The Grinch's Little Helpers [Hanshi, GONK, Queen]

Kaito awaited as the team interrogated the elves on their own terms. Kaito himself had gone through quite a bit of trouble to attain the information he had gathered. He had approached one of the elves, and asked him what did he know about the disappearance of Senju Wood from the factory. The elf seemed reticent about snitching on his comrades, but a crips 500 Ryo bill changed his mind. The elf took the bill and slid it into his pocket, explaining that the elves had each packed a few logs of Senju Wood onto wooden backpacks meant to transport kindling and made off with it into the night. He asked who Kaito and the rest of them were, and Kaito mentioned he didn’t feel comfortable explaining who they were, to which the elf replied by alluring Kaito with 500 Ryo. Kaito considered his options, looked over his shoulder and took the Ryo, explaining to the elf they were an elite squad meant to track these elves and recover the Senju Wood. He urged the young elf to not reveal this information.

Back when they gathered up, one ninja dressed to the occasion appeared to be ferociously more engaged in this than any of them. She spoke of sacrifice and protecting the innocent. Kaito agreed. “Some of you may have to give your lives for this mission, and that is a sacrifice I’m willing to commit.” The blue faced lad didn’t seem so keen on that. What trauma could icen the heart like that, and prevent the cheer of the season to embrace it, cup it in its festive hands, and bathe it in joy?

The other lad seemed to be of a kind with this one, as they both appeared to have blue skin and gills on their faces, however he brought hot coco instead of cynicism; Kaito thanked him and took a cup, taking a sip and not noticing the chocolaty mustachio now decorating his upper lip. No matter. All the info account for, Kaito resumed it for them: “four elves, due south with heavy backpacks filled with Senju Wood. Crime happened a few hours ago, so I would wager they did not make it far. Let us move to the South facing wall.” As they all moved, and got to the door, Kaito pointed some fifty meters away. “Oh, there they are." Short little legs couldn’t have made them go very far.

One of the four thieving elves, hunched over a bundle of Senju Wood tall as he was, seemed to notice them. He started thrashing his arms about, warning the others to move away. The four stumpy figures started to get the backpacks back on themselves, in a bizarre tragic comedy of a scene, stumbling and trying to sling the wooden backpacks onto themselves to try and run away with legs shorter than Kaito’s forearm. He reached for the inner pocket of his jacket, removed a metallic cylinder from whence he produced a cigar, and with a tiny stream of fire produced from his lips, he lit the cigar, before clinching it between his teeth. “Let’s get ‘em, boys.”

The poor elves had no chance, Kaito thought, as the lass in the christmassy dress formed four wooden sleds that would propel them through the snow. Kaito had known one other Senju, once, in the distant past; one whom he still visited the comatose body of the boy he had once incapacitated beyond cruelty or reason. As the sleds formed in front of them, Kaito started pushing his sled, building momentum, before mounting it with agility and poise, crouched on the sled so as to allow it to maintain momentum. Yet, the elves were more resourceful than Kaito had anticipated; they began building a solid fort, with round walls that could take more punishment unlike plain walls, with battlements from which the tiny bastards started to fling their ammunition of neatly packed snow around a tiny pebble. Soon as the barrage started, Kaito gripped the front of the sled and tilted himself backwards, pulling his full weight against the back of the sled where his feet connected, causing the sled to tilt and provide him with some cover. He could hear the solid impact of the pebbles muffled under the wet slosh of the snowballs impacting the seld. “The bastards, they’re organizing a counter attack. We must take the fort down!”

As he watched around, he noticed Gonk preparing to spew a huge water dragon from his mouth; the talent of the young Hoshigake was noted by Noboru, as well as his initiative, and similarly, the other Hoshigake prepared his own jutsu; once the dragon broke down the walls of the fort and the water dissipated, it rose once again by the hand of the tan Hoshigake, which used the water to form water needles. What tenacity these sharklings had. He couldn’t let them pull the weight of this mission all on their own.


As he released the 5th Inner Gate, the air around him exploded, blasting sled all over the place, as his skin turned red and his hair began floating around his knot. His left eye, previously red, was now completely white, as though it had rolled into his skull, and in a swift motion, he turned around from where he had been hiding and blasted his way into the now broken fort, kicking up snow high in a trail that nearly melted the snow as it ascended a few meters into the air from the impact and sheer air pressure of the motion. The distance was closed within seconds, his vision tunneled as he moved, and the elves’ expression became that of terror as the demon approached them faster than they could aim their feeble snowballs at him.

In quick succession, he began tripping the elves, causing them to lose their balance, before grabbing them by their stumpy legs and planting them onto the ground face first, creating macabre trees of panicked elf. Once there were four such trees, Kaito flung the four packs of Senju Wood to where his team had been. “Senju girl”, he called out to Tsubaki. “Apprehend these miscreants. Our job is done.”