[Graded]Shrine of the Beast king

[HotelBravo]

Mission Registration Office. 6 A.M. - Kumogakure
Hanako was up bright and early, This was not incredibly unusual given her strange sleep cycle. She had waited patiently at the shinobi jutsu archives to open so that she could enter and once again take some notes on various techniques she was interested in learning. She was drawn to the Flawless Aim technique scrolls where she copied down some cliff-notes versions of the instructions onto her own scroll and rolled it up and set it in her pouch, before returning the original manuscript. Immediately after she had made her way to the Mission Registrar’s office to pick up her next mission.

There was not much of a line today and Hanako figured she would be given D rank busy work type of mission, as genin were often assigned, but as she stood before the registrars, she showed her identification and received a scroll marked “C”.

”Maybe they made a mistake? I’m just a genin and I don’t have a genin team or a jounin sensei how am I supposed to do a C rank mission by myself? Isn’t this going to be too hard? ” Anxiety began to spread from the tips of her toes to the red on the back of her ears. She was snapped out of her trance by the Registrar shaking her shoulder. She looked up at the fellow who was a a good two feet taller and wore a sympathetic look on his face.

”I know its a little scary to head out onto a Crank mission, but you’re not alone in this. Review the mission details and then meet with your team mates. You’ll do fine, I promise.” The registrar patted her on the shoulder before returning to behind the counter. Hanako walked away before unrolling the scroll in private to review the details.

C rank Mission:
Restore the seals at the old Kyoukan Shrine.
An old Kyoukan Shrine was recently discovered in Lightning country and the clan has requested aid from Kumogakure in their attempts to restore the seals around the shrine. The Purpose of the seals are not known, but it is known that dangerous creatures have taken residence in the shrine.

Team Chiaki will complete this mission.
Team Chiaki will be comprised of the following : Kyoukan Chiaki - Mission Leader, Hanamura Hanako - Subordinate

Hanako immediately set off to find the Butterfly woman - the healer of the Land of Lightning - Kyoukan Chiaki. After a short search of the village she was able to spot some of the familiar insects that lead her to Chiaki. Hoping through a window Hanako would present the scroll to Chiaki - it would explain all that she needed to know.

[Kanade]

Chiaki had been visited by that lest the mission-registrar yesterday and had been ready to turn them down, yet again, for a mission that she didn't want to do in a place in the village.

They had her signed up for d ranked missions as a chuunin and it was rather insulting to say the least. She understood where the raikage was coming from with it all, but also didn't want to take missions that detracted from what she was, an aspirant seal user and medical kunoichi of the land of lightning.

She was desperate though, when the registration clerk came knocking, as she had scant food in her fridge to last another week and a bar on her practicing medicine until she underwent some rehab missions. She could either choose to accept a mission and wound her pride, or starve.

It was a tough choice.

Swallowing her pride and fixing the registrar a look that sent him a couple steps off his high horse, she unraveled the mission scroll and decided to swallow her pride.

It was a c ranked mission and besides it was in a temple that had belonged to her people. Of course she would have to accept. Her sour look, as she read it over turned to delight.

"I'd like to take hanako hanamura." She said rolling it up and nodding, "I won't go otherwise."

The registrar told her hed do his best to get her and then scurried off.

---

It was about 5 when she awoke the next day, put on her gi like always and flitted towards the gates. A blooming tree caught her eye, however, so she didn't quite make it to the spot where she was supposed to start every mission.

Instead she found herself lazily sitting in the tree, her butterflies busily drinking nectar and floating about her, she drank in the scent likewise and stared at the growing light of day.

What a wonderful day for a hike. She would let hanako lead them around, good practice for her pathfinding skills, and then the restoration would start.

Hanako came along in due time and Chiaki greeted her with a warm smile, "All ready to go then?"

She looked at the scroll and nodded, "Temple restoration for my family hmm? I wonder what makes it c ranked." She handed it back to hanako. "Alright, you will take the lead and find where it is and then we'll get to going."

[HotelBravo]

”I’m ready to g o… but…Me lead?” Hanako’s face turned beat red as she looked at the scroll that was handed back to her and tucked it away. ”Oh gosh I don’t know what I’m supposed to do? How do we even get to this shrine? I should check a map? I should have looked at that before I came here to meet with Chiaki.” She chittered nervously to herself, not aware that her thoughts were spilling out of her lips. She talking helped her quiet her mind enough to enable her to have a moment of clarity in thought - She had seen maps of the country before. Thats right. Granny had shown her the way. She remembered her grandmother displaying a map of the Land of Lightning, and though she was pointing the way to Kumogakure in the memory, Hanako had seen the map - and in a flash of eidetic memory she knew where the shrine was.

”Oh… Right I’ll lead the way.” She admitted softly. She did have her traveling gear ready as she made her way to the gates, passing through the towers that made up the buildings in Kumogakure and winding lower in altitude until arriving at the former temple that now stood as the gates to the city. Hanako showed the mission scroll to the gate guards he nodded and waived her and Chiaki through on their mission. The trek across land had them gradually lowering in altitude enough that Hanako’s ears popped.

Since they were Shinobi Hanako kept a pace that would have exhausted any civilian, but even so, the Land of Lightning was a large country. It took the majority of the day, but as the sun began to fall they had arrived at the Kyoukan temple, just in time for an ominous mist to appear over the landscape.

”Should we keep going?” Hanako puffed, this being her first cross country trek as a kunoich. She looked over to Chiaki.

[Kanade]

Chiaki watched as the smaller kunoichi tucked away the scroll and struggled with her emotions. She remembered when she was like that, it was about 17 years ago, but she also remembered being rather relieved that she was asked to and entrusted with doing something on her own in a mission. It was a simple enough task.

It took a bit of time, but apparently Hanako knew exactly where the shrine was. Chiaki nodded and smiled at the smaller Kunoichi as she made her way to the gates with her pupil, “You’re doing well Hanako.” She would praise as they passed through the threshold into the forest surrounding Kumogakure.

Chiaki had learned long ago that packing a snack helped with the altitude changes in climbing and descending mountains, and had packed a small baggy of trail-nuts for this occasion, noticing Hanako swallow as she assumed that the younger kunoichi’s ears popped she offered a handful to the girl. “They’re almonds, well. Mostly. There are some cashews in there I think.”

Chiaki approached the temple and as the mountainous air started to chill, Chiaki noticed that the condensation on the ground which was known as ‘night-mist’ by those at the temple started to gather. It was a folk-story that there would be Kami that would walk around in the mist, jump out and scare people to death, or drag them away and eat them. There was also stories about beautiful women walking in the mist that no one would be able to meet, and would lead people off of cliffs, and other such stories. Mist usually meant that the spirits were either mischievous, devious, or downright malevolent.

Chiaki didn’t usually put much stock into the stories, but she didn’t like the prospect of night-mist either way. It gave her a shudder up her spine.

“Mmmm. I can’t say that I like night-mist Hanako-chan.” She shook her head, “But we could keep going, I am sure that the shrine is one of the safer places to stay, even if it does need some help in the renovation department. Besides, I didn’t really pack a bag to sleep out under the stars.” She had been hoping that the temple wasn’t too far away from town, as her temple was about a half-days walk from Kumogakure, but with night descending, she couldn’t think of anywhere else to go besides into the temple.

[HotelBravo]

Hanako nodded to Chiaki, she expected that the Kyoukan knew how the shrines worked better then she did and lead the way into the mist and to the temple that stood out, its doors wide open like a gaping maw that was hungry for flesh, mist billowing down its steps like slobber of a beast. Hanako thought she heard a hungry moan as some of the wood that had been used to construct the shrine creaked under the weight of the shrine. Hanako stopped in her tracks, she really didn’t have a good feeling about this. In the flash of a heartbeat, a Kunai was in Hanako’s hands and her eyes were tracing over the landscape in search of enemies.

”The mission had reported that there were beasts living in the temple now so we better be on our guard.” Hanako said to Chiaki as she examined the shrine. In some ways it seemed like a house, rather than one of those roadside shrines that had small statuettes next to them and a bowl for offerings. Given its size, she could tell why animals may come to seek shelter here. Though the thought did cross Hanako’s mind… what kind of beasts dwelled here that were worthy of a C rank mission?

As Hanako chanced teh steps up to the ominous doors of the shrine she turned to ask Chiaki, ”Do you know what kind of seals are supposed to be here, or where they would be found?” the Hair on Hanako’s neck stood up as a a howl cut the quiet air, at least it was until she could hear that the beast in question was quite some distance yet and was unlikely to find their trail.

A pair of hungry eyes watched from atop the shrine before pulling away and fading into the shadow.

[Kanade]

Chiaki sighed and led the way into the mist, her heart pounding. She looked up at the shrine, to her it looked dilapidated, unused, rejected by her people. She noticed the sign of the Kyoukan Foxes that her people had taken care of for all of those years. She looked at the mist falling out of the doors and windows as if the temple itself were weeping from misuse and disuse by her people. How could they abandon such a refuge? It didn’t make sense.

“I think that it’s best if we go ahead and make use of some defensive jutsu.” She looked at Hanako, “Do you know any dear pupil?” She eyed the kunai, drawn at a very slow speed to her out of the holster and at the ready. Well, at least she was ready for a fight.

“Mmmm, I agree, but I don’t want to hurt anything that has been living here for a long, long time.” She rattled her brains for the passage that Theraveda had recited to her, in her mother’s absence because she had been training the academy ninja on how to do medical ninjutsu.

“I think I remember a passage from an old scroll that Theraveda told me a couple of times.” She shrugged, “The foxes of the temple had the scroll in their mouths, and had come from far away with it clutched in their little cute bite.” She grinned and giggled, the giggle fell dead in the mist, “Mmmm, night-mist yes, I remember it now.”

As Hanako tried the steps Chiaki recited it, looking out at the wilderness that they had just come out of, the mist coalescing around them, starting to gain pea-soup thickness:

“There once was a fox lay wide awake,
Protecting her kids from those who would take
Her little bundles orange and bright
Into the haunted mist of night.

My dear darling child don’t shut your eyes,
Or you’re in for a dark surprise
For when the mist comes
Dark and cold and whispers of times of old

She’ll stalk you, find you,
Tear you, grind you,
Or eat you whole.

The vixen lady tall as a house,
Ne’er makes more noise than a mouse,
Her little bundles orange and bright,
Were stolen from her in the dead of the night.

The night mist comes and closes, covers your eyes,
You won’t see her, you’re in for a surprise
When the mist comes,
Dark and cold, and whispers of times of old.

She’ll stalk you, find you
Tear you grind you,
And eat you whole.”

Her voice didn’t carry except the last line and there seemed to be a deep female voice, deeper than Chiaki’s own that mimicked and echoed the last line, “Eat… you…. Whole….”

Chiaki shuddered and backed up, “this is the original shrine of the Kyoukan foxes, also known as the “Kiri no Yama Foxes. The foxes were said to have guarded the temple and its grounds from outside evils, along with the seals, but the seals are broken so be on your guard!” Chiaki wove a couple of fast hand seals, and a second skin-like substance covered her body.

jutsu usedShow

Silicone barrier
D ranked silicone jutsu
The user channels chakra and touches a willing subject or themselves. A paper thin barrier of [control] strength manifests over the target's body for [10] posts at [50] speed.

[HotelBravo]

Hanako shared a glance with Chiaki as the woman inquired about the quality of her jutsu in terms of defense. To Hanako Jutsu that attack were about as defensive as jutsu that defended, but then it seemed Chiaki had something else in mind. Hanako examined her Kunai that she held in had and turned it so that the spade rather than the edge was being presented. ”This will have to do.” Hanako thought to herself aloud. She didn’t have anything that was harmless and still provided some measure of defense. She would have to rely on her speed to handle any opponent that may decide to take an interest in her. Hanako felt the holster on her thigh full of shurikens. She relaxed her hand, but she wasn’t nearly as relaxed as she appeared. Kunai and Shuriken could be brought to bare in an instant thanks to the rigorous training she had placed herself under.

Hanako froze as Chiaki giggled. With all of the ambiance this place had to offer, she was hypersensitive to the slightest sounds, and laughter was the last thing she had expected. Icey water coursed through her veins, and the creepy poem that followed did little to thaw Hanako out. She was not excited in the least bit to meet a fox that was as tall as a house. As Chiaki warned her to be on her guard, Hanako presented the spade of the kunai once again and continued up the steps. ”Were the seals on the scrolls mentioned in your poem?” Hanako asked, as she reached the top of the steps and was now at the door of the shrine. She scanned for enemies and was about to step into the door when she noticed something.

There was a strange quality to the air exiting the shrine. It was hot. Humid, and it smelled incredibly fresh - but not in the positive sense of the word. Fresh like something that was a live or perhaps only recently made a corpse. Hanako was about to draw back carefully, when suddenly the shrine transformed into an enormous fox, and she was at its mouth as it attempted to snap its jaws shut around her. With some quick thinking, she through the kunai into the jaw muscle of the fox, preventing it from snapping its sharp teeth around her. Hanako pulled away and could now see t he true shrine was hidden behind the massive creature. She watched in mute horror as the sinew began to reattach itself, and the loose jaw became taught again. As the poem had warned, she very nearly was eaten whole by ignorantly walking into t he disguised fox’s jaws.

Shuriken and kunai found their ways into her hand. Hanako knew that Chiaki wanted to refrain from harming the beast, but it clearly had no qualms about harming her! The creature clearly had some manner of chakra to repair its own injuries. As Hanako stood at the reeady to confront the beast, the sly creature withdrew into the mist and shadows, vanishing from sight again.

[Kanade]

“Unfortunately not, the seals weren’t mentioned in any scroll that I could see, they don’t even seem to make sense.” Chiaki tilted her head and considered the seals on the building for a couple of seconds before the temple transformed into the shape of a fox, snapping its large jaws she gasped and wove some hasty hand seals, tethering herself to her smaller pupil, before channelling her chakra and pulling the Kunai out of the fox as it had embedded itself there.

Handing performing some more seals, she gave her pupil a shield of Raiton, and then coated the kunai in Raiton energy before handing it back, “If you hit it with this, and perhaps some more kunai, and a couple of strikes, it might be enough to paralyze it. I suppose that explains the seals not making sense on the shrine, as the true one was surrounded by that big thing."

She looked at the shrine now, nodding to herself, “It’s an ancient form of Fuuinjutsu, and I think it’s a four pronged barrier that was surrounding this. Do you know the technique? I could teach it to you if you need, but I think that it might be best if we split up and place them on each of the corners of the walls to cover more ground more quickly. The armor and the kunai should hold, we just need to get the seals on the corners and we should be safe.”

She hoped, she really, truly hoped, because if not, the two of them were in for a rather rude awakening, and a rather swift death by swallowing, crunching, gnashing jaws.

[HotelBravo]

Feeling the chakra through her Tenketsu - it was like a jutsu had been cast without her input. She was in a barrier of Lightning Chakra. Hanako marveled for a moment before memorizing the sensation t hat she felt. This would be useful to coat herself in the for the future if she ever engaged in melee or to coat her weapons in if she was attack at a range. Hanako took the kunai back from Chiaki and nodded at her summarization that the chakra could help paralyze the creature. The technique had been started by Chiaki but Hanako began to take responsibility for its proliferation. Hanako t hen turned to the shrine and the seals that Chiaki had indicated. She wasn’t knowledgeable about Fuuinjutsu - at least she knew the basics about fuuinjutsu - things like what it was, what it could do - but not how to inscribe them.


”Could you teach me the technique? I don’t know how its done.” Hanako responded. Hanako prepared herself to learn a jutsu the fastest that she had ever learned before. It was incredibly stressful situation as it already was - searching for a giant man eating fox monster while also memorizing a technique and then applying it accurately onto the shrine to protect it! The task ahead felt monumental, and Hanako could feel the sweat on her palms and forehead as she considered the feat it would be to perform this task. She couldn’t let it get to her. She was a tool. A Kunoichi. Her life didn’t matter as long as she was able to complete the mission… the lessons from the academy poured through her head as she managed and controlled her fear on this first mission - the dangerous one that she had ever experienced before.

”We need to make sure we now the enemy’s location before we proceed as well.” Hanako glanced around the shrine. ”Do you know any sensory techniques we could use to detect that fox? It’ll be dangerous if we try to put the seals on but get attacked from behind.” She considered the realization that Chiaki could get hurt. She was mostly a peaceful woman - although she was stronger than she gave herself credit for - but outside of playful sparring, Hanako had come to learn that Chiaki had a great distaste for violence despite her nature as a kunoichi. Hanako had no such limitation and Chiaki had seemed happy enough to leave things to her - and that was alright. That was the way things should be. Hanako was a weapon after all.