Starring:
Michiko, Furoo, Yori, Heero, Hiei
Date: July 29, 2015
Summary:
A small patrol finds that a boulder has rolled onto the main path! But why?
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Kumo’s Kidnappers - Mega-fail Assassination"
Land of Lightning
While Michiko and Yori are supposed to take a break from administrative duties and the like, she thought it might be good to go on a mission, at least to get back to the swing of things. Today is just a simple patrol, really, so that both she and the younger Saito can slowly get back into duty. Heero's coming with, hopefully, for no other reason than three people is better than two. Michiko stands at the gates, waiting for the other two do they can get moving during this lovely misty dawn.
Packing a light bag to simply be prepared, that whole 'just in case' thing, Heero was carrying his war hammer with him as he'd stroll up on the gate. A wave was given towards Michiko with an easy smile. "Hey Michiko-san. Nice ta see ya up and movin. I'm guessin I won't need much, but I'm carryin a bit, just in case, eh?" Heero would shrug and glance around. "I thought there was ta be 3 of us though.."
Yori is surprisingly a few minutes late, though he at least looks prepared when he does arrive. He gives a bow to Michiko and Heero once he does arrive but for the time is silent. He still has a lot on his mind after all, and wouldn't even have come on the mission if he hadn't more or less been ordered to go. So here he is, and he'll just…deal with it for now.
Michiko nods to Heero and Yori. "It's better if I'm moving," she simply states before saying, "We're just going on a simple circuit around Trail 73. If we run into any trouble, we need to take care of it in whatever manner we deem appropriate."
Heero would fire off a two finger salute to Michiko. "A'right. Ya got it. Just lead on.. and we'll deal with whatever we meet when we get ta it." Chuckling, Heero would shift his pack and hammer on his back a moment, then would start walking with the others for the trail, if they went together. Otherwise he'd wait for them of course.
Yori nods to Michiko as she tells them of what they're going to be doing, shifting slightly to make sure he has everything. The addition of the sword is still fairly new to him but it's come in hand a number of times already. Now just to see what the day would have in store. He didn't seem very thrilled about the prospects.
Michiko starts making her way down the road, heading towards the mountain peaks that were so prominent in the Land of Lightning. "I don't think we'll find anyone or anything," she states. "Bandits and the like tend to be scarce… At least after major attacks…" She pauses for a moment before shaking herself mentally. "The worst we should find are aggressive animals."
Heero nodded slightly in response, falling in line with the others easily enough. "Sure. Can be plenty of em. Never know on the bandits, wouldn't dismiss em.. just in case. Either way, ain't nothin too major I can't probably settle with a hit or two of my hammer.. Most people ain't wantin ta keep tangling with it."
Yori keeps an eye around as they start off down the trail, watching around them as they walk along with his hands swingling idly at his side. He's being observant but he doesn't seem very prepared if anything were to happen. Then again, looks can be deceiving. But he does watch, and he does listen to what the others say, even if he doesn't say anthing himself.
Michiko keeps an eye out for things, but most of her findings are roughly nothing at all. A whisper of a breeze sometimes makes her overly jumpy, but it's easy to correct such. "Hmm… I don't see anything…" she muses as they round a bend to go past the first mountain peak.
Sitting on top of a rock with her head resting against the back of this particularly nice rock, she eyes the area ahead of her with half lidded eyes. To either side of her, the long braids of her hair fall off the rock while her staff rests between her legs, going up over one shoulder. She only kinda wakes up when she starts to hear the incoming steps of someone or something, "Eh…" Furoo makes a soft noise as she starts eyeing that direction.
Heero walked along with the others. This was definitely turning into a boring patrol. He'd look ahead to Furoo, lifting a hand in greeting. "Yo!"
Yori's eyes keep watch around them while they patrol, and so far so good. It doesn't seem like any stray bandits or anything had come around. The only thing that wasn't what he expected was the person sitting as they walked. Golden-brown eyes shift to Furoo, looking her over quickly with a calculating gaze.
As soon as Furoo moves, Michiko is able to detect her. She almost attacks when she recognizes the Reizei from the Kumo-nin files. "Furoo-san," she greets. "I apologize if we disturbed you. We're on a patrol. And… I suppose you're welcome to-" she breaks off when there's a small tremor in the ground that everyone could feel. A big tremor, actually, but short.
A blink as she looks at the others and then she fixes eyes on Michiko. She raises a hand, "Hello…uh…" She looks around, blinking as she feels that tremor and then she considers, "I don't know, I'm quite comfortable here." She looks at the rock, "It's a nice rock." She then sighs and rolls off the rock to her left, landing on her feet and leaning on her staff, "I suppose I should see what that was all about though." She then glances at the other two, "Well, lets get through this fast so I can get back to sleep." She nods and then looks further down the trail and grins, "Of course, there might be a little fun to be had."
Heero smirks at Furoo and her waking up, right up until the ground shakes, he'd stumble a little, to finally sit down hard, that hammer's impact first, causing a double thud as he'd hit the ground. Grumbling, Heero climbs back to his feet. "What the heck was that? one ya'll do somethin funny ta the ground or somethin? I know how ninjutsu can be.."
Yori relaxes a little when Michiko recognizes the other as a Kumo nin and he just offers a small bow in greeting, face expresionless. When the tremors hit that changes as he frowns slightly and looks around, trying to see if anything nearby might have caused such a thing or if it was just natural. There's only one person who could likely tell in the end, so he looks to Michiko expectantly.
Michiko frowns at the tremor, steadying herself with metal bands that come around her feet. "I … think. a boulder just fell." She comments. "But I'm not sure why. Let's go check it out and make sure no one was hurt." She glances around and nods to Furoo, then gestures for everyone to start moving west.
A look in the direction of it, "Fine fine, just don't expect me to put in any effort." Furoo chuckles and then starts off with teh rest, strapping the staff to her back. As she rushes along, she takes to running on the side of the mountain as they go, looking ahead as they run, "Could have been ninjutsu." She states, "I don't know a whole lot about it but it could have been." She then looks over at Yori, "You're really quiet."
Heero would shrug and follow along with the others. "A boulder.. interestin. Thinkin there might be something hidden that just got revealed? That'd be pretty nice, wouldn't it?" He'd chuckle to himself as he walked along, half talking to the others, half just talking to himself.
Yori looks to Michiko as she explains what happens before he nods and starts moving with her. Furoo's comment has the teen look over to her for a moment before he shrugs slightly, "Nothing to say." Simple as that apparently. Plus, well, he just doesn't seem in a good mood.
Poor Heero seemed like he was in such a daze or something hat he ends up wandering off in the completely opposite direction! Even though Michiko tried to call him back. Silly hammer-wielder. Oh well. Michiko makes her way through the mountains and eventually comes across a huge boulder that's easily three times her size.
Poking at the boulder, Furoo hmms as she looks it over. She has her staff out for the Boulder poking and glances at Yori before looking to Michiko next. She then hmms, "So, either of you seen anything like this before just randomly rolls?"
Yori looks after Heero, but turns away to follows towards the surprising rock fall. When he arrives there he looks it over, walking around the rock as he can and examining it as well as the surrounding area curiously. "Rocks don't move by themselves…" he murmurs softly to the question from Furoo.
Michiko looks around for a bit, but doesn't see anything. Figures. So she makes a hand seal and sends a pulse of chakra through the earth to try and find the source of what caused the rock to fall. "Hmm… Let's travel upward and see if we can find anything," she finally states. "I'll stay down here and move the Boulder." Because it was totally blocking a main path.
A frown and Furoo rubs the back of her head, "This sounds awfully borrrriiinng." She then looks at Yori, "Don't ya think?" She then looks to Michiko and then shrugs, "Fine fine." She idly leans on her staff a moment, "When this is done I'm going to go find something sweet to eat and strong to drink." She nods and taps her staff before seeming to kick it out from under herself though she doesn't fall. S he flips it on to her back as she starts strolling forward and looks to Yori, "Come on, I suppose."
Yori looks from the rock to Michiko as she tells them to go check it out before he frowns deeply, obviously not wanting to go. If he was up there he wouldn't be here if something happened to Michiko. He hesitates as he considers before finally following after Furoo, glancing back at Michiko a few times to make sure she isn't randomly kidnapped.
While Michiko checks out this boulder and double checks that there's no one around except her teammates, Yori would see nothing looking to attack her from his higher vantage point. Reizei and Saito would climb until they reach a spot that looks like it had crumbled away completely. Interestingly, it looks about as big as the boulder, in terms of area that the rock could rest on. Surrounding it is a field of… mountain goats! They all seem pretty calm and are currently staying far from the edge.
Moving along, as she spots the goats, Furoo peers at them before looking at the spot they found where the boulder probably was. She pulls her staff around and pokes at the spot before nodding, "I announce teh case of the overzealous goat closed." She chuckles and nods before pointing at goats calmly, "Probably one of them hit it, scared them and they all moved away from the spot."
Yori reaches the top with Furoo, looking around at the goats before continuing to look and make sure nothing else was there. He crouches where the rock had crumbled away and touches it curiously, trying to see if anything might be nearby. "Seems a little odd…why would it have fallen just now? I don't think a goat would have that strength."
The goats continue to meander about while Yori looks around for something. He might notice that the ground is extremely smooth in certain spots. Especially where the earth crumbled away. A bit too smooth, like it was a planned tumble. But what happened, exactly? Michiko, in the meantime, is just turning this giant boulder into mini-pebbles and sending them down the mountain. It's a mind-numbing job, but necessary to clear the way.
A look at the goats and then at Yori and then at the goats, "I don't know…seems like if they got really big on pushing that boulder they could. They are goats, after all. Very wiley and sneaky creatures." She then gestures, "You see anyone else around who could do this? It's elementary my dear…umm…" She blinks, "Who are you?" She points at Yori, "I'm Furoo by the way. Reizei Furoo."
"Saito Yorishiro. Yori," the boy introduces himself before standing and shaking his head. "No, goats don't group up to just push rocks. If they were fighting one might've rammed it but this…almost looks like someone with earth jutsu did it. It's like the support just melted away." But he couldn't see anyone. Maybe all the recent problems had his mind making the worst of everything he saw? It was possible, and he knew it. He didn't like the feeling he had at all though.
Well, it doesn't seem like there's much… Sure, this whole thing seems to be planned, but no one is around. Dead end… Michiko finishes up her job and dusts her hands off before moving up to where her two teammates are. "Have you found anything?" she asks curiously, tilting her head slightly as she looks between Furoo and Yori.
A nod and she shrugs, "Well, they aren't around anymore." She shakes her head as she leans on the staff, idly leaning forward and backward. She then looks over to Michiko, "Apparently Yoshi here found out that it's an earth jutsu thing." She points at the ground, "Not really my area of expertise but I guess he's right." She points at it, "No one around to hit though so not sure what more we can do."
"Yori," the boy corrects dryly, eyes narrowing at Furoo a moment before he looks around and shakes his head. "This is too clean to just have tumbled off, and there's no real reason for it. Plus the way the rest of the rock is doesn't really fit." Whether it was a person or not it was too late to worry about apparently. "I would think it was a person, perhaps trying to block the path for some reason."
Michiko frowns a bit and nods. "If this /was/ an intentional rockfall, then we have a problem… I was hoping this would be a simple patrol, too.." She sighs faintly, then looks between them. "Alright, let's see if we can figure out just what happened.The girl makes a few handseals and pricks her finger on a kunai for a spot of blood so that she can summon Kimura, who she instructs to head back to the village so that Kumo can send another team of shinobi to check out the trail while her team investigates this rockfall.
Looking to Yori, Furoo blinks, "That's what I said…wasn't it?" She then shrugs and looks over at Michiko and nods sagely as she looks at the spot where the rock fell. She then idly taps her chin before looking around and then nodding again, "Mmmhmm." She considers and starts to move to the side of the fall, looking down toward where the boulder went, "Mmmhmm." She nods again sagely before walking around to the otherside, "I see." She then nods one more time. Furoo then moves to her original spot, "Well…" She looks from one to the other before planting her staff, leaning into it, and stating, "I got nothin'."
Yori just stares blankly at Furoo as she goes from forgetting his name to not finding anything. Then he looks to Michiko with a 'what the rock?' look. Rush, Yori didn't want to be out here in the first place. But now he was stuck with…this. Yori just sighs softly before he crouches again to start examining where the rock had come from before glancing back at the trip of goats curiously before standing and turning to start heading towards them quickly.
Out and about for some fresh air and exercise, Hiei comes along the path astride his warhorse Snake Eyes. The horse is coal black with white spots on his face around his eyes. Snake Eyes' barding is silver colored armor around his neck area and along the front part of his chest. There are scabbards attached to his saddle in case Hiei wanted to store his swords there. Along with Hiei is Sasuke. Sasuke is a snow white male goat that is the size of a small pony. Hiei himself is dressed in his typical shinobi garb, having replaced his white sleeveless duster since the old man who was the leader of the Recluse had burned up his old one. Slowing his horse to a walk, he leans forwards in the saddle and Sasuke stops several feet away from him. "Hello all. Fancy seeing all of you out here. Is there something going on?"
Michiko blinks a bit when Furoo performs her investigation and … comes up with nothing. Yori is left to his own devices because Hiei comes riding up. "Hiei-san. And Sasuke-kun. We're just trying to figure out why a rock fell on one of the main paths, actually. The ground seems to have… too clean a cut for it to be an accident," she states, gesturing to the ground that looks a bit shaped… Sort of like it was purposely cut out for something to fall down. The grooves were oddly smooth, too. At least when it wasn't intentionally jagged. "I don't feel anyone moving nearby, though," she adds.
A look over and then Furoo blinks, "Hiei!" She declares and bows slightly before nodding her head, "I have been performing a great investigation with Michiko-san." She then looks over to Yori, "He has helped as well." She gestures to Yori and then starts over to nod with Michiko's words, nodding sagely as to what she has to say, "I have, no clue what is really going on as ninjutsu isn't my expertise and I'd frankly rather be resting on the really nice rock I found previously but what she states does sound correct so I'm going with it." She nods and leans on her staff, "Frankly this whole thing has been quite boring." She then looks at the path, "Odd though…why would someone set up a boulder to roll down a path when they weren't around unless of course they had planned to use it later and perhaps it just slipped due to poor preperations." She hmms, "Or something."
Whether Yori hears Hiei's arrival or not he doesn't turn around. But then, he's been…strange, ever since that mission. Definitely not his normal self. The Saito continues towards the goats before he starts moving through them lithly, not seeming to care if he agitates them as he starts looking to see if someone is trying to hide within their ranks. What better place to hide than with a bunch of goats?
Hiei listens to them ezplain what the issue is before he turns away from them. "You think someone pushed the boulder on purpose? It could have been before. Or, it could be someone attempting to take you out. There are still people out there who would like very much to see all of us dead.
"We just heard the boulder crash down," Michiko says flatly. "If someone's trying to kill us, they were about a mile off. I think they just wanted to mess with us." With Yori poking around the goats, he … well, he wouldn't find anything. Darn those earth-jutsuists able to not-leave footprints. "But I don't sense anything at all. And we can't seem to find anyone. So I suppose we can keep searching, but…" She sighs, feeling like she just failed again.
A look to Yori and she hmms, "You are…walking through goats." She states idly and then Furoo glances back over, "Goats." She then nods her head and looks to Hiei, "None the less, I'm sure someone could want you dead but I'm thinking they either planned for something to happen later or yeah…were messing with you." She then squints her eyes, "Or they are a supremely bad shot." She nods sagely. She then hmms and looks toward the horse before looking to Hiei, "Do you, always ride down this path?" She hmms and looks along the path below.
When he finds nothing Yori just shakes his head slowly. It was pretty useless but he had to try. He'd seen Michiko disappear into the ground more times than he can count. Whoever did this likely did that. The next question becomes will they be back later to finish whatever they had apparently started. Yori returns to the others, giving Hiei a bow, though perhaps not as formal as he normally would. He still seems distracted, and not just by this particular incident.
Hiei shrugs faintly at Michiko. "Then it could have been goats." He walks over to the boulder and places his hands on the side of it. The muscles bulge in his arms as he lifts it over his head to inspect underneath it. "Here, I'll help. I'll hold it up and someone else check to see if there are marks indicating how it was moved." He asides, "It could have just fallen, though. Plenty of rocks around here do. That's why it's so dangerous."
Michiko frowns. "I suppose…" she simply says, shrugging. Then she watches as Hiei works to lift the boulder and blinks. "Hai," she says, peering at the rock. From what she could tell, there were no marks. Considering Hiei was right there in front of the marks that were left, he might notices some scrapes and dents that look around the place where a goat could hit the rock. But there are a lot of marks on the rock, which indicate it's been pretty steady for the past long while.
Furoo arches an eyebrow and then nods, "Yet another responsibility of our Kage. Boulder investigation." She nods her head and chuckles a little to herself as she walks over and peers before shrugging, "I still think it was meant for another time." She nods her head, "And that the falling that happened now wasn't meant to happen till later." She shrugs, "I mean, how else could someone not show up at all when it fell and why would someone just shove a boulder down? That's silly." She then looks around and notes Yori, "Did you interview any of the goats?"
Yori watches as Hiei lifts the boulder, not seeming surprised at all, not really reacting at all. He looks over to Furoo when she asks her questions and he shakes his head. "Goats don't talk," he explains blandly to Furoo, glancing back to them a moment before he returns his gaze to Hiei to see if he has found anything.
Hiei gives the boulder a once over and then shrugs tossing it behind him like a..well..like a pebble. "Well, unless it killed someone, I don't really see a reason to be concerned with it. And Yori's right, goats don't talk." And then Sasuke bleats loudly from where he stands near Hiei's horse. Hiei looks over at him. "Okay, well, we don't understand you, then." He walks back over to his horse and swings himself back up into the saddle. "Honestly, I have better things to do with my time. Yori, let's go. It's time for another lesson." He extends his hand to the boy, obviously going to swing him up behind him on the horse.
Yori watches the others talk, not doing so himself at this point. It's not until the Raikage calls him and says they're going before he hesitates, then finally steps forward to take the hand and mount up behind Hiei without a word.
Michiko watches Yori join the Raikage and just nods to Hiei. "Hai," is all she says before giving a light bow. Then she glances to Furoo. "You can go back to whatever it was you were doing," she states. "I'm going to go report my findings." Because even though she knows what happened, it's good to have things on record. For .. you know… later on. She suddenly disappears into the ground, traveling like she tends to do when she wants to go quickly and without interruption.
