The Problem In The Sewers (IO)

mission specs:

Draconis was off. Finally he had been assigned his first mission as a chuunin, and fittingly enough he was to take some others along on the first mission presumably long enough for him to get any stronger. The mission sounded like it might turn out a little eerie. Since there were some strange sounds coming from the sewers, they of course sent ninjas down there to examine the area, those ninjas being Draconis and the genin they had assigned to go with him.

He waited at the entrance to the sewers – a rusted door set in an old stone building a couple of stories tall, that swung back and forth in the gentle wind, its creaking audible to all but the most definitely deaf. A quick peek inside showed that the passageway to the sewers below the ground sewers inside was lit but not well, while it was daytime outside, it was hard to tell from the inside unless you had a direct view of the sky through the gates or the occasional barred window that let out the noxious smell, or the worrying sounds.

185

The former scholar wore a black shirt and pants, his weapon pouches on his belt containing the weapons he had bought earlier that day. Masato wore his 'headband' around his shoulder, clearly defining him as a konoha shinobi. The headband was also fairly new.

As he arrived at the sewer he raised his hand in a sort of wave to greet the chunin who was leading the mission. Somehow Masato's father had gotten him a B rank mission with a chunin almost right out of the academy. Why he had done so when Masato had hardly even graduated he didn't know, but hopefully the chunin would be able to take care of any dangerous creatures that might be lurking about.

As he looked through the door Masato had no problems with the visibility, being an Akari Masato could see just fine in any level of light. At least he had a trait that would be useful for the mission, should the sewers end up being even darker as they travel inward.

"Is there anyone else coming?" Masato didn't care much for formality or introductions, he honestly just wanted to get the mission finished and return home.

The chunin would be able to notice that Masato's chakra was not high enough to be passively sensed, but if he attempted to actively sense Masato's chakra he would sense nothing at all, as though Masato had no chakra. Masato was not aware of all of the effects of his fathers strange experiments on him, including the one that had caused his chakra to not give off a signature that could be detected by normal chakra sensory.

TWC: 273

Wow, seems like the one genin working with Draconis might be hard to see in the dark, looking at his manner of dress, hair, and eyes. He watched as the young (well, older than him actually) genin took a look inside the entrance to the sewers as well. “I’m Draconis, you must the ninja going into the sewers with me? What’s your name…?”
 
He would wait for the other to speak and finish, before continuing on a bit. “How are you at seeing in the dark? I’m afraid it is not really my specialty but I should be able to manage for a while. I think it will be just the two of us today, it seems a lot of genin were assigned to go pet recovering or weed trimming. I might have gone on this by myself but someone influential must have pulled some strings, so you must be quite skilled in a certain area or show a lot of potential.” As he spoke his head turned side ways while watching the other person, as if getting a different view would help him see the other person better.
 
If the other person spoke, he would wait, and let him finish, listening carefully. Whether the other boy or young man spoke or not, Draconis would state “Shall we start?” and if the other seemed ready Draconis would walk into the sewers, holding the door open for the other.
 

Inside, it seemed the hallways were straight for a while, heading steadily down-wards while the light grew worse. While the lamps were not out, they were not in great condition either, and many flickered, some obscured by cobwebs, and others covered by some dirt. After about 50 meters, the tunnel seemed to finally reach the height of the sewers, and then the passage suddenly opened up to what was essentially an underground river of sorts, if the sludge could be called water, and the concrete on either side the banks. The ceiling was a little tall, about 15 feet or so, the structure extending out to the left and right of the entrance passageway before curving on both sides. “Got a preference for which way to go?” Draconis inquired.

+367

"I'm Masato, and yes I'm the one." Seeing as Draconis initiated introductions Masato decided he might as well respond. After he responded Drac went on to ask if Masato could see well in the dark to which the Akari responded with a nod. It was odd to find that it was only the two of them, probably had something to do with his father as well.

"My father just wants me to prove myself quickly, I'm sorry to say but most of those kids just out of the academy are better at chakra control than I am." As he finished Draconis would ask if they shoudl start to which Masato would nod once again. The two would make their way to the sewers, Den hoping that whatever was within was just some mundane creature and not some monster that could kill him in a moment.

When they arrived they found the passages went left and right. At first Masato was worried that Draconis would suggest they split up, but he just asked if he had a preference which way to go, hopefully he meant for both of them as Masato didn't trust his skills by himself.

"Right I suppose." Masato would then begin to walk down that passageway, looking around to make sure some creature didn't jump up and murder him as he went down it.

TWC: 499

Draconis walked with Masoto as the two began to head down the passage way. Several empty rooms were passed by, each given a cursory glance from Draconis, but there was nothing of note in there, aside from some stains that appeared to be blood stains. Draconis noted them and continued walking, keeping pace with Masato so that they did not get separated.

At one point a large rat jumped up from the wall and attacked Draconis, claws first, but its movements were slow and it found it-self knocked out soon afterward, a lump from a fist emerging on its head. A feral dog that crouched in the hallway on the floor, and was woken up when Draconis got within a few feet of it went the same way, but otherwise nothing else was bothering him.

The lighting slowly dimmed, the lights in a short section actually being out. A small outline reminiscent to an open doorway was partially visible in the darkness on the right to Draconis. “Are you able to see that clearly? Anything behind there?” Draconis pointed at what looked like an open doorway that could well be a dead end. Up ahead another door way was present, the strange wailing sounds that had frightened some of the villagers were starting again, but due to the echoing walls it was hardly clear where they came from. If Masato did not find anything in the dark area Draconis had pointed out, he would quietly sneak up to the next door way.

(367+252=619)

Masato was thankful that the two were traveling together, while he had no fear of the sewer itself this was a B rank mission, and Masato was not prepared for one in the slightest. He had no way of sensing chakra or really being able to gauge someones skill, but when Draconis punched a rat as it was such a blur Masato could hardly even perceive, and this was in spite of his modified cells increasing his speed, or his Akari eyes perceiving things better than most others. Masato wasn't really aware of these abilities of his, so this made him judge Draconis's speed as a bit slower than it actually was. He still thought Draconis was fast as he was able to move so quickly that he was a blur, but he didn't realize that if it wasn't for his skin suit or his bloodline he wouldn't have even been able to perceive the strike at all. They came across a stray dog as well.

As they continued onward the lightning would dim, but Maato wasn't entirely aware of it. He could still see just fine, however he did hope that they didn't end up traveling into an extremely dark area, he didn't want to have to be the chunins eyes, the less he had to be relied upon the better the mission would go.

As he was worrying about this Draconis spoke to him, asking if he saw anything in a doorway off to the side. As Masato looked he thought he saw something move out of the corner of his eye as he turned to the door, a tail? Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him. He approached, taking slow cautious steps, it seemed like the doorway was to an hallway that ran adjacent to the one they were walking through. When he reached the doorway the wailing began, echoing off the wall, seeming to come from everywhere. Masato jumped back form the door, nearly tripping as he did so, stopping himself barely from yelling out profanity in surprise. He caught himself with his left hand, grabbing some pipe on the wall to balance himself.

The wailing continued as Masato composed himself, looking towards Draconis to see how he wanted to proceed, "It' looks like its another tunnel running next to this one." Mas tried not to yell to Draconis, but speak over the loud wailing to let the chunin know what was beyond the doorway.

TWC: 809

Draconis kept an eye on the rest of the visible tunnel while Masato checked out the possible alternate path. He shifted his focus when he saw Masato jump when he was near to what was apparently a doorway to another hallway, coincidence or not the wailing had begun just as he had been about to approach the doorway itself. Suspicious if you asked him.

Walking up to the doorway, he peered out to the sides, both left and right. Yep, a hallway. To one side though, his right, the side that would ostensibly lead to the surface again, through a different path, the wailing seemed to be louder, and around the bend where a dim light flickered, he saw something rounding the corner to the right of the doorway, and moving away from them. “Hey, I saw something, to the right over here. I think it’s getting away. Let’s hurry.” His words were audible, clearly but without a lot of margin. The wailing began to diminish in volume, as the whatever it was, moved away from them. Looks like they had already found the source of the wailing.

Draconis, gesturing at Masato to follow, began to chase after the figure, his footsteps echoing and adding slightly to the general cacophony. Rounding the corner, he could also hear panting, faintly, not that of a human, so much as that of a dog, but it suddenly ended with a sickly crunch. Sounded like they had something more feral here. Being quite a lot faster than Masato he would arrive first, and advance cautiously. The wailing seemed to be joined by more wailing, the other wailing on slightly different pitches from the first and from each other as well. Wet sounding crunches were intermingled with pauses in the wailing, as if the source or sources of the wailing were eating something….

Past the flickering, dim light, the hallways were more evenly lit., and then they suddenly looked as if they were supposed to end. The brick stopped, and then there was a small cave from which the wailing emanated. The cave appeared to have been made more recently than the sewers, as some of the scratch marks on the walls seemed fresh. The interior of the cave itself was dark, the ground churned up with fresh dirt, as if the path was used frequently. Inside, he could see dark shapes moving in the background. If Masato had arrived, Draconis would walk to him, if necessary, if he had not, Draconis would start jogging back to meet him, and explain what he had found to Masato in low tones, watching the entrance with his Byakugan – even if he could not really see into the cave he could at least watch the entrance.

“I can’t see in that cave, can you? I’m thinking we should go up to the cave entrance, and look around. If you see the sources of the wailing to be unsavory, then we eliminate them to avoid any potential trouble. You will have to tell me what direction they are in though, I think they are creatures of a kind but I cannot tell in the dark very well.”


(619+528=1147)

Draconis walked up to the doorway after Masato nearly fell over, checking the hallway for himself as the Akari composed himself. As he was just recovering from the sound Draconis said he thought he saw something, and said they should hurry. Hoping they weren't about to run straight into whatever was making this crazy sound, Masato followed Drac at an amazing speed of 8, not 80 just 8, his skin suit enhancing his speed without him actually knowing. Even with this boost Draconis left Masato in the dust as he hurried ahead, and Masato hoped there wasn't more of these things and he wouldn't somehow get ambushed now that he was separated from Draconis. That would be his luck though, killed because his father had him go on some dangerous mission when he hardly had a clue of how to use ninja techniques.

Masato managed to catch up to Draconis without incident luckily, the chunin walking back to him as he arrived, asking him to look at the cave, the hole in the brick in which the wailing continued. Slowly walking towards it, Masato's eyes rested upon the strange beast, no beasts. Not far from the mouth of the cave a number of reptilian eyes looked out back towards the newly made shinobi, large scaly creatures with four legs and a long tail.

“What the..” Masato’s voice trailed off as he began to step backwards now instead of forwards, his right hand reaching towards his weapon pouch on his belt, his first thought to grab a kunai with an explosive tag on it. But they were underground, that could perhaps end badly especially seeing as this area was rather poorly maintained. Instead Masato grabbed a kunai without an explosive tag on it as the beasts began to walk out from their cave, out into the hallway where perhaps Draconis could more easily see them. One stayed near the mouth of the cave, continuing to wail, revealing razor sharp teeth as its mouth remained open.

Though he was actually extremely scared, Masato’s mind couldn’t help but think of the comment Draconis made about if the beasts were unsavory, “These guys unsavory enough for you?” A nervous chuckle accompanied the end of the sentence as Masato pulled the kunai out from his pouch. He really didn’t want to try and fight whatever beasts these were but he knew if his father found out he had avoided combat he’d probably be angry. He didn’t care whether or not Masato was an actual coward, but he didn’t want the people of Konoha to think of Masato that way, he had to get as highly ranked within the village as he possibly could and they didn’t let cowards become chunin, jounin, or anbu.

If Draconis seemed ready to fight Masato would grip his kunai in preparation not throw it as the beasts began to get even closer, beginning to growl at the two konoha shinobi. Masato would steel himself and aim his weapon as best he could, the kunai leaving his hand and traveling towards the beast at the front of the pack as it opened its mouth to wail, the blade passing into its mouth and stabbing into the beast’s brain. Masato attributed the hit to luck, but he was good at aiming weapons, even now when he was terrified. The other beasts would begin to wail as the one in front dropped, Masato quickly reaching into his pouch to grab another kunai as hopefully Draconis was moving in to engage the beasts as well.

TWC: 1400

Draconis had not realized how much faster he was than his subordinate until he doubled back, and had to walk a ways and on and on back, though the genin was likely new to all this or at least more the type that was into books. Yes, the metagaming retard was taking a potentially quite valid guess that his partner for the mission was not the physical type, since what else could he be? Lazy ninjas did not tend to be given assignments, though admittedly it was unusual for a genin to be put in for a B rank mission. Perhaps it was arranged and the result of someone else, a parent perhaps, trying to push a kiddo into a mission so they would do something with their life and their training. Or he could have some very useful abilities and the administration was being smart this time about who they had paired him with. Only time would tell, and that time was increasingly likely to be… now.

Masato heard Draconis as he went up to the entrance, perhaps closer than Draconis would have suggested. “What the…” sure sounded or at least implied heavily that he had seen something for sure in the cave. So did his sudden, quiet, but cautious reversal of movement, his body backing away slowly from the entrance, a bit of a contrast to Draconis’ own self assured demeanor, which while confident was not un-cautious or smug. His hand reaching towards a weapon pouch was observed by Draconis. He grabbed a kunai, one without any special adornments that Draconis could observe from his position. Exploding tags were not on there, and Draconis was pretty sure he knew why, though perhaps a silent kunai would also be more effective in the cover of darkness.

Masato was quite obviously nervous, his quiet chuckle giving that away by itself from its tone. Draconis had been the same way on his first mission involving combat but he had just been better at hiding it.

Obviously however, the beasts had noticed the dynamic duo, as they began to work their way out of the tunnel. Uh oh. It seemed there was more than one as evidenced by the numerous sources of wailing emerging from the cave. Hopefully things did not get too rough. Draconis was not sure how tough this Masato was, but if his speed was any indication, Draconis would have to make sure Masato was covered, and did not take too many hits, since he would have trouble dodging them for sure if the lizards were any threat to Draconis. As the lizard thingies, a pale white due to a lack of exposure to the Sun’s Ultra Violet rays, emerged from the starkly dark cave entrance, Draconis activated his Byakugan, and weaved hand signs, forming a single shadow shadow clone on the other side of him from Masato.


The shadow clone drew kunai from his pouches, as the lizard thingies approached, and Masato took the first pot shot, holding kunai between each of the first three of his fingers. The handles rested between his fingers, while the round ends were planted firmly in each of his palms, unable to slip backward, while his fingers kept the kunai from slipping side to side using the first segment. The third segments and the backs of his hands kept the kunai from slipping or twisting forward or backward. Thus equipped, the shadow clone charged towards the nearest lizard, a pale fish belly white, a truly horrendous shade.

Meanwhile the genuine article was a bit more relaxed about the whole endeavor, though he watched to make sure the hallways did not have more intruders, and that the lizards did not make too close.

The shadow clone got the hard job and did not have the luxury of talking much except to shout an occasional curse or to insult a lizard about its eye color, utterly unattractive looks, and the like. The first lizard went down easily but after that the lizards began to wizen up, grouping together and snarling in unison at him, save for one particularly massive one that ran past him towards the genuine article and Masato boy before he could recover from his surprise. He above all else should try and keep the lizards from rushing the others, especially Masato, since he was a lot newer to all this and while it would not be a fun mission in any case for the most part, he might not have anything to remember if Draconis was not careful. He was careful to keep the eyes of the lizards on him, save the one that had busted by him at first.

“Nice throw, Masato.” His face was serious due to the situation at hand but his tone was tinged with a noticeable but not extreme tone of friendliness. “In case you want to learn a technique during your trial by fire, if you concentrate and put your chakra into your muscles with the help of the Ram hand sign, you can enhance your movement to a degree, increasing your speed. It is nominally a technique that only Chunin and up get, but genin can learn it too if they want.” As he finished speaking he would be making another hand seal, using the Body Flicker to move faster to the side, avoiding the charging Lizard that had escaped his shadow clone, stopping a meter away on the other side, his fists coming out to grab the lizard and start choking it as it started to pass him. Hopefully Masato had gotten a glimpse of the technique. Masato was far enough away he should be fine but Draconis had gotten distracted talking to his team mate, and then with the lizard, so he had lost track of their relative positions in that last moment. “Sorry, got a little distracted there. I can teach you some stuff later to make that up.”

(1147+988=2135)

The rest of the lizards were mostly within easy reach for Draconis, so he was happily pummeling them through the efforts of his shadow clone. His original body though also got encouraged by the sight and got heavily involved too. Practicing some techniques, he tried flowing chakra all over his body again, while trying to force open his tenketsu. The result was rather pleasing. While his speed was increased, and his senses as well, he was also able to feel his power level increasing rather significantly. Trying out the basic Gale Palm technique, he noticed that the power seemed to be much, much higher than before. Cool. It managed to blow a hole in a lizard on the first try. He even got a good look inside the lizard when it was blown open, he did not even have to use his Byakugan, that’s how big a hole there was in it. In fact, the entire side of the lizard had been blown off by the flying debris, which was actually a little scary actually in retrospect.

Sweet, so this technique was actually working quite well. Using his enhanced speed, Draconis was able to start slashing around the lizards, sometimes hurling their bodies into the walls, or using their bodies as clubs, grabbing them by the tails, and launching them at other lizards, resulting in resounding SMACK sounds splattering the walls. A significant silence ensued, giving Draconis time to look around him at all the bodies, his clone running around with a Kunai finishing a bunch of them off, the ones that still gurgled their breaths away falling quiet one by one. Fortunately this did not take long.

When the last one had been brought to its inner peace, whatever that may have been, Draconis looked around him, making sure nothing was about to blow up. It looked like there were a number of lizard corpses around Masato’s last known location, the other young man being obscured. Hopefully he was fine. Draconis felt a twinge of guilt – he had forgotten that the other fellow was still a genin and possibly a new one at that, and these lizards could well have posed some trouble for him. Draconis in his guilt forgot to use his Byakugan to look, or was it because he did not think he could deal with seeing the body from a distance? Well, no matter. He started towards the pile of lizard bodies but a rumble shook the tunnel. He turned slowly, using his Byakugan for sure this time. Oh. Crap.

A massive head about ten feet tall poked its head through the hole leading to the other cavern. It seemed that there was a massive lizard that had managed to go un-noticed for a very long time. Draconis quickly glanced back towards the bodies but he could not tell yet whether Masato was ok or not. Ok, he might have to take this one by himself. Quickly running up to one of the bodies, the one which Masato had killed with kunai, he gently tossed the weapon so that it landed hilt first on the concrete near where Masato had last been seen. If Masato was still there and knocked out, hopefully the audible but not very loud ringing sound woke him, otherwise, Draconis was gonna have a lot of work to do. Hopefully Masato was fine over there.

Draconis chuckled, delighted to have more of a challenge. “Looks like the Janitors have been slacking a bit in their duties for this thing to go un-noticed for so long.” It was odd though that the beast had no chakra signature though. Perhaps that had something to do with it. That and those bloody rags in the corners that could only be the remains of Janitors perhaps. Though why there would not have been a bigger fuss about the whole matter, especially the missing janitors, the reasoning eluded Draconis. Oh, wait, that’s right, most of the janitors were convicted criminals, so that’s why nobody seemed to notice or care when they disappeared. Another lizard, the same size as the first group, walked out past the group though, ignoring Draconis as it seemed to think the big lizard had this. Instead, the lizard walked over and seemed to be sniffing around for Masato. Draconis unfortunately had no time to worry about him at the moment.

The lizard head advanced out of the cave until it was suddenly punched in the snout by Draconis’ shadow clone. Unfazed, the snout advanced, until it was stabbed repeatedly with kunai, at which point an ear blasting shriek was released. Woah. The force was so tremendous that the clone and main body were both pushed back a little and some of the lizard bodies went flying a few yards down the tunnel. It was a good thing his tenktesu had been forced open, it allowed Draconis to speed up his movements and avoid the debris that otherwise might have skewered his body. That would not be fun at all. He began weaving hand seals, while running closer to the lizard head. When the lizard drew breath again, sucking in a lot of air, Draconis used the Great Dragon Fire jutsu, firing a dragon shaped ball of fire into the lizard’s mouth, the flames being swallowed in a single big gulp. At first the lizard looked discomfited but then it exploded from the inside, due to the fire reacting to some gas inside the lizard. The explosion was not large but Draconis was covered in muck. Yuck. He deactivated his new attempt at a technique.

He had an idea for a variation on this technique, and began working on learning it, this being a skill that many shinobi liked to learn, those of the melee variant anyway. Using some of his chakra, he tried to do a controlled short version of the body flicker, allowing him to move at full speed instantly. It worked ok, but he was not used to the sudden acceleration. He nearly walked into a wall as a result. Trying it again, he managed to get it under better control this time. This would take some more practice but he would get there soon!

He began looking for Masato now that he was done. If Masato was ok, Draconis would help him as needed and then scamper off. If Masato was not ok, Draconis would help him as much as possible, towards the hospital or whatever.

(exit)
(2135+1076=3211
Claiming:
+8 stats
3000 ryo
7 ap (from mission)
1072 towards the http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t28072-gentle-fist-abhorrent-amalgamation-aberration (this completes the training for it)
remainder (2179) towards the Hoho skill