Starring:
Kefka (emitter), Ayumu, Arika, Hige
Date: June 17, 2015
Summary:
An odd trio of shinobi meet in a neutral land/village that has been seeing some troubles lately… The tales of the beast roaming about have spread.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"The Mysterious Beast - Discovering Death"
Neutral Land
Birds are sent to here there and everywhere, so it's no surprise that although Hige, Konsho and Isura were not in the Hidden Leaf at the time they may have recieved the missive, they still heard of what was going on. As it happened they had just completely another mission, cleaning up a group of highly skilled bandits, when they were brought the missive by the village that had hired them. Hige sent his own word back to Konoha telling them that they'd be going to check it out and assist and would send for backup if it was deemed necessary. That completed, they would make towards the tarnished land.
They travel and arrive near the first fields of stench at the same time as two others do. At first Hige is so thrown off by the foul scents assaulting him that he can't pick up anything else. But then, after he manages to sort through it all, he catches another oddly familiar scent. This leads the trio to Ayumu and Arika. "Arika?" Hige calls as they near. He waves a hand high in greeting but seems surprised to see the Suna nin there. "Do you know what's going on around here?"
The moment he heard his name yelled by an all too familiar voice, Ayumu just about has a heart attack on the spot. Even while the wanderer's mind raced to figure out just how in the /world/ Arika managed to find him again, the body shifts to protect itself. If not dirt then some unfortunate corpse might be what Arika crashes into as a result if her reflex prove inefficient to alter course in time. "So that reached the dragon's ear did it? Or is your arrival the product of something else?" Ayumu asks instead while straightening out his cloak.
Moments later, Ayumu's "gaze" cuts to Hige a fraction of a second before the Inuzuka speaks up. Wordlessly, he starts walking away from the others, humming absently after the first few steps. His actions are not without purpose, for sensors — the extraordinary and the not — come to full life. From vibrations in the ground and air to varying mix-up of scents in the area, information is soaked up, pieced together, set aside, recycled, and so on, recreating the events that happened to the field. At least, so he hoped. Ultimately, Ayumu settles down by one of the half-eaten human corpses to study it both visually through eye stalks, as well as indirectly. From an outsiders perspective however, it might seem as if he's deliberately drooling onto the wounds..
The moment he heard his name yelled by an all too familiar voice, Ayumu just about has a heart attack on the spot. Even while the wanderer's mind raced to figure out just how in the /world/ Arika managed to find him again, the body shifts to protect itself. If not dirt then some unfortunate corpse might be what Arika crashes into as a result if her reflex prove inefficient to alter course in time. "So that reached the dragon's ear did it? Or is your arrival the product of something else?" Ayumu asks instead while straightening out his cloak.
Moments later, Ayumu's "gaze" cuts to Hige a fraction of a second before the Inuzuka speaks up. Wordlessly, he starts walking away from the others, humming absently after the first few steps. His actions are not without purpose, for sensors — the extraordinary and the not — come to full life. From vibrations in the ground and air to varying mix-up of scents in the area, information is soaked up, pieced together, set aside, recycled, and so on, recreating the events that happened to the field. At least, so he hoped. Ultimately, Ayumu settles down by one of the half-eaten human corpses to study it both visually through eye stalks, as well as indirectly. From an outsiders perspective however, it might seem as if he's deliberately drooling onto the wounds of the victim… and technically, they wouldn't be wrong? The bundle of skin covered in saliva from a distance did look very much like either puke or a loogie. >.> (re)
Arika is able to nudge herself in Ayumu's direction. Latch! She grins. "I dunno! I was looking for you cuz Itami-sama needs a date and I said I'd find you! You should come back to Suna for a bit!" Then Hige appears, and she waves cheerfully. "Hiiiiiii!!! How come you're here, Hige-kun? Is Konsho-kun around?" she asks curiously, looking around.
Detect skippy Konsho's around! The pup, now a good three and a half feet tall at the shoulders, bounds around from behind Hige and runs towards Arika, yipping a greeting before following the dog talk with a "Hi Arika!" in his happy-go-lucky puppy voice. Hige just smirks as he watches the pup, shaking his head a bit before he walks closer to the group. "I heard there was some bad stuff going on around here and came to check it out. They asked for help and we weren't all that far away," the teen explains before glancing to Ayumu, those semi-feral eyes judging. This entire time both he and Konsho had been sorting through the scents nearby, purging out all the ones that are coming from the corpses to try and find any underlying scents. "You should be careful. In fact you might want to head back to Suna. It's not really all that safe around here from the looks of things." Hige trails off to another nearby corpse, looking down at it to try and figure out what might have caused the damage, all the while still trying to pick out any stray scents. Lots of death. Oh wait that one's Ayumu, just smells like death.
As they examine and smell, those who try to perceive what's happened to the corpses would find something interesting. The way they are tattered and torn is decidedly canine… except not. There's something off about the patterns of the bite and claw marks and even the bruises. Even the scent left by whatever this attacker was is not quite right… not quite canine… not quite human… the scent leaves a trace of what might seem to smell of something rabid, yet there's more to it than that. Still, at least there is a hint of a scent to follow now if a true trail can be found. Right now all that can be deciphered is that it apparently headed in the direction of the village itself.
"The boy has a point, though not one you will listen to perhaps." Ayumu states just after retracting the odd fishing line. A moment later, he straightens out fully, dusts off his pants, then adjusts his attention further down the path, still ignoring the little girl somehow attached to his form. "But heed mines, bozu. Return with more or not at all."
Following the formation of a single hand sign, chakra rapidly builds up in the Iga. Arika only has a warning after that — the feel and sound of the wind picking up about the man's form — before having to decide if its worth clinging to him just to get shredded by the wind. A threat, nothing more, but one according the Iga's visage and tone he had little qualms carrying out.
As soon as she's off of him, Ayumu doesn't waste before taking off down the path.
Arika frowns. "I'm not leaving without Ayumu-san! Also, hi Konsho!" She then squeaks, not noticing the scent until the wind gusts about her. And then the Iga is off! Well, so is the young Arika… Off his back and landing on the ground. She looks to Hige. "I'll help!" she declares. "I can be useful!" A small nod, and she focuses her chakra. "Ready when you are!" That being said, if the pair really insisted on her staying behind, she'd probably end up wilting and taking a seat where she is, despite the gross ground.
Bother. He can't very well leave Arika there when this thing might return. Granted, all signs pointed to it heading towards the village but Hige wasn't going to take the chance. "Get on Konsho's back," Hige says finally with an inward sigh. "And hold on tight." He drops down to all fours, waiting for the girl to follow the directions, then shoots off after the Iga with Konsho right behind. They move at the speed that only someone on four legs can truly accomplish, racing towards the village as fast as they can in hopes of reaching it before this odd half-canine creature. Hige and Konsho's senses both remain fully open as they travel, keeping a lookout for any signs of deviation from the path the creature might have taken - or of course for the creature itself.
Once instead the village, the team would be led by the scent toward an old-looking house. The people round the village eye them warily, yet with an odd type of sorrow as if they doubt these people will be around much longer… Any murmuring they hear would indicate that the young man who lives there with his mother has apparently fallen ill. Some question if he was attacked and managed to survive an attack of the beast, but no one seems to have actually talked to him. The house itself seems normal enough, a bit dark with only two presences inside, an older woman tending to laundry and another in bed.
Ears twitched at the sound of paws hitting the earth, and soon after, a rush of adrenaline shoots through Ayumu. If not for literally eyes in the back of his head, the Iga might've truly begun to panic from the sound. Instead, he made certain to run off to the side, granting Hige and Konsho more than enough room to out pace the man. Around the point in which the trio would be little more than distance figures on a horizon, Ayumu forms a special seal.
*Poof*
"You know what to do." The shadow clone merely nodded in agreement, pocketed an offered eye, then took off down the road in Ayumu's place while the original gradually slowed down. Soon enough, the doppleganger would join the others. Meanwhile, Ayumu found himself a nice, not-corpse-covered tree, and plopped down on one of its thicker branches to sit and wait for the report.
"Dare it be said the road warned be best not avoided? Or are we opposed, Hige-san, Arika-san?" The clone asks, positively chipper compared to earlier. Regardless of the answer, the clone wastes no time on trying to dig up more from the villagers before brazenly knocking on the door of the mother and child. Unless the former was outside doing laundry. In which case, he made a beeline over to her, greeting her with a flamobyent bowing at the waist.
Arika grins and nods, climbing atop Konsho and giving him a quick pet before she takes a good grip on him. Chakra hold (tree walking skills! Yay!) and arms around the neck make for a great combo in latching. When they catch up, she raises her gaze to see where they are and what goes on with the village. The sight is… Not at all pleasing to the eye. Ew… Yeah, she didn't sign up for this. She just wanted Ayumu back in Suna so he could try dating Itami! Sure, Kaidan was probably the best bet, but…..
Hige and Konsho arrive at the village and the former returns to two feet before they actually enter the confines of such. Don't need to freak people out any more than they already are. He stays close to Konsho so people don't fear the cute ninkin either. Once they stop inside the village Konsho doesn't seem to be forcing Arika off so she can stay there at this point, should she so desire. While Ayumu's clone wanders off to the house that people are talking about to ask them questions the teen begins sniffing around for clues - literally. Having the scent from the corpses he tries to find something similar here and, should he be able to, he will definitely follow it to it's source.
As the clone and Inuzuka duo approach, the woman looks up and suddenly gets quite wide-eyed. She lifts her hands to try to wave him off, but it doesn't seem to do much good, as suddenly a loud crash is heard before a figure is seen darting off at flicker-speed out the other side of the village. Loud gasps are heard as everyone around looks between each other and then toward the woman and finally the shinobi. Around the other side of the house, it seems a huge hole has been ripped off. Whatever that figure was, the bed is now empty, and any signature that was there is now gone. The woman seems to go into shock, staring at the ground and finally falling to her knees as something races off into the distance. She may know something, but is there truly time to ask her anything in her state?
If the loud crash isn't loud enough to grab Hige or Konsho's attention, the sharp whistle from the clone is certain to do the job! As soon as he sensed their eyes upon it, the clone hurriedly motion for Hige, Konsho, and Arika (assuming she's still riding Konsho) towards the direction the sigature took off.
Regardless of whether or not its wishes are heeded, short of being literally dragged along with the others, the Shadow approaches the elder woman, asking nothing, but hugging her instead for now. Apart of the being of chakra remains focused intently on tracking the footfalls of the escapee, monitoring from afar for now.
Arika furrows her brow a bit as she keeps ahold of Konsho, not taking her leave from the pup's back. Then … Something odd happens, and she feels a bit of a chill go down her spine. Scary! The girl tries to follow the thing with her eyes to no avail, then sends out her senses along the wind, but it's too far… Looks like it's time to follow it based on Ayumu's senses and instructions. Arika gets a better grip on Konsho for now, preparing for more speed.
The noise is definitely loud enough for the Inuzuka duo, probably even without their ears to pick it up. The pair look quickly off in the direction that the scent moves before they're down and on the move even as the clone whistles. Apparently they aren't going to wait around for such. Hige is down on all fours again and moving at top speed right along with Konsho, chasing after the creature-boy or whatever the hell it is. Senses open, they follow it as fast as they can, trying to catch up to and overtake it. No way was Hige going to let it hurt someone else, not if he had any say about it at least.
Whatever this thing is, it's charging away at amazing speed… and apparently its not completely idiotic, or at least its instincts are definitely that of a hunter. Its scent soon mixes in with that it left on its victims littered throughout the surrounding wilderness, shielded by their smell to make finding his most recent path quite difficult. Solving this town's issues may not quite be so easy as one might hope. Meanwhile back in town, the woman who's now in the arms of the shadowy figure utters a simple shaky word. "… Run."
