Dinosaur Poaching [crime?]

[Kanade]

Chiaki had received a request from some shady man with the shady hands, doing shady deals with shady folks. It made Chiaki feel a bit shady herself, but that's what ninjas did though, kept to the shadows, even the Kage were the shadows that kept the villages safe, so shady deals went with the territory. The shady deal was that if she brought down a flying lizard and extracted its poison sacs that she would be paid a pretty penny.

Normally Chiaki would 1: never take an assignment that would hurt anything, and 2: would not be caught anywhere near anything that was poisonous in the least. However, the shady man with the shady deals had told her that this poison was actually sold through the black markets to hospitals, where extraction of the venom was illegal. The only reason that it was illegal was because these flying bastards were considered sacred. There was a problem with that though.

They were able to fly at incredible speeds, which just was unfair in Chiaki's book. They had poison that came from both ends. And lastly and not least of all, they were overhunting their food supply, other dinosaurs in the crater, running amok, and were wandering into the villages because they were aided by their flight and poisoning, maiming, and killing humans, their livestock, and the surrounding countryside.

All of this chalked Chiaki up to a thought that, perhaps, her student might want to help her rid the world of one of these wyverns. Having been handed a map with a crudely drawn X in the upper right hand corner of a map with no cardinal directions, key, or any sense of which way was up, and Chiaki had been bustled out the side door as one of the shady man's regular patrons walked through the door.

Turned out that the shady man with the shady plans was actually what the people there called a medicine man, otherwise known as an apothecary, otherwise known as a pharmacist. Chiaki checked, after circling the block, and looked at the front of the store, "Jinn's Cure-alls" the sign red. Chiaki chuckled to herself and ducked down another alley.

Her pupil, who she had told to practice some of her jutsu while she tried to find work for them, was rather easy to find, Chiaki had taken a vantage point and watched her disciple for a bit of time, before calling out to her, "Hanako-chan!" She waved and pointed at the paper in her hand. Not incriminating in the slightest, just showed a point on a map that was crudely drawn at best, and at worst was probably completely useless. No paper trail, no evidence that they were going to be poaching a dangerous sunovabitch.

"I got us work!" She beamed at her disciple as she sat against one of the chimneys that seldom were on in those parts of the world, she was lazing about in a tight-fitting outfit, with a sports bra-let, teal in color, on and tight fitting yellow trousers. Her feet were adorned with 'running sandals' as her mother used to call them. The strands that had loosened from her braid blew in the wind, and to all passers-by she would look a normal, or rather eccentric, walking, talking, breathing human.

Should her disciple come closer, she would divulge the plan and ask if Hanako had any idea which way was up on the badly drawn scratch-map they had.

[HotelBravo]

Hanako of Hanamura had been left in field that doubled as a place to hang one’s laundry. She had been told to practice, and so she stood idly considering what it was she should be practicing. She didn’t have the wealth of Kumogakure’s library so she had been sorely neglecting her medical training as a result. She had also only had the company of a regular physician back in Heaven’s Landing and thus he wasn’t able to give her any guidance on how to manipulate her chakra for any type of life saving procedures. So she stood and considered what she should do with her time.

As she did, a group of local women happened by.

“What did you do to your beautiful kimono!?” One of them exclaimed. The basket of her own laundry dropped to the ground at her feet as she gaped in abject horror at the mess Hanako had made. Between fighting poachers for the chief Merchant at Heaven’s Landing and performing surgery on her own self as she needed to tend to her own wounds - also that time she was nearly assassinated by the Poachers who had performed a sneak attack on her; all of this meant that her Kimono which was supposed to be pink was now utterly filthy, and the material was also mostly destroyed. Hanako gave the woman a meek shrug, she honestly wasn’t interested in her clothing and only wore it because this was the last thing she had been dressed in before she escaped the village with Chiaki. That is to say, she had been wearing this kimono for a long while now and it was yet to see a cleaner’s touch.

“Take that thing off right now! I won’t let an offense to good hygiene exist any longer.” The woman demanded. Hanako had gained somewhat of a reputation for her antics in Heaven’s Landing and for some reason had come to be known as the zombie girl by the locals. Though she didn’t seem anything like a Zombie, at least not to herself.

She mindlessly obeyed the woman and removed her sash and kimono and let them plop on the ground around her feet revealing her kusari and spats that she wore beneath, and her shinobi gear which was typically hidden by the kimono. She stepped away from the clothing and felt a lot less restricted without the kimono now - although her other clothes she felt were also still a bit tight. Had she gained weight? It didn’t matter to Hanako. The woman busied herself with gathering up the Kimono and folding it neatly - she tended to her own laundry first before she looked over to Hanako. “I’ll have it cleaned and returned to you, is that alright little one?”

“Okay” Hanako agreed, not really paying attention to her in the least. Instead her mind the entire time had been working on what new techniques she could train. She noted that the clothes lines had wooden poles with a metal loop on the top that the lines went through. She was fascinated by the metallic loop - it reminded her of a kunai. Indeed as she examined it much closer she realized it was the exact size of a kunai’s ring.

This gave her a thought to practice his accuracy in a way that she had never tested before.She backed away from the kunai and released senbon from the seals on her wrists. Next for some wire. With the proficiency of a shinobi she quickly attached wire to each of the senbons - but this time it was with a knot that she had never tried before. This was a knot that when the line was jerked suddenly would release the senbon and then knot would instead slip onto the kunai - retying into a knot around the loop. Essentially speaking, it was a slip square knot that would form into a cow hitch knot on the kunai’s ring.

Hanako was already sure that it would work. With her already remarkable aim she through the senbon through the ring on top of the clothes line post and just like she expected when tightened the knot slipped from the slip square into the cow hitch on the ring. Hanako tugged on the wire again - it was firmly attached. She could already think of certain situations when this would be useful.

As Hanako finished with her clever little Trick she heard Chiaki call out to her. She was pointing at a paper in her hand that already looked like a crude map from Hanako’s vantage. She frowned at the two lost senbon - it would be nigh impossible to find them, but the wire could be rescued at least. She walked over and with her understanding of the knot was able to pry it loose with a third senbon. She put it all away before running up the building and glancing at the map that Chiaki was waving in her hand.

Given the time spent here and her experience with navigating, Hanako had come to learn the lay of the land somewhat well. Chiaki divulged the plan, and Hanako nodded in simple agreement. She relayed where she thought the map was indicating - as some the terrain and features seemed familiar to her.


833/730 Jutsu Learned

Code: Select all

[color=FFBFFF]Wire Manipulation : Wire Threading Needle Technique[/color]
 [Corded Weapons] [Projectile] 
D rank Taijutsu
The user attaches wire to a senbon and throws it with pinpoint accuracy, allowing the senbon to guide the wire through any shurikens or kunai or any other similar sized hole or ring shaped object that might be lying about on the field already. If the user chooses, they can tug on the wire causing the special knot to come loose from the senbon and tie around the ring, shuriken, kunai, or hole instead - effectively switching the object that the wire is attached to.

[Kanade]

Chiaki, as she approached and started to discuss the plan noticed something that she hadn’t noticed before which was that Hanako was dirty, like… really dirty. She sniffed the girl and wrinkled her nose, “You are half-naked and you need a wash.” Chiaki interjected as Hanako nodded along, “Let’s get you in the bath, get your teeth brushed, and your hair combed. Check you for blemishes, and then we’ll talk about this mission, and for the love of all that is holy, please tell me that you have your measurements.” She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed in exasperation, she didn’t know that Hanako would neglect herself while she trained and she had only caught a passing glance at the state that she was in.

Better to catch it now then.

Chiaki patted Hanako on the head and if the girl would agree would lead her to an establishment and would ask for two wash tokens, holding out a bucket with a towel, some soap, and a scrub brush she pointed to the locker room and would instruct Hanako to wash herself. Chiaki would accompany her and would make any necessary adjustments to the regimen. She had heard of other shinobi that would not take care of themselves out of either laziness, sense of duty when on long missions, or unawareness. She must know that this was going to let others know where she was right? It was easier to smell a dirty human than it was a clean one. While Hanako was getting out, Chiaki would instruct her to stay in and soak a while, while she would get her some clothing. She picked out a couple of outfits that would fit her, and wondered who had taken care of her in Kumogakure.

She actually wondered a lot about her pupil, standing at the counter, paying for the clothes for her disciple. How could Chiaki have missed something this big?

[HotelBravo]

Chiaki sniffed and the woman’s face grew sour. At Chiaki’s observations Hanako turned to examine herself and it seemed that Chiaki was corrected, but Hanako didn’t really see what the issue was. Chiaki instructed that she would be getting a bath and her teeth cleaned and her hair combed, and so Hanako went along with it. Hanako nodded obediently until she was well in the bath house when she would finally ask. ”Measurements of what?” she may have worn the skin of a girl but she was utterly lacking in anything that accompanied a woman’s understanding of hygiene or grooming. Hanako was incredibly capable however, and it was an easy task to use her chakra to provide exact measurements of people and object so with any kind of explanation Hanako would quickly use her own chakra to measure herself and provide that to Chiaki.

There were some things she was good at and others that she was sorely lacking. The things she lacked the most were the basic things. The common sense things. Hanako entered into the bath and scrubbed the caked layers of dirt and rinsed herself off. She then entered the water as Chiaki had asked her to Soak - but a while didn’t have a time frame so Hanako sat in the water until she was told to do otherwise. The steam and heat made her cheeks grow rosy and folded her towel into a makeshift pillow where she laid her head as she sat in the water waiting for Chiaki to get back.

The things called common sense did not seem so obvious to Hanako, but she knew that the people she trusted cared about her and wanted what was best for her, thats what Granny had always said at least and so far Granny had never been wrong. So it was with Chiaki - Hanako just implicity trusted her at what she said, at the same time not fully understanding the implied suggestion that soaking for a while did not mean soak indefinitely.

[Kanade]

When Chiaki returned she found her student in the bath and mentally kicked herself, she needed to set time limits for soaking in the bath, because Hanako was a literalist, meaning that she would take everything literally. Sighing, she held up shopping bags, “Enjoying the sky?”

She grinned at her pupil, the shopping bags were full of four separate outfits, all of which could be mixed and matched, but she would set the articles of clothing out for Hanako to pick through at her leisure. Chiaki herself had picked a ninja outfit, which she seemed suited to, made of a teal and white fabric with the standard shinobi gear.

The ones that she had picked out for Hanako were a pink sundress with black tights folded next to them. Then there were some baggy jeans like the kids liked to wear with two t-shirts, one red and one blue next to them.

She had also picked up a new backpack for Hanako, which she had made black since it was a color that didn’t show dirt and grime as much and was outerwear more than anything, along with a couple of pouches that Hanako could strap to herself in the places they seemed to fit best.

There was a blouse and some shorts next to these that seemed to be comfortable wear, and then there was a new Shinobi outfit for Hanako, Chiaki hoped that it would fit, but she had tossed her old kasuri and spats and had replaced them with a new kasuri and spats of her size with a little room to grow, along with a gi that matched Hanako’s eyes. She set the kumogakure headband next to these and hopped over to the water, “Get out you silly student, we want to get to the camp before it’s dark right? When you’re out brush your teeth and fix your hair then come over and pick out an outfit to wear on the way over. All of them are yours, and I expect you to keep them clean.”

Chiaki would then wait for her student to make the selection before starting them out on their journey. At their pace it would take about a half-day to reach the camp they would need to set up for extraction purposes, and if they didn’t find the beast within the first day.

[HotelBravo]

Chiaiki had returned, and she had returned with a vengeance. She had multiple shopping bags worth of goods and Hanako glanced at them with a glimmer of curiosity. She climbed out of the bath and used her towel to dry herself off. She got dressed in the new clothes. She was starting to look more like a young woman than a child in an overly large kimono. Her hair was still long and dark, and the drying and caring for it took overly long as a result. Hanako had not been caring for herself and as a result her hair had a lot of damage. Her hair was measured and then a swift slash with an overly sharp kunai removed the damaged portion of her hair. Overall this left Hanako with a bob style haircut that was somewhat short in the back and longer towards the front with bangs. While short it was far for boyish and came off looking more cute and professional than what Hanako had before.

Hanako took the new pack and the stored clothes then she turned her wrist so that it was facing up and her storage seal was already visible. She nicked her thumb with a kunai she held in her mouth, formed a seal and then placed her palm further up from where her other storage seal was. The clothes and the pack that Chiaki had procured were sealed inside. Hanako then pulled her sleeve back down to hide the seals on her body. She was ready to go.

”Should we go now?” Hanako would ask. ”We should head towards its hunting ground and locate the water source. That would likely be one of the better places to ambush it. ” Hanako nodded. ”They may not be Shinobi but they are still strong given their size and dangerous with their claws and teeth.” It would be better to set up traps than to face it head on. Hanako already had a few sealing jutsu in mind that she could use for the traps. Hunting wasn’t always easy and Shinobi were more tasked with hunting people than creatures.

Hanako had learned a great deal about the creatures since her time in the Land of Stars, but had never hunted one before. Typically the task was outlawed, not that Hanako really cared about what the natives of the land of Stars thought - but she had been hired not too long ago to deal with a group of poachers who had also been shinobi. Their operation was vastly different to this though. They were only hunting one creature, and in this instance it was driving other predators to the towns and people were getting hurt. Somehow the morality of it was still on their side despite being illegal.

Hanako as always had a lot to tell Chiaki as they set off on their hunt. It was an easy enough pace that Hanako was able to give her a recap about her activities in the Land of Stars, and somehow the topic drifted back to the small town of Hanamura. Hanako talked about how her family home had burnt down back then and she had been forced to move to Kumogakure with her Granny.


545/750 Stat Training

[Kanade]

She smiled and patted Hanako on the head, “That is a good idea, the water source bit. I am sure that it probably knows where to get good water and returns there, kinda like we get water from the sink and know where that is at in our house.” She paused a bit and listened to her before starting up again, “Let’s head off and see where it drinks.” She set off at a pace that would not tire out Hanako and listened to the tale of how her parents had died, how she had been left with her grandmother, and she already knew how that ended. She added little tid-bits along the way, making sure that her disciple knew she was listening and she felt remorse for the lack of sympathy that the academy had shown Hanako.

She wondered whether she could get Hanako to break out of that shell, to really open up, and to perhaps start to heal. She had closed off the mental wounds so tightly that Chiaki doubted that she could pry them open if she wanted to. It was a task best left for some afternoon where she was doing nothing more than just sitting there with her little sister and talking.

As they neared the lake near the hunting grounds, Chiaki slowed up and started to walk like a normal person. She had to actually think about these things now, as her body didn’t tire as much as it used to, being made of synthetic fibers. She had to be careful not to rip the synthetic muscles, or break the synthetic skin more than she had to when she had a body. Shaking her head, clearing it she looked at Hanako and then the town. “No one I’d rather be hunting this beastie with than you, Hanako-chan.” Then she got a sudden urge to hug her disciple to her side and ruffle her cute new haircut, “I like the new haircut and you look pretty cute now that you are all washed up. Sorry for not taking care of you.” She felt the deep remorse that she hadn’t noticed how dirty and grimy Hanako had become in her absence come flowing back into her.

[HotelBravo]

They began to slow and so Hanako’s endless tale about the things she had experienced came to a stop. Chiaki mentioned how she thought there was no one else she would rather be hunting a dinosaur with, and to a degree that made Hanako feel good that someone cared about her. Hanako gave Chiaki a hug and could feel the texture of Chiaki’s synthetic body as she squeezed it and it had more give. ”Thats okay. Its Granny’s job to take care of me, and its my job to take care of Granny.” Suddenly there was a stirring in the brush. The ground began to tremble and the leaves of the nearby plants began to quake. Hanako let go of Chiaki and took a defensive position with a kunai in one hand with the ring pressed against the palm of her other hand.

She hadn’t been focusing on her sensory jutsu for only a moment and somehow another one of these titans had managed to get this close. A tyrannosaurus burst from the brush. It wasn’t in a particular hurry but then it seemed to detect the pair of kunoichi as it tasted the air with its nostrils. It turned its head towards them. Hanako frowned. ”The town was complaining about creatures being driven into the borders with humans.”

770/750 +1 endurance

”It seems true, and this one seems to be very dangerous.” The monster dashed towards them with surprising agility and dove at them with its fang filled maw open to snatch them up. Hanako saw the speed of the T-rex and knew instinctively that she wasn’t quick enough to avoid its quick attack so instead she opted to throw a shuriken with incredible accuracy into one of its eyes. The sudden spike of pain from the shuriken caused the T-rex to recoil in pain and miss its mark. Its dived nose first into the dirt, dislodging undergrowth with its massive frame as it did so.

Hanako threw a follow up shuriken which sliced the thick hide of the T-rex and didn’t have much penetration into the leather like skin. It seemed that Hanako’s usual fare wouldn’t be enough to deal with this beastie. It was too big and strong to make going toe to toe viable. She would need to focus on weak spots with her attacks, like its eyes, mouth, ears, and joints. This may not be the creature they were looking for, but it certainly showed the seriousness of the situation.

217/750

[Kanade]

Chiaki squeezed her disciple back, not too hard to hurt her, but firm enough to feel her body against her own synthetic one. She wondered whether or not the transformation was something that Hanako liked, or didn’t like. She opened her mouth to ask before closing it again and nodding, “That it is.” She looked into the underbrush, the plants swaying with violent tremors. Chiaki could feel the earth vibrate a little bit as if something large was coming for them.

As the tyrannosaurus rex burst through the underbrush, she looked at Hanako and nodded. It would be good practice for the girl if she wasn’t caught in its massive jaws, so she wondered whether or not she should do anything to help, or if she should save her energy for the, probably bigger, wyvern that they had been sent to kill. “I mean, if that thing was in my back-yard I would be rather annoyed as well.” As she saw Hanako aim for the eye, she expected the Tyrannosaurus to merely dodge it, or for it to miss its mark, when it didn’t she raised her eyebrows with surprise, “Good shot that.” She jumped up, landing on the T-Rex’s jaw, running up to stand on its back, and then weaving some hand seals, she pointed at Hanako.

“Here ya go, try this on for size.” Silicone leapt up around Hanako, encasing her in a very hard ([50 control]) silicone skin-tight jutsu. She had used it on Hanako before, when they were facing the beast king at the shrine. She wondered if her pupil remembered it or not, “I hope that it doesn’t hamper your movements too much. Ah, looks like he is getting up, do you have anything to permanently stop him from moving?” She patted the Tyrannosaurus on the shoulder blade next to his spine.

“He seems to have a rather thick hide, don’t know if I could pierce it with many jutsu that I know, and I suppose that he’s just the wrong person at the wrong time. Right?” The Tyrannosaurus looked at Chiaki with its good eye, turning his head around and trumpetting at her, it snapped its jaws. Chiaki moved back a step and the jaws snapped just shy of her, “Adorable, but no.” She smacked the nose as if she were swatting a puppy, which only managed to enrage it even more. She could tell because the veins were popping in its hide, showing Hanako where to strike at next, and the blood gushing from the eye-wound seeped out ever more presently, “Hanako-chan, I would go for the carotid artery, do you see it pulsing there?” She backed up again, keeping her balance easily on the things back as it thrashed its head around again trying to get at her, she moved upward on its anatomy, and it couldn’t reach her, but gave her a baleful glare all the same. Chiaki stuck her tongue out and made a ‘nyah nyah’ noise at it. She was running distraction for Hanako, seeing whether or not she would be able to take down the beastie.

What she didn’t hear, were a pair of massive wingbeats in the distance, the sound of airborne death.

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 took the briefest of moments to consider the new Skin tight Silicon suit that was enveloping her. She flexed and tested her movements and nodded when she determined that she would be able to move well enough.

”Understood.” Hanako in the next instant had a kunai in her hand. And some shuriken in her other. The beast was now more warry of her Shurikens and as a fan of shuriken screamed through the air towards it she took just the briefest of moments to toss her kunai into the air above herself. Hanako then spun low to the ground once, and then on the second rotation jumped into a back flip and hammered the airborn kunai with her heel. Her legs had much greater muscle density as well as leverage due to being somewhat longer than her arms. This sent the kunai like a meteor into the artery with wicked accuracy. As it turned out Hanako had manipulated the creature’s movement with her shuriken - its new found caution of them had manuevered the target right into the path of her kunai and the sharp steel tip bit into the leathery skin of the T-Rex.

Then the keen edge chewed through sinew and into the bone as the kunai was now dug in ring deep into the monster’s artery. The blood of the dinosaur began to seep from the wound, as the beast tried to fight through what was almost guaranteed to be a fatal injury. ”They always fight.” Hanako said tonelessly as memories of her experience with the dinosaur poachers came back to her. How she had to kill them in self defense - her first actual kills. Even as they had received fatal injuries they tried to strike back at her to make sure that she didn’t escape with her own life.

The so called Terrible Lizard started as though to continue to fight before it came to the ground in a crash like thunder. Its better trembled before finally stilling. With Professional Ease, Hanako rolled out an empty scroll and began to create a sealing formula to store the corpse. With a series of handseals she slapped her hand in the center of the formula and the scroll was about to devour the body of the T-Rex when something slammed down right in front of her and caused her to go tumbling. It let out a victorious roar - and Hanako found herself paralyzed due to the intensity of the sound affecting her sense of stability as she tried to rise back up to her feet after being tossed like a doll.

She looked up and gazed at this new foe. It was a powerful creature, with a maw full of sharp teeth and a barbed tail that oozed with poison potent enough for a dinosaur. Massive wings created gusts of wind and Hanako had to grip onto a nearby tree to prevent herself from being blown away again. Was this the target that they were looking for?

750/750 +1 Endurance

[Kanade]

Chiaki looked at the thing, jaws open, dripping the poison that was said to be able to paralyze the fresh carcass of the newly dead animal that Hanako was trying to seal off. It was huge, about as big as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Chiaki could hardly believe that the thing was able to move, let alone fly. It should be scientificially impossible. At the end of a long tail, a barbed spine jutted out, it too, was porous and dripped a deadly venom. Chiaki wondered which one was the paralytic and which one was the neurotoxin that she had heard about.

Chiaki, being an elemental body, didn’t really feel fear unless it was necessitated by the fuuinjutsu network that she had given herself, along with her faux heart. That, however, was triggered by the mere sight of this thing. The jaws were made for clutching, rather than tearing, so she assumed that it did something to make bite-size pieces.

That was when she came to its talons, each the size of a small bear. They were, as Chiaki had expected, massive, but she also noted that instead of being for gripping, they were more akin to a cat’s claws, which were made for tearing and slicing. They were thin, and razor sharp, which made things worse for her and Hanako.

“Hey, Hanako, I see that thing has claws, and it uh, it seems to be gauging our strength at the moment. I am going to put a seal on you, and if it cuts me down, and I don’t get back up, I would like you to try to return to the village. If I can distract it long enough to make a difference, then we might have a chance. Look to see whether or not it pierces my core. We’ll execute a pincer attack if it doesn’t.” She spoke, her eyes never straying from the large beast. She knew that it was beyond her, she knew that the power behind the back two legs could easily shred something like the corpse beneath the two of them, and they had to use jutsu to kill even that.

She looked to the scales, and found that they were even tougher than the T-rex, seemingly not even abraded by the creature’s claws, neither the ones that were rather impotent on its wings, nor the hind-claws that basically rendered her silicone jutsu useless.

“I am going to move toward you on the count of three.” She kept her eyes on the thing, not daring to move her attention elsewhere. “When you hear me, jump backward so that I am between you and it.”

The thing hissed and flicked the air with a serpentine tongue, tasting the air, but ultimately settling on Hanako, apparently Chiaki just didn’t smell as tasty.

“One, two, THREE!” Chiaki screamed and performed the hand seals faster than she ever had before, touching Hanako, she felt the bite of the barbed tail as it whipped through her, impaling her where she used to have her stomach.

She reached out as she was starting to be pulled back, splaying out her hand, carrying the seal for Hanako to touch her hand. Should her student reach out to touch her, the seal would spread over Hanako, should she not, Chiaki didn’t know what she would do.

Not knowing whether or not Hanako had received the fuuinjutsu, she was pulled back and subsequently impaled on the sharp claws, luckily missing her core, they dug into her, obliterating her head in the process. She couldn’t hear, see, smell, or talk anymore. She just hoped that Hanako had received the seal, and would follow her instructions.

jutsu usedShow

[Fight the Power]
A-rank Charge Fuuinjutsu
The user will channel the needed chakra and touch either themselves or an ally. Depending on the [Control] it is casted with, the fuuinjutsu will cover between 25%-90% of the users body. Once struck, the fuuinjutsu will activate and reflect strikes until broken. Ninjutsu will bounce back in the direction they came from and taijutsu strikes will rebound upon the opponent's body. Attacks that break through will not be reflected.

[HotelBravo]

Hanako had become much more of a Kunoichi than she had ever been in the past. As Chiaki evaluated the new threat, the new threat evaluated them back. Hanako had a wordless agreement with Chiaki’s assessment. She knew that Chiaki had recognized the power of its claws and the dangers of its barbs and jawed maw. Hanako chanced a glance at Chiaki and read it in her eyes. The girl withdrew a kunai for each hand and held them ready to throw. As Chiaki began to outline her plan, Hanako shifted one of the kunai to her other hand and threaded wire through each of the kunai’s rings. It was a large powerful creature, but Hanako had a sense of confidence that the two would be more than capable of handling the beast. Hanako wasn’t sure what chiaki was planning to do with this plan, but following orders had always come naturally to her. However, Hanako was not just a trainee or genin anymore. She could see ways to enhance Chiaki’s plan with her own skills to make sure that things happened the way Chiaki wanted them to.

The countdown started. One. Chiaki called. Hanako’s mind raced a thousand miles a heart beat, trying to process the details that her eyes took in with a second look. The wings were by far the thinnest part of the - unlike a bird whose wings were feathered, this creature was formed from thin membrane. Thin enough to cut - the scales would not be as hard there. She prepared more kunai just for the purpose of ensnaring these wings with kunai and wire.

Two. The next weak spot was the tail. It was a thinner muscle than the muscles that made up the rest of its body and that meant that the scales there needed to be flexible. Nature often had a fine balance between flexibility and hardness. To Hanako this meant that this was a prime location for attack. It would be dangerous, because the tail was still barbed, but Hanako didn’t need to get close to deal damage. Since the tail was thinner, she also expected it could exert less force unless it also moved its torso. If some wire pinned the tail down the beast would be forced to move its entire body to release it as the tail alone wouldn’t have the strength on its own.

Three. Hanako was already in action. Hanako jumped backwards obediently and while simultaneously throwing kunai. With her innate two pairs of kunai with wire attached to each other flew towards the tip of the tail, the farthest point from the body and the point with the least muscle to seal the movements of the beast. Simultaneously, another two pairs of kunai flew towards the beast’s wings. The cold steel would likely pierce the membrane leaving wires going through the wings and restricting its movements. As each kunai went taught, the force caused them to wrap around the nearby trees, creating anchors. Ninja wire was thin and strong, as it had to be to be effective against other shinobi. This gave the wire a type of sharpness that would eat into the vulnerable tissue as the creature attempted to free itself.

This all took only a single breath.

As Hanako landed from jumping backwards, she reached her own hand out to Chiaki. She felt the seals begin to spread across her body. She began to recognize the pattern as some type of defensive barrier technique. Hanako watched in shock as the creature extended its Talon and beheaded Chiaki. She knew Chiaki was not exactly human anymore and such a thing would hardly keep her down for long but this was the final weak point of the beast.

Its head. While it was made with likely some of the strongest bones and scales - it was vulnerable in that its head housed its sensory organs and also its brain which was susceptible to concussion assuming enough force could be applied. Recognizing this, Hanako thought to buy Chiaki some more time with a flash tag.

One more kunai with a seal flew towards the creature’s face and detonated in an explosion of pure light. Hanako had shielded her eyes just moments before, and Chiaki was currently headless, so she wasn’t sure if this would affect her at all since she currently didn’t have eyes. The creature now was stunned by the light flash and with its tail and wings pinned it would be confused until it could get its bearings again.

753/750 +1 Strength

[Kanade]

Chiaki, pinned under the beast, didn't hear nor see the flashbang, but did feel the sensation in her stomach of the barbed tail whipping her out from under the foot and then flicking her off of it, like a piece of discarded flesh from a toothpick. She felt rather rough from that bit of a trade. Channeling chakra, she started to mend her head first, remolding the silicone , she focused on one eye first, needing the sight more than anything, she saw Hanako squaring off with the beast.

She pointed with her free hand to the creature, willing her butterflies to start shredding its wings. They descended like a hail of bullets, tearing holes in the thin layer of flesh, shredding the tendons that kept them taut and piercing holes in the blood vessels and relatively small capillaries that permeated the leathery skin.

Chiaki finished with her head, calling out to Hanako, "Now!" she wove more seals, before making an impossibly large hammer in her hands. "Kouton!" she hollared, "Gigaton HAMMER!"

The hammer, made by the jutsu, swung in an arc, slamming into and flattening the wyvern's long poisoned and barbed tail, pinning the beast there for Hanako, and effectively drawing its attention. The creature shrieked with the pain of the assault, not only from above, but also from behind where it had discarded Chiaki.

jutsu usedShow

Silicone • Reformation
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
After the correct hand seals are performed, the user grows back a portion of their body in proportion to the amount of chakra used. This takes place at [control] speed.

Kouton • Gigaton Hammer
C-Ranked Ninjutsu
After performing the required hand seals, the user will channel chakra into their hands, creating a massive hammer behind them of up to 30 meters in length with a head roughly 10 meters cubed. The user then aims at the victim and stomps the ground, creating a steel beam beneath the hammer that moves it in a semi-circle, swung above their head like an axe that brings the hammer crashing down at [control] speed and strength. This semi-circle smash can be repeated a number of times equal to [control/5] or until the hammer degrades.

[HotelBravo]

As Chiaki’s hammer crashed down into the beast, Hanako knew that it was time for a new Hanako-style shurikenjutsu. She reached into her back pouch and pulled a length of wire out and slipped it through the loop on the end of a kunai. There were two knots on the wire, the first attached it to the kunai loop and the second was a slipknot that could slide along the length of the wire and tighten into a noose. She made sure to have multiple layers of wire given the size and strength of the beast. The creature had turned its head to snap at Chiaki, giving Hanako some room to maneuver away from it. It was good to see that Chiaki had somewhat recovered from the attacks from before. Maybe there was something good about being an elemental body after all?

With a powerful spin and focused flick of the wrist, the Kunai was sent flying through the air with incredible speed and precision. It wasn’t aimed directly at the creature’s head but was offset somewhat to account for both its movement and also for the fact that this new technique didn’t require a direct hit. As it passed the creature’s head she tugged sharply on the wire causing the wire to pull loose from the kunai and open a wide loop that fell around the neck of the creature. The creature’s own exertions caused the loop to slip and tighten as suddenly the slack was eaten up by its own struggle. Hanako used a tree trunk as leverage by wrapping her length of wire around it. She could feel the tree heave and lurch with the creature’s attempts at freedom, but the best it could do was make the thin wire dig deeper into its own throat. As it struggled more it would cut its own throat open and begin to squeeze its airways shut as the wire pinched into the muscle more and more.

It was now turning its attention away from Chiaki and was struggling to free itself, only, now its wings, tail, and head were all bound. The creature’s powerful hind legs weren’t able to keep its balance as it toppled to the ground. It lifted a powerful claw up to its head and used one of its massive talons to cut the wire - and while the length tied to the tree went slack the knot around its throat had not. It desperately clawed at its own throat trying to free itself from the thin wire that had dug in to such a degree that it couldn’t pull the wire out without causing more damage to itself. Its airways didn’t need to be restricted, Hanako noted, as the wire pinched the arteries in its neck - its brain was suffocating from lack of blood, and it would soon die unless it committed to digging the wire out of its own throat.

Jutsu Learned

SpoilerShow

Hanako-style Wire Manipulation: Garrote Maneuver
[Corded Weapons] [Throw Weapons]
D rank Taijutsu Maneuver
the user throws a kunai with wire attached at their target up to 10x(strenght/5) meters. With a sudden tug the knot on the kunai will come loose and loop onto a target's limb, or neck. The user can then pull the wire to choke or restrain the limb. this occurs at [Strength] speed, and [Strength] Strength.

[Kanade]

Chiaki winced as she saw the techniques that Hanako secured the beast with. It was a good one, and if it had the intelligence for it, it wouldn't have hurt the beast, but the more it struggled, the more that the wire dug into its neck. It was making horrid choking noises and Chiaki looked away from it to avoid seeing the life leave its eyes.

"I sure hope that this is the only one that we have to put down for the safety of the village." She cleared her throat as the last bubbling gasp escaped the creature and it lay still. She waited a moment and then walked over to the corpse, laying her head against its scaly belly she placed a hand on its cooling hide, "Rest well, and be at peace. Your death will bring life to others." She couldn't face Hanako, even though it was just a beast, just a wyvern, and was a killer, it felt painful to be part of its death. She ate meat, knew where it came from, blessed the meat and thanked the creatures that it came from, but she never had killed one on her own.

blinking she finally turned to face Hanako, "What uh, I forgot what the mission was, exactly, do you remember?" The death had put all thoughts of the mission from her mind. Was it just to cull this beast? She was going to synthesize an antidote from its stinger, whether that was the mission or not, but she had completely forgotten why they had to kill this one besides that it was terrorizing the locals and their livestock.