Side Story: Trespassers - Completed-

[Ganryu]

Mission: I've been trading with an old artisan from the Stone for a long time, a stone statue for a wood carving, every year. These things sell for quite the fortune you know. Sadly it has been hard lately, with tensions in the Leaf and its neighbors being so hard, so I would like to hire a few ninjas to deliver this one. It's tradition. Also, I think I can one-up him this year with this statue of an Asura. Good speed.

Mission: Mai and Naoki are to deliver this package to the Hidden Stone Village from a small shrine on the outskirts of the Land of Fire.

 

[Ganryu]

Mai Sanada ​

Mai nervously paced around her house. Life was interesting when you paced with body flicker. At this point, running multiple missions in a week was nearly a norm for her, Mai had been serious when she'd said she 'd wanted to be a Jonin, but this was different. This was the first time working with someone outside her graduation group. And it was a Senju, someone of a large clan inside the Leaf, even bigger than the Sanada.

Was this Naoki supposed to be nice? Had he heard any rumors about her being insane? Could Mai not be an idiot around someone for once? Gulping Mai looked at the clock. She'd have to go now if she didn't want to arrive in a puff.

"What am I scared of? I am Mai, of the Sanada! I just gotta be me. Think of all the people who like me!"

"Yukari.... and... uh,..."

"Think of all the people who tolerate me! Gotta be normal... gotta be confident..."

And with that, Mai ran out towards the village gate to meet her companion for the mission. Now that she was moving, she was a bit excited. Someone she could show off to, and who had absolutely no precognitions about how a delivery would go. Village gate would be a boring place to meet Naoki at though...

Naoki would arrive to find a psycho laughing on top of the gate as she scanned the crowds below.

"Man, I love the breeze up here! Hey, you Naoki! Sweet! I'm Mai, of the Sanada, of Squad Six.! Hey, let me come down!"

Jumping down, Mai landed superhero style on one knee in front of Naoki.

"So yeah, just got a simple delivery mission. Shouldn't take too long, I'm one of the fastest people in the Leaf! Guess they're sending two people cause we're going to another village, but anyone ends up being a pain I can just kick'em. But yeah, looks like we're working together for the next few days. Tell me 'bout'cha'self. I'm a taijutsu user. Can't use my hands too much though, mostly just kick things. I hear the Senju have woord release, is that true? What'bout'chu?"

Mai realized she was starting to talk faster and faster, and promptly shut up to let the guy speak.

 

[Arne]

Naoki Senju​

Naoki seemed weirdly calm as he slowly made his way towards the village gate, all of the uneasiness that he normally demonstrated when he first started to do missions again after the village's invasion was once more replaced by his usual tranquil self as he followed through the village and occasionally stopped to talk with his acquaintances in the way - a clear display of how surprisingly resilient the young man was in spite of his meek attitude... Or so it seemed.

Truth being said, while he was indeed much better now he was still more nervous than he was willing to admit when it came to this specific mission. Even if the simple fact that his partner for this mission was a member of the well known Sanada clan, who was (in)famous for having a remarkably unstable nature, wasn't enough to make him somehow worried, the simple fact that the mission they took was dangerously easy sounding definitely would've brought him an equal unease. No one would hire two chunin for a simple mission unless there was more about it than they were willing to reveal.

It was under such a mental state that he had to face nothing more than a sudden dangerous sounding laughter as soon as he arrived at the gates, something that would already be more than enough to put him on guard even if it wasn't followed by a feminine voice suddenly addressing him in a way that could only be considered as overly friendly when considering that it was coming from someone he was meeting for the first time today.

Before he even had the chance to react, the overly energetic girl suddenly jumped from her position atop the gate, landing right in front of him and almost managing to scare him into putting his guard up in the process, and started to immediately let out a torrent of words in the same overly excited way as before, temporarily stunning Naoki as even his chronically passive self simply didn't know whether to laugh or cry when faced by such an oddball of a teammate.

When she finally stopped to talk, the boy had long since decided to go for the first option and a faint smile that revealed some helplessness plastered his face, only disappearing as he detected her restraint and used the opportunity to introduce himself and answer some of her questions.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Mai." He started, purposefully throwing a wink as he slowly voiced his answer to her introduction as if to tell it was a joke rather than him openly criticizing the fact that she practically made him drown in questions before he even had the time to introduce himself properly. "I am your partner for this mission, and I am indeed capable of using my clan's wood release, though my proficiency may be under par when compared to some of my relatives." He continued in the same tranquil way as before, seemingly unfazed by Mai's hurried tone from before.

"With that being said, I do feel obliged to share some of my concerns about this mission." He said after a brief moment of thinking, quickly realizing that there was no point in hiding his feelings about this mission from such an enthusiastic teammate. "I can't but feel that this package wouldn't be entrusted to two Chunin if the mission was made solely for the sake of speed. We should probably be in guard after leaving the village instead of instantly labelling it as an easy mission."

 

[Ganryu]

Mai nodded at her teammate's concerns. The fact he wasn't freaking out was good. Internally Mai definitely was. One thing she had learned was to listen to anyone advice on a mission. Ever since that incident in Koseki with the bear...

"Well, I can agree with that. Let's take a look at a map real quick...."

Pulling one out, Mai traced their route with her finger.

"Well, we can pass through Waterfall or Grass, both have small villages in them, though never had too much problem with Waterfall, but with the timeframe we got on this, we probably have to pass through Grass to get there in time, Waterfall has too many cliffs. That's probably why, I hear Grass has been a liiiittle bit aggressive lately. I hear the Hidden Grass excels at ambushes or something... I don't know, they got me reading so many books it all kinda blurs together, ya'd think all I'd have to do is hit things to rank up... Anyways, you want to grab anything to prepare against that? We can leave in an hour instead of right now."


=============================
-Narrator skip because screw travel. Mai talks alot, gets scarily excited sometimes. Good luck Naoki.-

The travel itself was mostly quiet all the way out of the Hidden Leaf and through Fire Country. It wasn't until the two made it around Grass Country that Mai finally shut up. She suddenly seemed alot more paranoid, listening to Naoki's suggestion.

"So, are you any good at sensing? I can hear things pretty well, only out of combat sensing I really have to be honest. Kinda paranoid about trying to sleep while moving here... think it's going to be a loooong night. You any good at tools or spotting traps? I never really learned how to even throw a kunai straight."

 

[Arne]

Naoki couldn't help but sigh in relief internally as the hyperactive girl seemingly stopped for a second and actually considered his worries, quietly nodding as she suggested checking the map to decide a route and quietly waiting until she stopped talking about the options they had before he finally started to talk himself, directly answering the girl's question as soon as it was voiced in an attempt to stop her from talking more and deviating from the topic.

"We should be fine with what we have, it's better to depart sooner and get some extra time to use in case something unexpected pops up." He said while shrugging, avoiding to voice the besides, it's not like I can use tools without making something go boom anyway in his head as they left the village. Hopefully they'd be able to figure some countermeasures in the way towards the hidden grass... If Mai stopped talking about random stuff, that is.

- Insert Gan's intermission here -

After a few hours of travelling, Naoki was already more than sure that the past him was away too optimistic about his partner's willingness to talk. While his inherently gentle personality stopped him from effectively complaining about anything and just keep nodding and smile occasionally at everything that Mai said in the hopes that she'd end up without a subject after a while, after a while of nonstop talking he came to the understanding that she simply had endless subjects, even if sometimes the topics repeated. While it was far from being a boring trip due to that, as the girl's endless chatting indeed helped with making the time pass faster, at some point Naoki started to notice that even his thoughts started to sound suspiciously like the girl after such a long period of chatting, simply because the opportunities for him to actually talk to answer the girl got lesser and lesser the more excited Mai got, and she seemed constantly built up enthusiasm just by breathing.

By the time they got in the outskirts of the Hidden Grass that the girl seemingly dropped her excitement in favour of a more paranoid attitude, seemingly worried about what Naoki talked about earlier - something that didn't get a sigh of relief out of Naoki solely because he was a bit too polite to let such a possibly rude action pass - opening her mouth only to directly inquire Naoki about his abilities.

"I can do the sensing part to a certain extent, though I'm far from being a sensor type. Not so good with tools though, everything throwable or assemblable that touches my hand seems to directly break for some reason." The boy couldn't hold back a sigh as he mentioned that, seemingly downright depressed about his inability to use tools. It didn't take long for him to go back to talking with renewed enthusiasm though, as the camping issue was actually one that he was more than capable of dealing with. "I'm kind of capable of helping with the camping issue though. While I'm not especially good when it comes to sensing, I am still able to hide our camp as long as it's in forest-like environment." He stated in an insecure way - seemingly honestly considering his abilities as naught but average - only to change to a more playful tone right after, obviously attempting to lessen the girl's worry. "Plus, I'm great at sitting by myself in dark places for hours straight. Legit prime watchman material."

 

[Ganryu]

Naoki was a great listener. He hadn't told her to shut up once. At the mention of a forest-like environment, she spread her arms out, pointing to the vast grass lines for miles and miles. In the great distance a few trees could be seen, the Land of Fire, and further still in the opposite direction, the grass died out as it rose into the mountains, the Land of Earth.

"Forest-like environment here! No one'll notice a log cabin in the middle of here. Bet we could hide an entire campfire under some roots... Wait, actually, not a bad idea..."

Mai rubbed her chin. Her sarcasm gave her an idea.

"That's actually brilliant! Pretend to have a dumb disguise and not even be there at all. If ninja attack the poorly made camp, we have some warning. If they don't bother, then we're probably in the clear. Wish ya were better at traps, cause I'm pretty bad at'em too. Once tried to snag a rabbit with nothing but a line of fishhooks. Somehow got Hideki instead. Haven't tried since.

At least ya don't gotta worry about sensing. That IS my department. If it makes a sound, I'll hear it. And I'm trained enough to wake up to it. If you wanted I could tell you how many mice are in these fields, I'm better at sensing than Aiko is at least. Wish she were here, hot as hell and I could use her as an AC unit... I mean... anyways, yeah. Well, whereever you want to set up fake camp, think Imma get myself some rest. Think we can make it all the way there by tomorrow if we hurry. Hmm... I wonder if I could improve body-flicker any to make missions like this easier. Wouldn't worry about minor villages if I could just blow past them. Imagine if I could fly. Too bad I can't use ninjutsu with my hands the way they are. Oh well,, night!"

Despite Mai's comments about setting up a normal camp, when it actually came time to sleep, Mai's preparation to sleep was three strips of jerky, running in a circle for 15 minutes straight then holding her bag behind her head and collapsing into the grass. She was out before she even hit the ground.

 

[Orikanyo]

The grass lands were as peaceful as can be in the full moon night, the moon's rays shimmered upon the lightly condensing dew of the long grassy landscape, emerald blades of grass that expand endlessly in all directions. A peaceful landscape that one could see for miles around them, it brought a sense of safety, knowing that sneaking up on a person was nigh impossible.

But as one might be able to see enemies for miles around, so could one be seen by their enemies.

It would be Mai who would hear it first, the sound of something searing through the air towards Naoki's neck, silent as the night it'self and stifled by the light sound of the rustling grasses in the wind.

However with Mai's proclaimed hearing she could hear the second object following close behind aimed for the young man's heart, hidden within the moonlit shadow of the first.

 

[Ganryu]

Mai reacted to the sound by suddenly diving at Naoki, knocking him into the grass. Two thunks could be heard on her back. Turning, Naoki would see two arrows fall from her back, and two holes in her blouse. Thankfully he might see a gleam of chainmail beneath that. Mai screamed out into the grass not seeing anything.

"COWARDS! COME FIGHT ME! OR ARE YOU SCARED OF SOME LEAF NIN? I'M MAI! OF THE SANADA! HAHAHA!"

Facing Naoki, she spoke in a slightly hoarse voice.

"Looks like that house can wait. Some assholes are attacking us. Don't got no ninjutsu, if I point them out, I'm going to let you attack them. Going to be vulnerable for a second, be my knight in shining armor, would'cha?"

Mai plopped down in the grass in a meditative state. If they attacked her, she'd leave that up to Naoki. Hopefully he could react? Concentrating, suddenly her hearing intensified. She could hear each bristling of grass. She could hear the insects in the air. And more importantly, she could hear each and every heartbeat that didn't manage to hide itself from around her. She pointed to the first one she could hear, quiet as it was.

"There! 200 meters that way!"

 

[Arne]

Naoki could barely understand what just happened as Mai suddenly pushed him, directly throwing him to the ground to keep him safe from two projectiles whose presence he barely detected before they were directly in front of him in an act that most certainly saved his life, though the execution was a bit exaggerated with Mai going as far as using her own body as a shield - thus pretty much risking giving a Naoki a heart attack in the process of saving his life - and yelling her identity to attract their enemies attention to herself like a true madwoman.

With that being said, just this bit of adrenaline was still far from being enough to shake Naoki's mentality, being quickly disregarded by the boy as soon as the kunoichi gave her suggestion. "Understood. I'll be waiting for your instructions." He quickly said as he formed some quick seals with his hands,slamming them in the ground as Mai sat down to try to locate their targets, directly taking control over a multitude of roots hidden in the underground and bringing them closer to the surface as he prepared to use the moderately thick roots to intercept any sudden attack while Mai searched for the targets.

His reaction would be equally quick as the girl finally identified the location of their attackers, as he directly brought up any roots he had access to around the indicated location in an attempt to quickly enshroud any poor sob that happened to be there, directly taking anyone unlucky enough to be caught out of combat - after all, while the roots he had access too in an area such as the grass filled countryside weren't especially thick, they were more than enough to cause some considerable damage while tangling around each other, continuously constricting the target with a pressure that was more than enough to make normal non-taijutsu focused shinobi unable to move.

 

[Orikanyo]

"There! 200 meters that way!"

"Hrnn?" a form leapt from the grasses, warned by the voice calling out it's position to avoid incoming threats, only to be brought down by the leg on the outskirts of the jutsu. The figure was a person, unless something human shaped had learned how to make a ghillie suit that was currently shimmering in the wind. Like a trapped animal it began drawing a knife, makeing one certain it was a human and began cutting at the roots desperately.

Three more sounds could be heard as well, the sound of something heavier than the arrows from before impacting the ground in a triangular formation around the camp area, and the distinct sound of gas escaping from a container...

Thick ominous mist began to fill the air.

 

[Ganryu]

Mai cursed stuck between two voices.

Come on! You can take these guys easy! 'specially with a lil' backup... Go at it! HARDER! BETTER! FASTER! STRONGER!

Run away! You want to be a jonin, right? No one's going to forgive you if you fail again.

Mai gritted her teeth as she listened to the less fun of the voices, getting up from her meditative stance. The fact her sensory jutsu was also just plain meditation might have had something to do with it. Besides, poison she could only deal with for a maximum of 2 minutes, and she hadn't even found all the targets.

"Naoki, I can't deal with this gas. Let's run."

She got closer and whispered into his ear.

"Quick, take the statue from me and give me a fake. I'll be a decoy, ignore what I say next. I'm counting on your being smarter than I am here."

Mai then took off, body flickering as fast as she could away, screaming after Naoki.

"I got it, Naoki! Hold them off for me! Not like those Grass noodle legs couldn't catch me if they wanted to, I'm the fastest of the Leaf, Mai, of the Body Flicker!"

Mai realized halfway through her run she was being awfully bossy. Hopefully, Naoki was alright with that. Wasn't like Mai was doing it cause she thought she was better, she just happened to have an idea... Also, he probably didn't know her record, so he'd probably be less object to her having an idea than her teammates might be. Either way, she owed him dinner or something for this.

 

[Arne]

Naoki immediately felt and impeding panic surging from his heart as he heard the sound of gas escaping the container. For all the advantages he had, his own abnormal healing speed did little to nothing against poison - especially the lethal kind - and he was obviously not very tempted to test out how long it would take for it to put him down, already showing signs of preparing to run even before may approached him.

Luckily for him, it seemed that the Kunoichi was seemingly completely compliant with this idea, as she already voiced the same thought even before actually getting near him. What came next, thought, was a bit more troublesome as the Kunoichi suddenly got dangerously near the bot to whisper a secret order - a fairly common strategy that had the bonus effect of completely shutting down Naoki.exe when coupled with his utter lack of experience when it came to women.

It was only out of sheer habit that the boy managed to comply to the order even while completely impacted by the sudden action, taking the statue offered to him and stuffing a wooden decoy made by him into the girl's hands and proceeding to be frozen in place for about 2 seconds after she suddenly dashed out of his field of vision before finally running towards the opposite direction.

No, wait, why did she even need to be the decoy? He finally realized after running for a while - around the same moment when his mind returned to its normal state - directly forming some seals to materialize three clones around himself, each similarly occupied with a decoy statue, sending one to intercept his enemies and making the other two dash towards different directions to mislead his pursuers into splitting to follow the clones as he continued to run after slightly adjusting his route. With some luck, this would prevent any misgivings until he left the hidden grass.

 

[Orikanyo]

The grass nin cut them self free, spying the two were splitting up snapped his finger in the air and point to Mai before heading after her, pulling out from under their cape what seemed to be type of crossbow that he fired towards the direction Mai was heading, the bolt was odd looking, more like a container that seeped out dark purple gas as it sailed through the sky. With a simple flip of a lever the grass nin fired again in another direction, and again in another, hoping to try and box her in with their toxins and lead her back towards them.

"Thought you were gonna be tricky eh? Guess leaf nin aren't that big of an issue." a gruff voice came from behind the gas mask called forwards. "Come smell the roses love, you'll find it to your liking! - Eh? Comeing to fight boy? I bet yea think your tough but that poison should be- wait why ain'tchyea poisoned?" the grass nin turned to face the clone... However it seemed he became more confused instead. "That gas is supposed to paralysis yea you damn twit! Noshi! yer poison is as shit as you're shooting!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naoki was not to better off, as he found his path would become peppered with arrows, some began spewing out clear sparkling mist, others would be simple arrows, but they were indeed all coming from the same direction, and the clones were spreading out the brunt of the repeated fire. one of the clones caught an arrow through the neck, dissipating, but the night gained a rather loud "AW FUCKEN COME ON THAT'S CHEATING!" from off in the distance.

Should he look back however another development could be seen as a large arrow cut across the full moon in the sky, a immense arrow came down and slammed right through the second clone that was running away, the arrow about the size of a tree trunk stuck deep into the earth as the clone disappeared. "SONOFA-" yelled the voice, obviously distressed.

 

[Ganryu]

Mai fleeing heard the crossbow fire. 300 m behind her... 35 degrees, and...

Mai whistled. With a turn she snatched the bolt out the air, and continued her turn. With a full turn, she returned the arrow, literally throwing it at the ninja. She then broke her self genjutsu, and continued to move. More bolts came, and Mai cursed as she saw her range of movements getting smaller and smaller.

Mai again and again ran through her options. Fighting was probably the most fun option, but Mai WANTED to avoid it for once. She WAS going to succeed in this mission, even if the Hidden Grass was being a bunch of asses.

Mai then realized she had something in her bag she'd forgotten about. She'd not used it since... her first mission. No wonder she forgot.

Whistling again, she reached into her pouch. It was mostly empty. Shuffling through it, Mai found a bag of salt. Throwing it across the field of grass, she then grabbed a her only kunai and slammed it against her bracers hard enough to spark. A blue fire erupted from it, quickly starting to spread. Prairie fires were fun! Mai hoped it would hide where she went.

 

[Arne]

Naoki could clearly tell how freaking bad the decision of choosing to run instead of engaging the enemies directly was as soon as the arrows started coming. In the end, even if an actual battle in an enemy territory was never a good idea, putting distance between themselves and ranged combatants quickly proved itself to be a fairly stupid decision as his path became filled with arrows and his clones were quickly eliminated under the constant fire.

Ultimately, the boy simply achieved the conclusion that he wouldn't manage to run with such a passive method, bringing together all of his conviction to steel himself and assume a less than favoured by himself offensive stance instead.

Considering how much of a well-trained shinobi that he was, it wasn't even a surprise that his actions suddenly became a lot sharper once he finally decided to go all out, his hands moving with the same well trained efficiency as before as he once more executed the seals needed for the execution of the wood clone technique, once more simultaneously forming three separate wooden clones from his body. This time, thought, the clones didn't immediately scatter after being formed and only one of the clones proceeded to run away from their pursuers in a direction different from the original while the two others proceeded to run in line towards their attackers instead.

The logic behind such an seemingly desperate move wasn't exactly hard to figure out for those who knew the peculiarities of the wood clone, with the unplanned charge being actually based around their ability of - on the opposite of other clones- actively tank attacks instead of directly dissipating on the first touch, making Naoki's attempt of using the first clone as a shield for the second as they ran towards the already clear direction where the arrows came from a fairly viable plan - even if a tad too risky when considering how his chakra reserves would soon deplete if he kept sending clones away to die like this - for his intent of giving the second clone enough of a protection to get near the attackers and hopefully delay them for long enough for Naoki to run away.

~~~~~~~~~~Original spot Clone's pov~~~~~~~~~~

Being finally able to hear the voice of an enemy after returning to the gassed spot, clone number 1 didn't even stop to consider what was the more viable course of action before immediately rushing towards the place where the voices came from, his right arm immediately moving to mimic a throwing movement while generating a wood rod from his hand, obviously making use of the opportunity to attack his enemies while they were still confused, aiming to possibly incapacitate one of his enemies while closing the gap between himself and their group.

Who knows? In the end, he was just a clone. It was more than enough if he could actually take one of the attackers away before being dissipated. That would certainly delay their pursue of his true body.

 

[Orikanyo]

"Wood..? Ah, rotten pile of rancid- Fucken 'ell girl yea wana burn us all!?" the man's eyes nearly burst out of his gas mask when he saw Mai literally start a prairie fire. He however didn't let himself get distracted by it, he was, in the end, a ninja and dodging the wood rod coming from what was possibly a clone made of such, since it wasn't being effected by the paralytic and such.

Getting upon all fours the man's form shifted for a moment, before he outright disappeared from sight and perception.

The gas blew with the wind, smoke rising into the night sky as the fires grew and spread, not quickly enough as the dew helped dampen the world around them. With another, breeze the sounds of wood being cut echoed through out the night, as the clone fell to pieces. the very wood withering with a toxic ichor as it fell to pieces, a poisonous substance much different than the one before.

the smell of rotting wood, fire and grass fileld the air, the area brightened but messing with one's nightvision for long range sight. This likely wouldn't mess with Mai, but still made issues for others.

For the grass nin was still yet to be found.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


From the area the arrows were coming from a figure emerged, a dark silhouette that stood tall in the moonlight with a rice hat atop of his head. "So be it! Shoomu! We must chase our prey! Up boy up!" With a slight rumble in the earth the man began to rise higher, and higher, until the strange thing the man was standing atop of was revealed to be.

A very fierce looking boar.

A boar, that seemed to have been waiting all this time for it's turn to play!!!

"Fetch Shoomu fetch! Get that statue and you'll get a treat!" called the archer as the boar, unsurprisingly, obeyed, and with shocking speed as it lunged forwards and barreled through the clones rushing towards them. The ginormous pig was now rushing towards Naoki and the clone, as the archer focused on staying atop of the large beast currently leaving ruts in the ground in it's frantic pace!

 

[Ganryu]

At the ninja disappearing, Mai tried her hand at it as well. Other's were far better at stealth than she was, but no reason to not try and dance with the flames from time to time. Or literally in this case, as Mai faded into the fire.

Hiding in Fire

Most ninja got extremely uncomfortable in the flames. Mai, however, loved it. She loved Aiko, but that Kekkei Genkai getting everything cold was pretty miserable for the fire girl. Not that Mai used any ninjutsu. Taijutsu was just easier, and genjutsu was a good secondary that no one else seemed to pick up.

Focusing back on the mission, Mai simply listened in for the chaos caused by Naoki's clones. It was kinda awe-inspiring honestly, she liked it. Still, made her feel like a slight idiot. She had speed on her side, and he could make a great distraction, why didn't she ask? Then again, asking someone 'will you be a distraction while I run away' never worked very well.

Listening in on the surrounding area, Mai meditated hidden in the flames.

Sensing: Meditation

Her hearing suddenly increased several fold, but her concentration was stretched as she tried to pinpoint the one grass ninja who had disappeared, and the one riding a boar, and fear for any reinforcements.

Granted, with Mai's stealth, a decent sensor, or someone with strong eyesight might find her, but, meh, she was trying at least.

 

[Arne]

Naoki's eyes couldn't avoid gleaning in a sinister way as he felt his clones being destroyed, the quickly approaching boar bringing a rare sharpness to his eyes as the more brutal side of his personality peeked outside, invoked by the need to deal with the imminent crisis. With that being said, it wasn't like anyone could witness the sudden change of disposition as the sole witnesses to this where still away too far to pay any attention to the barely visible face of Naoki.

What they similarly couldn't see and would probably pay for, though, wasn't the change in Naoki's expression, but the long wooden spike that formed under the clone's right arm, preparing to spring at any given moment. As soon as the boar did get especially close, though, they would most certainly notice it, as it was at that moment that Naoki's clone would immediately turn towards the boar and let himself fall over his right leg, half kneeling and letting the now fully formed wooden spike project itself in front of himself - acting as a spear to intercept the boar - and using his own body - now firmly stuck in the ground - and other arm - now holding the makeshift spear - as a leverage to prevent it from just sinking or getting pushed out of the ground. Should the "spear" pierce the boar - something hardly that difficult when coupling the sheer speed that the beast ran in and the wooden spike's remarkable durability and sharpness - it would immediately sprout into multiple sharp branches to skewer the beast and its rider alike.

Even if one of the two did manage to escape, though, it wouldn't change much, as Naoki himself stopped after running for a while longer, growing a similar spike from his own arm as a preparation to deal with his enemies while they were still confused should they escape his clone's suicide attack.

 

[Orikanyo]

The boar continued to squeal and snort as it rushed forwards, regardless of the new obstical in it's path the boar rushed forwards! The beast loomed to immence size, alrger and larger as it continued it's charge towards the clone and the targets it set it's murderous graze upon!

Closer, and closer! Each hoof fall rumbling the earth as it finally reached the clone! passing through and over it, continued towards Noaki without a scratch upon it!

Or at least, until the genjutsu finally wore off.

The boar disappeared not 10 feet away from the young man, in the distance a large smoke cloud could be seen as the duo made their get away with rather shocking speeds. "SCREW THIS YOU GUYS CHEAT OR SOMETHIN'!!!" Shouted the loud mouthed sniper between sniffles.

For Mai her situation wasn't better, the boar had in fact ran past her area in it's get away, her opponent latched atop of the boar like a grasshopper leaping upon a passing animal.

"WELL GET YOU LOT NEXT TIME!" shouted the grass nin before they began to sink into the grasses yet again, before disappearing from sight completely... All in all.. A rather disappointing and unfulfilling battle. But the narrator would explain, than if one were to fail an ambush.. Why stay and fight? Perhaps we may see more of that duo in the future, or perhaps the great gods in the sky will forget about them forever.

All we know is, some folks must feel their warrior spirit being rather blue balled.

 

[Ganryu]

Mai walked out of the flame, blinking slightly at the fleeing boar and ninja.

"Uh... was fighting ninjas supposed to be that easy? I kinda feel gypped. I mean, I know I'm supposed to be grateful I didn't get poisoned nor anything, and that we still got that doll, but... Like... couldn't they have punched me? Just a tiny bit? Now I'm just left hanging."

Mai started walking towards the Stone, for what was probably going to be a very peaceful, and boring delivery. They'd probably make it in two more days. Was she supposed to be happy that she was stronger, or pissed her opponent ran like a coward. She turned to Naoki, and bent towards him with her hands behind her back.

"Anyways, uh, thanks, Naoki. Couldn't have done it without you. Well, probably could have, those guys were pathetic, but appreciate ya help.

I'm, uh, sorry for panicking earlier with the orders of decoy and all that. Truth is I'm kinda new to not just punching my way out of everything. Trying to think more and such, and well... it's so stressful! When my job was just to hit things didn't have to worry about a thing.

I dunno, this mission's just too easy either way. But what'cha think I should care about after this? Should I try thinking stuff out, even though I suck at it, or just go back to punching things first? I mean, I don't think those guys could have taken more than about 7 shots. 3 if I played dirty."

As Mai asked, a prairie fire slowly started to spread in the distance. The enemy ninja also lived somewhere in the grassland, so some interesting news was promised in the future one way or another.

 

[Arne]

For a second after the grass ninjas ran away, Naoki simply didn't know how to react. Be it the sudden feeling of helplessness as the boar seemingly tanked his most hopeful attempt to hurt it, the sudden need to react or the sheer freaking surprise of watching the raging creature suddenly vanishing when about to reach him, every single thing about the whole just screamed danger and yet it was ultimately not a ruse or anything of the like, being just a goddam feint made by the enemy for the sake of running away, stunning the already about to react violently Naoki feel more than a bit awkward as the absurdity of the scene hit him all at once.

Truth being said, he was so surprised by the absurdity of what just happened that he actually failed to even notice Mai approaching him, only reacting with a helpless nod as they started to make their way towards the hidden stone the kunoichi started to talk about her disappointment about the whole situation - after all, even if he liked to declare being someone who didn't like to fight, he also couldn't help but feel disappointed after such a frenetic buildup ultimately didn't end up as a real fight.

As soon as he recovered from such a sudden happening, though, he immediately turned to his companion with all the intent to scold her for her earlier impulsivity, going as far as putting his stern face before ultimately failing to say anything as Mai also turned towards him - not interrupting her half because he wanted to know what she wanted to say and half because he couldn't help but get a bit stunned by the Kunoichi's act of making such an unexpected cute pose that directly contrasted with the raging fire (started by herself) burning behind them.

By the end of her speech, his former intent clearly failed to prevail as his expression had already unconsciously changed into a helpless smile as he listened to the girl's conflicted feelings, with his hand almost twitching as he held back the urge to pat her head like he would when facing an apologetic kid. Naturally, his voice also sounded away less cold than he planned as he finally started to talk, failing to conceal any of the sympathy that he felt.

"Look, I'm not going to blame you for not waiting for my feedback when taking quick decisions or anything like that, but you have to always be aware of your partners capacities when doing missions like that. Even if sacrificing yourself for the mission is a noble thing, you can't just throw yourself in harm's way and expect others to do the job when it may be prejudicial to the mission.

I mean, take the whole situation as an example: I was clearly the optimal choice to be the decoy, yet you rushed to do it without even thinking about it before. I could've simply used my clones to distract them while you used your speed to run away with the sculpture, it would be away more of a reasonable decision to take for the sucess of the mission.

Sure, by the end the guys were just a bunch of weaklings that ran away, but had they been actual threats your selfish decision could actually end up killing both of us while still making the mission a failure. As shinobi of the leaf, we ain't allowed to do this kind of thing.

And besides... Even if you're strong, you're still a girl around my age. How could you expect me to just let you throw your life away?" By this point, not only his voice became barely a whisper but he actually directly started walking again, clearly pointing out that he didn't actually mean for Mai to hear the last part of his speech. By the end, he was still a teenager himself. He could allow himself to be a bit of selfish for a while longer.