Team Lani: Curosity Killed The Cat

[Rogue 7]

Ichimaru arrives a bit earlier than the rest of the group. He can hear the cat, but is unable to get closer to it because of the traps. When the rest of the group shows up, they'll find him pacing the area, determined not to let the target escape.

"Hey guys. I can hear the kitty in there, but I've got no idea how to get close. Anyone else got suggestions?"

[Fanatic-Templar]

When Yori finally arrives at the practice grounds, he is preceded by the melodies of his flute and the lingering aromas of the fishery. The young boy himself appears oblivious to the odour, as it is far less prevalent than in his previous situation, and his nose seems to have adjusted to the smell.

As he reaches Ichimaru, he lets the music die and Kain falls motionless. Yori appears to be assessing the situation.

"Well, if it were just a question of getting past the traps, I could simply use Naga to trip the lines from a safe distance, it would be a pain to repair him afterwards, but it would work. However... I wouldn't give much for that cat's chances if I did that. We do have to bring him back unharmed, and we won't be excused just because it's the traps fault. Or that's how it worked in the Sound, anyway."

[The Unborne]

Toshio

This is it! All we need to do is find that cat, and Tora-sensei will see what an asset I am to the team! I even helped them out already... Toshio continued thinking of what would occur after the mission while following Sanma to the practice grounds. Once they arrived the mummy-like genin froze in his tracks, in front of the pair was Ichimaru and a mysterious ninja sitting on an equally mysterious turtle.

"Sanma-san," he whispers, "who..." Suddenly, Toshio's Katsugan streamed from Sanma, to Ichimaru, and then to the new genin. They already replaced me?! The pain the linen-bound genin felt was akin to a thousand razor-sharp kunai piercing his heart. My spot...so easily replaced...I'm so disposable!

The kage-nin forms a tight fist with his hand and stares at the new teammate. A roaring flame soon erupts in Toshio’s eyes. NO! I will not be replaced so easily! I’ll show Tora-sensei what she’ll lose without me! Toshio’s face bandages stretch out, showing his wide grin. “Oy! Sanma-san, who is the new tora-oshiego?”

[Rogue 7]

Ichimaru nearly trips over his own feet at Yori's casual comment. His eyes would be wide, if they worked.

"S..sound? You were in the sound village? Under Orochimaru?"

It's hard to tell whether he's nervous, angry, or just plain surprised. Most likely a combination of all three.

[Fanatic-Templar]

We don't need failures to burden us.

Yori shuddered, a chill running down his back as though someone had taken a file to his spinal chord. "Yes." He said simply, attempting to appear nonchalant, hoping that nobody had noticed the fear and anguish that had been plain on his face for a second. "Him."

He had not meant to bring up the Hidden Sound, but the drive to succeed, the challenge of the mission, the budding camaraderie between teammates, it all reminded him of how he had begun his training as a ninja, and the words had simply slipped out. Sometimes he'd forget that there were good memories of his time as a Sound ninja to go along with the bad. Are you all right, Hikari?

Whatever he had said, it had apparently caused a reaction in Ichimaru. Normally, he'd be curious to know more, but... I really don't want to talk about this now. And I can't risk my chances of becoming a ninja... a shinobi. I have to show Tora-sensei that I'm not a failure.

Fortunately, the arrival of Sanma and another genin gave him an opportunity to change the subject. The bandaged genin looked quite intriguing. He didn't sound particularlyscary, but under a certain perspective... maybe? That would make him... "Hello there! You must be Moko-san? I'm Yori," he adds, waving and smiling. "I've just been allowed to join this team. Pleased to meet you!"

[The Unborne]

Toshio

Toshio scratches the back of his auburn hair, "Moko...san?" An image of the blood-thirsty tiger pounces through the genin's mind. "Ahhh, you're thinking of the wrong person...heh." The kage-nin stands up straighter, stretching ever bandage that enclosed his body. Some dried-up bandages broke lose from his body and fluttered to the ground revealing a plethora of scabs and open wounds.

"Whoops...Sorry about that," Toshio swiftly unclips a roll of bandages off his belt. Within a matter of seconds the wounds were tightly bound and the roll was returned to its clip. "The name's Toshio and I guess I'm the ex-member of Team Five..."

It hurts just saying it! Toshio nears Yori and Ichimaru and extends his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Yori-san, but it's better to save these introductions for later. We have a cat to catch." The mummy-like genin lifts the linen above his eyes revealing his Katsugan. His crystal blue eyes started spinning rapidly, each eyeball following its own separate course as if scanning the area."Let's see where our little furry creature has fled..."

Spoiler

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Chakra-sight activated
Spot: (1d20+13)[26]

[ZeroNumerous]

Toshio

Toshio spots the cat hiding in a tree about forty feet away. It's huddled up against the tree-trunk and looks far too terrified to jump down. A hundred thin metal wires run in criss-cross patterns around the entire tree.

[Rogue 7]

Ichimaru calmed slightly at Yori's reaction. He still wasn't sure at all what was going on, but he was fairly sure that this guy was not an open Sound sympathizer. Still, this was something that very definitely needed to be addressed, just to be sure. But that was for a later date. They had a mission to complete, now.

"Can you see it, Toshio-san?"

[El_Frenchie]

Sanma Utanaru

Sanma simply smiles as Toshio looks panic-stricken. He pats him on the shoulder to calm him down a bit before turning his eyes towards the explosive field.

"Do you think a sunburst tag would trigger any of these traps? We could perhaps use one to scare the cat towards us? He got over there easily enough, I bet he'd come back to us unharmed!"

He looks slightly adamant.

"That, or we could use some rope or wire and simply evade all the traps by catching a branch or a tree trunk with a kunai or something. Just throwing ideas out there."

[Fanatic-Templar]

"Oh, that reminds me. I guess I won't need this anymore. That's probably great news."

With slight relief, Yori pulls out the dead fish from one of the compartments in Kain's shell, and tosses it on the ground. Yori's attention, however, is already back to the traps. His odds of navigating that trap field atop Kain are not that good, and while he could hide inside the wooden turtle for protection, the young genin is still worried about the potential repercussions of activating the tripwires nearest the cat.

"I think it would help us make a better decision if we had more information. I'm going to try tripping one of the traps. Stand back."

With that, he shifts about on his puppet, opening the largest compartment by far. Inside Kain's hull lies a smaller puppet shaped like a serpentine dragon, formed of wooden segments linked together by kousen to allow it flexibility. Its head and tail are ornamented with red streamers, and the latter bears an immense blade jutting from the end piece. Starting a tune on his flute, Yori brings the puppet to life.

Naga leaps out from Kain's back and slithers towards the trap field. Approaching one of the kousen wires, its jaws snap shut about it, and it starts to pull the wire back...

Spoiler

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Kugutsu no Jutsu: Take 10 (22) vs. DC 19.
Convert to stamina damage: (1d20+11)[22] vs. DC 8 (auto success)
5 stamina damage taken.

Reflex save: (for Naga, if necessary) (1d20+6)[23]

[ZeroNumerous]

Naga

The puppet sets off an exploding tag nearby, which sets off another and another. The explosions tear through the forest setting off other traps in the process. Bolts of lightning jump from tree to tree while kunai fly about like flocks of seagulls near the sea. In a scant few seconds, an entire fifty-by-fifty foot section of forest is cut apart and reduced entirely to ashes while nothing remains standing inside it. Unfortunately, the cat was forty-feet into the forest when the explosions went off, and is no where to be found inside the resultant destruction.

[El_Frenchie]

Sanma Utanaru

"..."

His mouth gaping wide open, Sanma just can't seem to wrap his head around the amount of destruction.

"... Righhht. We're -not- doing that again."

He looks for the cat but can't seem to find anything.

"Well, it's likely that it got away, there's no body... so what now?"

The genin simply looks at Toshio. "Any clues you can see?" Then at Ichimaru. "Can you hear anything?" He finally looks at Yori. "Huh... any ideas at all?"

[Rogue 7]

"Now THAT sounded impressive."

Upon hearing Sanma's question, he focuses, trying to see if he can hear whether or not the cat's anything more than a smear of ash.

Listen Check-(1d20+14)[25]

OOC- if Ichimaru'd take any penalties from the ringing in his ears from the explosion, go ahead and subtract them out.

[Fanatic-Templar]

Yori's face is a mask of unmistakable shock as he stares as the ravaged area that had once, not long ago, been a forest.

"That... that was a practice ground? Shadow-nin really take their training seriously!"

The reality of the situation has clearly not yet sunken into the boy. Still unbelieving of the scene before him, it takes a while for him to realise what some of the alternatives were. He was certainly glad he had not relied on Kain's hull for protection, the puppet would have disintegrated in that carnage.

Still unwilling, unable to acknowledge even the possibility of having lost the cat, of failure, Yori scans the horizon for any sign of the cat.

Spoiler

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Spot check: (1d20+11)[28]

[ZeroNumerous]

The Aftermath

The only thing to be found of the kitty is a tuft of fur burned black as night. Ichimaru obviously does not hear the tuft, but Yori is able to spot it. Luckily, the training ground was designed in 'blocks' of forest, so the explosions didn't spread out and burn the entire area down. Overall, the group finds forty-four kunai that survived the multitude of explosions, as well as a hundred and thirty feet of kousen.

[Rogue 7]

"Um, I don't hear it. Does anyone see it? That sounded like a really big explosion.

The situation- that they have most likely failed their mission in quite possibly the single most spectacular way possible- hasn't exactly sunken in yet. Ichimaru's still focused on Yori's comments about the Sound, and his only thought concerning this situation is that "this is going to make an interesting story to tell sometime in the future."

[Fanatic-Templar]

Yori doesn't respond, as he's been staring blankly at a burnt out tuft of fur for several seconds now. When at last he answers Ichimaru, he starts shaking nervously.

"There's... I see something over in..." he gestures vaguely, apparently encompassing the entire burnt out section before them. "But it's not our cat! It can't be, because it's black, see?" He smiles then, a somewhat scary rictus that completely illustrates the genin's state of denial. "I'll show you."

Yori brings his flute to his lips, but he's now shaking enough that he is completely unable to perform any sort of melody. No longer caring about hiding his disability from the others, obsessed with confirming his delusions, he drops off Kain's back and starts crawling towards that tuft of burnt out hair. "It'll be all right, 'cause that's not the cat we were supposed to find. Our cat is orange and white, see? And that fur's all black, all black and not orange and white and so it can't be our cat, so we haven't failed at all and I'm not a burden. It's probably not even a cat, just a squirrel or something, an we'll find the cat, we just need to keep looking 'till we find it..." Yori's speech fades into mumblings, rapidly losing coherence.

[The Unborne]

Toshio

Before the mummy-like genin could step foot into trap-filled grounds, Toshio spots Yori's puppet slither into the mass of kousen. Time seems to slow down as the serpentine dragon pulls the single cord, "This...doesn't bode well..." Toshio makes a quick back step, hoping the blast wouldn't be too large.

As one explosion setted off another, Toshio's Katsugan forced him to watch all of the carnage, all at once. The Katsugan shifted back and forth between each explosion, watching as one tree would fall down and then be roasted by another trap it triggered once it fell. Toshio could see the thousands of leaves being vaporized by the electrical traps; however, the worst came when he witnessed the furry little creatures of the forest being blown to smithereens. That must mean...There goes our mission… Once the final bolts of lightning and bursts of flame died down, Toshio surveyed what was now a patch of ash.

The mummy-like nin sighs and follows Yori and Ichimaru in search of the cat. What they find is the roasted remains of the tabby. Toshio’s mouth hangs open as he stares at the dead feline. Yori climbs off of Kain and drags himself to the roasted fur. Toshio doesn’t even think of Yori’s disability, but he also comes down to his knees. “Of all the days to fail a mission…it had to be today! Yori-san, bring that…that…thing with us, we need to tell Lani-sensei what happened. It is our duty as shinobi.”

[El_Frenchie]

Sanma Utanaru

The young genin simply blankly stares at the fur, his eyes wide in shock. The sound of dozens of explosions still ring in his ears as he falls to his knees near the fallen kitty.

"I can't believe it... it's..." he falls into silence and can only nod at Toshio's analysis.

"Let's go guys... we have to tell her..."

[Rogue 7]

"I don't think it'll be too bad. I mean, who expected a kitty to hide in the middle of a trapped field? Say, how'd it get in there, anyways?"

[Fanatic-Templar]

For a while still, Yori remains sprawled beside the charred remains of the unfortunate animal, mumbling incoherently. As his teammates start to lose patience, however, he falls silent and picks up the corpse in one arm, holding it close, while he drags himself towards the large puppet with the other. His gaze is empty, and his mind has gone completely blank, as he simply follows the directives given to him.

[The Unborne]

Toshio

Yori manages his way over to his puppet, but Toshio's Katsugan focuses on the obliterated patch of forest. "You guys go on and tell Tora-sensei what happened here. I'll catch up with you quickly, I just want to make sure there's nothing we missed...Like we could miss anything after that explosion..."

Toshio steps carefully over the fallen timber and debris, his Katsugan scans the area searching for something out of the norm. Poor cat...Poor us...I can't imagine what Lani will do to us once she finds out we accidentally killed a feline. The genin gulps at the thought. She wouldn't kill us, would she? Toshio doesn't bother thinking further on the subject; whatever would happen, he was sure Lani would forgive them. Maybe.

Spoiler

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Spot: (1d20+13)[29]

[Rogue 7]

"Well, let's go get this over with."

With those remarks, Ichimaru heads down, walking back to wherever they're supposed to meet Lani-sensei.

[ZeroNumerous]

Remains

Toshio finds little else aside from ashes and a few broken bits of kousen. However what he smells is more important than what he sees, and the smell is tremendous. A mixture of burnt flesh and ozone dominate the area like trying to breathe in a choking cloud of mist. After a full minute of searching, Toshio turns up nothing immediately useful.

The Address

You find the place tucked away in a small corner of the village between a ramen shop and a pet shop. It's a small, two-story building with a dark red roof and a matching door. A trio of three deep gouges--obviously made by some sort of bladed weapon--mar the door just above the doorknob. It's locked, but a little 'doggie door' built into the base can provide you access if you were small enough.

[The Unborne]

Toshio

Toshio sighs as he kicks over another piece of burnt timber. Nothing could've survived that... His thought is proven correct as he is hit bit by a wave of obnoxious smells which causes Toshio to tighten his mouth wrappings. Soon after, the mummy-like genin flees from the area to escape the unbearable fumes. What a complete failure...what's going to happen to us? Team Five...the kitty killers...They'll take away our headbands and force us to do manual labor. So much for trying to impress Ihesamo-sama!

The genin jogs to catch up to his former team before he gets lost, but slows down when he is a couple paces behind. Toshio's Katsugan focuses on the lost Yori sitting on Kain staring blankly towards the distance. I wonder what will happen to Yori-san...He's new and caused the entire mess. Will they boot him out of Team Five? A strong stomach ache causes Toshio to grasp for his midsection. To be put on a team and kicked out in one day...

The young genin closes his eyes momentarily and contemplates what he could do for his replacement. The linen-bound genin nods in approval of what he was going to do. I'm going to help the guy out, I can't get in too much trouble since I'm not even on the team.

Toshio catches up with the team as they stop in front the two-story building and comments on the door, "If you don't want to lose a cat...why would you leave a door for it? Oh well, let's get this over with guys." Toshio struggles to bring up his arm and feebly knocks on the marred door.

[ZeroNumerous]

The Knock

No one answers the door, though the group hears the sound of several heavy quadrupedal creatures moving around inside. After several minutes of waiting a familiar white-furred siberian tiger pokes it's head through the doggie door. It settles a pair of piercing blue eyes on Toshio then moves on to Sanma, Ichimaru, and Yori in turn. Yori doesn't recognize it as Moko, but the other genin do since they had met it before.

The tiger backs up and disappears behind the door again. A loud scratching noise from behind the door grabs your attention, and soon afterwards the door swings open with a quiet creek. The tiger just stands there with the door open, as if awaiting to hear the reason why you're bothering it.

[Rogue 7]

"Um, that sounds like Moko-san. Is it? Is anyone there?"

[The Unborne]

Toshio

"This...this is...Tora-sensei's home?!" Toshio panics a little, the whole time he was following them he thought they were heading towards the owner's household. We can't let Lani-sensei find out we killed a cat! The mummy-like nin slowly turns his gaze from Moko and settles it on the blank Yori. Toshio twitches his head towards the burnt remains trying to get the new team member to hide it somewhere. We are so dead...

The Katsugan then locks onto Moko soon after, and the genin's head follows its target. Toshio finds himself staring directly into those bright intelligent eyes of the Siberian tiger. Something was amiss in Moko's eyes, but what? "Moko, what happened to your green eyes?" The linen-bound genin prays silently that he could distract the tiger long enough for Yori to hide the fallen cat.

[ZeroNumerous]

Moko

The tiger looks toward Toshio and sniffs at him. Those strange eyes narrow into a glare before Moko turns around and meanders deeper into the house. Toshio notices the tiger's movements are odd as they are not as graceful as he remembers. A few moments pass, and the tiger doesn't return so you safely assume it wants you to enter.

[Fanatic-Templar]

The process of psychological scarring is a fragile thing, and such wounds can break open again if the right pressure is applied, only to leave the mind to work its long, slow and arduous task of building its defenses back up again. It can take a lifetime to recuperate from such blows to one's self-image.

Or sometimes, all it takes is the shock of a giant tiger opening the door.

While Yori maintains his blank gaze and apparent thoughtlessness throughout the encounter, it isn't until after the feline has left that he finally seems to realise what just happened.

"What was that?"