Starring:
Date: March 11th, 2010
Summary:
N/A.
"The Missing Hand"
Kureno was supposed to god damn find TWO Genin, but he could only find ONE before his sense of urgency and duty kicked in and he was forced to abandon the plan to find two genin. After all, as he explained to the Genin, they were just looking for a SEVERED HAND. How tough can this be? Can it even be ranked a D mission? Oh well..
THE D RANK MISSION BEGINS!
"This is where I fought the Missing-Nin from the Land of Water." Said Kureno as the bells tied into his hair jingled at the movement. The ravaged area will prove that this hand will be tough to find. "I put him under a Genjutsu before I crystallized the air and severed his hand off. He is quick, but I doubt he'll return." He snickered at that.
The ties to Namu's forehead protector, which was currently tied to his head in the expected fashion, whipped around in a slight breeze as the genin listened to the team leader, if you could consider this two man outfit a team. After taking a precursory look over the area, Namu spoke up, "Whereabouts did you cut his hand off?" There was more on the genin's mind than that, but he chose to put his curiosity to bed and focus on the task at hand. No sense in letting his guard down in a situation that doesn't inherently appear dangerous.
Kureno didn't seem concerned about the situation at hand. His hand quickly rose and he pointed at a spot.. or in the general direction. "Somewhere over there, but the hand could be burried.. so, you go look for it. I'll keep a guard in case someone or something arrives. Y'know. I'll watch your back while you do all the work." Kureno smirked at that. At least he's honest.
Namu didn't mind this, standing around doing nothing usually proves uneventful. He made his way in the direction indicated by Kureno. After climbing over a angled spike of crystal that the genin assumes cut the hand off, he steps a few paces in the direction the crystal must have flown from. Closing his covered eyes, Namu forms a basic seal and focuses his chakra before slowly sinking into the earth.
Namu's search reveals absolutely nothing.
"UHHHH NICE!" Yells Kureno as he watches the Genin. "Pretty nice trick. Did ya find anything yet?" Asks Kureno idly, kinda smirking again too, yet his face strangely remained passive, the smile never touched his eyes.
For just a moment, Namu's head would poke out of the ground giving him the chance to reply "No, not yet", before sinking back under once more. After several long moments of silence, Namu would rise out of the ground beside Kureno, empty-handed. For the most part, he was remarkably clean, just a bit of dirt on the top of his head which he would brush of while asking "You sure he didn't come back to reclaim it or something? How long ago was this?"
"Happened yesterday. And from the looks of it.." He crouches down to look at a few crystals that haven't shattered. "No one came through here. Unless they were flying." He pauses. "Look around. None of the crystals are shattered by being stepped on. Nor the grass is bent by weight." He straightens up again and crosses his arms in front of his chest.
Suddenly, two kunai fly out of the air towards the two Shinobi, and both are too busy with the crystals to notice them. Kureno is caught off guard and the Kunai catches him in the shoulder. He curses. Bad un-PG13 words.
Namu only notices the kunai in time to keep it from impaling his throat, and instead is struck in the chest, just shy of any large arteries. He pulls the weapon free and hurls it in the same direction it came from, or so he thinks it came from atleast. Huffing out a light breath, he begins to scan the area for movement and keeps quiet.
The Kunai hits a dark cloaked figure in the throat and falls to the ground. Than the figure poofs in a cloud of smoke and appears behind Namu, driving a kick to his midsection! "Hah, children have no place here! I only want the Chuunin!" He exclaims.
The cloaked Shinobi quickly deflects the pincers and just back, "Stubborn are we?" He than launches towards Kureno, aiming a punch at his face and a kick to his midsection, spiralling in the air as he does so!
Kureno was utterly unprepared for this, he catches the punch with his face, and the kick with his midsection, and only after that was his physical body replaced with a… rabbit. His replacement technique was a utter failure.
The force of the punches knocked him back a few meters, the cloaked figure now standing between Kureno and Namu.
Kureno wiped off blood from the corner of his mouth. "Alright, you bastard. I see your hand is just fine, I wonder how." He grins, "But this time.. This time…" He forms a few quick handseals, "THIS TIME YOU DIE!!" And as he dropped into a Ninjutsu stance he exclaimed once again
"Crystal Style: Crystallization Technique!" And the ground gave birth to three spikes made of reddish crystals that advanced on the cloaked figure with extreme prejudice!
Now that the cloaked figure was no longer paying a proper amount of attention to Namu, the genin formed a single handseal as a means of focusing his chakra before quickly subsiding underground, effectively vanishing from sight. Whether he was running away or moving at all would be impossible to tell with the naked eye.
The cloaked figure jumped away just in the nick of time before the spikes would shred him to bits, because the entire form of them sprouted even more spikes along their edges.
"Heh. I see you got a lot stronger from "That" time." He was sliding across the ground as he was saying that and forming more handseals, and in a instant afterwards "Water Style: Fl—!" The words were drowned out as a massive burst of water, as if fired from a gun launched towards Kureno!
At the last moment, Kureno forms another set of handseals and the water crystallizes just before it hits him, falls apart and hits the ground. But so did Kureno's knees hit the ground.
"God damnit. I hate you." And than he clapped his hands together, focusing his Chakra. "I'll kill you this time for good bastard."
Suddenly, from behind the cloaked figure, Namu would burst out of the ground. His hands moving with uncanny precision and speed, the young assassin would systematically pinch major nerve bundles up along the figure's backside during his ascent. Lastly, Namu would clamp his metal pincers down on a major nerve sector in the figure's neck and keep them there, effectively immobilizing his victim. Although the effect usually didn't last that long, by keeping his pincers tightly in place, Namu would be able to prolong the paralyzing effect. Namu then shouted out from behind the cloaked ninja, "Now's your chance!"
"Crystal Style: Crystallization!" he shouted as the another spike launched at the figure, and stabbed right through his lower jaw, and than through the head. Kureno was still bleeding as he wiped off the blood from his mouth and smirked. "Heh, there ya go bastard. Just wondering how the hell you have your hand back." He was smirking now, and this one really touched his eyes. But it was obvious that the cloaked Shinobi was dead. As dead as they get.
Now stained with the cloaked shinobi's blood, Namu's pincers retract and cause the body to fall to the ground in a heap. Lowering into a crouch, Namu afforded a moment to touch the kunai wound in his chest before starting to search the Shinobi's body, mainly looking for a forehead protector. However, he stops halfway through his search taking note of the fog slowly rolling in. Although his eyes were no longer on the body, now scanning the area for any further threats, Namu's hands continued to probe for a forehead protector and anything else of merit.
"… Heheehehe. Than you got caught in my genjutsu, and somehow escaped. But I was su—-" He was explaining how the cloaked figure lost his hand. Than he suddenly stopped. "That's strange.." He shivered. "The cold." He than looked around and his jaw dropped. "When the fuck did he do that?!" He exclaimed probably catching Namu's attention. "Namu.. that's your name right? I have to tell you something.." He paused as he bit his lip so hard it started bleeding.
"We are royally screwed."
Namu's hands came to a stop as he looked over at Kureno. Although his mask hid his eyes view it was painfully obvious he had one of those dopey 'Are you serious?' looks on his face. "…Would you care explaining how or why we're royally screwed? Cause…this was a D-rank. Collect a hand. S'what I signed up for." Not exactly waiting for a response, Namu formed another handseal and sunk halfway into the ground…just in case. His sense on full-scale red alert, Namu cast a critical gaze around his foggy surroundings, easily pivoting thanks to being half-submerged in the earth.
Than the earth would completely disappear, and be replaced by the same fog, the fog that would eat up all light and make it seem like it was made of darkness.
"I think it's painfully obvious we are trapped in a Genjutsu. Should have warned you he is a Genju— RAAAAAAAAH" Kureno's words ended by a ear-splitting scream, but no matter how hard Namu would try to look, he wouldn't be able to see Kureno, or whatever caused the pain.
When Namu would come to, he would find that he is still in a darkness. Is he still unconsciouss or is this the Genjutsu? What if he's dead? Who knows..
A mocking laughter echoed out. "So, you wish to know how I regained my hand? You never severed it. You thought that hitting me with a Genjutsu, while you were under mine would work? Idiot. The whole ordeal, it lasted only several seconds, I was just testing you." And these words were obviously not meant for Namu.
"Screw you!" Kureno shouted back, and than another scream of pain.
And somewhere at that time, a black shadow amidst the endless black around Namu would appear, and drive a shiv a half meter long through Namu's gutt.
Namu flinched and his body sprung into action through sheer instinct. One hand moved to block the shiv with a pincer while the other shot forward, trying to attack the attacker. However, these attempts would prove futile as the shiv simply cleaves through the pincer as if it were made of paper, and subsequently Namu's hand before finally making its way through his stomach to protrude out of his back, pinning his hand in place as result. Despite his attempts not to, Namu would howl out in pain as the shiv slowly branched outward, digging deeper into his insides.
There was silence for a long time, than another laugh emerged. "You think.. you think.. I am stupid.. don't you?" Came a haggard voice. It was Kureno's. "I asked around after the last time. I knew it didn't work. But I was hoping. Did you think I'd come unprepared?"
Than the darkness began to vanish. "I am not under your genjutsu. Neither is Namu. You are both under /MY/ Genjutsu." He than laughed again, until it started to hurt him. Than the shiv would disappear from Namu's gutt, and Kureno's voice won't sound so damaged anymore.
".. how?" Came the reply.
Namu looked around after the darkness had faded. Somehow he had ended up on his head, and remained balanced throughout that ordeal, although he wasn't exactly expecting this development and ends up toppling off his head and onto his rear-end. He dusts himself and stands up, thinking to himself 'This is weirder that looking for severed body parts in crystal fields. I need to avoid any further body part collection missions.' Even though he appeared to be out of the genjutsu, Namu wasn't exactly ready to let down his guard, all the way atleast.
"How you ask? If you remember, my Genjutsu uses Crystals for the Link." He smirks, "The plains are filled with crystals from our last fight. You've lost." He than smirks, "Crystal Style: Crystal Dream Prison Technique!" And than the Clouded Figure, standing on the other side of the field fell to his knees, "You will now suffer, suffer until I decide to put you out of your misery, you bastard. You will suffer and DIE!"
Namu noticed the figure in the distance crumple into a heap and breathed an barely audible sigh of relief. 'Genjutsu needs to not happen around me anymore.' he muttered to himself. Convinced now that the immediate threat has come and past, Namu pulls a small red handkerchief from a conceal pouch in one of his gloves and proceeds to wipe down his non-bloody pincers, having apparently forgotten the blood that 'was' there was actually a part of genjutsu. Deciding to play it off like he had already realized that, Namu continues to clean his weapons for seemingly no good reason.
"Now.. now.." Kureno falls to his knees. "Now.. I will end you." He than used up his last chakra to fire off two techniques. "Earth Style: Earth Spiral!" And a spike of earth shot down from under the figure and impaled it on the spike
"Crystal Style: Crystallization!" And than another spike shot through the body and the body started crystallizing itself.
And than Kureno dropped to his knees again, wiping off the blood from his mouth that actually wasn't there. Only the first Kunai wound was reality.
Tucking the clean handkerchief away, Namu walks over to Kureno and places a hand on his shoulder. "So…what are we supposed to do with that?" He points over at the crystallizing corpse. "Just leave it here? Can't really do much with it in that state."
"Well. They wanted a hand… we'll bring them a freakin body and let them figure it out." He chuckles and than coughs out. "Let me just catch my breath. You ain't half bad, I'll treat you to ramen later." The body would than uncrystallize and fall to the floor.
"Since I saved your ass, you are dragging the body." He chuckled at that, and poked Namu's forehead protector. "You are still a Genin, I'm a chuunin." He grins.
"Come on, let's go." And than the two headed back towards the village.
