Starring:
Michiko, Raion, Ryouji, Hanami, Jurou
Date: April 20, 2015
Summary:
A team of shinobi is sent to take out a horde of mice that resides in one of the restaurants in a local village.
"Vermin-festation Takedown!"
Land of Lightning
Shinobi were called via messenger hawk to answer the call of a mission. One that would involve quite a number of abilities, perhaps, considering the team that was summoned to the main gates at some ungodly hour early in the morning. The sun has barely risen, even. Michiko sighs as she waits by the gates, wondering just why she was doing this sort of thing. It was for the good of Kumogakure, yes, but it was still frustrating. She needed to continue to push her shinobi to their limits and get them to shine even brighter than they had. And if it meant she needed to break them, then so be it. She would rebuild them stronger, hopefully. Those that would find her would notice the book in front of her face and her eyes scanning the pages that were turning at a steady rate.
Raion got his hawk and ran quickly to the front gates. He doesn't care about the 'ungodly' time whatsoever but Pansa does. He arrives and runs right up to Michiko. First on the scene! While Pansa slinks lazily behind him. The atoneko definitely isn't a morning cat. Or even a daytime cat. "Hey Michiko-sama! Maneshi Raion reporting! How're you? And what're reading?" Raion says excitedly.
Ryouji walks up to the gates at a normal pace. Once he got his message from Michiko he quickly grabs his gear and makes his way to the meeting place. He's munching on a quick breakfast of a bean bun he picked up on the way here. Ryouji waves the bean bun in greeting as he spots Raion and Michiko. "Hello Michiko-chan and Raion-san. Salutations." he says with a polite bow. He walks over and reaches out to pet Pansa, giving him a good scratch behind the ears, "Good morning." Then pops the last of the bean bun in his mouth as he mumbles, "So whafs da mifshun?" Then swallows.
Hanami makes her way to the gates, as instructed, briskly but without any haste. She yawns as she arrives, though looks alert enough and geared up for whatever the mission ahead is. She smiles as she sees the others, giving a wave, "Morning you guys, nice to see familiar faces. So what's the order for today huh?"
One of the newer Chuunin of the village has been summoned as well. The time of day doesn't seem to really have any bearing, as he arrives a few minutes ahead of time to join the others. A slight grin tugs at his lips as he looks around, nodding to the rest and saying, "Looks like an interesting range of people for this one. Makes you wonder if they choose the optimal group or just who was left."
"Ohayou, minna-san," Michiko greets. She gives a glance to Jurou and bows her head slightly. "I can say that it really isn't an accident that we have this collection of Shinobi. The orders are a simple, actually… There's an infestation of mice at a restaurant of a local village, and we've been asked to act as exterminators. Raion-san, you'll be team leader for the mission. Ryouji-kun, you're second in command. If you think Raion-san is doing anything wrong, please attempt to correct him quickly so nothing goes wrong."
She hands both official Chuunin a scroll each, then, murmuring soft instructions to the two. Then she hands something to Raion. "That is a map to the village," she tells the Maneshi. "Please make it to the village in a timely manner. We don't want the restaurant to be angry at us, nor the village." She offers a light smile to put them at ease, and hopefully the lightening sky would also lift their moods or make their brains work a bit quicker. "It's five AM. You should only have a half-hour trip. The mission shouldn't take long. Best of luck." And with that abrupt good bye, she disappears into the ground.
Raion takes, and looks over the map. Meanwhile Pansa gets scratched and petted he drowsily looks at the person doing it. He looks annoyed but is making no attempt to stop him. After Raion finishes examining it he smiles, "Alright. Since I'm in charge" apparently "I guess we shouldn't waste time! Let's get moving!" Raion energetically turns and gestures for the others to follow him as he starts briskly walking. He doesn't waste anytime but if someone complained he would slow his pace down… a little.
Ryouji is happy that he isn't leading. He's just not the leader type, clearly. But he can do what Michiko asks of him, worries. Ryouji nods and says, "You got it, Michiko-chan. You can…" then she disapears and Ryouji frowns, "…I hate it when she does that." Ryouji sighs and shakes his head, oh well, nothing he can do about it now. He says, "Right, let's go Raion-san." He follows Raion and unscrolls his once he drops behind for a moment so he can read his scroll. Ryouji nods and will have to do that after the mission. Then he catches up giving a yawn, "So just rats. Shouldn't be too hard, right?"
Hanami listens, nodding as Michiko gives them their mission. She's about to say goodbye when she disappears into the ground, leaving her to shake her head. She looks to Raion, "Well good to see you again Raion, and Pansa too of course," she smiles, "Well this sounds like a simple enough mission, look forward to working with you as leader." She looks to Jurou, "And hello there, I'm Shinatobe Hanami. Pleasure to work with you." With that she takes off after Raion, the pace nothing too hard.
Opening a hand to receive the scroll, Jurou listens to the instructions and nods to Michiko. "So this group was brought along to be exterminators? Talk about overkill, unless these things are giant and rabid," he says with an amused smirk, snickering a bit. He looks to Ryouji and nods then looks to Hanami. "You too. I'm Hizumu Jurou… Shall we?" With that he turns and begins to run along with the others toward their destination.
As the group travels, they would find it was relatively easy to set a good pace that would agree with all. It was only around midway into their travels that problems would arise. Beneath them, the ground would begin to shake, as if it were an earthquake. It would start to rise, then, splitting the group into two, hopefully. The two that were towards the back, Jurou and Hanami, would find themselves facing a large, and long, earthen wall that they would have to either destroy to make their way, or find someway to get around it. Ryouji and Raion would be on the other side, able to continue on with their journey.
Raion looks significantly disturbed by the ground shaking and when the wall spouts up he would turn and look at it. His look changing to a bit more of a confused look, "Uhm… Ryouji?… What do we do about that? I can't do anything about a wall." He would then approach the wall and simply poke it with his claw. "I could shock it… But what would that do?" he focuses his chakra, just in case something bad was about to happen.
Ryouji blinks in surprise upon seeing the wall after the earthquake. He tilts his head at Raion and points at him, "You're the leader, I'm the second. But, if you wanted my adivce, there's nothing telling us that either Hanami or Jurou are in any trouble. Perhaps we should continue on with the mission? That is on our priority list afterall. If they can, they'll catch up." He hopes.
Hanami skids to a halt as the ground shakes, hopping back as the earth wall ruptures from the ground in front of her. Swearing she watches as it grows, knowing her skills wont let her punch through it so she glances to her right and left to see how far the wall reaches in either direction as a possible way to go around. While she does she calls out to Raion and Ryouji on the other side, "Hey you guys! I'm fine, I think we're good at the moment except for this wall. Going to look for a way around or past it unless you have a better idea on getting through. But at the moment don't worry. Just keep your senses alert for enemies or unless this was a set trap." With that she takes her own advice as she looks for a way around she keeps her senses alert and focuses her chakra just in case.
When the ground rises up, Jurou braces himself so that he doesn't go tumbling to the ground. "Well, that's annoying," he says, looking up at the wall and then looking over to Hanami. "Guess it's you and me, kiddo. Keep an eye out." He peers around, wondering who might've cast that jutsu. They're obviously strong, maybe out of his league a bit. They're going to have to meet back up with the others before things get too out of hand, but the mission is priority. "Move on ahead. We'll catch up when we can."
Neither Jurou nor Hanami would see a way 'out' of the situation. Perhaps they could climb the wall or travel around it, but the wall itself seemed extensive both in height and width. There was no real sign of anyone controlling the jutsu. At least, none that they could see. Hmm… What to do. If Raion and Ryouji continue forth on their journey, they would find nothing trying to stop them or get in the way.
Raion looks to Ryouji and nods. "Just let me look around and have a listen for anyone that might be using a jutsu…" with that he briefly looks around and listens for anyone besides the ones he knows are here. If he didn't spot anything he'd continue on the path. They should be able to handle themselves… Right?
Ryouji nods and charges his chakra before he brings up his own chakra senses. He's not sure if he's supposed to pick anything up but conitnues on with Raion. "The village should be close by, Michiko said it was only half an hour away." he says as they run.
Hanami hrms, not being able to pick up anything. She looks to Jurou, "Well we can just go around. Or…"she shrugs, "Run on up and over. What do you think?" Meanwhile she continues to keep her senses alert for anything around them on the wind. Hopefully they'll be able to get past this quickly and not fall too far behind.
"Either way's going to take longer than we need it to," Jurou says, frowning slightly. "If this is someone's jutsu work, it could be dangerous even moreso, but I technically have an elemental advantage of that person through my Kekkei Genkai. Let's make a break for it." With that he turns and leaps up onto the wall, looking down and offering a hand in case Hanami doesn't know how to Tree Walk just yet.
Touching the wall would make Jurou feel as if chakra was being stolen from him. Nothing too noticeable at first, but it was a steady drain that would eventually be felt, especially should he try to draw on any jutsu. As there is nothing to see, no one sees anything. It was, in all honesty, a mystery. Ryouji and Raion would reach the village and meet with the elder, who offered a light bow in greeting. "The restaurant owner is just that way," he would tell them, pointing to a small shop that specialized in meaty meals like steak and hamburgers (or something)
Raion nods to the man and smiles, "Don't worry, we'll fix the rat problem swiftly." He then walks briskly towards the shop, ready to eradicate the rats. Pansa too. Because two will get the job done faster than one.
Ryouji watches Raion, then bows to the man before following behind. He says. "Don't forget, your team is cut in half, so we're technically not as strong." He spies the shop and says with a grin, "Not that it matters, it's just rats. You know, when we're done, we should pick up some steak. I could go for some right about now."
Hanami doesn't take the offered hand, she's no need. Hopping up on the wall she takes off, though after a short bit when she starts feeling more of the effects of the chakra drain she looks at Jurou, "You feeling this? We either need to make a run for it or bail now and go around."
Upon feeling that, Jurou blinks then nods to Hanami. "Bail," he instructs, before kicking off the wall to go back to the ground. "So we're dealing with a pretty stout jutsuist then," he says, peering around for evidence of whoever may be controlling this. He ponders a moment then shrugs, bringing his hands into a seal as he creates a beams of light in front of him that he sends at the wall one after another with intent to blast holes through it until either they're through the danger or whoever they're dealing with shows himself.
Jurou's attacks had little to no effect on the wall. No lasting effects, at least, as a small dip in the earth appears before filling itself up again. It seemed to get stronger, even, with each hit, absorbing the energy unleashed by the Hizumu
The restaurant had yet to open. It was completely empty except for a few people, the employees, and they all perk up at seeing the shinobi. One of them, the manager, makes her way to Raion with a light bow. "The mice… You're here to fix the issue, I hope? I wanted to let you know… There are a lot of mice. Do be careful," she warns
Raion nods to the lady when she bows to him, "Yes, we are here about the mice, and don't worry. I think I have a little something to take care of it. A large number or not." Raion then looks to Ryouji, "Let's get started. Mice can't be that bad. I'm sure we've both fought much worse." he then looks back to the lady and nods again, smiling, "show us where the mice are most commonly sighted, and we'll get right to work." and then prepares to follow the lady, keeping an ear out for any mice that may be hiding already!
Charka senses might not pick up the rats. They hardly pick up the wolves from before with Michiko, so picking up the mice with chakra might be impossbile. So Ryouji goes with his old eyes and ears to sniff out the mice. Besides, Raion might do this so much better. Ryouji says, "So, I suppose I could fire senbon at them, I've got a few." He pulls out the fine looking throwing needles from his pouch. "My other jutsu might cause more damage than killing the mice." He can see his explosive tags just blowing chunks out of the building, or his wind jutsu punching holes in all the walls. Or even Onikuma being let loose and completely destroying the building.
Hanami immediately hops down from the wall, then pauses as Jurou starts blasting it. When that doesn't seem to do much good, the wall repairing itself even, she touches his shoulder, "Come on, we're going around this stupid wall." With that she takes off to the right, running for the end of the wall(or whatever direction doesn't lead then to running off the side of a cliff).
Sighing a bit, Jurou nods to Hanami and then starts taking off in the same direction. This is going to be tedious, and they don't even know who's casting this jutsu or where they are yet. "Keep your guard up. No telling who we're up against. Not sure why they'd want to infest some restaurant in a random town, unless this is a trap specifically for Kumo nin who come to assist."
The mice that seem to be within the restaurant are easy to spot, as they've become quite daring. One actually skitters across the floor right in front of Raion, the mouse aiming for a crust of bread that was lying on the floor for some reason. Squeaksqueak! As Hanami and Jurou make their way around the wall, explosive tags suddenly go off around them in bright fiery explosions! Not only is the fire hot, it's also extremely painful… So it's probably best to avoid it, yep.
Raion sees the one rat and nods a little, "Hmm. We need a way to lure all of them out at once. Got any way we could do that? If we get them all in my line of sight, I can kill all of them. I just have no clue how we'd go about accomplishing that. I guess I can take care of that one. Got any fire techniques or anything? We could try and smoke them out maybe." with that Raion darts foward with chakra enhanced speed, attempting to stab the mouse with his claws. He also makes a mental note to clean up any blood he leaves himself.
Ryouji tisk tisks as the mouse is getting away. "Common Raion-san, like this." He flicks three senbon at the mouse, rather confident that they'll hit. Silly mouse. "I don't really have anything to draw them out though. Let me see…"
Hanami would later curse herself for being so stupid as not to keeping her senses more alert. As they round the wall she catch the sound and scent of burning as the explosive tags go off. Gathering the wind she tries dashing through but isn't too successful, ending up singed and burned she bites back the pain cause getting through is the only option she sees so she continues but now is focusing on what's around her to hopefully catch a hint of any other surprises.
Though Jurou notices the tags going off, it's not in time to spare his younger cohort against the oncoming flames. He leaps and kicks off a tree, going above the blast radius before coming down beside Hanami once it's stopped. "Okay. Yeah. This is definitely a trap, one we're stuck at on our own while the others are off killing rodents." So earth and explosive tags. At least two of the weapons in this guy's arsenal.
The mouse is quick to skitter away from Raion, something warning it of an impending 'cat attack'. It is not, however, ready for the senbon that pierce through its body and trap it where it is. The mouse died shortly, one of the senbon cutting into its tiny heart to end its life. Well, that's one… Where are the rest? Raion could probably hear them within the walls. Or even Pansa.
Jurou and Hanami seem to have their own problem. No one is around, yet they're being attacked? Nothing else happens, but Hanami might notice a tag sticking out of the wall after the most recent blast attack… Hmm!
Raion looks at the wall, ignoring the fact he just missed his claw strike. "Well… I can tell the rest are in the walls. Not really good. Can electricity go through the walls and still deal significant damage to them?" Raion considers this as he looks at the walls, listening to the skittering and sounds. Hmming lightly.
Ryouji says, "Not wooden walls, no. Not to mention it might cause a fire. But…" and he begins looking at the walls for any nibbled out area, a mouse hole if you will. Once he finds out he gets down putting his face next to it. He makes a hand sign and sucks in his breath before he fires a blast of air into the wall spaces. With any luck it'll drive the mice out.
Hanami isn't too happy about the recent turn. And is going to pay for it later, sheesh why couldn't this have been a simple mouse hunting mission huh? But no…. Anyways as she dashes around the wall she notices the tag sticking out and moves away from it, peering at it curiously to see if it's another explosive tag. She silently points it out to Jurou.
Looking over at the tag when Hanami points it out, Jurou frowns and nods. "Whoever set this up planned ahead…. We might need to send word back to Kumogakure to get stronger forces up. If someone is strong enough to raise this sort of barrier on this scale, have it absorb, have the traps set up through it all along, and control it from the distance they apparently are, they are likely very strong." With that he'd start to inspect for signs of a tripwire or other means of setting off this particular tag.
When Ryouji finds the mouse hole low to the ground and sends wind into it, mice start to pop out into the restaurant. If he persists, then they would be stuck outside until further notice. The number that started to show up was… staggering. There were scores of them! Mice all over the place! Ahhhhhh.
Jurou would not find a trip wire. If either knew anything about seals, they might be able to recognize the fact that they are triggered by chakra. Behind the scenes, they were designed specifically for Jurou and Hanami. The tag itself didn't seem explosive, at least!
Raion sees the mice come out and responds by doing hand seals before thrusting both hands forward, and attempting to shock the cluster of mice with very small and weak bolts of lightning. These would most likely not be a threat to the ground and walls, but definitely to the mice. After this worked or failed, regardless, he would observe the mice. And await anything Ryouji had to help out.
Ryouji does nothing but observe Raion as he attacks the rats. He has attacks that would work, but they're very destructive. Ryouji is a weapon of mass destruction of Kumogakure. He's not suited to this kind of delicate mission. If he did anything to all the rats, he'd end up blowing holes in everything. Besides, he's supposed to watch Raion, so he'll do that for now. "Did you get them all?" he asks.
Hanami frowns at the tag, knowing she has no clue what it is and by Jurou's silence he probably doesn't know as well. She tries though to remember what it looks like. She mind not understand it but when she has a chance she'll draw it out as best she can, maybe something else will know. After taking a minute she looks to Jurou, "I think we better get out of here. Honestly I don't want to be searching the area for whoever's behind this. At least not without the others. No doubt by the time we catch up with them they'll have had the rats all taken care of." Giving the tag another look she turns and takes off.
"Good idea," Jurou says, smirking then nodding to Hanami. He peers back at the wall a moment before taking back off toward the village behind Hanami. Seems he's got something positive to report back at least. He does keep an eye on it as they move, just in case there's more danger prepared for them along the way back.
With the wall cleared, Hanami and Jurou would find nothing else waiting for them. The trip to the village was swift, and they made it in one piece. At some point, something was triggered, making the earthen wall crumble away. Not that they would notice unless they turned back to check on it…
The trio dealing with mice would be able to get rid of a lot of them, but a few manage to escape the destruction that was befalling their comrades and they start to skitter around the restaurant, searching for an escape route.
Raion looks at the remainder scurrying around and decides, better safe than sorry, before making the seals again. "Sorry little guys. Gotta make sure you don't come back." is all he says before, with a slightly sorrowed face, fires another barrage of wimpy lightning bolts at them. Assuming this works, he'd then look to Ryouji. "So. I guess we should clean all this up right? Heh. That will be just oh-so fun."
Hanami will cast a glance back, so probably catches a glimpse of the crumbling wall but she just turns and keeps going. When she stop at the village she'll make mention of it to Jurou if he didn't look back himself. Otherwise she'll probably stop and take stock of her injuries, now that the adrenaline and real drive to get here has worn off. "Jurou..maybe you should go find the others. Help if they need to. I'll probably see if someone around here can help me out. Unless you happen to have burn medicine on hand." She sighs.
"Nah, they're fine. They've got stronger shinobi than me with them," Jurou says with a shrug of his shoulders. "I've got to report back to the superiors what happened when we get back so proper measures can be taken. Once we get back, go to the hospital and get treated."
It's a Mousicide! Mouse bodies everywhere, their hearts stopped if they weren't alive, and badly shocked (literally) if they were. Regardless of the condition, there would be quite a bit of cleanup ahead of the team…
Villagers were walking around the town by now, and one of them happened to notice Hanami's slightly toasted state. She makes her way over to the kunoichi and points out a store that sold burn cream, which might be useful for Hanami, and even gives the genin a bit of money before tottering on her way. Old ladies are awesome, right?
Raion will waist absolutely no time starting the clean up, taking a bag from one of the trash bins and stuffing rat corpses in the bag, any that he picked up that still wiggled or anything he'd put out of their misery with his claws as he placed them in the bag. This would just keep going and Raion would simply not stop picking them up. This is still a mission and clean-up is neccessary. After all, he made the mess.
Hanami raises an eyebrow to Jurou, but then just turns to go look for some aid. The nice old woman who helps her out is thanked profusely, and Hanami quickly gets the supplies she needs. After taking a minute to treat her wounds and bandage them she locates the restaurant by asking for directions. If she can easily get there, she'll go in and greet Raion and Ryouji, letting Raion as team leader know what happened before helping them with any of the clean up.
As soon as all the mice are cleaned up, the restauran employees thank the shinobi and set about to bleaching the entire restaurant and patching all the holes. If the shinobi wish, they could help out (or their clients could request such…) Regardless of whether or not they decide to stay and help, the team would eventually make their way back to Kumogakure with no further incident. Mission complete!
