Starring:
Rikuto, Malik, Mei, Arika, Madoka
Date: February 4, 2015
Summary:
Taking care of a desert rodent problem
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Hole in the dark"
A desert village in the land of wind
In a small desert village the squad of genin got sent out to deal with a bit of a rodent issue. When the group arrived at the village elder he bowed respectfully. "Thank you guys for helping us…" He said. Looking at Malik, and then Mei. "So I'll get right to it.." The man says. Old enough to never get right to anything. More like shake and quake in something's general direction. "We get our water from the well at the city center. However recently the water is tainted…" The man says. As he points to the well with the bucket taken out. "The men are too afraid to go down there. But you can hear…" The man says.
When the group arrives at the well, it's indeed clear something is echoing at the bottom of it. "The well is part of Suna's water network." The man says calmly. Before looking at the oldest nin in the group. "Here is the agreed payment.." The man says, handing over a small coin pouch in good faith. "So if you guys could find out what's in our water. And how it got there…." The man nods a few times. Before turning around, slowly heading back to his spot in the shade.
Mei looked at Malik and the group. Going down a well?! That's scary! Especially since she didn't have the ability to climb up it's slippery side yet!
Madoka brings up the rear. Being a little less enthusiastic about being a shinobi than some, but plenty about helping poor old folks, she pet the others do the introductions. "Down a well… What do you think could even be down there? I mean… what's bad enough to scare a bunch of men?" She more-or-less speaks to herself as she peeks into the hole in question.
Following along with the orders he was given in part, and in part to make sure Arika wasn't going to be running around on her own again, Rikuto follows along with the group. Likely half way through the trip, the young Miira laces his fingers behind his back, carrying the younger girl he was supposed to watch. "You're going to get lazy with me doing this often, aren't you?" was asked as he looks over his shoulder.
Looking forward towards the man when he comes to a pause, staying silent as Malik and Mei spoke with him. "Just another simple assignment, good." A light smile was on his lips even though he had no shade, and oddly almost no sweat was dripping from his skin. "Before things start.. we need to set up and really know what we are skilled with, fair enough? Don't need to fumble over each other."
"No… I can totally get here by myself!" Arika says, though she doesn't seem inclined to move. The girl waits for the person to finish speaking, listening attentively even though it seems she is not. There's not much to distract her, after all. It sounded simple, which was good. Something she should be doing for … Well, since she became a Genin… Who the heck authorized her to go on B rank stuff?? The girl wriggles off the back of the Miira, saying, "I can explore the well, if you want! I'm tiny and I can prolly walk back up."
Malik listens to the perameters of the mission and then nods at Mei before walking over to stand next to Madoka. He also peers down the hole and looks in. He couldn't see anything though. "We'll probably need a torch or something." He comments as he slips a coil of rope off his shoulder and attaches it to a metal hook. "We know we're going to have to go down there. I'm not sure about manuverability, either. I can't fire in close quarters and Sinbad just isn't going to go down there period." He looks over at Rikuto and shrugs faintly. "That's about it from me."
Mei looked at the group and nodded. "It's pretty spacious down there I think." Mei said. While standing next to Madoka. "We could make a tunnel leading down in a spiral along the well. So we can walk back up easier…." She suggested, looking at Rikuto. "I can do a little bit of earth manipulation. And regular academy skills. I recently graduated." She explained while she looked at Madoka. Hoping she's confident enough to make that tunnel together. There was another echoing sound coming down from the well. It sounded like a fight. So it might even be more than one. Mei shuddered. She wasn't clautrophobic but it sure as crater was creepy to have to head down there. "How will we light the tunnel?" She asked Rikuto.
Madoka glances at the others who joined her at the well. "Going down will be pretty easy for me. I'm good with making the earth move for me, so I can go back and forth easier. But… you seem unsure. Do you want me to help you?" She comments to Mei.
"You say that, but you didn't ask me once to let you down." Moving a hand up, Rikuto drums his finger tips across Arika's head lightly before moving towards the well. "Hmm.." Looking down within it, the young Miira briefly puffs out his cheeks before suddenly breathing out a narrow puff of air which ignites, sending a bolt of flames into the well before becoming still, seeing what he see, and what he could feel. "Ari-chan, you're used to handling pests with me, don't worry about collecting the kunai for now. They might be diseased."
With a light hop, Rikuto jumps onto the lip of the well and crouches down. "Earth manipulators.. those skills will be very useful. Maybe make perch points along the well going down if you can't climb?" While easing himself into the well but never seeming to fall, he says "I'll head in first and scout. Might not be rats but someone tossing them in."
"Why would I do that when I can just stay up here and not do stuff?" Arika asks with a small grin. She waits for Rikuto to travel first before following after him, walking along the walls like he is despite her age. The girl is pretty good with that chakra control sometimes, don't you know! As she follows after, she tries to see things that are shown from Rikuto's flame.
Malik moves to stand next to Rikuto. "The jutsu would be helpful, but I've got rope here and a grapple. I can just repel down. Besides, if Mei is right and it's spacious down there, I can get help you with the scouting. It's actually my specialty." As the fire goes down and Malik gets a look along with Rikuto, he drives the spike into the side of the well. "If the water supply is being tainted, then I don't think we'd have the luxury of taking our time with this." After Rikuto and Arika go down, he grabs the rople and repels down himself. Tree walking was helpful, but until he learned that particular skill, he'd have to improvise. Once down there, he begins to look around himself.
Good thing Mei was used to using Malik's rapelling hook by now. Although not as smoothly as him. "Come on Madoka. This is how you do it.." She says. Gently grabbing onto the rope. Sliding and sort of fudging her way down. Occasionally making a small stone stepping stone so she could take little breaks. The fire arrow sent down ended up in the deep pool of water intended for the locals. Fizzling out too quickly for Rikuto to see anything. His senses against these rodents turned out to be useless. Their chakra reserve way too low for that to have any noticeable effect.
Mei forgot that it's slippery down in the well. So when her last stepping stone got pushed out, her foot slipped and she let go. Just when Malik saw two pairs of glowing eyes a little further down the tunnels. Unmistakably a mole rat. Though double if not tripple the size they normally are. Unfortunatly, his glance didn't last long as Mei landed on him. Luckily from now to high up. "Oof!" She said, happy she landed on something soft. Though quickly feeling down. "Oh shoot Malik, you okay?" She said, quickly getting on her feet. And helping Malik up. It was really dark down there. She could barely see a thing. "Be careful, it's slippery" She said, causing it to echo up at Madoka.
Unfortunatly, the glowing eyes Malik saw were gone by now. Mole rats were renowned for the burrowing network they could build. And it seemed they made the water supply here their centerpiece. The smell of rat feces tainting the water supply that's supposed to be clean and drinkable. "Ugh.. The smell…" Mei immediately complained. Holding her nose closed while hoping on another, more permanent source of light. "Got a torch?" She asked Malik.
Once the source of light shows itself, the group finds there's burrowing holes everywhere. No doubt connected. These two mole rats were here to stay. "Woah.." Mei said, looking around. "How the pit do we get them out of there!? And look at these hole sizes. I have seen a mole rat before. But this one is the size of a small dog!"
You paged Madoka with 'Yes'
Madoka watches the others descend and then steps into the well,
Madoka watches the others descend and then steps into the well, a small platform extensing from the wall and lowering her down. "Woah, that smell is… uggh… Im gonna hurl…"
'No person's down here.. Hmm..' was spoken softly as Rikuto makes his way down into the well carefully and onto a ledge. The scent that filled the well didn't revolt him but it didn't cause him to scowl at the smell, as well as cause him to walk very carefully after managing to enter the minor cavern the well tapped into. Looking around them and the group, the young Miira looks down to some of the tunnels that he could make out before moving his finger to his lips again, gently stroking them with a crooked finger. "Get them out? If we move them they'll just return. We'll kill them and singe, then collapse the tunnels. Clean up afterwards though.. will be a mess and annoying."
"Could you maybe re-route the water?" Arika wonders aloud as she follows Rikuto in exploring. She has no torch to speak of, but the Miira tended to use his jutsu to make something that would allow for a hint of light every now and then. The girl looks back to the group, wondering what they all were fussing about… Of course, the girl didn't like the smell that much, so she had put on a mask /and/ was swirling the air near her so she didn't die of the odors.
Malik acks as something large lands on him. On his stomach, he grunts a bit until Mei gets off him and helps him up. "It's okay, Mei. I can tell that you lost weight at least." She can't see it, but he's smirking faintly before he turns to look around himself. "Okay, I saw the red eyes, but I didn't see what direction they left in." He makes a face as he pulls his hood up over his head and lifts the cloth mask to cover his lower face and nose. It would help a little with the smell anyway. "Yeah, that smell is pretty rank. Though I don't have a torch with me, but we have the next best thing. A fire jutsuist."
Maik whistles low and there is a flurry of feathers as Sinbad comes down and settles on his forearm before hopping over to his shoulder. "He thinks mole rats are tasty. If we can kill these things I'd like to keep at least one of them. Meat is meat, afterall." From the tone of his voice, was completely serious. He adds after a moment. "Maybe both of them, actually."
Mei blinks as she got an idea. "Why won't we smoke them out then!?" She says. Intelligence being one of her stronger suits. She however hadn't got a clue how to make smoke. At first she looked at Rikuto to see if it was a good idea. And then Malik. "You know how to make smoke right?" She asks. Hoping he agreed it was a good idea too. "We could close all but two holes. Make them run out of the one we want them to. And that should allow us to kill them before they can escape!" She said with a confident smile. Hoping she wasn't coming up with something stupid. Now that would make her want to hide in a corner!
Madoka pulls her shirt up to cover her face like it might help. "I can't start a fire here, but I will be burning /everything/ without hesitation. Smoking them out might… work, though. Might be easier to drag them out, though."
Raising a hand, Rikuto waves towards the others, seeming to try and clam the idea of setting things aflame. "Those who can, shape the earth, block off the tunnels with stone. I can produce more than enough smoke on my own, so we'll try Mei's plan." Turning to Arika he pats his hip lightly and says, "You should prep your blades, ignore how many you have, if you run out just take my leg pouches, okay?" Turning his attention to Malik, he raises a finger and points to his back. "Prep your next shots. My smoke is likely going to bother them more than usual, okay?"
Arika nods a bit and pulls out a few kunai from her pouch, edge sharpened with chakra as she readies herself for Rikuto's 'attack'. The girl also gathers some chakra in her breathing, enough so that when Rikuto makes his smoke, she could help push it into the mole-rats' holes. And so she waits…
Malik listens as people come up with plans and then begins to put them in practice. He nods at Rikuto when he tells him what he wants him to do. "You got it." He slips his recurve bow off his back and prepares an arrow. He's keeping it pointed at the ground until he gets a target, prepping for a quick release shot. With his speed, he's confident he can get at least three shots off before the rats even realize what's going on. However, hitting them is always an issue, especially if there is going to be smoke.
Mei nodded and immediately got to work. Closing up tunnel passages with Madoka. When they were done, one of them was left over for Rikuto to produce his smoke. The plan worked. The amount of smoke caused the molerats to scurry out of the uncovered hole. One of them heads straight for Mei, void those things are fast! Mei yelped at the gross thing but managed to thrust the sharp bit of her umbrella into it's body. Causing it to turn, wounded and angry, swiping it's claws at Mei, who turned to a pile of dirt before it could hit her. The thing isn't done though, B-lining for the rest of the group to do the same. Heading straight for Madoka, Arika and Rikuto instead.
The other one was hiding in the shadows that were left. Though Malik saw a brief glance of the thing. Knowing it's general direction. Hopefully his senses are good enough to line up the shot.
As things begin to happen, Madoka makes a break for it, sort of… maybe. In the face of danger, the suspicious peddler zooms backwards. Not stepping, but gliding like on ice. "I dont like danger!" She proclaims.
Coughing lightly, dark greenish smoke puffs from his nose before being snorted away. "Eh.. I'll never get used to the taste. Seemingly standing still while he spoke, one of the rats manages to dive and attacked the distracted Miira until.. Poof. Just a clone, the real Rikuto was off to the side just a foot or two to the side with his finger to his lips. 'Flames..
Coughing lightly, dark greenish smoke puffs from his nose before being snorted away. "Eh.. I'll never get used to the taste. Seemingly standing still while he spoke, one of the rats manages to dive and attacked the distracted Miira until.. Poof. Just a clone, the real Rikuto was off to the side just a foot or two to the side with his finger to his lips. 'Flames..' was muttered before he exhales sharply three times, refined flame darts fly from his lips, taking point to try and lance into the rat's ribs.
Arika squeaks a bit as the vermin takes a swipe at her, the girl getting a cut on the cheek when *POOF*. Oh, it's just a clone. The real one is slightly behind said clone, already throwing kunai at the rats. Well, the first gets a nice slash while it and another kunai is thrown at the enemy. A bit of wind carries from her mouth to help send that smoke towards the holes when Rikuto coughs it up.
Malik blinks at Madoka's antics as she backpedals. Having been raised in a society where attacks can come pretty much everyday due to other broods wanting the resources of his family, he reacts just as Rikuto instructed. He only pauses a moment to use his senses to see if he can spot the rat before he leaps up and plants his foot on the side of the wall, catapulting his body upwards slightly so there is no danger of his arrows hitting any of his allies. He fires once, and then rapidly reaches behind him and fires again just before his feet hit the ground and his body goes into a roll as he presses his back against the stone wall. "Watch out, they're fast." He comments to the group.
there was a lot of commotion, smoke, coughing.. Squeeking… Suddenly, it all went silent. Malik's arrows struck true. Leaving a perfect dead molerat for Sinbad. The other rat was in worse shape. Stabbed, bleeding, charred in random spots. A mess…. Though both were quite dead. Mei nodded and sealed the last few passages, before starting to climb her way back up. The village elder was grateful. Soon they would send a cleaning crew down there to clean up the left-overs. Though for now, it was a mission well done. A grateful client, and most importantly, clearly a good team effort.
With compliments from the Kazekage's administration, the team get's sent back on their way.
