After I presented my findings, Yukino thought for a moment, her hand brought up to her chin as she thought about the best course of action. From what I could tell, she seemed to have a pretty analytical mind, not taking any action in a mission without considering likely results. It was a trait that I really respected in a shinobi. As much fun as rushing into something without a plan could be, it wasn't exactly conducive to a long life for a ninja. And from the way she spoke, she seemed pretty smart too, so I was ready to trust whatever she would conclusion she would come to.
After only a brief pause, she seemed to come up with a plan, producing an excited look in her eyes I hadn't seen before. She grabbed a nearby stick and started drawing a rough map of the area in the dirt. The plan she had come up with was essentially that it would be best to split up to cover more ground. Since I knew their location more precisely, I should go after the group I smelled ninety meters away, and since Yukino was much more familiar with the general terrain and landscape, she should scour the area near the river to look for probable hiding spots. It was honestly a really good plan. I hadn't really considered it before, but splitting up temporarily would really be the best option. We wanted to cover the most ground in the least amount of time possible, to minimize the risk of the kid getting farther away, and this was one of the most efficient ways to do it. And the assignments as to who should do what were clearly logical and well thought-out. Yukino suggested that we meet back at our current location in twenty minutes in case either one of us found anything.
I stared down at the map as she finished drawing it up, trying to remember as many details from it as I could. I didn't want to get lost, if only for the reason that I don't think Yukino would be too thrilled about having to track down two missing kids. As I tried to drill the details into my mind as quickly as I could, I heard Yukino speak to me.
"I won’t have any trouble finding my way back, but…"Her voice trailed off as she seemed to be mulling something over in her mind. Seemingly only an instant later though, she reached behind her head and undid the knot that was keeping her headband on her neck.
"Normally, I would never do this but..I don’t really know how much of a scent you need, so this is good insurance."She held out her headband in her hand, and it took me a moment to realize what was happening. I couldn't be sure, but once I realized what she was saying, I think I might've blushed for a moment just out of surprise and a slight feeling of flattery. It was really unusual for a ninja to let anyone borrow their headband, much less a ninja from another village. A ninja's headband was incredibly symbolic, a physical representation of their status and allegiance to both their village and their land. But because it would help the mission, she was willing to trust me with it, if only for a couple of minutes. She might not have meant it this way given how pragmatic she was, but to me, it was a huge honor.
"Thank you," I finally managed to say, still slightly dazed.
“I’m sure this will be good enough for you to be able to find me no matter what. Now, any questions?”I managed to recover, shaking my head no.
"Nope! Sounds like a solid plan!"With that, she turned and started on her route to the river area.
"We here in the leaf have a knack for being just a bit shorter than those on the coast. It helps us navigate the trees better," she said as she turned back towards me with a smirk.
Oh, it's on! I thought as I watched her disappear into the trees, with a smile on my face looking slightly more competitive than joyful.
I am so glad I decided to drop by Konoha. This has been pretty fun, and Yukino's an interesting person to be around.
Well, I should probably get going myself. I can't just let her show me up now, can I? Hopefully whoever those people are have been in the area in the past couple of days and could point me in the right direction.I took off, jumping through the trees towards where I last smelled the distant group. I didn't want to use the specific sensory jutsu again, just because I didn't know how long this mission would take, and I wanted to use my chakra economically. The sensory jutsu didn't last long, and it dulled my other senses anyway, not a good scenario when I'm separated from a partner who could actually keep an eye out for the kid. Luckily, even though I wasn't at all familiar with the terrain, I was able to take a relatively straight path, arriving at what turned out to be a small campsite pretty quickly.
Strange place to camp out, but at least the camp implies they're planning to stay for a while. Hopefully that means they've also been here for a while.Before I jumped down to greet them though, a peculiar detail caught my eye. There were three campers that I could see sitting outside of a single tent, currently just seemingly lounging around. I don't think they noticed me yet, but they didn't seem terribly attentive to their surroundings. Still, there was something about them that made me a little uneasy. This didn't seem like some genin expedition, or some group of civilians straying too close to a ninja village. This was something different. One of the strangers reached behind them to grab something out of a bag, and I saw a glimpse of a tattoo on their arm. A symbol I had seen before, but couldn't recall where from. A red swirl inside a dark blue box. As they reached in the bag, I noticed they had kunai, rope, and other ninja tools.
But none of them are wearing any headbands...A fourth member stepped out of the tent. She was a lot more intimidating than the rest, and based on the way the others tensed up when she revealed herself, I could only guess that she was the leader. She spoke, barking orders to her three subordinates.
"Kyo, watch the kid. I've got to meet our contact and I don't want you three screwing it up."The kid? Oh no...I suddenly remembered where I had seen that symbol before. It was on a piece of clothing from one of the thugs that was chasing down Noxxi.
Kidnappers. But why do they have the same symbol as the ones in Kiri? I've got to get Yukino, now.As silently as I could, I made my way away from the campsite, stopping a reasonable distance away so that they wouldn't be able to hear what I was about to do. Making my hand signs, I once again summoned Arusuno. He seemed to be slightly confused by me summoning him after he'd already been summoned here, but I explained the basics of the situation as quickly and quietly as I could.
"I think the kid's in the tent, but I need you to make sure. I'm going to get Yukino and come back as quickly as I can, but when we get back, I'll need you to warn us if you smell anyone else approaching. Can you do that?"Arusuno nodded, looking more serious than I'd ever seen him look before. Without any further delay, I ran and jumped through the trees to Yukino.
Ox.Using her headband as a reference smell, it didn't take me long to track her down with my sensory jutsu. I leapt down from the trees next to her, holding out her headband for her to take back as I explained what I had seen.
"Yukino, we've got trouble. The kid's been kidnapped. The campsite I smelled is where they're holding him. I spotted four, armed, and presumably trained with at least basic knowledge of kunai from the fact that they had quite a few. I'm guessing they've got the kid in a tent they set up, but I wasn't able to confirm. Arusuno's there now to try and get more information, but one of the people there left to go meet with a contact, so we've got to get the kid quickly if we don't want a big fight."Assuming she agreed, I would lead her back to the campsite. Along the way, I would tell her about my Binding Leg Seal and Armadillo Burrowing Jutsu so that I could give her more options for strategies. The Binding Leg Seal would be more useful in combat if she thought we could take them out in a surprise attack, while the Armadillo Burrowing Jutsu would be useful if we wanted to try a sneakier approach. Those weren't the only two options, of course, but I wanted to make sure Yukino had a broad information set. I would just have to wait for now until she could get a better analysis of the situation herself. Obviously, she would know her own capabilities better than me, and I wanted to repay the trust she had given me when she handed over her headband by telling her about some of my own techniques. Once we got just outside the site, Arusuno would silently confirm that the kid was in fact inside the tent.
- Chakra 170/250:
Just realized I accidentally overspent chakra earlier, oh well.
Jutsu Used:- Summoning Technique:
Name: Kuchiyose no Jutsu {口寄せの術 ~ Summoning Technique}
Canon/Custom: Canon
Rank: C
Type: Supplementary
Element: n/a
Range: Touch
Specialty: Ninjutsu/Fuuinjutsu
Duration: Instant.
Cooldown: None.
Description: The user draws some of their own blood upon one of their hands. After which they perform the seals Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram before placing their hand onto the ground. A formula appears underneath the hand from which one or more summons belonging to the users contract may appear.
- Armadillo Sensory Jutsu:
Name: Armadillo Sensory Jutsu
Origin: Custom
Rank: C
Type: Supplementary
Element: None
Range: 100m radius (Sensory)
Specialty: Ninjutsu
Duration: 1 post
Cooldown: N/A
Hand Seals: Ox
Description: The user enhances their sense of smell greatly, gaining the ability to determine the general (<5m) location of any (including multiple) targets that give off some sort of detectable scent within 100m of the user’s location. Mirroring the fact that armadillos have poor senses such as their eyesight while having a great sense of smell, the user's perception is reduced by two tiers for the post this jutsu is used.
- Arusuno Chakra 90/100:
5 chakra paid towards maintenance.
- Arusuno:
Name: Arusuno
Canon/Custom: Custom
Rank: E
Species: Giant Armadillo (Traditional Summon)
Appearance: Quite young for a member of his species, Arusuno is a 0.5 meter long (not including the 0.25 meter long tail) creature resembling the species Giant Armadillo. He has natural dark brown-colored scaled armor all over his body, the strongest being on his back. The rest of his body is covered with slightly weaker pinkish-brown scales. He walks and runs on four legs, though he can stand on two. His front two legs have three claws, the middle one being definitely the largest. To clarify, though the species is “Giant” Armadillo, this is a traditional summon.
Personality: Arusuno is incredibly adventurous, spending much more time outside The Burrow than anyone else of his age, and even most of his species. He wants to see the world, and readily agreed to be Nobuya’s first summon whilst the boy was still training to be worthy of a contract. He is fascinated by the different things the world has to offer, and loves being summoned for any reason besides battle, of which he is quite reluctant to enter. Because of this, he mainly likes being summoned for such things as scouting and relaying messages. Arusuno is very excitable, and pretty naïve, but passionate, about the world around him. That being said, being so full of energy while he is awake means that whenever he isn’t actively doing something, he can usually be found sleeping.
Stats:
Strength: E-0
Speed: E-0
Dexterity: E-0
Perception: E-0
Endurance: E-0
Element: Doton
Specialization: None
Weapon Style: None
Jutsu: 0/6
- Jutsu Referenced:
- Binding Leg Seal:
Name: Earth Style: Binding Leg Seal
Origin: Custom
Rank: C (15+5 chakra)
Type: Offensive
Element: Doton
Range: 10m
Specialty: Ninjutsu/Fuinjutsu
Duration: 2 posts
Cooldown: N/A
Hand Seals: Tiger-Dragon-Snake-(Fingers interlocked, palms facing forward on ground)
Description: Earthen tendrils travel at ground level from the user’s palms at a rate of 40 m/s. These tendrils are homing, dependent on a direct line of sight with the target. The tendrils then quickly wrap around the target’s legs, rooting themselves to the ground, immobilizing the target’s legs. If successful, the user can then create a seal with a set amount of chakra that will sustain the jutsu by feeding it user-provided chakra while keeping the user’s hands free. This jutsu’s weakness lies in its limited range, and in the increased chakra cost needed to "power" the seal, making this jutsu cost 20 chakra total. As the chakra for the seal is flowing through the tendrils, the full cost of the jutsu must be paid regardless of whether or not the seal is created.
- Armadillo Burrowing Jutsu:
Name: Earth Style: Armadillo Burrowing Jutsu
Origin: Custom
Rank: D (10 chakra)
Type: Supplementary
Element: Doton
Range: 9m radius
Specialty: Ninjutsu
Duration: 1 post
Cooldown: N/A
Hand Seals: Boar
Description: A variant of Earth Release: Hiding Like A Mole Technique, this jutsu involves molding the earth underneath ones feet with chakra, weakening the ground in the direction of travel and re-strengthening it behind the user. The user sinks at up to 20m/s into the ground beneath them (at a maximum depth of 9m), hiding them underground for the duration of the jutsu. At the end of the jutsu, the user can re-emerge anywhere (again at up to 20m/s) within 9m of the jutsu’s starting point, though the user cannot make any attacks while re-emerging.
Alternatively, the user can choose to stay underground by creating a “burrow,” by using chakra to compact the earth around the user, creating a sphere of empty space up to 3m in radius centered around the user (with no points outside the total radius of the jutsu). Either way, the jutsu ends at the end of the post. The burrow, however, is just an empty space in the ground, and remains unless collapsed by exterior circumstance. Airflow is stuffy, but existent due to extremely small (.25 cm radius) tunnels left behind as the user burrowed. These tunnels are fairly easily noticeable to anyone, but not very noteworthy unless the person perceiving the tunnels is familiar with this type of technique. Though the user may move in a straight line to get to the burrow, the air tunnels often arbitrarily wind in a raidus of 2cm (spiraling in the direction of the user’s natural chakra flow) as chakra is infused in the surrounding ground.
While this can be used as a way of dodging a slower moving/long-range jutsu, it was developed as a way to either escape into or out of a fortified encampment (such as this jutsu’s namesake, a burrow), or to lie in wait for an ambush.
WC: 1680
Total WC: 4430