A village hidden in a crisis

Relaxing his stance at his leader's acknowledgement, he would step back and pay attention as the sounds of screams steadily grew closer. It was at least clear to Teiho that the beasts were causing an extreme amount of mayhem in the village proper, and while he was eager to hear any words of wisdom from his leader, his own personal history and temperament dictated that nine times out of ten, if this meeting took too long he was going to just jump back into the fray to save as many people as he could. Luckily for him, the bridge the group stood on gave them a somewhat tactical advantage as it overlooked a good portion of the western side of the village. The eastern side rose with the rest of the landscape and as such only the rooftops were visible. Smoke rose from the edge of the village as well, but seemingly it wasn’t nearly as bad as the west where at least half of the district Teiho had left behind was now engulfed in a firestorm. Grimacing, he would turn back to his leader to hear an explanation, however his irritation with this debriefing, and how long it was taking was very clear on his face.

With the explanation over, and the floor open to the various people there, it was clear that the ANBU surrounding his Kage weren’t going to say anything as their qualities should have already been a known quantity to the man. So of course he was asking them. The older of the three that had arrived spoke up first, mentioning skill in fuinjutsu that should allow him to put the beasts back into their containment. So far that was the most plausible solution to the problem, however that didn’t deal with the ones already in the village, nor did it save those currently being assaulted and consumed by the beasts. The other person seemingly offered much, much less to the scenario, something that Teiho could understand as he himself couldn’t do much except lead the villagers away from the bloodthirsty beings. He would await his turn before answering, snapping out a quick answer as opposed to the much longer, and much more winded answers given by the others.

“Genin Teiho Kibana as stated, Sir! My skills lie in close combat and reconnaissance”. He would finish his statement, and return to silence, having spoken his part and delivered the necessary information. He would reactivate his byakugan, if only to see if any of the creatures had made it this far, and could see one or two in a few homes to the west, obviously the ones that had traveled the furthest since they had begun their assault on the village. He could see a family within the abode as well, and even with every fiber of his being screaming at him to help, he knew that he would be of no assistance as he was now, and merely awaited instructions like the others.

WC: 500

As his mind began to wander, it seems his bodyguard had a few things he'd like to say as well. Turning his head towards, he began to listen to his concerns as they came out. Claiming he knew why he was here, Keita was unsure of the roles the other two might play and to be quite honest, the Mizukage was also quite unsure himself. He could at best use them for reconnaissance for the Anbu partner they were all about to be paired up with. Either way, that was all up to the discretion of the Anbu and that's that. They would all be going onto the ferry together but once they reach the secluded island, they would split up in groups of two. Continuing his statement he said it would be best for them to know their roles and their abilities. He agreed that they should know their roles but he disagreed that they should know each other's abilities although he had already gone and stated what his specialties were. Well, if he felt comfortable doing so, that was his prerogative. The next shinobi that had spoken up was a newcomer Kizmaru hadn't met before. Although he was taking part, he wasn't very confident in his own abilities and that already made the Mizukage think he was soft. 

Even if he wasn't the most adept or well equipped shinobi, he should have at least been confident in outsmarting his opponent long enough for an opportunity to come forth. Well, today's the day he'd learn quickly or he'd end up as Wendigo food. The last guy seems to favor close combat and reconnaissance. He could praise him for being skilled at recon but he wasn't sure if going toe to toe with flesh eating creatures was the best option in this scenario. As soon as he made the thought, the boy had revealed his Byakugan eyes that he didn't seem to have noticed before. Well, that explains his affinity for Taijutsu at least. Maybe he'll be alright in close combat. For now, he'd let everybody say their piece and when they were done speaking, he'd address each one of their concerns, if they had voiced any. "Well, I'll get to your designated roles in a minute but first I guess I'll address your questions. Although I think it's important for you guys to have some idea of what abilities others may possess, I don't entirely agree with you sharing everything you may possess in your arsenal. You may do as you wish as many of you have done already but of course, I'll withhold that information for peace of mind. Now then, onto the plan. As I've stated before, the threat lies on that separate island over yonder. You can spot it from here but unless you're like our Byakugan wielding friend over here, you might not get an in-depth view of everything that is going on."


"They are by no means intelligent, at least not anymore when they've been too far gone. it may be possible to speak to them in their early stages. You are better off being a diversion for your assigned Anbu to be able to incapacitate them. Now onto the plan and the roles. There are four of us and four Anbu that have lived on that island for most of their lives. Each of us will be paired with one in order to aid you on any you may face. You have two very basic but very difficult tasks. Recon and Subjugation. I mentioned before that the beasts are very hard to kill and even if they weren't, I don't want them slain for that would only create more of them. Knock them out, sever their nerves, paralyze them, whatever it takes to get them to stop moving briefly long enough to get them back into the cave. Remember, search and subdue but that's it, your Anbu partner can handle the rest." Kizmaru had said in a clear and concise tone. He then turned his attention to his personal bodyguard, Keita. "Keita, I imagine you know what your role is going to be in all this? If you don't, I'll remind you anyway.


"Your primary job is to seal away the evil creatures when we've rounded them up back into the cave they escaped from once subdued. You may engage them if you see fit or if absolutely necessary but I would prefer if you stayed back and let the small militia of Anbu that are already stationed on that island do their job. Well, that's it. Any questions, no? Let's be off then." And with that, the Mizukage stepped onto the boat. He didn't want to waste anymore time talking as he needed to get to them on the smaller island. "Oh and one more thing," Kizmaru added. "We'll be splitting up, if I didn't mention it before in groups of two, you and your Anbu once we make it in order to cover more ground." The Anbu group had followed Kizmaru onto the boat and as soon as the other shinobi had stepped on, they began to sail towards their destination. Upon arrival, the Mizukage had bowed his head towards the remaining six and headed off on his own with one of his Anbu. Searching his specific part of the island, he began to search until he spotted an escaped wendigo eating the corpse of one of his anbu. 

Poor fool was probably too slow in leading the damned thing around until reinforcements had arrived. Well, that's no longer his or their problem anymore. As the wendigo was finishing its 'manwich', Kizmaru turned towards his Anbu and gave a slight nod followed by a signal made by his index and middle finger. Shortly after, the Anbu disappeared into some nearby trees. Kizmaru then stepped forward, loudly clearing his throat to draw the attention.The wendigo with a mouth full of flesh looked up from its meal toward the Mizukage. Without hesitation, the creature began to lunge forward towards him preparing what seemed like hand signs. He was impressed they still retain enough of their past selves in order to even cast such techniques. However, he wasn't in the mood. He was already irritated that he had to come out here and quell the uprising himself as the Mizukage. Quickly making the seals of Tiger, Rat and Boar, Kizmaru formed a whip of flames swinging it towards the creature, wrapping it around its body constricting it with fire. As if on que, the anbu that had concealed himself had dropped down from their nearby hiding spot, anbu katana in hand, landed behind the creature before swinging their blade three times. 

The first one lopped off the creature's feet, the second one, its left arm and the third one it's right arm. After it had its limbs severed, Kizmaru released the  snarling creature from his grasp and proceeded to throat chop it, knocking it unconscious. He then summoned two more Anbu to take this one back to the cave so Keita could prepare to seal them away. He also instructed the Anbu to continue to search the area to see if he could locate any more that may or may not have escaped. The mizukage waited in the same spot with the unconscious one. Taking notice of the wendigo's body, he can immediately see it starting to slowly regenerate its lost limbs. Kizmaru almost pondered on taking a DNA sample to see if he could incorporate that kind of regenerative ability onto himself but decided the risk was too great, what a shame. The anbu he had sent away had returned but there were no more of the creatures in their portion of the island. That means, Kizmaru's job was done. He instructed the anbu to carry the wendigo back to the cave in order for it to be sealed. The mizukage on the other hand, decided he would head back to the ferry in order to await the others so he could get a report. After all was said and done and everybody had gotten upon the boat, they would sail back to the mainland.

[Exit.]

W.C: 1,363
T.W.C: 4,035 (x2 Event) = 8,070

Loot Claims
Claiming 6,500(x2 Event) for capture and 15 AP

Ability Claims
Using 8,000 words for 160 AP
Using 2,000 words to activate Terumi DNA
Using 2,000 words to activate Uchiha DNA
Using 2,000 words to learn Wood Release
Using 2,000 words to learn Swamp of the Underworld

He would listen in closely to his leader's speech and plan of action. The small group would essentially be tasked with dealing with the situation at hand, seemingly without the help of the rest of the village for some reason. His leaders' priorities and objectives confused him, but he understood that the situation needed to be dealt with quickly considering the beasts couldn’t reasonably be killed without them looking for a new spirit to inhabit or consume. This left Teiho with very little options to assist outside of aiding in the escape and defense of the village while the rest of them corralled the beasts into an area so they could be sealed away. Realizing this, he would turn to the ANBU he was tasked with and frowned, awaiting further instruction from the woman.

His elder would huff, the young woman staring up at the much taller genin. She would look out in the village before tapping the side of her mask, something Teiho assumed would allow her to communicate with the others of her station. Getting a few garbled words mentioned to her, she would return her focus to the genin before shaking her head, “Looks like we’re going back into the thick of it until the seal can be reestablished. That means I’m going to need your eyes to pinpoint those we can help for as long as possible, so pop a soldier pill and stretch those legs, because we’re going to be moving nonstop until this whole fiasco is done. Maybe if you survive I’ll put in a recommendation for your promotion. Keyword is ‘If’ newbie”.

The young man would nod sharply, a little annoyed that he had to have that explained to him before stating a short and simple “Yes ma’am”. His byakugan was already active, scanning the homes and businesses nearest to them for any survivors that they may or may not be able to assist. It calmed him to know that apparently the ANBU and other higher forces were taking this situation so seriously even if his Kage didn't acknowledge that fact. It allowed him to focus solely on the job given to him, which was locating those who hadn’t already evacuated. Unfortunately for him, his skills in close combat would essentially be put to the test almost immediately as he spotted a family that was rather deep into the district running away from a group of those beings.

He would point out this information to the ANBU, getting a sharp curse from the young woman before she took off. Teiho would leap after her, surprising the woman as he kept up for the most part. Taking a step behind her, he would point out that they were getting surrounded in their endeavour to rescue this one family, the surrounding homes already overrun with beasts. The situation seemingly grew more dire as the shouting of the civilians caught the attention of the beasts. A burst of movement was the only thing Teiho had managed to catch in his byakugan before he himself kicked into action, seemingly teleporting in the way of the beast that had flung itself from a third story window. His foot lashed out at the beast, catching it square in the chest with the force of a small weight.

The beast was definitely caught off guard, a cough and screech was the only sound it could make before it was flung violently back into the building from which it had come from trailed by a bit of smoke and the sound of objects crashing into each other. The room itself collapsed in on itself, followed by the rest of the home as the fire damage took its toll on the structure, trapping the beast and others like it within.

Teiho would land back on his heels in a backwards tumble, rolling back into his feet and coming back into stride behind the young ANBU who hadn’t turned to acknowledge the movement at all. Of course she knew what he had done, but it didn’t matter as they reached the family and took a quick glance over them all before grabbing the smaller ones in their arms and taking off. Another group of ANBU had arrived on the scene just as they did, taking to dispatching the creatures that surrounded them as to make the path back to the bridge.

This would continue on for some time. Eventually word would get back to the survivors that the group sent to the island had successfully sealed away the beasts in their hold, which was nice to know. This spurred the remaining jounin and anbu to begin routing the remainder of the beasts left in the village. By the end of the day, the village had been hit hard by this ghastly menace, but it would survive. Teiho himself would spend the rest of the day resting, his body never leaving the bridge that he had met the Mizukage on. His head would rest on his arms, as he stared out at the flames and smoke as people walked past him. This day would live with him for the rest of his life, he was sure of it.


[Exit]

--

Post WC: 864
Total WC: 2314 x2 = 4628

--

Claiming Water Element (4000 * %50 Reduction from learning from Kizmaru Senju) 2000 Words
Claiming Eight Inner Gates
Claiming 6 Points in Strength
Claiming 40 Points in Speed
Claiming 15 AP
Claiming 5100 * 2 = 10400 ryo

Keita listened to what his kage had to say, and various thought ran through his head as he did so. These people were all going to split up and subdue these creatures, and then head to the cave to put them back in and seal them. It was pretty straight forward, but the amount of trouble that these things could cause was quite disastrous, so Keita wanted to move out immediately. He nodded to the Mizukage, and then started sprinting towards this cave that the Mizukage pointed towards, making sure to keep an eye out for people that needed assistance along the way. Keita was quite quick, and soon he started to actuallyy reach the inner part of the forest where these beasts were. He was pretty certain of the fact that he was one of the swiftest ones here, and soon he was in the vicinity of the cave. It seemed that these creatures were in the area surrounding the cave, attempting to search for food. Keita saw a couple of them, one of them seemingly dripping what appeared to be, sand, out of it's hands, while the other one seemingly had a bit of smoke and embers coming from its mouth. Keita was not worried though, as these things seemed fairly slow, and slow witted as well, and it seemed to prove that fact as both of them let out a blood curdling scream, before simple mindedly rushing at him without any rhyme or reason, seeing Keita only as a lunch break instead of the great threat to them that he was. Keita found it amusing, but he was not about to lend his opponents, mindless ones at that, any leeway in his actions, and immediately used his chakra chains jutsu. Summoning the maximum of seven chains, Keita looked towards the creatures that were rushing towards him, and as soon as they got within a certain distance, it seemed that they were preparing to use their abilities.

Keita did not give them the chance, and soon a couple of the chains for each of them whizzed through the air, cutting through it at a great speed, such that a whistling sound was heard. These things, while they might have good physical ability, their reaction and brain processing speed was sup bar, the chains got to their bodies quicker than they could reasonably react, and soon the chains were rapidly circling their bodies, binding them. A small spritz of sand escaped, but caused no harm as he squeezed that one with the chain. The other, however, had some of his head poking out of the chain, and immediately bellowed a breath of fire, although Keita seemed a bit wise to what it was trying to do, and so immediately pointed him away from himself, and so the gout of flame quickly dissipated harmlessly in the air. "Strange, these things seem to actually have special variants that resemble kekkei genkai and kekkai tota, I wonder if we can study them in more detail later? Most likely not, these things are a blight, and I believe I recall the Mizukage saying something about how in close proximity their spirits might corrupt or taint other people if exposed for too long, so it was most likely a better idea to not do such and thing and simply send them back to where they came from and seal them up once again. Keita had these two gripped tightly in his chains, and he strode forward towards the cave entrance, when another two of the monsters showed up. This time one of them seemed to have a sleeker body, one that was built for speed. The other one seemed to be the opposite, a large beefy monster type creature that seemed to be very tough and durable. These were both, again, not a problem for Keita, as he set up some chains around him, and the fast one sped right into it and got its ankle tangled.

The larger one was even easier, as he was so large and slow, he was easily caught by the chains. The large one seemed to be trying to break the chains, but how could Keita allow that to happen? Te was fairly simple to tie up the beasts arms so that he could not use any of the force that he had access to with that bulky body. Keita then, having no empathy or remorse for such creatures, decided to be extra sure, and wind the chains through the large, deformed nose of this hulking creature, rendering it unable to move on its own volition. Keita then decided that he would walk with these creatures to the cave. As he got to the mouth of the cave, the chains that he was controlling exerted a large amount of pressure on certain areas of the creatures body, and then sicken cracking sounds could be heard from their bodies, and their screams could also be heard, but they were of anger, not of pain and suffering, so Keita did not care in the slightest. Once he crushed the bones in their arms and legs, he tossed them into the cave one by one, and also waited for the other people to herd them into the cave as well. The anbu that was his partner had also captured one of them and had dragged it back to the cave to get sealed as well.This continued for a while, until Keita was sure trhat there were no more, and even the Mizukage said as such, Keita was going to go home and treat himself to that barbecue that he had missed out on this morning, and hopefully he would get paid handsomely for this mission.
====
Exit
====
WC: 954
Total WC: 2658 x2 from event = 5316
Claiming 106 AP
Claiming 15 AP from mission
Claiming 11,000 ryo (5000 from mission, 500 from jounin, then x2 from event)
Claiming 1,500 words towards Hidden Mist Technique
Claiming 2,750 words towards Swamp of the Underworld 
Claiming 1,100 words for un-training Clan Pureblood skill 1,100/2000

Upon disembarking, as the others departed along with their Anbu partners, Yosei removed the mask from his head and replaced it with the Hannya mask that hung from his belt. After all, it was only fitting that he wear the garb of beasts as he fought them. It was a companion to the previous one he had been wearing, the demonic form of a transformed woman as her grief contorted her spirit from that of a shrine maiden to a hungry ghost. It was white, with a long nose, horns, furrowed brow and fanged smile. 
His ANBU escort seemed irritated as Yosei stood there deliberating over which mask to wear and adjusting the strap. Yosei gave him a polite, albeit not entirely sincere smile before pulling the mask over his face. The ANBU grunted and wordlessly sped off towards their assigned portion of the island. They were headed towards a mostly uninhabited woodland portion. Even before making contact with the enemy, the stench of death and vile chakra inundated the area. Skipping effortlessly along tree branches, the ANBU suddenly stopped and held up a clenched fist. Yosei halted himself a meter behind him. The more experienced ninja knelt down to examine something a little ways away from them. Even as a genin Yosei understood the role expected of him right now. He turned around to face the opposite direction to cover their blind spots and reached out with his limited chakra sensory abilities. It took him longer to detect the disturbances than his companion, but soon he could hear it. Amidst the natural sound of the woods there was something more erratic. Snapping twigs and snapping - something else.
“Northeast of our location?” Yosei hazarded his best guess. 
The ANBU grunted in affirmation. Not very talkative, this one. 
“Cover me while I check something out. Twenty meters north.”
“Actually, Sir,” Yosei said. “If you don’t mind, I believe I should go forward. You are more valuable to this mission, and more capable of backing me up given that I don’t have any ranged capacities at the moment.”
The man indicated forward with two fingers in response and Yosei glided over his head. It wasn’t long before he came to the destination in question. There, lying in the dirt in a small copse of trees was a strangely misshapen lump of torso. The limbs had been gnawed off, with the left arm having retained the largest stump. The face was bereft of flesh with half of the skull pulverized and the brains seemingly sucked out. The ghastly remains could hardly have been considered beautiful. 
“Such savagery,” Yosei remarked. “Not even any beauty to the gore. There’s no need to spare a single one of these creatures.”
The ANBU had alighted on the ground right behind Yosei without making a sound, slightly startling the younger shinobi. 
“Well, I didn’t ask for a review of the presentation. Which direction?”
Yosei scanned his surroundings briefly. It wasn’t hard to discern, the creatures weren’t exactly stealth. Snapped branches and scuff marks all pointed northwest. The beast was likely somewhere between there and the point they had sensed it earlier. 
“I can create a trap at this spot using my Earth release. Can you handle being the bait?”
Yosei grinned beneath his false monstrous countenance. 
“Certainly. I’m quite fast, although I’d wager these entities are as well. If I don’t make it, could you do me a favour? Ensure that my grave is well tended to and kept tasteful. I would like Chrysanthemum and Lavender arrangements left on it if possible, but anything other than lilies or snowdrops. I detest lilies and snowdrops.”
His superior glared blankly through the slits in his mask. 
“Sure kid, I’ll see what I can do. Get going, and lead them back to this spot.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
“Them? You think there’s more than one?”
“Wendigos finish their meals. If one left scraps behind, it’s because something else caught it’s attention. Probably a competitor.”
Two of them. Success would be unlikely. Ah well.
“Take some of my supplies, they might come in handy.” The ANBU said handing him a small pouch. “Don’t die if you can help it, I want those back.”
Yosei leapt into the air and dashed towards his quarry. It took three minutes of travel to get close enough to them to be sure of their location. There they were, in the distance, pulling the corpse of a poor unfortunate village between them. One of the creatures had seemingly crammed it’s own head into the skull of a deer, the helm of bone cutting it’s skin and making it’s eyes bulge out. It’s antlers made it easy to spot however, so that was a bonus at least. Yosei weighed up his options. He needed to draw them out while still giving himself a decent head start. 
First, he wound some wire from the ANBU’s supplies around two trees between him and the Wendigos, tying it tightly enough that when wobbled it gave off a distinctive noise. Then, deciding to take a risk, he used a Kunai to slice open his palm and began leaving generous dollops of his own blood on various trees, plants and rocks on a path roughly leading back to the ANBU’s trap. If they followed it, it would keep them travelling in a slower, zig-zag pattern. He only managed to mark two spots when he heard the wire trap tremble. Their senses truly were remarkable. 
Soon, what sounded like a fleet of trucks was cutting through the forest behind him. Yosei stopped thinking up clever plans and ran for his life, the fuchsia sleeves of his kimono whipping behind him as he pushed himself to the limits of his speed. Once they sounded close enough to see him, Yosei put a large tree between him and his pursuers and rapidly performed the hand seals for a basic clone jutsu, creating the illusion that he had ran forward. As he climbed the tree, the beasts blasted past his location in the direction of his now nonexistent clone, and for a brief second he thought himself quite clever. 
The skidded in the dirt, and turned, sniffing the air. Sight, it seemed, wasn’t their only or perhaps even primary sense. Yosei was almost ten metres high in the tree when they spotted him, even with his wound now bandaged. One Wendigo rapidly began to climb and Yosei feared he had assured his own death, but the other slashed at the trunk of the thin tree and easily shattered it into splinters. As the tree fell forward, Yosei used the inertia of it’s lurch to leap and put some distance between him and the creatures. 
Soon, he had almost reached the rendezvous point when the hot, muggy breath of the creatures began to tickle his ankles. Yosei was weighing up potential death rattles to find the more elegant option when a solid wall of soil erupted out of the ground behind him and the Wendigos slammed into it. His superior had saved the day, it seemed. Yosei dove to the ground and slid, in a somewhat intentional landing pose, right over to the brink of the spot where the trap had been laid. His pursuers demolished the mud wall jutsu in front of them and stood snarling at Yosei, preparing to pounce. Within his long, baggy sleeves he wove hand signs for the substitution jutsu. The creatures leapt forward and Yosei sprang back. Claws found his torso and sliced it evenly into three chunks of wood. In mid-air, Yosei appeared behind them and kicked off their backs to land safely outside of the perimeter of the trap. The soil they landed on disappeared beneath their feet and the two cascaded down a deep pit that the ANBU must have made with his jutsu. They slammed to the bottom with considerable force in a cacophony of shattered limbs. 
Still, they began to claw their way up with what was left of their arms and did so with alarming speed. The ANBU had thought this far ahead, and with a simple hand sign explosive seals near the mouth of the pit went off, burying the beasts in a landslide. 
Yosei’s knees wobbled as the adrenaline began to wear off and his body felt weak now. He was clammy, and the bandage around his hand was so bloodsoaked that it was beginning to fall away. He steadied himself. 
“So. Where’s our next target sir?”
The ANBU let out a single dry laugh. 
“Nah kid, you’re done. You did fine I suppose. Though I wouldn’t expect less from a Shinobi of the Bloody Mist. These two shouldn’t be able to free themselves before it’s time to seal them and I or any other Earth-Release user can dig them out when necessary. We’ve done our part, return to the ferry to get home.”
Yosei couldn’t quite summon the laissez-faire attitude he normally carried so easily, and so he merely nodded and set off, taking care as he returned home. His first mission since returning to the Island Country had turned out to be far more than he was anticipating, but not more than he could handle. 


[Exit.]


WC: 1529
TWC: 2731 x2 (Event) = 5,462
Claiming Mizu Senbon for 1,000 WC
Claiming Butterfly Effect for 1,000 WC
Claiming Hidden Mist Technique for 1,500 WC
Claiming Demonic Illusion: Steaming Multi-Story Building for 1,500 WC
Claiming 10,200 Ryo (5000 for the mission + 100 bonus x2 for Event)
Claiming 15 AP from mission
Stats Claimed: 
+ 30 Vigor
+ 15 Chakra
+ 9 Speed

Kizmaru and Keita: approved

Teiho: you can use your wordcount to claim stats as well as jutsu etc, so you can claim 46 stats instead of 6.

Yosei: you might want to fix the amount of ryo, it's 5000 + 100 bonus (the 250 is the weekly stipend, not the mission bonus). So you'd get 10200 instead of 1500.

Fixed my claim then.

Made the appropriate change to my claim :  )

Approved