Side Story: The Hunting - Complete

[Ganryu]

Urgent mission: A squad of chunnin is under duress in the Eastern Land of Fire, we received their distress call earlier today from a messanger hawk. They had managed to bunker down against the enemy, but weren't sure how long they could hold out. A squad composed of those who could be gathered quickly was assembled:

Nagisa as Squad Leader for the mission, with Moku, Naoki, and Sei working to support her.

The mission orders are simple, get to the team as quickly as possible. If its feasible, get them back to the Land of Fire. If it isn't... make sure the enemy doesn't recover their corpses. A certain member of the distress team has the sharingan, and that we cannot let fall. Do not let the rescue team fall either, one sharingan is a terrible loss, the sharingan, a senju, and a glass user would be disasterous. This mission will require extremely delicate decision making, we're sorry we have to ask you to do this.

The rescue team should already be on their way.

AtlannianSpy Kimiwriter AllHailDago Arne

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa
​

Chunin.

Sharingan.

Distress.

Nagisa had read the mission orders through twice to be sure before tearing off to put together her team. It was true there was nothing to confirm the trapped Uchiha was Yuuki. The Uchiha had several chunin and even if it wasn't Yuuki Nagisa knew she needed to give this mission her all. But Yuuki had gone out on a mission and Nagisa didn't know where. And that idiot would get himself into trouble the minute they took separate missions- why did her teammates do this to her?! Why couldn't they be more careful? Why couldn't they take less risks?

Why wouldn't the sick feeling in her stomach let up?

"ALRIGHT LET'S GO GO GO!" Nagisa yelled through cupped hands as the members of her rag tag team came into view form different directions. "WE'VE GOT ANOTHER SQUAD PINNED DOWN THAT NEEDS SOME BACKUP SO NO FUCKING AROUND, LET'S MOVE!" Without even waiting for a response Nagisa body flickered ahead, though the rest of the team wouldn't have any trouble following her.

Sei Teshima
Moku Ozaki
Naoki Senju

Would just this many people be enough? It wasn't like they had much synergy to rely on.

Nagisa landed on a tree branch and pushed off into another body flicker, the branch nearly shattering under the force she exerted in her urgency. This team would work. She'd make it work.

Ganryu
AllHailDago
Kimiwriter
AllHailDago

 

[AllHailDago]

Moku Ozaki​

Moku was suited up in a red shirt with his chain mail vest underneath, black pants, and his green vest. Weapons poked out slightly for a quick draw should he need. He tightened his headband, pulled on his fingerless gloves, and created a clone. He didn't bother talking to it, and the clone didn't bother lookibg at him. It went downstairs to tell his family goodbye as he hopped out the window with a serious expression. No animals awaited him today. Almost as if they sensed his urgency and kept clear.

Moku was generally lax about many missions, stressing to himself the importance of not going into battle or situations afraid. He had to consistently remind himself as he tackled his prior missions. Now was different. When it came to protecting the people of his village his fear and thoughts of powerful self preservation drained away. His joy became contained and he was poised for action. This mission had brought out his serious side.

Nagisa was leading the mission, which he had a few conflicting feelings on. Her approach had more finality in it than his, and she could be too abrasive for his liking. However, she was a pretty competent leader admittedly, and he respected good authority and strategies. Sei was also on the mission, and this was only the second mission he had with his squadmate. Though she was a bit reserved, he found they'd worked well together in the mission under Umichi-sensei. In his opinion at least. As for Naoki.... reading that guy was hard. Moku....sorta thinks he pretty alright maybe?

Either way, Moku was ready to go and willing to work with anyone to save those under attack. He heard the shouts of Nagisa, and noted she sounded more...Moku distressed. Far less composed than usual, even when she was annoyed at him on the brewery mission. He didn't know what to make of it, so he simply followed after her in accepting silence. He caught up swiftly and ran behind her and just a bit to the right. Hopefully they'd get there in time.

Kimiwriter
Ganryu
AtlannianSpy
Arne

 

[Kimiwriter]

Sei Teshima

Launching herself up into the trees, Sei struggled to keep up with Nagisa but it was impossible. The best she could do was launch herself from branch to branch as quickly as possible. Moku was there, so that was a comfort. But she wasn't too familiar with the others or their fighting style. Shaking her head, she channeled chakra into her feet to give herself an extra boost. I'll worry about that later.

"Nagisa," she shouted at the squad leader, "what's your plan?" She didn't want to suggest they move in with caution, Nagisa seemed especially agitated about the other squad, and Sei understood that feeling of helplessness when a friend was in danger. "I'm best on support, if that helps." She wasn't even sure if Nagisa heard her.

Falling back a little, she rejoined the rest of their group. "I have some chakra boosts if anyone needs them."

AtlannianSpy
Ganryu
Arne
AllHailDago

 

[Arne]

Naoki Senju​

"It'll be fine. Nothing bad is going to happen while I'm out." Naoki couldn't help but repeat to himself once more as he checked his fully suited self in the mirror, the promise he made to his mother earlier in the day continuously resounding in his mind as he strapped a ninjato - the single weapon he held in his house - on his waist, clearly planning to prepare even for the most dangerous situation, as he normally just resorted to creating any weapons he needed during the battles through the use of his wood release. In the end, this wasn't a situation that he could underestimate, and the act of preparing for a hard fight was undoubtedly one that may actually end up saving his life in a moment like this, and he definitely couldn't have the luxury of not valuing his own life this time.

Naturally, he immediately left his room through the window as soon as he finished preparing himself, obviously not willing to waste even a single more second as he directly went to the outside of the village to join the group. Naturally, he didn't even try to make small talk once he got there, directly flicking towards the trees as soon as Nagisa voiced her orders. This time, they didn't have the leisure to exchange pleasantries.

With that being said, it didn't take long for something to slightly disturb the rhythm of the group since Sei - the only member of the group Naoki didn't really know - gradually fell back as she failed to keep the rhythm of the more Taijutsu oriented rest of the group, triggering Naoki into similarly falling back to approach the girl. "Hop on, we can't slow down now and wasting chakra you will need once we get there is a waste." He said in a short and practical way - something that suited Nagisa infinitely better than it suited him - as he started to run in front of the girl, clearly indicating that she should let him carry her. In the end, even if the act was somehow indelicate, the haste to get to their destination prevented him from adopting a more pleasant stance. Even if it somehow hurt his teammate's feelings he had to prioritize the mission this time, and carrying her would undoubtedly be considerably more effective since he had no difficulty in keeping Nagisa's rhythm even with an extra burden and his natural stamina was probably considerably higher than any of his other teammates, making it fully viable for him to carry the less physically able member of the group until they reached the other squad.

Ganryu
AtlannianSpy
AllHailDago
Kimiwriter

 

[Ganryu]

It would take a little over 8 hours to arrive at the site described in the mission detail details, a place known as the Jade Clearing. The trees began to change somewhat, their height diminishing, but their leaves growing longer, bathing the entire undergrown in a strange, green, ethereal light. The clearing itself was just that, a place where the trees stopped growing, except a single massive one, creating a beautiful halo of light around there. The original team had been sent to harvest a herb that grew only in that clearing.

It wouldn't take long to find them. Several trails of blood conjoined into a single pile of bodies at the base of the massive tree in the center. A morbid relief to Nagisa at least would be that none of them were Yuuki. The Uchiha of the group was ontop of the pile.

The bodies were still bleeding, meaning the kill was fresh. Scorch marks, kunai, and shuriken marked it as a fierce battle.

(And now Gan sends you all info via discord.)

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa
​

Panting lightly, Nagisa stared at the dead bodies she was standing over, her stomach twisting as a cavalcade of emotions ran through her.

Anger: they're dead

Relief, intermingled with guilt: At least it's not Yuuki

Paranoia: Somebody left them here for us to find, this is a trap

Urgently Nagisa bent down to check the dead Uchiha's eyes, they were still intact so she sealed his and the other corpses away with a tap and stood up.

"Alright we're getting the fuck out of here," she called to the rest of the team. "Whoever did this is likely close by so don't waste anytime and keep your eyes open, I want everyone watching different angles. The plan now is to get home in one piece. Let's move!"

Nagisa waved the rest of the team on so that she could take up the rear, her eyes flicking warily from side to side. She was responsible for rushing them all out here, if she couldn't get them all back alive there'd be no one else to blame.

 

[Kimiwriter]

Sei Teshima

Embarrassed, Sei had only allowed Naoki to carry her until she'd caught her breath. She kept to the back of the group but managed to keep up for the most part.

When they reached the clearing, Sei stopped and covered her mouth. She'd been around the sick, injured, and dying, but the smell of blood and bodies just left to rot . . . She fought back the need to gag.

"Whoever did this is likely close by so don't waste anytime and keep your eyes open, I want everyone watching different angles. The plan now is to get home in one piece. Let's move!"

Why would they do this? If they weren't after the Uchiha . . . if this is a trap for us, then why . . .? Sei popped a chakra pill into her mouth and raced after the others.

Something didn't sit right with her. Scanning the trees around them, Sei tried to visualize what the enemy might do and how she would react. Unless she could get away and cast a jutsu . . . poison would be too dangerous with the others in front of her and genjutsu wasn't very combative . . .

Shaking her head, she glanced behind her at Nagisa. "You think they're after one of us? If they set a trap for the rescue squad. . ." She knew she couldn't be the target but the others were far more talented, from more prestigious clans, but how would the enemy know who would be in the rescue squad. "Or are they after something else?"

AtlannianSpy

 

[AllHailDago]

Moku Ozaki​

Moku curled his tongue back in his throat to prevent gagging audibly. Blood and bodied were something he dealt with, sure, but it never got easier seeing dead comrades. He clenched his fists, pressing his nails hard into his palms to focus himself via pain. He had to pay attention and not let emotional pain take over.

Glancing over the bodies and area around them he realized a lot of the markings were relatively fresh. He cast a carefully maintained glance at the dark haired Uchiha atop the pile. His eyes were still intact. Why would any enemy leave such a valuable asset after succeeding in killing an Uchiha? Unless.... He flicked his eyes around swiftly. Unless they had gotten there before they could.

He extended his senses via chakra, and found himself noticing someone after only a few moments. They were.... up high. He glanced up towards the top of the tree the bodies were under. There he saw a young ninja, presumably male, in a painted mask and robes. The mask seemed like one he'd seen on an Anbu once, yet different than the ones used by Leaf Anbu. The blue robes made him think Mist immediately.

In his hand was a large metal stake, and there were several more lining each side of his robes. Something dripped from his ninja pouch. It didn't look like blood. It was... purple? Moku grit his teeth and took a fighting stance, his hands ready to catch a weapon or cast a jutsu as needed. He spoke just loud enough for his comrades to hear, his teeth gritted in anger and confusion. "We've got company atop the tree!"

Ganryu AtlannianSpy Kimiwriter Arne

 

[Arne]

Naoki Senju​

Naoki immediately felt shivers down his spine as soon as he faced the crime scene, the way the corpses were positioned triggering a danger alarm inside his mind as soon as he faced it, a single thought immediately pooping on his mind and persistently rooting inside it from the moment he set his eyes on the scene: No matter how he looked, it seemed like they turned on each other.

Naturally, he - as a relatively experienced shinobi - didn't ignore his instincts, immediately voicing an alert as soon as Nagisa ordered their retreat and Sei stopped to question her about the situation. "Something is wrong, it looks like they didn't get murdered by a third party. They actually turn-..." Before he could finish, Moku's alert rang through the area, warning them about the appearance of a third party.

Naturally, he didn't even think twice before directly retreating to put his back against a tree and look after the area pointed by Moku, the familiar wooden spikes that he seemed to use more and more nowadays quickly formed from his hands, preparing him for the soon to come battle. With how wrong the whole situation looked, he couldn't give himself the leisure to go easy this time.

Ganryu AtlannianSpy Kimiwriter AllHailDago

 

[Ganryu]

Oumu, the Echo
​

Perched atop the large tree, the boy squatted watching below. He didn't move a muscle as he observed, blending into the environment around him until Moku yelled out his location. He didn't immediately move, no one attacked him, and it would take the enemy a moment to detect him anyways, it gave him time to prepare, to start building his chakra. As Naoki formed spikes, he finally moved a quick sign of confrontation with both hands, then turning his right hand into a single handsign, still holding his stake with a chain attached to it.

Hiding in Mist

A light layer of mist started to roll in the area. Yet Oumu didn't make it too thick. Each ninja could see around themselves, it just turned objects into dark silhouettes. It wouldn't impede their escape in the least. Vision was restricted to only about twenty feet, but even genin could manage to make the jutsu thicker. He wanted it this thin. The mist would barely keep him out of sight.

If they started moving, they would start to see a shadow getting close to them occassionally. If they didn't, they'd still see it occasionally on the outskirts. For someone hiding, he sure made himself visible at times.

 

[Kimiwriter]

Sei Teshima

The mist appearing out of nowhere made the hair on Sei's neck stand on end. She could still see the faint outline of the masked figure and she had a sneaking suspicion that's exactly what he wanted. Pressing her back against a tree, she placed a hand on her kunai and glanced at the others.

Options. One, we run for it and possibly be directed into an ambush or picked off one by one. Two, we stand and try to fight. Still at a disadvantage. Three, find a way to distract him so we can get an advantage.

She frowned. The fog would be good for a genjutsu. She tested her own chakra, just to make sure they weren't trapped in one already. It seemed fine . . . unless the caster was more skilled than her.

Which is a real possibility. But I could cast my own if I had some better cover.

Slowly slipping closer to Moku, she tried not to move her lips as she whispered, "I think I can cast a convincing genjutsu with this mist but I need a distraction. Any ideas?"

A slight movement in the mist caught her eye. She peered at it but didn't make a move. "I'm counting on you."

AllHailDago

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa
​

"Shit!" Nagisa muttered under her breath as the mist washed over them, turning her squad into a huddle of shadowy, indistinct figures. Mercifully they could still hear each other pretty well Nagisa realised, as she heard Sei whispering to Moku.

"Keep that idea as a backup plan for now," Nagisa said to Sei, I recognise this guy from my bingo book, he's high ranking mist anbu... despite his age. They call him 'The Echo' Fighting him in this mist is too risky, Moku, I want you to set fire to the trees around us, keep the air temperature too high for the mist to stick around or reform,"

Nagisa turned her gaze back towards the outer mist and readied her crossbow, although she didn't fire at the sinister figure that kept flitting in and out of view. "The rest of us will keep an eye out for him trying anything, Naoki, behind you,"

Arne
Kimiwriter
AllHailDago

 

[AllHailDago]

Moku Ozaki​

Moku glanced around at the thin mist, shadows flickering at the edge of his sight. Clones? Distractions? Reinforcements? He tensed, turning slowly in place as he tried determining which it was. As he did Sei approached him carefully. He was happy that the mist wasn't so thick as to render comrades invisible. He didn't ant to end up injuring or killing his own team mates on acci-

He blinked in sudden thought, considering the wounds on the bodies earlier. Maybe that's what happened? The Mist ninja attacked them while they confusedly attacked each other? Sei asked him about making a distraction while she tried genjutsu. Which was a thought that... hadn't occurred to him. Was this mist a genjutsu? He looked around it wary but curious. He had little to no knowledge or resistance to genjutsu, but Sei and at least one of the others had to have been at least moderately good at it. Could they all have been trapped in a big genjutsu?

He nodded to Sei and made the handsigns for his clones, ready to be her distraction. That is until Nagisa said to table that idea for now. He held his chakra at the ready while she gave him different instructions. His heart panged as he accepted the fact it was necessary for their survival, making a silent apology to the wildlife around him.

Flicking his hands through the last sign before three Moku clones appeared. They stood shoulder to shoulder, facing apology way from eachother in a square formation. Each clone and Moku himself flicked through another set of hand signs and breathed in deeply, before opening their mouths and letting loose their jutsu. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" With several different roaring expansions of heat and consumed oxygen multiple fireballs guided by the Mokus flew up at am angle out of the mist.

With screeching detonations of wood, numerous treetops surrounding the area burst into roaring flame. He had guided the fireballs there to prevent smoke inhalation problems for his group. It could still spread down and cause that problem, but they should be done and gone by then. The mist had already dissipated in numerous spots from the passing heat of the fireballs, and the fires started by them looked to be helping already as the edges began clearing.

"Alright. That takes care of that. What's the next step?" One of the Mokus cast a glance at Nagisa as he spoke.

Kimiwriter Ganryu AtlannianSpy Arne

 

[Arne]

Naoki Senju​

Naoki didn't think for long before directly forming some quick seals to directly form a single wooden clone inside the tree he previously used to shield his body from attacks as soon as the others started to act alarmed, reacting naturally to the mist coming by hiding his failsafe where it most certainly couldn't reach it.

Wood Clone Technique

Naturally, he didn't stop after doing so either, directly rushing to reunite with his team before things started to get hectic - though he was far from being fast enough, as Moku didn't even thing twice before directly setting the top of the trees on fire without any care for the secondary damage he could cause by doing so - while still planning to, hopefully, deal with the situation without any major hurdles - something he actually considered as possible after noticing there was only a single enemy in view.

Unfortunately, things were bound to not be so easy as immediately after he started to approach the group Nagisa voiced a hurried warning, triggering him into doing a quick turn using the wooden stake held in his hand to strike towards his back - where an attack was supposed to be coming from - just to hit absolutely nothing and leave his guard fully open for a brief moment that was most certainly enjoyed by the enemy, as something directly pierced his left arm as soon as he moved to intercept the seemingly imaginary threat mentioned by Nagisa.

Ganryu AtlannianSpy Kimiwriter AllHailDago

 

[Ganryu]

The fire quickly burned away the mist, revealing the figure known as Oumu. He was standing in the way of the Leaf's escape route. He made a series of handsigns, though one thing that those more proficient in ninjutsu might notice weird was the handsigns did not match up. One hand seemed to be doing a Ram seal, one seemed to be doing Snake, making all sorts of interesting combinations together. One hand ended early, and the other hand continued to weave. Water pooled around him, pulled up from the roots of the trees.

Water shot up around him, forming a dome, seemingly as a protection of whatever combination of attacks they decided to shoot his way.

Water Prison Jutsu

Around the group, the smell of lavender wafted between them. He still didn't speak, but pointed straight at Sei. Suddenly she'd be in the dome, and he was in the midst of the group, throwing two stakes at Nagisa. They seemed ethereal, not even casting a shadow, but full of chakra, so much so that the air around them seemed to be distorted.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa
​

Nagisa froze in horror as something called out Naoki, with her voice, causing him to turn around and expose himself to an attack. Before she could explain herself or even voice confusion Oumu was among them, having swapped places with Sei, leaving her trapped in his water prison.

Nagisa threw herself to the ground to avoid the stakes being thrown at her and then aimed her crossbow. Her instinct was to target the enemy in front of her but something held her back, what Naoki had said about the last team turning on each other and the fact that if he was here than who the hell was maintaining the water prison?

So instead Nagisa fired a serpent bolt at the water prison, then teleported to it just before impact so that she could slash through the dome with her mechanical light cutter, hopefully disrupting it enough to free Sei. If that even was Sei, Nagisa wasn't sure of anything right now. If not, it would at least force some kind of reaction from the enemy.

 

[AllHailDago]

Moku Ozaki​

Moku was awaiting further orders from Nagisa, his clones standing shoulder to shoulder with him still to leave no openings visually. When Naoki rejoined them, Moku swore Nagisa shouted a warning, but he had been looking right at her and not seen her speak. What in the hell?! His clone elbowed him to get his attention and he turned to where he looked.

The Hidden Mist shinobi stood down with them on the ground. Moku had been too preoccupied to keep trying to sense for him, and didn't notice him drop down. He was again surprised when the man started doing a one handed jutsu, with each hand! Moku could manage one handed jutsu with nearly a handful, but hadn't considered using two simultaneously as possible. Was this some mad Kekkei Genkai he hadon't heard of? Or an illusion?

As the shinobi completed his handsigns, he seemed to be swallowed by a Water Prison. Standard affair that Moku had come across multiple times. However when the boy pointed, Sei swapped places with him and the boy threw two positively buzzing chakra weapons at Nagisa. Moku was momentarily too stunned by the information he thought impossible to respond. Thankfully Nagisa dodged and made straight for Sei in the water prison.

Moku waved a current hand and dismissed two of his clones. A simple gesture and a nod later, the remaining clone ran to help Nagisa. Earth jutsu was superior to water, so perhaps he could help. Meanwhile, Moku himself flicked one hand through the signs for Subterranean Voyage and sunk into the ground far enough as to not disturb the surface. He maneuvered to below where the boy was as far as he could sense. With one swift burst of speed upward Moku thrust his arms out of the ground, intending to grab the boys ankles and pull him into the earth up to neck.

Ganryu AtlannianSpy Arne Kimiwriter

 

[Kimiwriter]

Sei Teshima
The smell of lavender gave it away. They hadn't passed any of the plants on their way in, and the flowers wouldn't be out for a few more months. So where did it come from? The mist? That was Sei's guess.

As The Echo lifted his hand, Sei checked her chakra, careful not to let his genjutsu take hold. It wasn't until Nagisa charged him and the water prison that Sei realized the others hadn't noticed the genjutsu yet. They were so focused on the enemy they didn't recognize the attack and--

Sei took a step forward, opening her mouth to call Nagisa back, when someone grabbed her ankles. One second she was standing on solid earth, the next she was falling. The earth swallowed her to her neck. She couldn't move. For a moment, she couldn't speak, and then it hit her. She was part of the genjutsu.

"Moku. get me out of here!"

Even with the earth slightly softened from her body being pulled through it, Sei couldn't move. She twisted and jerked, just trying to get her hands free so she could cast a counter attack. A summons, a genjutsu, something to stop the others before they all were killed.

"Moku!"

Sei kicked, searching for a tunnel or some leverage to get herself free.

"It's a trick! Nagisa, don't do it!"

AllHailDago Ganryu Arne AtlannianSpy

 

[Arne]

Naoki Senju
​

Naoki naturally didn't know what to do once things started going weird. Between the pain of his own wound and the need to make sense out of his teammates disorderly movements, Naoki simply couldn't analyse the situation well enough to decide what he was going to do.

Naturally, this moment hesitation didn't stop the shinobi for too long, as he ultimately decided to just try to take care of himself while the situation was still uncertain due to how high the probability of accidentally hurting his companions was if he attacked now, directly making some quick seals to erect a wooden barrier around himself and sitting down to try to concentrate and perhaps heal his wounds.

Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall

What Naoki ultimately forgot about, though, is that even if the connection was somehow fuzzy due to the weird techniques of his opponent, his wooden clone was still around and more than willing to directly intervene on place of himself, directly using his clear view of the scene to deduce that something was clouding the squad's judgement in a weird way and choosing to distance itself a bit more and intervene from the outside by taking control over the local roots, manipulating them to near the surface while taking care to avoid alerting either the criminal or his squad. Once positioned in there, he'd just have to wait till the young man tried to dodge Nagisa's offensive to instantly trigger the multiple pointed roots into skewering him from under his body while avoiding targeting his teammates.

Wood Release: Underground Roots Technique

 

[Ganryu]

Oumu, the Echo

The genjutsu seemed to have its intended effect, throwing the groups lines into chaos for a moment by switching Oumu's appearance with Sei's. However, two of his opponents had pulled out clones, and another seemed to be bright enough to charge him. Though... one did attack the female, just as he planned.

The group was challenging though, and his dull emotions almost felt something in the battle... was it excitement?

As the one who's gender he wasn't sure of attacked, their blade surprisingly cut through Oumu's water prison like butter. Thankfully it wasn't long enough to catch him. Oumu moved quickly, his hand dashing into his pouch, and throwing several explosive tags through the hole. The dome quickly recovered, and the tags detonated with an explosion.

This left Oumu a second to start more jutsu, his hands, while covered by the explosion, starting his jutsu. The group was starting to strain his chakra reserves. The other group had already killed each other by now. Didn't seem like he was ineffective, however, as one started to hide, one attacked the other, and one was being attacked. Oumu's rapid handsign style was ungodly for the speed and multitude of jutsu cast, but forced him to do so inefficiently, burning through chakra relatively fast.

All around Moku and Sei, water condensed into thousands of senbon. Sei being pulled underground might make the perspectives worse.

Water Release: A Thousand Needles of Death

However, one factor Oumu didn't take into account was his genjutsu being disrupted. As soon as Naoki hid himself, the smell of lavender faded, and Sei was revealed, as well as Oumu.

The explosion around Oumu would start to fade. The water prison collapsed, leaving a puddle of water on the ground, and Oumu started to sprint. His max speed seemed to be slower than Nagisa's. Definitely leagues behind Naoki and Moku.

 

[AllHailDago]

Moku Ozaki​

Within a few moments of going underground Moku felt an odd change overcome him. He lucent explain it, but his head felt... better. He realized suddenly the form he grabbed was not the boy, but Sei. As she yelled about it being a trick he realized this must've been genjutsu! He was immediately overcome by both guilt and rage. He resurfaced, planning on pulling Sei out by the shoulders from above ground rather than pushing her up from below.

As he resurfaced however things had changed for the worse at their position. He had but a moment to realize what the jutsu surrounding him was before deciding on his action. He dropped to his knees swiftly and wrapped his arms and upper torso around Sei's exposed face, one hand flicking through the signs for Earth Spear. Unfortunately the large aquatic senbon pierced him multiple times before his skin hardened enough to block them harmlessly. As such he took dozens of stab wounds in the sides, legs, and arms before the jutsu was through.

When the the impacts finally stopped he looked around to be sure, before removing himself from Sei. Reaching a hand into the ground at each of side of her he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up and out of the earth. His expression was one of severe guilt. "I-I'm sorry, Sei," he barely managed to murmur. With that he turned back to the action, shielding Sei while observing.

What he saw confused him, as it seemed to his clone for a moment. Nagisa had managed to. It through the Water Prison, which actually contained the boy from the Mist. It must've been illusions, but how did they get dispelled? Moku didn't even bother trying to inure it out. There were experts like Sei around for that. Instead he simply stood protectively in front of her while his clone chased after the now fleeing boy.

Arne Ganryu Kimiwriter AtlannianSpy

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa

​

As soon as Nagisa appeared in front of the water prison it was apparent she'd been duped. Oumu was still in the water prison, he'd clearly used some kind of genjutsu to simulate swapping places with Sei. Of more immediate concern to Nagisa than getting tricked was the several explosive tags about to detonate in her face however. Thinking quickly Nagisa flung her puppet hand into the sky, using her flexible chain like sling and detaching just the hand at the last second. At the same time using her natural hand Nagisa snatched up the tags as they flew through the narrow gap in the water jutsu and sealed them away within the lightning flash blade seal on the palm of her glove.

Just before the tags detonated and blew up within her gloves, Nagisa's puppet hand in the sky, still connected to her via chakra threads, tapped the lightning flash blade seal on its hand, resummoning the tags several meters up in the air where they detonated. The explosion was still close enough to be unpleasant but Nagisa was fine and Oumu was on the run with his back to her.

It was nice not to be on the defensive for once in this twisting, uncertain fight so Nagisa readied her light cutter, slapped a clarity seal on her neck to ward against future genjutsu and body flickered after Oumu, aiming a thrust at his back. She would have to trust Moku and Naoki's considerable defensive capabilities to keep themselves and Sei alive, any orders she could give in this situation would likely just confuse and hinder them anyway. It would be far better just to keep the pressure on Oumu and prevent him from setting up more elaborate tricks. It would also be more fun, Nagisa was rather sick of being the hunted in this scenario and she could smell blood now.

 

[Kimiwriter]

Sei Teshima
She was furious. At Moku for trapping her and at herself for getting caught in the first place. She should've noticed the genjutsu sooner. She should've made sure the others were okay. When Moku appeared beside her, she opened her mouth to yell again but her voice caught in her throat as she noticed the water and then the senbon. One second, she realized she'd end up with a face full of needles, the next,the needles rained down and Moku was shielding her.

Finally the needles stopped and Moku helped her out of the earth. "Moku," she shuddered at the needles sticking out of his sides and limbs. Her anger flared again; he shouldn't have needed to protect her, she should've noticed and warned them before. . . her gaze fell on Omau. No, it's his fault and he will pay.

Sei crouched behind Moku, forming hand signs before placing a hand on his side. Her chakra grew gentle and she carefully worked to heal his wounds. "Thanks for that. I can't heal you completely but it'll feel better and you'll be able to fight if we need to." She glared past his shoulder at the mist ninja. They needed to get closer. "If we can create an opening, I might be able to get him with my poison mist. But I'll need to be closer so we don't get Nagisa." She glanced at Naoki's shield. Hopefully he was working on some powerful jutsu to finish off the enemy.

"Do you think you can move?" Planning attacks weren't her strong suit but if Moku was able to fight still, she'd cover him. "Nagisa's going to need backup. Tie up his jutsu with multiple enemies, then you two pull back and I'll hit him with my mist. I can paralyze for sure, possibly kill if I can condense it enough. You up to it?" If he wasn't . . . She'd think of something.

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[Arne]

Naoki Senju

Now that he finally had the time to check his wounds safely, Naoki couldn't help but hesitate for a bit when deciding whether to actually use his regeneration or not. While by all accounts the wound in his arm was just a flesh wound, the methods of the enemy coupled with the weird way the recon team died alone were more than enough to make him have second thoughts about the safety of accelerating his body's natural healing speed out of sheer fear of what may have been coated in the weapon.

In the end, though, the simple fact that he didn't have a method to extract the possible poison safely was enough of a motivator to trigger him into acting - After all, being affected earlier or later didn't make that much of a difference - directly manipulating the wooden half dome into closing around him - both as a form of protection and as a way to slow him down a bit should he be right in guessing that he was going to suffer from hallucinatory effects - and concentrating into accelerating his regenerative abilities to close the wound.

In the meanwhile, Clone Naoki had a considerably easier time figuring what to do, only stopping for a moment to consider whether he should give Nagisa the opportunity to target Oumu before ultimately deciding that it wasn't worth it risking giving the shinobi the opportunity of using more of his tricks while he ran away and directly using his control over the local roots to trigger multiple separate pointed roots into piercing the ground towards ninja's body from all sides in an attempt to directly skewer him - quite obviously not planning to give him any chance keeping his life.

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