Don't Play with Nature!

Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm

Missions:

Young Jun Shibasaki was walking toward the small and peaceful village near Kumogakure where his next assignment was located while reflecting on his latest missions: always what seemed simple and predictable turned into something bizarre and weird. Such a retrospect made the Shinobi wonder what lay ahead of him in his new mission, and the prognosis for today was not the best. First of all, he would tag along again with the flamboyant shinobi, Saturn, and the last time that happened, things went a bit crazy.
According to the instructions he received, Jun was to meet in the village itself with the eccentric ninja. Second of all, Jun was worried about the mission report itself: The shinobi of Kumogakure had been requested because, apparently, the son of a renowned scientist had snooped around his laboratory and something had gone terribly wrong. "Another day, another crazy mission...when will I finally just face some bandits or spy on someone like a traditional ninja? Geez…".

The village where the scientist's house was located was a quiet and peaceful place located in the mountains of Kumo, a popular place to live outside the shinobi’s hidden village. The scientist, who owned the house, was the brilliant Hiroshi Taemo, who works in the research area of the Ichigo Sato Medical Institute and was recently working on a secret enhanced fertilizer project… And that was all intel contained in the Mission Report.
After a few minutes of walking, Jun finally arrived at the small village, and started trying to locate the scientist's house, but what the young Shibasaki noticed was that, at least on that part of the village he was at, it was absolutely empty. There was no living soul for Jun to ask for information. However, after a few minutes of walking, the shinobi saw in the distance what appeared to be a crowd of people around something...big. "It must be the house..." thought Jun.

Jun then approached the place of the gathering, where basically all the villagers were, and started to get into the crowd, in order to overcome the human barrier that had formed around the place. After a few bumps and apologies, Jun finally managed to get to the front of the house and he finally took a good look at it...

THE HOUSE:

"What the hell..." Jun exclaimed to himself, as he looked at all those gigantic roots covering the whole house. Looking up, Jun saw that the huge roots covering the house supported a colossal tree, so big that its top was above the clouds, and with the trunk being so thick that it more resembled a castle tower. "Great, another big treee in my life...just all I needed". And that's how Jun Shibasaki's hopes of having a peaceful day fulfilling his missions were gone for good. Now all he could do was to wait for Saturn and whoever more that could help him getting, once again, rid of a gigantic tree.

WC: 490

Sun Sep 25, 2022 4:44 pm

Saturn had received the mission details from a messenger raven early in the day, when he had hoped to take the day off. The details contained within the scroll intrigued him, but he had a bad hangover and did not wish to deal with the hassle of a C rank mission. Taking the scroll, he inscribed Jun Shibasaki's name into the end of the paper and handed it back to the raven. Possessing the bird briefly with his hiden jutsu, he instructed the raven telepathically to take the scroll to his unofficial subordinate. Then, he put his cowboy boots on and went on a carefree walk to seize the day.

As Saturn passed a small town on his leisurely stroll, a peculiar smell caught his attention. He sniffed the air, and there was no doubt in his mind about what the smell could be. It was a dank, earthy smell - familiar and alluring. He did not have a sharp sense of smell, but he had an affinity towards detecting certain smells that he was already quite familiar with. Going on a short detour to investigate, he followed the trail towards a small seemingly deserted town. As he explored the empty streets, he could sense the smell growing stronger as he walked in one direction. He ran into a stray dog who wagged its tail and panted. Kneeling down, Saturn planted his hand on the dog's forehead to pat him with an ulterior motive. Reading the dog's mind before possessing it, he borrowed the canine's sense of smell to pinpoint the location of the odour.

Using Instant Transmission to teleport directly to the front of the house, Saturn's body manifested instantly, no more than 3 meters next to Jun Shibasaki. Looking up at the giant tree that had taken over the house, the strong unmistakable smell of reefer caused his eyes to roll back before he let his jaw drop before cussing out loud, "Oh hell no!" Noticing Jun next to him, he sighed as he realized that he had spawned right at the mission check point although he had tried his best to abscond from his duties. "Good grief. I really am in a simulation, huh?"

Looking back at the crowd, he raised his arms and waved at them. He had recently learned how to embody a certain degree of charisma to talk to large crowds. He learned from the mother of a martyr, and a seasoned Genin who had helped him deal with her antics. "By order of the Eleventh, this area is now off limits for all civilians. Please clear out immediately, and go back to doing what you were doing before you came here." He spoke to the crowd, some of whom were more cooperative than others. "You just want all that dank for yourself! Thief!" One teenage Kumon with a sleazy face and long hair heckled the Genin, and the crowd backed him up, jeering at the newcomer. "Boooooooo!!"

"As of now, we do not know what this plant is. Even if it is what you think it is, the medicinal benefits of said plant still have to be studied rigorously before one can say for sure that it is good for consumption."

"Boooooooo!!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake, just let me and my colleague here go in and assess the situation inside the house before you rob it for all its reefer. When we leave, you can go check in on your compatriots inside. If the chef gets here now he won't ask you as nicely!"

The crowd muttered and murmured before mostly dispersing, glancing at the duo from the corners of their eyes as they walked away.

Sighing as he reached out towards one of the growing branches, he plucked a flower and put it in the pocket of his hoodie before turning to Jun. "Well? Let's go check this place out. You can go in first."

WC: 652

Mon Sep 26, 2022 2:47 am

The roads that led away from the village that mingled with the peaks of the mountaintops of Kumogakure were winding and often perilous to travelers who weren't used to walking them. For the fire Meijin Moyasu, however, they were roads that he knew like the back of his hands as all the bumps and humps and hills were simple hops and skips to get over and avoid. He would easily and quickly make it down from the village and walk amongst the forestry as he made his way to the target of yet another mission that was calling for his attention. The crisp air of fall was slowly descending upon the land as the summer heat was ebbing away in order to welcome the more chilly seasons. The leaves fell from the surrounding trees as they covered the roads he walked upon, the soles of his ninja shoes causing them all to leave a slightly satisfying crunch for his ears, as the shade of the trees made the air slightly cooler as the rays of the sun leaked through causing splotches of light to brighten the way for him. It all provided him with a slight air of peace in his walk, him letting out a yawn as the tails of his jacket fluttered to the breeze, before he adjusted his glasses and looked through the trees at their surroundings trying to find a potential spot for a nice picnic.

The light that seeped through the trees would soon be compromised, however, as the shade now fully covered the roads along his path thanks to a giant growing tree that Moyasu could see through the leaves. It was quite huge as he actually felt a bit impressed that something like a scientist's alchemy dabbling could produce. It wouldn't be long until he heard the sounds of a crowd as he looked forward and saw quite a gathering as he could see a familiar face trying to coax the crowd to get away from the scene. They looked to be standing next to the entrance of a house that was at the base of the growing tree as he watched a majority of the crowd disperse which relieved him quite a bit as he wasn't feeling in the mood to deal with another crowd today and so soon from the last one. He would walk up to the two ninja standing at the entrance before taking a hand out of one of his pockets and giving a slight wave. "Yo."

WC 419

Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:28 pm

Z Ne

Today was not the day to wear white.

Then again, most days were not the day to wear white, either.

Z did not care about that, not really. It was all about the aesthetic.

Today's attire consisted of an oversized white sweater, sleeves rolled up such that they would not reach over Z's hands.

There were also the very fitting denim jeans, which the sweater hung over the top of, almost halfway down their thighs.

Atop the head was worn a simple cap. If you guessed it was white in color, you would be right! Of the minor accents to the striking wardrobe would be earrings that Z had placed into the brim of the cap, rather than through any part of their body. This were silver, though not particularly shiny, more of a muted grey sort of color. Z also had a handful of silver grey studs in each ear, though the sides did not quite match up with each other! They had chosen to be a bit asymmetrical today.

The truly standout thing, however, was a simple black ribbon worn as a choker and tied into a bow at the front. In the sea of white and silver greys that were their attire, it would surely stand out.

Well, that and the village symbol, worn tightly just above their left ankle.

Z had come out here today to help with a mission. "An experiment gone horribly wrong" was the short description they had been given, though the more detailed forms talked about a scientist and a child, and the rather horrible results from playful curiosity.

Z would be horrified if not amazed.

Apparently, the child was so distraught that they were not able to figure out exactly what had been done, and what was affected. At least not yet.

So Z worked their way to the site and... smelled... something.

A rather vile smell, in all honesty. Z noticed out of the corner of their eye a rather... peculiar building which seemed to have a tree grown around it, and a growing crowd, but that was somewhat off in the distance still, and not exactly the direction the smell was coming from.

They did note, however, that the village, to the house, to the smell, was very nearly a straight line. If Z had come from the village, rather than having explored through the woods first, they very likely would have stopped at the house assuming it was the source of the smell.

And the house was far enough away to probably not pick up the... undertones that really defined this God forsaken sent.

No, Z needed to deal with this assault on the olfactory nerves before anything else.

And it would not be much running before Z found it.

And then Z found it.

Those paying close attention may notice that, as the crowd walked away from the house, the smell seemed to never get weaker. For those standing near the house, it may even be seeming to get stronger!

...because it was. Behind Z, tied to a rope, well, a 'rope' made of vines, was a large, furry, four legged mammalian creature. Its fur was black, except for a single stripe of white running from the top of the head, along the back, and onto the tail.

Knowing that the house most certainly had to be related (who would build a house in tree roots and let it grow like that?), they brought the captured beast of disproportionate size to the house.

The only indication of its current state of living would be the very obviously crushed skull, as if hit by a guillotine drop from a tree branch up above.

...Maybe less so 'as if' as that is actually what happened.

Z was very glad to learn that, at least in the case of the skunk, it was just bigger and not sturdier or mightier.

It was VERY big, easily two stories tall, but that was besides the point.

Eventually, Z would be close enough that anyone which stayed around the house would be able to clearly pick up the vile undertones of the scent emanating from the dead beast.

And, unfortunately, the scent that Z Ne would need to spend the next several days cleaning off theirself.

It was from behind and slightly to the left of the house (from the perspective of the others from the village) that Z Ne would approach from the forest, 'evidence' of at least partial completion of the mission in tow.

"Hello! Sorry for the smell!" they would yell out, still a distance from where the others had gathered.

771 words

Mon Sep 26, 2022 8:58 pm

As Jun was waiting at the entrance of the house, trying to contain the curious crowd, the flamboyant shinobi known as Saturn simply spawned beside him, surprising the young Shibasaki. "Well, that's a nice technique, it can be quite useful...". The eccentric Ninja yelled at the crowd and finally managed to calm it down.

- Quite the entrance, Saturn…and welcome. I see you passed on this mission to me but you’re still here anyways…

As soon as Jun stopped talking he noticed another Kumo Shinobi approaching, a ninja that he was not familiar with yet… his eyes glowed a crimson-orange like flickering flames that kinda resembled the Shibasaki’s Doujustu, the Tengan, and his hair was of a silvery white like ash color.

- I think we haven’t been introduced yet, but all the help we can get maybe useful here…by the way, I’m Jun Shibasaki!

But again, as soon as Jun finished his sentence, he was again surprised… this time by a vile, disgusting smell, it was so horrific that it almost made Jun puke. “Is it coming from the house?” - thought the young shinobi as he was trying to locate the source of such scent, while at the same time smelling it as little as he could. He would soon locate where the smell was coming from, as he saw another Kumo Genin approaching the house from the woods near it, she wore a white hat and had a pale white hair, but what most stood out about her was actually THE GIGANTIC SKUNK SHE WAS CARRYING. “This must have something to do with the house…the situation maybe really bad inside the house…”.

- Hello there, fellow Kumo Genin. Welcome to the party! – shouted Jun to the approaching kunoichi. – So, shall we? - and as Jun took the first step forward going into the door, he was for the fourth time in a row surprised: the ground suddenly began to shake, and the roots of the giant tree that enveloped the house began to expand, growing in length and thickness while simultaneously the tree itself began to grow even more upwards, causing the house that was previously at ground level to rise alongside the growth of the trunk, being suspended in the air, attached to the roots, to about 15 meters of height. “Oh for fuck sake…”.

- Everybody, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! – Shouted Jun toward the crowd around the house, as they started running away in terror.

“I think it’s time for it…finally!”. Jun recently awakened his clan’s doujustu, the Tengan, what made him extremely proud, but he did not have many opportunities to use it in a mission yet, and the time finally came. The young Shibasaki closed his eyes for a moment and upon opening, activated the doujustu: his iris turned bright red and started emitting small flames of pure Sun Chakra through its extremities, expelling a bright glow from it. The activation of the Tengan granted Jun a refined thermal vision, allowing him to detect and differentiate even the smallest of thermal signatures, which he used to look upon the suspended house, trying to locate the Scientist’s son, that could still be trapped inside. At first, Jun only could see all the cold inorganic (the house) and organic (the roots) stuff in dark blue color, but as soon as he looked at the right most corner of the house, he located the boy thermal signature in glowing orange: he was also suspended in the air, having his wrapped by something of cold thermal signature. “There he is…”. Jun also notice that in a nearby room, there was another living being emitting a hot thermal signature…he wasn’t 100% sure, but it was kind of shaped like a mouse! A HUGE mouse! “Another gigantic animal, perhaps?”

After scouting the house with the Tengan and locating the boy’s position, Jun started to devise a plan in his head, as he started analyzing the roots that gave the tree sustention and realized they were slowly moving, as if they were burrowing themselves even deeper. Jun took a few steps forward and slightly touched the nearest root. Suddenly, another root sprouted from its side and wrapped around the young shinobi's arm that made contact with the root, immobilizing it. Despite the sudden action, Jun reacted quickly, drawing his Kunai instantly and cutting the root that restrained him while taking a few steps back. He realized that all the other roots reacted to the cut as if it caused some sort of pain to all other roots, as if they were kind of…alive! Suddenly, the ground started shaking again and the thick, deep burrowed roots of the tree lifted from the ground, moving weirdly like tentacles and taking a defensive stance around the tree trunk.

- Saturn, listen to me…I’ve located the kid, he’s at the room located at the right most corner of the house, and he’s restrained by something, maybe roots, but I’m not sure. That must be the lab where all of this started, so use your fancy teleport- technique and go up there, get the boy and look around the lab to see if the scientist has some kind antidote or potion…and there is also a giant m…OH SHIT! – as Jun was finishing giving Saturn the intel he acquired, a “root tentacle” attacked him, trying to crush him with a vertical blow, to which the young Shinobi again reacted quickly, dodging the giant root by swiftly moving sideways, with the impact of the root to the ground being so powerful that it caused it to tremble. “That freaking tree is trying to kill me…”

- Just go, Saturn! And take the smelly shinobi with you, it looks like she has some experience in dealing with giant animals…trust me, you may need it! Me and the other guy can deal with the roots! - he shouted to Saturn, as the root tentacle once again lifted itself upwards, as it was getting ready for another earth shaking strike, which made the young Shibasaki once again react quickly, as he swiftly made the Snake, Ram and Tiger handseals.

- KATON: GREAT FIREBALL JUTSU!

Jun exhaled a thin stream of fire 6 inches wide that quickly detached and formed into a large fireball of 5 cubic meters in size, which hit the lifted root and absolutely burned it down, while the other roots writhed, as if they were feeling the pain inflicted by the flames. “How funny…my first ever serious fight, and it’s against a tree! A goddamm, gigantic tree...” said Jun to himself as he took an offensive stance, ready to burn down all those tentacle roots.

WC: 1110
TWC: 1600

Wed Sep 28, 2022 10:33 am

"Yo." Saturn extended a warm welcoming smile to the chef as he approached the duo. The Fortuneteller was relieved to see the seasoned Genin show up at the site. Having felt how hot Moyasu could be, quite literally since his body heat felt like scorching flames at times, Saturn hoped that his compatriot could ignite the overgrowing specimen in spectacular fashion. Before he could play at the idea, a strong pungent smell grew in intensity. It was similar to the intoxicating smell coming from the house, but also very sharply distinct to the nose of the Genin who was well versed in the ways of certain flowers. He sniffed the air as he gestured at Jun and Moyasu to stop at the entrance. "Do you smell that? It's... It's horrible..."

Saturn grimaced and pinched his nose, and as the white haired person emerged from the side of the house, he gasped. "Oh helll no!" He gagged before taking out his kunai, pointing it at the dead beast and the ninja who carried it. "What do you think you're doing?!" He shouted, visibly offended and repulsed. "Don't move any closer. Or else!" He warned, "Jun, don't talk to them. That's not your friend." His face twitched as he growled, ready to pounce on the newcomer that brought the skunk and stained the marvelous smell he was about to venture into. Before he could act on his impulses, Jun had taken the first few steps into the house, and the tree had erected the residence up into the air.

"Nooooo!!" He wailed throwing his head back in despair with his wrists on his forehead. As Jun spoke, Saturn only heard the words in a disoriented blur. He passively watched as the roots attacked his subordinate, and squinted seeing how his iris glowed. "That's not exactly how that technique works," He stammered the words out, still visibly distraught. "NO!" He shouted in defiance at the idea of taking the stinky ninja with him, tears in his glistening eyes. Looking back and forth between the extending branches and Jun, his face lit up as the fireball struck the plant's roots. "Excellent idea, Jun!" He grinned wide from ear to ear, his blue lips stretched across his face and his pearly whites on full display. "Splendid. Genius! I'll save you MJ!" Saturn had named the overgrown vegetation. Pointing at Z, he pleaded, "BURN THE SKUNK!" Casually overlooking the detail about the giant rodent, he then leaped into the doorway as the flames from Jun's fireball ascended up the vigorous root from which thick clouds of smoke expunged as the skunky flowers lit up in its path overhead.

"Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!" Saturn panted in the smoke as he bolted up a long flight of stares. As he approached a hallway and turned a corner, a giant rodent, about eight feet in length, snared at the Genin from the end of the room. "Nope!" Saturn formed hand seals in quick succession to cast False Surroundings Technique, to disorient the predator which scurried hurriedly in the wrong direction, away from the trickster, for the next ninja to deal with. As Saturn found the room in the right most corner, he groaned at the sight before him. "It's you!"

He crossed his arms in the thick smoke as the scorching flames crumbled the house around him bit by bit and the smoke creeped into his lungs. "This serves you right, you couch potato." Saturn spoke down to the trapped boy. "I wouldn't have responded to your messenger raven had I known Hiroshi Taemo was your father."

"Please!" The boy pleaded as the tangled roots gripped him tighter.

"You buy from me, kid. What is the meaning of all this?! Are you trying to grow your own shit now?!"

"Cut it out!"

"You sow what you reap, Konohamaru. Suffer!"

"That's not how that saying goes!"

The roots strangled the boy harder, and he yelled out in pain.

"Alright, alright, just say you won't try this spooky shit again. It's too early for Halloween and this is no trick or treat!"

"I promise!"

"Promise what?" Saturn held the edge of his kunai against the thick root around the boy's forearm.

"No more terror plants! No mas! No mas!"

Saturn sliced the root open and grabbed the boy, but the fire had now blocked the entrance. Looking out of the window, the smoke did not let the shinobi assess the situation down below. "Konohamaru, you're going to take something called a leap of faith, alright? Pray."

"No, no, no, wait, hold on just a second."

"No time to think, Konohamaru. You should have thought about this. I got other missions to do."

"Just give me a m-"

"HEY CHEF, THINK FAST!" He screamed down into the smoke hoping to get Moyasu's attention to catch the little scientist.

Saturn then shoved the kid from the window, hearing his wail get more faint as he fell into the smoke below.

WC:828
TWC: 1480

Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:28 am

As Moyasu was given a prompt and friendly response from the two Genin already present on the scene his nose couldn't help but detect the strong smell that resembled much like cannabis as he quickly got out from one of his pockets a cigarette and gently placed it along his lips. With a quick flick of his thumb, grazing it upwards from within his fist as though he was "striking" it like a match, a flame appeared along the tip of it allowing him to quickly light the cigarette and fill his nose with the sweet scent of tobacco. He would try to keep the smoke he blew from his mouth away from the others, he didn't want to be rude after all, as he shook his hand free of the flame he'd made all while taking puffs of his cigarette before inhaling the fumes in order to try and conceal the other scent as much as possible. It only helped slightly. Now that he was so close to the tree that was so large he could see it from a good mile or so away he couldn't help but let out an impressed whistle as he looked up the long multirooted trunk, his hand coming up to adjust his glasses, as he couldn't see the top from his viewpoint.

"So... this is our target?" he said as he tilted his head in order to view up the tree from multiple angles. "And this is supposed to be a C rank mission?... Seems legit." He said this slightly amused before looking back down to notice someone else joining the party. The thing was they had a very unnaturally sized animal accompanying them, what looked to be a skunk, as Moyasu didn't know how to respond aside from the differing responses that his teammates gave. It wasn't long afterwards until the tree started to act on it's own, roots growing all around it, all as the house that everything was stemming from started to hover upward being carried by the roots. Moyasu only watched it as it grew, puffing on his cigarette, before letting out a bemused sigh. "Yep. C rank." Immediately his fellow ninja sprung into action as he looked over to see the recently introduced Jun's eyes as they started to seem to literally catch on fire. He could see sparks of flames coming from them as the shinobi was looking at the slowly being lifted higher house intently. Moyasu could only surmise that he was using some sort of jutsu to sense something inside the house... or someone.

This soon turned into quite the scene as Jun wound up having to fight off a root that tried seemed to attack him, a sign that showed there was more than just life flowing through this growing tree but cognizance, as Jun sprung a plan to Saturn, the newcomer, and himself before dodging a large root that tried to crush him. With a quick formation of a few hand seals, his chakra flowing up across his body and into two of his fingers, he flicked the index and middle fingers of his right hand towards the descending tree as a large dragon head flew quickly from his fingers towards the descending root. The dragon's head opened it's mouth wide, it's size a modest 10 meters, as it's fiery teeth sank into the wood of the root and tore it in half while carrying it's remains into the air with it. This would cause the remains to hit the ground with a no longer dangerous thud before it retracted back into the main tree allowing Moyasu to take another drag from his cigarette as his chakra started to grow in heat all around his body.

"Word of advice, Saturn: You're going to want to be quick getting in and out of there." As he said this he would form four more hand seals with a free hand as two more of him would pop up from small plumes of smoke. He would wait for the two ninjas given rescue duty to get their parts of the mission out of the way before he would do anything himself. He thus would watch Jun release a good sized fireball at the base of the root infested tree all as Saturn had made his way into the house hopefully with the kunoichi hot on his tail. All the while Moyasu and his clones would quickly take care of any attacking roots that came their way with more dragon heads of fire all before Moyasu suddenly heard Saturn call to him from the house up high. He looked up to notice someone falling through the sky towards him which would cause one of his clones to quickly hop up and catch the kid in it's arms before flipping around and landing safely on his feet. It would then quickly take off into a run away from the tree as Moyasu and his remaining clone on the scene observed the house to make certain everyone was getting out.

Upon everyone and everything important leaving the house finally Moyasu would smirk as he took one final drag of his cigarette and gestured to his clone to get into a position further back. With a closing of his eyes and a small breath to concentrate he would soon start focusing his chakra to grow as his body quickly started to exert more and more heat. Flames started to ignite along the ground beneath his feet, the dirt singing from the heat as any grass nearby instantly ignited and spread out away from him, as his glasses slowly transitioned into shades from the heat before he opened his eyes to reveal his burning dragon eyes. "Let's see how well this new jutsu of mine works." His cigarette would crumble to ash from the sheer heat coming from Moyasu, the tails of his jacket flapping heavily due to the sheer power being displayed, as he quickly formed the six hand seals required for this powerful technique. Tiger, Dog, Horse, Rat, Dragon, Bird, Hare.

He would point the palms of his hands towards the base of the large tree as he concentrated his chakra towards a specific point within the roots. 'Fire style...' he thought to himself as roots tried to quickly sprout out and slam themselves down upon Moyasu but they didn't prove fast enough. 'True Fire of Samadhi!' From deep within the roots the natural chakras of the environment would spark and ignite as a giant column of white hot fire would erupt and climb the roots rapidly, their color bright crimson, all as the roots of the tree stood no chance against the sheer power of the jutsu. The pillar of flame would climb 50 meters into the air, it's circumference large enough to completely surround the tree in it's flames, as Moyasu smirked at his handiwork all as his clone prepared for it's own technique. As the roots were quickly reduced to cinders, the flames quickly igniting along the parts of the tree the fire column couldn't reach, the remaining half of the tree would quickly start to fall towards the ground. This is where his clone would come in.

It's chakra would also erupt from within him, it's heat clashing with the original's chakra creating a light conflagration around them igniting nearly everything their chakra touched, as it had formed nine hand seals. Horse, Tiger, Dragon, Hare, Monkey, Bird, Horse, Ram, Boar. With a lift of it's free hand into the air above it a small ball of fire would form along it's palm before growing larger and larger, the fires spanning from the ball resembling the sun, as it grew to be 10 meters in diameter. 'Fire style...' ran through it's mind as the burning top half of the tree's remains quickly approached the ground towards them. 'Great Blazeball!' With a toss of it's arm the ball of fire would quickly soar up towards it's target, the distance between the doomed tree and the ball closing in moments, before with a flex of it's chakra the fireball would explode into a 35 meter sphere of sheer power and heat. It's explosion sent hot shockwaves towards the ground from above, enveloping the ninja and their surroundings in a gusty wind, as the original Moyasu would quickly form more hand seals before flicking a finger towards all remains of the falling tree. The result was fireballs shooting out from his fingers, their fires instantly turning to ash all the remaining roots, all as the bright orange glow of the Blazeball remained above them for a full minute before it would finally slowly fizzle out along with the fire pillar Moyasu had made earlier.

All in all the burning of the tree was brief as well as contained as Moyasu had made certain that none of the houses that surrounded them, nor any bystanders, were in danger of damage or injury... Well apart from the house the tree was originating from. With that being said he and his clone would ultimately relax their chakra, his eyes shifting back into their regular orange and fiery glow, as he would take out another cigarette and quickly light it with his thumb while looking at the smoldering and smoky remains of the fire pillar he had created earlier. "Those will die out themselves before long but if any of you know water style and want to make sure for good measure go ahead and put it out if you wish." His clones would come back to the group, one of his clones still carrying Konohamaru in it's arms, as his glasses slowly transitioned back into their original lenses. "So..." he said as he gestured to the others present. "What now?"

WC 1,629; TWC 2,048

Sat Oct 01, 2022 12:52 am

Z Ne

There is the recognition of a bad smell.

Then there is the recognition of a smell that other people considered bad.

Z new that other people hated the smell of skunk. It was a thing that had come up in their life, and living in the orphanage, they had encountered skunks on no few occasions.

But Z had never really been bothered by the smell. Could barely smell it, even. They remembered clearly one time when the afternoon was spent "playing with the funny black and white cats at the edge of the woods". They clearly remembered thinking it was gross but funny when the animal sprayed, but not minding it much.

At best, there was a slight scent of musk, but musk was a constant smell around the orphanage, in one way or another. Bathing was a rarity for the children of the orphanage. There was the stream during the summer months, and however long one could stand the cold for, but the winter months were just... you smell like you smell.

Thankfully it was winter, so sweat was not that bad.

Still. There was an ever present aroma to the place.

So Z really paid it no mind that the weird looking black and white cats smelled musky, plenty of animals did! And it was just a small hint, nothing bad!

...That was quickly shown to be very wrong when they got back. None of the other children would get close, some even gagging before running away.

One threw up.

Z Ne was very confused. Why was this happening?

That was a formative experience for Z Ne. The idea that other people hate skunk smell, like, to the point of throwing up was an unfortunate thing to discover after having "played" with a family of skunks for an hour.

Many hours were spent in the river, along with soap, something the orphanage rarely spent the money on to get.

But that is there! This is here! And now! Z Ne knew other people disliked skunk smell, and went to deal with what was a skunk.

But... Z did not know that a dead skunk smells just as bad.

If not worse.

And was oblivious to the fact that they had been sprayed.

So when called into action by the blonde one, they took to it. Then the one named Saturn shouted to burn the skunk.

Z was... not sure how to do that. They could barely perform the most basic of techniques, anything reasonably "fire-y" was out of reach.

There was, however, an incredible amount of kindling that had already been oh so helpfully ignited by one of the other ninja on hand...

Z dropped the rope, and instead grabbed the head of the giant skunk. Burn the skunk, get into the house, all in one go. Z would MAKE a doorway!

After all, it seemed they were already determined to burn the ever loving shit out of the home and all in and, especially, around it. What is a little structural damage among planned demolishing?

With the dead skunk's head firmly in hand, Z began to turn, and lift. Slowly at first, the skunk only raising up to the shoulders. But then they spun faster, and faster, each revolution lifting slightly more of the skunk into the air, until finally, it was fully elevated.

And Z would release.

There was no _exact_ plan here, but Z was fairly confident that the house would take the vast majority of the damage from the skunk. And it fact it did. A hole was opened into a hallway, but there was an unfortunate side effect: the scent gland was ripped right open.

Even more unfortunate, this was the hallway the giant mouse was in.

On the upside, the sudden and explosive post humorous spray of skunk scent and various viscera would basically stun the mouse for a few seconds, and this would allow Saturn to easily pass it! This made the false surroundings even more effective than they would have been alone!

On the downside, this all occurred as Saturn was still running through the hallway, and would be nearly unavoidable.

Z would feel bad about that later.

For now, as the skunk's corpse fell away from the wall of the building, there was an easy line to jump in and ram their knee into the mouse at full strength and speed. By this point, Saturn was likely be past the rodent, but this would be the moment Z found out that someone was actually in that hallway.

It would be very unfortunate, and they would have to apologize later.

But at the end, it was a mouse. Unlike the tree, which seemed to be more than just grown, and similarly to the skunk, the mouse was just big. If it was not dead from the one knee to its ribs, it would be slowly dying and largely immobilized.

Z Ne would end its misery quickly, leaving its corpse in the house to burn down with it all, before jumping back down to the ground and walking towards the party of ninja.

Again, totally oblivious that they had been sprayed.

WC 860
TWC 1631

Mon Oct 03, 2022 8:03 pm

As Jun was tangling with the gigantic tree’s roots, his partners started executing the plan pretty swiftly: Saturn and Z Ne got into the house and dealt with the mouse and rescued the boy, although it was in a somewhat risky way. Moyasu not only picked up the boy that Saturn forced to make a leap of faith, but also absolutely burned the tree and the house down, with sheer power and control of the Fire Style with some really cool looking jutsus. “I need to get a lot stronger to get to the level of these guys.”

At the end, with some setbacks and a bit of mayhem and destruction, the situation was controlled and in theory, their mission too. As Z Ne returned to ground level though, that vile, horrendous smell stroke Jun once again. How on earth could something smell that bad? And worst, how was Z Ne standing to smell like that as if nothing was going on? This questions would stay in Jun’s mind for a while but at this point all he wanted was to go home and take a long shower as some of the smell could have impregnated him.

- Great job, I think we did it guys. Sure the scientist will have to build a new house and his son is in great, great trouble…but at least he knows now that his super fertilizer indeed works, so win-win? Whatever, let’s go ho…
And just as he was finishing his sentence, a raven carrying a large scroll approached in the air, dropping such scroll when above the shinobi party. “Oh shit…”.

The scroll:

After reading the scroll out loud to his teammates, Jun’s only reaction was to face palm himself really hard. Just when he thought that he would go home after all that tree madness, they were assigned with some really “non-shinobi” missions. Tearing down a building? A haunted mansion? Things could go wild again. And teaming once with Z Ne would mean that he would have to be around that terrible skunk smell for a while. After a few moments of lamentation, Jun started put his brain to work, aiming to think of a way to accomplish all the missions as efficiently and quickly as possible, so he could finally go home.

Could Moyasu burn and destroy the whole mansion with his fire techniques?”He’s strong enough…”. Perhaps Saturn, with his mind controlling, telepathic techniques could interrogate the crew to find out more about the haunting of the mansion, whle he guarded the rich and weird people? That sounded like a solid plan…. but Jun was having a really hard time to think of anything with the presence of that smell. Perhaps it would also be wise Z Ne to look for the source of such “haunting”...deep into the woods, very far away from him. Yes, that was indeed a plan.

So, after taking a very deep breath, Jun explained his plan to his teammates, without caring much about the opinion of the others, since he was already fed up and bored with the whole situation anyways.

-…and I will pick up and guard the rich folk from any peril, got it? Any questions? No? Great, let’s fucking go, see you all at the Mayberry Mansion. – and as he finished explaining his plan, Jun just started heading towards the Alpine Village without giving anyone the time to give an opinion or ask a question.

So the young Shibasaki headed north to the cozy Alpine Village in the Kumogakure mountains, and because of the fact that the village where all the tree madness happened was already halfway there from the Kumogakure village, it didn’t take him long to reach the small, cozy touristic village. The weather there as colder, but because of his natural high body temperature, it did not bother Jun at all. After asking a couple of people on the streets, Jun easily found the luxurious resort they’re staying at. Upon entering the lobby, the young shinobi started clapping, trying to call people’s attention:

- Everyone, my name is Jun Shibasaki, I’m the shinobi assigned to escort the group that is heading towards the Mayberry Mansion for the grand spectacle of the Kumogakure shinobi. Everyone that signed up for this show must present itself here at the lobby in up to 5 minutes, otherwise you’ll be left behind, by the Raikage’s order! – shouted Jun, pretending to read the scroll containing the Kage’s message for the ninjas as if they were an actual official announcement.

Soon all the rich people began to gather there, all weird-looking old timers reeking of male cologne. “Better than skunk smell at least...”. And so a large group started forming at the lobby while Jun asked the concierge where the hell the Mayberry Mansion actually was. After learning that and with the 5 minutes gone, Jun again addressed the people at the lobby:

- So, all of you form a straight line behind me and follow my lead, as we are reading for a fire spectacle as you have never seen, shall we gentleman? – said Jun to the group, while pointing to the exit.

And so they left, a long line of old and rich weirdos led by a rookie genin. What could go wrong? And so they headed to the mansion, with Jun hoping that his teammates would already be there and that his plan would be a success and that sooner than later, he would finally head home for a well-deserved rest.

WC: 1110
TWC: 2710

Fri Oct 07, 2022 6:57 pm

"NOOOOOOO!!!" Saturn had wailed to no avail, as he bore witness to the snout of the late skunk who reared its head from the gaping hole in the wall as it was punched in. As the corpse crashed hard into the scurrying megarodent, its burning foul stench had seeped into the shinobi's lungs and made his drowning eyes weep. Unable to bear the stench any longer, the tortured Genin put his hands together to form the snake hand seal. He was left with no other choice.

Although his handy technique was effective in shutting his nose to the dreadful smell all around him, he was regrettably forced to shut his nose to the smell of the burning skunk - the good skunk - as well. His displeasure at being forced into this most uncool set of circumstances was visible blandly on his face. His brows pinched to knot on his forehead and formed a pronounced frown, and his sharp white teeth ground against each other in his mouth. "It's that stinky ninja again!" He pinched his desensitised nose and pointed at Z as they burst in to drive their knee into what was left of the rodent. "You dimwit! You owe me your cut for this!" He vowed, and squinted his eyes at the specimen before taking out a torchlight from his fanny pack and pointing it at Z. He would then proceed to flip them off while manically flicking at the switch to flash the light on and off rapidly as he made his way towards the room with the trapped Konohamaru still inside, turning his head to point the light at Z's face for as long as he was in their line of sight.

"Good catch, chef! NOOOOOO!! WAIIIT!!!!!!!" Saturn barely had the time to light a blunt from the sample. When he stuck his head out of the window and placed his hand over his brow to peer past the smoke, he had hoped to see that the chef had caught Konohamaru safely. What he saw next would almost cause his heart to stop. The True Fire of Samadhi had quickly incinerated a large portion of the mutant pest starting from its roots. The crumbling house had suffered no less collateral damage. The fire from The Great Blazeball that expanded rapidly and made its way towards the house from the ground below was a dire cause for concern to the agile shinobi. While he was quick and had the ability to teleport, his superpowers were not without their limits. He quickly tried to count how many times he had vanished into and appeared back seamlessly from thin air. First, he had used it to show off to his unofficial subordinate Jun Shibasaki. Then, it did not matter, he had to try. He closed his eyes and found that he did not even have the time to form the hand seals or the gesture that would be required. When light hit his icy blue eyes again, he found that he was outside with the guild of shinobi. For the first time, he did not have to use any hand seals to use his teleportation. The Genin looked at the front and back of both his hands to check if he was dreaming, and then looked around to assess the situation on the ground.

"You're right, Jun, I couldn't have said it any bett-." Saturn chimed in along with the Shibasaki. He wiped the sweat off his brow, and he looked twice as ready as the younger shinobi to go straight home, when the much too familiar messenger raven flew overhead and dropped its scroll. "Oh sssshi-."

As Jun read out the contents of the scroll, the Fortuneteller raised his brow. Unbeknownst to the group, Saturn had been in Mayberry Mansion just the other night. He had been tasked with dealing with a haunted house at the edge of the charred remnants of Black Forest, because a demolition crew refused to go anywhere near the site. Upon investigation, Saturn along with two of his friends had discovered that it was a homeless Genjutsu user who resided in the site. After informally evicting the senior citizen, the shinobi never followed up with the contractors. He was sure that this mission was dealt with, and someone at HQ let this case slip through the cracks. Or the contractors were being ignorant. Although he would normally be annoyed at this situation, he was in the mood for halloween, and he had a wicked good idea.

While the scroll reader laid out a plan for the party of ninja to follow, Saturn was busy scheming. "Watch your mouth!" He snapped out of his daze when he heard Jun cuss, choosing to reprimand his 'student' while covering Konohamaru's ears.

"I actually have something to take care of beforehand - a prior commitment... involving vinegar and... mundanity." He claimed with a plain, nonchalant, unassuming poker face, "You two carry on ahead, and I'll meet you at the mansion!"

With those words, he poofed again.

WC: 836

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