Mission name: WHAT IS UP WITH THIS PLACE AND ITS MONSTERS?
Mission rank: A-rank
Objective: Kill the creature haunting the rice fields.
Location: Rice Fields
Reward: 500 ryo
Mission description: There have been a serious of reported attacks in the rice fields, and the body count is growing. go investigate, and if something is truly there. Kill it.
Mission details: the writer(s) will go investigate the rice fields, to find another body torn to shreds, as well as massive claw marks in not only the ground but the person's house as well, some of the claw marks reaching up to seven feet high. Follow the large canine tracks back to a den, and you will find 3 werewolf like creatures, who are nocturnal. If entering their den they will immediately wake up, and attack the writers, if they are not already awake. They have B-2 stats, and claws and teeth that can cut/ pierce 3 inches deep. Kill them to complete the mission.



Lin woke up and yawned, the new sun of the cold morning touching her lips first as she pouted and thought about what to do. The dew from the night clung to the window, casting a kaleidoscope of colors dazzlingly throughout the room. The caresses of the soft breeze that flew from the window in the kitchen danced across the blankets and played with her hair. Lin turned her neck from side to side, trying to alleviate the pain of the morning. She slept on her side, and her pillow was under stuffed, so she usually had to lay her head on her arm.

Gora was on top of her, as per her usual, her claws were half out of her paws, and her mouth was closed, which meant that she was having a tenuous dream. It would be unwise to wake her. Bah, why not? Lin wiggled her toes and Gora’s eyes shot open. She lunged at Lin, her claws daggers and her teeth swords in front of her. Now it was a game. Lin threw the sheets over the claws and teeth. She was flush with money, so she did not care for the blanket. It was not as if her mother had sewn it.

The claws hit the blanket, and Gora, the four hundred pounds of muscle and power moved with it. Lin used the force of Gora’s hitting the blanket to scoot under and 400 pounds of muscle hit the wall. Lin did not hear the shriek that came from Gora until she was safely out of the way, giggling in her devious way.

“It is time that I train with you. We have let you go, you are slow and your claws are dull!” Lin said, standing with her feet equidistance away from each other and squatting, waiting for Gora to strike again. It was true that Gora had gotten a bit…. Soft around the middle but it was harsh for Lin to say that she had grown dull.

Gora spun around, lightning flashed in her eyes, that lightning reflected in the playful flash of Lin’s own. Gora kicked off of the wall and bounded off of the bed. Lin got her tonfas from the desk and put them in front of her. The wood groaned against Gora’s weight as Lin caught her claws and spun, making the cat crash against the other wall. Lin spun her tonfas and they clacked against each other.

“Alright Gora, enough. Get yourself ready. We are going beyond the Rice Paddies. We are going to go train in the fields that have gone to fallow. The farmers there have given us permission. Gora. Stop!” Claws and Tonfas clattered together as Gora leapt upon Lin, pinning her this time. With a smug look, the large white panther sat upon Lin’s lap, engulfing it entirely. Lin looked to the cat, who purred. Had the audacity, the sheer audacity to purr. She sighed, ruffling the fur on Gora’s head and dropped her Tonfas, “Alright, alright you win, I give up. Now get off so that I can go do my morning routine and we can head out past the rice paddies as soon as we can. Otherwise, we will have to do chores all day.”

Gora hopped off of Lin and started to clean herself, a morning routine for the big cat. Gora had the ability to speak, but only rarely. Lin had found her as a cub, and had raised her as her own. Lin sloughed off her clothing, twirling into the bathroom. Adjusting the water in the shower via the two knobs, she thought of when she had found Gora.
Lin was summiting the mountain known as the highest in Kumogakure, as a personal test, and to prove her father wrong. That morning she had been told that she would never amount to anything. Her father had come to visit her, she had just taken a test with the Raikage at that time, and had made sure that she finished with victory in her grasp. It wasn’t enough. Her father had told her how reckless it was that she had addressed the Raikage with such informality. It wasn’t like she was doing something illegal, but apparently there was something to it. Her father had told her that she could have died.

She huffed and walked even further up the mountain, and fell into a hole at that moment. Her foot had come across a paw print of what seemed to be a giant cat. She looked around her, and the wind whipped the snow that was falling into a flurry. She thought she saw two giant blue orbs, eyes as big as she was tall, and she thought she could see a shape almost 80 feet long, from nose to tail in the blizzard. It was feline-esque. Lin froze in place, those eyes fixing her in the giant paw print. She looked for what seemed forever, the wind biting at her cheeks, those eyes holding her in an icy countenance. They measured her, from her physical and frail form to her soul. The orbs then disappeared behind huge eyelids as the feline vanished into the blizzard, leaving Lin with the feeling of a storm passing.

She looked down to see what kind of animal could leave a paw print roughly 2 meters deep and 1 meter across. Around her ankle she found a cub, she was not even furred yet, her eyes and ears closed, yipping for someone to help her. She was 20 cm long at most. Lin took the cub into her arms, opening her jacket and placing the cub there, only her face staying outside of the coat. Lin looked around, thinking that, perhaps, this was the giant cat’s offspring. The cat was gone though, a ghost of something that she would never see again. No one would believe her, so she might as well just tell them that she found the cub down the mountain in the forest.

That was the day that she stumbled upon Gora. Lin wrapped her towel around herself, and even though she had just stepped out of a shower that was probably a bit too hot, she shivered. Those eyes still haunted her in her dreams. She wiped off the mirror, and a look of terror showed itself in Lin’s own eyes. She shook her head. Those eyes were not predatory, just… they seemed to stare right through her. Megafauna were extinct, so it made no sense. The inuzuka were the only ones with giant animals, but those were wolves that were bred for that purpose.

As if she were called, Gora popped her head into the bathroom, “Everything alright?” Was all that she said, as her tail twitched tentatively behind her. Lin nodded and sighed, nodding once more before she said, “Yeah, just was… thinking about the last mission.” She lied, but the panic could indeed be taken as some sort of post traumatic experience.

Gora gave a suspicious look before shrugging and heading towards the kitchen. Lin would give her breakfast at the same time as she would eat it. It was a good thing that Gora was by her side, she could, surely, protect her from whatever that was. Her mother, her father, whatever that giant cat was. Lin washed her face with a washcloth, wiping away not only the sweat that had accumulated on her face, but the fear of that cat as well. It was an irrational fear. Perhaps she had just dreamed it all. Perhaps. Memory was funny that way. She shook her head to clear it, there was no sense in dwelling in the past. But She had felt like she was there again, she couldn’t help it.

She applied lotion to her body before putting on her clothes, a set of Kumogakure gear, and strapped her tonfa to her side. A weapon that she was curious about. She had them appear on her doorstep about 6 months ago. All they had were her address on them, that was it, Nothing to denote who had given them to her, nothing to say what they were meant for, or why she even received them. They had the Guanyin clan’s crest emblazoned on them, and had a symbol for Kumogakure that she had put there herself.

Lin tied the forehead guard, also known as a hitae ate around her neck. It was a symbol of her village. A symbol of her family. A symbol of… Her vision grew blurry as she felt faint all of the sudden. A blade in the night, sinking slowly into her neck, a figure standing over her in triumph as she spat on him and fell from the tree. She jettisoned back to the present and panted, looking at her hands, which were shaking. That was the first time she died. She didn’t know how she got there, how she got back, if it was all a bad dream like her father told her again and again it was, but it felt real. Her hands tenderly probed her neck for a wound that wasn’t there.

Maigo was in the village now. He was proof that she wasn’t crazy. Proof that she wasn’t going insane like the medical ninja did when she went into the hospital to see why she was feeling the way that she did. They all didn’t believe her, and told her that if it felt real she had either been under a genjutsu or had a temporary psychosis episode. They wanted to poke and prod her, but after they were done they simply scratched their heads and shrugged.

It was weird, being the center of attention when people thought that you were losing your mind. Her mother was completely supportive, her father became inward, wondering what he had done wrong in raising her. He had held his head in his hands and shaken it. Something that she hadn’t seen done in a while.

Gora pushed her towards the kitchen with her large forehead. That was right, it was today, no sense in dwelling in the past. She reached up into the second cabinet from the top, and drew out two bowls of equal size. Opening the fridge, she took out some fruit and meat. She tossed it into the air and twirled the knife around in her fingers deftly before slicing up the fruit and letting it drop into the bowl. It was something that she did to train her speed and reaction time. It helped her hone her perception as well, and no fruit was safe from her knife. There were strawberries, blackberries, kiwi that had the skins removed, grapes, everything felt the knife.

Next she tossed up a sizeable steak. Gora’s eyes watched as the piece of meat was diced in front of her. Her eyes never left the meat as it sank into the bowl in cubes. The bone twirling around the knife as Lin opened the cabinet below the sink and twirled it into the can. She ran the water, cleaning the knife and drying it before putting it away. Gora apparently couldn’t wait, as she inched closer to Lin, low to the ground, a predatory stance. She was going to pounce on the bowl if Lin didn’t give her breakfast soon. Lin laughed and balanced both on her pointer finger. She went to sit down at the table, and set down her bowl and a pair of chopsticks. In the same breath she set down Gora’s bowl next to her chair.

The panther pounced on the bowl with vigor and took a bite. “Now, we should probably find something for you to eat in the forest, since it’s not illegal to hunt there, especially if you’re an animal.” She pat Gora in between her ears and played with the soft fur that resided there. A grunt was an acknowledgement of what she had said. Gora had been hunting in the woods on her own, but she was getting to the point where there was really no quarry that she couldn’t hunt with ease. It showed, as the big cat’s muscles were less defined than they were in the past. It was a wonder that Gora and she had come this far together.

It seemed like only yesterday that she had achieved Chuunin after being a genin for five or six years. She picked up a strawberry and scrutinized it. Her mother called it the thousand mile stare. A lot had happened since then. She had met a Jounin by the name of Tsuneo, who was now an accomplished ninja, had ascended to Special Jounin status within the village, had grown to be a strong woman. She had died, and befriended a comrade named Satoshi, had trained with the Raikage and a previous Kage in her own right, Gin. She had a lover named Dameon who was a Jounin at least, from the village hidden in the mist. She had met Maigo again, and confirmed that she had really died, and had met someone named the centipede. She had saved a village from multiple attacks, and had gone on dangerous missions. It was a wonder that she had this much culmination for her ninja story.

Lin didn’t have a cool ninja story, one about betrayal, a friend that she was chasing after or a family to avenge like Sasuke or Naruto, both legends in their own right, but she had worked hard. She would surely be remembered by someone… perhaps… should she die. She gulped down the strawberry, it stuck in her throat as she still remembered the blade neatly cutting the tendons and piercing her carotid artery.

She swallowed hard, and the fruit and the thoughts of death disappeared as Gora yawned loudly and smacked her lips. She had fangs the size of Lin’s hand, but they were harmless to Lin. Or at least they were usually. Lin patted her once more and shoveled the rest of her fruit into her mouth. Throwing her chair back with her legs, she left the bowl on the table, swallowed the too-big mouthful of fruit down and made her way toward the coat rack. Now… what coat to wear… She picked out a light one since she would be moving and only in the rice paddies.

She looked at Gora who stretched, her butt wiggling in the air and her eyes closing in satisfaction of the meal. Her claws extended and Lin watched closely as they just barely tapped the floor. There were pockmarks from when Lin was gone, but at least Gora didn’t put holes in the wood floor while she was there. Breathing a sigh of relief, she took her key and put it into her pocket, making a sweep of the apartment before going out in the chill.

People were bustling in the city of Kumogakure, and Lin’s apartment was near enough to the market that she could get there within a minute if she went via crowd, or about 10 seconds if she went across the rooftops. There was no hurry today, and so she stretched in the cool morning air and waited for Gora to saunter out of the house. Locking the door, she turned back around and caught a lot of people staring at her. There weren’t many people who had pets, and even fewer that had pets like hers. Smiling sheepishly, she waved to a couple of them, including Dango-obaachan who must be going to market to pick up some supplies for her dango shop.

Lin wondered, absent-mindedly as she strolled out into the street with Gora sticking to her leg like she had applied adhesive to her side, whether the old woman would ever teach Lin her delicious recipe. There would be no reason to go back, Lin supposed, and perhaps it was for the better, because Dango as a treat was more than enough. Lin could grow fat and happy eating those dango balls, and as much as she would like to, that was not the path that she had set for herself.

“My ninja way…” She mumbled to herself, remembering the stories of Naruto Uzumaki, “My nindo is to become the world’s foremost medical ninja… Strongest isn’t the right word for it, right Gora?” Gora nodded slowly, and cast a glance at a man who shrank away from her. It was not uncommon for people to do that, so Gora mostly snuck out and through back alleys to get out of town. It was strange for people to see her, and for her to see people. She watched them as they walked by the window, sure, but never really got that close to this many of them.

Lin sensed Gora’s nervousness and headed down an alley. Whistling, she continued on and only just heard the whistling of air through a kunai’s eye. Kunai, as everyone knew, had rings on the handle where a pommel would be on a sword, and when they flew through the air they made a particular whistling noise depending on how fast they were going. So the speed at which this one was travelling was… roughly genin speed. She took out one of her senbon and put it through the eye of the kunai, twirling it before sending it backwards without looking. Whoever it was, they were going to have to do better than that to take her out. It was probably one of the bandits that she had been taking care of in Kumogakure’s outskirts. With a thud and a cry, the kunai hit… somewhere on the individual and she heard him limp away. Perhaps his leg.

Shrugging, he got what he deserved. Gora was no longer by her side though, as she had turned around and had bared her fangs and claws in a terrifying display. Lin clicked her tongue, a signal for Gora to return to her side. Reluctantly the growl died in Gora’s throat as Lin continued to walk down the alleyway. It was quite dirty, used for mainly refuse and laundry, but Lin knew this and three more alleys would bring them to a gate. The gatekeepers knew Gora from her hunting exploits so when Lin approached again, all they did was nod from their gate house and went back to talking amongst themselves.

Lin was excited for Maigo to meet Gora, her giant cat, and was even more excited for Gora to meet him. She expected that she would like him at first sight. And if Gora didn’t… well… that would be something she would come to later.


WC: 3144 (so far)

((Need 14500, a note for myself))

There was... a crack in his neck, moved down his back, the bones rotating and separating as he stretched himself out from the bed in that hotel. The sheets were spread out and he lazily moved to the bathroom to get ready, rubbing crusted eyes in the mirror and going through a less than apathetic morning routine. He wasn't sure why his sleep didn't feel that restful, perhaps it wasn't long enough or he was just mentally distracted or something along those lines. But the morning fatigue that came along with not actually resting began to punish him with each moving action, getting his clothes on and tying his pouch to his waist and kunai holster to his leg.

Sitting on the chair of that hotel room, he slid on his sandals, black sandals and black pants like usual he wore the normal half arm sleeves in black as well and for his shirt, he went rather unassuming with a simple white shirt that had the Uchiha emblem pressed on the front. Otherwise, he put a backpack on with his shuriken and a few other supplies, not that he'd need them but a towel and some other stuff was never a bad idea to have around. Still he yawned heavily and locked the door on his way out, he abandoned the Kiri headband again and left it in his pouch underneath his tools, having it just in case but not brandishing it, especially not in the village.

Cool air struck his face, a bit of a breeze and he watched bits of fog quickly sweep past him in the street and disappear. Another yawn hit him as he reached his arms out and stretched. He had directions of some kind... meeting her just outside the gates of the village or something like that? He felt early... it was early. Earlier than he wanted to be up anyways.

His feet dragged him along, he put his hands in his pockets and led his head tilt down some, watching the street as he walked, occasional glances upward and around to keep his sense of direction and not crash into any walls. His sandals scrapped against the rock of the ground as he made it through the gates, waving off the guards with hardly a look, what was it he'd told them... a tourist from a small town? He was surprised they bought something like that. They probably didn't, he was probably being watched but he didn't care much for it anyways, especially now of all times.

The next thing that hit him... how far should he go? He had no idea where they were going or what direction, if he went too far... he might end up missing her completely. What a pain... he took a few steps out and decided he'd follow the main road out a couple hundred feet. It wasn't... far at all, but it was far enough that he'd be away from the gate that he could relax a little bit. He took a seat at a tree and took a heavy breath as he relaxed a bit, his tiredness still visible on his eyes he had another thought... how early was it? And how long would it be until Lin made it there? He sighed and scratched his head.

Spotting a wooden bench another couple hundred feet up ahead, he got to his feet and went for it, sitting down, he placed his backpack on the ground and stuck his foot through the strap so it wouldn't... wander off without him. Then with a turn he set his feet on the ground and leaned back into a lying position, putting his arms under his head to prop it up and watched the early morning clouds roll past in the sky. A short time passed by, his body relaxed, his eyes closed and he was... asleep now, his backpack around his ankle and feet flat against the ground. His breathing would soften a bit, time fading away, and his left arm flopping towards the ground from behind his head. His head falling to the left too, hopefully Lin would find him here, just catching up on more sleep...


[711 words]

Lin tossed a rock at Gora as they walked, and Gora jumped to the side, and swiped her paw, sending a shower of rocks Lin's way. Rocks clacked against Tonfas as she thought about Maigo. She had said for him to meet her at the gate. But perhaps he stopped outside of town. There was a trail that led through a village that she loved, the one that the tobacco old man ran. He grew, sold, and smoked tobacco. A true tobacco connoisseur to the last, he was... some odd number of years old. His skin a leathery wrinkled bag stretched over his body. Underneath was a series of wiry muscles though, and he had offered to train Lin once, it was spectacular. She shook her head, enough thoughts of the old man. She wondered how the kids of the village were getting on.

The last time she had to set a broken bone, now she was capable of healing that bone along with whatever ailed the kid. Perhaps she would stop by on the way back to do just that. Over the next hill she saw Maigo on a bench, sacked out. She didn't think that he should be that worn out from last night. Sighing, she looked to Gora. Oh... He had never met Gora before. That's right. She smirked and gave Gora a look, "Want to have some fun Gora?" She giggled almost inaudibly.

The great cat's ears twitched her way and she tilted her head in a questioning manner before sitting down on the road. She would wash herself afterwards, as the road was a bit muddy from the fog and condensation in the air. "I want to sneak up on Maigo and give him a fright." She giggled, and pointed to the forest.

"Devious as ever." Gora sighed and shook her head. Shrugging, she stalked into the woods, her footsteps silent. She was a natural predator, She had to be to catch the bunnies and gophers she did on a regular basis. Her shoulders moved rhythmically in front of Lin and her tail swished from side to side. The silent stalker.

"Now, on my mark, you'll jump on him and cuddle his face, and I'll shout surprise." Lin said as they got nearer. Gora snickered a bit, the only noise that she made since agreeing to the plan. Blue eyes watched Maigo.

He slept, and Lin couldn't help but watch him, transfixed for a bit, his chest moving up and down rhythmically. She looked at his lips, barely parted to allow for him to breathe through them. She had a second thought about doing this before getting whipped in the face by a fuzzy all-white snake and getting a look of "Well, are you going to do it?" from Gora.

Nodding, she put on her cat ears and tail, controlled by a link to the chakra network, her ears lay down against her hair like Gora's did, and her tail matched Goras, waiting for the right moment. Right when Maigo reached the peak of an inhale, she gave the signal to Gora.

Gora lunged at Maigo as Lin shouted "SURPRISE Kitty Cuddle Attack!" and giggled.

If Maigo was slow enough, he would have a 400 pound, all white panther on top of him, nuzzling his neck. If he wasn't well.. then there would be more fun to be had.

WC: 3733

There was.... some delay and drifting in and out. An indiscriminate amount of time went by with Maigo there, turning his head every now and then, some rays of sun hitting his eyes and blocking it lazily with his forearm and then going back to letting his arm flop towards the ground. More time went by, he felt a cool breeze and then a quickened silence. It was almost too quite for comfort but the dazing Maigo didn't hardly notice it in the darkness that was his attempt at sleeping.

Then there was... noise suddenly, it was loud and quick, Maigo didn't make out the words at first, "SURPRISE Kitty Cuddle Attack!" the words rang out in the air. Maigo turned his head up, bringing a hand towards his face, his eyes squinted upward as he wondered what was going on. Words trailed off his lips as he spoke in a slightly groggy tone, like he'd just woke up, "Surprise wha--" his words were cut off as a shape moved into his vision. He recognized Lin's voice but what came next was anything but a continuity in that. His eyes would burst into life, forsaking his own tiredness in the moment as his legs shrunk up to push off the bench, his arms came up and crossed over himself to block and protect himself. The sun that peaked past the clouds was blocked out as Maigo watched the... tiger? Jump on top of him.

It was mostly a weight of fur and movement, his body in a panic as it shifted around and tried to move, using his arms to keep the cat from his face or neck. Shifting and pushing from the bench to the ground anywhere, his goal was to free himself as soon as he could, and upon doing so, he would separate himself from the heavy weight of white fur and go from the ground to the air as quickly as he could. Whether that involved the use of pressing his hands of the ground to bring himself to his feet and jumping or if he could go from his feet directly and separate distance. Keeping a careful eye on the giant cat while also shifting around the area for Lin and aiming to land in a readied stance, knees bent and eyes combing over the entire area. Still waking up though, he didn't have much of an actual grip on what was going on here... in any form.

For now, he had to worry about a tiger, Lin's words and giggling had fallen mostly on deaf ears up to this point, he hadn't even thought through what she had really said, or rather, yelled at him before Gora jumped at him. If he had, then he'd probably have a much more reasonable response to this and probably not be nearly as panicked right now. Well, as reasonable as one could be realizing and learning that she kept a panther as a pet at least.


[507 words, 1218 words total]

Lin laughed, snorted, and pointed at Maigo. It was quite hilarious that he was taken by surprise by Gora. First his eyes widened to an unimaginable diameter, as big as dinner plates, and the next thing she knew he was rolling around with Gora, who at that point thought that they were playing. She laughed some more as he got up with a wild-defensive stance. It was comical. Gora sat down and tilted her head, "Lin you said that you told him that you had a cat." She looked back at Lin with a quizzical look, which, at the time Lin was laughing so hard she was holding her sides.

A guffaw was interrupted by a finger, signalling for Gora and Maigo to give her a minute. It was a much funnier reaction than she thought it would be and Gora's ears flattened in annoyance at the display by the woman. Lin was, for all intents and purposes, completely speechless with laughter for a good ten or so seconds, before she giggled and wiped the tears from the gut-bursting laughter from her eyes. The sun caught her hitae-ate around her neck as she giggled once more and smirked, "I did tell him that I had a cat, right Maigo?" Gora looked back to Maigo and gave a pitiable look. She didn't want to be hated, and she thought that the joke would be more of a "who-what, gettoffa me!" from Maigo. Not a, "I'm defending my life" sort of one.

"Gora, meet Maigo, Maigo, this is Gora, my kitty." Gora's ears twitched with annoyance at being called a kitty. She bowed her white head, her eyelids covering the blue lightning of her eyes as she said, [color=#00cc00]"A pleasure."[color] This would put their relationship to the test. Whether he ran now and left her alone and without anyone to hold or to be with might mean that she was really destined to become an old spinstress who's sole purpose in life was to get up and feed her 10 cats that she "rescued" from the humane society right next to the Dango shop.

Lin called Gora over to her side, trying to make sure that Maigo didn't have a heart attack and smiled at him, "So... I rescued her in the mountains and... well, here she is?" She said while wincing and gritting her teeth waiting for the inevitable, "hey Lin I don't think this is going to work out, I am more of a dog person, and I think that you have too dangerous a pet. Not only that but your scar is hideous, you've put on too much weight and that night that we were at the festival your breath smelled like fish for most of the night so I didn't even really want to kiss you. I was only coming to say that I want to break up with you Lin and so... this solidified it." Or something along those lines. Lin had an active imagination.

Her tonfas clattered at her side as she shifted her weight nervously, awaiting Maigo's judgement, this could end her relationship, she just realized, after the mirth died down. Perhaps it would have been... more wise? to introduce him to Gora slowly. Rather than having her try to nuzzle his face on the first go. Gora was a good kitty and started purring and rubbing on Lin, trying to make her feel better. Lin's ears drooped as did her tail, in anticipation of a rejection like she had gotten by the last person after she had dated Dameon.

WC: 4358

Maigo planted his feet, his eyes moving around and keeping at the ready as he waited, he noticed... the panther stopped it's attack and Lin vigorously laughing. Hardly able to control herself, Maigo went from a caught off guard and life threatening tense to a sort of annoyed tense. Then the cat spoke up to Lin, "Lin you said that you told him that you had a cat." Maigo would blink for a second as the picture widened before him, Lin still laughing, holding a finger to give her a second, Maigo loosened up a bit but still stood at the ready. His face dropped for a second, getting a bit annoyed himself as it seems that she was really behind this. He'd probably be laughing himself but his heart was still pounding, then Lin finally gained control of herself and turned back to Maigo with a smirk, "I did tell him that I had a cat, right Maigo?"

Maigo's head dropped for a second in a sigh as he spoke, "Yeah, a cat... but nothing like this..." he spoke to the floor before exhaling and standing up, calming himself down as much as he could at the idea of... Lin keeping a panther as a pet. "Gora, meet Maigo, Maigo, this is Gora, my kitty." Maigo looked towards her and then to Gora who bowed her head, "A pleasure." Maigo returned the nod and noted how... proper the panther spoke. Not that... a speaking panther of any kind was normal but Maigo had Zero and was sort of used to talking animals, however, Zero was anything but proper in any form.

Lin smiled again and spoke up afterwards, motioning Gora over to herself, "So... I rescued her in the mountains and... well, here she is?" Maigo stood up and stretched out some, giving a bit of a smile, he watched her grit her teeth a bit, her fake ears and tail dropped. Maigo sighed, he didn't want his reaction to hurt her feelings or anything like that, he was just... surprised, shocked, freaked out, but he was... mostly fine now. Having a panther around would be an adjustment but after his sigh, he took a few steps forward to her.

Turning his face to a smile, as genuine as he could be, he would poke her in the forehead again just like he'd done when they first met, just lightly enough to grab her attention, "Why the long face?" he spoke with a smile and almost chuckling, "Don't think that because I like you I won't get you back for this..." he said rather slyly, but also light-heartedly, hoping to take away whatever feeling of guilt or melancholy that had hit her. If Lin's mood would change, he would look past her, he put his arms behind his head and interlocked his fingers while musing to himself.  He spoke up again, "Anyways, you've got training to do, right? Let's get on with it then! Before I decide to take another nap..." he smiled and started walking on to lead them, not really having any idea where he was going but his bravado was already done. No sense in backing away from it, hopefully he'd started off down the path in the right direction, if it did continue down this road and all.


[565 words, 1783 words total]

Maigo poked her forehead lightly and she laughed a bit, shakily at first. "Why the long face?" he spoke with a smile, It was a charming thing, his smile. She felt... strangely calmed and welcomed by it. Well, they had dated... now he knew she had a cat. Baby steps. "Don't think that because I like you I won't get you back for this..." He said with a wry grin. Well, at least he got her sense of humor. She chuckled and her ears picked up, "Well, at least we have the same sense of humor then."

He looked past her and put his arms behind his head, interlocked his fingers while musing to himself.  He spoke up again, "Anyways, you've got training to do, right? Let's get on with it then! Before I decide to take another nap..." he smiled and started walking on to lead them. She laughed and followed by catching up to him. Gora walked on the other side of Maigo for a while, still interested in looking at him and apparently smelling him. He was an interesting person, and Gora was having a hay day making sure that she knew everything about him.

Lin giggled and took out a senbon, twirling it between her fingers to keep up her dexterity, "So we're heading over these four hills, and into a village, I might have to make a stop there to see if anyone needs medical attention. If it's an emergency, I'll take care of it then, if it is something that can wait, I'll get it on the way back home."

She mused for a while, and flicked the senbon up in the air, the piece of metal sparkling in the morning light and catching the wind a bit. Lin caught it deftly and spun it around her thumb and forefinger twice. It was a game to keep up manual dexterity, and using a senbon, it only hurt a little when she messed up, not like a kunai and not nearly as bulky. She twisted it around her index finger until she came to the point and then it rested on the pad of her finger. "I met a strange girl the other night, she came into town and had hit her head pretty bad, covered a wound with a leaf, stupid move, and then proceeded to make ruckus with the guards. A Kiri ninja named Alwen."

Gora flicked her ears, Lin hadn't told her about the girl named Alwen and she was curious about her. Gora was always curious about new people. She was fiercely loyal and had wanted to make sure that Lin was falling in with the right crowd. Her white fur blurred for a moment as she backtracked and then fell in beside Lin. Lin flicked the senbon over to her other hand and pet Gora with her right hand absently.

She squinted at the sun and tossed the senbon in the air once more, catching it and twirling it once more, "She said something about "Maigo Mugetsu" But I don't know a Maigo Mugetsu, Just a Maigo." She smiled, and giggled at him, "Apparently she said that Maigo Mugetsu, the Maigo she's looking for has black hair like yours, but is a pervert, and an idiot. The only thing that fit the description of you was the black hair, so I told her that." She shrugged, "Well, I healed her and she is in the same hotel, if you do know her I think she wants to talk to you."



WC: 4990

"Well, at least we have the same sense of humor then." Maigo tilted his head and lifted an eyebrow with a bit of a smile, he'd just made a statement about how he was going to get her back for surprising him with Gora and she was happy about his sense of humor? He didn't respond though, instead continuing on his way with Lin catching up to him and Gora moving to the other side. A few steps in was, rather uncomfortable as Gora seemed to watch his every movement and study him, sniffing occasionally, it sent Maigo into a tense state for the time they walked, offering a meek smile in return.

After the trees opened up on each side of them, Lin spoke while playing with one of her senbon, "So we're heading over these four hills, and into a village, I might have to make a stop there to see if anyone needs medical attention. If it's an emergency, I'll take care of it then, if it is something that can wait, I'll get it on the way back home." Maigo smiled and nodded and spoke up in response, "Yeah, that's fine... we can make a stop, I can... nap or something while you're busy working away... unless you need my help for something?" Maigo held a curious eye, there wasn't really much that he could do to help but he'd volunteer his help nonetheless.

The group arrived at the first hill, Maigo had long since let his hands fall down to his pockets, looking around the hills and admiring the scenery as a bit of wind began to blow. "I met a strange girl the other night, she came into town and had hit her head pretty bad, covered a wound with a leaf, stupid move, and then proceeded to make ruckus with the guards. A Kiri ninja named Alwen." Maigo nodded and listened, but at the words of 'A Kiri ninja named Alwen' a bit of visible discomfort grew on him. He nodded along, his face fell rather straight as he spoke up, "I see...." he paused, worry entered his mind. If Lin knew that he was really from Kiri... part of a nation that recently attacked her own, threatened her and her comrades. He was dead during the time but that wouldn't excuse their actions so easily, the animosity between the villages had kept him from wearing his headband at all, much less telling and advertising that he was from Kirigakure anyways.

Gora quickly moved back over to Lin's side as Maigo looked to her as well, waiting to see what she would have to ask about it, or comment on next. His worry grew, she had to know something, why else would she bring it up? His palms would start to sweat a little, he gulped a bit to himself as he waited in anticipation. "She said something about "Maigo Mugetsu" But I don't know a Maigo Mugetsu, Just a Maigo." Maigo stopped nearly dead in his tracks, he opened his mouth to respond, she... hopefully she would understand but she continued on before he could interject, "Apparently she said that Maigo Mugetsu, the Maigo she's looking for has black hair like yours, but is a pervert, and an idiot. The only thing that fit the description of you was the black hair, so I told her that."

Maigo waited silently for whatever judgement would come next, but she shrugged, "Well, I healed her and she is in the same hotel, if you do know her I think she wants to talk to you." Maigo blinked for a second, he didn't know if she was just beating around the bush or didn't want to say anything or if she expected Maigo to fess up first. Maigo exhaled and turned away, still obviously a bit uncomfortable about it all, he sighed a bit, feeling a bit of the weight on his chest fall into his stomach. "Listen..." he started out, hoping to catch her attention, holding a hand towards her shoulder but not actually touching her.

"I do know Alwen, we were on mission together before we or... I ended up here. I thought she ended back up in the Land of Water though..." he paused a bit. Waiting to gauge her interest or concern in what he was saying, "So, that does mean I'm from Kirigakure as well..." he nearly swallowed his own tongue as he began to rant on, "But I had nothing to do with that invasion! I was dead with you at the time, and I promise I'm not here to hurt you or your village or anyone else..." his words began to run on as his words started to fail him. His tone was worried and hurried, and his eyes traced over Lin's to see any indication of how she would react, whether she would ostracize him for the realization, he was beginning to feel a bit sick. Part of him wanted to make a joke about her calling him pervy and an idiot but he'd save that he wanted to... make sure that this wouldn't ruin him in her eyes.


[883 words, 2666 words total]

"Listen..." Maigo started, and Lin braced herself for the worst. Perhaps he had a relationship with Alwen, perhaps he had a life, something else, perhaps he had skeletons in his closet. She braced ehrself, and then the words came out, "I do know Alwen, we were on mission together before we or... I ended up here. I thought she ended back up in the Land of Water though..." She was interested in what he was saying, and it wasn't like he was saying anything that she hadn't thought of before. She had heard that there was someone by the name of Maigo. But he was a pervert? He hadn't shown that side of himself yet. And he was a... kiri ninja? Well, so was Gin, so was Dameon, so was everyone else that she had met, so why not. She shrugged, and seemed to be unfazed by the news. "It's not like you came here to murder the Raikage or anything, right?" She asked, before he continued.


""But I had nothing to do with that invasion! I was dead with you at the time, and I promise I'm not here to hurt you or your village or anyone else..." She smiled and moved a bit closer, trying to lean on him if he would allow her to. She hadn't been there either, she had been dead. Or she assumed that she had been at the time. Satoshi had told her the news of the Raikage's humiliation at the Mizukage's hands. THe humiliation had been brief, and swift. The raikage had cut down one of his own subordinates with his own hand, a woman named.. she couldn't remember, but she had been a prominent figure in Kumogakure before defecting to Kirigakure. Lin coud sympathize with the Raikage, but didn't approve of his actions. "I know that you didn't do anything. No one had heard of you here, and if you had been a part of the altercations, your name would be in the bingo book, which it isn't so..." She shrugged, "That's how I know that you weren't involved. Not only that but I trust you. If you thought that my opinion of you would change from just one little bit of information like, 'I'm a Kiri Ninja' then you don't have much of an opinion of me." It was a joke of course, so a smile flashed across her face. She didn't want to scare him off, as he was probably trying to not do, by taking it slow with her. But she had faced up against bigger people than Maigo that came from the village hidden in the mist, or Kirigakure, and she had made friends with each and every one of them.

There was also Nozomi who had said that she wanted to train with Lin, but hadn't had the time to do so yet. Nozomi was there to bring Gin back, by any means necessary and to also kill anyone that got in her way. That was probably the scariest run in with a kiri ninja that she had. Lightning flashed on the field of battle, and the two had battled each other with their lives on the line. Lin had battled Satoshi Kazuhiko in a manner similar, but never as intense as the two of them going at it. It was like two warring gods had clashed together, and Gin had a wry smile throughout the entire ordeal.

Of course, there was the climb up the mountain on the back of Dameon, but now the speeds at which he climbed were no surprise to her, she could see them, if only barely, and she had gotten faster herself. She would never be able to match his speed, but she could probably still react to him, given more time and more practice.

Actually the scariest of all of her opponents so far was Maigo, his hell-viewing technique was what had scared her the most, and also his ruthlessness when dealing with the demons. She shook her head a bit when remembering that. His countenance now was that of a lamb to the lion that she had seen in him while dispatching with his enemies then.

"I want to be the bet medical ninja in the world, not just in Kumogakure, and so I don't have the time, nor the energy to be picky about where someone is from. It would be easier if the world was just like 'i'm from Kirigakure and you're from Kumogakure so we're mortal enemies'." Lin laughed, "But so often the lines are blurred and the world is more grey than it is black and white, actually more often than not, everything is gray and the blacks or the whites are more dangerous than the greys. Like someone who deals in absolutes." She giggled, "My teacher, Gin, is a Kirigakure ninja. I call her my sensei but there is no way that the Raikage would allow her to be anything more than my sensei in name. Officially, I have no teacher, though I have been taught by the infamous Tsuyo, the centipede Tsuneo, The previous kage Gin, Syn, the local senju, and Mitsuo, the sword saint. So Really, if I were to pick and choose people based on their nationality, I would still be an ignorant, and powerless genin. I want to do ninjutsu for the betterment of all ninjas, not just Kumogakure. Which sounds a lot like treason, no?" She was not the treasonous type, but she was one to give everyone an equal opportunity, no matter who they were. She made her own decisions on who she liked and who she didn't. Her senbon twisted and flicked into the air once more. She was going to be the best of all of the medical ninjas ever. She would have to surpass Tsuyo, a wandering ninja that she had met.

He had met her in a tent, a dilapidated tent by the pouring rains on the plains of Kumogakure, even further than the tobacco village that she usually frequented. She had rushed there with a note from Gin that said that Tsuyo was supposed to train her. It was where she had made herself more powerful than she had imagined, and where she had learned the basics that the medical ninjas in her village only dreamed of. She was now able to heal wounds that she couldn't see, internal damage that eluded the eye, but not the body, and reverse even the most pesky of poisons.

They walked a ways and a village came into sight, "Gora, can you go scout ahead and see if anyone needs help by the smell of them?" Gora hopped along and smiled at Lin before heading into the more dense part of the forest. She would speed ahead. "Gora has a very good nose for blood and other things, like infection for example. She was able to tell that someone was poisoned before they showed any symptoms of it, and so I trust her explicitly for scouting ahead. She's better than any medic on picking up how much people are injured, even me, and I haven't had her be wrong about it once yet." Gora would hurry back and say, "There is a stench of death, but no one is hurt at the moment. I couldn't get closer, not since they would probably throw spears at me without you, but I do know this, the village was attacked." Lin's stomach dropped out from under her, not wanting to alarm Maigo, she tilted her head asking the silent question, 'what do you mean?' and Gora wrinkled her nose, and put her eyes down, apparently deaths of the villagers was what Gora had meant. The stone in her stomach gained weight as it sank in, her face not having the same reaction time as her organs did. The fear settled faster internally than it did externally.

Lin's eyes widened in fear, "How many dead?" She asked Gora, who shook her head and put her ears down. She had no idea how many were dead, but only that the stench of death hung around the town. If Lin had only gotten there sooner. She raced towards the village, not knowing if Maigo was following, not really realizing that he was there anymore. The people... the children? What had happened to them? She ran faster, and tripped over something in the road, a footprint. She looked at it, and fear turned to panic. The footprint was bigger than any man's that she had seen and it ended in claws. This attack hadn't come from a regular band of bandits like it had in the past. This was the work of... of... monsters! And there weren't any footprints leading out of town. At least, not the way that they were heading.

WC: 6534

Maigo held his head down for a moment, obvious dismay encompassed him in the moments as he waited for a reply. It was uncomfort at the fact that at any moment she could ostracize, ruining everything he'd been working to and all because he was a part of a village he never chose to be apart of and those in charge made decisions. If he were being honest, he didn't know anything outside the invasion other than what Aya yelled out from the podium above the crowd that gathered beforehand. Maigo only ended up not going because he wasn't a full ranked jounin at the time, and then he died and met Lin in that absence, which was probably far better an outcome than having to go face to face with the Raikage himself.

Still, Maigo held his head down but found Lin close the gap and lean against him with a smile, his head rose up to look to her but he still looked dismal, offering a half-smile as she spoke up. "I know that you didn't do anything. No one had heard of you here, and if you had been a part of the altercations, your name would be in the bingo book, which it isn't so..." Maigo continued his half meek smile in return, he didn't understand why her words didn't make him necessarily feel better. Maybe it was that Maigo still felt awful and guilty that he hadn't said anything to her up to this point or that she didn't at least get upset or worried about his revelation. But at the same time, he was glad he wouldn't have to vie back into good standing or anything.  "That's how I know that you weren't involved. Not only that but I trust you. If you thought that my opinion of you would change from just one little bit of information like, 'I'm a Kiri Ninja' then you don't have much of an opinion of me."

Maigo stepped back a bit, quickly speaking up, "No, no, no... you know, I didn't meant that at all. I just..." he paused for a second as her words rattled around his head, that she trusted him and it would take more to break that. It left a smile on his face at the most in-opportune time, where he was trying to be serious but the reaction of such betrayed his words as he realized what she meant. "It's just that the people I know, trained with, grew up with and all came and threatened your village. The people you know and care for, whether I was there or not, I'm still one of them... ya know?" he left off with a sigh and let his mood drop again.

Her response came afterwards, talk of becoming the best medical ninja in the world brought a smile to Maigo as he nodded along. Further talk about the ideas of countries and their value, it seemed she had a similar view as Maigo, if not more founded in ideology. Maigo didn't care much about territories and village lines because it didn't interest him, he knew their value and why they meant so much but it never clicked in his mind. Maybe that was because he found that he'd never been born in the Land of Water and the past he thought he knew was shattered, it severed his ties and thoughts to the village, not the people within.  She continued on and listed off some names, Tsuyo... that missing ninja that found refuge in Kirigakure for a short time. He'd come to Maigo for help with genjutsu, Maigo almost chuckled at the thought, remembering back to his bravado about how he was the greatest genjutsu user in the world! Well, at the time, that was probably a damned lie, and now... he didn't care for the title or anything like that.

"So Really, if I were to pick and choose people based on their nationality, I would still be an ignorant, and powerless genin. I want to do ninjutsu for the betterment of all ninjas, not just Kumogakure. Which sounds a lot like treason, no?" She spoke up and flicked her senbon in the air again, Maigo smiled and threw his arm in front of her, catching the tip of the senbon in between his thumb and pointer finger on his right hand. Turning his wrist so that his palm would face up, he would balance the senbon so that it pointed up vertically on his pointer finger as he spoke up, "I don't think it sounds like treason, but that's not my decision to say. I think it's up to your Raikage to decide something like that..." he paused and grabbed the senbon to hand it back to her, "All I know is, if you want to be the best, you'll have to do more than play with senbon..." he laughed a bit to taunt her and her little bit of training as they walked.

---

After they made it past the last hill and the village opened up before their view, Lin sent Gora on ahead to scout out the area. Maigo didn't question it but listened in and then listened to Lin's explanation of why. If Gora had a sense of smell that strong, it would certainly come in handy... outside being a panther thing as well. Soon, Gora would return back with some ominous news, "There is a stench of death, but no one is hurt at the moment. I couldn't get closer, not since they would probably throw spears at me without you, but I do know this, the village was attacked." Maigo turned to Lin who looked... different. Different than the news that Maigo had given her, where she blew it off so regularly, it looked like worry and concern washed over her but she tilted her head to Gora. They were close enough to respond without words, Maigo stayed silent for a moment but he knew what came next, the look of fear, it sank through her eyes quickly.

"How many dead?" Gora just shook her head and let her ears fall, Maigo fell a bit too, he was worried for her, for the distress it was creating in the both of them. Lin took off running towards the village in haste, Maigo's head shot up as she began to clear distance, he called out quickly, "Lin, wait!..." then he dug his feet into the ground to follow after her and stop her from charging in.

She was really moving, maybe it was luck, but she tripped not watching where she was going, it bought Maigo the time to catch up, he slid to a stop next to her and dropped to a knee, ready to help her up as he spoke up, "Hey, are you alright?" he positioned himself just past her, to blockade himself between the village in case she tried to run again, he could put a hand on her shoulder and stop her. He glanced over what she tripped on, a heavy set print of some beast into the ground, it was shaped.. uniquely but it was big. Much bigger than any human's print. Maigo spoke up with a more serious and concerned tone, "Don't run in like that... you've got to be more careful, I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if I let you run in carelessly and get hurt..." he held a smile and hoped his words would bring her into a more rational state. The tracks led one way into the village, it either meant that whatever attacked them was still there or had left in another direction, and in that case, they needed to be careful moving forward. Especially if there was a chance that they were entering into a dangerous situation.

"Let me go first or at least lead the way in? At least until we know that whatever made this," he pointed to the print, "isn't still here." he waited to see what Lin would say or do, how she wanted to deal with it. Hoping that he could convince her to take things a bit more rationally, even if she wouldn't let him check it out by himself first.


[1421 words, 4087 words total]

Maigo called out something to Lin, but she didn’t hear it, she ran towards the village, slipping and falling into a footprint, it wasn’t like anything that she had ever seen before. She balked at it and Gora’s hackles raised when she sniffed the prints. It wasn’t something... human.

Maigo dropped to one knee and helped her up, she blushed, being helped up was something that she wasn’t used to. Even her boyfriends in the past hadn’t helped her up. She wasn’t sure, was he a boyfriend now? The fear for the villagers drowned that thought. He spoke again, "Hey, are you alright?" He put himself in the way of her and looked her over, her own worry for the villagers reflected back in how he was looking at her. She grumbled a bit at him being in the way and settled down a bit. Her grumble came out in the form of “I’m okay…”

"Don't run in like that... you've got to be more careful, I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if I let you run in carelessly and get hurt..." It was like he didn’t think that she could handle herself. Though, it did make sense that she had to be careful. She wasn’t the strongest, nor the most hardy of anyone in her village. It wasn’t like she was made of stone like some of the guards, and she couldn’t win if she just brashly ran into some situation that got her killed. She sighed, some of the worry sloughing off of her. She was determined, now, to make sure that she would get to the village, she would heal the wounded, she would… she would tear these monsters apart. Her eyes went from a worried flicker of lightning to a blaze of electricity, determination flashing in her gaze. A hatred for these things. Her short fuse lit, she would be ready to explode when she found these monsters. She nodded her consent to Maigo’s rational thoughts. Though, she didn’t want to think rationally, she wanted to tear the flesh off of these monsters, make them… make them suffer for what they did.

"Let me go first or at least lead the way in? At least until we know that whatever made this,"  She sighed, as he pointed to the print, "isn't still here."

“I suppose that you’re right. I shouldn’t be rash. I’ll let you go in first. When we find these I’ll support you.” Gora gave a menacing growl in the direction of the village, “And Gora of course.” She tried to smile, but it came out for only a split second. It wasn’t like she was happy for the situation, but she was glad to go through it with company. If she had been alone… she couldn’t think of what she would actually do. It was like she was being supported by these two. She was embarrassed of that fact, and she wanted to make sure that she did her duty. Her duty was to make sure that they could fight and continue fighting. That had always been her role. She had never taken the offensive without being completely broken by the end of the ordeal.

Strangely, it was actually more comforting than she thought, as they started to make their way to the village, Maigo in the lead with Gora at the side of the road, watching the forest for any disturbances. The tracks were taken in long strides, their pace a hectic and frantic loping. Sometimes, there were prints that were vaguely reminiscent of hands, but with claw marks protruding from the ends of the finger tips. They didn’t go in straight lines, but rather zigged and zagged all over the road, and sometimes, there looked to have been a scuffle. The tracks were getting fresher and fresher.

As Lin started recognizing this, her jaw wound itself tighter and tighter, her lips pursing, waiting for the worst. As they rounded the last hilltop, the stench of death and freshly turned earth slapped the two in the face. There were people walking around, slowly, some sobbing, some just staring at the ground. Some had blood on them, some were caked in mud, but everyone was dirty in some way. The Elder of the village, had taken a stand on a barrel and was pointing people to different things. He had a look of hurt on his face, something that Lin was, so far, unaccustomed to seeing. It was like this had taken a personal blow against him, that he had lost family members. Some of the bodies that were lain out on stretchers, and some were in carts, but all were wounded in a way that made it look like an animal attack.

The people had their stomachs raked out, throats ripped out, limbs ripped off, not a clean cut to be seen. Lin looked from one to another. Men that she had seen plowing the fields just last week were ripped limb from limb, their bodies carefully arranged by their mourning families. Children were half-eaten, clutched to their mother’s chests as they wailed. Women were laid out on the ground, covered by sheets to preserve their dignity, the sheets stained reddish-brown from the blood already starting to clot on them. The sheets could be washed, but this town would never be washed of the fear, the loss, the utter chaos of this day.

Gora sniffed the air and kept away from the villagers, who gave her a defensive, almost seething glare. She tucked her tail and her ears and slinked off into a bush, her eyes the only things visible now. She would watch Lin and Maigo from the outskirts of the town. There couldn’t have been more than 100 people before, now, less, she would have the chance to see them when they left. Gora was no stranger to death, but Lin...

Lin’s eyes flitted from person to person, no wounds, no wounds, no wounds, no wounds. It was all the same. There were no wounded, all of the people were covered in blood that was not their own, clutching at loved ones, a boy grasping the finger of his dead father as he was being carted towards a mass grave. This was.. This was horrific. Lin couldn’t process it. Her mind kept running between the living and the- and the-.

She bent over double, clutching at a nearby cart as they approached and retched, her breakfast leaving her stomach. She couldn’t hold on to it, the chaos of the outside world boiling her insides until they frothed out from her. She couldn’t reach the people that were dead, she couldn’t heal the wounds that the villagers suffered. She felt utterly, completely helpless. A man kissing the forehead of his pale wife one last time before turning her into the mass grave, too much death. Too much death. She was responsible for it.

Gora gave a yowl from the bush as some of the villagers spotted her and she ran through the forest, she would have to keep a tab on them later on, it seemed. She climbed through the trees, and the villagers came back, they thought, apparently that Gora was the beast. Lin would have to explain that Gora had been with her, that morning, no more frightening than a housecat. So… that meant… no one got a good look at what had terrorized the village. They must have been… been… well Shinobi fast in order for normal people to not keep up with them. All of this, Lin would come to realize later. For how, she was doubled over.

The elder caught sight of Lin and pointed. Two men swung their heads her direction, tears in their red eyes. They started to run towards her. It was a fast pace, and Lin couldn’t see them. She was busy vacating her stomach. So much death. The world span. Maigo was her only comfort, something could be alright with this world, right? She wiped her mouth and spat, making sure that she wasn’t going to be overwhelmed again, she steeled herself. She had seen death before, right? What was she, a house wife? No, she was a woman, she was a strong shinobi woman, she would fight to protect the village.

“We’re going to kill whatever did this.” She resolved to Maigo, and gave him a pleading look, “Please, let me just believe that we’re going to kill whoever did this. I can’t do it alone, I know that, but… but please let’s… let’s avenge these people. It’s the only way their souls can rest. The animals that did this are clearly deranged, out of their minds, twisted by something. Perhaps a chakra monster run wild. I am not sure, but you have to help me get whatever did this. Please Maigo. These people are my family. Please.”

WC: 8059

Lin grumbled a bit as she got up, seemingly okay but annoyed as she noticed what Maigo was doing by positioning himself in the way. It wasn't that he didn't think she could lead or hold her own against anything like this... she had, after all, given the one demon in that underworld quite the shock from that jutsu of hers. But still, as long as Maigo was there, he wouldn't let her place herself in danger intentionally, not as long as he could do instead. Her eyes shifted, the bit of fire and anger like Maigo's own before a mission, a small concern of commitment to a goal, to pressing oneself onward. It was after he was finished speaking that she spoke her affirmation, that she would let him go in first and support him on the way in, Maigo nodded with a small 'hm' to go along with it.

Maigo noticed the smell before they walked into the gate, it was overwhelming as they entered the village, dried blood and flesh, death. It reminded him so much of Sero's island, it made him queasy, remembering back to that monster Sero and what he'd done to the girl in front of him. The bodies piled on his island and all else, the towns of bandits they'd left in the wake on their missions, he was all too familiar with it, learning to keep his disgust to himself. This was different though, these were innocents, the young girl was that Sero mutilated, it drove him mad, forced his eyes into new powers and left him enraged beyond that, turning him from a sheep to a lion. This was no different, with every passing step, Maigo hardened himself and his heart.

The sobbing going on, the bodies and limbs, blood drenched in places, the shock and horror of it, there was an old man pointing out directions to others. But everyone's eyes were ruined, they looked hurt themselves, full of anxiety, dread, and worry. There were mutilated bodies around that Maigo couldn't bare to give more than a passing glance each, just noting the destruction. In their moments entering in the village and taking witness to it all, he'd almost forgotten Lin, he was a little glad he stopped her now. Her running in wouldn't have been good, at least this way she wouldn't have rushed in with fear and worry leading way to grief and concern. Though, a nominal difference really, if it wouldn't make any at all.

Gora sniffed around, the villagers took offense and worry to her presence, Maigo noting that between that and the tracks it may have been an animal attack, but even for a pack of creatures, this much pain and suffering would have been extraordinary. Lin was dashing around, checking over people, Maigo noticed her concern and worry, he wanted to say something but... couldn't bring himself to. He knew she couldn't handle what had happened to the demons, and all else, even for a ninja, it was a lot to handle. It was when she fell over and grabbed a cart that his mind flashed back to that scene after in the forest, with her leaned against a tree, he stepped towards her and placed a hand on her back, if she would let him. Just patting and rubbing her back to let her know that he was there, a small bit of comfort as she started to lose control of herself.

Maigo saw a man clutching his wife or girlfriend, her cold body and pale face seemed to defeat him, Gora had run off and made a bit of a howl. Probably best for her not to be in the village for the time being. Maigo noticed the two men that began to run towards them, he ignored it for the time, they were clean and relatively composed for the situation before them. Lin began to stand up and Maigo stepped back a bit to give her a bit of room, his face was a mixture of sadness and concern, but he did his best to hold it back for the time being, “We’re going to kill whatever did this.”

Maigo blinked for a second as she looked to him, her eyes spoke just as much as her words, “Please, let me just believe that we’re going to kill whoever did this. I can’t do it alone, I know that, but… but please let’s… let’s avenge these people. It’s the only way their souls can rest. The animals that did this are clearly deranged, out of their minds, twisted by something. Perhaps a chakra monster run wild. I am not sure, but you have to help me get whatever did this. Please Maigo. These people are my family. Please.” His mouth fell open a bit, he wanted to interrupt, but couldn't find the time or motivation to. He felt the emotion in her words, calling them family, he understood what that meant. Almost sharing in her empathy in the moment, gulping he nodded his head.

He was... unsure of how to feel, it wasn't a heavy weight, he was a jounin and skilled, and she was as skilled as he was in her own arts, but for some reason... all the death made the weight on his chest feel so much heavier, the amount of emotion behind it all with it. Maigo spoke up, "Yeah, of course we will..." he started out a bit soft-spoken, almost not sure of what else he could say, "You won't have to do it alone, of course I'll help you. Without question, we'll take care of this and avenge them, I promise." the words rang out for a moment, he was standing tall for the moment, affirmed all the same, and a smirk of defiant pride. He felt like offering a hug, some notion of reconciling it, but he kept to himself, he didn't know how she would feel about it or if it was the right time or place, whether her conviction outweighed her sorrow or not, he couldn't tell.

But it was, after all, the very least they could do in the situation and for the town, he felt that angry blood boiling up in him like it always did in these situations. As tough as he was, the side of him without mercy and concern for the enemy was leaking through, he felt awful for the people of this town but his anger and wrath was beginning to overtake his conscious. His mind tried to fight against it as it began to build up, and he noticed it building up in his blood. His veins were burning and he felt his muscles tightening, rage like he'd known so many times before. For some reason, he didn't want Lin to be exposed to the full brunt of his... anger, at least not directly, not yet, he still cared a lot and didn't want to scare her away with the inner demons that constantly plagued him.

The very notion of ripping the criminal entities behind this attack apart was nothing but logistics in his mind, tracking them down, and if it should be bandits or other sentient humans or even the wild beasts that plagued the wilderness. Well, there wasn't a lid or cap conceivable to control the very wrath that boiled in that Uchiha blood of his. The two men would be coming up on them, Maigo's short smile of confidence, trying to reassure Lin that they would take care of it or at the very least he would, would begin to fade away as the two men arrived. Maigo stepped back and turned to face them, leaving plenty room for Lin to address them first if she chose to.


[1330 words, 5417 words total]

The two men were your stereotypical farmers, ones that looked like they were lower class kumogakure citizens. They had on bound linens around their legs, wearing them like pants. The pants ended in sandals made of woven reeds, which usually only lasted a couple of days before having to be made again. They would, of course, do the work in the fields, while the women made the sandals for the next week, cooked, cleaned, and took care of the ankle-biters. They wore a textile that was similar to cotton, but was a bit itchier. Lin didn't wear such clothing, but she knew how it felt, having been soaked to the bone and having had a similar sort of dress loaned to her. The coat, made of the same material and of a tan color was fastened to their waist by a linen belt. The wraps were not just on their legs, they were on their arms as well, wrapping around the middle finger.

They were wearing hats that kept the sun off of their faces, and walked toward Maigo and Lin with what seemed to be a heavy heart. Determined faces were plastered over barely contained sorrow. They too, had lost someone. Everyone had lost someone that day. When someone celebrated a birthday, everyone in the village would celebrate it, and when it had been Lin's own birthday, she had received gifts from the village, and had walked home to cry for being so happy. She felt like she belonged here. Every person that she saw she knew the name of, every person had a story that she had heard at least three times. She had been a part of this village since she was a genin. For a very long time now.

The two men that were coming towards them were actually twins, fraternal, though they were, they were still twins. They had started a new strain of tobacco, one that was actually a "sour" tasting tobac. They were responsible for that whole breeding and farming. They had wives from another village, ones that convened at the women's table every saturday while the men in the village smoked the new tobacco and talked about the weather for next week. They were nice enough women, and the elder brother, the one on the left had a kid and she didn't see her biting his ankles like she had been the last time that she had been into the village. Actually, Lin didn't see her at all, and as they approached they waved at her, a sort of half hearted smile that said that they had been defeated before they even had seen their adversary.

"Miss Lin." The eldest brother said, sighing and taking off his hat in respect for her. She had a high position in the village, having taught the medicine woman in the village how to heal using the herbs in the forest surrounding them. "It's... It's good to see you. You traveled with a beast. A white beast. We have heard of Gora, but some of the people here think that she might have been the one to do this. There is nothing in the forest capable of this type of carnage. They... they say that you lead her to us and that she knew all of our routines. They... they say that she is a monster. That she needs to be put down." He hung his head and sighed, shaking it back and forth slowly.

"She was in bed with me this morning. She was... she was snoring in my ear all night. I would know if she was doing this. For the last hour, and I am not sure when the attack happened, she has been with us." She looked to Maigo for reassurance as the farmer, the eldest brother talked again in quick succession though, so she didn't have much time between the time that she looked at him and the next thing that the farmer, his name was Kunoro, spoke.

"I don't believe that it was Gora, but she will need to be brought into the village, or the bodies of the things that killed the villagers brought before us before the men are able to forgive her. The women have been hiding and protecting their children, and... and I haven't seen my daughter all day. She... I think she has been taken. The tracks lead right through town. There was another taken, a man of considerable strength, Sotaro." She nodded, knowing that Sotaro was a man that could probably wrestle gora and win. Well, he could probably wrestle some of the toughest shinobi that she knew and win. "Whatever it was came in the night, and snatched and killed along the way. It made its way through the village and was out right at dawn. People fled from their houses because of the screaming, and children went missing in the confusion."

It all made sense now, the blood the confusion, but what didn't make sense was that there were multiple tracks, and she knew for a fact that some of the men here were hunters in their spare time or in the off season. They should know better, but their grief and the confusion probably blinded them to the fact that there were things here that they should not have been able to explain with some sleuthing. People were often blinded by these emotions, and Lin herself couldn't come up with a suitable answer. She sat there stuttering looking in the dirt. There were five tracks, her mind was working, but her voice didn't seem to be. She couldn't imagine this village as anything but happy. She had saved it twice now, and since then it had been a little utopia. She had built a sort of safe haven away from the strife of the village and had it trampled upon.

She could only think about what was going on in a sort of detached way, she stammered a bit before being quiet. She didn't know what to say. She felt like she was making it about her, she felt.. selfish. Her shoulders slumped and she hung her head in a defeated manner.

WC: 9121

The two men approached them and spoke up towards Lin, Maigo stepped back to let her take the lead of the conversation. They had... concerns about Gora, which was understandable but they certainly jumped to conclusions pretty quickly, to think that a single animal could cause all of this. It also made Maigo feel like they weren't very observant, one tiger no matter how capable, wouldn't be able to cause this much damage. And the prints, they were huge, lengthy, not circular like a cat's paw. But fear, anxiety, dread, it all drowned out the logic so Maigo couldn't really blame them.

Lin spoke up quickly in response as the first guy paused, "She was in bed with me this morning. She was... she was snoring in my ear all night. I would know if she was doing this. For the last hour, and I am not sure when the attack happened, she has been with us." She turned to Maigo, who nodded in response, to agree with the statement before another man cut off any chance for him to really agree. The next man spoke up, making some more or less... external threats towards them? Bringing her back to the village, Maigo knew that wasn't for anything less than retribution, not an option for him, he knew Lin was already suffering and heart broken, forget adding that on top of it.

What was more, missing people, potentially taken with the beasts to wherever they hideout or a distance away to feast at their own leisure. Maigo sighed deeply and looked down towards the tracks, they were scattered in town, different pressures, the beast or beasts moving at different speeds throughout. The blood spewed throughout town, he tried to read the situation while he waited, he knew that the tracks didn't lead out from the way they'd come but that meant they exited somewhere else.  He looked back towards Lin, she looked distraught with her head down, Maigo reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her a bit after she was done stammering, trying to grab her consciousness towards himself before speaking up.

"Hey, save your mourning for later. We do have a job to do, and I have a promise to keep..." he smiled a bit, hoping to reassure before he looked across the village to the back gate that led away from the village. Then he looked back towards the two men, speaking sternly, "We'll go after them," he glanced towards Lin to make sure that she was still with him on this, "And we'll be back with whatever we find..." he trailed off and held his tongue, still stern. He didn't, want to make any assurances, if whomever was taken, there wasn't much telling what they would find when they reached their destination.

If everything was covered with the villagers and they accepted Maigo's answers, as well as Lin focusing in and not getting angry at him for his own pushiness. He'd follow the general trail of the footprints, knowing that none of them led in any one direction but the general pattern of the whole pushed them through the village. "We'll follow the footprints as far as we can and then go from there, they probably headed off that way..." he nodded forward, really signaling behind the rest of the town. To the place where the hills grew and a forest thickened around those hills. Maigo knew his own tracking skills were at best average, he was more meant for infiltration and a direct fight than anything, deception, the likes of that.

If Lin had anything else to say he'd here her out or whatever anyone else had to say if they'd choose to intervene, otherwise, his head would turn from her to the footprints and the distance off ahead of them. Light steps at first, he would follow the footprints out of the town, following their general path until they narrowed down into a single uniform direction wherever they were headed, then following those until they ended. Knowing that whatever did this was probably held up in the forest somewhere, perhaps in an indentation at the base of one of the hills or some other nesting area deep within it. At least it was still midday, lots of light to help with the tracking, that and it'd keep the forest from being too overly creepy like in all those horror stories.


[756 words, 6173 words total]

Lin bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling and with it bit back some bitter tears. Gora wasn't to blame for this, she wasn't. She sighed, and felt a light weight on her shoulder. Warmth, welcome warmth rested there. A warmth that was reflected in Maigo's eyes as he looked at her. Or was she projecting? There was a warmth, but there was also a fire, an inferno. A black flame. There was something there beautiful and terrible all at once. A want to make her feel at ease, and yet a restlessness of himself. Perhaps barely veiled rage. She felt it too, her eyes turning to an electric blue, rather than the blank mirror of ice they had been. They would avenge the villagers. He was right, now wasn't the time for tears, now was the time for vengeance.

She nodded as he said that they would go and hunt down whatever did this, and she nodded, more uncertain when he said that they would come back with whatever they found. It didn't sound like he was terribly confident in finding survivors alive. The man nodded, casting his eyes to the ground, and the other villager fixed Lin with a hard stare. She was determined, but the longer it lasted, the less confidence she had, eventually averting her eyes toward the ground. "Bring back my brother's daughter." Was what he said, before grabbing his brother by the shoulder and bodily turning him around, telling him that he had bigger things to worry about here in the village, like finding out who all was missing, digging graves, and setting things to right.

Lin could see he was trying to redirect the man's grief, but it probably wouldn't work. A child, his child, missing... she couldn't imagine it. She didn't have a child of her own, but wanted children later. Perhaps once she had settled down from the shinobi life. Maigo had started off after the footprints, his own boots sinking into the drying mud of the village road behind the rakes in the dirt from claws, no, feet? No definitely claws. It was unlike anything that she had ever seen before. She walked with uncertainty behind him. But seeing his determination and his cool resolve to fix the problem of the village gave her courage.

Maigo spoke up, looking to the hills, "We'll follow the footprints as far as we can and then go from there, they probably headed off that way..." She nodded, looking at the footprints, anyone could follow them really until they hit the grass, then their path was blurred. That was where Gora would come in. She looked to the right and saw a pair of lightning blue eyes regarding her, their irises just slits from focusing on Lin, making sure that she was safe. Gora had a predatory protectiveness about her. She would kill anything that harmed or threatened Lin. She was, after all, a panther, and killing ran in her blood. Lin remembered the set of eyes that she saw on the mountain, and wondered how big Gora would get to be eventually. Perhaps as big as her mother? The eye that she had seen atop the mountain was massive, easily as big in diameter as Lin was tall.

The irises that Lin saw flash in the underbrush disappeared in a blur of white. She would meet them ahead, Lin nodded, "Gora will meet us where she picks up the trail of their scent. She is a natural huntress. They probably just headed in a straight line, but if they didn't and they hold some sort of bestial intelligence, then Gora will be able to track them." She nodded, looking to Maigo and giving him a weak smile, that was more for reassuring him that she was alright to go, alright to fight, alright to... to... She didn't want to kill. She just wanted to stop these things. Perhaps ready to knock them unconscious... No... she had to kill them.

The dead eyes of her friend stared at her blankly from the recesses of her memory. They pleaded with her to reconsider, taking a life, even an animal one... it was... it was hard for Lin. It would be easier if they were just beasts, had they had hooves, or bestial tracks, but these looked like the tracks of men or women, or something... something vaguely human. She started off in the direction of the footprints. Making sure that she didn't step in them, almost as if they were tainted somehow.

What escaped her sight was the fact that there were no drag marks, there were no marks but the ones that the monsters made. They were deep and so were heavy, but they seemed to not be burdened by their bundles, their captives, their meals. It was strange, and would have been so if Lin had been a better tracker. She would have noticed that they were able to carry a big man like the one that they had stolen and a child without much of a break in pace at all.

Well, that was what she would have seen, if she had better tracking skills. What she did see was Gora waiting for them barely inside the forest, sniffing at the ground, only raising her head after having her ears twitch towards them. She would greet them and say, "Three, three of them are here. And two that they captured. They didn't slow their pace... they are uninjured." She sniffed and the skin over her teeth pulled back revealing her fangs and her claws extended. Her nose wrinkled and her irises further contracted as she looked into the forest. "They're unnatural." She added.

"Thank you Gora." Lin said, her voice hollow. She didn't want to kill them, she wanted to... she wanted to make it so that they stayed away from the village. She wanted to stop them. She... A flicker of rage came up and hit her like a wall, followed by those dead eyes again. She was conflicted. Her fingers extended like Gora's claws, but she clenched them in self restraint, her breathing becoming heavier than it was before.

She pointed the path out to Maigo, "Go ahead, and Gora will tell us if they turned suddenly or not." She gritted her teeth, keeping a lid on her anger, she would need every ounce of strength that she had. If Maigo would, she would follow him, Gora taking up the place in between them. They started to get into the forest, and it was evident as ever where they went.

Unlike the forest wildlife, they moved through the forest, breaking things that were in their way, raking the trees with their claws, stomping down the underbrush, and leaving scars on the land similar to what was left in the village. They had little regard for the saplings of the forest, some of them snapped in half, exposing splintered wood, the green of the tree still evident in the outer layer of the bark that the tree had tried, in vain to resist this breaking. The tree would not recover. Lin could not heal trees though, she couldn't worry about plants, but these creatures, these monsters had no regard for life whatsoever. They left a corpse of a rabbit, eviscerated, its viscera splattered on a tree, hanging from its own intestines. Signs that it was still alive when it was hung were evident and Lin looked on in horror.

Gora pushed her forward past the sight, and was unsettled as much as Lin was. What could do this and yet had claws, teeth, and strength like they did? Was it some sort of... of... sage mode? Lin had seen it once, a man turn into some sort of a monkey thing... he sprouted fur, and a tail. His arms elongated, and he became... half... monkey? But there were three. A pack of sage mode users? This would be... this would be more than Lin could handle, and she was grateful for Maigo's presence. It was calming, though, her rage was hard to control. She felt like she was a mess of emotion, and wondered if he would still like her after this... or if she would lose him to the anger, the hate that she felt inside for these creatures.

"Maigo... thank you." She said, "If you see something here today, just... just realize that I am not myself." She nodded and gulped down as they approached a cave, almost hidden before they had reached it. They were there, she could see one laying, on its back, outside the lip of the cave. It was asleep, but its nose twitched as well as its ears. Gora bared her fangs and placed herself low to the ground, wiggling her butt and tail, ready for Lin's command. Gora would be hurt... Gora might be killed if she participated... but she wouldn't, couldn't stand by and watch either. Lin looked to Maigo, tapping him and pointing to the sleeping thing. There were no villagers in sight.

The thing looked like a woman, one that had grown fur, rippling muscles covered her body, her breasts were small, and similarly covered in fur. She had a tail, like a wolf, and her hands and feet ended in 1 inch long claws, no doubt able to rip people to shreds. She had seen one body ripped clean in half. No sign of any of the villagers, and the werewolf was sleeping. Lupine ears and snout were unreal because of the human shape of the rest of the head. She was sprawled on her back, an elongated lupine tongue lolling out of the elongated jaw. The werewolves' teeth were sharp, almost unnaturally sharp, if she had been any other animal Lin would have wondered if she were a pup, given the sharpness, and well-kempt nature of them.

Lin waited for Maigo to begin... her hands at the ready for hand seals.

WC: 10837

The men left them with a request to find his niece, before they turned off and proceeded to return to tending to their little village, the damage caused and mourning where they could. The pair continued on, following the footprints as far as they could with Maigo in the lead, going on he noticed, along with Lin, Gora running through the forest past the village, keeping out of the line of sight. Probably running to meet them ahead, Lin spoke up just afterwards as Maigo listened in, "Gora will meet us where she picks up the trail of their scent. She is a natural huntress. They probably just headed in a straight line, but if they didn't and they hold some sort of bestial intelligence, then Gora will be able to track them." she offered with a weak smile. Maigo sighed and nodded along, he didn't really have... anything to offer in reconciliation? He was a terrible tracker, so this was good, a nice way to fill in their little team weakness.

When they continued on, leading by following Gora as they could, moving to the forest as Gora spoke up, "Three, three of them are here. And two that they captured. They didn't slow their pace... they are uninjured. They're unnatural." Maigo nodded, not letting Gora's own commentary change him at all, he could feel his rage burning wildly, as he reached to the pouch at his waist and pulled out a knife, attached to it were 6 meters of wire and a metal ring with it, completing the Kyoketsu-Shoge he wielded. As he did, Lin spoke to Gora, just thanking her emptily, Maigo noticed the lack of... was it conviction that seemed to be building? Lin pointed ahead for Maigo, taking a step forward to lead on the path ahead of them as Lin gritted her teeth, he didn't comment, there was nothing else he could add. Part of him wanted her to... accept where they were? But Maigo knew that he wasn't a wordsmith, nothing he could say or do would be... enough to consol or empower her to anything substantial.

They made their way through the forest, Maigo's eyes carefully shifted around, noticing the broken branches, the path that seemed carved out from repeated use, the entirety of it. Gora led them on and turned their direction where needed, Maigo noticed the bigger picture of their travel, but he knew if it weren't for Gora, he wouldn't have pinpointed their travel anywhere near as easily. Some time during their travel, Lin spoke up in the quiet, "Maigo... thank you." Maigo turned his head with a furrowed brow, wondered what had come over her at this point in time, "If you see something here today, just... just realize that I am not myself." he sighed a bit, his shoulders slumped just a little in the exhale. His features turned a little softer as he nodded, understanding what she meant. Any of the fierce rage and fire that burned in him quieted a little, he understood exactly what she meant, he wanted to... say the same? But rather, part of him wanted her to see more of himself. His anger and rage, because that was who he really was, who he felt like... if it slipped through the cracks, maybe she would catch glimpse of it. Maybe he could scare her away, all the machinations of his mind running as he paused for a moment after her sentence, feeling that he'd been living a facade for some time now.

Still, he held his tongue, for all his bravado and arrogance, he was still too cowardly to open that up and say anything. Time passed as they continued on and they arrived at the entrance of a cave, Maigo looked ahead, he saw the creature sleeping but also saw Lin tap against his arm and pointing it out too. Maigo exhaled, focusing himself, he held an arm up at Lin, fingers extending out from his knife with the blade pointed out from his right hand, speaking in a low whisper, "Wait here..." Maigo held a half tiger seal and pushed chakra to his feet, disturbing the dirt a little but not enough for a serious sound, he walked forward, his footsteps absolutely silent. The Silent Walking Practice he'd come up with was a great tool and utility here, espionage and infiltration were his specialty. He took each step and focused on craving a path into the cave, leaving his sharingan unactivated for the time as well. In his left hand, he held the ring and extra curled up razor wire, in his right hand, he rotated the blade to point down and hovered over the beastly creature for a moment.

His eyes ran over it, it had... many human features, many feminine features too but he didn't let it run in his mind for long. With a quick step, he dropped his knee into the chest of the beast, using his leg and foot to pin its arm, at the same time bringing his knife down into its throat. Ripping through and tearing the flesh almost cleanly, a short yelp would fill the air followed by the smell of blood and the puttering of the sanguine liquid from its nearly severed head. Maigo sighed, and felt the rage grow a little, his hand gripped tightly around the blade, his new weapon was certainly sharp, it cut through the beast with its primary edge like it was nothing.

He wondered if his move would have alerted any others, he started spinning the blade in his right hand, letting slack run through so that it would hang one meter from him and rotate like a windmill. Gaining speed, it whirred through the air, the other werewolf would be dead in moments, he began to clank it against the wall, hoping to catch the rest of the werewolves attention if he could. He didn't expect Lin to follow him, but he had a feeling that she might, small smarks bursting with each strike of blade against stone. Maigo deactivated his silent walking practice and began walking into the cave slowly, wondering what else he would find.

His eyes spun into life finally, knowing that if he lost his vision, he could still rely on the animals chakra to track them down and strike. Still, he wondered what Lin and Gora would do, either following him in or waiting on standby, he knew this meant a lot to her, but his rage grew and he knew that she was second guessing herself. Worrying about her own anger and all else, he was almost fully prepared to bear any burden from this he could if she would let him.


[1140 words, 7313 words total]
[Silent Walking Practice not Maintained]
[Three Tomoe Sharingan Maintained]
[280/300 Chakra]

Jutsu Used:

Maigo said “Wait here” and Lin was inclined to answer him, but he made some hand seals and started to creep towards the lycanthropic woman. She held her breath, trying to hear Maigo. Nothing but his breath. He crept towards the werewolf, very slowly. It was creepy how humanesque the monsters were. They reminded her of people. Their skeletal structure, their hands, their legs. They were double jointed in the leg, but it was almost as if their paws were where their toes should be, and their second joint would be where a normal human’s ball and joint joint would be on their ankle. She looked at the toes, there were five with no do-claw like that of a dog, or a cat, no digit that was like the remnant of an opposable thumb. Her hands were those of a human, longer than they should have been, but she could see the veins below the thick grey fur.

She was naked, but yet the fur was thick enough to cover all of her “important” features. She watched as Maigo took out a rather terrifying looking knife. He held the knife in his right hand, more a blade for killing someone while they slept, or were held by genjutsu than anything. She had a flashback to the underworld where she had been thrown into his hell-viewing technique. It was a terrifying genjutsu, and it wasn’t even his strongest he said. How… how utterly terrifying it would be to actually see his true potential.

Maigo stood over the lupine woman, for now that Lin saw more of her, she knew that she was some sort of… chakra twisted… experiment perhaps? A chimera of sorts. It didn’t make much sense. But he dropped his knee down as he pointed his knife downwards as well. She heard bone collide with bone as he stomped on the other arm and the eyes of the woman-beast shot open. The blade hit on the side of the neck, not where Lin would have positioned it if she were trying to be stealthy. She thought of the human anatomy in that split second, a knife wound right between the hyoid bone would neatly sever the vocal cords, making no more sound than the knife actually digging in. She clutched at her own throat where she had been killed by the man in the black shirt. The one with the skull emblazoned. Those empty eyes looking deep into her soul and sending her to the abyss...

She heard a yelp, a loud enough one to hear stirring coming from the cave before Maigo made a simple and efficient cut across the neck of the beast, nearly decapitating it. The left hand shot up to try to hold onto her throat, but it was too late. Arterial blood painted Maigo a deep red and spattered against the ground. Lin had a flashback to the arterial blood that she had spilt in the forest canopy, panic filling her, then rage. These things, these beasts had killed the villagers. They had killed them!

Lin stood up from the bushes and held a hand out to Gora who growled a challenge at the howling inside the cave as Maigo stood up and started to twirl his knife attached to the string that he was holding in his right hand. His dominant hand, apparently. Lin strode toward the entrance as two figures burst forth from the cave. She saw one head to Maigo’s right, and one to the left. She would take care of the left one then. Weaving hand seals, she made a clone appear as she ran towards the one that was on his left. The clone, since she just made one, split from her and interposed herself between Maigo and a burly humanesque beast. She ran to the left as the clone caught the attention of the werewolf.

She started to form the hand seals for the ultimate healing technique, but this was going to be using the Guanyin chakra reversal technique, not used to heal anyone, but rather to make it wilt. She looked to the clone and the clone looked to her, nodding. It started the hand seals for “Divine Lance” as she moved to the side of the werewolf, making sure to target the beast as it lunged for the clone. The clone would be lost, surely, but at least it would keep the beast from attacking and hurting Maigo. That was her main concern now.

A brilliant Lance approximately 3 and ⅓ meters long manifested itself in the air above the clone’s head before tearing through the air, leaving an ozone smelling trail behind it. The lance tore into the kidney of the beast, frying the organ and leaving a good sized hole in it, while electocuting it and removing the hair from the beast due to the burns. The beast recoiled in fear and agony as it tried to get away from the clone who had done so much damage to it.

The clone was making the hand seals for the Guanyin needle technique to finish off the beast, but Lin shook her head and the Clone nodded at the silent command. Lin would deal with this beast herself.

Really really graphic death, proceed with caution.:

It was the most gruesome death that she had ever seen, and it was done… by Lin.

WC: 12,400

Lin's Chakra: 170.
(Clones took up 45, Guanyin Advanced Healing Technique took up 35)

Jutsus Used:

When Maigo had dispatched of the first beast it left a noise in the air that awoke whatever else sunk back deeply in that cave, the noise and rustling and hastened steps crept up on him. His weapon was spinning now, the sound of whirring wind began to drown most things out but he heard Lin start to move too. It came quickly into his vision, they burst to each side of him, thinking they could catch him off guard, it was petty. A smirk built across his face as he rotated the shoge-knife above his head in anticipation to take them both on but heard heard the poof of the creation of a clone behind him. Lin was getting involved, his sharingan stayed ahead though, he sat down in his stance and tightened the knife up, shortening the distance but letting it move quicker in its own momentum.

Maigo heard Lin begin running towards his left, he sighed, not liking the situation in itself but he knew she was capable and the clone should help out.  Maigo held the knife as another version of Lin appeared in front of him, his eyes looked over her but couldn't tell the difference between her and a clone. He would have smiled and found it admirable, her trying to move in and save him, but he only found rage as he watched her form that lance of lightning, losing track of the other version of herself for a moment. He shifted his knife to the right side of himself and began to focus in on the other beast, the bolt of lightning dashed forward and ripped into the side of the monster, it cowered back and shrieked with a horrid whine of pain.

Maigo stepped forward using the shoge to create distance, the monster flailed it's clawed finger tips at him but stayed back to avoid the whirling knife. With the animal wounded Maigo had even more confidence that Lin would be alright, well, he would have if the fire weren't burning in his eyes and mind. He dashed forward, letting the blade fly first, it knicked the arm of the beast, it growled out as Maigo pulled the weapon back, timing his combinations with any attacks that Lin's clone might have been throwing along with him. Short combinations here and there, he'd delivered a flurry of cuts and kept himself mostly clean from any attack. The back and forth carried on for a moment with more and more cuts tailoring the beast, Maigo smirked, almost laughing as he toyed with the animal but that was cut short. The Lin that stood next to him disappeared in a puff of smoke that filled the area before disappearing.

Maigo's eyes shifted back towards where he thought Lin was, he found her fallen to the ground next to... a pile of flesh? He didn't understand but didn't have long to think either, the other beast tackled him, a flash of Gora moving by, he'd let her handle it while his knife rotated around and blocked the teeth digging into him. Strong grip held his shoulders down and pressed him to the ground, Maigo cursed himself for all he had in the moment, Dammit... it was all he could think, turning his blade down looking into the eyes of the beast, he tried his genjutsu, Shackling Stakes. Luckily, it had some semblance of consciousness and the genjutsu went to work quickly, Maigo threw the beast off him and went to quick work with his knife in a few motions. Two cuts to the neck and a piercing deep into its chest, more blood splattered out but he couldn't care less.

As soon as the beast writhed within itself his eyes turned along with his head, a small look of panic built and replaced his anger very rapidly. He, rushed forward, Gora already at the scene with a look of concern, dashing as quickly as he could to her side, sliding to a stop with his feet and sandals kicking up everything in its path. He almost ran right through Gora, at first he didn't see any wounds, a relief that she was maybe alright, he pressed a finger to her neck, her heart was still beating normally. He shook her a bit trying to wake her, but knew he wasn't going to get any response from her. Maigo turned towards Gora and spoke up, "She seems okay now, but let's get her out of here, maybe we can help her in that town or something..." he spoke a bit uncertainly. His sharingan remained active as he looked to Gora and then back to Lin, "I'll let you carry her back..." he spoke and then moved his arms under Lin's body to pick her up and place her onto Gora's back. Once she was set and adjusted so she wouldn't fall off so easily, Maigo stood up and spoke again, "I'll meet you at the front of the cave, I want to... make sure there's nothing left here." He nodded reassuringly and then ran further in the cave.

All that was left towards the back wall, were the bodies, the light was so faded he couldn't make out much of their features, not that there would have been much left to tell. He saw a young girl's body, it had to have been her, blood splattered everywhere, it was obvious the other two were feeding while the third was resting. He looked at the wrist and found a bracelet with some inscription on it, he reached down to grab it, pulling it from the corpses arm. With a quicker step out, Maigo journeyed from the cave and found Gora and the unconscious Lin on her back. He sighed and gripped the bracelet tightly, as he looked again, nodding quietly before speaking up, "Alright then, no time to waste..." he continued on and waited for Gora to lead the way for the three of them out of there.


[1023 words, 8336 words total]
[Three Tomoe Sharingan Maintained]
[240/300 Chakra Remaining]

Jutsu Used:

Lin couldn't remember anything from the time that she started the jutsu, and it was merciful, but her unconcscious state was not filled with pleasant dreams. She dreamed of monsters with horrendously long and sharp claws piercing her flesh, her jaw falling off and being unable to speak to Maigo, and being nude in the middle of a bunch of wolves, completely unable to defend herself from their slavening jaws and sharp claws.

Meanwhile, back in the waking realm, Gora lowered her left shoulder, allowing Maigo to put Lin on top of her. She sniffed the girl, tousling the white hair that lay in a disarray on the white fur of the big panther. Lin should have let Gora take the final blow, or do something to kill it. She would have jumped in and killed the things. She nodded in response to Maigo's words about finding what was left. Gora knew already that there was nothing that he could do about that. There was nothing left of the people from the village. The stench of death hung about this place, and Gora, even being a natural hunter, didn't want to stay long. It was almost as if it were cursed. She silently wondered if there were others like this, if there were other creatures that could tear through flesh in a trice, other things that had an oddly human intelligence to them, and which turned into humans on death.

There was something wrong with them. They weren't a sage-mode, they were far too bestial, far too gone mentally for that. What, then, were they? Were they man or were they beast? Gora didn't know, herself, what to say. Lin clenched her eyes shut, moaning a bit and gripping Gora's fur before lying limp on her back once more. Maigo emerged from the cave, carrying... carrying what?

He had something in his hand, but she didn't know what it was, it smelled like a little girl, it smelled of death. Gora turned up her nose at the stench and nodded to Maigo. He seemed perturbed by her speaking, so she opted for silence. A leaf gently blew from one of the surrounding trees and rested itself on one of her ears and she flicked it off. Her tail twitched incessantly back and forth. Lin wasn't hurt, or she didn't seem so to Gora and apparently not to Maigo either, but why.. why then did she not regain consciousness.

Jaws opened and closed around Lin's neck in her dream world and her eyes snapped open. She screamed and kicked off of Gora, making the hand-signs for a jutsu, she didn't see Maigo or Gora, but the phantoms of her mind. They were were-wolves they were here for her flesh, they were here for her blood. She formed a ball of lightning in her hand and Gora stepped back, making a nervous noise. It was a combination of a growl and a whimper, her pupils dilated and she put her ears back and her tail between her legs. Lin's hair stood on end, she channeled more chakra into it, more... more...

Her thoughts were this:

These werewolves, they killed my family, they killed my family, they will not escape. I told him that I would get his daughter back, his daughter that I was supposed to protect. I was supposed to protect them, me! I was supposed to be the one to face these monsters, I relied on Maigo, now he's dead. Gora's dead. Everyone's dead. I'll kill them, I'll kill them all. Lin's eyes were eratic, her irises mirrors of the outside world, tears streamed down her face as she held her hand between her legs, channeling more and more chakra into it. She was going to kill these werewolves. She would end their existence, she would... she would.

Then the realization that she had already killed one. She remembered the noise of its skin ripping apart, its howl its gutteral cry that was cut short by the vocal cords snapping. She remembered it all. She remembered that she fainted, leaving Maigo alone with the werewolves. She remembered that the werewolves returned to their human form after they were dead. Lin had killed... she had killed someone. It wasn't just an animal, it was a person. A person that had dreams and aspirations, someone with hopes and fears, someone that was someone to someone else. She had just ended a life, all of the potential of that person cut short, snuffed out. She had ended them with her own jutsu. It wasn't someone else that helped her this time.

Lin's murdering virginity lay in a bloody, ragged mess, leaving her a bloody mess as well. Her Chidori, roughly the size of her arm winked out of existence as she looked up to Maigo and Gora. Gora was backed up against a tree, her side to Lin, her fur standing on end. Pure panic was written all over her features. She then looked to Maigo, his image blurring with tears, "I killed him... I reduced him to nothing and when he cried out for me to stop I just kept doing it. I killed him using my healing abilities!" She wailed, dropping to her knees and sobbing. She covered her eyes with her fingers. Her scar under them she started to tear at it. She hated it, she hated herself.

"Why can't I be like all the other girls. I am not pretty, not talented, a murderess, and a horrible person. I am weak, and when I come across something that is not as strong as me I snuff it out without a care in the world. I thought that I was prepared to kill, but look at how I did it. I could have killed it any other way, and I murdered it by using my healing technique against it." She placed her hands on the back of her head and wailed, a gutteral cry escaping her as sobs wracked her body.

Gora was still petrified from her owner, her mother by all regards, her friend's hatred, her blind fury. For that was what had shown. Gora was petrified because she didn't think that Lin had it in her. She had seen Lin angry plenty of times, but she didn't know the full extent to Lin's short fuse. She was a frail thing, she was barely able to keep up with most people, but she was strong when it came to her demeanor. Or that was what Gora thought. This outburst though, turning on her comrades, that was... that was something new. Gora went behind the tree, letting Lin sob and wail at her deeds, too scared to comfort her.

What would happen if she did? What would happen if Lin did snap again, who would protect the poor cat, who now wanted nothing more than to be back at home, woken up by a flick to the nose like Lin always did. To see the Lin that she brought to the village back and whole. Lin was.. it was like she was a different person, cracked and crazed from the trauma of killing. She wanted nothing more than to go home, to curl up with the old Lin. She didn't want this new Lin, didn't know this new Lin that sobbed on her knees in front of her.

Lin's face was bleeding where she had raked it with her nails, and it stung, of course, but it didn't hurt more than the knowledge that she had killed something. She had willingly taken a life. She had done willingly, what happened to her friend. She seemed inconsolable. She felt wretched. Perhaps it would have been better for her to have stayed dead. She could do things in the underworld that she could not here. She could not hurt things as badly as they were hurt here. She didn't deserve to live. She had just taken something else's life. Why did she deserve to live. Others doing it had a reason, she... she didn't even have that. It was a premeditated murder of passion. She killed because she wanted to feel the life eek out of the individual who had caused her so much pain, and she had succeeded. She had pressed herself past her limit, and now she was broken, as Gora so aptly put it. She was damaged goods.

Lin wasn't worthy of Maigo's attention, his affection, she was a monster. She was ugly since birth, she was callous, tricky, and snide. She was hateful, vengeful, and unforgiving. How could someone love someone like her. The answer? They couldn't. Better for her to die here than to continue on.

Or so Lin thought, and she thought the world thought the same.

WC: 13,906

Maigo started out following Gora, the bracelet he clutched in his wrist had a small splash of blood on it, he gripped it tightly before sliding it away into his pouch to leave there. His sharingan had long since faded, he looked to Gora, moving a little slower and more carefully so that Lin wouldn't fall off and then he looked at the unconscious Lin as well. His lips pursed as he didn't understand how he could let it happen, the monsters in that caves, really people perhaps wielding some strange jutsu or victim to some cursed bloodline... a lot like his own really and the curse that came with his eyes. Lin moved and moaned every now and then but it wasn't much more than turning like she was asleep.

They hadn't gotten far from the cave in any sense, Maigo sighed and looked ahead of him before the unexpected happened, a scream pierced the air and Maigo's head quickly turned to find Lin sliding away from Gora. Maigo extended a hand out and spoke up, "Hey..." but his words would probably have fallen on deaf ears, she seemed dazed and lost, panicked as she weaved through some signs of her own. Maigo blinked for a moment as he watched, powerful lightning enveloped her hand, he recognized it almost immediately, it was just like his technique... Gora had stepped back but Maigo didn't notice it, he still stood in front of her and at the ready, he almost didn't think she would be able to go through with it, with attacking him or Gora. He didn't understand why she was even forming her chakra, a sickness maybe? He didn't have time to think it through.

Lin's eyes were watering up now, her hand pressed the Chidori down as Maigo spoke up, hoping some of his words might get through to her if they could, "Lin, it's just us... it's over... calm down, it's just us..." a lump built up in his throat as he waited, his words didn't seem to penetrate at first, if they would at all. A moment later, the lightning had faded, the sound of it left the air as she looked up to them, Maigo would be standing with his right arm up slightly, deep concern on his face and in his eyes. Her eyes were still watering as she looked around to them, Gora had backed off severely already the words ran along with her tears, "I killed him... I reduced him to nothing and when he cried out for me to stop I just kept doing it. I killed him using my healing abilities!" she dropped to her knees as her tears welled over, Maigo felt the melancholy strike him, it was certainly no easy burden to bear.

But Maigo hesitated for a second then ran to slid up against her, hoping to catch her in his arms while she was sobbing. He would grab her wrist after she started to scratch deeply at the scar, he pulled her in and wrapped his other free arm around to her shoulder. "Why can't I be like all the other girls. I am not pretty, not talented, a murderess, and a horrible person. I am weak, and when I come across something that is not as strong as me I snuff it out without a care in the world. I thought that I was prepared to kill, but look at how I did it. I could have killed it any other way, and I murdered it by using my healing technique against it." her words cut deeply at herself, it pained Maigo to see her so doubting herself, the blood flowed from where she tore at her scar.

"It's alright, it's over now..." Maigo spoke to the sobbing Lin, pulling her head closer to his chest, he didn't know what words he could really say right now. He didn't fully understand what snapped in her, he understood that the killing was heavy, and the brutality of it, but... she was seemingly broken in that moment. Maigo held tightly to her, he thought about saying something like that she avenged the village and those she cared for but he felt in the moment that something like that wouldn't really seep through, the most he felt he could do was be there and console her but what to say... he gulped, feeling just as awful as she was just from being with her. He would push her hair past her scar and glance at it for a moment before letting his arm fall and wrap around to hug her again, "I think you're better than the other girls; you're beautiful, and you're the best medic I know, and you're no murderess... you were avenging your friends and those you care about, the guilt is a tough thing to accept but you didn't kill anyone in cold blood..." he didn't want to mince words and spoke calmly, a little quiet at that with a smile in case she would look, or if not he would just carry it, trying to comfort her a little. It may have seemed an early exaggeration of some kind, the sort of thing that would come off creepy nine times out of ten, but it seemed like she needed to hear it, understand it, and he was genuine at that.

"Just let it out, it's alright..." he'd speak if she kept crying, sitting there next to her and just waiting until she was ready, giving her a moment to let it out and comfort her as best he could, if he could.


[967 words, 9303 words total]
[Three Tomoe Sharingan not maintained]
[225/300 Chakra]

Lin sobbed into Maigo's shoulder, her face pressed against him and the sobs rocking her body. She felt so terrible for what she had done, and to a human no less. It helped a bit that she didn't know that they were people to begin with, but she had still killed the person in a rage.

"Wh... what happens if I do that to you, or Gora, or Satoshi, or anyone in the village?" She looked up at him, the tears leaving lines down her face, and getting rid of some of the blood that was still seeping out of the wound that she had given herself over her scar. Lin leaned into Maigo, resting there for a bit. Gora took a tentative step towards her, "We should get back to the village... Lin, Maigo... before the dark sets in. The forest is full of all sorts of predators, and I am small compared to the things that lurk here." Gora's ears were back, her tail low. She obviously still felt a bit scared, and tentative to talk.

Lin nodded. nuzzling into Maigo's chest if he would allow and said, "It's just hard Maigo, knowing... knowing that I killed that man... That I had that in me. I wanted to become a Shinobi to protect people, to help them... does... does killing really do that?" She looked up at him, her eyes red from crying, her irises small and her pupils big. She felt small, smaller than she had felt since she was five, and she had accidentally hit a squirrel with a Kunai. She didn't like things suffering, unless she could help them.

She didn't like pain, perhaps this wasn't the profession for her. Perhaps this wasn't the place for her to be. She started to doubt herself. "I want to become the Raikage, and stop the meaningless war." She nodded, making herself sure of her words before pushing lightly against Maigo to stand up. "I didn't get these wounds from the beasts..." She touched the wound, "No sense in giving them a scare when I come back that I am going to keel over on them." She wove some hand signs before applying a simple healing technique to her own cheek. It was the Hovering Hands Technique. A small time later her wound was healed.

She set her jaw, her eyes full of disarray, confusion, hurt, guilt, and a fear that she didn't have before. It might hinder her in the next mission, she would be overcareful not to kill someone the next time that she got into a battle. Perhaps that would be dangerous, perhaps not.

Lin smiled, placing her hair in front of her scar bashfully and walking up to Maigo. Gora followed and nudged at her rump, trying to get them to move in the direction of the village.  Lin stood on her tip-toes, her lips brushing lightly against Maigo's earlobe should he allow, before whispering, "Thank you... I don't know what I would have done without you." Gora snorted and made a look as though she were a child watching her parents being lovey dovey.

Lin would follow Gora back to the village alongside Maigo, would not interact with the villagers, as she was in too much pain, but would nod or shake her head to yes or no questions. If she were asked more complicated questions, she would defer them to Maigo by looking at him pleadingly.

After they left the village, and the things had transpired there, she would walk alongside Maigo to Kumogakure, the sun setting on a harsh day. The sun would hang in the sky, burning an angry blood red. It cast its colors on a backdrop of the mountains, giants that were silently judging Lin for her deeds. She would rely heavily upon Maigo for balance as she walked back to the village. She could ride Gora, of course, but she didn't wish to. Gora was still a bit uneasy at her touch, though she made an effort to not be. Lin had broken the trust of Gora, and she hoped she hadn't for Maigo. Gora and she would have to do some bonding practice after this... to help with the distrust that had driven a wedge between them. No... the wedge was driven by Lin, and Lin alone. She would own it, and would carry the black badge of "murderess"... shouldering that burden for the first time in her Shinobi Career.

WC: 14,687

|EXIT|

I would like the Ryo, please, and would like to train with the remaining words.

14,687
Mission completion: 2500 words. remaining: 12187
Training: Stats from B to B-3: Each costs 2400
Strength: 9787 leftover
Speed: 7387 leftover
Endurance: 4987 leftover
Perception: 2587 leftover
Reaction: 187 leftover

187 words leftover after all stats trained to B-3
Total Ryo Cost: 3000 ryo.

Maigo sat knelt down there as Lin cried into his shoulder, just holding his arms around her, using a free hand to lightly scratch at her back and just offer whatever comfort he could. When she first looked up at him, Maigo's eyes widened as he spoke up a bit hurriedly, "No, don't think like that... that sort of thing won't happen... I promise it won't" he would speak up and set back a little bit into his legs, offering a smile. Then Gora gave her concern to leave the jungle but truthfully, Maigo wasn't too worried about whatever they would fine, probably pure confidence in himself and his abilities. Maigo nodded along too and looked down to Lin who held on against him for a second, he felt comfortable being there for her and didn't want to press her to move on unless she was ready to.

She pressed her head to his chest, Maigo sighed a bit and rubbed her shoulder as he waited, her next question catching him slightly off guard, he didn't know how to actually answer it. The paradoxical situation of killing to prevent more death and protect others, it was almost a situation without an answer, tailored to each person. Some people, took it as their justification to act of their own accord and strike with their own vindication. Then there were those who used it as absolute, who like Maigo, felt that in order to protect those they cared for, no price was too steep. Maigo sighed a little bit as he mused for a second or so, "I really don't know if I'm being honest..." he paused for a second, "I think killing is wrong, but there are justified battles that take place to protect others and those we care for. But, those ideals and decisions aren't for me, I leave that to those in charge, I only know each battle I fight and hope that those who lead can see the bigger picture." Lin continued on though and it beat Maigo down in a sort of way.

She claimed to want to be the Raikage, to change things and stop meaningless war, but how could someone in charge of an army of elite assassins, warriors, and killers find a place to avoid fighting. There were few shinobi and kunoichi that got to avoid that tired truth, but he just nodded along, maybe having a goal like that would be worth chasing? Maigo felt so distant from it lately, since he'd ended up in the underworld the truth around his heritage dug far deeper and buried him more and more each day his mind had it running around and burning trails through his thoughts. Maigo waited for her to stand completely up and get on her feet before he would move, rolling his feet onto their toes and leaning back, shifting his weight and standing up in a single movement and stretching his legs a bit as he came to standing.

Lin healed the small scratch on her face and covered it again with her bangs, Maigo smiled back as she walked towards him, stepping up onto her toes and reaching for Maigo's ear. Maigo leaned down a bit, letting his shoulder dip as she spoke, her lips brushed against his ear and sent a shiver down his spine. His face turned a bit red as the nervousness set into his mind. Maigo quickly raised a hand to his neck, the red on his face had grown around his cheeks and he began to rant on, "Oh no, yeah, no, it's no problem at all!" he smiled and rubbed the back of his neck, not really sure how to respond at all. The awkward and foolish Maigo breaking through, with their mission done and all else. He relaxed a little bit after starting to make a fool of himself, following Gora and sticking close to Lin as they journeyed through the forest and back to the village.

Once in the village, Maigo gulped and reached into his pouch, much to curious eyes he set out and found the father first thing he could, approaching him in silence with weary eyes, they seemed distraught to find them back in the village with no one else in tow. Maigo gulped and began to explain everything in detail, what they found and what killed them, the three monstrous creatures that turned human and the people who were kidnapped, killed in that dark cave. Maigo held out a hand as anger berated him, questions and disbelief vocalized at him but just shy of blaming them, he dropped the bracelet into the fathers hand shakily to confirm their grimmest fears. The gruesome death of those from that village left shocking and painful images in Maigo's mind but he wouldn't speak of the details at all. In the shock Maigo spoke up, detailing how they could go and find them, his tone was set and commanding, he just wanted to pull it off like a band aid, advising them to wait until morning and go armed in case... others had shown up. More of the beasts, he didn't know what else to add, so he offered his condolences and nodded his head, turning to Lin and ushering her away from the scene.

Maigo figured she would still be reeling to some degree, she could visit later, as they had a lot to tend to and he just wanted to leave this place. Their attempt to go out and train turned... horrid nightmare. He thought they'd left that sort of thing in the underworld, being attacked by demons and all, and now having to fight those monsters as well, he was just tired now. The trio began to make their way back to the village, a blood red sun set their journey back, a disturbing omage to the events that took place, Maigo ignored it and instead chose to see the sign that the day was finally over and at the very least, they would be returning back to the village.

Maigo would carry her a lot of the way, placing an arm around her as needed and helping keep her balance, it slowed their pace but that was alright, he didn't mind the long walk with her. He only worried about the affect of what had transpired would have on Lin, the words she spoke and the emotional pain, he knew she'd be different. But in a different way, less obvious than when Maigo felt that sort of deep pain, his was obvious as he'd be shrouded in rage and his eyes would change. But Lin, he would just have to wait and see how it affected her, he had no problem with Lin growing and changing, but he felt a small need to make sure and help push her in a positive light no matter what. Still, his thoughts ran rampant as they walked back under the sunset, he knew that he would have a little time to recover but for now, he just wanted to get back and rest.


[1203 words, 10506 words total]
[225/300 Chakra]
[Exit Thread]

Training: