Side Story: Another Bloody Rescue Mission - Complete

[InsaneAsylum]

“Ms Nonobutt, why didn’t you bring your giant sword? It’s so cool!”


“It’s sealed right now so I don’t have to carry it around. A-and don’t call me Nonobutt!”


“Yea Mayu, shut up and pay attention. The village is just up ahead. We have to watch out in case the rumors are actually true.”


“Well… wouldn’t the Mist be protecting this place if they really were trying to harness some kind of power here, right Nona? A-also, shouldn’t they send a better squad if the rumors are true?”


“I don’t really think the rumors are true, Takehiko. We weren’t even given details about what could even be going on, so it can’t be real! I hope…”


“You don’t sound so sure Ms.Nonobutt!”


“I-I said to stop it!”


“Jeez Mayu, you’re gonna make her cry again.”


Right along the Land of Fire’s border with the Land of Water sat a small island home to a smaller village. Despite being in disputed territory, neither side ever cared much about who ‘controlled’ the small worthless village. The only thing it was good for was a rumor about young girls disappearing there. Apparently the Hidden Mist had an evil operation going on to attain more power sources said.


Of course, the Hidden Leaf didn’t buy it, but they sent a team to investigate anyway. They sent a squad of genin, lead by one of the Senko. There job was to simply find out what they can, and avoid danger if at all possible. Even for Katsumi, a simple information gathering mission should be no problem.


As the squad entered the small village, home to less than ten little huts, without any paved roads, they began to think that these rumors were nothing more than that, rumors. The village looked abandoned, like no one had lived their in years! The houses were in heavy disrepair, with roofs crumbling, doors hanging halfway off their hinges, and windows broken in.


“These place is so empty! Where is everyone? HEELLLLOOOOOO!”


“Mayu shut up! These people probably don’t appreciate some fool interrupting their peace.”


The two girls growled at each other, their muscles tensing. Before they could leap at each other, Katsumi grabbed Mayu’s collar and pulled her in close. “Please quiet down, we need to be on high alert. Something doesn’t feel quite right here…”


Mayu shut up instantly, and Nona grinned.


Takehiko approached Katsumi, his face displaying a hint of fear as he began to speak. “W-what do you mean? There’s nobody here, ri-”


A kunai came flying from inside a nearby home, aimes for Takehiko’s neck. Katsumi grabbed the boy and pulled him back as she moved herself in the way. The kunai sunk deep into her arm, and Katsumi let out a pained grunt.


“It’s an ambush! B-be careful guys!” Katsumi said in alarm, letting go of Takehiko.


[Nona drew a kunai. “They’re still in the house!”


Mayu nodded. “I’ll take em out then!

Water Style: Wild Water Wave!”Mayu yelled, swiftly forming a few handsigns, before releasing a large wave of water from her mouth and into the house, smashing straight through the flimsy wall.


A man’s cry could be heard from the house as it flooded, the walls crashing down around him.[/COLOR]


Mayu smiled broadly. “I got him guys!”


“G-good job Mayu, and thanks Ms. Nonoba!” Takehiko said, happy to be alive.


Katsumi didn’t praise Mayu, she simply glared intently at the rubble where the man should be buried, before looking up atop another building. There, a man sat, wearing a dark-green hooded cloak. The hood covered everything above his nose.


“Ah… Silica was right afterall. Three lovely young gals, and one poor little boy,” the man said, gazing down at the group. He looked absolutely defenseless, but until now, his presence had been completely hidden.


Katsumi yanked the kunai out of her arm, and looked around at the three genin around her. They had encountered and enemy, so it was time for them to leave, but she had a feeling that leaving wasn’t going to be so easy. Could she actually protect these three kids? Katsumi couldn’t bear the thought of letting one of them die.


The wound in her arm started to burn. Something had been on that kunai. Katsumi’s brow furrowed as the puncture site began to lose feeling.


“I’ll stay here and take this guy out. The rest of you, start heading back. O-ok?” Katsumi commanded with as much authority as she could muster. She couldn’t let the kids know she was scared out of her mind.


“I ain’t gonna leave ya! We can take him!”Mayu exclaimed. She formed a hand sign, and a concentrated jet of water shot from her mouth, straight at the man.


The man formed a handsign as well, and the earth beneath him rose up, blocking the jet with ease. Mayu grumbled. Nona spoke up. “I’ll break his wall, Mayu, hit him with another water jet!” Nona formed a couple of handsigns, and lightning began to crackle around her her fingertips.


The man shook his head. “Sorry loves I can’t let you do that!” His earthen wall crumbled to the ground, before suddenly reforming as several large stone hands. The hands lunged forward, one punching Mayu into a building behind her. Another grabbed Nona, and squeezing her tightly. The girl screamed in pain.


“Oops! I gotta make sure I don’t break you two…”

The remaining hands were targeting Katsumi, who was having trouble standing as it was. She punched one of the incoming hands, smashing it into pieces, but stumbled and fell afterwards. The hands didn’t wait for her to get up, as one formed a fist, and slammed down on the downed chuunin. Another hand proceeded to pick up the semi-conscious girl from her outline in the ground.


“G-get outta here…” Katsumi croaked to Takehiko.


“I-I’m sorry!” Takehiko yelled, tears streaming from his eyes. He turned and bolted as fast as he could, leaving a blazing trail behind him.[/COLOR]


The man scratched his head. “Oh man, that boy’s too fast. Guess that means I’ll have to start getting everything ready before he can get some actually tough ninja here. Silica is gonna be soooo mad.”


Another stone hand reached out and pulled Mayu from inside of a hut. She was knocked out cold, and bleeding from various areas. The stone hands holding three girls rose up infront of the hooded man. He inspected them, grinning. “I have a feeling you three are exactly who I need. Silica will tell me if I’m correct…”


With that said, the hooded man hopped off the roof, landing softly on the dirt below. He slowly sunk into ground. The stone hands sunk into the ground as well, their captives in tow.


——————————


Sometime later...


Heavy uneven footsteps approached the village, accompanied by ragged pained breathes. A young boy stumbled towards the village, his feet were bare and bloody. The only thing that identified him as a ninja was the blade strapped to his back, and the headband, hanging loosely on his head. There was a desperate yet fatigued look in his eyes.


“I-I’m sorr…. I’m sorry… I’m sorr… I-I…” he mumbled, his voice barely audible. [/COLOR]


Takehiko’s foot caught the back of his other heel. But, before he could fall, a jonin body flickered to him, catching him before he could hit the ground.


“Jeez kid, looks like you’ve really been put through the wringer. Let’s get you fixed up then you can tell me what the hell happened.”


Takehikk nodded weakly, but didn’t respond.


The jonin picked up the genin, and sped off towards the hospital.


Hours later, after Takehiko was in good enough health to explain what had happened, a group of chuunin was dispatched to rescue the Katsumi, Mayu, and Nona. The only info they had is what Takehiko told them. The man had wanted them all alive, and used Earth style.

 

[Orikanyo]

Hideki Ukita

​

"...So... Katsumi was kidnapped... And I'm being sent with a couple others... Wish i didn't loose that sheet actually.. Can't even tell who it might be I'm working with.." the young man sighed at his own logistics error... what a rookie misstake, maybe it got caught in the trash? or maybe a bunny took it? Lately theres been a bunch around his home stateing "it's for his own protection."

Bull, shit.

Moon was just trying to watch him again, damn that moon, he caught his curtains being pulled open again by those little fluffy bastards. dman that moon, he can't even enjoy oing outside at night anymore, it was driving him god dman crazy!!!

The young man growled, standing at the gates.. They were to go to the last known position of Katsumi and the genin... katsumi... Hope shes doing alright, can't let a cutiepie like her be taken, who knows what might happen! Likely possibility she'd break somebody's spine with a accidental punch... But... still... hes heard the rumors about that one...

And his sword doesn't quite like whats lurking in her blood...

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa
​

"Can't believe this shit," Nagisa muttered under her breath as she stormed down Konoha's main throughway. "Who gets their butt kidnapped twice? And who the fuck do these jokers think they are messing with my-" Nagisa stopped and looked up, realizing she was face to face with Hideki.

"Oh you're our backup huh? Fine," Nagisa said as if she hadn't just been talking to herself. "As long as it isn't Sanada, If I had to put up with her 'no kill' bullshit right now I'd put her in the ground. Anyway time is gonna be of the essence here, no telling how long they plan to keep her alive before they do some...weird, fucking, cult stuff," Nagisa was reminded of her own brush with cultists and, despite the summer heat nearly shivered. If they had to deal with something like that again it could be problematic, the kid hadn't mentioned anything to do with shadows or possession but.. who knew what these people had up their sleeves?

"On top of that they'll be preparing for our arrival as well so I hope you're ready to move." Nagisa pushed herself up against the side of a nearby building and folded her arms, her leg bouncing up and down impatiently. "Speaking of, where the fuck is Yuuki, I don't wanna leave until we're all here."

 

[KageYuuki]

Yuuki Uchiha
"I'm here, let's get a move on." With a light step, Yuuki landed beside Nagisa before starting out the village gate. He'd barely finished unpacking from his trip to the Village of Toymakers when the message arrived. It had been a hell of a scramble to grab new provisions and take off out the door. But like Nagisa had said, time wasn't really on their side for this.

"First the Mist, now this. The fuck is with Katsumi and being captured?" He muttered to Nagisa as they moved. Judging by their pace, both members of Squad 4 seemed as keen on not wasting time as they were irate. One thing was for certain though...

They were going to make a fucking mess of the ones behind this.

 

[Orikanyo]

Hideki Ukita

​

Hideki simply followed the other two, while he wasn't as geared for blood as they were mentally he wasn't about to be shown up. Though he still couldn't help but feel kinda... dwarfed by their rage... Hoo boy.. Heres hoping they don't do something dumb... But still, he was worried himself. Just what do they wnat with the young lady...? Sure shes cute as a button, but her students aren't anything special too. Or... was he wrong...?

Didn't matter, they all had to be saved, if he tossed away the thought of saving somebody just because their not some stupid bloodline he'd be no better than those clans...

Plus, who didn't love the idea of saving a cutie such as katsumi eh?

Though, now that he thought of it.. these two... Nagisa and Yuuki... and the innocent little Katsumi... it was like somebody stole the baby of two animals... So full of anger for for their chick or cub being taken... Hideki continued to stare at the two, trying to find animals to connect to them to get a good finally to his train of thought...

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa
​

As the trio leapt from tree to tree Nagisa pulled a small scroll from her belt and let the wind unfurl it. She brought up her other hand up to her mouth and bit down on her thumb and after smearing the blood on the scroll and forcing out a few handseals a puff of smoke erupted from the scroll, heralding the arrival of a certain loudmouthed eagle and his tiny, everpresent companion.

"Get up above us and keep an eye out," Nagisa said quickly, before he could start rapping or anything else. "We need to keep this pace up and I don't want to run into any ambushes," Perhaps sensing how serious the atmosphere was, Bakuwashi simply dipped his wings in salute and started rising on the oncoming wind current.

"You got it boss," he said, before the rising wind took him out of ear shot.

"When we get there I'll want to go in ahead," Nagisa said to Yuuki and Hideki as they continued on. "If I can sneak in and find where Katsumi and the brats are being held before they realize we're here we'll be in a much better position. If get to them, or if I run into trouble then I'll signal to you guys to go loud and distract them then we'll work our way back to you,"

 

[KageYuuki]

Yuuki Uchiha

Yuuki glanced over at the pair of eagles as they took off, at least they actually had the sense to not make a scene and just do as they were told. Annoying as that eagle could be, having a scout was going to be invaluable. Nagisa spoke up then, saying she wanted to scout the village alone. Yuuki wanted to object, they'd already lost a team in there. Even if it was Katsumi and a pair of genin... the fact remained there was at least one shinobi waiting for them back at the island.

"Here," he held a tag out to Nagisa, numerous seals surrounded an intricate eye. It was a tag he'd been working on for awhile now, a way to be able to scout despite his poor stealth skills. Strange Nobushige hadn't really put much effort into changing that. "I'll be able to see what's going on around you with this. Make it harder for them to know you have backup." The village they were headed to was small, not even appearing on many maps. "Fuck, if they've left the village..."

He picked up the pace despite them already pushing the limits of their own endurance.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

By the time the trio arrived at the village, it appeared to be nearly barren. The scouting by the two friendly avians would find that the village wasn’t as empty as it was supposed to be. Two tall robed and hooded men leaned against the wall to one of the still standing buildings. If anyone else was there, they were hidden extremely well.

The village was left in ill repair after the skirmish that occured earlier. There was a giant fist print in the ground, and inside of said fist print was a human outline. There was a half-way obliterated house, and a still sopping wet home as well. A skilled earth-style user may notice that the earth had been used for jutsu by the way it was returned to the ground. Overall, the small village was dreadfilly silent, the only sounds being the two men’s breathing. If a cult had a base here, they did well to hide it.

However, someone skilled in seeming out hidden individuals might find that a piece of debris had an odd glow of chakra, similar to that of a person...

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa

​

"Yo so we was scouting like you said-" Bakuwashi said, landing on a rock nearby the three chunin. "We seen two dudes, also the earth was all churned up, some of the houses were pretty trashed and there was a lotta water around."

"Sounds pretty consistent with what the kid told us, good work," Nagisa said, turning to Yuuki and Hideki. "Alright, I'm going to try and grab one of them for us to interrogate," Nagisa's arm unfolded into a crossbow and she fired a bolt marked with distinctive sealing patterns into the ground between them. "Be ready to subdue them when I reappear,"

"Yo how 'bout me?" asked Bakuwashi, seemingly hungry for more praise. "You want I should scout some more? Maybe bust out some wind release on a fool!?"

"I have a better idea," Nagisa said grimly. "You can handle a basic transformation jutsu right?"



Hidden beneath her concealing cloak jutsu Nagisa was able to approach the pair of guards with relative impunity, although she had to move slowly to keep her concealment running most efficiently. The company wasn't great either.

"Yoooo this ain't so bad! real cozy like" Bakuwashi was udner the cloak as well, clinging to Nagisa's stomach with his wings wrapped around her to minimise his bulk.

"Just be ready to transform when I grab this idiot," Nagisa hissed through gritted teeth as she crept towards one of the cultists. "And don't give yourself away afterwards! You need to keep them fooled for at least a couple of minutes while we interrogate this bastard,"

"Yoo don't worry girl! Beaky G is one smoooth operator! They won't know what hit 'em!"

Before Nagisa could tell him off again her earpiece crackled to life and Yuuki's voice came through. "Nagisa there's a third person using transformation to hide, see that secion of debris in front of you?"

"...Okay, yeah," Nagisa replied softly. It was a good transformation, without Yuuki's seal scouting for her she would have missed it but now that she knew to look she could see a section of rubble that didn't have any water splashed on it, despite being surrounded by other debris that did. "I'm going to grab them then, seems like they'll have the most intel, got that Bakuwashi? You're turning into rubble now,"

"No problem boss," the eagle replied as they switched trajectory.

Once in range, Nagisa had to wait a while for the other two cultists to be looking the other way and then it all happened in an instant. Nagisa lunged out of her cloak, dispelling the guard's transformation with a quick kick then loopinng her puppet arm around his neck in a headlock. Bakuwashi flew out of the way and then, weaving a seal with his talons to transform into the same pile of rubble the guard had disguised himself. Meanwhile Nagisa activated the bolt she had fired before leaving her companions and she and her victim were pulled through space, instantly popping into existence next to Yuuki and Hideki.

 

[KageYuuki]

Yuuki Uchiha
Sitting on a fairly large rock, Yuuki took up a meditative stance. His eyes were closed as he focused his senses on the seal Nagisa carried. Clairvoyance was a seal he had designed to help make up for his lack of stealth ability. Given to a more capable ally, he'd be able to see whatever was in the tag's line of sight as if he was there himself. It was nice, finally getting to use this jutsu out in the field.

Not to mention a good chance to calm down and properly focus himself on the mission at hand.

The village seemed to be in ill repair following the short battle, matching up with what the genin had reported to them. The cloaked goons standing guard seemed completely oblivious to Nagisa's presence. A frown tugged at the Uchiha's lips as he caught a glimpse of the faint glow of chakra. He reached up to activate his radio, "Nagisa there's a third person using transformation to hide, see that section of debris in front of you?"

"...Okay, yeah," Nagisa's voice softly crackled over the earpiece.

"Get ready, Hideki." Yuuki still found it difficult to speak or move while focusing on his seal. With his sight and hearing focused so far away from his body, any action felt awkward and unnatural. As Nagisa grabbed the man he released the jutsu, letting loose a stream of paralyzing seals the moment his teammate reappeared with their new captive.

 

[Orikanyo]

Hideki wasn't fully certain about this plan, as he could literally just drag somebody under ground, bind them and drag them over. But then again, watching a friend work and be all sneaky was pretty cool. His part in the whole deal with a quick and efficient interrogation. Plus, he liked beaky G, at least that bird talked funny, all he had was bunnies.

Plus eagles were cool.

The young man sat crouched in his position, waiting for the que to come up for them to start their little chat with the fellah. he had three rabbits around him, each one pure white as snow with red eyes looking around, wiggling their cute little noses at the scenery around him. These ones couldn't talk, lots of em couldn't, really only the ones with an actual mind could.

This type were more like vicious little cute widdle floppy grunts of the bunnies. And sure, they may be tied to his lunar stalker, but they were effective!!

AND SOOOOO CUTE!

When the duo appeared Hideki rose to the occasion and watched as Yuuki kinda went a tad overboard with the whole paralysis seal thing... Wait wouldn't Nagisa be in the range of that to... Oh boy..

"..Yuuki might wana chill there, we need the guy at least somewhat able to use his ton- Mou- Speak, we need him to speak..."

 

[InsaneAsylum]

He had been a piece of debris for ages, just waiting for his two assigned grunts to call out in alarm. The ninja had far longer than had been predicted, so it probably wouldn’t be hard enough to distracy them long enough for the ritual to be completed, right? Unfortunately, not.

A sudden kick knocked the sneaky cultist right out of his disguise! He tried to call out, but before he could even register what happened and make a noise, his surroundings changed in an instant! Was this a genjutsu? Whatever it was, the cultist didn’t have a long time to think before a swarm of paper suddenly overcame him. He tried to make a handsign, but found that his limbs weren’t responding. It had to be thise damn ninja! The cultist hit the ground hard, paralyzed and unmoving. Being stuck in such an uncomfortable position was painful because your muscles strained to moved but couldn’t.

The cultist knew what would come next. He had done it himself once upon a time. His only choice was to distract them long enough with his answers, and hope they weren’t too crazy. Not that the cultist wasn’t.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa
​

"Leave them on for a second," Nagisa said calmly, standing up and reloading her crossbow. "He's about to make a lot of noise so its fine for now if he can't speak," with that she nonchalantly fired a bolt into the cultist's shoulder. "Ordinarily," she said, raising her voice slightly to make herself audible over the cultist's muffled protestation. "With interrogation the idea is usually to prolong it as much as possible. The uncertainty and isolation are actually much more effective than simple pain,"

*Thwack

Nagisa fired another crossbow bolt, hitting the other shoulder. "Unfortunately, we're kinda pressed for time which I suspect you realize so that I'm gonna save us all a lot of time and give you an ultimatum. We're gonna remove some of those tags so you can speak and from that point you have about thirty seconds to tell us where the leaf shinobi are being held. If you don't then my friend here is going to seal you inside a scroll and then, once we're done with our mission we'll have all the time in the world to torture you to death. Not for information because you won't have anything to give us by then. Just kind of, out of spite you know? So think reaaal carefully about how you're going to answer okay?

 

[Orikanyo]

Hideki watched the scene before adding in. "Plus, We'll just take one of your other friends, do the same thing we did here, one of you will break, thats for certain. And honestly you'd be doing them a favor as well if you speak up, if you care at all of course.

Doesn't matter to us, oh! Maybe we can keep him somewhere while I got some of those ANBU manuals, I'm sure they'd be happy to spread the knowledge for such things. With a live subject you can be very helpful indeed eh? You'd be rather helpful to allow us to stretch our legs into that area of expertise, kinda gave up for rights a long time ago I'd say." Hideki added in, not exactly playing the good cop here.

it was bad cop, bad cop and bad cop.

Or bad sheriff and their deputies?

Kinda wished he could threaten with the poison but... Well.. he was saving that dragon's blood god damn it.

 

[KageYuuki]

Yuuki remained silent, coldly watching Nagisa tear into the man with cruel precision. Hideki wasn't really wrong with his threat either, it wouldn't be too difficult to snatch one of the other guards and start again. Reaching back into a pouch, the Uchiha unrolled a blank scroll and pressed his hand to it. Seals began spreading out over the paper in response to the flow of his chakra.

"Two of us have been trained by ANBU," Yuuki spoke in a low voice, not a hint of emotion lingering in his words. "We're more than capable of keeping someone alive a long time..." Crimson hues narrowed as he formed a handsign, deactivating enough tags to allow their captive to speak. "Well? How do you want to die?"

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Each crossbow bolt piercing the cultist’s shoulder brought a sudden pain, one that forced the cultist to cry out in muffled agony. He could let himself fail here, he’d die either way, and surely these ninja cared little for the lives of his allies back at their positions. He’d been waiting for years for this day, and here he was, about to bettay everyone who trusted him down below.

When the cultist was able to speak, he let out a few ragged breaths before voicing his answer. “Th-they took your friend down below. The shrine... it has a way down. They know you’re coming...” the cultist muttered, still shaking from the pain in his shoulders added onto the pain of failure.

“Forgive me... Silica...”

——————————

A thin blonde woman, draped in a silky light blue dress took slow deliberate steps atop a stone stage carved from the earth. Behind her stood a grinning man with a dark orange hood covering his eyes. Infront of the stage, stood about fifty individuals in similar dark orange robes with hoods. However, as the woman came into view, they lowered their hoods to gaze upon her. Their eyes lit up with delight and awe.

“My loyal servants, the day we enter the realm beyond gods is near. It is up to you to ensure that I am able to gain the power to grant you all access. Fear not, even if you fall, your souls will not be forsaken. For not even death will be able to stop us soon! Go, and throw yourselves upon them and destroy the deathbringing ninja! They cannot withstand out might!”

An enormous roar resonded from the crowd of cultists as they cheered and hollered. After a few miments of celebration they hurried off through various corridors throught the catacombs, taking their places to intercept the ninja. They may not be equipped for battle, but with the weapons they could find, they’d do what they could to kill the invaders.

Behind the woman, the man chuckled. “That’s all Silica? You need to work on your speeches. Your mother was much more skilled at it,” the man teased.

“It matters not, they will give their lives to ensure my success, and I expect you to as well,” Silica responded. She turned and exited the stage by going through down a few stairs and through a small door, the man following after her.

“We’ve gathered everyone here, and after all this time, the goal our ancestors died believing in will come true,” Silica began to explain, before being interrupted.

“Yea yea, all because these three little girls have chakra that ‘harmonizes’ with you well. I think it’s dumb, but I know my place.”

“As you should, now, prepare them for the ritual. We have little time to waste, I fear the ninja won’t be held back for long.”

AtlannianSpy KageYuuki Orikanyo

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa
​

"You've been very helpful," Nagisa said with a satisfied nod. "Go ahead and seal him up anyway Yuuki, if he wasn't bullshitting us he might actually live through this to rot in a prison for the rest of his life," with that Nagisa turned her attention to the remaining two sentries. It was a simple matter to line up head shots and them and fire a bolt into the back of each skull.

"It looks we don't have a choice except to head underground," Nagisa said, turning to Hideki. "So we'll be counting on you to use your earth release to shift the terrain in our favor, I certainly don't want to be walking down narrow tunnels directly into whatever bullshit they have planned for us,"

 

[Orikanyo]

Hideki

"You kidding? This is my territory, if they are grouped up in a cramped space this is over in under three seconds if theres no hostages. Did it once before in toy town when a guy tried to get the troops in through a cave. Bad move on his part.

Got all those dudes killed... Granted, he didn't know about me. But any scout could've noticed me useing earth turning palm to build the wall..." he did begin the wonder about that. But it wasn't the time.

"I can scout ahead underground and remove obstacles as I find them. See you two wont go to far ahead." And with that, their team mole left the two lovebirds to themselves.

 

[KageYuuki]

Yuuki Uchiha.

“They still have at least one earth release user in there,” Yuuki warned, moving through a series of handsigns to seal their captive. If they were lied to at all, he’d make sure the man would regret it. “So you might not have the total advantage.” He stuck the same kind of tag he’d given Nagisa earlier on Hideki. While his teammate may have been more than capable of holding his own, this way the two stuck waiting would have an idea of what’s going on. “Once you clear a path, can you bring us down?” He glanced over to the shrine, “I’m not about to trust some entrance they’ve already made. Bound to be guarded.” The fewer that knew they were already there, the better.

Yuuki sighed as Hideki left, looking out over the empty village. “Why’d Katsumi have to go and get herself into this mess?” This was what, the third time their teammate had been captured? Really should figure out a way to deal with that...

 

[InsaneAsylum]

As Hideki moved underground, he’d find that it took a good while before he would find a way into the catacombs. When he did, his tunnel would end at a small room, barely bigger than a closet. It was hope to several stone shelves, all lines with ancient skulls and bones, each covered in cobwebs and dust. The floor of this room was ever so slightly dampened, and smelled musty, to say the least. A cracked wooden door was the only thing that would seperate Hideki from the various footsteps passing by outside.

A few moments later, a rumble could be heard from deeper in the maze. The walls around Hideki shuddered, and skull dropped to the ground, shattering. A voice spoke up outside the door.

“What was that?”

“I dunno! You don’t think it was...”

“One of the prisoners? It couldn’t be!”

There were two men right outside the door, but they had no idea the ninja was on the otherside. They were too busy worrying about whatever made their whole lair shake like that.

KageYuuki Orikanyo AtlannianSpy

 

[Orikanyo]

Hideki rose an eyebrow at the scene. Prisoners, doing that? He heard of Katsumi's strength but... Could she really do that? Mattered little, using subterrainian voyage he grabbed the two men by the back of their heads and dragged their faces into the wall, leaving their struggling bodies out of it.

He began to ponder as the two people did their best to struggle out of their confined stone strangulation.

"Catacombs... Man... Spooky places like these are places I never wana go to... Granted, i'm the one whos the most ghost like here I guess..." he pulled one of the now not struggling victims into the dank room, letting the other stew abit.

"I wonder how many ghosts are watching me right now..." he wondered as he went up to grab Yuuki and Nagisa , not exactly warning them before dragging them under and down into the dark room.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazwa​

"Goddammit," Nagisa muttered under her breath, spitting out a mouthful of dirt she'd managed to swallow as she came to her feet underground and looked around.

-Why does it always have to be cults and why do they always have to be underground? Can't see a fucking thing down here goddammit Katsumi-

"Alright I'm going concealed from here," Nagisa said, wrapping her cloak around herself again. "If we find Katsumi and the genin it's possible they'll try to hold them hostage or something like that. If that happens hopefully I'll be able to sneak in and free them. It does mean you two will be doing the heavy lifting in terms of combat until we find them though, I'd blow my cover otherwise,"

With that Nagisa disappeared again, although Yuuki would still be able to perceive her chakra, moving down the tunnel they were in.

 

[KageYuuki]

Fortunately for the rescuers, this specific tunnel had very few branching paths. The direction the trio chose was the correct path because as they hurried along, the tremors grew stronger and stronger. With each shake of the earth, dirt and water rained down on them from above. At the end of the tunnel, the was a large set of wooden doors lined with metal. They too shook with each tremor, seemingly on the verge of breaking.

Yuuki held up a hand to Hideki. May as well check what’s on the other side before barging in. He carefully slipped a tag between the doors as they shook, moving through a series of handsigns to activate it.

Clairvoyance

It was a terrifying scene on the other side. The next room was a huge bowl, with stone seat all around it going about halfway down the bowl. At the bottom of the bowl, was a pedestal. Two unconscious kunoichi lay there, completely unaware of the fighting going on above them.

Giant arms made of earth were chasing after a dark red figure. The arms would punch at the girl either missing or being obliterated by a punch from the figure itself! The dark red figure left a trail of blood as they sprinted around the bowl, looking for an opening to reach the man who had positioned himself on the complete opposite side of the room as the three invaders would enter.

Along the edges of the room, were several of the cultists, most too frozen by fear to move. Occasionally, a shattered stone fist’s stone pieces would crush a few of the cultists. Even still, none of them made a move to escape.

Upon closer inspection, the dark red figure was actually a young girl, except she was literally covered in blood from head to toe. Most of the blood had hardened into some sort of armor, and armor covered in ridges and intimidating spikes. It was Katsumi… right?

“Tch,” Yuuki broke off the jutsu, “Katsumi’s in there fighting off an earth release user from the looks of it.” At least she was actually fighting for a change… “The other two genin are in there, look like they’re out cold though. Earth release is kinda your specialty, Hideki, how do you want to handle him? Nagisa, think you can grab the genin?”

“No problem,” Nagisa said, firing a serpent bolt into the wall nearby. “I’ll move them back here when I grab them. If you leave some clones behind Yuuki they can get them out of here as soon as possible, I’ll send Bakuwashi with them in case they run into anyone,” With that Nagisa vanished under her cloak again, ready to make a stealthy beeline for the genin as soon as someone else opened the door.

Yuuki nodded, forming a pair of clones behind them. Sticking weaker explosive tags to the door, he formed a handsign and knocked the heavy wooden slabs off their hinges.

“Man… Looks like I gotta do the heavy lifting…” Hideki sighed, getting tired of all the work. “Fine, I’ll go deal with the earth dude, was expecting to be doing that in the beginning really.” the young man admitted as he started to move into the scene, stones carving out of the room and joining up upon his person.

“Hideki do this, Hideki do that. Jeeze, whole Leaf has me painted as the work mule.”

Underneath her cloak, Nagisa rolled her eyes, but she kept silent as she slipped into the room behind the other two, splitting off and moving towards the pedestal where the two genin where being held. Now that she was in the room she could see Katsumi, at least Yuuki seemed pretty sure it was her. Nagisa had never seen Katsumi use a technique like that, or even really move like that. Still, the fight made for an excellent distraction, letting Nagisa make good progress towards the pedestal.

The door blowing open caught the hooded man’s attention, but he didn’t let up his assault upon Katsumi.

“Of course those damn ninja made it this far… this is gonna be a real pain!” He said with a sigh, as one of his stone hands swiped Katsumi away as she got too close. She crashed into the wall, nearly crushing some of the cultists cowering there. She didn’t stay there for long though, her eyes darted down to the unconscious genin, and with a single body flicker, planted herself atop the pedestal, standing over the girls. Katsumi growled, looking around as if she had noticed something trying to approach the genin…

The hooded man’s eyebrows rose. “Protecting the kids first huh? What a nice little monster you are…” As he spoke, another stone hand began to form above the bowl…

“Here comes Superman.” says the unhappy Hideki, leaping across the area he punched the stone hand with three of his own, shattering it and continuing through to land near the man. “Sup, let’s make this quick, Wanna get some dry cleaning done in a few.” the young man put a hand on his shoulder, stretching out his left arm.

“Or are you gonna make this tough for me?”

The hooded man scratched his chin. “Look bud, let’s save the smart comments for when you actually do something worth boasting about.” With that said, the man flicked his finger upwards, and the earth beneath Hideki shot upwards, launching upwards.

Hideki first looked down at the rising pillar under his feet, then upwards at the incoming ceiling, he didn’t move from that spot but kept subterranean voyage activated as he was shunted into the ceiling, his body popping out from the floor into the level above like a man who was shoved through a wall of water. He landed softly on the new level he was upon, contemplating just how it looked for the front.

He took a few steps forward, and stepped down through the floor again, landing a step closer to the man than before, pillar behind him.

“So, got any better tricks? Should’ve tried to hit me with the pillar in a way rather than move me, might’ve worked better.” the four extra fists clenched, as he stepped forward more, ready to start. “By the by, whats with Katsumi? Shes usually as tame as a kitten.”

“No idea,” Yuuki released a fan of shuriken, thin blue threads guiding them around the earthen pillar towards the hooded figure. He eyed his teammate warily, “Katsumi, we’re here to help.”

Goddammit Katsumi what the hell are you doing? Nagisa wondered frustratedly, You’re attracting too much attention to them The way her teammate was acting reminded Nagisa of the last time Katsumi had been kidnapped... The ferry and their fight with the girl from the mist. Katsumi hadn’t seemed entirely herself then, either.

This seemed even more extreme than that time. Nagisa notice that Katsumi hadn’t spoken a word since they’d arrived, just made animalistic grunts. It was probably safer to just remove the genin from the situation so Nagisa inched forward, slowly enough to keep her concealing cloak working optimally and then when she was close enough she lunged at the feet of the two genin, attempting to grab them and teleport back to where Yuuki’s clones were waiting.

Out of the corner of Katsumi’s eyes, she noticed a small cloud of dirt fly up into the air. On instinct, Katsumi pointed her finger towards it, and a small bullet of blood formed on her fingertip, about to fire off.

Disconnecting the chakra threads from his shuriken, Yuuki snapped them out towards her wrist, looking to throw off her aim. “Katsumi, what the hell!?”

Katsumi felt her wrist get pulled, as the blood bullet shot off course, creating a deep hole in the ground instead. Katsumi looked down, finding that the two girls had disappeared. Her gaze then turned to Yuuki, before she burst out laughing, only to suddenly go silent again.

“Will you shut UP?!” Katsumi screamed at her teammate. She pointed her other hand at him, firing off another blood bullet.

The hooded man grumbled as a large stone hand curled around him to intercept the shuriken aimed at him. Behind his cover, he formed a series of hand signs.

Earth Style: Strong Standing Fists

Four rock fists of his own formed, launching themselves at Hideki at high speeds!

Hideki frowned. “The fuck you pulling.” his own stone arms followed suit, meeting each punch with equal force as he stood just in range. “You must think your clever hmm? What's your name?” he spoke as the sounds of stone impacting stone filled the air, should a fist be broken, another quickly filled its place, the speed and power of the fists flying was paramount.

“Gah!” Yuuki was thankful for the armor Nagisa had helped make with the dragon’s scales. It kept the bullet from punching clean through him, though the force was still enough to knock him off his feet. He was fairly certain it cracked a rib too.

With Yuuki covering her, Nagisa had plenty of time to teleport away with the genin in tow, handing them off Yuuki’s clones when she arrived. “Get them up to the surface and then hide in one of the huts I guess, we’ll come find you when we're done,” Nagisa instructed them curtly, biting down on her thumb, weaving some hand seals and touching her summoning scroll to call Bakuwashi back to her side. “Go with them and help with any trouble they find,” she told him, turning around and switching to her long bow to target the hooded figure with some long-range arrow fire. Once he was downed, they could figure out what to do about Katsumi.

The hooded man continued his barrage of stone fist punches. Stone and dirt flew into the air with each impact. “Not bad kiddo, but it’s all useless!” Just as he was about to kick up the intensity of his stone fists, he noticed something coming at him from the other side of the room. the fist that had been curled around him before curled even further around him, blocking the arrow fire, but receiving several deep indents from each shot. “Hmmm is it really a good idea to focus all of your efforts on me?” He asked, peeking between his stone hand’s fingers.

Katsumi didn’t wait to see the result of her blood bullet. She began dashing towards Yuuki, leaping off the pedestal and up the bowl to him. Her hand was clenched into a fist, and a smile began to come across her face.

“Ah… shit,” Yuuki had managed to push himself back to his feet, throwing several tags at Katsumi. The word cripple was written across them.

The tags landed across Katsumi’s body sending her tumbling to the ground and rolling back down the bowl. Before she fell too far, however, numerous blood-red spikes sprouted from her form, piercing through the tags and removing their effect. Katsumi rolled to her feet, preparing to charge once more.

Hideki watched Katsumi for a moment, man, when did she get cool? Growing spikes, man, wish he could do that, maybe with the arms? Wait, why couldn't he? He was a ninjutsu expert.

Good job idiot.

What would it be… Modifying his own jutsu? Maybe… claws? Wouldn't be good here, brute strength is needed… Wait why was he just punching it out?

Dumbass.

Drawing one arm back the stones that fell off from the earlier round of punch out came together into a much larger fist. He then sailed it forwards at the man, 2 of his smaller arms sacrificed for this large one.

The hooded man smirked and flattened one of his hands, the palm exposed to the ceiling. One of the fists stopped its assault and angled itself so that the larger fist would be sent upwards instead of directly at him. It worked, and the large fist crashed into the ceiling above.

Now, the hooded man had the advantage when it came to firepower! Well, more like earth power. Whatever the case, he wasn’t satisfied, as his four stone fists assaulted Hideki’s two, the man began to form another two behind him!

“Looks like I’ll be finishing you off soon, kiddo.”

“Not quite.” Hideki lept up on top of the fist currently in the ceiling above, he couldn’t do this before with time constraints, but now… Now he had time. Placing both free hands on the fit he used Ultra heavy added rock…

Then brought the arm down with its earth-shattering weight, the boy still standing atop of the disembodied floating arm.

Yuuki swore under his breath as Katsumi tore through the tags on her. He’d hoped to immobilize her long enough so she’d calm back down without hurting her. But right now, options were beginning to look slim. The blood covering her body was also soaked in chakra, it reminded him of other armor techniques.

If this doesn’t work, then I’m going to have to actually hurt her… The Uchiha threw down a smoke bomb, leaping back. Tapping the seals on his wrists, he summoned a short bow and a handful of tags. With Dance of the Shikigami and the paper shuriken technique, the tags rapidly combined into an arrow that was nocked and fired at Katsumi. It’d blow apart on impact, the tags clinging to her. Once again, most of them said cripple, but there was one other with the word purify scrawled on it.

Silently, as Yuuki and Hideki fought, Nagisa nocked a flash arrow, attaching an invisible chakra thread to it as she drew back and then fired, then rapidly she reloaded and fired a second, normal arrow, looping the chakra thread around it. The course was true, looking to collide with the hooded man’s defenses again, but almost at the last possible moment the second arrow dipped and hit the ground, the thread looped around it tugging the first arrow down slightly to change its trajectory to slip through any defenses so that it could detonate at close range with a deafening bang and blinding light.

Katsumi didn’t slow down, even when smoke covered her view. She reeled her fist back, ready to strike as she felt herself nearing her victim, but before she could strike, she felt herself thrust backward by a powerful pulse, one that tore right through her armor and a bit of her chest. Katsumi rolled and tumbled down the bowl, and crashed into the stone pedestal, cracking it. She didn’t move from that position. She wouldn’t let herself.

The hooded man moved to bring his hands up and block the fist above him, but a bright blinding flash completely interrupted him. His stone hands clumsily rose above him, easily being crushed by the enhanced stone hand Hideki stood atop of.

“D-dammit,” he muttered, just before he was smashed through the floor and down into the underground lake below.

The room below was the same size as the one above but filled about halfway to the top with water. Standing atop the water, watching Hideki and his stone fist drop in, was a woman wearing a silky blue dress. Her chakra was hard to see for a sharingan user, it was as if it was suppressed. However, what was easy to notice, was that her place atop the water placed her directly below where the pedestal would be, and that the water below was heavily concentrated with chakra.

Hideki watched the new world he was in, crashing through the floor, which he thought was the final one, he was met with a beauty of a sight in a blue dress and a shit ton of water. Hideki discarded his ride and stood atop of the water as well, the fist sinking down into the depths.

“So, guess your the one causing this shit huh? Damn shame your kidnappee has some strong friends.”

“You’re wasting time!” Nagisa snapped, appearing next to Hideki with a body flicker. With a quick glance, she had confirmed that Yuuki seemed to have Katsumi… if not contained than at least sufficiently distracted so she calculated it would be better to resolve the matter of the cultists first. “Let’s finish this already,”

Nagisa already had an arrow nocked in her bow and let it fly at the woman as she came to a stop. Halfway through its flight, the arrow split open to reveal a number of scrolls from which poured a literal barrage of arrows and explosive tags at the woman and her general area, her fallen ally well within its area of effect.

Mechanical Rain Dance Arrow

Yuuki scoffed, hearing Nagisa scold Hideki. He held out a tag, the writing beginning to glow. “When isn’t he trying to flirt with something?” Thin wisps of smoke emanated from the tag, reaching out for the dazed Katsumi to draw her in.

Enclosing Technique

“I COMPLIMENTED YOU LOT AND YOU STILL YELLED AT ME!?” Hideki spat, obviously pissed.

The woman was genuinely surprised to find that the hidden chakra chamber had been broken into in this manner. It didn’t matter though, she was going to be killed at this rate. She was always prepared for the moment she’d have to bail out.

“I already have what I need from your allies. I have other things to accomplish now, so this is goodbye.”

With that said, the woman brought her hands together, as the numerous arrows and explosive tags flew out towards her. The immense amount of water beneath her suddenly blasted upwards, taking everything and everyone with it through the floor of the floor above.

The impact would be jarring, but not all too painful unless one was smashed into solid rock by the sudden eruption of water. One would also find the that blue dress woman had disappeared.

Katsumi was dazed enough to have little reaction to the sealing scroll reaching out to her. She didn’t resist as she was sealed away inside the scroll, just in time to avoid the giant blast of water from below.

Water was breaking through into the tunnels all throughout the catacombs now. The place was flooding, and fast!

“Fuck,” Nagisa spat as the woman disappeared. That was infuriating but on the other hand, it was also true that they had what they’d come for. “Yuuki! Let’s get the hell out of here!” Nagisa called to her teammate, grabbing Hideki at the same time and firing a teleportation bolt towards the exit, appearing at it with Hideki a moment later.

Yuuki winced as he pushed himself back to his feet, being thrown by the water did not feel good on his injured ribs in the slightest. He gave Nagisa a slight nod, it was past time they got out of that place. Wings formed on his back, giving enough of a boost to give chase.