Starring:
Date: June 26, 2013
Summary:
Honosuke was asked by the Keeper of the eggs to watch over the eggs as a last request. While doing his duty, another toad arrives. This new toad realizes the water has been contaminated by the humans and sends Honosuke off to collect mussels, which are known to detoxify and cleanse water.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Honosuke's Summons - Mussels"
Amegakure
Honosuke was asked by the late keeper of the eggs to sit and watch over the pond. The eggs were going to be hatching soon, and there were all sorts of predators and problems he would have to handle. The first issue, the poachers, he took care of easily. The next set of issues might not be as easy to fix.
First off, there are vultures gliding over the pond. They must have sensed the blood from the keeper toad that was buried close by. There are also all of those eggs that they would probably love to eat. As the day closes to an end, the vultures continue to soar above. They could attack in the dark if Honosuke isn't careful.
Stupid vultures. If it was raining, this wouldn't be a problem…alas, the things that a prospective egg watcher had to deal with. He had made a small shrine of rocks to cover the fallen keeper toad in hopes that he was going to be able to keep such scents concealed, but alas, it was not meant to be…so, things were going to have to be difficult. With a sigh, he lifts a hand and runs it through his flame red hair before he peered skyward, considering. Hm…well, he could rig up something. He reached into his pouches and feels around, eventually finding a halfway decent length of wire, as well as some paper bombs, a kunai or three, and a fishing net. Sitting down in a meditative position, he began to ponder…what could he do with these…
The vultures circle, and as the sun dips below the treeline around the clearing, the vultures begin to squawk and chatter. In the dying light, Honosuke could see that there were four of them. They were big massive birds with 9 foot wingspans. He'd need to think of something quickly, but before he does that, there is a rustle in a near-by bush. Out hops a toad carrying two nunchuku. He stares at Honosuke and blinks. "Where's the Keeper of the Eggs? What have you done to him? Defend yourself," but the vultures squawk again and the toad looks skyward. "Shoot…I'll deal with you later."
Hm…maybe he could use the net to put over the spot in the pond where the toad eggs were…yes, that should help a bit. He pulls out the net and attaches the kunai to the corners and he tosses it in the water where, hopefully, it will settle over the eggs and keep them safe, at least for now. Once the nunchaku wielding toad steps out, he bows to it. "Unfortunately, the keeper has perished at the hands of poachers." With a hand, he gestures to the small rock shrine he had set up as a burial marker for it. "I laid him to rest and he charged me with keeping these eggs safe until they hatched, and I do not intend to shirk that duty…however, I believe it would be pertinent to destroy the vultures, hm?"
The toad looks out at the net over the eggs and harumfs, "You sure you aren't the poacher? Why is there a net over the eggs?" He then puts two and two together and stares again at the vultures. "You're trying to cover them to make sure the vultures can't get to them so easily aren't you?" He nods. "Fine, well, I guess we can deal with the birds first, then we can talk about your involvement." The toad thinks for a moment and then sighs, "I hate to ask this, but…can you throw me up there please?"
"Certainly." With a long breath, the Nara makes a series of handsigns and a clone appears out of the water, slightly aqueous due to Honosuke still be rather tired. With a mighty heave, he and the clone toss the toad skyward, hopefully where it can strike at the birds effectively. "Fly!" Drawing a bit more energy, he makes a pair of handsigns before blasting a bullet of water from the surface of the pond at one of the vultures, hopefully scaring it off, or at least getting its wings wet enough that it couldn't fly.
RPCOMBAT: Honosuke defends against with a WATER-CLONE…26
RPCOMBAT: Honosuke attacks with WATER-BULLET…25
The toad does fly. He even looks like he's done this before. As he gets to the apex of his flight, the vultures think they have a tastey meal and go after the toad. Those nunchuku whip out, spin, and snap forward at the first vulture to come after him. The bird squeels and starts to flutter away. The toad catches this vulture's leg and uses the bird to fling himself at the second vulture. The toad lands on the second vultures back and starts bopping it on the head several times with the nunchuku. It starts falling out of the sky with the toad still riding it as the blows to the head make it slowly go unconcious. The third bird is hit with the water-bullet in the chest and drops out of the sky. That might actually be some good cooking there. The fourth bird is smarter than the others and just high-tails it out of there. As the toad beats his ride to the ground, it jumps to the ground, using its springy legs to cushion the fall. The toad walks forward to Honosuke as if nothing just happened and said, "So, who are you again? What's your name and the Keeper made you honorary watchmen you said? Mollusc." He harumfs again.
As the vultures are beaten either senseless or smashed in the chest with a water bullet, the Nara gives a nod and he steps into the water, pulling up the net, careful to ensure that there aren't any eggs caught in it, and if there are, he gently returns them to the water. "My name is Nara Honosuke, of the Village Hidden in the Rain. I am a chuunin, if you know what such ranks are…I was wandering through here and I found the poachers trying to steal the eggs. We do not take kindly to such things in my Village…and I have a fondness for toads. The ribbiting of your family has soothed me to sleep many a night." He gives a bit of a smile before bowing to the toad respectfully. "Yes, he did make me the honorary watchman…I will sit here until the eggs hatch into tadpoles or a toad of sufficient…rank…I guess, relieves me of duty."
The toad eyes Honosuke down as he talks. "I am Gamatsuyo. And we're going to have to get back-pay for working our tails off ribbiting you to sleep. Do you think that came free?" He stares at Honosuke dead-panned. After a moment though, he cracks a small smile and states, "Just teasing kid. I'm glad you stepped in and helped my family. Speaking of which, let me check on them." The toad hops into the water and immediately starts herming and harumfing to himself. After a few minutes, he hops back onto the shore and says, "Well, I've got good news and bad news. Bad news first: the water was contaminated by your kind walking in it. Some of the contamination is just the oils on your bodies and gunk on your clohtes, but some of the other contamination is from the muddy ground getting kicked around too much I think." While he contemplates something for a second, he taps his chin with his nunchuku. "Oh, right, the good news: The eggs will be fine if we get some mussels to filter and clean the water." He nods. "You know what mussels are right? Little clam-like things. Can find them in rivers, ponds, the seas…got any of those things around here? I can never remember your Land's landmarks."
"Lovely…well, I'll see what I can do to gather the mussels…and hey, it won't be terribly difficult to find them…we have all sorts of rivers, ponds, and such here in the Land of Rain…after all, we have plenty of standing water, no?" He half-smirks and gets out of the water, rolling his shoulder idly. "How many are we going to need, exactly? I can probably find them fairly quickly if I search with my water clones…they won't contaminate other pools either, since they're composed of the pond water itself."
The toad states, "About fifty of them should do the trick for a pool this size. They are nature's filth eaters. I personally won't eat them because they're useful and I can't help but thinking that I'm eating what they're eating." Gamatsuyo smirks. "Alright, do what you can then with your clones. Just tell me when you've got them."
Focusing his energies, Honosuke lets out a long sigh and a series of handsigns. This was draining, but it would be the fastest way to look for everything. Water bubbles up around him and soon, it forms into a quarter of water clones that all look to the Nara and nod before taking off through the marshlands to the east. Normally, the clones would have disappeared rather quickly, but Honosuke hoped that with a bit of extra chakra and the waters of the marsh, they would be able to maintain their forms for much longer…well, at least long enough to search for the mussels.
RPCOMBAT: Honosuke defends against with a WATER-CLONE…46
RPCOMBAT: Honosuke defends against with a WATER-CLONE…29
RPCOMBAT: Honosuke defends against with a WATER-CLONE…34
RPCOMBAT: Honosuke defends against with a WATER-CLONE…47
RPCOMBAT: Honosuke defends against with a PERCEPTION…25
To the east the four clones would scour the marshlands. Traveling over the water does help them keep their shapes, even if they are somewhat less than perfect to try and conserve chakras. Two of the water-clones actually manage to find a few pockets of mussels, while the other two search and search but come up with nothing. The only problem? The first set of mussels has a long, thick anaconda coiled near-by. It looks up and stares in the clone's eyes. The second set of mussles is being ravaged by a family of otters. How to get passed these beasts is the question?
This did pose a problem…the clones would only stay active for so long before they had to return to their component parts…but wait, maybe their component parts could be useful here. It would be tricky, but the Nara had studied the water clone jutsu over and over in an attempt to perfect it. Slowly, he allowed the chakra to filter out of the clone into the water, hopefully keeping its form at least somewhat. Just a little bit more…it was his goal to suffuse the pool with the chakra of the clone and simply grab the mussels with the water itself and pull them to the clone…it took all of his concentration though, and he wasn't sure if it was going to work.
The clone with the anaconda close by manages to distract the anaconda by dissolving back into the water partially. The snake doesn't know what to make of the water clone as it isn't a real human. The mussels are brought up into the clone. There are about 20 in total. The clone with the otters does not have the same luck. It loses its shape and splashes back into the water. Whoops. Assuming, the clone returns to Honosuke, the toad would use its nunchuku to point to several locations around the eggs. Gamatsuyo says, "Start with that. It'll help, but we need more."
Alright…so far, so good…sort of. Honosuke is sweating a bit from the concentration required, but he simply bears it and lifts a hand, wiping his brow. "I'll see what I can do…I won't be able to keep this up for much longer, though." The handsigns are performed again and then another quartet of clones…this was his second to last set before he would likely pass out from loss of energy. Considering, he sends them out to the south, knowing that Kirigakure is in that direction and there would be even more water there…hopefully with plenty of mussels.
RPCOMBAT: Honosuke defends against with a WATER-CLONE…34
RPCOMBAT: Honosuke defends against with a PERCEPTION…23
The clone heads south, finding its way towards the Land of Rivers. Once it manages to find one of those numerous rivers, it is actually easier to keep up with the up keep of the clone. The clone nearly runs across the a big chunk of mussels right away along one of the river-banks. There aren't even any obstacles here to get to them. The clone picks up all of them easily enough, and in total, there are now well over what Gamatsuyo required. As the clone returns with them, the toad again bosses the clone around some. Once the mussels are all placed, Gamatsuyo regards the water around the eggs carefully once more. "Hmm, that seems to be doing the trick. Thank you. What'd you say your name was again kid? Let me relieve you for a bit…take a nap." He nods curtly. There will be no discussion here. Honosuke is to sleep.
And boy, did Honosuke need the nap. He would gladly nestle himself into the branches of a tree and he pass right out, hopefully able to catch a bit of rest in between helping the toads. After all, he has been at it for two days and if he didn't get some rest soon, he'd be bedridden from exhaustion and lack of chakra…it was going to be a good nap. "Name is…Nara…Honosuke…" And then, the chuunin was off to dreamland.
