[ANBU] Pretender to the Throne

[TyDie]

The young Ibakuro walked with purpose through the lands of Fire Country, towards the northeastern border of the country, following intel from a local village. The intel was clear - People were going missing, just like before when she was sent out with Minako. The local forests had an upsurgence of arachnid activity, with thicker webs being noted alongside a vastly increased population. Reports of strange figures in the woods with multiple arms and fangs protruding from their mouths only further confirmed suspicions that the Spider Colony was at work again. And naturally, being that Aiya was the first to confirm that the Colony was on the rise again, she volunteered to come out and deal with the threat as best she could before it got out of hand.

And she wasn't alone either - Two up and coming members of ANBU's ROOT division were in tow behind her. The first was a Nara with some unique Doujutsu based on the files she had read about the young boy, and the other was an Inuzuka, complete with their smelly ninken. She had worked with Minako of course, and her fear of dogs was no longer as crippling as it once was, but the Inuzuka still rubbed her the wrong way. Nevertheless, Aiya towered over the two genin as they walked in front, leading the team both because of the mission's relation to the Ibakuro clan and her status in ANBU.

"Alright you two... This is probably going to involve combat. I hope you're ready. You're going to see people that look kind of like me, my mentor and I encountered them a while ago... They're not human anymore. They've been infected, their minds aren't their own. So... don't feel bad about what you have to do today. You're doing them a favor." Aiya paused for a moment, a couple hundred yards away from the forest they were about to investigate. From here even, the two genin would be able to see the glinting of thick spider webs along the forest's canopy. "If either of you have arachnophobia, now's the time to tell me. This is clan business, so I can't tell you everything, but just know that I need you to listen carefully to my every order here. the future of the Ibakuro clan might depend on it."

Aiya turned to face the two genin, looking down at them with a small smile as she held out her hands and channeled a bit of chakra through her body. A moment later, a poof of white smoke emerged from her palms, and as the smoke cleared the girl would be holding a sword and shield - Onikiri and the Yata no Kagami. "If you've any questions, any reservations, now's the time to get them out. Once we're in the forest, the mission is on."

[Trusted Grader]

Kitsui rushed to the Root outpost once he had been called, only to be alerted that he was to be sent out on another mission, a sigh rolled within his mind but his outward appearance would only blink and then bow, he put on his gear and met up with Shiroyasha, who ironically had been chosen to be his partner, he didn't say a word as it had now been pretty clear that he never wanted to join the ROOT program and infact was basically tricked into it thanks to the Nara.

Eitherway, he followed suit and kept thinking to himself how strange it was that ever since he started taking his ninja duties seriously a string of events would occur, being induced into ROOT, about to be sent to the Chuunin exam and now help out with another clans ordeal, these were strange times indeed. I wish I never met Shiroyasha, that son of a bitch is just trouble I tell you... Kitsui cursed under his monkey mask as he continued to leap after the faster Chuunin.

He had been so busy mulling over the weird set of events that had happened to him recently that he hadn't really noticed how tall Aiya was, and would noticably flinch when she walked up to them. That is one huge b- He stopped his train of thought as he listened to her speak, once she turned her back to look at the spider infested forest, he would throw a glance over at Shiro, snicker before getting serious.

"Yeah I have a question... But I'll save that for later." Another snicker fell out his breath as he looked over at Shiroyasha. "I don't think I am afraid of spiders, ticks on the other hand can go to hell... And if there's no qualms in destroying these abominations then I'm sure we will manage fine, won't we?" Kitsui pet Shikon as he continued. "I assume, they are afraid of the one thing most living things are? Fire right?" He said, as if he possesed such an ability, the closest was Sankaton but he wouldn't be able to pull off such a tehcnique continously, not with the chakra pool he possessed.

Hopefully Aiya would be able to cover them as much as possible, while Shiroyasha hopefully wouldn't be useless. Kitsui chuckled at the thought before he got serious, he knew that this was not a laughing matter but the newly recruited black ops agent couldn't help but to find this whole ordeal somewhat funny, the super tall woman, his new nemesis as his comrade and a shit ton of spider freaks to deal with, it all felt fake, like one of the books he used to read.

---

453

[King of Cats]

It was still early in the afternoon and Shiroyasha was exceptionally sleepy. He was waiting in ROOT's Administration office for details on a up coming mission. Shiroyasha didn't know what kind of details the mission came with but he was pretty sure it was a very important mission. He was called in after an early morning mission and the shinobi had been waiting in the office for at least an hour. Shioryasha was a patient teenager and he occupied his time by thinking about what he would do after his service to the village was done for the day.

Ever since Shiroyasha and Kitsui were welcomed into ROOT the Nara-Awai had been doing a lot of specialized training. Instead of normal genin missions Shioryasha was tasked with various black ops missions. It didn't take the halfbreed long to pick up on the coaching style of ANBU. They had high expectations and Shiroyasha needed some time to get used to the more forceful application of education. Unfortunately for him ANBU trained their ninja's with a heavy hand and there was no time for adjustments. Shiroyasha was pretty beat from the nonstop training.

As he was sitting in the chair waiting Shiroyasha began dozing off but before he could fall into a deep, satisfying sleep he was startled awake by the sound of the door creaking open slowly. "Come in Shiroyasha." A young ninja said to him. Shiro got up and went into the office.

The girl explained the confidentiality of the mission. Shiro's file confirmed he didn't have any arachnophobia, which would be crucial to this mission. Shiroyasha was happy to be informed the mission would include Kitsui. He had a growing rival with the young Inuzuka and couldn't wait to show off his skills. Shiroyasha didn't know what was going on but he accepted the mission anyway.

When the day came for Shiroyasha to meet up with his team for the mission he was dressed early in the morning in his thick, red coat. He made his way for the ANBU outpost in the forests of Fire Country. It was only a days journey and Shiroyasha was speedy, he made it there with time to spare. As he rolled up Shiro saw Kitsui but there wasn't any time to say hello. The leader of the mission, Aiya, was ready to brief them. Shiroyasha didn't have any questions and when it was his time to speak he was grinning wildly. "I'm ready to kill some spiders."
Shiroyasha hated bugs.

[TyDie]

Aiya could practically feel the sass rising in Kitsui's throat as the boy suppressed what was no doubt a childish response... She could tell she would likely have a migraine by the end of the day, dealing with the two genin. At least Shiroyasha seemed to want to get straight to business, although his joy in regards to the slaughter of spiders had her rather concerned... At least it was directed at the right kind of spiders today. "I would imagine fire will work well against these creatures, yes. They die the same as anything else, I've had to kill quite a few of them already. But we're on the lookout for a particular creature. You'll know her if we see her..." She trailed off cryptically as her mind went back to that day with Minako, where they first encountered the new rising star among the Spiders - A new Queen on the rise. If she was here, as intel suggested she might be, they had to stop her.

If there was nothing else to stop them, Aiya would begin making her way towards the webbed woods in front of them. "Stay close you two. I don't think I need to point out that we're walking directly into the Spider's web. Any twitch sent down the wrong silken strand could alert the entire colony." As the group made their way into the forest proper, it was as if the sun itself was blotted out by the webs and leaves above them. Where once it was sunny and bright, now it was dark and dreary in all directions. Those with sensitive hearing could no doubt hear the faint skittering of nearby creatures - Whether they were spiders or something worse was unclear.

"We're looking for a cave, a way to make our way underground. Tsuchigumo - Ground Spiders. Trap setters and burrowers who make their lairs within the earth. But they'll definitely have sent-" Aiya froze in her steps and held her hands out to the two genin behind her, motioning for them to freeze. She closed her eyes and placed her hand on a nearby tree, carefully focusing on the vibrations she could feel reverberating through the roots and trunk of the tree... And suddenly her eyes darted open.

"Above!"

The young shinobi cried out as she dodged deftly to the left, rolling through a nearby bush as a large humanoid creature landed where she had been standing merely a second ago. The creature was large, at least 7 feet tall, with a mostly human appearance. The exceptions to this were it's unnaturally blackened skin, chitin covering various parts of it's body, and an extra arm extending out from behind it's right shoulderblade. It's fingers ended in ravenous talons and green ichor dripped down from fangs protruding from it's mouth. It's eyes resembled Aiya's; Green sclerae with large black pupils, and it had an extra eye on both sides of it's head. Truly it was an abomination to behold.

And as it reeled it's head back, it let out a bloodthirsty cry that sounded almost like a chittering gargle. Above them, the leaves and webs began to stir - It was clear they wouldn't be alone for long. The creature readied itself to fight, lunging first at the young Inuzuka, it's claws eager to dig into the boy's flesh.

Aiya JutsuShow

[Spider's Touch]
B-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
Spiders must rely on their ability to feel their web twitch with their legs to know when something has entered their web. Knowing this, Aiya has honed her sense of touch to the level of the spider. By feeling vibrations within something she is touching, she can pinpoint the location of any vibrations made within 20 meters of her. Vibrations are created when something touches the surface in question, so things such as walking along the ground or tapping on a wall she is touching will let her know exactly where the vibration came from. She can also discern the general size of the thing creating the vibrations, letting her differentiate smaller things like projectiles or debris from larger things like people or boulders. In general, the weight of a thing increases the intensity of the vibrations it creates.

[Trusted Grader]

Kitsui was rather surprised to see Shiroyasha not dressed in his Root uniform, in fact, he was quite pissed because that meant that the Inuzuka had come overdressed, or at least that was what he felt. First this son of a bitch got me into this mess and now he got me looking like a damn fool. Kitsui sighed and clicked his teeth, he shook his head as he followed Aiya's instructions, he wanted to say something but figured that there was no need to waste his breath, he had been hired to eradicate vermin so here he was.

I wish someone had told me that this was what we were here for, Anbu needs to get better at fucking telling me what I am set up to do. It seems like half of the time I'm sent on some crazy ready-to-die mission and only get the bare minimum intel. Tsck, It's probably because they don't want intel to leak, but how am I supposed to operate flawlessly with half the information? Even this chick isn't really telling us what the hell is going on.

Shikon smiled at Kitsui until their surroundings started to blot out the sun and more and more webbings covered their field of view, the dog was usually the calm one of the two but seeing as they were far behind enemy lines, the chill dog visibly started to shake as it didn't want to growl and alert the spiders to their presence. Shikon whimpered once Kitsui looked at him, which prompted him to pet the dog. "Don't worry Shikon, I won't let anything harm you, boy." The Inuzuka's entire demeanor changed, for he too could hear how the critters moved about in the dark and if not for his mask then they would surely see on his facial expression that he was extremely concerned.

Fire works on these sons of bitches, yet I only have Sankaton at my disposal, what was that technique I was supposed to train again? Kitsui pulled out a small scroll and read the hand seals written down then put the scroll back inside his chest pocket. "Shit, watch it!" Shikon had already lept backward, while Kitsui grabbed Shiroyasha's redcoat and pulled him backward.

His hands would form a flurry of hand seals as the Inuzuka slid backward, he grabbed a Kunai with a flash attached to it and coated that bad boy in Sankaton energy, "Are all these spider freaks this huge or what?" The monkey-masked Anbu wanted to curse but he knew better than to lose focus, he tossed the blade toward the spider person's chest as he performed a backflip.

"Blondie! Flash!" Kitsui called out to Shiroyasha to make his flash even stronger, he was going to call him Abomni but felt it was wrong whenever there were other people around, well, it was more the fact that the thing in front of them was an even bigger abomination.

The flash would go off mid-way, in hopes of blinding the enemy, making it harder for it to dodge the incoming sankaton blade, for he knew that if that thing so much touched him then he would probably be toast. Besides, this arena was not Gatsuuga friendly and he could tell by the strong webbings that surrounded them. This is so far removed from the ideal combat arena for us.

---

Trained

561/485

*[Corroding Hearts]
D-Ranked Sankaton Ninjutsu
After doing the needed hand seals, the ninja covers a small projectile in Sankaton chakra. Whenever the projectile hits a target, the sankaton will strike first at [Control] Strength, eroding the material it strikes.

[King of Cats]

Walking into the Spider's Web Shiroyasha stayed close to Kitsui and Aiya. The Nara was not thrilled to be walking into a monsters den, but he had certainly spent his time doing worse off deeds. Picking up cat shit from the Konoha playgrounds sandboxes was actually worse than this, though it wasn't as dangerous. Shiroyasha was not so worried about diseases from the spiders, though that was a threat to him too.

With his clan specialty being shadow possession Shiroyasha was at a disadvantage from the front against these spiders and he knew it. He walked close to his companions with a kunai drawn and his Raitogan activated. With the Shining eye active Shiroyasha could easily see in the darkness of the forest and he wasn't at all surprised when the creature attacked. The Raitogan offered not only night vision but X-Ray vision. Shiroyasha could see through the canopy above and he saw the giant arachnoid preparing to attack from up high.

When the spider jumped down and attacked Aiya she was quick to dodge. Naturally at the sight of his enemy Shiroyasha began channeling chakra into the kunai he was wielding, preparing an Imploding Star jutsu. He flung his kunai at the beast following Kitsui's and the two kunai exploded with a great flash of light. The beast felt the powerful heat of Shiroyasha's Awai bloodline and recoiled from the sudden stunning shock of flashing lights. As the beast did so Kitsui and Shiroyasha's kunai flew directly into the beasts shoulder and pierced it's armor. It was a hulking monster but Kitsui's Sankaton technique eroded the hard, chitinous material and opened up a soft spot for the genin to work with.

Acting quick Shiroyasha grabbed a shuriken and performed the Demon Wind Shuriken Jutsu but focusing his chakra into the shuriken and transforming it. Suddenly he wielded a large, collapsible shuriken to fight the creature. Shiroyasha flung it at the beast and as it soared through the air Shiroyasha put together some hand seals. The shuriken flew at the arachnid but it was easily knocked away giving Shiroyasha the opportunity to form a Shadow Tendril out of the monsters own shadow. The long, spear like tendril quickly crawled around the freaks body and plunged it's way into it's flesh from the exposed hole in it's armor.

Shiroyasha looked to Kitsui with another kunai in his hand, this one with an explosive tag wrapped around the blade. "Finish him off." Shiroyasha said to Kitsui and continued focusing his chakra into the jutsu. As long as he kept the Shadow Tendril impaling deep into the creature it couldn't move.

As the two genin worked on fighting off the scout spider there was trouble brewing rapidly through the woods. The spiders were converging on their point fast and it was going to be up to Aiya to protect them. One was enough of a challenge. Shiroyasha was putting himself through the ringer to subdue the creature as it was, but more of them was a nightmare come true.

The fresh webs of the spider clan stirred deep into the forest, the vibrations of the battle reverberating through the webbing and giving the enemy all the information they needed to gang up on them. Fighting off one Shiroyasha didn't even think about it, his focus was dedicated to the enemy nearest to him. He waited for Kitsui to pull off some fantastic taijutsu and kill the beast, but he didn't know what he was waiting for.

[TyDie]

The attacks launched by Shiroyasha and Kitsui were quite successful in tandem, tearing through the spider's chitinous armor with Sankaton was a brilliant use of the Inuzuka's power. The flashbang actually blinded Aiya as well, but the girl was quite skilled at navigating without vision - The blinding effect would not stop her from being able to move with precision and speed. As the spider mutant was bound by Shiroyasha's tendril, he called out for Kitsui to finish the mutant off. However, it would be Aiya's blade that brought an end to the spider - Eyes closed and nose in the air, she quickly distinguished the difference between the mutant's odor and the smell of the two boys, and lunged forward with a strong downward slash at the mutant. Her sword cleaved straight through it's skull, and with a yank back towards her, it would fall flat at her feet, green blood oozing from it's various wounds.

"No time for this." Aiya said, rubbing her eyes and blinking slightly to regain her vision. The sounds of shuffling leaves overhead made clear that they needed to get to cover, or at least a more open location to better combat their enemies. With a poof of smoke, Aiya's sword and shield would return to the fuuinjutsu on her back, and in their place she now held a bow in her right hand, the Hama Yumi, with five arrows of gray stone in the other. "Deeper into the forest, quickly. The trees and bushes make this too crowded, we need to find a way underground."

With that, Aiya would rush forward into the woods, making sure not to go too quickly for fear of leaving the two genin behind. Her ears were perked and twitching ever so lightly, listening for movement above them as she lead the way forward. After a few moments, her head swiveled around at a particularly loud chitter, seeing another of the mutants preparing to descend upon them. And so, leaping forward slightly, she turned mid air while aiming an arrow at the abomination, the arrow brimming with blue chakra as she channeled into it and let the arrow fly. As her feet touched the earth again, she heard the telltale sound of flesh being pierced, her arrow having found it's home in the creature's stomach. While the two genin had used ninjutsu to erode the chitin, Aiya's strength was sufficient to punch hole straight through.

Without turning to see the creature, knowing it had fallen behind the three shinobi but not dead, she simply activated the arrow in it's chest with a bit more chakra. A sudden explosion rang out through the forest as the arrow shattered with concussive force, launching shrapnel through the spider mutant's body and leaving it dead on the ground. "Keep moving, I see a clearing up ahead." the young spider girl stated, breaking through the treeline to see what lay before them...

They stood in a 20 meter clearing now, a sort of meadowed landscape in the middle of this forest. The sun shone through here, a beacon of safety from the dark of the forest, the tall grass reaching about knee height. On the other end of this meadow, past a few trees, a large hill could be seen through the darkness of the woods, and protruding from that hill looked to be a cavernous entrance. Perhaps what they were looking for? But before they could get to it, the swarm would have to be dealt with... as well as the two particularly large spider mutant that emerged from the other side of the meadow. Each stood 8 feet tall, one had four arms while the other had three. There was about 15 meters between the Konoha shinobi trio and the mutant duo, and who knew how many spiders and mutant were trailing behind them?

Jutsu UsedShow

[Spider's Sound]
B-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
Spider's are incredibly sensitive to vibrations of all kinds, as their bodies are covered with hundreds of tiny hairs that let them pick up on sounds and tremors. Knowing this, Aiya has honed her sense of hearing to the level of the spider. With this jutsu, she can hear loud or obnoxious sounds from up to 200 meters away. For things of average volume, such as the sound of someone walking or running, she can pinpoint their exact location within 20 meters of her person. This allows her to tell where the sound is in relation to her, and how close they to her.

[Spider's Scent]
B-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
Spider's release chemicals in the air that other spiders can smell very easily at long distances to ward off competition or attract mates. Knowing this, Aiya has honed her sense of smell to the level of the spider. Her sense of smell is so keen that she can pick up the smell of rotting flesh from 200 meters away. Of course, few things stink that much, so for the average scents like the smell of a human, the range is limited to 20 meters. This allows her to tell the direction of a smell, as well as how close they are based on the potency of their scent.

[Seiryu no Kiba • Draconic Dexterity]
B-Rank Taijutsu Discipline
After much training and study, the practitioner is able to launch projectiles from previously impossible positions. This Discipline represents the practitioner's ability to launch projectile attacks without any detriment to their aim regardless of the position of their body. This includes while contorting their body or making rapid adjustments such as dodging attacks or performing acrobatic maneuvers.

[Doton • Shrapnel Shot]
D-Rank Ninjutsu
Aiya will perform a series of hand seals, funneling chakra within a projectile made of stone, such as her arrows or a weapon created by Doton. Then, after firing the projectile, a single hand seal after the fact will cause the projectile to explode. This will shower the area within 5 meters of the projectile with rocky shrapnel, propelled with strength equal to Aiya's [Control].

[Trusted Grader]

Kitsui was ready to pounce the freak when Aiya took over, which shocked him though part of him was glad as he wasn't sure if his physical strength could match the corroding power he had at the moment, besides, he thought it would be too early to bust out the Inuzuka signature move. Shikon barked as he snapped the Inuzuka back, together they mad dashed after their leader until they reached a dark meadow, he knew that the Nara wouldn't be able to bust out his shadow tech, which left them in a sticky situation.

"Eeeh, what do we do? Any bright ideas?" Kitsui pulled out two kunai's, each carrying a different explosive, one with a flash and the other with an explosive.

He wasn't sure if he would attempt the same jutsu or try to distract the enemies as he knew better than to utilize too much chakra in a short span of time, especially not when they were in a sticky situation. God damn it, why did she not bring anymore back up than this? Especially if she knew that we would have to fight the entire damn forest... What the hell is going on here!? Kitsui was generally a jokester but this situation was far from funny.

The dog kept him on high alert as the duo protected their rear, it was now up to their leader to decide what their next plan of action was as it seemed that she was the only one truly capable of dealing with these beasts, they were after all just her back up.

[King of Cats]

Watching Aiya easily take care of the spider creatures was impressive. Shiroyasha could feel a considerable drain in his chakra reserves from using his Shadow Tendril to subdue one beast. He couldn't imagine how he would fight several but it seemed like that was what was in store for Shiroyasha, Kitsui and the mysterious Aiya. Shiroyasha wasn't sure what to think of her. She seemed pretty adept at fighting these creatures, in fact she had a certain sort of air about her that gave Shiroyasha the suggestion that she might know a lot more about these creatures than she had let on. "She could have told us their weakness or something. A hole in their armor, something." Shiroyasha thought to himself as he followed Aiya out of the forest and into a clearing.

With Kitsui ready for battle Shiroyasha took it as a cue to equip himself with some armaments. Shiroyasha was a fan of the windmill shuriken and pulled out a regular shuriken. He channeled chakra into it and the shuriken poofed in a cloud of smoke. In just a second the smoke cleared and Shiroyasha was wielding a folded windmill shuriken. He pulled out two explosive tags and slapped them onto the blades of his weapon.

Standing in a twenty meter clearing Shiroyasha could see the rustling of the forest around him. He knew action was imminent and kept his Raitogan active. Piercing the trees Shiroyasha used his x-ray vision to count how many monsters were around them. With his x-ray vision Shiroyasha could see the bones of the creatures and he was quite disgusted. They had a human anatomy but there were horrible arachnid-esque disfigurements to the shape of the body. Shiroyasha couldn't help but wonder what the hell he was facing. He stood ready to defend himself in the meadow with his ninja companions.

[TyDie]

The young Spider cursed under her breath as she counted the different chitters and chatters, the scurrying, the rustling of leaves and the bending of branches that resounded through the canopy around them. It must have been at least 6, but it could be a whole lot more... Shiroyasha would be able to give a more accurate summary with his vision, counting no less than 10 different sets of bones traipsing through the canopy towards their location. Behind her, towards the cave, the large spider mutants hissed and gurgled at the young genin, green ichor dribbling from their mouths as their eyes darted between the two, some sense of mild sentience residing behind those eyes but no sapience to speak of. Mindless drones, that's all these were.

So why wasn't Aiya telling the two boys anything about their potential powers or abilities? A fear of betraying her clan's secrets to outsiders? Perhaps, but she couldn't hold back any longer. If they were going to be involved in this, they'd have to know what they're dealing with from here on out. "Yeah, ideas... Handle those two. Their eyes aren't armored, it's about the only spot you can aim for without breaking the chitin first. Blind them, tear through the armor, expose the squishy bits inside. I'll handle the swarm... As Aiya spoke, a poof of smoke emanated from her right palm, and a moment later her green glaive was resting in her hand. Simultaneously, the girl began to mold chakra within her body, preparing a technique to tear the swarm and everything else to mincemeat.

"Get behind me, go after the big ones!" The young woman shouted, directing the chakra in her body towards her glaive while she spun it around her body. Once the chakra had built up to it's limit, Aiya would let out a cry as she leapt into the air and slammed the weapon down hard on the ground in front of her, the blade tearing through the rocky earth like butter as it released it's chakra into the dirt. Emanating from her blade, a massive fissure would form in a series of massive, jagged lines stretching out from her blade. As they rippled through the earth, large chunks of rock and dirt were tossed around like shrapnel, tearing through the trees and bushes and leaving nothing in it's wake. Foliage in the immediate path of the crack was torn to shreds and sucked into the earth, as the ground opened up into a massive jaw of stone and mineral. Many of the trees falling into the massive sinkhole had some of those creatures within them, their chattering screams floating above the thunderous cacophony of doton chakra rending the earth asunder.

That would eliminate a large chunk of the spiders, but there were still more along the outskirts of the forest. And after her little display, there was no telling how many more were skittering through the trees to check on the massive explosion they heard. Twirling her glaive once more, she'd assume a readied posture as she waited for more prey to make it's way to her.

JutsuShow

[Doton • Tsuchigumo's Maw]
B-Ranked Nintaijutsu Maneuver
Aiya will gather chakra within her, funneling the chakra into whatever weapon she is currently holding before swinging the weapon at the ground. As the weapon makes contact with the ground, the chakra will funnel into the earth and soften the ground in the path of the force of Aiya's weapon, causing a jagged crack to rush forward up to 60 meters at a strength and speed equal to Aiya's [Strength]. As the crack travels, it tosses around dirt, rock and stone at a strength and speed equal to the strength of the initial strike, dealing damage as the crack forms. The crack is up to 20 meters wide and deep, and drops down into a jagged crevice full of sharpened rocks, granting the jutsu it's name. A post later, the crevice will close with [Control] speed and strength,, crushing and stabbing anything caught within.

---

Meanwhile, the larger mutants facing off against the two genin were bloodthirsty, and would wait no longer to satiate their desires. Dropping down on their hands and legs, the two skittered with incredible speed towards the duo of boys, their limbs shifting with loud pops and cracks as they spread out to their sides as if they were spider limbs. The first one lunged towards Shiroyasha, it's fangs bare and ready to sink deep into the boy's flesh, while the other aimed to bash into Kitsui at full force, knocking him to the ground so that it might pin him and begin to feast.

[Trusted Grader]

Kitsui tried his best to keep his calm but it was hard when all the skittering occupied all space, Kitsui and the dog's ears were so much better than their allies that only their imagination or ninjutsu could give them a representation of the noises he heard. Shaking like a rustled leaf, the boy continued to follow orders, while his dog acted as the braver one of the two. Kitsui channeled chakra and allowed his companion to cast a jutsu that allowed Shikon to transform into his master, once the smoke cleared another version of Kitsui would rush out of it.

Shikon's hands were quick to form the needed set of hand seals to be able to do his jutsu, Shikon got down on all four and began to run toward the spider that rushed Shiroyasha. The dog-man began to spin like the Tasmanian devil as he rushed towards his enemy, if he would connect with the enemy then he would slowly begin to shred his hardened shell before digging in towards the softer skin underneath. Kitsui on the other hand followed the spider's pounce and planted both of his feet underneath the spider's belly then kicked upwards as he swiped with his Sankaton claw, he wanted to use his strength and the spider's momentum against it to damage it, and gain some space.

Kitsui would finish the roll and toss a kunai at the spider's mouth before he turned towards his leader. "I hope you have a plan!" They couldn't just stay here and fight them all at once right? That would be insane, especially since she had brought two lower-ranked ninjas with her, these weren't the types of missions they were sent on... Or was it? Joining ROOT changed the young plant's life.

---

MetaShow

~Man-Beast Form
D Rank Ninjutsu
A technique similar in concept to the ~Beast-Man Form, ~Man-Beast Form grants the opposite effects. After completing the proper handseals, the user of this jutsu will take the form of his/her canine familiar. While allowing for unique combination assaults, the user is unable to perform handseals, and as such, only taijutsu can be utilized by the user and his/her familiar. This technique lasts for three posts.

~ Four-Legged Technique
C Rank Ninjutsu
After performing the necessary handseals, the user of this jutsu will take on a more canine-like appearance. When activated, the user's pupils will become nothing more than slivers, nails will become more claw-like, and s/he will travel on all fours. This partial transformation grants the user +6 speed and increased maneuverability, but lowers his/her control (-6) for five (5) posts.

~Piercing Fang
C Rank Taijutsu Maneuver
Prerequisite: ~ Four-Legged Technique must be active.
The basis for the Beast-Man form style of combat, this attack is performed by an individual clan member. By spinning rapidly, the user turns into a whirling mass before launching themselves at his/her target. By putting their full body into the attack, the clan member will hit an opponent or nearby object at full strength with their claws, easily rending flesh from bone.

[King of Cats]

As he stood at the ready with his explosive windmill shuriken, Shiroyasha was rushed by a spider mutant. Before he could react though, Kitsui came flying from the side in a Raucous tornado of claws. The Inuzuka pummeled into the mutant and Shiroyasha was safe for another second. Before he could thank his companion Shiroyasha spotted another spidering getting ready to charge him.

The beast reared up and arched it's back before lunging forward for Shiroyasha with it's fangs covered in venomous ichor. Shiroyasha slung his shuriken forward. As the shuriken soared through the air, the spidering easily dodged it. It seemed that Shiroyasha just wasn't quite strong enough to throw fast enough to hit the spider, but Shiro was ready for that. He let a Kai off as the windmill shuriken soared past the creature, and the windmill shuriken exploded. The collapsible shuriken bursted apart and it's arms went flying into the spider, twice. The spider was thrown back from the explosion, but it seemed it would take more than that to finish it off. Shiroyasha put together some hand seals as the spidering got up, and he extended his shadow forward. Shiroyasha's shadow climbed up the spidering in the form of two black hands, and reached up for the creatures eyes. Shiro held the final handseals, controlling his shadow to attack his enemy. The shadow hands plunged into the spiderlings eyes and plucked them out; then Shiroyasha performed another series of handseals and his shadow became a tendril. Shiro plunged his shadow through the spiderling's weakened skull, killing it.

Looking up for Aiya, Shiroyasha wondered what their plan out of this was.

[TyDie]

The spiderling that was slashed at by the young Inuzuka hissed as the sankaton claw bit through it's armor, tearing into the fleshy bits underneath with surprising effectiveness as it was sent rolling away by the force of it's own charge. It got back to it's feet and bared it's fangs at the interlopers, alive but wounded, before charging at Shiroyasha. The boy's shuriken and shadows made decisive work of the creature, which struggled in agony as the tendrils of shadow blinded and executed the mutant. A merciful end, given the circumstances.

The Ninken's spiderling, on the other hand, wasn't ready to concede defeat - while the dog did in fact dig through part of the spider's armor, at some point it reached out towards the ninken and grabbed at the transformed beast, using it's surprising strength to put a stop to the spinning motion of the bullet-like technique. Then, with a mighty roar, it intended to drop it's mandibles down hard on the dog, dealing severe damage if nothing intervened. Thankfully however, Aiya was quick on the draw, a series of kunai appearing in her left hand with a poof before she threw them all with a single toss.

A series of impacts against the carapace of the spider mutant rang out as one after another, a series of five kunai knives dug into the creature's body in a tiny grouping along the side of it's temple. In rearing back for that bite, it left itself completely exposed to a sudden barrage of throwing weapons from the side by Aiya, and with nothing more than a quiet hiss the thing fell over on the ground, rapidly twitching and curling into a defeated posture not dissimilar to the death throes of a real spider. Aiya turned to look the boys over, noting that with the exception of a little shakiness, they seemed no worse for wear. "Good... I had hoped you two would figure it out."

As she spoke, a few of the spider creatures that had fallen into the stone chasm she had left behind looked to be making their way out of the pit, climbing the walls. But just as one began to breach the surface, a sudden rumbling rang out as the pit rapidly closed in on itself, the disturbing sounds of squelching and inhuman howls filling the air as the chasm closed, severing the one potential escapee in half as it disappeared from sight with the remains of those spiders entombed forever in the rocks. The tree line was still rustling, perhaps the monsters were being cautious now that they had seen what the three shinobi were capable of?

Either way, for a brief moment, they had a chance to talk.

"We just need to make it into that cave. Once we're there, we'll be able to more carefully repel them through bottlenecks and smart tactics. We just need to get to the bottom and deal with the one controlling them, and the rest will die." Aiya nodded to the two before holding up her glaive in her right hand, letting it poof away once more in a cloud of white smoke as it returned to her fuuinjutsu. "I'm sorry that I didn't explain more sooner. This involves the Ibakuro clan's secrets, so I didn't feel I could trust you with any serious information such as weaknesses to our clan's bloodline. But that could just as easily lead to your death here... You've got the best you can work with now, and you seem to be capable of dealing with these spiders pretty adequately. I think we can finish this."

Aiya began to make her way over to the cave at a walking pace, her eyes and head on a swivel as she watched the tree lines for any signs of a rush. They had about 20 meters to go to get to the other end of the clearing and another 30 or 40 before they made it to the mouth of the cave that lead to their quarry. Maybe they could make it over there without being ambushed by the denizens of this cursed forest...

JutsuShow

[Seiryu no Kiba • Many Fangs]
D-Rank Taijutsu Maneuver
Preparing multiple projectiles, the practitioner launches each of the projectiles at one or more targets. For each target beyond the first, the accuracy of each of the attacks is decreased, suffering a -1 Strength penalty for each additional target.

[Trusted Grader]

Kitsui heard how his dog was struggling to kill the spiderling, he prepared to assist the dog but stopped once he spotted Aiya save Shikon. Shiroyasha took care of the other spider which meant that there weren't that many left. Aiya not having a plan wasn't exactly comforting but no matter, they were still alive and together they would be able to beat this. They continued to fight until things began to clear up and the spider woman felt comfortable enough to begin to speak, the truth revealed itself, intriguing and irritating Kitsui at the same time, for he understood how important it was to keep clan secrets but to drag ROOT members out here into what can almost be counted as an ambush with little to no info was also frowned upon.

"Understood, as an Inuzuka member, I can relate, but don't ever drag me out like this again you hear me? I don't mind helping and keeping secrets, I just don't want to risk my life or my pets if I don't even know what it's about." Kitsui canceled Shikon's clone tech and petted the dog who seemed to relax a little, his fluffy tail was wiggling, and his spotted tongue droop out of his mouth, the dog smiled at the crew, which allowed the ROOT members shoulders to lower. "Now if we only need to take out the leader then there should be ways we can deal with this cave situation without just Leroying it, could we convince the other spiders that the leader is flawed?" Kitsui wasn't sure that it would work but that was a start.

"I see, well... How attached are you to these spiders?" Kitsui looked around as he scratched the back of his head, from the looks of it it didn't seem like it was that much. "Because... We could just smoke big mamma out you know? Instead of sticking our heads inside the spider's nest." Shikon seemed to bark at the idea, he looked over at Shiroyasha who he expected to approve of this idea, it was only Aiya who could perhaps protest this idea as smoking people out of their homes was a bit cruel but an effective tactic if they were truly only after one target.

[King of Cats]

In the moment, Shiroyasha felt relieved that the spiderling's were fleeing from the ninja. Shiroyasha had put forth incredible effort to kill the most recent one. He was feeling the taxing of his chakra reserves, and it was good to have a moment free. He kept his Raitogan active, observing the treeline for any stray attacks. He thought they were safe for the moment, but only time would tell. Shiroyasha dusted off his red jacket and walked over to Aiya. He was about ten meters away and he wanted to be present for her little speach. Shiroyasha dashed over to the group.

Kitsui and Shikon seemed to be worse for wear. They were fighting harder than Shiroyasha. One of the benefits of being a caster type combatant meant that Shiroyasha didn't fight up close an personal. This had advantages and disadvantages. He certainly would struggle to get through a hand to hand fight with one of the spiderling's, in fact Shiroyasha was pretty sure he would die; but at a distance he had great advantage with his different Ninjutsu. If Shiroyasha wanted to make it out of this battle he would have to stay in the back, and he knew that. He planned on talking to Aiya about that, hoping to avoid another close encounter, but she was talking to the group. Shiroyasha listened intently and didn't interrupt her.

When Aiya was done talking Shiroyasha piped up. He spoke with a certain trepidation in his voice, hesitant to make any assumptions on the largely mysterious horde he was fighting. Shiroyasha wanted to be respectful, but he was a bit frustrated with Aiya's tentative data dispersion. The Genin was feeling like he had been taken advantage of. He didn't take it personally, but Shiro would be sure to be given more details on missions before he willingly signed up for them. In the broad military format of Konohagakure he never had to worry about secrets like this affecting a mission, ANBU was different however. The ROOT member would have to temper his anger if he wished to succeed in the black ops.

"Well Aiya, try to think of our well-being from here on out. You can see we are competant ninja, now treat us like humans. We are both more than a number when we are on the same team." The veins around Shiroyasha's eyes bulged with every word he spoke, the yellow pupils examining in detail every aspect of light within the trees around the team of ninjas. The spiderling's were still motionless, it was quite ominous.

"Lead the way, but just so you know, I have no skill up close. I can support you two, but my ability to fight these freaks is hindered by my close quarters combat experience." Shiroyasha pulled another kunai out of his pocket and then channeled chakra into it. He transformed it into another windmill shuriken and kept it in his hand.

When the group headed to the source of the cave, Shiroyasha stayed at the back, using his dojutsu to pierce the light around him and find spiderling's stalking the group.