[Plotboard] The Black Garden

[Niro]

Tatsuo huffed and puffed as he slid down the rope leading even further into the inky blackness of the unexplored area of the lands discovered beneath the catacombs of Iwagakure no Sato. He and his team had just escaped the wrath of an absolutely humongous spider, easily the size of a multistory building in the village proper. While inside its lair, the team had confirmed one thing. At least a single team had fallen prey to the spider and its brood, meaning that area would have to be cleansed of the beasts at some point in time.

"Well, we got confirmation that one team died in there." Tatsuo started as he, Mitsuo, and Kotaru continued to descend into the darkness. "But that was only one team, meaning the other team kept going after finding the cave or was able to escape from the lair before becoming dinner for a hungry nest of giant fuckin' spiders."

Tatsuo slid even further down the rope but frowned as he realized he had reached the end of the equipment. He sighed as he channeled chakra to his feet and stuck to the cliff side before undoing the rope from his person. "Guess the cliff is even bigger than command thought. We'll need to walk down it until we hit the bottom...if there is a bottom." Tatsuo muttered as he took out a kunai and jammed it into a crack in the cliff face. He then removed a flare from his backpack and cracked it to activate the chemicals inside before shoving the device into the hole of the pommel of the kunai. This would be their guidance back to the ropes and let them know just how far up from the bottom they were once they finally got there.

"Let's keep going, at least we can move faster than rappelling at this point." Tatsuo finished as he took off down the side of the cliff face at a speed where both of his team mates could keep up.

It seemed to take hours before the cliff side FINALLY ended and Tatsuo was able to put his foot on the actual ground level of the cavern. Looking up, Tatsuo was only able to see the flare burning like a distant star somewhere up the cliff side. "Holy shit this place is deep..." He muttered out as he removed another two flares from his backpack and cracked them to activate them. The scene he was greeted to around the team was...barren. The ground was normal although stalagmites were not uncommon to see. The chuunin began to walk forward, flares held out in front as he began to explore the area with Mitsuo and Kotaru.

[Kao]

Kotaru said nothing after they made their escape from the humongous spider, instead opting to catch his breath. They had done well against the creatures, but the last spider was far too much for them to handle. He hadn't even considered trying to fight it; as soon as its leg pierced through the rock, every fiber of his body urged him to get the hell out of there.

They kept descending and Tatsuo kept talking. When they finally, finally, reached the bottom of the cavern he sighed. "No kidding," the young Akari mumbled as he snapped his own flare. He made sure to keep close to Mitsuo and Tatsuo, only keeping a few feet between them as they explored the landscape. Though he didn't see anything out of the ordinary at first, he wasn't too enthusiastic about peering behind the rock formations to see what awaited them in the shadows. "Do we really think they got this far?" he murmured as he stepped over what appeared to be rat bones. "We didn't actually look around the spider nest. How do we know the other team wasn't eaten completely and tossed down that pit?"

[Yura]

Mitsuo was noticeably silent as they repelled down the rest of the cavern wall. They had just barely escaped from the nest filled with giant spiders of varying levels of giant and now, still dedicated to their mission, they were repelling further down into the cavern with the hopes of finding some sign of the other team. Mitsuo couldn't help but wonder, however, what lay beneath hidden in the shadows. If there had been giant spiders that close to the surface, he could only imagine what was waiting for them further down.

When it became clear that they were going to have to run the rest of the way, Mitsuo flowed chakra to his feet and began running down the wall, following his teammates. After what seemed like forever, the group finally reached the bottom, though what lay around them was a mystery in the dark. "Sometimes you have to be optimistic." Mitsuo said in response to Kota's question. He couldn't say that he hadn't thought the same thing. "We have no idea if the second team was or was not killed in the same manner as the first. But if we don't at least try to make an effort to look further, we'll never know for certain. For all we know they could be alive, if only barely."

Lighting a flare of his own, Mitsuo waved the flame around in the dark though his actions yielded little result. The cavern was dark, very very dark. "We should move in a relatively predictable pattern." Misuo suggested, "If we move like we would assume the other team would move, maybe we'll come across them."

Or suffer the same fate, whatever it may be. He couldn't help thinking to himself.

[Niro]

Tatsuo led the way across the cavern floor, his flares held out as far as he could in front of him lest he run into another sticky surprise. The ground soon began to slope slightly downwards, even further into the earth.

'This place can do even deeper? It has to go all the way to the bottom of the plateau and then even farther into the earth...' Tatsuo thought to himself. The dark brown earth beneath their feet eventually leveled out again as they walked and Tatsuo's brow furrowed in confusion as they came upon several structures. Each object protruded from the ground in a row and curved inwardly, coming to sharp tips at the top although Tatsuo and team wouldn't be able to see the tops of the structures with so little light to assist them.

"What the hell are these things?" Tatsuo murmured as he began to examine the structure with his free hand, brushing it against the structure. It felt...familiar? Like he had touched something that felt exactly like this before and the feeling of familiarity was of something recent. Tatsuo took a second to think back about the last couple of weeks, going through the events. Nothing really stuck out to him until he remembered having to clean the boar from when he and Kotaru had mended the discord in their relationship with the help of Mitsuo. He took another minute to think about how and why they reminded him of the boar until his eyes grew wide and he began to touch the object frantically. The smoothness of the structure was eerily family and Tatsuo withdrew a kunai. The chuunin began to chip at the structure. The noise produced from the chipping brought on a feeling of being watched, as if he shouldn't be doing something like this, and eventually it caved in, revealing a hollow space within. Tatsuo gulped loudly and looked to his team.

"...These are bones. This looks like a fuckin' rib cage. Whatever died here...was massive. Maybe even bigger than that spider." Tatsuo whispered, his eyes flicking around as the feeling of being watched only continued to grow. He began to root through his backpack and fished out the single flashlight. Tatsuo activated the seal on the object with a simple kai and pointed it upwards towards the top of the bones. The very tip of the rib bone extended a good twenty feet into the air before stopping, confirming that whatever had died here was huge. He re-aimed the flashlight at chest-level and began to spin around in a circle. The new found source of light was enough to reveal all around them were similarly sized bones and many bone piles of smaller sizes. The overall structure of the area reminded Tatsuo of a forest, only this one was made up of the bones of whatever lurked in the dark.

[Kao]

As the trio continued walking further and further into the cavern, Kotaru kept his ears open for any sign of an unwanted guest. All he could hear was their steps and the occasional crunch as one of them stepped on and crushed something dry and brittle. He barely noticed that the ground sloped downward and plunged them even deeper below the village. Each time they passed one of the large, curved structures he thought that something was bound to come from behind them and attack. His hand hovered above his weapon pouch, but he knew that whatever they encountered would likely be unaffected by such a puny weapon. He nearly ran into Tatsuo when the older Akari stopped to investigate the structures.

"Rocks, probably," the genin responded as his friend ran his fingers over the pale structures. They were surrounded by huge stalactites, so he figured these were probably some strange, really-deep-and-dry-cavern version of the rock formations. But then Tatsuo chipped them away and made a chilling observation. "Bones? Are you fucking for real?" He didn't want to believe it, but Tatsuo's flashlight revealed more of the area around them. Bones that looked like gargantuan versions the ones he nearly stepped on earlier were scattered all around them. The bones certainly explained the crunching noises they heard as they ventured through the cavern.

"As cool as the giant bones are, I don't like this. Whatever these are could swallow us whole."

[Yura]

Mitsuo looked upwards with his torch held high, staring at the massive pillars that soared above his torch light. Bones, Tatsuo had said. These giant pillars were made of bone. He couldn't imagine what kind of creature was so large that it left behind such massive remains when it died. And to think that such creatures existed just beneath the surface of the village was astonishing. It made him wonder what else existed in these shadowy depths. He was getting flashbacks to his prior mission with Kota in which they had had to fight off multiple spirits that were larger than one might expect, but at least in those cases they were spirits. He had a funny feeling that in this case it would be different.

"What are the chances that we run into living versions of whatever left these?" Mitsuo asked. He began walking a little further from the group, his torch held high, and everywhere the light touched were more pillars of bone. There were so many that it seemed implausible that it was simply a single creature's remains. It stood to reason, then, that they were standing in a graveyard of sorts, filled with the long decayed bodies of several creatures. "Perhaps a better question: What are the chances that we run into whatever led to the deaths of all of the creatures that left these bones behind?" He shouted back to his teammates.

[Niro]

"Pretty high if you keep shouting that loud." Tatsuo remarked as he began to look around the different spires of bones. He had reholstered the kunai he had drawn earlier to break through the outer layer of the bone and into the hollow space inside. Tatsuo guessed the bones here were old with how easily he had been able to break away the outer layer and reveal the section where marrow would usually be stored within something alive or recently dead. He flashed the light over several different bone piles and found several which were much smaller than the ones they had run into. These matched creatures much closer in stature to the spiders they had found in the cliff side rather than the bones of absolute behemoths which had died here. The more he looked around, the more the feeling of being watched grew and eventually Tatsuo had enough.

"Something is here with us. I can't shake the feeling of being watched and it's not because we're in a damn graveyard." Tatsuo spoke aloud to his team mates, his eye scanning the darkness to see if anything moved with his proclamation of knowing it was there. He swung his flashlight past another spire of bone and noticed movement on the ground although he wasn't sure what it was. Hesitantly, Tatsuo moved towards the movement and circled the spire while giving it ample room so that he, hopefully, would be out of range of whatever was behind the structure.

Tatsuo shone his light and it spilled across the body of a rat. Well, calling it a rat was an understatement. Like the spiders above them, this one was gigantic compared to its counterparts above ground. It was covered in brown fur with its naked tail curled around its feet while easily standing six feet tall on all fours and, if Tatsuo had to guess, pushing ten or twelve when it stood up on its hindlegs. The beast pulled back its lips and hissed before it began hissing and chattering at him. Tatsuo slowly began to back up as the blackness behind the rat began to move. His flashlight snapped to the movement in the dark and revealed four more rats, their lips pulled back and their teeth bared. Each hissed at him in anger before the rat he had originally found lunged forward to attack him. Tatsuo dodged backwards at the last moment, the sharp claws on the rats paw catching his shirt and tearing two slashes across the front.

"We got company!" Tatsuo shouted as he fell back to Kotaru and looked around for Mitsuo, hoping he hadn't been cut off by the rat pack and separated too far from the team.

[Kao]

Kotaru didn't like how far Mitsuo was wandering away from the group, and he definitely didn't like that Mitsuo was shouting. "Will you keep it down?" the boy hissed as he looked around them. He kept thinking he saw something in the shadows move, but without Tatsuo's flashlight he couldn't be sure if he was imagining it or actually seeing something. He belatedly pulled out a flashlight of his own and shined it to his left where he thought he saw movement. But there was nothing.

"Speaking of graveyards, let's hurry up and find these bodies so we can get the hell out of here. There's too many creatures down here and I'm tired of it." Kotaru had been practically fearless during his mission with Mitsuo in caves of northern Rock Country. But that was because he had an idea of where he was going and what they were getting into. They were completely ignorant of what lied in the darkness of this cavern and it made the hairs on the back of his neck constantly stand on end.

He continued to move his flashlight toward Tatsuo, and his beam caught a long, pale tail. Kotaru's eyes widened as he slowly moved the beam up and saw a monster of a rat and its friends. Before he could react, one of the rats lunged toward Tatsuo and managed to catch his shirt. Cursing colorfully, Kotaru dropped his flashlight and made several hand seals. "Mitsuo!" As soon as his friend's name left his lips he inhaled deeply and then released a fireball in the rats' direction. He hoped that these rats weren't anything like the spiders from before and wouldn't be able to so easily shrug off his flames. But, ever the pessimist, he expected they would somehow persevere so he prepared himself for a fight.

Jutsu UsedShow

*Katon • Fireball
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
After performing the correct hand seals the user draws in a deep breath before exhaling out a 1/2 meter diameter fireball at the opponent. It travels up to 10 meters away at a speed of 6 and a strength of 4.

[Yura]

It was the heavy, scraping footfalls in the distance that first alerted Mitsuo to the arrival of the giant creatures. Even before he had heard Tatsuo in the distance, he knew. He couldn't see them, but given their current situation and the fact that they had just encountered giant spiders, he was fully confident in his assumption that they were now surrounded by some form of giant creature. He just didn't know what.

Holding his torch high, Mitsuo whirled around to retreat back towards Tatsuo and Kotaru only to find himself face to face with what appeared to be a large, grizzly rat whose demonic features were only highlighted by the flickering glow of Mitsuo's torch. A moment's breath passed before either he or the creature reacted. Leaping backwards, Mitsuo realized the folly of his actions as the creature leapt with him, much faster than he had anticipated. Dashing to the side immediately upon landing, Mitsuo tucked into a roll to the side, narrowly missing a swipe of the creature's claw, before sliding into a slow crouch, his torch escaping from his hands and rolling a few meters away. It was in that moment that he realized that the rat hadn't been alone: In the flickering light of his fallen torch Mitsuo could make of the outlines and features of nearly four different rats (including the one that had charged at him) at varying distances but clearly advancing, slowly, on his position. The oddity? He wasn't scared. No, he angry. Between the last mission with Kota and now this mission with the giant spiders and now giant rats, it seemed that it had all finally broken him.

Releasing a low, animalistic growl as he preformed handseals, Mitsuo allowed it to become a full on roar as 13 metallic blades materialized in the air around him as the closest rat lunged at him with a hiss, claws raised. Thrusting his hand forward, one of the 13 blades suddenly lurched towards the rat, soaring through the air before lodging itself deep between the creatures eyes, causing the it to go suddenly limp and drop to the ground, its lifeless body skidding to Mitsuo's feet. With a flick of his wrists, two more blades flew to his open hands while the rest continued to rotate around him and rather than waiting for the other three rats to attack, Mitsuo launched himself towards them with a roar, whether it was wise to do so or not.

The man was on the warpath.

JutsuShow

*Kouton • Heaven's Wheel
A-Ranked Ninjutsu
After performing the required hand seals, the user will generate thirteen swords from metal which will spin slowly in a ring around them at waist height for 6 posts. They are able to do two things with these blades: either they can cause 2 blades to fly into their hands at 25 speed at will, or they can fire one sword in a single direction with 25 speed and 25 strength for up to 30 metres. Each effect can only be activated once per post.

[Niro]

Tatsuo caught a glimpse of Mitsuo fighting off his own enemies before he got the imagery of a rat bursting into flames out of his peripheral vision. His head whipped around to the sight, the rat's fur caught fire and the animal immediately dropped to the ground and began to roll to put out the flames. It retreated with burns spread across its body but not before another two rats emerged from the darkness and took its place and began to move forward towards he and Kotaru.

Tatsuo dropped his flashlight on the ground facing the incoming enemies and channeled the needed chakra across his body to his various shiins, each coming to life. The lacrishiin spread across his entire body and the mela and temershiin emerged from the base of his spine, the dark violet tendrils almost invisible with how dark it was in the area.

Tatsuo rushed forward to meet one of the rats, its claws swiping at his body and two of the tendrils of his melashiin batting away the blows while the other two came in for an attack from down low. The first rat was unable to react in time after its claws had been shoved to the side and were greeted with the tendrils piercing its stomach and coming out of its back, blood leaking from four different holes in its body. It let out a dying squeal before it slid off the bioweapons which seemed to send the ones in front of Tatsuo and Kotaru into a frenzy.

The second rat which took the place of the rat Kotaru had burnt lunged forward at Tatsuo with fast, wild swipes. Tatsuo grunted as he leaned back to avoid the strikes before his temershiin came from below and between his legs and pierced straight through the chest of the rat. It didn't have any time to even make a sound before the temershiin threw the dead body off and coiled back around to its original position.

Tatsuo wrapped his arms and melashiin around his front as one of the three other rats launched itself at him with a body slam, sending him skidding back into place while they raced forward with their claws and teeth ready to rend the shinobi to pits and pieces. Tatsuo took advantage of the moment it would take for them to close the gap to quickly go through a set of hand seals and when he finished, a long, thin rod of lightning formed in his left hand. He heaved it at the incoming rats where it struck the first one in the chest before exploding and sending electrical shocks throughout the beast's body. It started to spasm before falling limp as the other two continued to race forward.

SpoilerShow

~Basic Formation: Melashiin
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
Type: Melashiin
Channeling chakra to their shiin, they cause it to inflate, fully forming into its full glory. Taking the shape of a long fleshy protrusion, the melashiin is able to recover at double the rate of a normal body part would. The strength and durability of a melashiiin are equal to 3/4ths of the user's strength and stamina.

~Basic Formation: Temershiin
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
Type: Temershiin
Channeling chakra to their shiin, they cause it to inflate, fully forming into its full glory. The temershiin takes the shape of a wide and powerful tail. The strength and durability of a temershiin are equal to the user's strength and stamina.

~Basic Formation: Lacrishiin
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
Type: Lacrishiin
Channeling chakra to their shiin, they cause it to inflate, fully forming into its full glory. Taking the form of an almost opaque glass armor, the lacrishiin almost completely covers the user's body. As a pseudoarmor, the lacrishin has no inherent strength, but has a stamina equal to the Akari's stamina+3, while causing the Akari to move at 3 less speed.

*Raiton • Sky Spear
C-ranked Raiton Jutsu
After performing the correct hand seals, the user will create a two meter long rod of lightning in their hand. They are then able to launch it at 15 speed in a single direction. Upon contact the spear will explode with the force of a single explosive tag and apply the Raiton shocking effect. If it has not been launched by the end of the second post it will dissipate.

[Kao]

Mitsuo and Tatsuo were making quick work of the rats that attacked them, but it seemed that no matter how many of the beasts they took down there were more to take their place. After burning one of the rats Kotaru chased after it, his temershiin and eroshiin both sprouting behind him. He had injured it but it wasn't dead, and he had no idea if it was still capable of fighting or not. With a mighty flap of his eroshiin Kotaru leaped up and forward toward the burned rat as it bellowed in pain. He landed on its back and got a noseful of the smell of burning rat fur and flesh. The giant rat continued thrashing and the boy had to grab onto its fur to avoid being tossed off. Its movements quickly became less and less violent, so Kotaru jammed the thick point of his temershiin into the back of the rat's skull. The skull gave a satisfying crack as the shiin pierced bone and brains, and after a final screech the rat fell over dead.

By the time Kotaru killed his target, Tatsuo had was finishing off his second rat, his temershiin reaching from under him to impale it. Mitsuo was nearby as well, throwing swords and using a technique that the boy had never seen before. But there was no time to admire the technique; when the dead and burned rat hit the ground he heard a hiss behind him and turned around just in time for another rat to tackle him. He was knocked to his back with only the temershiin stopping the beast from ripping out his throat. The thing's breath was rancid, and the horrible smell only pissed him off. He growled, the sound deep in his throat, and then kicked the rat over and above his head. Kotaru quickly spun his body around and into a crouch and before the rat could land on all four feet he had whipped the thick tendril of his temershiin forward and sliced its belly open.

Kotaru turned around to see two rats advancing on Tatsuo and a similar number of rats going for Mitsuo. He performed a set of double seals as fast as he could, and a spike of katon formed in each of his hands. "There's too many of them!" he screamed as he heaved a spike toward one of the two rats that was lunging for Tatsuo. It connected to the beast's back and exploded on impact, burning it and shredding its flesh to ribbons. He turned his body and threw the second spike to one that was about to attack Mitsuo; this one flew into its open mouth before detonating. "We need get the hell out of here!"

The genin formed several more seals and then jumped into the air, spiraling on the ascent. When he reached the apex of his jump he looked down, but most of the scene was shrouded in darkness. It was then he released his jutsu, a rolling burst of flame erupting from his body at all sides. The flames only hit the surrounding rock formations and giant bones, but the light from the technique was enough for him to get a better view of the situation.The flames illuminated dozens of rats below, waiting to swarm his two teammates fighting below. There were too many, far too many, and if they continued trying to fight them off, he knew it wouldn't be long before they would be overwhelmed.

Jutsu UsedShow

~Basic Formation: Temershiin
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
Type: Temershiin
Channeling chakra to their shiin, they cause it to inflate, fully forming into its full glory. The temershiin takes the shape of a wide and powerful tail. The strength and durability of a temershiin are equal to the user's strength and stamina.

~Basic Formation: Eroshiin
D-Ranked Ninjutsu
Type: Eroshiin
Channeling chakra to their shiin, they cause it to inflate, fully forming into its full glory. Taking the form of energy-like jelly small wings, they are incapable of flight on their own, however are very aerodynamic, allowing for the user to slowly float down, based on their prerequisite taijutsu. The Eroshiin has a strength and stamina equal to 3/4ths the user's strength and stamina.

(x2) Spike
C-Ranked Ninjutsu
After performing the needed seals, a three foot long spike shaped mass of katon forms in Kotaru's hand. Within the next 2 posts, he is able to throw the spike toward a target. Once the the spike hits the target it explodes with the strength of a C-ranked explosion.

Corkscrew
C-Ranked Taijutsu Maneuver
Pre-Requisite: Eroshiin
With this manuever, Kotaru jumps into the air and uses his eroshiin to rapidly spin upward at a speed equal to his strength and gain height of X meters, where X is equal to 1/2 his strength.

Hover
C-Ranked Taijutsu Maneuver
Pre-Requisite: Eroshiin
Kotaru can use this techinique to remain in the air after jumping upward using another maneuver or jumping down from a high position. He must continuously flap the shiin at a steady pace to maintain his position in the air. While using Hover, due to it requiring his focus he is unable to use any other taijutsu maneuvers and is unable to gain height.

[Yura]

The swords in his hands were dripping with blood, the corpses of nearly half a dozen giant rats laying in various positions all around him. Of the 13 swords that he had started with he now only had 6 including the two that were in his hands. He was breathing heavy as his eyes scanned his surroundings, looking for the next rat to come his way. He had foolishly moved quite the distance from where his torch had been, leaving him without a reliable way to see his attackers.

Hearing a sudden explosion from his rear, Mitsuo turned to see a rat corpse fall to the ground, smoke pouring from its mouth. "Thanks Kota!" He called out. When the boy soared into the air and lit up the room, Mitsuo eyes widened as he assessed the number of creatures that existed in the cave. He had figured that there would be a group of them, but he hadn't anticipated the multi-dozen that he now saw. There was no way that they were going to be able to fight all of them off. No matter how many Mitsuo sliced and diced, there would always be another one to take its place. It was a fact that was somewhat sobering, stabilizing his rage. His best option now was to retreat back to the others.

Dashing towards his teammate, he saw movement to his left, turning and swinging his blade before he actually saw what it was. When his sword made contact, he watched as the face of one of the rats split in two as it dropped to the ground. Continuing his retreat, he weaved between the various bone pillars to make it harder for the rats to follow him. As he approached the others, he noticed a rat charging at Tatsuo from the side. Thrusting his hand forward as he ran, Mitsuo launched one of the blades floating around him, catching the rat in the chest midair and driving it back to pin it into a bone pillar.

[Niro]

Tatsuo's temershiin rocketed forward as it lanced through another rats face, crushing its skull and ripping its brain to pieces. The dead beast slid off the organ as his melashiin whipped around wildly, piercing each and every rat that came into range right through the chest before finding a new target. All around him the dead or nearly dead bodies of giant rats lay while the Akari went wild trying to fend them off.

'Too many, I can see why the other teams had issues.' He thought to himself, his fist impacting a rat right in the snout and the crunch of bone following. It screeched and brought its paws to its broken face before Tatsuo kicked it back into the darkness. Another one took its place and Tatsuo laid a quick one-two combo into this one, crushing its skull and windpipe with the force of his blows. Kotaru's move had revealed just how many of these beasts there were and Tatsuo was willing to bet even more were waiting in the areas his light didn't reach. Another flurry of blows and two more rats found themselves too injured to continue as Tatsuo refocused onto another rat.

Its claws swiped at his body but the lacrishiin covering him was sturdy enough that the attacks just produced light scratches and gave Tatsuo enough time to punch a hole through the beasts chest. With a wet squelch he removed his hand from the hole and grunted as a rat jumped onto of him. He felt the beast trying to tear at his body but his melashiin turned on it, all four of the tendrils lancing through its body and then ripping outward, sending chunks of giant dead rat raining over the battlefield. A savage grin spread across Tatsuo's face as he saw the rats give pause but then he felt it. The very earth was shaking and he whipped his head around worriedly. The rats seemed to be chattering back and forth to each other and within moments a wave of black overtook the edge of the field. The light from their flashlights glanced off whatever it was yet still did not provide enough vision for him to make out what the newcomer was. The wave of black swept over the battlefield, forcing the rats back with sheer numbers and a mounting sense of dread grew within the chuunin. Was this where they died?

The three shinobi soon got caught up within the mass of black and were lifted to the top of the wave. Tatsuo ran a hand over the moving black mass and recoiled as he felt something move against him. Before he knew it, he and the rest of the team were dumped on the ground and the mass of black stopped moving, staying still just in front of him. Tatsuo looked at Kotaru and Mitsuo with confusion before a single creature moved forward from the mass.

In front of the team emerged a giant cockroach. Tatsuo's eyes grew wide again as he looked at the creature. 'If they were able to force those rats back with no problem...are they going to get rid of us as well?' Tatsuo thought to himself before the creature began to...click? It began chirping at him, it's tone much more friendly than anything the spiders or the rat had issues before it moved forward and touched an antennae to his chest and lacrishiin. Tatsuo pondered the action for a moment before deciding the sheen and texture of his lacrishiin matched the texture of their own shells. Maybe they thought he was some weird human-roach combination?

More cockroaches began to separate themselves from the swarm and come forward towards the team. Tatsuo tensed up at the action but one of the roaches soon rolled forward his dropped flashlight and then the first roach which had placed its antennae on him began to rub its legs together, producing a sound which was eerily comparable to speech.

"Co...me..." The lead roach waited for the team to get back on their feet before it began to walk away from the area. Tatsuo spared a glance at his team before following. "Let's follow, they've had plenty of chances to kill us. Might as well not be rude."

[Kao]

Kotaru tucked his eroshiin to his body and he fell back to the earth and landed on the back of one of the rats. Before it could even let out an angry hiss the boy's temershiin pierced its skull and he was on to his next target. As he defeated rat after rat, he tried his best to think of some kind of strategy that would ensure their safe retreat. But no matter how much he thought and slaughtered, the rats kept coming. Kotaru lost count of how many he killed, though the corpses began to pile up all around them. He was starting to think that this would where he would die, fighting off a horde of rats with his friends. But if he died, he'd go down fighting.

Just as he began to form more hand seals, the rats stopped attacking. Kotaru paused as well, wondering if they would suddenly be overwhelmed by the King Rat or whatever, just as they had been in the spiders' nest. They started to chatter amongst themselves, and the boy worriedly stared at them all. But before he could complete his nervous thoughts, a black wave pushed the rats back and carried the three of them away. The Akari couldn't understand what was happening, even when he felt something long and prickly rub invasively against the back of his neck. They were later dumped on the ground, Kotaru on his back, and he stayed there when he finally saw what rescued them.

Roaches. Enormous roaches. His heart was racing in his chest and he glanced over to his friends at his side. Being torn apart by rats suddenly seemed better than being eaten alive by disgusting bugs. A nearby roach loomed over him and chirped at him (or, at least he felt like it was chirping at him) and then essentially felt up his entire body with its antennae. It was strangely calming. Violating, but calming; his heart rate slowed and his tense muscles relaxed.

'Oh...oh this is gross.' He rolled over and sat up, and the roach continued to chirp at him. Kotaru silently wondered if he was supposed to thank it.

And then the lead roach talked because of course it did. Kotaru stood up, still feeling strange about being gently massaged by giant roach antennae. "This mission is the absolute worst thing I've ever experienced," he mumbled in response to Tatsuo. He followed his teammates and the roaches, hoping that if the creatures turned on them then the nice roach from earlier would rip his head clean off and end it quickly.

[Yura]

Mitsuo was nearly out of blades by the time he had reached his teammates position, having launched the three that had been floating round him at various rats in his path during his retreat. He had finally made it back to them, however, putting himself within only a few meters of each. He wasn’t sure if they would be able to escape death, but he knew that their best chance was if they were together.

Left with only the two blades in his hands, Mituso once again went on the attack, charging towards one rat as it attempted to flank Kota from the rear. With a whirl of his blades, mitsuo intercepted the creatures charge, leaving two large gashes in the creature’s side before driving the blades forward into the beast. Stumbling back as he removed the blades from the creatures chest, Mitsuo was unexpectedly blindsided by a creature to his left, dropping his blades as he tumbled to the ground and rolled with the creature before managing to toss it off of him with all of his strength. This particular rat was smaller than the others, likely a youngling, but it still easily matched Mitsuo in height. Desperately searching for his fallen blades, he caught sight of them a few meters away and made a mad dash for them as the creature charged forward again, barely managing to grasp one’s handle and turn before the rat closed in. Mitsuo was suddenly showered in blood as the creature impaled itself on his blade, screeching as it bled out all over him.

Throwing the creature’s limp body off of him, Mitsuo sat up, breathing heavy as he tried to while the creatures blood from his face. He had almost just died, but that wasn’t something that he was going to allow himself to think about on the midst of battle. Bringing himself to his feet, he had just retrieved his final sword when he saw the swarm of black suddenly overtake the rats in the distance. Wide eyed, Mitsuo was helpless to stop himself from being overtaken by the swarm as well, being carried along with his friends to what he assumed was their certain doom. Before long, the group was dumped on the ground a fair distance from where they had been, safe from the rats but now surrounded by what appeared to be giant cockroaches.

Tensing as they approached, Mitsuo allowed a pair of cockroaches to poke at his body with their antennae, chirping (to each other he assumed) as they did so. He had dropped his final sword when they had swept him off his feet, but even if he had had it it would have been pointless to try and fight them. The way that they had pushed back the rats with ease was enough to tell Mitsuo that he wouldn’t win that fight.

When the lead roach began to speak, Mitsuo was surprised and yet not. Sure, giant cockroaches prroooobably shouldn’t be speaking, but it certainly wasn’t the oddest thing that they had seen today. Or ever.

“Well it’s not like we’re in a position to refuse the request.” Mitsuo lamented, watching the roaches carefully, “We might as well go.”

[Niro]

The lead giant cockroach began walking farther into the darkness with the team and the several members of the swarm following while the rest of the massive black swarm stayed in place. After several hundred feet, the roach made a turn off into a tunnel filled with bio-luminescent mushrooms glowing soft blue and hanging off the walls and ceiling. Several larger ones were also present on the ground off to the wayside.

Tatsuo followed the leader as it led them further into the mysterious lands underneath Iwagakure. The flashlight in his hand was swung back and forth across the tunnel way as he wanted to get a closer look but realized just how bright the combined small lights of each individual mushroom shined and how much of the tunnel it actually lit up. He turned the light in his hand off and continued to follow the roach. The tunnel eventually opened up into a larger cave with a radius about 10 or so meters around. Tatsuo and the team were led to the center of it which revealed the remains of the team sent ahead of them. They were mostly eaten with only small strips of muscle and even less skin attached the to tunnel. The only things remaining were their metal armor pieces and weaponry which were scattered around the cavern.

He bent down as he came upon the remains of a headband with the crest of Iwagakure printed into the front. Small tatters of the cloth attached the band were still attached but it seemed that whoever did this had gnawed away anything which wasn't metal.

"How'd they die?" Tatsuo aloud, the roach turned him and began his low chirp again.

"Gnaw...ers..." The creature chirped before once again falling silent.

"Who are you?" Tatsuo spoke as he stared down the giant bug.

"Chirp...ers..." It replied before moving past him and back into the tunnel. The giant roach moved past both Mitsuo and Kotaru while the other giant roaches parted against the sides of the tunnel. Tatsuo gave the two a confused look as he followed the roach.

[Kao]

As they ventured into the mushroom fileld tunnel, Kotaru noticed that the roach that had touched him with its antennae was still at his side. He kept glancing at it, his expression slightly worried, and each time he did the roach wiggled its antennae and chirped cheerfully. "I think he likes me," he mumbled to Mitsuo with a touch of dread in his tone. "Or...she. I can't tell.... Please don't be a she." The giant roach tapped his shoulder and gave a long series of squeaks, and he could only assume that it was telling him what kind of roach it was. Of course the genin couldn't understand it, so he had to just grin and bear it.

When they finally reached the location of the corpses, Kotaru sighed and crossed his arms. It was just as he expected; the other group didn't make it. He looked down at the bodies, his expression detached and impassive, and watched Tatsuo pick up the fallen shinobi's headband. "Gnawers? The rats?" He found it interesting that the enormous bugs had their own name for the rats, and he wondered if they were natural enemies. "Well whatever did it, they're gonna wanna retrieve the bodies. But I don't think anyone is gonna wanna come down here with anything less than an elite group after we tell them what's waiting down here."

The lead roach seemed to want them to follow it further and the rest of the roaches backed off. Kotaru's...friend pressed its body against the wall and waved its antennae at him. The Akari hesitantly waved back and then hustled to follow his teammates and the leader roach.

[Yura]

"You can take her out on a date when we get out of here." Mitsuo mumbled sarcastically to Kota as they followed the giant roaches in the tunnel. In the dim light of the glowing mushrooms, it was slightly easier to make out the size and features of the several creatures that were escorting them to wherever they were going. They looked like one would assume a normal cockroach would look up close, only these were obviously several times larger. While they hadn't shown any aggression towards the shinobi, Mitsuo still didn't trust them despite willingly following them through the tunnel. Well, as 'willingly' as one could do when proposition by a swarm of giant cockroaches. He questioned whether they were or not they were spirits, other than the size and the single creature that seemed to speak their language, the roaches had shown no other sign of a spiritual nature.

When they entered the larger room at the end of the tunnel and led to its center, Mitsuo felt a sudden chill go up his spine as he recognized the features of the Iwagakure headband. Had the roaches done this? Were he and the others next? These were questions seemingly answered by the lead roach as it spoke in broken sentences, blaming the rats while labeling itself and its brethren "Chirpers". How much he believed the creature, he wasn't sure, but Mitsuo had to admit that it made more sense that the giant rats had done this given how torn the few remains were.

"There aren't exactly 'bodies' to retrieve." Mitsuo replied to Kota's statement, "If the rats really did this, they didn't leave much behind. We're better off just taking some of the identifying materials with us and hoping that that is enough." Mitsuo explained, bending down to pick up one of the fallen headbands. "We might as well see what else he has to show us." He mumbled as the swarm of roaches parted and their leader continued on down the path.

[Niro]

The giant roach in the forefront of the group did one large circle after they stopped off in the cave which had the remains of the previous team. Well, if one could even call what was left 'remains.' The group went back through the caves illuminated by the different sized bioluminescent mushrooms and popped right back out into the graveyard filled with bones the size of buildings. Tatsuo swept his flashlight and eyes over the area to get a look of the carnage but was surprised to see the bodies of the deceased rats had already been removed; whether it be by the roaches or by the rats coming back for their dead the chuunin had no idea. Blood trails snaked off into the darkness where his flashlight could not reach but the group continued to move. They reconvened with the rest of the swarm which parted as the roach continued to lead them back towards which they came.

The head roach eventually led them back to the cliff face before turning around and facing them once more. "Whis...pers...in the...dark...be care...ful..." The roach vocalized with its forelegs, scratching them together to produce the sound which was eerily close to human speech. Each time the roach grated its legs together to produce noise Tatsuo winced as he was unaccustomed to the strange way of communication.

Tatsuo's face scrunched up in confusion and he looked between Mitsuo and Kotaru before back at the roach. "Whispers? Is that something else down here?" He asked, mentally preparing himself for the incoming grating noises.

"These...are new...Whis...pers are new..."[/color] The roach replied to Tatsuo's questions before it went on. "Old...tales tell of whispers...but whispers are new...chirpers going missing...gnawers becoming aggressive...spinners running wild. Something is...wrong." The roach asked, revealing to the group that something was awry down in these pitch black lands. "Run...while you can..."

Tatsuo shivered at the warning, or maybe it was the cold breeze that passed by them, as he listened to what the giant roach had to tell them. Something was wrong and throwing the ecosystem out of whack. He looked to Mitsuo and Kotaru before walking towards the wall and applying chakra to his feet.

"Thanks for the warning, we'll be back with help." Tatsuo told the roach as he began to climb back up the cliff side and into the pitch black. He assumed Kotaru and Mitsuo had followed him when he began to climb. Given enough time to be out of ear shot from the non-hostile roaches on the ground level, Tatsuo finally decided to speak.

"Something is really wrong down there...here. Best to report back and figure out what to do rather than us die down there like the other teams. Who would've guessed giant, talking cockroaches though?" He posited to his team mates as he continued up the rock wall.

[Kao]

Kotaru kept close to the group and was practically glued to Mitsuo's side. Despite their escort, he was still keeping his eyes out for any more signs of attack. But they walked through the illuminated tunnel without incident, and when they were back in the graveyard it was inexplicably cleared of the rat corpses. The young Akari decided not to think much of it, but still he hoped that they weren't gone in order to make way for more attacking giant rats.

No matter how much the lead roach "talked," Kotaru still couldn't get used to the sound. It was unnatural, to say the least, and it differed enough from human speech sounds that it made his flesh pucker with goosebumps. He hated it and wish the bug would just stop talking. "I wouldn't be surprised. It's a hellhole down here. Giant rats and talking roaches are probably the tamer beasts that thrive down here." The thought - along with the lead roach's warning that they should run - made Kotaru pause. There was no way that the village was ignorant of such creatures living below the village. Even though they were in supposedly unexplored parts of the vast underground below Iwagakure, the sensors of the village should at least be able to feel that there was something amiss beneath the village. Shouldn't they?

As they began to climb back up, Kotaru shook his head. "This isn't normal. Why is this just now coming up? Looking at those rat bones alone, the rats have been thriving down here for years. The spiders had an enormous pit and tunnels. Not only that, but those were nothing like the spirits I've seen in the past. They just seemed like...giant animals working on instinct. The roaches seemed the closest to being spirits but...at the same time, not." The boy rambled, still shaken from what he had seen and nervous about what was to come.

[Yura]

As the roaches led the boys back through the tunnels, Mituso couldn't help letting the full oddity of the situation wash over him. They were being escorted around by cockroaches. They essentially had a protective detail of cockroaches. Throughout this entire mission they had been attacked by giant spiders and giant rats and now they were having conversations with a giant cockroach. And to top it all off, this giant cockroach was warning of the whispers as if they were something to be feared which meant that there was something in these depths even more dangerous than the giant creatures that they had encountered. He never could have imagined, at the start of this mission, that this was how it was going to unfold. That this was what they were going to experience.

As the boys reached the cliff and began to climb, Mitsuo's mind shifted to the reality of the situation. "I don't know how they've gone unnoticed all these years, but clearly its something that needs to be addressed now. In the short time we were down there, we found three different types of giant creatures. It makes you wonder how many more exist down here. Its only a matter of time before one type of creature or another tries to make its way up and into the village." He paused as he continued to climb, half a dozen thoughts floating through his head. "We need to do something to prevent that from happening." Mitsuo said finally, "We need learn more about this place and figure out a way to shore up the defenses of the village just in case." He added. The fact that all of this went seemingly unnoticed for so long, that multiple teams of shinobi were sent off in to the dark depths of these caverns completely unaware of their dangers concerned him. Had they essentially just opened a door to a danger that couldn't be taken back? Were they even prepared to stop it? Sure, they were shinobi and all they had found so far were a bunch of giant creatures, but what else was there? Now that they knew that the area existed, there needed to be people dedicated to watch it. He just didn't know who. "I guess for now, we just need to report what we've found and see what upper management decides."

[Niro]

"I'm willing to bet more than three. We were just bumbling around in the dark and came upon giant rats, spiders, and roaches. Imagine what we'd find if we were a proper excavation unit rather than a search and rescue team. Maybe whatever left those giant bones? Whatever that was has to be even bigger than the giant spider that tried to eat us." Tatsuo replied as he continued climbing alongside his team mates.

"You're right, the creatures down here have been thriving for...a long time. I'd say at least a couple centuries based on what the roach told us. I don't even think those were spirits, just stupidly large and mutated beasts. But the mention of whispers...maybe there are spirits down here. It wouldn't even surprise me at this point because of our gigantic friends down there. We best get back to command and let them decide what to do." He went on, climbing with the wall climbing technique until the group finally came back across the flare they had planted in the side of the cliff wall. Tatsuo reknotted the rope around his person and cut the flow of chakra to his feet before he began to climbing back up the cliff.

The team eventually returned from over the cliff side and spilled back into the base camp set up by the village of Iwagakure. Exhausted and ready for a break, the team walked themselves into Hibiki's command tent and gave their report on the situation, what they saw, and returned the hand bands of the teams sent down previously. Hibiki sat hunched over in his usual pose with his fingers steeped in front of his face and eyes narrowed. He was quiet besides dismissing the team back to the surface as he needed time to think and reevaluate the village's approach to this situation. The situation, at this point, was more dire than initially thought to be and would call for more manpower.