Starring:
Midori, Miyo, Fujibayashi, Nori
Date: August 6, 2013
Summary:
Miyo, Midori, Fuji, & Nori are headed back from a mission when a group of wolves come chasing after an injured turtle. Midori steps in to rescue the pitiful turtle from the wolves, only to be attacked by the beasts. The team defends themselves against the wolves.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Midori's Summons - Turtle Power"
Land of Fire
Miyo, Midori, Fujibayashi, and Nori are on their way back from a successful mission in the north of the Land of Fire. The mission didn't really require shinobi, but with the new Genin (Miyo and Midori), it was thought that an easing in mission might be best. They were sent to a factory to help get it back up and running smoothly. It wasn't the most exciting mission, but it paid. Nori was actually in charge of this one too…perhaps as a test of his ability to manage the two young Genin. Then there was Fujibayashi who was probably bored out of her mind with this mission, but she was probably there in case something went wrong.
Either way, they are all headed back towards Konohagakure, moving along a swampy region with minimal cover when Nori says, "We should probably stop and make camp. It's going to be dark soon." Nori nods. "We need a defensive perimeter, along with trip wires and explosive tags. Someone can handle that? We also need a fire going and food cooked. Who is on that? Finally, I'll work on our shelter."
Biting her lip as she looks around the area, Midori raises her hand and says, "I'll take care of the gathering food part. Do you have any idea what's good to eat around here though?" She raises an eyebrow as she peers at the surrounding area, trying to spot anything vaguely foodlike. She can see a few mushrooms growing near pool of water, but had no idea whether they were safe or poisonous. "Maybe there are some fish or something in the water," she mutters to herself, withdrawing some kunai from her ninja pouch to use for hunting. And with that she starts exploring the area more thoroughly, peering into the larger stretches of water as she looks for marine life, checking around the roots of trees for edible herbs and shrubs, and all sorts of other things. Occasionally she looks up into the tree tops in case she can manage to spot some kind of awesomely large, edible bird. Man, she's really hungry today!
Fujibayashi isn't too upset by the mission, she's spent most of her time catching up on back issues of some graphic novel or another 'Rose Tribe' it's called. She glances up when the perimeter? "I'll set up the seals." She comments then. She'd been pondering asking for a 'rest stop' for a while, so setting up a perimeter is as good an excuse as any to get out of sight for a bit. She puts her book away, and then she starts heading away from the camp a ways. Quite a ways. Shell the lack of cover.
Miyo had been, and likely would be for quite some time, completely razzed out after the success of their previous mission. As eccentric as she usually was, she was beyond even that. Since becoming a genin, she had taken every opportunity to further her skills, and earn a little money, and completing missions just about tipped Miyo over the function level of her sanity.
When tasked with various things around the camp, Miyo is repared to do all of the required tasks, but after the other two girls take up some tasks before she gets an opportunyi to do so, so Miyo is left with the fire. Without a complaint, she sets out to begin building an overly large supply of firewood, and a fire, that, in the future, would likely be far too large to be effective for what they were after.
For as barren as this place seems to be, there exists an abundance of critters about. There are snakes, fish, snake-fish (eels), edible plants and even the occasional rat. So in time Midori would have a small satchel's worth of food for the group to eat. Fujibayashi's disappearance doesn't go unnoticed. Nori would keep tabs on her with his sensory skills, just in case. It's not like he'd be able to tell if she was popping a squat or anything. It'd probably look like she was setting up a seal anyway. The fire is magnificent in fact, and Nori is pleased with it. It might be a bit much for cooking, but Nori just makes a smaller pit and brings some of the larger logs over to it in order to cook. Their shelter is made of an earthen dome and is rather spacious considering. It is above ground, which would normally not be the best idea, but seeing as the fire can be seen for a good distance, he doesn't care too much.
So, everything is going well. Food is cooked, fire is warm, everyone is dry (well…hopefully Fuji didn't miss…ahem). The light has faded to only what the fire throws. Out in the distance, an odd baying noise echos across the wasteland.
Standing watch not far from the fire, the strange, distant noise draws Midori's attention. She looks out in the general direction of the sound, trying to understand what exactly could be making such a racket. Finally she turns to Nori and asks the older Genin, "Can you work out what that noise is? It doesn't sound… normal." The young Uchiha suddenly has horrible visions of gigantic beasts with horse heads charging across the swampy region to come and get them.
Fujibayashi pauses her meal to listen to that noise for a moment, "Sounds almost like a horse, but this isn't really the environment for wild horses." she observes then, listening for a few moments longer. "Almost sounds like it might be injured."
Miyo has no idea what anyone else is talking about, and frankly, she doesn't care. She is too busy hopping up and down by her massive fire and trying to imitate the sounds in the distance. "Well, I don't really like horses. They are really scary." She then peers back out into the darkness and makes more noises.
Nori looks up too and his senses go out, "I'm…I'm not sure. It must be an animal or something. It is much harder to read chakra signatures of non-shinobi, and even harder for non-humans." The boy shrugs before looking to Fujibayashi, "Doubt it is a horse though…I'd definitely sense one of them." He's got a 'pet' horse basically back in Konohagakure. The young Yamanaka then smirks at Miyo, "Would you keep it quiet. Whatever it is, we don't need to draw it this way." Too late, the sound is heading towards them. Something even trips one of the seals Fujibayashi setup and the seal explodes. Nori stands and looks to the others…"Ano…get ready, just in case. Midori-san…light up the night if you can. Miyo-san, get a barrier seal ready. Fujibayashi-san, get ready for a fight."
Listening to the noise again, Midori says, "It doesn't sound very happy." Then when she's told to produce some light Midori's hands fly into a combination of seals and she breathes of stream of fire out into the air. Its range isn't fantastic, but combined with the height of the flames its enough to see out to a reasonable distance. Midori repeats the maneuver several times, producing as much light as she can but also being careful not to exhaust herself. As a young Genin she doesn't have that much chakra to burn.
Fujibayashi nods her head at Mori then, and she stands up, forming a sequence of hand seals, she calls out: "Rai Bunshin no Jutsu." and a pair of lightning clones appear either side and slightly infront of her. She scans the horizon as it's lit up by Midori's fire.
"If this thing is hostile, it is not my fault." Miyo claims as her left hand goes to the hilt of her sword and her right hand fans out a number of seals to protect the group of needbe. "I was complimenting it… and stuff…"
The flames give enough light to notice that something is crawling their way. It is about the size of a small child with a large back-pack on its back. Behind the crawling 'thing' is a pack of wolves coming in fast. There are about a dozen of them, maybe more; it is hard to tell in the dim-light. Nori calls out, "Wildlife…up to you all if you want to engage a pack of wolves. They shouldn't come close to the fire." He's not going to order them into a potentially dangerous fight if they don't deem it important. Then again, a dozen wolves versus one injured beast, hardly seems sporting.
The crawling critter bays again. It is a pitiful sound of pain.
Midori was about to be content to let the injured creature die. Its the way of nature, after all. But then it makes that pained noise again, and she can't handle it any more. Leaping into action, she charges straight towards the wolves, throwing a kunai at one of the pack leaders while she forms her handseals again. Moments later she blows a smaller fireball at the pack, attempting to scatter them and give the crawling creature some breathing room. "Back off!" she yells at the animals, trying to hide the gut-renching sense of fear that's slowly creeping up on her. She breathes another fireball at them, but this one is a failure of a technique, the fireball dissipating before it ever reaches the wolves.
Fujibayashi frowns a bit, "How troublesome." She compains as the wolves come at them- she does feel a bit bad, though. Might be that it was one of her traps that injured the creature in the first place. When Midori charges in, she sighs again, "How troublesome." She repeats, and forms another group of hand seals, before launching off a bolt of lightning towards the wolves. Hopefully a bit of fire and lightning will serve to scare them off.
Miyo narrows her eyes a bit. What on earth was that thing? However, her attention is quickly shifted as Midori rushes forward, apparently to its rescue! Miyo could not let such a thing happen without assisting! Her sword rings out as she rips it from its scabbard and within moments she is at Midori's side, giving her a quick glance. "You seem nervous. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe." She then quickly flings out kunai into the oncoming wolves.
Normally fire and lightning would be enough to scare off some puny wolves…but these are hungry creatures. A pack needs to eat a lot of food, and apparently they haven't quite had their fill in a bit. With their meal so close, they only grow a little tentative of the shinobi. It doesn't help that Midori's attacks fail. The kunai hits one of the wolves, but it barely does any damage. They're used to biting eachother. Same thing goes for Miyo's kunai. Most miss, but one dips into the shoulder of a wolf (though it doesn't slow the creature down). Fujibayashi on the other hand hits one of the wolves, causing it to go down with a yelp. Now angered, the other wolves break away. Some are headed for Midori and Miyo. The rest are headed for Fujibayashi. Nori just sits back and watches; his hands forming seals just in case.
Midori sees the wolves keep coming, and she starts forming the seals for the Clone Technique. When Midori's anxious like this her chakra control takes a beating, but desperation can cover many faults. She generates a decent looking clone right in front of herself, but the wolf plows right through it and bites into Midori's leg painfully, tearing through her kimono and drawing blood. Midori screams loudly as she's pulled to the ground, but draws another kunai in quick thinking, and attempts to stab the dog twice in the eyes. Pulling her leg free, she rolls backwards and comes up with the tiger handseal already formed and breathes a large cloud of fire at the attacking wolf.
The wolf only manages to bite a clump of moss-covered dirt as it goes for Fujibayashi, gacking and coughing as the foul swamp gunk gets all up in it's mouth. Fujibayashi had moved away. She spies that some of the wolves are passing near to one of the seals she placed earlier- she forms a handseal and the explosive tag detonates. Then she turns her attention to the wolf attacking Midori- the poor girl doesn't seem to be having a good time of it. She forms several quick handseals, "Lightning Style: Lightning Shotgun!" she calls out, and then branching arcs of electricity spring from her hands towards the offending creature.
As the wolves come in, Miyo steps forward, her left hand twisting Benisakura around as her right hand joins her left on the hilt before she lashes out like lightning, slashing across the wolve's jaw, the front-most portion of its body during its attack. As the beast's body continues forward, so does Miyo, and she plants a foot, pivots, and brings the sword along its flank as it careens forward.
As soon as she has temporarily, or entirely, dispatched her beastly-foe, Miyo hears Midori scream and looks back over her shoulder to see her friend taken down. The instant she is caable, Miyo drives her foot into the beasts side, follows up with a stab to its neck, and then palm-strikes Benisakura's hilt, attempting to drive it even further into the beast, if she even gets that far, but assuming the wolf is too busy trying to rip Midori's leg off, Miyo might have a chance.
Midori is in trouble and Nori knows it as soon as she goes down and has trouble fighting the wolf off. While he's okay with letting them figure out what battle is like, he isn't ready to let one of them get mangled horribly or die. So, he shoots his mind out and takes control of the wolf that was on-top of Midori (not that she'd probably notice). Instead, it seems like the wolf hesitates as the fire shoots out at it. This gives Fujibayashi's lightning shotgun a chance to hit. The creature falls to the ground with a large blackened searing mark through its stomach. Several of the wolves are taken out by the explosive tag traps too. Miyo's frantic attacks are all just shy of hitting the wolves. Whatever these beasts are, they are lithe and agile. Meanwhile, the 'meal' has now safely crawled over towards the fire behind Midori and rests…hopefully.
Now back on her feet, Midori focuses her chakra desperately as she tries to stay in position where she can attack without getting herself hurt. Once again her hands flicker through a series of handseals, and she starts breathing fireballs at the cursed creatures, focusing on the ones nearest to her in an attempt to fend the off and make them keep their distance. "I'm nearly out of chakra," she puffs, looking extremely exhausted already.
Fujibayashi nods her head, moving over to Midori then- the wolves seem to be dispersing, but the girl looks rattled, so Fuji figures she could use the support from an older Kunoichi, she puts a hand on the girl's shoulder to calm her a little.
As the wolves apparently begin to cease their attacks, Miyo rushes to Midori's side. "Midori-chan, are you okay?" She hunkers down and quickly examines the wounds that her friend has recieved, before glancing over her shoulder to make sure nothing was going to attack them. "So, what is it we saved? Or… who?"
One of those fire-balls manages to engulph a wolf in flames. It is enough to send the others scattering for the winds (or woods?). The others follow suit. This is too much work for a meal. Plus, the girls look like they wouldn't give much meat.
Behind Midori rests the beast that was braying in the night. When they have the time to inspect it further, the creature is a turtle. It is a large turtle, but a turtle. The animal is pretty badly hurt. Its legs are bleeding from multiple bite wounds, the shell is cracked down the side, the tail looks to be missing, and its under-side is punctured too. Still, it looks to be breathing, if only shallow breaths. The fire seems comforting to it for whatever reason. Most wild animals don't seem to act like this. Nori eyes it for a bit and then looks to Midori. "I…I think it might even be a ninken. I wasn't able to sense its chakras because it is so weak…but it does seem to have some control over its chakras. It's putting itself into a hibernating state." With that Nori looks back to Midori, "You ran off to help it, it is yours to take care of now…whether it lives or dies. Just try not to have it slow us down on our way back to Konohagakure, but if you need help, ask also." Nori heads into their shelter, leaving the girls to figure out what to do.
Midori checks over the creature as well. She only knows a little bit of first aid, but she can tell that the creature is injured pretty badly. There's no way it could make it to Konohagakure in this state, especially if they try not to let it slow them down. "I don't think he can keep up with us, even if we bandage the wounds and take care of him through the night," she says, and reaches into her pack for some bandages. Pretty soon she's managed to stop the bleeding and has all its wounds bound tightly, but by then the turtle is fast asleep by the fire. Midori sighs and sits back from the fire a little, watching as the turtle begins to snore loudly. "Oh great, he's not even going to give us a decent night's sleep," she sighs, sounding half way between jubilant and exhausted. In fact, the amount of chakra she's used has left the girl on the edge of consciousness since the fight ended, and now that her adrenaline's run out her head begins bobbing up and down and her eyes close of their own accord.
Fujibayashi nods her head a bit as the wolves disperse. "I'll set up some new traps incase they come back." She tells the other girls then, heading away from the camp again to replace those explosive tags that went off. She returns a little while later to find Midori already asleep- so she decides to take first watch, sitting out by the fire and reading the rest of her manga.
The only thing faster than Miyo to get to sleep near the fire is the weird critter. Her continual-high state that she had been in since the beginning of the mission they had originally set out on had worn her out enitrely and she was flat on her back, breathing softly.
