Starring:
Date: April 23-May 3, 2012
Summary:
Aburei, Raili, and the inhabitants of Yuukoku Village pool information with a member of the Mujina Clan of summon badgers.
Poster's note: Profanity filtered in obvious places.
"The Golden Stripe - The Mujina Clan"
Yuukoku Village [Land of Trees]
The night has been an eventful one. The family whose front door and sense of security have been splintered take some time to recover from their fright. Aburei is able to help with that a little, at least; once he gets over his own shakes, he plays a soothing melody on his recorder, laced with calming sensations in genjutsu. The elderly badger, who introduces herself as Mujina Sobo, does her best to clean up the wreckage while this is going on, and goes into the kitchen to prepare some tea. Once everyone is sufficiently steady, Sobo begins to explain what she knows of the situation.
"The badger you saw was one of my clan," Sobo says. "His name is Mujina Hisenkou, and he is the greatest warrior of his generation. It is not his way to attack the innocent, but he suffers an illness known as the Bloodwrath. When the rage is upon him, he knows not friend or foe, only a terrible thirst for battle."
A thumbs up is given to Aburei when he begins the to play the soothing genjutsu. Raili herself, pushing the door chunks around with her foot, looking quite… unhelpful for the moment… Soon enough she'd show why exactly she was just shuffling about.
While everyone was pulling themselves together, Raili was quick to work on the door. With a few handsigns aand a bit of recovering of the door's old parts she managed to put together an earthly door. Raili then turns about mumbling, "Man Konoha clans get all the cool stuff, Wood Release would be great in a pinch… anyhoo, that door? If you want I can make you a new one later but… it's best we take care of what broke your door down in the first place." Raili takes out a little notepad and flips through it, scratching the back of her head. "Hmm…"
Jotjotjot
It looks like she'd keep going but, the little badger begins to explain the situation so she lends an ear. "Bloodwrath you say? Sounds like the sort of guy you don't want working in customer service. You know what offset him exactly?"
Sobo shakes her head. "Alas, no. Some weeks ago he was summoned from our home. The shinobi who holds our clan's summoning scroll, Kanrisha-san, is a good and trustworthy man, so we were not alarmed beyond supposing he had need of great strength. But days passed and we heard no word from either Hisenkou-san or Kanrisha-san, so we became worried. I reverse-summoned myself to Kanrisha-san's side to see what was going on, and found him half-dead in a ditch."
At that moment there is a tapping on the newly-constructed door. "Ryoushi-san? Are you all right? What happened?" The owner of the house goes and opens the door to let his worried neighbors in. "We're all fine, although we had quite a scare. Come in, we're finally learning something about that badger. Everyone, this is Aburei-san from the medical center, and Soba-san from the badger clan, and…ah, my apologies, I forgot to ask your name, kunoichi-san. I am Tame Ryoushi, by the way." He bows to Raili.
Raili's mouth slowly shifts to a frown as the story goes on, she had a feeling it was going to end badly. Just as they were going to get some potentially important information there was a knock at the door. "GAH" The neighbors are met with a glare from Raili, which… takes the blonde a while to figure out that she was actually death glaring people for a, not all that great, reason. It actually isn't until Ryoushi attempts to introduce her that she turns to that goofy smile of hers.
"I am Kumogakure's genius inventor." A few hard taps of her forehead protector with her nail. "Kushrenada Raili. I'm sure you heard of me." Raili does not wait for them to respond, because she wants to believe they heard of her. "Anyhoo! No time for introductions, we have a raging badger to stop!" She then turns to ol' Sobo.
"So, half-dead. I hope you got some words out of him?" She asks, too many times has she tried to get information out of someone who dramatically dies before the words she needed.
Sobo nods. "I was able to bring Kanrisha-san home and save him from death's door. He told us he had been ambushed, by a rogue ninja if his guess was right, but a strong one. He took the summoning scroll and left. Whether the thief is using the scroll himself or has given it to another, I do not know. Certainly we are unable now to summon Hisenkou-san back, so the scroll must have been altered. We were almost in despair of finding Hisenkou-san, when we heard reports of a beast like him troubling this village. I came alone in the hopes that age and frailty might prevail upon his senses where force would be useless. Alas, as I saw him tonight, he is wilder than ever he has been. I do not understand, the Bloodwrath does not usually come upon him easily, and it has never lasted this long or been so savage…"
"Well, we're pretty sure of who's behind this," Ryoushi remarks, and his neighbors nod knowingly. "The Shinrin Nature Cult. They live in the deep woods around here, and they've been making trouble for us for years. We always figured this was their doing too, although we've never seen them summon a beast that wasn't just a beast, or this strong. But anyway, they like using all kinds of strange herbs and such, so that could explain your Hisenkou-san being out of his mind." Aburei nods thoughtfully. "Yes, that makes sense…so if that's true, we need to find out what they're using, and make an antidote…"
Raili lets off an annoyed sigh and shakes her head, this seemed like a hopeless bloodwrath, it may lead to a route that Sobo may not like very much unless they get some sort of lead to help them figure the situation out. "Hrm.." Chin rubbing, she starts thinking of possible traps, trying to force Hisenkou to get summoned back while she was attached. That seemed like a lot of work and very risky IF ONLY THEY HAD A LEAD!
"Wait what?" Raili would come out of her thought bubble, belatedly realizing that Ryoushi did give off a great idea about twenty seconds ago and Aburei put together a possible solution to a possible problem. "Ah, sweet. We roll in, knock some heads, blow a few things up. Find out what's going on and then fix the animals!"
"Course, with them actually managing to subdue this Kanrisha AND Hisenkou, I can only imagine what they have within their ranks. Looks like we've got a lot of work on our hands, Rei." Raili, turns on her heels, looking between the village folk, "Anything more you know about this cult?"
Ryoushi scratches his head. "Well, they've never shown that much fighting strength before, just devious workings with animals and poisons and such. They'd probably have tried to wipe us out directly before if they could. I wouldn't want to attack them directly either though, especially on their own turf. The part of the woods they live in is twisted and sick, all sorts of strange deadly things living in there."
"The Atarimae logging guild will make it worth your while." A skinny man with the look of a clerk speaks up from the back of the room. "We've been considering for some time the value of putting a permanent stop to the Shinrin's activities. Management is still uncertain it would be worth the shinobi force necessary to truly eradicate the problem, but I believe I can authorize offering a reasonable sum for the expeditious resolution of the current dilemma." Wow, actually getting paid for doing ninja work this time. And here they were going to do it for free. n.n
Raili nods a few times, "Fighting strength or cunning, both are quite terrible to work around and it's usually the truly cunning that succeed in the ninja world, no matter how strong others are." Raili grumbles a bit, "But remember this, I am also a strange and deadly thing Ryoushi. I can crush mountains with just a look if need be and well… I am a genius." The first portion not true, the latter still waiting to be proven. "So like…" She was about to continue on with her reassurance just as someone speaks up again.
"Oh?… see we've got some support and—" Her expression goes flat, "Badgers mushroom, I've been doing too much freakin charity work. No wonder I've been so broke, I thought it was all that metal. Rei, let's get going!"
Money was a motivator for this already over motivated girl, and so she just strolls out of the room, fully expecting Aburei to follow it seems.
Sobo bows to everyone present. "My humblest thanks for your help, and my deepest apologies for the harm that has befallen your village. My clan will do what we can to aid in this endeavor, but I fear we would be of little use going with you into those woods. The hidden paths are not our ways, we would reveal you to your enemies." Aburei nods, then blinks and heads after Raili. "Huh? W-wait, Raili-san! Can't we at least get a few hours' sleep first?" u.u;
