Starring:
Date: November 11, 2012
Summary:
Two shinobi are sent to help clear and quarantine a village that is being terrorized by strange mutant beasts. They weren't quite expecting a certain someone to keep them company though, and she certainly wasn't expecting the danger she actually put herself in.
"Small Stowaway: Big Problem"
In a village a few hours southeast of Kumogakure
Something rather… odd has happened in a village a few hours southeast of Kumogakure. Many men have grown into deformed, monstrous size and gone into a rage worse than any steroid-induced one. Even men who were skinny or fat have turned into hulkish beasts. From what has been gathered, many speculate this to be some kind of infection, but where it came from and how it is spread are not quite clear as of yet.
Nagamura Shuuren volunteered go along for this to quarantine the men and try to cure them. However, this won't be done without a fight. That is why Ogo was sent with him, as the tales of these men's physical power have been rather outlandish. Some say even the weakest of them can wreck a place like a trained Jounin now. At the helm of a caravan that carries barrier scrolls and all sorts of things needed for the quarantine, the Medical Ninja drives the wagon hurriedly toward the village, hoping to get this under control as swiftly as possible.
Eri peeks up from her hidden position in the back of the caravan amongst the supplies that were packed for the mission at hand. She was curious as to what was happening in this village, and wanted to see if there was anything she could do to help. Besides, she has always been a bit of a risk taker, so Shuuren's earlier warning, while noted was pushed to the back of her mind. She stays crouched down for now, since she didn't know whether or not Shuuren would fuss at her for sneaking along. She leans back against the wall closing her eyes as she waited for them to arrive at their destination. She could think of a good excuse to give him while they were still making there way there.
Ogo came along as muscle, nothing else really. His questions were more of their physical capabilities and what they know of their fighting tactics. He can handle anything from full on army tactics to small groups to an individual using traps and tricks. But not knowing what they are doing is far harder to overcome than very skilled people that you know exactly what and how they do what they do. For now he was quiet, just sitting on the back of the first or front of the second cart in the caravan, relaxing on top of the cart as best he could, looking up at the sky, trees, mountains, or whatever he could see at any given time.
As Eri peeks up, Shuuren's eyes narrow, and he looks over his shoulder at where she just looked up from. "… What the," he says, lifting and eyebrow and shaking his head as he looks back ahead. "Eri, you may as well come on out. I thought I made it pretty clear that this mission would be too dangerous for you. Is there a reason you enjoy making yourself a liability? Are you not given enough attention without having to be saved?" He sounds a little annoyed, yet he keeps driving ahead. This is something that has to be done, and they don't have enough time to turn back.
After a bit longer driving, the smoke of some fires around the small village would be visible. As they get closer, it becomes clear that they are dealing with something quite out of control. There are broken bodies lying in the street, some even ripped in half. Screams ring out as people are broken and torn to shreds by the raging giants. Even buildings are lying in rubble, some having been run straight through and collapsed, others missing walls or parts of their roofs. Many of the beasts are visible in the streets, destroying things or even fighting each other.
"You really should have stayed home."
Eri hopped out from her hiding spot and sits up with Ogo and Shuuren tilting her head slightly. "Probably cause my parents couldn't give me enough attention when I was little or something like that…Don't worry Suit, it'll be like I'm not even here for the most part. Figure I'll simply observe, and only try to help if required…still even a small helping hand will make it easier yes?" She smiled at Shuuren reassuringly before remaining quiet for the rest of the trip, Shuuren seemed kinda bugged already so even she knew not to push her luck any further than she already has. She perked up when they arrived
Ogo sat up on the back of the first cart, looking around when Shuuren said that Eri could go ahead and come out. He thought he smelled something that wasn't either of them.
Next thing he knows, they are in the middle of giant-a-geddon. Odo looks at the bodies, then the ones that are still out in the middle of the street. A hand goes to Eri's shoulder. "If you were ever thinking of -not- helping, this should be one of those times. We really don't need to find out what happens when one of these things takes a real good liking to you with your style of genjutsu." Ogo wouldn't even wait for the cart to stop. He would draw both of his swords, his energy coming forth in a very faint… reddish aura? It looks like a mist draping over his body and falling down to the ground almost like a cloak of some sort, but it was almost completely invisible, except that look of mist rolling off of his shoulders and down his whole body. It must be something to do with that second sword he holds… with the rust that's the color of blood. "Shuuren, which one do you want first? Dead or stunned?"
"Try to spare them if you can so we have test subjects for a cure, but don't risk yourself to do so," Shuuren replies then blinks as one of the giant beasts charges the caravan and literally flings it over like a toy. Luckily, Ogo grabs them and moves them out of the way. As they land behind a building, the former Jounin lets out a sigh and glances around. The sheer number of these giants could be overwhelming, especially if they're busy trying to keep Eri safe. He grabs a scroll from his jacket and unravels it. With a puff of smoke that quickly fades, he is now adorned in only pair of black fighting pants and black combat boots. Seems things are getting serious now. The sound of the caravan flipping seems to have drain out more of the giants, as they begin looking around, attempting to spot the intruders, forming a mass in the streets. "Get ready. This is not going to be pretty." With that, he pulls a red food pill out of his pocket and chews it then swallows it. Suddenly, he goes from being a slender but fit person to extremely buff, veins bulging all over him. He forms his hand into a seal, and two copies of him appear right beside him, prepared to fight.
Eri closes her eyes as Ogo moves them to safety and nods at him thankfully. As she continued watching the giants she thought Ogo may have had a point, she might not like the outcome that comes from provoking them. She still didn't want to be a complete burden, maybe she could get lucky and actually affect one of them. Strong men tend to be one of her easiest targets in most circumstances after all, it was worth a short. Moving through her hand seals she closes her eyes and attempts to make a connection with at least one of them. "Love at First Sight.." Hopefully even in their altered state Eri could manage to reveal a softer side to the giant. Continuing through her hand seals she remains focused attempting to drown out all the outside distractions around her. "Feel the Heat.." She projects another illusion and assumes a defensive position ready for the worst.
Whelp, this was already starting out somewhat fun. The unexpected flipping of the cart made Odo grab both of the others and blur out of the way, putting all of them on the near side of a half destroyed building. Now Shuuren was taking a titan pill and Eri was…. "Oh no.. Eri! You want to just make them -want- to take you away even more?!" He looks at her with her eyes closed muttering those little incantations and he just shakes his head, looking out at the army of big guys… now he jumps out and starts smacking them with the back sides of his two swords, hoping to either stun them, knock them out individually, or maybe just kill one or two for now to thin out their numbers.
As Eri performs her jutsu, Shuuren blinks and looks over to her, asking, "What the heck are you doing?" Rather than giving them time to prepare and plan, the girl is actually drawing the monsters straight to them. The ones she tries to Genjutsu start to look really confused at what's going on, to the point they literally punch themselves in the face to stop whatever it is that's going on. This does little but enrage them. Ogo's first strike is dodged, though the second one makes a direct hit, sending one of them toppling. One of the giants charges each of the Lightning shinobi, intending to plow straight over them.
Shuuren himself is slammed into and bounces back, hitting a wall. However, as this happens, the copies of him go to work, running out toward others of the giants as the original leaps back up to strike at the giant attacking him.
"I'm..trying to help.." She'd frown and sigh shaking her head, she wasn't exactly experienced in dealing with high stress situations. Eri blinks, honestly not expecting them to pin point the direction the jutsu was coming from. They were smarter than she had expected, unfortunate news for Eri. She herself would get swatted aside as if she were nothing more than some house fly getting on their nerves. She'd climb to her feet wincing in pain and grumbles to herself as she brushed the dirt away from her outfit. Alright that hurt, a lot, but at least she wasn't a crumpled ball of broken bones quite yet. She looks on and continues watching feeling more than a little helpless in this situation. She still had to keep trying, I mean now that they had their full attention there wasn't any going back now. She continues attempting to use her genjutsu. "Come on..please work.."
Ogo thought for a moment, then as he saw Shuuren go toppling head over heels, he got an idea, and while sheathing his ninja-to, keeping the rusty old sword in his right hand, he reaches with his left hand, and tries to grab one of the monsters by the leg, and send him hurtling into a group of the other ones coming up the road. "Let's hope they can't catch very well!"
While the beasts Shuuren and his clones attack fall down, three more charge at them, yet all three flicker out of the way, reappearing and attempting to strike at them to bring them down. One guy is unable to dodge Ogo and ends up flying at a massive group of the others, sending them toppling like bowling pins. However, this doesn't stop another one from charging him from behind and attempting to do the same to him, except tossing him directly at a nearby building. Meanwhile, the ones Eri is attacking seem to keep getting more and more confused. One punches himself with another slams his head against a wall, trying to get the strange feelings out of their heads, another actually diving at her to try to tackle her.
Eri's form instantly disappears the moments the giant tries to tackle her and she stands off to the side, now a safe distance away. She tsks and wags a finger at him. "Now now sweety, you can look, but no touchy." She looks over at the others making sure they are doing alright, well they seemed to be holding up better than she was at least. Their numbers definitely seemed to be starting to thin out from Ogo's and Shuuren's assault on them. She wasn't dead yet though, so that was good, and they seemed to be distracted by her techniques. Even if it gave them some possible unwanted desires for her, she was still helping them somewhat, just in a somewhat unhelpful and possibly unwanted way. She was the one who decided to sneak along. Perhaps she'd at least have something to look back on when Shuuren tells her -not- to do something. She closes her eyes and continues her assault on them, her style of genjutsu was the only thing she knew, so she may as well stick to it.
Ogo gets thrown through a wall on the far side of the street, disappearing into a cloud of dust debris and rubble through the far side of the building, and into another the street beyond. Yes, through a building and into another, across a street, out of sight from Shuuren and Eri.
As Ogo lands a couple blocks over, another of the behemoths leaps off the top of one of the buildings with his knees pointed directly down at him, intending to crush him. Meanwhile, the guy that Eri dodged dives at her again, the ones she tries to affect hitting themselves still to try to get the weird feelings to go away. As one charges at Shuuren, a puff of smoke reveals that he is fighting a clone, the real one spinning into a kick from behind while the clones continue to fight more of them. The numbers are whittling down, but they're still fighting hard.
Eri's eyes widen as she is unable to perform her genjutsu in time, and cries out in pain as she is quite literally crushed underneath the giant. She grits her teeth and tries to weakly swat at the mutated man in vain squirming as she tries to get away. "I said no touching! R..really I'm not that amazing if you think about it! I'm a five at best!" She had no idea whether the giant could understand her or not, but bargaining was always a good side plan. She could feel several bones already broken and it was beginning to get hard to focus through the pain. This wasn't exactly the best position to be in and she knew it. She just hoped one of her first big mistakes wouldn't be her last. "S..Suit..Ogo! Someone!" She called out to them hoping one of them could hear her, quite unaware that Ogo at least had his own troubles to deal with. She had to decide what to do now. The illusions could just be making them angrier and more hormone crazed, but it could also be one of the only things keeping them from ripping her in half. For now she simply continues trying to focus on getting out of his grasp, not wasting what energies she needed to get away.
With the behemoth on Ogo's chest, he can feel the ribs on his right side cracking slowly. One, then two, a few moments later the third. A snarl, sneer, Ogo's free arm reaches around with that rusty sword aimed the fastest attack he can muster, sending a huge wave of sound out through the streets from inside the building he was in, which was half destroyed itself. Hopefully this attack would get the mongrel off of Ogo. And for now, he was done trying to subdue, and instead kill.
As the giant that tackled Eri raises a fist with intent to finish crushing her, Shuuren flickers away from a strike from the one after him to grab her and flicker to the top of one of the remaining buildings. "See what I meant?" he asks with a smirk as his clones attack the remaining behemoths. Meanwhile, a building collapses as Ogo wrecks the last of the deformed men around him, taking them down and making him safe for now.
Eri flinches as the man raises his fist, her life actually briefly flashing before her eyes, that is until Shuuren manages to get her back to safety. She'd grimace slightly as the movement didn't exactly feel pleasant with her injuries but it was better than her skull being smashed into the ground. “I'm sorry Suit I really am..I'll listen to you from now on I promise.” Sometimes people have to learn their lesson the hard way, and Eri got the message loud and clear. She tries to look down to see how they were doing, she was glad it was almost over. “Y..you'll look me over when we get back right?…You don't have to give me candy this time..”
Ogo stands up from underneath the big lug, pushing the body off of him and not even bothering to brush himself off. He steps out of the building, and leaps to the rooftop where Shuuren and Eri were, putting himself back in the line of fire, looking around at what was left of the big guys. "So, you really only needed -ONE- alive, right?" His hand readjusting it's grip on the sword in his hand. He winces a moment, but breathes deeply, "How many more you think there are?"
As Shuuren's clones take care of the last of the behemoths that are visible, the former Jounin glances back to Odo and smirks slightly. "I think we've got enough of an upper hand to not have to rip them all to shreds at this point." With that, he reaches into his pocket and grabs a flare, which he fires off into the air. Within moments, several caravans come from the forest and surround the area, setting up scroll barriers, gates, and such to quarantine the area off. Seems there was more of a plan than just run in and beat everything up. It was to subdue them enough to be able to get the barrier up. The Medical Ninja grins slightly as he lets his clones disappear, focusing some chakra then moving his hands through seals and placing them over Eri to begin mending her wounds with healing chakra.
She looks up as Shuuren begins sealing the area off and breathes a sigh of relief. She managed to actually survive, granted it was entirely because of Shuuren and Ogo's help. Eri watches as Shuuren returns and smiles up at him as he begins to heal her but blinks as she actually feels her some of her broken bones beginning to mend back together. Thankfully it didn't hurt that bad, but it was still a very uncomfortable sensation compared to the wounds he's had to heal before. She tries not to squirm but she fiddles with her hands obviously trying to distract herself. She'd look over at Shuuren and Ogo and smiled a bit more nervously "Thanks, both of you, sorry again for sneaking along…I probably messed things up pretty bad.."
When the rest of the carts and stuff show up to form the barrier around the area for quarantine, Ogo looks around to the straggling creatures milling about, and he sheaths his rusty sword, which since he used it on one of those things, it looks like some of the rust knocked off. In any case, Ogo sits down on the roof, leaning against a small wall that might have been a second story wall, or small support wall to keep little ones from falling off. He leans against that, looking at Eri and Shuuren as Shuuren heals her. He starts laughing when she begins apologizing, putting his hand over his face for a moment.
When his laughter becomes a full-out belly laugh, it hurts in his ribs and he groans through a laugh or two and holds his hand over his broken ribs, trying so hard not to keep laughing. Survival was a funny thing sometimes.
