Starring:
Date: December 29, 2014
Summary:
While attending an event held by the Inuzuka clan, Kenta and Yuudai end up confronting some suspicious characters.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"The Puppynappers"
Just outside of Konohagakure
On a surprisingly warm winter's day many, many puppies have gathered in a forest clearing a short ways from the walls of Konohagakure. A number of Leaf-nin stand at the edges of the big group of puppies (which easily number in the dozens). At a casual glance, they might look just like ordinary puppies: small, playful, and coming in a variety of shapes, styles and colours. But at a closer look, most of them are actually just a little larger than one would expect from a dog of its breed. More than that, their behaviour is a little different. While some are obviously playing with other puppies or gnawing on bits of wood, others are sitting down beside each other and yapping at one another if carrying on a conversation.
These puppies are nin-dogs, and this is an annual event for the Inuzuka clan. The young-of-the-year throughout the Inuzuka village have been gathered up and brought here. Most of the ninja here are Inuzuka, chuunin and up, who are observing the puppies, watching their behaviour and attempting to sort them into different categories which will determine their jobs later in life. The idea is to let the puppies socialize, watch how they interact, and determine what their personalities are like.
There are fewer non-Inuzuka ninja here, but they're all here with some sort of specific purpose. There are several med-nin on hand to assist any handlers who are injured by an overly excited or aggressive puppy. There are also a number of younger ninja here who may end up working with an Inuzuka duo in the future — for instance, a Hyuuga genin, who might be called out on missions requiring powerful senses. For these ninja, the event is meant to be a demonstration of how nin-dogs act and allow them to interact with them a little bit and get used to how they behave.
One of the Inuzuka here is Atsuro, who's come with his adult nin-dog Taizen. Atsuro stands at the edges of the puppy crowd with a clipboard, watching and occasionally making notes, while Taizen slowly makes his way through the crowd of puppies, a big black mass among the tiny colourful ones, calmly breaking up fights that get out of hand or speaking to puppies who approach and ask him questions.
Puppies! Everyone loves puppies right? Well, most people at least. One of those people is Yuudai and when the genin heard from his house that the Inuzuka were putting on this little event and offering to show off the dogs so that others could learn more about them…well, the boy couldn't resist. He'd seen people from the clan before and their nin-dogs, but never quite like this. The Hyuuga boy walks through the crowds of pups, bowing to those other shinobi he comes across while remaining relatively quiet and rarely making eye contact. His attention is more focused on the dogs, especially the ones that are talking to eachother. He stops a little ways away from a particular pair who appear to be having a chat, watching their interactions with a slight tilt of his head and a little shy smile.
Kenta has a very easy job, being one of the medic-nin on duty at the event. He watches the interaction between the puppies from where he stands next to Atsuro. That's the most that he can do at this time, since no one's injured and the odds of injury isn't that great. Puppies have sharp teeth, but not enough strength to do great damage yet. Nevertheless, Kenta's expression is one of serious concentration, as if he's guarding the village itself. It's not incorrect in a sense, since these little playful things will become a big part of Konoha's future.
"Atsuro-senpai… how do you tell them apart?" Kenta murmurs sideways to the Jounin. "There are so many of them. Some of them look alike and I don't hear any of them speaking in any human languages yet. Can you understand what they're saying?" That's Kenta. Even when faced with a task like this, he's going to be asking plenty of questions instead of simply enjoying all the cuteness going on in front of his face.
The puppies Yuudai is watching continue to yap at each other for a few seconds. Then, suddenly, both get up. One, a yellow Labrador retriever, jumps up, landing on top of the other, a brown and white border collie. The two wrestle for around fifteen seconds, nipping and pawing with one another, and fortunately both wagging their tails. Then the collie gets up from under the lab and runs to the outside of the group of puppies, followed shortly by the lab. The two run around at the outside now, near Atsuro and Kenta, yapping at one another as they alternate between chasing and fleeing.
Nearby, Atsuro answers Kenta. "It's just a matter of being around dogs often enough. Pretty soon, you can tell them apart, just like you would humans." He points to a pair of little brown dogs that could easily be confused. "Those might look the same to you — which is to say, totally adorable — but see how that one has a broader nose, and that one's eyes are a little narrower? And yeah, by now they can speak pretty well — I can understand them, and they can understand human-speak too. They probably won't learn to actually speak like us for years to come though." Almost as soon as Atsuro's finished answering the questions, a little red dachshund waddles up to Kenta and drops a stick from his mouth right by his feet. The dog looks up at him and gives him, well, puppy eyes. "I think you've got a friend," Atsuro says, looking down at the little dog, curious to see how Kenta will handle a puppy.
Yuudai smiles as he sees the two pups play fight, then start chasing after one another, going so far as to let out a little laugh at the antics they perform. After watching them for a short time the boy starts walking around again, curious to see how others are interacting with eachother. Eventually he slips open the backpack he's carrying and pulls out a little notepad, starting to write some of the things he sees that might be good to know in the future if he ever has to team up with an Inuzuka. He walks as he writes and nearly trips over another pair of playing pups, "Oh, sorry," he says softly to the dogs, stepping back to make sure he didn't actually step on a tail or something.
"I might be able to start telling them apart, but I don't think I'd be able to figure out ninken speech ever, Atsuro-senpai. It's a good thing that I can communicate in other ways that goes pass language barriers," Kenta tells Atsuro somberly. He taps the side of his head with the index finger of his right hand, trusting Atsuro to understand exactly what he means by that. The finger slowly slips down to his cheek and then his jaw when one of cutest little puppies that he's ever seen bounces up to him.
"Oh! Hello there. Do you need someone to help you?" Kenta asks as he slowly lowers himself to his knees. He slips his left hand into a belt pouch on the way down. "I'm Kenta and it's very nice to meet you. Here, let me get that for you…" The medic-nin removes his left hand from the pouch and uses it to pick up the dropped stick, while keeping the thumb tucked against his palm. Then, he offers the stick back to the tiny puppy… along with a meaty little homemade dog treat pressed against it.
One of the pups looks up to Yuudai and whimpers at him softly, but the two quickly go back to playing with one another, batting one another with their paws and trying to wiggle their way to the top of the puppy pile. "That's probably true," says Atsuro, "Not that I know what it's like to have normal ears, but I can hear notes in dog's barks that you couldn't, so I can learn what they're saying." He nods a little as Kenta gestures, then watches as Kenta gives the puppy a treat. The puppy was obviously expecting Kenta to throw the stick and looks confused as it's just handed back to him. But as he takes the stick, his tail begins to wag and he drops it on the ground again to start nibbling up the treat.
The puppy who whimpered at Yuudai, a beagle with the classic tricolour appearance, jumps up and away from the puppy he's been playing with. He stands totally still for a moment, then starts trotting out of the crowd of puppies. He passes by Kenta and the dachshund pup, who suddenly does almost the same thing once he's finished with the treat. The two puppies begin walking single file towards the edge of the clearing. Atsuro glances up from his clipboard. "They must have caught a scent or something," he says, "Would you two mind following them? Just make sure they don't go too far. If you have to, just pick them up and carry them back here. They shouldn't hurt you."
For a split second Yuudai looks scared that he might have hurt the pup, but when they start playing again he takes a deep breath and relaxes. That was close. He's writing more notes in his book when the pup starts to wander off and he looks after it curiously. And that's when Atsuro asks them to follow and he quickly nods and puts the notebook in his backpack. "Uh, yes sir." He says, bowing formally to Atsuro before jogging after the pups and looking to where they're heading curiously, wondering what exactly they're going after.
Kenta was just about to pet the little red dachshund when he simply walks out from under his hand. The corners of the medic-nin's lips turns down slightly in disappointment, but he schools the expression quickly. Kenta straightens to his feat and pats his hands together to get rid of the few crumbs of dried meat that's sticking to his fingers. "Understood, Atsuro-senpai." He nods and jogs off next to Yuudai, whom he recognizes from a few days back, but whom he hasn't interacted with before.
"I wonder what they detected. Ninken noses are superior than normal dogs and they have a greater capacity for processing information too, even at this age," Kenta murmurs softly to Yuudai. It's probably a dead squirrel or something, which means that the two puppies must not be given free rein to play with their prize. Diseases and all that. Kenta quickens his pace.
The puppies continue on their way, leaving the clearing and heading into the forest. As puppies, they can't move /that/ quickly, but they're obviously very determined to find whatever it is they're searching for. As Atsuro said, they do seem to have caught some sort of scent, but they're able to follow it just by sniffing the air, even though they're both following a very clearly defined trail. Moreover, the trail seems to conventiently avoid any obstacles that might give a puppy any trouble — it goes around a fallen log, then travels along a small stream until the opposite banks are so close together the little dogs can simply step over.
"I don't know," Yuudai says quietly to Kenta in response. "I'm, uh, not sure what's out this way." As the puppies enter the forest the boy follows along quickly, trying to catch up but at least keeping them in sight if nothing else. "Do you think that, um, maybe, we should just try and grab them?" He asks uncertainly as he looks over at the one puppy-sitting with him. "Or should we let them, uh, find what they're after?" His tone is soft-spoken and the Hyuuga boy seems surprisingly shy, especially for a Hyuuga.
"I'm actually kind of curious what they found. Let's follow them for a little while longer. We can easily step in if it's something important," Kenta tells Yuudai. "We just have to follow closely enough that we can grab the little guys at a moment's notice. I think that should be too hard. They have really short legs…" He doesn't sound entirely sure, mostly because he's never had to dog sit before.
Kenta is only a step behind the puppies by now. As the puppies run along the trail, he gets increasingly curious. What could the puppies have smelled that would bring them this far out? Belatedly, the medic-nin wonders whether he should have opened up a telepathic connection with Atsuro before he went off with Yuudai. He could use some ongoing expert advice on how to handle small puppies in this type of frency.
The scent leads the puppies a little farther, then finally they stop and lower their noses to the ground. Snuffling, they travel side by side now, both bumping noses against the other in an attempt to follow the remaining trail of scent. They slowly walk forward until finally they stop at a little clump of moss in some damp soil on the forest floor. They start to dig, scraping the moss away with their front paws. It comes away easily, in clumps. A little too easily, in fact, and the reason for this becomes apparent when both dogs pull back, revealing a dirt-streaked piece of paper bearing some kind of seal.
Yuudai catches up with the pups and watches them as they slow down, tailing only a little ways behind them to keep an eye on them. As they trail along the boy glances over at Kenta before remembering his manners and bowing quickly with only a small stop before he continues after the pups. "Forgive me. I'm Hyuuga Yuudai." A small timid smile is offered at the introduction before his eyes are back on the pups and just in time to see them start digging. When he sees the first sign of the paper with the seal he lets out a gasp of surprise before jumping forward and grabbing the pup closest to him, them jumping back again in case something bad happens now that it's exposed. "Watch out!" If it's a bomb or something they don't want to be near it and better to play it safe than sorry!
"I'm Akiyama Kenta. Nice to meet you," Kenta says in reply to Yuudai's introduction. He smiles at the younger shinobi, but the smile slips off when he notices that the puppies have stopped moving. Now they're just digging. Something's buried under the moss? It could be a piece of bone, but that usually doesn't give off strong smells. Not unless it's attached to something dead. Kenta's brows furrow and he glances sideways at Yuudai. "Don't let them chew on whatever they find," he cautions. That becomes even more imperative when the puppies uncover the tag.
"Pull them back and don't touch the tag!" Kenta exclaims. He rushes forward at the same time that Yuudai does and grabs the little red dachshund, which he cradles against his chest. Then, the medic-nin jumps back immediately. He keeps retreating until he's a good fifteen feet away dug up mound of moss. "Stay as far away from it as possible. Are you able to your Byugakugan to check out what they found from afar? See if it's an explosive tag or something else. Also check whether there's anything attached to it or lies hidden underneath."
The seal is definitely not the same as that on an explosive tag. And it's not attached to anything or on top of it. Somehow, though, the seal has generated a powerful scent to attract nin-dogs, and this seems to be its only purpose. It was quite smart of Yuudai and Kenta to take the puppies away, because only a few seconds after they've cleared the area, a net of rough rope with ball-shaped weights all along its edges falls from the trees above, landing right where the puppies would have been. From deeper in the woods comes a soft chuckle.
Yuudai stops next to Kenta with the ohter nin-pup in his arms, holding it tightly so that it doesn't break free. At the question of seeing what they dug up the boy nods and shifts the puppy so that it's in one arm and he can make a seal with his other arm and both hands free. But he stops before he finishes as he hears the chuckle, first surprise and then a flicker of anger crossing his features as a deep frown appears. This time he makes the seal and softly says, "Byakugan." With that done he looks in the direction the chuckle came from to try and see who's there and just how many there might be. People trying to kidnap members of his villages clan are going to pay a severe penalty.
Kenta watches the net drop with growing anger. It's not an emotion that he indulges with often, but he's been experiencing it a lot more these days. The young medic-nin looks down at the puppy in his arms. His first impulse is to have Yuudai run off with both puppies and stay to cover the Genin. Unfortunately, that would weaken their position. Both of them heading off and allowing the kidnappers to run doesn't seem like a good option either. Kenta purses his lips and steps closer to Yuudai. "Can you tell how many there are?" he asks softly. He also offers the little red dachshund to the younger shinobi. "We can't both be burdened. One of us is going to have to watch the puppies while the other takes care of business… "
Now that they've realized someone is coming — probably the same someone who tried to catch them in the net — the puppies start to squirm and yip, attempting to get free of Yuudai and Kenta's arms. From the same direction the chuckle came from, a loud booming voice calls out. "Who goes there?" Then the sound of heavy footfalls and be heard and someone steps into view. It's a burly middle-aged man with a short but scraggly beard, brown but graying. He wears a pair of black pants made of thick fabric with numerous stitches and a pair of heavy leather boots. He wears no shirt to cover his densely muscled body, but he wears the pelt of a black bear as a sort of cape which goes all the way up to the top of his head ending in the top of the bear's head.
He reaches behind him. There's a sound of scraping metal, then he pulls out from behind him a large sword. The blade is straight and long, and the grip is long enough to fit even this man's huge hands. "Do you mean to challenge me?" he asks with barely contained anger. "Those dogs are now mine. You would be fools to try fighting me."
White eyes stare into the forest as Yuudai looks after the chuckler. The puppy in his arm distracts him for a moment however and he ends up letting the nin-dog go before glancing at Kenta. "I don't think they want to stay. Let it go and I'll make sure they go in the right direction. I'm not going to leave you to fend off this guy alone." Brave talk from the genin but there's truth and conviction behind everything he says. Plus he's no small amount angry at this guy for trying to steal the nin-dogs. Yuudai's normal shyness and even the slight stutter he occasionally showed has ceased now that he's focused. "There's more people farther out but they aren't moving and they don't have any weapons out," he adds before dropping his backpack next to a tree. With all the books he carries it would only weigh him down. He does look to make sure the pups won't have any trouble getting back as well, eyes scanning through trees and rocks.
"Actually, you're trespassing on Konoha land and commit a crime," Kenta says in a monotone with his eyes trained on the fool that had tried to take two Inuzuka puppies. Knowing that there's three more people out in the woods is sobering prospect. Letting the puppies run off alone is a recipe for potential disaster, since the others can catch them. On the other hand, having them around will make it very difficult for Yuudai and Kenta to protect them.
After a moment's thought, Kenta lets the little red dachshund jump out of his arms. He makes a hand seal right afterwards and connects his mind with the puppy. <"It's me, the one that gave you a treat earlier"> Kenta telepathically speaks directly into the puppy's mind. <"I want you to run straight back to the others with your friend. When you get there, tell Taizen-senpai and the older Inuzuka about the situation here. I'm going to stay connected with you, so send me a warning if you run into any trouble along the way. Now, please be quick and be brave!"'>
The large man narrows his eyes. "You leave me no choice," he says. He flicks his wrist and the sword is suddenly bathed in flame. Whatever the other people out there are doing, they still don't appear to be approaching, or doing much of anything, for that matter. The dogs jump out of the boys' arms and both start yapping angrily at the man, but when Kenta sends his message, the dachshund freezes. He looks back up to Kenta, then yaps a few more times before both dogs turn and start running back in the direction of the gathering. Seeing the dogs leaving, the man raises the sword above his head. "RAAAAAAAHHHH!" He charges forward and takes a couple of clumsy swipes at Kenta and Yuudai.
Yuudai turns from watching the dogs as he hears the mans fearsome roar, eyes widening slightly as he sees the burning blade. The boy ducks the blade, then jumps back out of the way, hoping his books will be alright until he can get to them. "Kenta-san, be careful!" He calls out to the other shinobi. For now he's avoiding the man as much as possible while glancing back to look after the two dogs. They're the priority for him at the moment. Once they're safe he can focus on this crazy person.
The man with the sword doesn't seem to be very graceful. Kenta has seen other sword users enough to know that either the dognapper is pretending to be a bad swordsman to lure them into complacency or he's just a really bad swordsman. Nevertheless, swords that are on fire aren't something that -anyone- should allow to hit them. "Yuudai-kun, keep watch on what those other three are doing and watch the ninken as long as they're in range," he cautions as he ducks sideways to avoid the blade. This puts Kenta still within range that he can counter with something that their attacker might not be expecting. He thrusts his palm at the man's side while exclaiming loudly. "HA!" A blast of medical chakra surges through the air from his palm, strong enough to cause minor internal injuries and momentarily twist pain receptors into a screaming mess.
Once the man has finished swinging his sword, it become apparent what he's really trying to do. His aim was for the fleeing puppies, and he continues running past Kenta and Yuudai just as soon as they move to avoid the sword swings. Or that was the plan, at least, but as Kenta's technique does its work, he suddenly cries out in agony, dropping his sword and falling forward into the ground. He abandons the sword and gets up on all fours and starts crawling desperately after the dogs despite the pain. The sword just lies there, burning. It's lucky that the soil here is moist, and nothing else actually catches on fire. All that burns is the sword, giving off the scent of oil. By now, Yuudai would notice that the three men deeper in the forest have started moving towards them.
"They're coming!" Yuudai calls out to Kenta as he sees the movement in the trees beyond them. One last look is given back to where the pups went to make sure they're going to be safe before the boy jumps back and in front of the swordless man, white eyes staring at him. "Take your friends and leave now before the others get here." He threatens, looking somewhat formidable despite his age. Of course he has no clue when backup will arrive but sometimes you have to take a little gamble. As if to help his point his starts channeling chakra around his hands for his Juuken style, ready to attack if he doesn't stop.
Kenta kicks the sword further out of reach just in case the fallen man tries to grab it again. He presses his palms together to focus more chakra. The attack that he performed had used up a bit of what he had in his reserves already. "All three are coming now? That doesn't sound good… Are they trying to surround us, Yuudai-kun?" Kenta worries on his bottom lip as he looks around the area for a stout branch. When he finds one, he hurries over to grab it. Then, he returns and swings it at the back of the sword user's head in an attempt to knock the guy out. It might cause a bad concussion, but that's better than getting outnumbered four to three once the guy's comrades arrive.
At the pace the man is crawling, he'll never catch up to the puppies, who are pretty close to disappearing from sight by now. "You don't understand," the man says through gritted teeth. He continues to drag himself along, though, until the two ninja attack him again, then he collapses, whimpering and making a few futile attempts to keep pulling himself along. The three men aren't trying to surround them, though, it seems. Instead, they jump up into the trees overlooking the area.
"Useless," one says admonishingly. His disapproving eyes are barely visible through messy blonde bangs hanging down over his face. "Don't you kids worry about him," he says, hopping down from the tree, "Just consider him taken care of. We gave him everything he needed and he just falls flat on his face." He reaches down to a holster strapped around his leg and adds, "Literally." He starts to stride purposefully in the direction of the man in the bearskin, pulling out a kunai as he closes in.
Or, you know, if you don't want to go away you could just get knocked out, that too. Yuudai blinks as Kenta knocks the man over the head with the branch, then turns his attention to those closing in. Before he can respond to the question on if they're trying to surround them they're there…and one of them is talking. Yuudai hesitates at first, white eyes moving from one to the other before falling on the man who has started towards them. At first he figures that the man is coming after he and Kenta, but when he starts talking about taking care of the other man his eyes widen as he glances worriedly over at Kenta. Then the Hyuuga boy moves around the man on the ground, pulling out his own kunai as he asks, "Who are you? What do you want?" This isn't looking good.
<"Hurry. Three more intruders are confronting us now"> Kenta urges down his mental link with the little red dachshund puppy. That's all he has time to do, since he has to focus on what's happening where he is. The medic-nin reaches into a pouch and pulls out a small pill, which he pops into his mouth. Then, he steps forward to stand next to Yuudai, which also conveniently blocks the way to the unconscious swordsman. "I'm going to assume that you're the one behind all of this." Kenta nods in the direction of the net. "You either coerced this other man to do your bidding or he's in your pay. Whatever the reasons are, it's not very smart of you to try to kidnap members from one of Konoha's noble clans. I won't be so confident about your chances of getting out of here, if I were you. Answer Yuudai-kun's questions."
"Aw, gosh, kid." The blonde ninja shakes his head. "Why worry about that? Here's what you need to know: that man there tried to kidnap some nin-dogs. And that would have gotten the Inuzuka clan pre-e-etty mad, wouldn't it? He's a criminal, so I'm punishing him — you don't need to do a thing but stand back." But there's a slight frown on his face as it becomes apparent that these two aren't just going to let him kill the man. "Oh," he says, "All right. We'll show you a few things." He glances over his shoulder for a moment, then the other men jump down from the tree and start to walk over.
Yuudai's eyes narrow as he listens to what the man has to say and it doesn't exactly fill him with confidence. He's sure glad Kenta is there to protect him though. Things might get ugly! "He'll go back to Konoha and the others there will decide what to do with him. It's not up to you to kill someone, even if it was trying to kidnap Inuzuka clan members." Cause the dogs /are/ clan members right? When the other men come down Yuudai slides into a defensive stance as he feels the impending fight coming. He might just be a recent genin but he's going to do what he can to protect people, even one as bad as the man on the ground. "Kenta-san," he says quietly, "can you take this man and go back to the village? I will try and stall them." Bravery or stupidity?
Kenta shakes his head slightly at Yuudai. He murmurs in a low voice to the Genin, "It's too dangerous to leave you alone here and the man's too be for me to carry. I won't be able to travel far at all before they catch up. With three of them, at least one can probably slip pass you. We have to make a stand here. I don't think that these three are friendly at all. Did you hear what they said earlier?"
Then, Kenta speaks up in a much louder voice. "Whatever you want to show us, you're going to do it in Konoha's interrogation rooms," Kenta states firmly at the leader of the intruders. He makes a sweeping motion with his right hand. "I want you to disarm yourself now and back away from the weapons. Yuudai-kun here is a Hyuga. You must have heard of that famous clan too. Don't think that anything that you do will be able to escape the prowess of his eyes."
"Hey, girls?" says the blonde, "Don't look now, but there are some boys listening in on your little strategy session." He points to the man behind them. "Lemme just restate my position," he says, "You let us have him, we deal with him, and you go back home. Your dogs are probably already back with their friends, so you have no worries there. No problems for you at all, right? Now, you just get out of the way and let me handle everything for you." He flips the kunai in his hand, going from holding it in an underhand position good for stabbing someone lying on the ground to an overhand position for fighting. "Get out of the way," he repeats.
Yuudai doesn't move from his current ready stance. Not while Kenta answers his question, not while the leader of the group calls them girls, not even when the veiled threat comes out. Kunai in one hand, chakra flowing visibly to a point in the other, the Hyuuga boy doesn't seem phased at all by any of it, not even the fact that they're outnumbered. "If you come any closer then we will have to take you into Konoha too. This is your last chance to leave." Bravado from the twelve-year-old. At least his eyes look kind of freaky, but that's about all he has going for him in this situation.
Kenta's expression grows even firmer. He doesn't budge from where he stands. "Ummm… You're in no position to give orders," he tells the leader of the intruders even while his heart thuds loudly to his own ears. He hears Yuudai offer to let the men leave. He watches the way that the leader flips the grip of the kunai. That motion looks well practiced and the threat there is clear. Kenta glances at the man's face and considers how likely it is that the intruders are going to stand down. No warning. The medic-nin quickly weaves a series of hand seals and burns the little black pill in his stomach. He leans forward and blows hard. Soporific mist streams out of his mouth. It travels in a straight line for about four feet, far enough to miss Yuudai, before billowing outwards in a cloud to blanket the intruders.
"Little litters," the blonde growls. He raises the kunai and the three men separate — two men to attack Kenta in the chuunin vest, and one to attack the apparently low-ranking Yuudai. That strategy lasts exactly as long as it takes for Kenta's smoke to knock out the two other men, the blonde managing to stay awake by pulling out a seal tag of some kind and slapping it against his skin. He then breathes in the gas with no apparent ill effects.
"Not bad," he says, "but I can still deal." He makes a couple of quick slashes, one for Kenta and one for Yuudai in an attempt to drive them back a little. Then he turns and charges back for one of the other men. He flips the kunai back around and brings it down, apparently now intent on killing these men too, now that they've been knocked out.
When Kenta lets out his gas Yuudai made the silly rookie mistake of thinking that it would take care of all the guys. When the leader ends up still being conscious it catches the boy off guard and though he starts to move it's a fraction of a second too late. The kunai catches him in a slash right across part of his chest as he jumps away, gritting his teeth against the pain that follows. He doesn't hesitate however and as soon as his feet are under him he launches himself forward as he sees the man attacking his own comrades. He can't get there in time for that but at least he can attack and hopefully prevent him from hitting anyone else. As he moves the kunai vanishes in favor of his hands moving to try and strike the man, infused with chakra to aim at Blondies chakra points.
With the speed that the leader's coming at Kenta and Yuudai, there's very little time to prepare. Kenta can risk the extra seconds it takes to pull out a tag, so he weaves some hand seals and stomps on the ground instead. A wall of chakra springs up in front of him. The kunai slash aimed at him rebounds off the wall in a flash of pale blue light, leaving the medic-nin unharmed. He catches sight of Yuudai getting struck from the corner of his eyes. "Yuudai-kun!" He breaths out a sigh of relief once he sees that the Genin is fine, even spry enough to try to attack the blond man.
Kenta doubt that he would be able to physically reach the two gassed out men in time either. His hands are still up from weaving the wall of chakra and he smoothly moves them into a different set of seals. This one ends with him staring at the intruder leader through bracketed fingers. "Shintenshin no Jutsu!" The medic-nin lashes out with his mind, trying to snare the man before the man can murder his comrades.
The slashes are only meant to make the two Leaf nin back off, so even when Yuudai's hit, he isn't hurt too badly, and Kenta's wall of chakra just isn't likely to yield to such a light blow. He's forced to pull his strike on his fallen comrade back once, twice as Yuudai strikes at him. The genin doesn't manage to hit, but he's bought the fallen enemy a few precious seconds. Perhaps more importantly than that, he's forced the man to move in a way he doesn't want to and focus on two attacks when there are three coming to him. He's raising the kunai to strike again when he suddenly freezes and comes under Kenta's power.
Yuudai's attitude doesn't change at all despite the misses. It was enough to distract the man and for now that's good enough. However when he sees the kunai preparing to strike again he gets ready to move, then stops when he sees the man freeze for a moment. Oooookay. His eyes flick over to the chuunin for a moment before looking back at the man, "Uh…Kenta-san?" He asks uncertainly, not quite sure what's going on at the moment, unfamiliar with this particular jutsu the other is using.
Kenta's face is a mask of concentration. Despite how much he's improved in the last few months, it still takes a lot of effort to keep control of the blond man. The best that he can do is defend himself if he's attacked again, but he couldn't spare too much effort trying to knock out his captive on his own. "Don't worry, Yuudai-san. I have this guy for now. There's a few rolls of bandages in the medical pouch at the small of my back. Use them to tie up the other three," Kenta says through gritted teeth. He sharply sucks air through his teeth.
"As for you…" This time, Kenta targets his words at the leader. "You have a lot of explaining to do back at Konoha… Drop that kunai… and go knock yourself out against that tree to your left." The medic-nin focuses on making his captive's hands open. Then, he focuses on manipulating the blond man over to a tree for some self head bashing.
Perhaps if he'd realizes that Kenta had Yamanaka abilities, he might have been able to prevent this somehow. But right now, all he can do is let his kunai go while he walks over to the indicated tree and starts thunking his head against it. The sound of footfalls can be heard from back in the direction of the puppy gathering. "Looks like we're a little late," says Atsuro, appearing from the trees with Taizen at his side. He looks at the three unconscious men, then over to the man with the bloodied face knocking his head against the trunk again and again. "But you guys handled it okay. What happened?"
Yuudai does as instructed and retrieves the bandages before quickly moving to tie up the other three men quickly before any of them can wake up. He's just finishing up the last one when he hears the footsteps and he looks up, at first afraid of another attack, but he relaxes when he sees it's friendlies. He finally lets his byakugan go now that the others are there and finishes tying up the third man before standing, letting the chuunin explain as he goes to tie up Blondie whenever he beats himself into unconsciousness. On his way to the man he pauses as he remembers the paper and retrieves it so that it doesn't attrack any more nin-dogs out this dangerous way.
Kenta blows out a sigh of relief when reinforcements appear. He manages a strained smile at them, but the smile eases when he's finally able to let go of his jutsu once Yuudai ties the last person up. He also lets the mind link between him and the little red dachshund drop. "Atsuro-senpai! Taizen-senpai! I'm so glad that you're here! I wasn't sure if we'd be able to hold these men back long enough for you to arrive. Yuudai-san was extremely brave and I wouldn't have managed without his help." The medic-nin lowers his hands, but almost immediately lifts one to point at the tag that Yuudai just picked up. He gestures towards the net afterwards. "These four men planned to kidnap some of the ninken. They made a trap with a special trap that lures in ninken and a big net. One of the men might be coerced. The way that he spoke sounded different, but that's something that the interrogators can find out. Are the puppies ok?"
Atsuro walks through the area, looking at the men. "We sent a messenger to the village. In just a few minutes, there'll be some people to help us transport them back. I guess the Inuzuka clan owes you its thanks for saving our dogs. And it's certainly nice that the demonstration had a happy ending. Good work, you two." He looks over to Kenta and nods. "They're fine," he says, "One of them called you a ventriloquist. Well, sorta. The young ones don't really have that good of a vocabulary." Once Yuudai has everyone tied up, Atsuro and Taizen back way from the scene. "I think that'll do," he says, "We'll leave it like that for now — some of our ninja will be trying to figure out exactly what went on here." He glances back in the direction of the gathering. "You can go back if you want, once they've arrived, but I think I can at least buy you two dinner."
While Yuudai finishes tying up the leader of the gang he overhears Kenta's assessment of him and looks embarassed, his cheeks tinging a light shade of red though he tries to look at what he's doing. It just takes a lot longer to tie up this last guy is all. Big…wrists. But he can only do that for so long before he's forced to meet up with the rest, his eyes lowered shyly. He bows to Atsuro before offering him the tag, "Here sensei, this, uh, is what they used." As for the boy he did get a little bit from the slash but he doesn't pay it any attention at this point. The biggest thing is that the shirt is ruined, really. "Kenta-san is too kind. He's the, uh, the one that did it all." With that he turns and bows to Kenta as well. The offer of the meal catches him even more off guard than any of the attacks had and he bows again, deeply. "That's, uh, that's too kind, I couldn't. I'm just glad that your pups are okay."
Kenta shakes his head vigorously at Atsuro. He even brings both of his hands to turn his palms towards the older shinobi. "You don't owe me dinner, Atsuro-senpai. I was placed in today's event for this exact purpose, as a guard and medic. I just did the duty that's expected of me." He nods towards Yuudai. "On the other hand, Yuudai-kun was only supposed to be socializing with the ninken puppies. He didn't need to help with defense duties. He's the only one that deserves the free dinner."
With this said, Kenta turns to Yuudai. "Take your reward, Yuudai-kun. You did a very good thing here today and it should be acknowledged. Two puppies were saved, because of your bravery. Who knows what would have happened otherwise. Atsuro-senpau knows some very good restaurants and he's very generous when it comes to meals."
Atsuro sighs dramatically. "I didn't know anything about you before this Yuudai," he says, "But I can see you have some striking similarities to Kenta. Between the two of you, if I let this conversation go on for a few minutes more, you'll both have decided that you owe /me/ dinner. Let's just let it go there." Still, he secretly intends to surprise them with dinner somehow, when they can't resist. The sound of several people moving through the trees can be heard, then a few chuunin with Leaf forehead protectors enter the area. "Atsuro-senpai, Kenta-senpai," says one saluting, "We're here to take the captives back to the village." Atsuro nods, "We'll clear out," he says, then nods to Kenta and Yuudai, "There's a little time left of the demonstration," he says, "You guys still like puppies after all this, right?"
