Starring:
Date: December 2, 2014
Summary:
Arika and Rikuto are sent to help a town with a rather large pest problem. The two enjoy the job after turning it into a game.
"Whack-a-Pest!"
Bazaar in Toshi Sagan
Since Arika is still a relatively new genin, she's been given a number of easy jobs. From pet-sitting to helping an artist buy new supplies to keeping watch over a store while the owner was sick. She didn't mind any of the jobs either, which might be more than a little strange. But everything seemed to be great fun for the girl. Finally, though, she's been given a task that will lead her outside of the village. Rikuto has been selected to both keep an eye on her and show her how missions that aren't as easy as a D-rank would typically work.
The task was simple, according to the message. Both would have to meet up at the Bazaar near Toshi Sagan. The residents were experiencing trouble with the local animal population: snakes, scorpions, and desert rats were eating their supplies for the colder months. It was up to the genin to stop them! Arika was lead to the meeting place by her guard(ian) Ping, then left alone to wait for Rikuto to show up. None of the residents paid any mind to her, as they figured she was just here for entertainment. A few were batting at a rather large-looking rat, trying to shoo it away from their grain supply.
Having a feeling of why he was selected by name and by who, Rikuto agreed to the mission without much question. The teen would make his way over towards the bazaar in his usual garbs, though one hand slipped free to stroke at his neck. Looking around the area, his upper lip curls as he looks at the infestation in disgust. Breathing in faintly, he forms a partial sign under his chin and breaths out forcefully. Flowing from the boy's lips are a set of three senbons, almost solid impaling the rat, lancing it into the ground. "Geeze.. this is going to be a mess to clean up everything. Not sure why they had her out here of all places to start. Ari-chan, where are you?" Was said grumbling but loudly as he walks away, soon looking for where the girl might have gone too.
Arika spots Rikuto and waves cheerfully, immediately dashing over with a small burst of wind to help her out. "Rikkun!" she exclaims, hugging the Miira happily. She's obviously excited for the mission, not minding the infestation that much. The people who were dealing with the rat blink when it drops dead, looking between Rikuto and the rodent for a few confused seconds before calling out a quick 'thank you, young man' and poking the body over to the large bonfire pit in the middle of the town. There weren't many, but it was apparently the dumping ground for the carcasses.
"Ummm… So I think we're just supposed to help get rid of all the really big beasties and also get rid of the scorpions and snakes. They said that they were all pretty big and not very poisonous, so it isn't very dangerous." Arika nods a bit, looking around the town and its current disheveled state. "Umm… There're traps all over the place, they said. They mostly lure the beasties since they're difficult to kill. And that's where we come in!" She nods again, then tugs Rikuto over in the direction of a used trap. "This's what they look like. And they gave me this." She hands him a map of the town, red X's where the traps are located.
The young Miira dips his head lightly towards the people who were trying to chase off the rat before taking half a step back when a girl much younger than him rushes him to give him a hug. "There you are, you haven't been snacking or touching a lot of the things around here, have you?" There was a touch of worry in his voice as he wraps an arm around her but then looks her over still.
After he was content she looked well enough and wasn't covered in anything, he takes a step back and pulls out a scroll where he had made a copy of the missions notes. "Hmm.. I think for you, with your bits of Wind Jutsu, we could focus onto the scorpions first. They won't be as hard for you to hit. have you seen any around? They will he poisonous but only if you let them sting you, their pinchers aren't toxic." Rolling up the scroll, he would raise a hand and beckon for Arika to follow along as he begins to search as well.
Arika is definitely untouched thus far. Maybe a bit sandy thanks to the wind, but fine otherwise. "Okay! I … don't think I've seen an-" she breaks off at seeing something that looks a lot like a pincer turn a corner, immediately pointing at the thing. "ooh, was that one?" she asks, bouncing a bit in her spot. Without waiting for an answer, she dashes off towards it, sending a gust of wind in an attempt to make it topple or at least stop it in its tracks. A bit careless, yes, but it seems to work! The scorpion makes a few odd noises as it finds itself on its back, the stinger on its tail flailing about in the air. Fortunately, Arika is just out of reach.
Turning his attention towards the creature, Rikuto opens his mouth to ask something but when she suddenly disappears, his head hangs and bit. Soon after, the boy begins to catch up to the young girl and pauses. "Y-yes, that's one of them, just don't get.. Grr.. Arika, those things are poisonous. That thing at the end of the tail is what they use to kill rats and things that normally try to hunt them. Stay away from that thing. Stay at range and attack it." Lowering his gaze focused on the flipped over creature and pulls out a kunai, tossing it into the ground close to the girl. "Remember the wind sharp trick you showed me before? Focus on the kunai and then toss it. Don't need to hold back."
Arika nods, picking up the kunai Rikuto threw at her and adding two more from her own arsenal. She focuses a bit of chakra in them, though it's not a good distribution. One is obviously more charged than the other, judging by the faint hue of blue-ish chakra on the edges of the kunai. She throws them all at the scorpion, and it's a fairly lucky shot. One of them goes into its midsection while another enters its head. The third just bounces off the wildly swinging tail, but apparently it's now badly wounded and not looking to pick a fight. Its movements slow a bit as it dies a rather slow death, and the tail falls limp as it tries to conserve its strength. Small chattering noises can be heard from it. "Is that okay, Rikkun? Did I get it?" Arika asks, turning to the Miira again. She's well out of range from the scorpion, fortunately.
Lifting his eyes to the young girl, Rikuto watches as she begins focusing onto the technique several times before smiling and nodding twice. "Very nice work, the third one needed a bit more refinement but over all you did well. The next thing you need to worry about is.. the toxin is still rather dangerous." Moving his hand back to his cloak, he uses it to keep it open while his other hand draws out a sword that was at his hip. Bringing it over to the large scorpion, he uses the flat side of the sword to press and hold the tail down even as it twitches. "Most of the tail is harmless, it's just this piece here you need to worry about.. If you remove it, it isn't a danger." As he spoke, Rikuto draws a shuriken from the middle of the creatures body that Arika threw into it and cuts off the notch below the bulb of poison. "Like that."
Arika nods again, watching Rikuto curiously as he moves towards the large bug. She blinks a bit when he cuts off the poison barb at the end of the tail, wincing slightly at the chittering noises coming from the scorpion. Fortunately it was almost dead and would soon not feel any pain. "Okay!" she says, a bit of her cheer lost as she watches the scorpion get… well, technically it's torture… She looks around a bit more, hunting for snakes, more scorpions, or large rats. Oh, there's a thing in the sand right there… It looks odd… She decides to tiptoe closer to it, peering down the alleyway where the snake is hiding unless Rikuto decides to stop her.
When the scorpion began to wiggle further and make sounds, Rikuto without much hesitation moves the hand holding the kunai shifts and thrusts downward, stabbing at the creatures head, putting his weight into it to kill the creature off quickly. "Hmm.. these string are stronger than I thought. Thought the wounds you did would of killed it already, it just set it into shock I guess. Now.." Turning around to look around, Rikuto quickly sees what Arika sees and possibly more clearly, a sand pit viper.
Not waiting to tell her to stop, the kunai and sword are dropped as he quickly exhales two bursts of flaming senbons before weaving a quick pair of seals, releasing a orb of flames, which would expand to almost the size of the snake before exploding on contact. "Watch what you get near Ari-chan. That one's dangerous!"
Though the animals themselves are big, they don't seem to be difficult to kill. Rikuto's attacks make turn the dangerous sand viper into something that would likely be a nice snack for a ferret or a falcon, perhaps. Arika is a bit startled by the flames that race past her, stopping in her tracks to watch the display with slightly wide eyes. "ooh…" she says quietly, amazed by Rikuto's skills. "Okie, Rikkun!" she tells him, though it's difficult to tell if she really heard him and is planning to listen to his advice. "Hmm… There should be more beasties like this… Let's keep looking!"
What's encountered next is another very large scorpion. This one is big enough to spot easily, as it is the size of a small shack. How the heck did it even get that big?? Well, regardless, the genin have to take it out. Arika tries to throw another kunai, but it just bounces off the armor of the beast. In fact, it's so ineffective that it doesn't even notice the attack. It just continues pawing at the house with one of its claws, attempting to get at a young boy that's frozen in fear in front of a window of a house.
"Just how many of them are there.. She's going to end up needing treatment before too long." Turning towards where Arika point, the young Miira picks up his sword and kunai along with the girl's and pockets them before moving to her. Contemplating which jutsu to use next, Rikuto was distracted at first but then stops in his tracks as he noticed something, 'Did that building move?' Turning to focus again, he realizes the building was a creature, not anther house. Tapping his fingertips together, he begins to weave his fingers together and draws his sword.
"Lesson time it seems. Every suit of armor has weak points to it, if you attack the armor itself you'll get resistance but if you cut at the straps, you might have luck." 'They really shouldn't of sent Arika for this.' Arika would be able to notice the wind and air around her begin to whip and wrap around the scorpion. Moving a hand into his pouch, he tosses a small bag to the girl and says, "Ari-chan, inside are a few flint and steel spark balls. Toss one against the creature if you want to see why fire and wind are better than any armor." What Arika might not be able to tell but the wind the young Miira was manipulating was also acting as an accelerant and a fuel source for a flame.
Arika nods and nods again as she listens to Rikuto's advice, or lesson. She hmms, peering at the scorpion a bit before fumbling with the bag he tossed over. "Huh? Spark balls?" she echoes, reaching into the pouch to pull out the things. She hefts one in her hand, tossing it up and down curiously to see how much it weighs, then throws it at the scorpion, hoping that she's doing the right thing. The boy that the scorpion seems to be after is quite terrified, pale in the face and not looking too good. "H-help!!!" he cries out after noticing Rikuto and Arika try to face the large creature. Honestly, he's shocked that the girl is even /attempting/ to fight the thing. "Hey, you! Shouldn't you be /running/???" he yells, though he gives a loud yelp as he just barely avoids getting struck by the scorpion's tail.
Apparently that attack was enough to bring the scorpion down. It became nice and toasty in that shell. A little too toasty. Enough that the giant bug ended up roasted, the exoskeleton toppling over now that it didn't have much muscle to support it. Yep, these critters didn't seem to have good defenses despite their size. If they're the most powerful things in the village, it must be because they're so freaky to look at! The boy in the corner sighs with relief, not even bothering to say thank you (rude…) before fleeing off to his mom.
"Whoa! That was sooooo cool! Or hot?" She giggles at her own joke before looking around a bit more. There were still beasties about, but they were the ones that were far more manageable in size. One more strike-down would likely finish the job enough so that the townsfolk could clear the rest. "Hmm… Do you see anything else, Rikkun?" she asks, peering around, though not very carefully. She's not really sure what to be looking for anymore.
Raising a hand, Rikuto begins to waggle his finger from side to side. "This isn't just a pet sitting job Ari-chan.. We have to clear out /all/ of their pests. That means we have to hunt all around the town and then ask the villagers if they have any hidden." The boy begins to walk away, a smirk on his lips as an idea comes to mind. Turning his head back to look towards Arika he teases, "I'll make sure Ping hears if you miss any or let me do most of the work. He'll give you lots of home work." Turning his head to the side, he tilts it as he watches a snake and a rat begin to fight.. though the rat several times larger than the snake seems to be winning. Rikuto doesn't mess with them, but seems to be preparing to finish off the 'winner'. "Now, if we see two enemies fighting, you let them fight. You wait, and then finish off the one that remains standing, gaves you energy."
Arika huffs. "I know that!" she grumbles. She might have been hoping that they /didn't/ have to take out all the animals, but she didn't think this job wouldn't mean taking them all out. Then her expression turns almost horrified. "Don't tell Ping-san that! Meanie, Rikkun!" she pouts, hitting him with a fist. It's not a hard hit. Nothing to bat an eye at. But it does make a nice thud against him. Her attention is eventually drawn to the fight between the snake and rat, eyes widened slightly as she observes. "Hai, Rikkun! I'll remember that," she says with a nod. Then she kinda peers at him. "So if I wanna beat you, I should get you to fight someone else, first?" she wonders.
The snake and the rat seem to be battling for quite some time. At least 6 minutes! But eventually the snake wins with a swift bite to its opponent's neck. Sharp teeth and all in addition to that poison…
At first, the young Miira begins to snicker at the fearful expression Arika shows until she hits him, more strongly than he's used to and rocks with the punch, she would notice he wasn't as boney or wispy as the last few times she punched him firmly. "Ow! Geeze.. what is Ping-san feeding you? Trying to learn to punch like Itami-san?" Rubbing over where he punch landed, he tries to play up a bit how hard she managed to hit him.
Just as quickly as he acted, the magical pain disappeared and he moves a hand over to her, knocking her brow lightly at the mention of beating him. "I'll make sure to keep on my toes to make sure I keep enough chakra flowing to knock you on your rump at a moment's notice." Pointing over to the snake as it managed to defeat the rat and says. "Focus for now.. Time for you to finish off the snake. Remember, all snakes in this region are normally very toxic, don't get close. Stay well out of movement range of them. Aim to kill, not wound."
Arika grins a bit, though she did notice it didn't hurt her hand as much when she hit Rikuto. Is he getting fatter? Or is that muscle? She's honestly not sure of the difference. "Nooo. But I also dunno how hard Itami-sama punches…" She hmms a bit, idly wondering what a punch from the Watanabe would be like when she notices that the snake won the fight. Rikuto gives his instructions, so she nods and gets out a few kunai taking careful aim. She throws the first one, then the second two. There's enough of a delay between them that the snake can react after getting hit in the eye by the wind-sharpened kunai. It hisses in pain and irritation, curling its body in a peculiar way to avoid further injury, then it immediately dives at Arika, annoyed that it's interrupted from eating.
Grumbling, Rikuto had hoped one or two strikes would finish off the wounded and tired serpent, but then smiles watching the young girl weave her way around it's strikes. "Nice foot work! Keep it up, you can't afford to get bit, they toxin will make you wish you only had the flu." While he warns Arika, Rikuto doesn't make a move to help the young Genin this time. Moving a hand to his lips, he breaths out slowly, his breath forms a small set of three orbs which he behind to almost juggle with little thought to it. "I want you to do this yourself this time. I know your strong enough to take on most of these things all on your own, aren't you?"
Arika squeaks when the Serpent attacks her, dancing back with the assistance of wind chakra. She lets out a relieved breath, then glances back to Rikuto. "You're just being lazy, Rikkun!" she scolds, bring out shuriken to throw at the snake. One lodges in its body, though the rest miss somehow. Well, this snake was a tough cookie… The girl is forced to flee from the snake when it tries to entangle her and bite her with those poisonous fangs.
The young Miira's hand pauses, the three orbs being tossed by it hover in the air when he looks away and towards Arika. "Oh? I'm doing my job just fine. After you finish that one, why don't we start a race, see just who can get the most things cleaned up first? I got the a rat, a snake you missed and helped you with the second scorpion." A light smile was on his list as the counts these out with his off hand then curls it back one as he says, "You did take care of one scorpion on your own.. I'm one ahead of you on clean up score." Was chimed but he soon starts to make his way over to the girl and the snake as they dueled. "Once you finish off the snake, you'll be even keeping up with me, I'll have to work harder."
Arika hmphs lightly, taking a few more Kunai and shuriken from her pouch to throw at the snake. Whether by luck or skill, Arika finally managed to kill it with a well-aimed blow to its body around where the heart would be. It hisses faintly before going down, but it's definitely dead now. "A race?" Arika echoes, peering at the Miira. She hmms lightly and nods a bit. "Okie! I'm definitely gonna beat you, then, Rikkun!" she nods again, then goes to grab the weapons she threw earlier. "Ready when you are!"
A grin widens onto the boy's face as he lifts his right hand that the fire was dancing around. "Now, lets see just who can get a higher score little lady." Looking down at his hand, Rikuto chuckles again as he begins to walk around. It wasn't long before he could find several rats and smaller snakes, he focuses onto a few rats in the distance, taking a deep breath in before breathing out several fire senbons, aiming at their legs, not trying to kill them but wound them and scare them, trying to force them to retreat to a den or cavern where others might be. "I want you to keep score but also stay close to me, if either of us get bit, this will end up bad quickly."
Arika follows after Rikuto, looking around as she wanders in search of any more beasties. Apparently Rikuto is good at finding them, and he scatters quite a number of the now-injured Rats. A few of them flew in the direction of the market square while the others decide to face their opponents. Brave rats… Maybe a bit stupid, though, since they're small. The vicious things start biting at Rikuto's legs with their sharp teeth!
The first rat that manages to swarm closer to Rikuto, the boy left behind two clones of himself with hardly a move to be noticed. The first lone pops with little smoke the behind but the second explodes into a squall of air. Chuckling, the boy sits not that far away on a low roof of a near by stall over looking the infested market. Raising his right hand, he waves it gently to release the spheres that had been gathering. Each sphere scatters out along a pattern before breaking into even smaller orbs, the effect sounds like dozens of fireworks being set off at once, but the display was also very showing, several of the rats manage to run away though several leave with singed fur, some were caught in the explosion's initial covering
The rats that didn't get polished off by Rikuto are quickly killed by Arika. The two seem to make a relatively good combination, as Arika sends several of them off their feet with a timed wind gust. This makes it easier to take out the remaining three with wind-sharpened Kunai. The girl grins lightly. "I think I'm beating you, Rikkun! I got three and you got two!" She nods a bit, then moves to chase after the ones that fled into the town square. Thankfully, this is almost the last giant horde…
Furling his brow, Rikuto grumbles at Arika's success but then remembers the tone she used and begins to hum contently that she was relaxing. Moving a hand into a pouch, he pulls out a sparker and some oil, letting it set there before throwing it sharply, letting the combination fly over head and land in front of as many of the rats that he could. The ball lands and quickly catches on fire a small area thanks to the oil dripping from it. Bringing his hands together, the young Miira weaves a genjutsu for the small rodents, causing each one to see their own death, some by traps other by hawks many times larger than them hunting them down, attempting to cause them all to stop suddenly.
Rikuto is able to take about about half of the rats present. They're little brains couldn't handle seeing their deaths, apparently. Arika takes out the other half with a barrage of wind-sharpened Kunai and shuriken. "Is that all of them?" she wonders, peering inside the hole curiously. Nothing attacks her, so it's pretty safe to say yes… The girl looks over to Rikuto. "Are we done, then, Rikkun?"
Blinking a few times, Rikuto begins to move closer to the ones that he halted and kneels down, looking at them more closely. Standing up fully he would kick one with a bit of force once in the side, noticing how it didn't seem to react much and wincing. "That.. wasn't what I was thinking was going to happen. I've never tried genjutsu on animals before.. I think I'll have to be more careful." Turning his attention over to Arika, he watches as kunai after kunai is twisted and hulled forward, quickly dispatching with several of the other rats and small creatures turning now to flee simply because a horde was also fleeing from something else. "We'll give the town a once over and make sure they aren't hiding in basements but other than that. I think I owe you some treats when we make it back into town, huh? You managed to keep up with me after all."
There are a few more stragglers, but the duo take them out with ease. The many carcasses are piled up in the bazaar center for disposal at a later date, and both are thanked quite a bit. Arika beat Rikuto by a couple snakes, much to her happiness. "Yay! We're done!" she says happily, bouncing a bit despite being tired after running around. "So, so! Rikkun! Can we get mochi?" she wonders.
"Ya ya, beginner's luck anyways. I'll go with you on your next assignment too if you don't think you can do well on your own." Bringing his hands together, Rikuto begins to weave a more complicated ninjutsu, the winds would begin to pick up but they weren't normal nor was it wind jutsu that Arika might recognize. The air rotates around the pile of corpses but once the breeze condenses, the bodies begin to shrivel rapidly, causing the pile to collapse at points and shift. "They should know what to do with the bodies, maybe break them down further and turn them into fertilizer for the plants that these critters messed up in the first place." Turning his focus to Arika, he nods lightly a few times and drops his hands, though one plops onto her head. "You can have some but the rest you have to take home for later, maybe after supper." With a nod of his head, he points towards the sand dunes that was heading towards Sunagakure. "Lets get going."
