How To Perform An Amputation In Less Than Ten Seconds

Starring:

Itami, Meimei, Takumi

Date: September 30, 2010

Summary:

Still on their mission to escort the caravan back to Sunagakure after the Ghoul attack, the team lead by Itami deal with their own thoughts and issues concerning the mysterious monster — and how to help the man that was bitten by it.


"How To Perform An Amputation In Less Than Ten Seconds"

Desert - Land of Wind

Time can be a fickle thing sometimes. For some it tends to drag on and for others it speeds up. The latter appears to be the case for the caravan with their sickly passenger. He has an illness like no other and requires medical aid as soon as possible. The ninja team assigned to this caravan is responsible for the lives and items carried, but for now, the importance lies on sustaining life.
It's still night, the desert is still cold, however it's close to the twilight hour that announces morning is soon to come. The caravan is moving at a steady pace that should arrive at Sunagakure around dawn if not a little before. Caution is key since the desert outside of the village was previously a battlefield so there's no telling what traps could be left behind, not to mention that some of the ground is uneven from the earthquakes that passed through the area. If there aren't any snags in their return back, they should be able to reach the gates relatively smoothly. Itami doesn't expect anything to happen, but then again, experience has taught her otherwise. It's too bad that these experiences only happened recently, but they still left enough of an impression for her to be more safe than sorry.

Meimei has not used the Eye of Night in combat before. She has practiced with it, and even 'Mastered' it, but she has never actually made use of it in a stressful situation. But after that night with the monster coming out of the desert… Well, she is a bit tired. They haven't had time to sit around and recover. Not with the possibility of that… THING coming at them again. Meimei doesn't know if she hit it or not, but the attacks stopped after her Gamma Bomb was used. How did she even use that Jutsu in the first place? She didn't remember learning it. But it had been there when she needed it. Part of her Kekkei Genkai?
Regardless, she keeps her vividly purple eyes out for more danger, as she continues escorting the caravan along with Council Member Itami and the Medic-Nin named Takumi. The man in the wagon is pretty well out of it by now, probably… Unless his infected leg was amputated he won't be getting any better either. Rotten flesh like that doesn't just 'heal'. It's already dead. Dead things do not 'heal'.
Meimei looks forward to daylight for once, if only because it means they can all see incoming threats more carefully. But it also means she'll have to put her goggles back on. Oh, well. There are worse fates than being blind during the day. She could be completely blind. That would suck. Or she could be dead. That'd suck more.

Takumi is currently flanking the caravan with the other ninjas, escorting it the rest of the way to the village. The events of the night still rolling around in his brain. The attack during the night was something he wished would not be repeated before they returned. The man in the wagon, still suffering from that strange disease, weighs most heavily in his mind. He knows he can't cure the man. For the first part, Takumi is no expert in poisons, and for the second part, thats no poison he has ever seen.
A thought occurs to him, and he decides on the best course of action to heal the man. Dropping out of his reverie, he quickly starts to poke around the caravan, checking for the culinary supplies of the caravan.

Nothing has changed much in the time since they've left, thankfully. Things are going smoothly and it won't be too long before they get to the gates. Still, Itami can't help but feel cautious. "Was that…creature the thing people talk about? I've always thought it was a myth up until now. Now that I've seen it, I'm not as settled about the desert as I used to be…" She tries to start some conversation to break the silence. "Is the leader holding up alright, Takumi-san?" She thought to ask. She doesn't think he's /great/, but well enough that he'd be sustained until they get to the gates. If needed, they might have to perform some emergency action.
The twilight hour has finally hit. Light would soon be showing itself over the horizon and the village is in sight. Itami is happy, but when she thinks about the state it's in, her happiness wanes and is replaced with complacency instead. "Once again, I thank you all for your help on this mission. I admit I didn't expect it to turn out this way, but I'm glad that we're all safe."

Meimei or 'Yoko' does not comment on the 'creature' or the 'myth'. She is not from here and has never heard of that thing. If people suspected it might be out here, but rarely encounter it, then she supposes she can understand. But… "It's just a mission. Nothing to thank ME for, at least. I guess we all have to contribute to the Village…" 'Citizens or not,' she adds on silently.
She could just let it drop and continue marching on in silence, but she the silence is more straining than the awkward conversation. Maybe it's easier to detect sand being disturbed from beneath the surface in silence, but… "…So what's the deal with this 'myth'? You Sand people have a name for that thing? Any stories about it that might help fighting it in the future?"
Then Meimei picks up the sound of clattering metal from behind and turns quickly to look back in the direction of the wagons. She only finds Takumi messing with some sharp-looking object or other. Doesn't he have enough weapons already? Maybe he couldn't find that kunai from the other night after he threw it.

Takumi calls out almost off-handedly, "He will be better in a moment, hopefully." As he rifles through the supplies he pulls out a rather large meat cleaver. He then brandishes the cleaver in the air and calls out, "Im going to need someone to help me out for a moment, someone with some body strength and intestinal fortitude!" With that, Takumi gets back into the wagon without looking if anyone is following, and waits inside for someone to show up.
Inside the wagon, the medic checks over the supplies he has with him, and hopes that he has enough bandages with him for the operation he is about to perform.

"We all have some contribution, yes." Itami chuckles softly and soon clears her throat. "But, yes. It is known as, from what I've heard at least, as the Goul of the Desert." She replies. "The stories are like any other story you'd tell a child or someone to spark fear. Children are told that they will be eaten by it if they don't listen to their parents and others are warned to be careful on their travels or they may be attacked by it. This one just happened to be—" She was pointing her thumb back to the caravan as she said this, but Takumi's call caused her to look back curiously. "What is he…" Her voice trails off before it clicks what he's going to do. "Oh….oh!" She excuses herself and makes her way to the wagon Takumi is in.
Poking her head inside and subsequently entering, she says, "Alright, so…do you have something for him to bite down on? I imagine this is going to be a…doozy?" Much more than a doozy, really, but she was trying to make light of the situation that was about to occur. This was not going to be pretty, but it was better it happened now than to happen later and risk other parts of his body being infected.

Meimei nods. Kind of a generic name in some ways… 'The Ghoul of the Desert'. But in other ways… After seeing what that thing actually WAS… She doesn't feel like mocking its assigned name. It was just too freaky and DANGEROUS to make fun of. There was nothing humorous about that scarecrow-like figure. It was too similar to the zombies that had attacked Sunagakure. But those had been mindless creatures, while this one is quite obviously intelligent. And able to use Jutsu of SOME kind… Maybe. Or maybe they're just weird supernatural powers.
Either way, she has no intention of confronting the thing a second time if she can avoid it. It would be aware of what she can do now, probably. Meaning the same trick wouldn't work twice. She waves dismissively as Itami turns and runs off to help Takumi. She doesn't want to know the details of what's about to happen. She has enough to think about without… THAT!

Takumi motions Itami over to the side of the man, where she can get the best leverage. In response to her question, he produces from his pouch a small iron bar wrapped in leather. He holds it up a moment, presentationally, and then places it between the man's teeth. He then looks down at the man and tells him, "You're going to want to prepare for this. It will be relatively quick, but it will definitely hurt. Ill do my best to alleviate the pain immediately afterward."
Takumi then brandishes the cleaver in front of him and nods to Itami. "I would hold him down now, tightly. This is going to require a lot of concentration on my part as I will have to juggle my chakra types a bit here." With that he closes his eyes and concentrates his chakra into the cleaver. A swirling aura becomes visible around the cleaver before it snaps into a sharp extension of the blade, wind chakra turning the cleaver into a device of unparalled sharpness.

Itami takes the other side of the man quickly and looks at the metal bar wrapped in leather that Takumi pulled out. It seemed kind of crude, but whatever worked. Once it was placed between the man's teeth, she can only imagine how this was going to turn out. "Alright, well, I'll do my best." Ordinary people can sometimes display superhuman strength in times like these, so she tries to buckle down and hold the man down as tightly as possible.
"I'm ready when you are." She says to Takumi, making sure she was holding the guy down to keep him from moving too much.
The sky was growing brighter and it wouldn't be long before the rooster crowed, well, in some places. Suna didn't have anything like that. Though, the activity was beginning to pick up. The slight change in temperature was enough to bring the creatures out and about in the sands. They'd be reaching the village in no time now.

Concentrating solely on the blade in his hand, Takumi raises the cleaver up above his head. This level of sharpness could not be attained in battle, but with the ability to focus clearly on this single moment, Takumi is able to perform this maneuver in a single stroke. Bringing the cleaver down hard, the blade passes through the mans leg easily, and partway through the surface he is lying on. The medic brings the cleaver up again almost as fast and releases it, sending it flying behind him to lodge in the wall of the wagon with a solid "thok" sound.
The patient begins to yell, his teeth clenching the bite bar tightly and only muffling the sound lightly. With his now free hands, Takumi peforms some quick seals and puts his hands over the massive wound. He pours as much chakra as he possibly can into his healing, making up for the level of his technique with pure, tiring force. The blood loss slowly ends, and the meaty stump changes color slightly as the jutsu forces coagulation and healing. The seal is not perfect, and blood still slowly seeps from the wound, but it is enough to keep the man alive and now disease free until he can get into the hospital. Takumi stops halts his technique, teetering on his feet as he takes bandages out of his pouch and groggily wraps the stump in gauze. Looking up to Itami, he manages to mumble, "I think that is enough for now….Make sure he gets to the hospital as soon as possible." Immediately upon finishing his sentence, the exhausted medic falls to the floor.

For some odd reason, Itami found this funny. She doesn't know why, but she found some amusement in it. Maybe it was the way he bit down on the leather wrapped metal. The expression…or it was the way his slightly muffled yell rang in the air. Perhaps, it was the way he attempted to thrash against her own strength. It was mostly unsuccessful, but he did manage a good jerk here and there. Of course, this was after his leg had been hacked off. Her own attempts at trying not to laugh were a little unsuccessful as they came out as snorts and coughs. This was obviously no laughing matter, but she somehow had a dark enough humor to laugh at it.
Once the process was finished, she nodded numerous times and used body flicker to exit the vehicle as quickly as possible where she joined Yoko outside. When she finally has the mind to let go and begin chuckling softly she says, "He yelled at the crack of dawn." Maybe no one else would find that funny, but she did.
Finally, the group makes it to the gates. The tip of the sun was visible over the canyon walls that surrounded the village, those walls facing the sun illumated by the light and announcing a new day. The guards would take it from here and get the caravan inside and the man to the hospital for further medical treatment. Itami didn't stay around to thank the team for a successful return, instead running off to laugh to herself down the street.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License