Side Story: The Hunting - Complete

[Ganryu]

As Naoki tended to his wounds (and the GM assumes removes the stake), the smell of lavender wafted on the stake itself, the top of it being smothered in perfume.

Sickening thuds echoed as Nagisa's blade pierced Oumu in the back, and a myriad of roots impaling him from below. Blood splashed all over Nagisa from the various lines of impalement. A particular drop of blood flew all the way over to clone Moku as he closed in. The blood, starting to drip down, started to lose its opacity, fading in color, and dripping clear as Oumu's body fell into a puddle of water.

Water Clone Jutsu

Around the area, to anyone particularly perceptive, they might notice a few drops of water against the leaves of the trees. However, their path was weird, they weren't gathering towards the bottom of the Leaf as per gravity, they all seemed to be gathering forward. Still, they only pooled.

From the puddle where the water prison had been, Oumu raised up.

Hiding in Water

He attacked no one, yet had his hands in another seal. Another trick. He then quickly started a series of handsigns. Quickly finishing the same pattern again, and again, and again, his chakra levels plumeting. He spoke, but this time he stole Sei's tone and voice.

"We can't even tell what's real or fake anymore! Nagisa, watch out, he's behind you! "

Oumu didn't even bother to mask where the voice was coming from. But as he could tell, only one in their group seemed to be able to tell genjutsu, the one who had been spouting off about it earlier. He would kill her first. And the rest of the team would follow in short supply.

As another series finished, Oumu grabbed a chain, and wrapped it around one of his stakes in anticipation, eyeing the six of them and continuing. Well, one he couldn't see. He'd have to fix that. He stole Moku's voice, and added a twist. The voice would sound like it was coming right beside Naoki's dome. Oumu added a very convincing knocking sound to his voice, sounding like Moku knocking on wood.

"Naoki, we could really use your help out here! Nagisa's bleeding everywhere!"

The poison should be starting to take effect about now, and Oumu's chakra was about wasted, he could really use the extra chaos.

 

[AllHailDago]

Moku Ozaki​

Moku nodded along with Sei's suggestions while eyeing the fleeing shinobi. He kept himself from visibly grimacing as Sei pulled out the needles still piercing his skin. As she did the spots where they were removed quickly converted to the iron durability the rest of him had. Though he'd have to take care of the bleeding wounds after he ended the jutsu, they'd be fine for now. He began judging distances between himself, the enemy, his clone, and the others to consider how to go about keeping him still and isolated for Sei. However he didn't get far in his planning before Nagisa nailed him with her blade, and apparently Naoki impaled him with tree roots as well.

Moku was ready to congratulate his teammates and recover the bodies of his fallen fellow villagers when something weird happened. The blood that spattered the ground, Nagisa, and his clones faded away after a short moment. A clone Moku realized, immediately concentrating on extending his senses with chakra to find the real one. The area was small enough he should be able to sense him were his real self here. Meanwhile Moku's clone warily turned in a circle checking for another enemy.

Both of them were surprised to see the shinobi drop their own cover optionally and start using jutsu in rapid succession. Moku's clone simply tensed, readying to attack or self sacrifice to defend Nagisa if need be. Moku however focused immediately upon the presence of seemingly concentrated chakra that kept falling as jutsu was used. The air kept brimming with more chakra as the shinobi finished his handsigns. He was as reasonably sure as he could be that this was the real enemy. Meaning he couldn't let him finish whatever he was trying to do.

He started to think of how to close quarters safely without issue when the shinobi used a technique that seemed to cast a fake voice. So that's what that was earlier! His clone double checked to make sure the Nagisa one was actually a lie, but upon him using Moku's voice both the clone and him understood. Moku stopped considering closing range. In fact thinking too much stopped as he realized this was how he'd killed the other Leaf shinobi. He turned them against each other and made them kill each other. He was trying to do it again... using HIS voice. Moku started taking short, deep, rapid breaths as he trembled from rage. As he eyed the enemy and the ground between them he thought one word: dead.

He flicked through hand signs swiftly enough to make it hard to tell what signs he'd used. "Weighted Boulder Jutsu!" As he said this his body suddenly Weighted multiple times as much as before, especially with Earth Spear active. The ground around his feet cracked from the sudden increase in pressure. He flicked through a second pair of hand signs, finishing the jutsu by punching the joined fists into the ground. "Lightweight Boulder Jutsu!" The jutsu spread out through the earth surrounding his joined fists, drastically decreasing the weight. He wrenched his body back, as much force and power behind the movement as he could manage. With his natural strength and the two stacked jutsus it was a hell of a lot.

There was a cracking retort and he tore a huge chunk of the earth straight out of the ground. A crater was left in its place as he lifted the massive chunk of earth and drew it back to one side, careful not to hurt Sei. His hands, still joined inside the mass, began to repeat the first set of hand signs as he threw all of his strength and force into tossing the boulder at the shinobi. Just as he was releasing it, while he still had skin contact, he finished the jutsu. "Weighted Boulder Jutsu!" The mass of earth not only returned to its originally weight, but increased beyond it. As the massive force left Moku he dropped to his knees in sheer exhaustion, but did not stop watching to see the result.

While this happened his clone had ALSO realized the truth and become enraged by the enemy. However with far less.... physical expression as Moku. Instead the clone used the same just in two quick successions. Almost one after another he released two Phoenix Flower jutsus, and guided them towards the enemy shinobi’s back. Between the two Moku's rage fueled attacks they believed stood a shinobi with no chance of survival.

Ganryu AtlannianSpy Kimiwriter Arne

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa
​

Dammit... Nagisa growled as the clone melted to water around her blade, only for Oumu to reappear elsewhere. Nagisa whirled around, in time to watch Moku lift up a considerable chunk of rock out of the earth itself and hurl it in a concerted effort to crush their opponent. Nagisa couldn't say she blamed him, she was feeling that way herself.

"You might wanna use your own voice for once," Nagisa shot back as she came face to face with Oumu, forcing a cruel smile onto her face, Oumu wasn't the only one who could play mindgames. With a drop of blood and some handseals Bakuwashi appeared beside her and leaned in to listen as Nagisa whispered in his ear.

"YO YO YO! IT'S YA BOY BEAKY G! THE INIMITABLE! THE ONE AND ONLY!" Bakuwashi crowed as he took to the air. Of course, the eagle was only definitely inimitable because Oumu hadn't heard his voice yet, although non human vocal cords should also complicate things one would hope but that should still be enough to get out one, unimpeachable order. "THE BOSS HAS SOME ORDERS! NAOKI: STAY INSIDE THAT DOME! WE DON'T KNOW HOW THAT POISON WORKS YET AND HE'S CLEARLY TRYING TO BAIT YOU! SEI: KEEP MOKU AND YOURSELF FREE OF GENJUTSU AND STAY BEHIND HIM! MOKU: DON'T HOLD BACK NO MATTER WHAT YOU SEE!"

While Bakuwashi was calling out orders Nagisa fired a serpent bolt into the ground near her feet and then body flickered once more towards Oumu. "You won't want your last words to be in a stolen voice," Nagisa hissed as she reappeared in front of Oumu aiming another slash at him with her light blade. Nagisa was counting on the fact that Oumu had already seen how effective this weapon was because she was using it as a decoy for real attack: a downwards stab aimed at Oumu's foot with the blade concealed in her shoe. Nagisa only had to pin Oumu on place for a precious split second so that Moku's jutsu was unavoidable, then she'd rely on Moku's phoenix fire jutsu to create an opening for her to teleport back to her bolt at the last possible moment.

 

[Kimiwriter]

Sei Teshima

Sei was torn. She wanted to rain down her poisonous fury on Oumu; catch him in the poison mist's royal purple cloud and count the seconds before he was struggling to breathe. He deserved it. But Naoki was poisoned and needed an antidote, even if it was just enough to slow the effects, the sooner she could treat her teammate, the better his chances were. Attack or support?

Taking deep, steady breaths, Sei adjusted her stance. Once she moved, there would be no time to hesitate or think. I can get him.

Moku yelled, unleashing multiple jutsu. Sei saw her chance.

Once he released the boulder, Sei raced out from behind him, following the attack's arch until she'd crossed half the distance. A kuni flew from her hand. Minor distraction compared to everything else. "Nagisa, move!" She clasped her hands together, formed the signs, and took deep breathes. Poison Mist Jutsu. A dense chakra broiled up. Her throat and lungs burned. She ran, just waiting for her teammate to move away so she could release the cloud.

AtlannianSpy

 

[Arne]

Naoki Senju
​

Naoki didn't quite know how to react to what was happening outside. Being as close as he was to the scene, he could pretty obviously feel the result of Moku's attacks and - when coupled with a very near voice trying to get him to help while sounding like Moku - quite obviously didn't see it as a good sign, as the only person in the group who could go for such a move obviously wouldn't have the time to come to him for help while doing so, leading him into believing that it was an enemy move that cause the disturbance he felt under him.

It was only out of fear for the effects of whatever Oumu hit him with that he hesitated before directly jumping out of the dome and helping his comrades, and it was only this hesitation that allowed him to stay there for long enough for Nagisa's summon to convey the message that the voice was a fake, triggering him into getting over his disturbed mind state and once more concentrating in healing his body, trying to use the regeneration to make the effects of whatever was messing with his head faster.

Clone Naoki obviously didn't go through the same process, being quite clear about the situation due to standing behind the lines. Unfortunately for him, though, having made use of techniques for so long almost depleted his already limited chakra reserves, making it so he barely had the strength needed to once more manipulate the roots under his control into targeting Oumu before disappearing in a puff of smoke, this time only snaring his legs due to both the lack of chakra to actually move large amounts of roots and the fact that his teammates already threw more than enough firepower at the kirinin. Hopefully, those would be enough to hold him in place until the attacks hit him.

 

[Ganryu]

Nagisa's voice reflected back to her.

"This voice is sufficiently gender neutral. Might keep it."

Oumu threw his stake into the tree branch above him, as if he'd been prepared for this. Afterall, everyone attacked when you showed yourself. And if they were attacking him, they weren't watching their backs. As he pulled up to yank himself above the battlefield, he suddenly sprang backdown, a knife holding him down.

A small gasp escaped his lips. As he moved to swipe Nagisa's light cutter away, she was already gone. A poison mist fell across the area as several roots sprung up at him.

While vision was obscured, a sickening thud resounded as the boulder entered the scene at high speeds, chains breaking at the impact, and several explosions went off as the Pheonix fire hit like it had been fired from a kage. The torrent of flames was impressive, had Oumu been able to witness it earlier he would have been impressed.

It would take a moment for the mist to clear, showing a morbid scene in its wake, no blood became water this time.

A moment later, Oumu's final jutsu fired, even with its master being dead.

The droplets of dew pointing at the group fired, like a volley of senbon from every tree. There was no warning, only suddenly every direction was raining senbons. Oumu's parting gift. Every tree in the area fired senbon after senbon of water at the group. The fire was continuous as the trees started to wither away, using up all their water as the barrage proceeded continuously from every direction. The barrage continued for some time before every tree in the area was left a husk. The senbons weren't a particularly unblockable jutsu, but there number of senbon would give all but the most solid of defenses trouble. Likewise, each needle wasn't likely to be fatal, even half a dozen could be taken without effect, but a human pincushion would eventually find life a little difficult.

The number was such that Earth Spear would suddenly notice a medical term called orifices. Wood would find weaknesses in the grain. Flying creatures above the tree line might be fine, but those with two legs might have some difficulty.

Heavenly Torrent of Tears

As the jutsu ended, the trees literally started to fall to a pile of wooddust.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Nagisa Kanazawa
​

Panting heavily, Nagisa locked her eyes on the boulder Moku had thrown, staring doggedly until blood, real blood, began to seep out from underneath it. But Nagisa didn't have more than an instant to savor their victory before something sharp lanced through her shoulder, leaving behind a stinging pain. Before Nagisa even had time to turn towards the source of danger Nagisa felt several more of the stabbing impacts and she was able to gather roughly what was happening, a veritable storm of deadly needles.

With no direction safe except for one, Nagisa crouched, gathered chakra in her legs and made one last body flicker. Nagisa's momentum carried her just up above the treeline, next to Bakuwashi, before petering out.

"I NEED TO GO UP!" Nagisa shouted urgently at her partner, at the same time using her split second of air time to summon her concealing cloak and grab the corners to form a makeshift parachute.

"You got it boss!" Bakuewashi replied, barrel rolling into Nagisa's stomach and weaving handseals so that he was upside down as he collided with Nagisa and she curled her legs around him.

wind release: Great Breakthrough

A gust of wind erupted from Bakuwashi's wings, up into the folds of Nagisa's cloak so that it billowed out into a balloon shape and she shot up some meters into the air.

"AGAIN!"

wind release: Great Breakthrough

"AGAIN!"

wind release: Great Breakthrough

The next two bursts shot Nagisa up a few more metres and then Bakuwashi disappeared in a puff of smoke, his chakra spent. Nagisa plummeted back down towards the ground, noticeably slower than she would have without her little parachute, but still quickly enough that the senbons were still firing. Nagisa gritted her teeth and jerked her legs up sharply as she felt water senbons lance into her annkles and feet, she closed her eyes and then-

Nothing.

The senbons that hit her feet as she fell where the last and Nagisa made it to the ground where, landing on her injured feet she collapsed to her knees, sucking in desperate, gasping breathes of air.

"Lets-" Nagisa broke off to keep breathing for a few second.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," She managed finally.

 

[Arne]

Naoki Senju
​

Naoki could feel his heart tensing up after sensing that the clone he previously made was finally dispelled, immediately feeling a faint dread for his teammates due to lacking any form of knowledge about what was happening outside of his dome. The sheer worry about the situation made is so he even went as far as actively moving to open a hole in his barrier to check the situation before he first felt the impact of the needles in it, drilling a whole all the way into his body mere moments after hitting his dome while making the wooden barrier seem no thougher than a sheet of paper.

It was only when after the first of those pierced his body that Naoki understood how severe the situation was, instantly making full use of his prowess to flow earth aligned chakra through his body to toughen it to the limits of what he cold and even going as far as curling up defensively to prevent the ultra thin projectiles from hitting any orifices as they continuously rained down on him, incapacitated from making even the handsigns needed for making another layer of protection in front of the unexpect, extremely lethal attack.

By the time the needles stopped falling, his previously intact barrier already barely stood together and his previously somehow healed body already had quite a few new wounds that unsurprisingly started to heal right after he managed to stand up. "Now that's an order that I'm happy to follow." He said in response to Nagisa's words, his mental exhaustion alone working to somehow make him slip out of his usual attitude to a more casual one.

​

 

[Kimiwriter]

Sei Teshima

She sighed when each of their attacks hit their mark. It took a moment for her mist to clear and reveal the corpse before them. Sei shuddered. It worked. And then she noticed the needles. Too many for her to dodge. Everywhere. No where to run or hide.

Sei dropped to her hands and knees, sending chakra through her palms. "Kaida!" A huge cloud of smoke. Sei ducked, throwing her arms above her head. A large snake appeared, coiling around her like a shield. "Thanks Kaida," Sei sighed, "I owe you for this."

After a brief minute, Sei heard the scratching of shifting scales as the snake uncoiled.

"If you are alright, little one," Kaida hissed turning towards the others.

"We're fine," Sei looked around at the others. It was true; they were mostly in one piece. Nagisa looked the worst for wear out of all of them. "I'll come by soon to return the favor." Getting to her feet, she hurried to Nagisa's side, taking her arm for support. "Do you want me to heal you?" Back to the comfort of her support role. "It'll only take a few minutes." Sei looked over the others. They'd all need medical attention whether it was from her or when they got back.

 

[AllHailDago]

Moku Ozaki
​

Moku had little time to celebrate his successful attack, or to shout a warning about the jutsu when he realized that was what the chakra gathering was for. So instead of speaking he simply sprung into action. First he turned to Sei, thinking she would be the first to need help over the other two in terms of defense or evasion. As he went to run towards her something, several somethings in fact, slammed into numerous spots in his back.

After enough of them they punctured through the thinner layer of Earth Spear that had covered the holes from the Ice Needles Sei had removed. The wounds underneath weren't fully healed from her jutsu, and we're rapidly worsened as he was slammed with more shards of ice. He stumbled and grimaced before shifting his eyes back to Sei again. Thankfully she had summoned a durable looking snake to protect her, so he shifted to focusing on himself.

Flicking through the hand signs for Subterranean Voyage with one hand, he tried blocking his injuries from the ice needles with his other. It had mildly effective results, but his swift descent into the ground was more effective. After a long minute or so he felt the chakra gathered dissipate at the jutsu ended and resurfaced. He was happy to find all three teammates had survived on their own. Though based on the sparkling shards scattered across the ground his clone had definitely not. That made sense given he himself took multiple injuries before realizing the attack and evading it. His clone wouldn't have the luxury given its fragile nature.

He gazed around at the dust remains of the trees and the scattered needles of ice. He figured the boy had pulled the water from the trees to create the needles. A dangerous trick, and one that unfortunately more effectively killed the trees than the fire would have. Now they couldn't be saved at all. It's a small miracle the animals in the area fled due to the impeding danger of the shinobi conflict. He cast a look at Naoki and made sure to remember to ask him if he'd come back with him and replace the trees after the mission.

All he said this time however was, "I'm with Nagisa on that one." Not.... a phrase he thought he'd mutter any time soon honestly.

Ganryu Kimiwriter AtlannianSpy Arne