Previously...

The light ahead was growing, signalling a room of sorts. Fukai increased his speed and pushed ahead of Gi. He wanted to take point so he would be able to take action if he needed to. The tunnel had stopped going downwards and was widening out. He prepared a bit of chakra in his scarf for what was coming. At the end of the corridor, it opened out into an underground room. Straight away, they were confronted by a group of five. They were ready and waiting. It looked like the gang had some form of communication throughout their ranks due to them knowing that the first trap had failed. So what they saw was two figures on either side of the entrance way and then three more in the den itself. Just before Fukai was about to step out of the tunnel, one of the three at the back shot a fireball in his direction. With nowhere to go, the fireball would shoot down the corridor and incinerate them. The ends of the red scarf rose up and sprung towards the fireball. Fukai did not falter, using this attack to conceal his entrance to the room. Maybe they had done him a favour. The scarf plunged into the fire and bore through it. Just before the fire reached Fukai's face, it disappeared into nothingness.

By the time the jutsu had been nullified, he was over the threshold and already swinging his staff. It moved at 20 metres per second due to the precise bursts of chakra out of the end of it, sending it into the throat of one of the men who stood at the side of the doorway. It made contact, and crushed his throat. He was already swinging it back in a 180 degree arc to hit the man on the other side of the door. The nameless figures were no slouches, as soon as they had seen Fukai attack, they had launched a dozen shuriken at him and begun to run at him soon after. Fukai was in the middle of a twisting motion for his second attack and wasn't in a position to defend against the small metal projectiles that were whizzing towards him. Luckily he had his 3rd through 13th hands, otherwise known as the scarf that split into five strands per end and wove together to create a strong shield. The shurikens would hit the scarf and bounce harmlessly off, while about half were flung back by small but precise movements within the material. At the same time, his staff strike came up to it’s target, but the cloaked figure was ready and about to intercept it with his short sword. Another clutch two burst of chakra out of the end of the staff would cause it to be redirected into the man’s gut. He was not prepared to be winded that hard, bending over double and leaving the back of his head open for a sharp bop to send him crumbling down.

The last three’s charge had been halted while they focussed on deflecting the shuriken, one of them ignored them and took the shallow cuts on the arm and torso while continuing. Fukai could now turn his full attention to them. The first figure yelled while launching herself at him, swiping at his scarf to try to get past it. But the red material was too quick, it had too many strands to deal with. While one of the bladed ends met the kunai, the others sprung at the rest of her open body, lacerating her with deep cuts. The last two witnessed the gruesome fate of the woman and hesitated. Fukai turned to face them. His purple eyes bore no semblance of emotion, just the blank face of a man that was in the zone. Deep in the subconscious where he receded when he focussed on battle. He let his body take over, and react to stimulus in whatever way it needed. This was the result of his tireless training and mountains of field experience, he didn’t have to think about his next move, he simply acted and reacted, rolling with the ebb and flow of a fight. One of the last two men growled. He charged at the two last figures. They tried to put up a fight, but the scarf moved even faster, blocking their movements and surrounding them. It sliced them through in a windmill flurry. Fukai turned to see of Gi was ok, as a little bit of his opponent’s blood splattered on his clothes. The boy didn’t say anything at first, walking over the threshold. “Let’s keep moving”. It was more like he expected this from Fukai than he was surprised by it. It was a strange feeling for the older male, he wasn’t used to people witnessing his work and this was a bit of a strange interaction. But he was right that they should keep going.

Fukai led the way, jogging down the next corridor. There was no telling what they would come up on next. They would have to inspect the whole place while finding an exit. The first door that they came up on was more of a metal grate fixed to a hinge and a lock. A heavy couple of boots would smash through the lock and leave it able to be lifted off it’s hinge. Fukai tossed the metal to the side and ran inside, Gi followed. What they would come across on the other side was a strange sight. Rows and rows of bunk beds in a large room. And there were children. They stood unmoving by the side of their beds. They were all dressed in some sort of grey uniform. About twenty or so of them, ranging in ages from eight to fourteen. “What the hell is going on here…” Fukai whispered under his breath. Walking up to the kids, they took no notice. They looked like zombies, the light in their eyes was absent. The large man turned to his smaller capped acquaintance. Gi looked just as mystified as he did. He stood in front of one and waved his hands.
“Hello? What’s your name?” Gi asked a little boy.
“zero zero four nine”. The little kid replied. Fukai was starting to get quite weirded out.
“This must be what they were attacking the orphanage for… they wanted the kids or something.” Gi spoke to Fukai.
“But what for? This looks like some sort of sick zombie summer camp.” There was a noticeable darkness in Gi’s eyes.

“Looks like they are conditioning these kids… there could be any number of applications for mindless slaves. We have to save them.” Fukai nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. He turned to address all the children.
“Alright everyone, we are here to take you away from this place so follow this man and we will take you back to Iwagakure where you will be safe.” He was pointing to Gi. All of the kids turned their heads to look at the capped boy expectantly. Fukai almost jumped out of his skin. Gi spoke, addressing Fukai first and then the kids.
“Looks like they were just waiting for orders before they could move, probably part of their conditioning. Alright everyone, follow me.” The children walked over to him. Gi nodded at Fukai and the two young men led the kids out of the passageway.

Now this job was going to get many times harder. Having to cover many children on the way back would be risky. They had no idea how many the enemy were, but the look of the underground den told him that maybe the group wasn’t that big. There had been four assailants last night, four trying to trap them outside, and five down here. That was thirteen members already. The path reached some stairs with light filtering down from above. This looked like the exit, Fukai watched for threats while Gi focussed on herding the children. It may not have seemed like it, but it was a race against the clock. As an invading force, time was pressure and going slow would only allow the enemy to regroup and prepare further strategy. One of the youngest children piped up, much to Gi’s surprise. “Are you taking us away from here?”
“Yeah. You don’t like it here do you?” He answered.
“No… But they said that we would be here forever…” The child looked a bit sad and a bit uncertain.
As they continued to converse, Fukai would leave them to it, scaling the stairs to see what was ahead.

The stairs led to a small room that was roofless, the sun poured in. There was noone around. He ducked back down the stairs to yell to Gi to hurry up because the coast was clear. He then darted back up to the room. There was one exit door, it looked like it lead out into the open. He moved one end of the scarf out of the doorway so that he could use the mirrored end to check that was out there. It was a barren landscape, just like the one they had been searching, not half an hour before. Slowly the children assembled upstairs. It had taken them two hours to get out here from Iwagakure, it would take them much longer with the children in tow. Fukai wondered where exactly the other group members were, he knew he had seen four of them up there at the trap before, he doubted they would just let the children go of their own accord. But maybe they could just slip out before they could regroup. He turned back to Gi and told him to take the most sheltered path and try to sneak home. He nodded, then begun to corral the children out of the room and around the rock formations.

[1660]
~exit~
Mission Complete