Starring:
Arika, Zankaru
Date: December 16, 2014
Summary:
Two genin have been sent to investigate why all the signs in Sunagakure are getting repainted and readjusted. Who are the culprits?
"The Disruptive Artistic Flair"
Sunagakure
Every once in a while, a sign would appear to be upside down until it was righted by the shop owner. It wasn't too bad the first few times, but after about ten times of having to right the signs and posts, people were getting sick of it. Obviously this was intentional, especially considering it was the tenth time they had to do this whole business. Two genin were charged to investigate who might be swapping and rotating the signs, and those two were Zankaru and Arika. For the seventh day in a row, there were several signs that were misplaced, upside down, and/or backwards. "This is an odd mission…" Arika comments to no one in particular as she waits for Zankaru to show up.
Late. Zankaru hated being late but he was none the less. A soft sigh given as he'd rush along to try and make it there before he was any later. It didn't help much that the signs were backwards, having him absentmindedly going the wrong way three times before finally realizing what was going on. Grumbling, Zankaru finally caught up to Arika, having corrected a few of the signs already just to hep him and anyone else that used them, know where to go. "Arika-san. We need to find who is doing this and stop them. Quickly.."
Arika noddles in agreement. "Yep! We ought to get this done as quickly as possible!" she echoes, idly wishing she could use clones like Rikuto can. "Ummm… Should we split up? I think I can do about half of the town of you fix the other half. Most of the changes here are in the village center, so taking a few alleys might shelter the adventure…" The girl taps her chin. "Ne! so! Which way do you wanna start, Zankun?"
Zankaru mused for a moment before shaking his head slightly. "Whoever is doing this obviously is good enough to not be caught. We'd be better served sticking together I think. It might take a little longer to do the corrections, but if we can catch the person in the act, that's the important part I feel." He'd shift on his feet lightly. "So we should get started. Pick a direction and we'll start moving to see if we can find the person."
Arika salutes, spins in her spot with an arm held out, and then stops suddenly. It seems her finger is pointing east. "That way!" she exclaims, already dashing towards the nearest sign. This one is upside down and defaced with a multitude of smiley faces (of all things…). "Hmm… What're we supposed to do with the paint, Zankun?" the Ikitara asks, looking to the older genin.
Zankaru takes off after her, slowing as they reached that sign. Frowning at it, he'd shrug and use his tattoos to carefully scrape the acidic edge of those claws on the paint to melt it off without marring the actual sign. Once it was corrected he'd look around. "We need to look around here for clues. a direction they moved. Something has to give them away.. just need to know what.."
Arika hmms and nods. looking around carefully for any signs of the culprit. Eventually she spots something; a small blot of ink that leads off in the opposite direction of the sign. It's probably one of the first signs that got defaced, considering Zankaru would find it difficult to peel off the paint, even with his tattoos. "Ooh! Zankkun! What these? Are these okay?" she asks, not waiting for a reply before she dashed off again.
Zankaru frowns at the sign as the paint is hard to remove, but does eventually get taken off. Shaking hsi head, he'd glance over at Arika as she pointed out something and then took off. "Hmm." Shrugging, Zankaru followed at a more sedated pace, just enough to keep her in sight as he'd scan himself, tracking for anything that might potentially be out of the norm as they'd look for the next altered sign.
Arika continues along her path, not bothering to look for any altered signs. It's clear she's looking for something else. The trail of ink blots leads her to an alleyway, eventually, and she stops to look around. Zankaru would see a few signs here and there that've been flipped, turned, and 'adjusted' with wrong strokes on the kanji or kana that directs people. "Hello?" Arika calls out to the alley, wondering if anyone is there.
Kept busy of course. The tattoos would reach out as he walked along, adjusting and correcting as he could. He wasn't that far behind Arika, but he was definitely having to work to keep up with her and correct signs. The secondary objective was important as well, afterall. Panting softly as he'd stop outside of that alley with Arika, he peered down it, then glanced to her with a shrug. "Shall we?"
Arika looks to Zankaru, nodding a bit. "Okay!" She peers at the alley before her and makes a handseal, sending a burst of wind down the way to try and reveal of anyone was actually hiding from the duo. And apparently there was! Three kids, all huddled under a black blanket for the purpose of hiding. Once they're revealed, they try to skitter off, but end up bumping into each other. They've all got ink on their hands and clothes, so they must be the perpetrators!
Zankaru nods to Arika as she'd find the kids, who scrambled but ultimately failed to get away. The tattoos would come out then, reaching out to grab each one in a coil of the black lines. Zankaru would shift his feet, planting as he'd lift the kids off the ground. "So what do we have here? The culprits of messing up the signs? I think it's time for some kids to do work before they're turned in to the Kage for experimentation.."
The kids let out startled noises when captured, not expecting Zankaru's tattoos to move. Two of them are young, maybe around Arika's apparent age. The third is older and looks like he should be graduating the academy soon. "Wha-? You wouldn't do that!" the older one exclaims. Arika grins just a bit. "Sure they would. They got to me, after all!" She nods a bit, trying to look menacing. "And Zankun is already experimented on! Just look at the tentacles on him!" she says, pointing to his tattoos. … Whatever gets them to cooperate. The two younger kids look scared, certainly.
The younger two are shaken a little by the tattoos while the third is drawn closer to Zankaru. Putting them close, face to face, he'd grin wickedly. "Who said I wouldn't? That, afterall.. was the gentle solution. The hard solution would be turning you guys in to Kuoroke for remedial training.. I'm sure you'd survive.. maybe." He'd put the three kids down with the tattoos, leaving them unfurled to show they can't run without being grabbed. "Simple answer time. I'm going to ask a question, you're going to say 'yes' got it?" Zankaru would pause, waiting for the response before continuing. "You're going to clean up what you did and not do it again. Right?"
The two younger kids nod their heads, saying, "We won't!" They might be twins, judging by how close they seem. The older one glares at Zankaru, but eventually sighs and nods. "Yes…" he mutters, grumbling a bit. Arika beams. "Good! So you guys can help us clean up the mess right now?" They nod again. "That was easy! Zankun, let's get back to the first part of the mission!"
Zankaru glanced to Arika and gave a nod in agreement. Stepping to the side, the tattoos would coil back along Zankaru's body as he'd motion for the alleyway entrance. "Let's go. Plenty to fix and you don't want to run out of time." He'd wait for them to pass before moving behind them, returning to that first part of the mission and cleaning up the mess that the kids did.
