Starring:
Yashu, Aoitsuke
Date: April 6, 2012
Summary:
Yashu and Aoitsuke run into each other on completely different missions and have to work together to not end up trapped in a cave.
"Pirates, Smugglers and Supply Storage"
In a cave along the Land of Fire coast line
A simple scouting mission, that was how it was presented to Yashu. Just go along the coast until you reach the cliffs and check some of the caves along the cliffs for any sign of smugglers or pirates. Don't confront unless you have to, make a map and report back with information about the caves. Sure, simple. A task that Yashu was rather uniquely qualified to perform thanks to his ability to fly. Sure it seemed simple but the cliffs were a windy place and the caves were all over the place. Several of them seemed to flow with water from hot springs that had carved out caves that then flowed into the sea. Some of these caves clearly were big enough to sail a small ship into, and these were the caves Yashu was bound to check out first. After all if one could moor a ship in the caves that would be the best cave for smugglers and pirates, right?
At least fresh water would be easy to come by, with hot springs feeding the caves. With some effort Yashu flies into one of the larger cave openings and finds a safe spot to swoop in for a landing, a rocky dock of sorts that runs along the water flowing into the sea. Once landed he quickly dismisses the wings and peers into the dark cave, pulling out a small hand light as he starts to explore the cave, looking for signs of recent visits by others.
Surprisingly there wouldn't be much to see when it came to the cave, it seemed like not a trace of a person was visible from within the darkness. Aoitsuki was tasked with a rather simple mission as wel, scan out the coast line caves for perhaps setting up a base of operations for future use, nevertheless the young shirayuki was deep within these caves, following the washing water waves that seeped deep into it, along her back was a massive pack mule of a backpack. She was by no means dressed in traditional shinobi attire, instead she was adorned in a snow white kimono with a teal bow sash tied along her waist, she definitely didn't look the role of shinobi but these days no one could be so sure…. She remains bent down near one of the walls, surveying the rock. " I wonder how much stuff we can put it here before it caves in…" Aoitsuki whispers quietly to herself, placing a finger along her soft lips.
Yashu isn't making much effort to be sneaky, really he should but he's in such good spirits after his little flight that he isn't really considering the odds that something could be down in the extensive tunnels. He shines the light around the entryway to try to find any signs of someone passing. Shrugging he starts to head deeper into cave to see if there are signs of people further in. "Oh, stop that, I'm sure it is safe, Kui, I mean seriously it's been here for ages, not like the cave is just going to fall on it because we're here." He mutters as he makes his way deeper, shining the light in front of himself as he walks carefully deeper into the caves, closer to where Aoitsuki has already trudged.
Aoi was a mild bit distracted by the sudden light that made its way through the caves, was she actually being caught off guard? " Huh…?" Aoi questioned quietly under her breath as she began to quickly sit up, the pack on her back weighing her down it definitely impeded any sort of quick movements… Instead it was probably best to remain cool, and she made herself be known, as he shined the light suddenly Aoi would spark into view, her luscious golden locks of hair rolled down her cheeks and back, she stood there lankly with her arms down her sides. " Is there something wrong?" Aoi called out to whom ever was holding the light, keeping things civil for now to perhaps take over the situation later..
Hearing a voice, Yashu quickly stops talking to what appears to be himself and shines the light around, trying to spy who talked. He spots the hair and focuses the light at first right on Aoi, then realizing this might be a tad blinding, shines it down a bit closer to her feet letting the reflected light illuminate the area around her, "Ah Hai there! Who goes? You're not a pirate or smuggler, are you?" He asks, a smile almost noticeable in his voice as he starts to slowly head deeper into the cave and closer to Aoi. "Didn't expect to find anyone down here." He admits as he tries to get a closer view of the girl and in doing so likely lets her see more of him as he keeps the light out of Aoi's eyes and pointed now to a mid spot in between the two as he approaches. His smile might be the first noticeable thing, if not for the cat ears and tails, and reflective cat eyes.
"You walked me on me first, it would be best for you to tell me who you are, how do I know your not a pirate or a smuggler?" Aoi questioned him in return, her hands remained by her sides in plain sight, she didn't want to look threatening at all, if anything she would rather catch him completely off guard… She lightly tapped her foot on the wet floor, which was surprisingly bare, she didn't even seem to have any ninja tools aside from the giant pack on her back. " Very well… My profession is a camper, Now what are you?" Aoi answered up, hoping that that would satisfy his want for an answer, for some reason she felt like he would be rather persistent…
Yashu tilts his head to the side, "Well, I'm Yashu and I'm a shinobi of Konohagakure, well I am now anyway. And I'm on a mission to check out the caves for smugglers and pirates." He explains. His tail slowly swishes behind him as he gets a tad closer, "Don't suppose you've seen signs of anyone who shouldn't be here?" He asks as he tries to get a better look at this 'camper'. He takes in her outfit and some what odd eyes, slowly taking in Aoi's appearance and then takes a half step back, "Hey, you're… hmm, what clan was that again?" He clearly is trying to recall, perhaps not all that up to date on Kiri clans despite his current stated home.
Just as Yashu is going, "Oh, hey! You're one of the…" The sentence is interrupted by a deep rumble through out the caves. A minor quake to be sure. This one is likely to only be felt by some of the nearby villages and the like. No great quake this, but enough to make those not expecting it have to brace themselves as water sloshes from the stream provided by the springs further up stream. The quake lasts only a moment or three but it is followed by a strange creaking sound, then a rumble of stone much closer moving as the loose rocks near the entrance and a hidden fracture break free. The entrance isn't in sight here but there's a small whoosh of air from that direction and the sound of crashing rock that leaves little doubt that something just fell around the entrance, perhaps the entire entrance. Yashu's thought is broken as he glances back over his shoulder towards the entrance, "Oh boy, that didn't sound particularly good, did it…" He says with a bit of understatement.
Aoi didn't even move an inch as things escalated, she only listened as her ears slightly twitched to the sound of a quake, and suddenly tumbling rubble falling down at the edge of the cave, a sweat drop trickling down the side of her cheek as she looks over the individual, it wasn't like she could see much anyways, the light was shined at her feet and much of him was a washed in shadow. " You must have tripped something while you were outside… Quake's aren't common in this area," Aoi spoke softly, she knew she had him where she wanted him, but she couldn't see… Not in this completely darkness. " So thanks to you it looks like we are stuck, tell me… Does shinobi from konoha have anything that might be useful to blow through chunks of rock?" The young woman asks quietly amongst the darkness, she finally laced her hands in front of each other instantly, though it was also her cue to move a ninjutsu whenever it may be necessary.
Yashu turns his attention back to the now recognized Kiri Shinobi, "Ah, well, not as such, no, but I doubt I triggered anything as I flew in here and so didn't touch much." He offers with a smile, "And unless you have a whole bunch of additional light sources in that pack, you might want to hold off on attacking me for a bit as I do have oil for this lamp, but without the lamp makeshift torches won't last long and this lamp is rather fragile." He points out, almost cheerfully. "And in any case, why attack when we should find out how bad our situation is first? We may need each other. Who knows?" He offers as a bit of a compromise, "You know violence doesn't have to be the first answer every time. You don't know me and I don't know you and we might need each other. Better to at least see if we need to work together before we go and start a big fight. Plus if we get too violent, the rest of the cave might crash down on us. And while I would probably eventually get free of that, I suspect you might suffer a bit more." He says cryptically.
"You are just like most Konoha shinobi, you shed with fear like a dog when you stand before a shinobi from the mist," Aoi quickly taunted, she grinned and even stepped a few inches closer to him. " I only bathe in blood if I feel like I have to, You..You're right I don't know you, but at the same time I won't trust you either, you want to prove yourself to think different of kirigakure?" She asks while holding out a hand to him. " Give me the lamp and I promise I won't kill you, I'll make sure we both get out of here alive… And trust me, I'm a diligent and gentle person… I assure you there will be no harm to that device even if I wanted to attack you," her voice was chilling as she spoke, it was hard to tell if it was truly her being cocky or if she was speaking accurately about her skill. " My name is Aoitsuki, its nice to meet you Konoha no Yashu,"
That brings a laugh from Yashu, "Shed fear like a dog?" He shakes his head, "Really, I don't feel much fear right now to be honest. But hey, whatever." He looks down at the lamp then back up at Aoi, "Well, you might be trustworthy but considering Kiri has invaded Konoha without warning several times from what I know, so trust is not something I really feel like giving you right now." He points out, "Not to say I won't keep an open mind but so far you haven't done anything to prove yourself, well other than not attack me already." He shrugs, "So come on, let's go see what is up with the entrance and if we're stuck in here. Might have to find a different way out." He says as he turns to head back towards the entrance. As he does so you can get a good look at his features and then the light silhouettes him and you can see the ears and tail clearly. Obviously this is no normal guy. He glances over his shoulder, "Come on, let's go see. Worst case you have to kill me if it's open and then leave, right?" He says jokingly, clearly not afraid at all, perhaps oddly, as he starts down the path back towards the entrance, leaving his back exposed.
Turning his back to her could have turned out into a fairly lethal situation, however even this cold blooded killer had temperance to go with the flow of things, she wasn't like a kaguya, getting bloody wasn't something she liked to do. Aoitsuki chased after him, not saying a word but allowing her bare steps to lightly pad against the water, which after awhile it began to go silent, silent enough for him not to be able to hear hopefully, only the sound of her light cold breaths remained. " You're not from Konoha, where are you actually from?" Aoi finally spoke out, she was observing him, his odd features which strove for her to figure out just what was going on in this situation, it was odd… Cat ears and a tail? even the Cat clan from Sunagakure didn't actually look like them.
Yashu shrugs, as she asks the question, "Originally? From a small fishing village in the Land of Whirlpools. But the rest is a long story. Tell you what, if we're stuck in here and have some time I might share it." He says in a friendly tone, "And yes, I can hear you, cat ears." He points out, "They aren't just for show, neither are the cat eyes." He adds as he glances back at the girl with a grin, "So what about you? What are you up to back here? No good?" He says, almost joking, "At least give me a name to call you so I don't have to just say 'Hey you' or 'Cute Girl' whenever I want to address you?" He says as he looks back towards the entrance, well… what used to be the entrance. It's very blocked. Looks like tons of rock have fallen and there's little chance of moving it. An explosive jutsu would probably just bring more rock down from the looks of it. There are small cracks but nothing a person could fit through. That's a good thing because at least the hot spring stream won't flood back into the cave, "Ah, this… is what I would call not so good. Maybe you'll get to hear that story after all." He says as he turns back to the girl, and gives a shrug, "Don't suppose you know another way out already?"
"For someone with a pair of cat ears you seem to be a little hard of hearing… I told you my name was Aoitsuki," she replies back, her eyes finally take sight of the rocky entrance with a hint of distress in her voice, she didnt have anything that would help out in the situation, she could probably drill a hole through the rock but that would make her way to vulnerable to the supposed Konoha shinobi. "I was adventuring out in these caves, even someone from Kirigakure can get bored of their surroundings? Why do you think we invaded Konoha anyways? We were bored," she states, jokingly for the most part but no hint of humor in her voice. " The time for stories will have to wait… especially if we want to get out of here as soon as possible… I suppose we have no choice but to search these caverns a little further…" Her voice trails off for a moment as she inches a little closer to him. " Neko-chan, do you mind leading the way considering you have the light?" She asks him curiously, her eyes still seem to be cold but her aura, for the most part was sincere…
Yashu shakes his head, "Sorry, I must have been distracted, Aoitsuki-san." He offers politely, "Hearing I'm good at, paying attention? Not so much. An odd combination I suppose." He admits as he glances around, "Well, not sure about you but no rescue is coming for me right away. This was supposed to be a couple of days mission and… how would they know where to look?" He points out. "So yeah, I guess we'll have search the caves. And… to be honest I lied. I have two lanterns." He says as he reaches into his fall smaller pack, "Here, you can have one of your own. Will be helpful if we have to split up. I have 4 pints of oil though, on top of what is already in the lamps. So we should ration it out while we're together. So don't light that one yet. I don't have any handy scrolls of supplies or anything. A few days food. Fortunately we have water so that's something." He says, taking a bit of an inventory. He seems to shake off the nickname, perhaps used to it. "Well, let's see what we can find. Who knows, might find a perfect Onsen back in here." He jokes, "I could use a good soak at some point." He jests as he starts to lead the way, after handing the spare lantern to Aoi.
Aoi was a tad bit uninterested, she reached out and took the other lantern with ease, holding it closely with one hand as she looked over him briefly. " I'm not really interested in dipping into an Onsen, I'm more so interested in getting out of this cave, why dip into an Onsen if we can be trapped here dead, forever?" She asks curiously, Quickly turning in her step, she began to make her way towards the darkness of the cave following him. " I have many supplies in my pack, however none of it is for light, I have food… Water, and other things that might be necessary," She states simply, though was she going to share it with him? Most likely not.
Yashu laughs, "Well, no reason to suffer if we are going to be trapped, is there? Eventually someone would likely come look for us but it could be a long time. And do you want to make wagers on which side finds us first?" He asks with a glance back over his shoulder as he leads the pair deeper into the caves, "I, for one, do not look forward to a nice vacation in Kiri." He points out, "And I doubt you'd enjoy the hospitality of Konohagakure, would you?" He clearly likes to keep things light and friendly. He continues along the path, the route being slowly up hill along the stream which is now much smaller, just a bubbling underground creek of sorts with the water warm, keeping the caves warmer than just if the pair were underground. "Anyway, let's see what we can find, shall we?" He asks as he turns the corner and…
The opening is small but the room beyond is huge. Water dripping in from multiple sources into a pool and then streaming out only through the cave entrance Yashu and Aoi just entered from. The light reflects nicely off the water and glistening walls but there is no light source other than the lantern. About half the cave has no water, is just dry cave floor, or at least not under a few inches or more of water. Dry maybe relative in here with the running hot springs. "Well, this is unexpected. You could house an army in here, with the right supplies." He says as he turns back to peer at Aoi, "Or was that the idea?" He asks with a tilt of his head, "Anyway, water must be coming in from some where.
Aoi was definitely a little annoyed with the Neko-jin, after all he seemed to be taking lots of shots about her relationship with Kirigakure, almost in a passive aggressive sort of way. " You shouldn't talk about something you really don't know about… If you want to stay on my good side perhaps it would be best for you to cease to be irritating, that would be a good start… I really don't need yo to get out of here… Consider it Kirigakure hospitality…" She responds back, she checks out the room, it had a nice feel to it, and every now and then the shirayuki would tap her feet along the ground, leaving droplets of water in her wake. " Water definitely does lead to somewhere else…"
Yashu sets down the lantern on a dry spot, almost a shelf and turns to face Aoi, "My apologies, my lady." He offers with a foppish bow, then gets far more serious, "I'm sorry, you're right. I don't know you, and it was unfair of me to make presumptions. That said, you can probably understand what led to such assumptions, not the least of which is that you are here in Konoha on a mission with what appears to be a lot of supplies, while I am on a mission in my own land. That does put us a bit on uneven footing in this situation at least in terms of what our respective missions were." He notes, "That given, you're right, I don't know what you'd do. So please forgive my attempt at humor and passive aggressive behavior to try to deal with the situation. I admit being a tad nervous if just because I don't know you from a bingo book and I'm a tad worried about the fact that you might be able to kill me before I blink if I'm not careful. Something that is bound to put a strain on situation, don't you think?" He says as he shrugs, "Anyway, I don't know what to do next. We could follow water back to their sources but there are a lot of caves and all of them could just come bubbling through the rock, or one might lead outside. I don't know. It may take some time to scout all of them. Perhaps setting up a temporary base camp of sorts here would be worth while?"
Submission, or at least kind of, It was music to Aoitsuki's ears and couldn't help but to cause her cold face to flash with a mysterious grin, it was true, they both had the element of surprise, she knew nothing about him, and he knew nothing about her, but she kept the facade of her monstrous power mostly as her own bargaining tool for her own survival. " Yashu-san, I believe we can get along quiet easily now," Aoi merely replies back with a nod of her head, it was as if instantly her demeanor for wanting to slay him had completely disappeared. " Your mission was to look our for pirates and thieves, not necessarily shinobi… I'm neither of those, so as long as you stick to that there is nothing to worry about," She went on to say. " A base won't do much if we can only move through the darkest with a lamp… If you can find a stable source of fire, it will be easier to make a "base","
Yashu nods and then gets a bit of a sheepish grin on his face at Aoi's change in tone, if at least she's using his name this time instead of calling him Neko-chan. He glances around, "Well, figuring we could at least store some stuff here. I mean, cache the supplies here as we can follow the paths and then if we find nothing just follow the water back here. And it seems dry-ish up here?" He ventures, "But I don't see anything we can burn around here and while I can see in dim light I don't believe my eyes would help much in total darkness." He admits, as you get a good look at his cat eyes in the dim light, flashing almost with the mirror like backing. "Anyway, it was only a suggestion. Didn't know if you wanted to haul that pack everywhere. Plus we might have to crawl through some spaces too small for that pack?" He points out. "But I'll let you figure out our next step if you want?" He offers with another shrug and spread of the hands, "What should we do?"
"We will continue to move and follow the water, it will lead us somewhere, eventually… If we can find weak spots in the rock we can do something with that as well," Aoi answers back, a light sigh escapes her lips while the holsters the pack a little tighter. " This is fine… I'll drop it off if we do need to go into a tight spot…" She continues to speak, brushing a few strains of golden locks out of her azure eyes, not like they could be seen properly anyways… " I have a feeling getting out of here might be a little easier than we think…"
Yashu shrugs and bends over to pick the lantern back up, "Well, lead the way then." He offers as he lets Aoi pick the path up any one of the multiple streams leading into the cave, "Why do you think that? I mean why do you think getting out of here might be easier than we think?" He asks as he glances around looking for a source of light or a strong breeze that might hint at an easy exit. "Am I missing something? I usually am." He adds with a grin and a bit of self depreciating humor. "Just would like to know if you have extra intelligence on these caves." He admits as he trudges along behind Aoi, eying her from behind, only to frown a tad as most of the view is blocked by the large backpack.
Aoi didn't have much of a clue what was within these caves, but caves didn’t all necessarily end with dead ends, there were ways out and ways in, even if they had to push a little bit. Aoi began to lead the way, drifting towards the water as her foot steps walked over them without a splash, she was being cautious, and kept her eyes looking around and her ears listening intently for anything unusual. "Hmm…." She muses quietly to herself, at this point her arms were crossed along one another, she was trying to look for any kind of hint that would lead the way out…. Holes…fissures…anything.
Yashu follows, walking across the water as easily as Aoi. He keeps looking around, holding the lantern which casts light past Aoi, with her shadow before her, but letting her keep her hands free as he follows along. "Hmm?" He replies, a very interesting conversation indeed! Still, he is tense, nervous. He is well aware that Aoi relaxed a bit when he let her take the lead, something he is paying attention to. That plus cats are not particularly fond of hanging out deep under ground, so he's got other things on his mind. Still he does his best to stay on task and alert. "Let me know if you spot anything up ahead?" He asks as he keeps his voice lower for some reason, as if he is suddenly worried someone or something else might hear.
Everything seemed to be going okay for the most part, after about an hour of silence and quietness they arrived at a spectacular scene right before their eyes. Light… yes light was finally visible without the need for any sort of oil lamps, they found themselves in a round room, a waterfall resting before them showering down into a pool of water, the water itself seemed to be bubbling as well… Was this the hot spring that Yashu had been looking for. " See? Yashu-san… following the water path was indeed a great idea," The Shirayuki mused with her success, motioning closer to look into the spring that was created from the bursting waterfall above… All they needed to do was hold their breath….squeeze in and make their way to the top… Unfortunately for Aoi, there wasn't going to be much hope with saving her supplies …
Yashu slipped into silence for most of the hike, not wanting to annoy Aoi perhaps. As the pair reach the spring and see light he looks up and, tilts his head. "Hmmm, yes but… we'll have to fight against the water to get out, won't we?" He asks as he glances at Aoi then back up at the waterfall. "I can walk on water but I don't know about running up one. Do you think we can get up and around without fighting the water?" He asks, then takes a step forward closer to the water's edge, "Hmmm, you know… this is a very nice place though… wonder if anyone else knows about this. Isolated, very beautiful, a great spot to get away from it all." He ponders then shrugs, "We're both going to have to lose our packs I'm afraid, to get out of her, don't you think?"
Yashu spoke a lot of truth, it was going to be difficult to fight a waterfall current and make their way to the exit of the spring, even still it made things difficult, but at least now there was some sort of hope. Carefully Aoi began to set down her pack, hitting it on the ground with a thud, it was a shame that she wasn't going to be able to bring it up with her. " There are some ways I can think of to get past that… You look like you are part neko… Or something, while me personally, I actually share the spirit of the earth," Aoi states, motioning towards the pooling water, her fingers touch against it at first, feeling its bubbling heat… There must have been a geyser or some sort of heating at the bottom of it… Which met going down wasn't an option…
Yashu nods to Aoi's comment about being part cat, he certainly looks it and knows it. He watches her touch the water, "Yes? Spirit of the earth? Ah, that mean you're going to help carve a way out of sorts?" He asks, unsure exactly what she has in mind. He ditches his own pack, setting it on the ground and puts out the lantern, also setting it aside, "At least I can have this lantern here if I ever need to come this way again, or… well, if anyone else needs it." He notes in thought then turns his full attention back to Aoi to see what she's up to at the water's edge, moving to her side to get a better look.
Aoi was going to have to be careful if she was going to do what she was going to do, there was a possibility of possible flooding of the room, which wasn't going to be a situation. " My clan was born from the spirits of the earth merging into a physical entity…" Aoi began to speak up, giving him just a little bit of insight on her as she began to test out her proposition, reaching a hand out towards the falling waterfall naturally the water began to part, and even disspitate before it was recondensed turning into ice crystal shards slamming into the heated water below." I'm thinking maybe….Maybe I can freeze this entire water fall, or give it less force by directing its path…."
Yashu watches that action and spies the ice, "Well, I thought so… wasn't sure but… yeah. Hmm… if that works, I'll be very impressed. Freezing hot springs? Even if just for a bit?" He shakes his head, "Far more than I can do. If you can just give us a clear path we can use tree walking to run up the ice?" He suggests hopefully, "Guess we'll have to see if you can freeze it all without drowning us then!" He says perhaps a bit too cheerfully, "Can I help in any way?" He asks as he moves to Aoi's side and peers, "Just let me know."
He seemed to be thinking into her plan fairly enough, causing her to smile slightly and nod. " You can be quite articulate can't you?" She asked rather casually, finally she began to take a few steps forth into the steaming pool of water, her feet beneath her was hovering along the surface, and perfect water walking for the most part as she reaches her hand out towards the fall, it began to freeze and crystalize at a much quicker pace, though it was taking a bit more time than usual, she continued to focus her chakra into the water helping it crystallize at a rapid rate…. Though they didn't quite know what was going on beneath them… There was a slight grumble from the popping water below, steam and bubbles began to increase as if the water was getting hotter… " What…?" Aoi whispered quietly under her breath, her bare feet almost feeling as it she was getting scorched, suddenly she launches herself backwards back along the cave floor… As soon as she had done that suddenly a massive water snack bursts out from the springs below, wide bodied with blue scaly skin, it hisses almost as if it was giving out a loud roar before it opens its mouth, suddenly it sends out a burst of energy, following by a torrent of hot spring bubbles hot enough to definitely scorch the flesh if it touched the skin… "Look out!" Aoitsuki shouts out she herself exploding into a puff of smoke, using her speed to replace herself. She reappears along one corner of the cave, keeping an eye for Yashu to see how he would hold up against such a beast…
Yashu was giving some space to Aoi as she started to freeze the waterfall, and this meant he had a bit more warning, but not much more. He blinks as this huge blue scaled snake breaks loose of the water and he slaps a seal on his arm, and suddenly is surrounded by an odd green shell of sorts made of chakra, that looks a bit like a series of turtle shells overlapped on one another. This provides a nice protective barrier. Seems Yashu isn't defenseless after all. "What the…." He exclaims as he hops back, "Seems our fellow snake here didn't like your frosty solution!" He shouts, "But maybe he's vulnerable to cold then?" He suggests, "Most snakes are!" He adds as he starts to crouch a bit, defensively trying to spy which way the snake might try to go next, and trying to keep an eye on Aoi. He pulls out a kunai and throws it at the snake, trying to get it's attention so that Aoi might have a chance to attack the thing without being the target herself.
"Most snakes don't breath out hot bubbles of water…" Aoi responds back, she slicks back and remains sharp, the Snake beast itself took the kunai head on, though rather than piercing through its flesh instead it merely bounced off, proving that the snack definitely had a slippery hide, it was then Aoi slipped a hand into her own garments and took a out a single kunai, tossing it empowered with her own chakra into the snakes body while motioning through a pair of hand seals, suddenly pairs of water senbon began to take form right inside the spring, before launching at the snake in an annoying barrage. Though it was water it was definitely able to slice through flesh. " We need to end this as quick as possible… you need to throw everything you can at it," Aoi commanded, while the snake attempted to slam a tail into Aoi, its attention was focused on the previous attacker, sending yet another double dose of a barrage at Yashu. (3)
Yashu keeps up his defense using that green shell as he frowns, "Everything I have?" He ventures thoughtfully. then sends three kunai at the serpent, as that seems more appropriate than snake, as he frowns, "I don't have a lot of fancy techniques yet!" He protests as he does his best with the standard ninja knives, trying to get at least one of them to hit the right mark, to provide some distraction as he apparently isn't bad at defending as the barrage at Yashu bounces off that turtle shield of his. Kind of impressive even if the attacks are something any genin could do.
None of the attacks seemed to be having any effect on the beast, the only one was the first Kunai thrown by Yashu, and it impaled into the beast, stabbing it right between the eyes, however it didn't kill the thing, only enraged it to the point of really wanting to inflict some pain. It began to circle them at this point, attempting to wrap its large scaly body around the both them and and squeeze them into a tight restriction while hunkering down with its mouth to burn them with the hot boiling water. (40) (30).
Aoi wasn't able to avoid it, she was wrapped up and could feel her body become restricted by the tight squeeze of the snake. She grunted, quietly as she attempted to tense her own muscles but the power of this snake was actually quire remarkable, tensing teeth to survive the attack without a whimper, before her eyes would explode out of her head the steaming bubbles slammed into her next, only to melt away at her flesh which turned from ice into a puddle of water… the real Aoitsuki was further away, panting lightly, her body slightly wavering… Being squeezed by a massive mega ton snake was no joke… " This….isn't going well…" She whispers under her breath, suddenly summoning a clone by her side, it runs at the snake attempting to stab into the snake's flesh with a claw of ice…
Yashu grumbles, "I can't… I need time to focus!" He mutters as he finds the seal not working suddenly. He tries to dodge the coils of the beast only to find himself wrapped up easily, and suddenly pushed against Aoi in the coils, "Oh, hey there… yeah, this isn't going so w…." He lets out a grunt as the thing squeezes, interrupting his attempt at humor. Not so good. He gulps and tries to take this chance to focus since without it he's in trouble, and knows it. This means he can't try to break free or attack right now but… here goes.
The ice claw was enough to spazz out the snake, Suddenly it began to jitter and shake as it was impaled by the claw of ice. Yashu was definitely right about the beast, the bubbling heat was it's way of keeping warm, any sort of coldness would put the snake into a frenzy…And it did. Releasing Yashu from its grip it began to throw itself throughout the cave, slamming into rocks and debris, it wanted to escape the coldness. Within its fury it had decided to go up into the water fall sprout, slammed its body into the rocks debris falls from the ceiling while the snake disappears in a massive hope up above, even water began to rapid fall down into the pool below, but at least now there was space…. space for them to finally reach the top without freezing anything… "Are you okay…Yashu-san?" Aoi called out to him, trying to grasp the situation thus far…
Yashu gives a gasp for air as he's released then nods, "Yeah, thanks! That freezing stuff… the snake clearly hated that. Good job!" He says as he dusts himself off and gets to his feet, "How are you doing? You okay?" He asks as he glances around to see if the snake is going to go hide or if it might attack again. He also glances up at the now wider hole, "Ah ha! Well, not a total loss! Maybe I can fly us up and out of here?" He ventures, "Or do you think you can run up a waterfall? I've never tried that…" He admits thoughtfully even as he keeps a wary eye on the snake. "But I'm fine… yeah… just out of breath. For a moment." He repeats himself then looks over at Aoi and asks again, "You're not hurt, are you?" He asks as he approaches her looking for signs of wounds.
"I've been through worst…" Aoi replies back, brushing off her Kimono, though she was a little bit wounded, her shoulder blade was torn, at least the clothing was, and a deep gash of blood expelled from the wound, she winced lightly, it was mostly due to the falling debris rather than the actual fight. " You said you can fly us up…? A Cat with wings?" She asked curiously, keeping a hand over her bloodied wound for now, she really didn’t feel like fixing it… If anything she just wanted to get out of this cave alive. " We should move quickly… It might decide to come back again…"
Yashu nods, "I'm more than meets the eye. I told you I flew into the cave in the first place." He points out, "Um, I don't… hold on." He goes to his pack he removed, "We need to at least stop the worst of the bleeding first." He offers as he extends some simple bandages. It won't heal her any but it might keep the thing from bleeding too much more and help it from getting worse. "Just… hold still a second? Please?" He asks as he tries to quickly bandage the worst of it. "I can probably carry you but neither of our packs with the added weight. We'll fly up as soon as I get this bandaged." He offers. Assuming she lets him, he'll bandage the wound as best as he can quickly then touch the arm opposite of what he did for the turtle shell…. and a pair of large white wings will emerge from his back, or.. .well, not quite as there are no holes in the shirt but it seems like they don't care, maybe they are mostly chakra? But they look like massive white heron wings. He'll give a flap or two and then try to lift the pair up and out of the cave.
Aoi didn't stop him from dressing her wound, after all she wasn't really a stubborn pride girl, she allowed him to do it, but kept a vigilante eye on him in case he tried to do something she would consider out of character… However surprisingly for her nothing happened, and she just kept a hold over him as he began to fly them up, it was a miraculous moment and soon enough they were lifted into the air, slowly beginning lifted out of the cave and not much water falling in their direction, carefulyl she looks at him, he eyes were much more piercing out in the light, and she remains a tight clutch over him. "Why…are you helping me?" Aoi finally asked, curious of his response… if she had a choice she would have left him dead…
Yashu lights down on solid ground outside, some distance from the coast up on a bluff, but alone. The water flowing from a stream down into the rocks below. He doesn't answer at first then shrugs, "I dunno. I mean, I just don't like killing folks if I don't have to…" He rubs the back of his head as he thinks, a bit embarrassed by the question, "You'd have helped me, right?" He asks, perhaps a bit naively, "Anyway, neither of us really got our missions done right. No reason for anyone to die here. Plus without you the snake probably would have made life very unpleasant for a while." He doesn't say that the snake would kill him oddly. "Anyway, why not help a cute girl!" He finally blurts out with a sheepish grin, as he lets the white wings fade away. "Sorry about your pack and mine, but I can't lift that much while flying." He explains, "But you should be okay? Not sure if you have a boat or something or?" He ventures, "Do you need some more help or will you be okay from here on?"
Aoi couldn't help but to still feel entirely confused about the situation, she didn't let it bother her too much though after all she was alive…. She didn't really complete her mission but at the very least she ahd some information to report. " I suppose there truly wasn't a reason for us to fight one another… I'll remember that," She states, her eyes doesn't shy away from him as he called her cute, if anything she didn't even think of it as a compliment. "I will be okay returning back to the Land of Water… perhaps in time we will met again in different circumstances…" She states, she tilts her head to the side and lets out a tired sigh…. It was going to be a long trip back. " I appreciate the help, Yashu-san,"
Yashu gives a small nod, and a small bow, "Safe travel, Aoitsuki-san." He offers back, "I'd offer supplies or assistance but alas my equipment is all stuck down below as is yours." He pauses, thinking for a moment, "Sadly I doubt we'll meet each other again, will we?" He asks, "I mean, not like two missions will have us run into each other again by chance." He points out, then after a moment says, "I can probably go back home for a visit, to the Land of Whirlpools. You could go there, couldn't you?" He asks, "I mean, if you wanted to meet again some time that is." He offers, suddenly seeming to feel a bit self conscious about the offer.
"Why…would I need to see you again?" Aoi questioned him curiously, the offer was very unusual, meeting up in the land of whirlpools to see a konoha shinobi? Naturally she discredited it, she still didn’t trust him entirely and didn't want to find herself in an unpleasant situation. " I will have to pass on that, I happen to not be close to the Uzumaki as either, they are closely allied with Konohagakure," she states offering him a slight wave of her hand. " Just know that I will remember this, and even as a shinobi from Kirigakure, I do have some honor… Maybe i will save your life some day…" She goes on to say, though quickly turns around in a quick step, she was returning home… They didn't need to make arrangements if they were destined to meet again…
Yashu can only nod, "Yeah, I'm not that fond of the Uzumaki either…" He replies even as she turns around. He shrugs and waves, "Take care Aoitsuki-san." He calls out then glances around trying to get his bearings. With an action he takes a leap into the air and… is off in flight, heading along the coast back towards the nearest village so he can get some supplies and figure out what to do next. It is an odd sight, a cat-boy flying with big white wings up against the bright blue sky.
