear down, constanely changing directions so as to not let the bear get up to a full sprint. "You call yourself a bear?! Wuss!!"
Bears are actually very good climbers, though not as much when they have a half dozen arrows sticking out of them. It does manages to get up the tree, but instead of climbing down it ends up falling off the branch and hitting the ground with a loud thud. After which it doesn't seem to get up to try and chase after Saeko.
Tomoko on the other hand is focused on her task, and isn't paying attention to the fight as she continues to pour her chakra into the wounds which begins to cause them to start to close up.
Saeko watches as the bear falls out of the tree and equips her bow, notching an arrow and drawing the string back fully as it very, very slowly moves towards it. When she sees that the bear is either dying or onconsious, she drops her bow and pulls a long hunting knife from the small of her back, hidden beneath her cloak. She moves in quietly and thrusts the blade deep into the bear's neck, severing the carotid artery and dragging it across it's neck opening it's throat up wide in a spray of blood that covers the poor girl. If the bear wasn't dead before, it will be now. "Clear!" She cries out.
Tomoko takes a deep breath as she slowly moves her hands back, after having healed him the best she could. It seems the wounds weren't as severe as they looked once the bleeding stopped, luckily the group got there so quickly that there was little blood loss, otherwise he may of been in real trouble. The man even starts to stir slightly, as Tomoko looks him over "I think you will be okay, but take it easy." She then lifts her hand in the air to wave to Saeko, "I think he will be okay."
Saeko steps around the cart. She emerges like an angel of death, literally drenched from head to toe in gore. She reeks of blood. The archer-nin takes a close look at the downed man as he begins to stir. "Hey, he's looking better. Your a medic nin?" She grins from ear to ear, not realizing how creepy a grinning little girl covered in gore looks. "Lucky for us. Or him, anyway. We should get him back to the village… Somehow. I'm not sure I could carry him… And I don't know where that chuunin dissapeared to…"
Tomoko is a little surprised when she sees Saeko and quickly looks her over. She then lets out a sigh of relief when she notices that none of that blood is her own, and she isn't wounded. She gives a gentle nod as she looks back to him, "Yes I am, and I think he will be able to walk. Though we should probably walk with him back to the village." She stands up and slowly helps the man to his feet as well.
Saeko glances from the old man back to the dead bear. She looks a bit torn. Eventually she sighs and hangs her shoulders and follows along behind Tomoko. She idly plays about with the blood on her hands, making little swirls in the crimson fluid. The blood doesn't seem to bother her in the slightest; in fact she seems to honestly be enjoying it. "Chihuahua… I kinda wanted to skin the big guy…. Make a carpet for my room. My first bear!"
The trip back is uneventful and doesn't really take very long. Since they were heading back to the hospital any way it was simple to drop the man off on their way to see the doctor and turn in all the items they gathered. The mission was a success! They insist on having someone go check the bear out to find out what caused it to go wild, and give Saeko a bunch of tests to make sure she didn't get infected with anything strange from bathing in the blood of the bear. Though after getting a clean bill of health, she is free to go.
Saeko is indeed spotted shortly past dusk carting the skin of a bear through the village on the way home.
