[Graded][Plotboard] The Round-up! It does nothing!

[Director]

The newly minted Jounin waited at the gate as he awaited his Awai cousin to meet him there. They were tasked with investigating some vines over coming one of Fire Country's close by farmers. He was a major supplier of potatoes day in and day out. It was odd that these vines were plaguing his farm, especially those so eerily similar to those made by the Senju. Fanho's suspicions aside, he personally took this task as the Katameru head he needed to see if this threatened the village's defenses, and what he needed to take action accordingly. Even though it was one tasked for Genin, he couldn't leave it up to chance. But why not bring a cousin along to teach and guide.

It was a sunny day, not too hot, but not too cold. A nice breeze setting the tone for the sun basked day. If anything one of the highlights of living in Fire Country was the weather. Light snow occasionally during the winter that didn't hurt, but was enjoyed by many especially the younger kids. He wanted kids of his own, but none too soon. He was too young for kids at the moment, taking on students satiated that desire. Some were a mix bag of would-be Kages and Bannin, other's were struggling teens trying to find a purpose. It was a tasking job, but one he loved with a passion.

Turning his attention back to suspicion, he recalled reviewing a file of a Missing-Nin Senju that had terrorized the lands before he left. He had been dormant for a long time now, before Fanho's own coming of a ninja. He wasn't a hardened criminal by any means, but had been caught up in the wrong crowd and made a huge mistake. Perhaps this was their target? It was the only Missing-Nin Senju to stay in country, and recently been seen in the surrounding areas. Maybe he had been catching back up to his old ways. The young Awai could only formulate different theories surrounding him.

Where are you Michio?

[Belac]

Michio leaped across the roof tops with an energy only a child could possess. Today was going to be one of the most epic day of his genin career! He was not only doing his first mission since he rejoined the genin squadrons, it was with the most awesome Awai he knew: Fanho! Sure it wasn't with his actual squad but the fact that Fanho was leading him more than made up for it.

Michio was already aware of his mission, and if he was honest it was... a bit disappointing. He always disliked doing the lower ranked missions, as they were basically chores. Go find this pet. Go pull some weeds. Mow a lawn with a kunai. Do your drills. It was all so boring and frankly beneath genin in his eyes. But it was worth the chance to learn from Fanho. Just in their first meeting he had shown so many abilities, all of which Michio wanted to learn. The ability to not use hand seals during combat, to cloak himself in light and to create a crater in the earth with a simple ball of chakra!

Michio couldn't wait! The seasoned jonin teaching all his tricks to his cocky young student until he one day passes the torch onto him! It was going to be beyond epic! He wondered what jutsu he'd learn with the jonin. What complex techniques he'd gain, it was all so interesting!

Either way, he would arrive at the gate just a few minutes late, bouncing in place as he practically brimmed with excitement. "I'm ready Fanho Sensei!"

[Director]

Fanho stood by as he watched the crowds of people shift by the large gates before he spotted his vibrant young cousin. Blonde as ever with the same ol' vibrant and flamboyant get-up. Perhaps Michio had never heard of the word subtlety or modesty? None the less, he shook the thought from his head as he smiled meeting his cousin. "You ready to head out? Now remember you're following my lead. We don't know whats going on with this." Fanho turned around and began to walk out of the village slowly hoping the Genin would pick-up pace before Fanho picked his up into a brisk walk.

"So weeds are growing out here in astronomical sizes and rates. What do you suggest is going on out here?" Fanho led Michio on in the question to provoke the young kiddo to elaborate on what he thought might be the issue. Go ahead forming a thesis, then the two would investigate when they got there. Perhaps the kid already figured something was weird with vines, Senju make vines, must be some Senju guy. Hopefully the aspiring shinobi didn't forget that spirits also have these abilities as well. If not as strong as a Senju but even stronger. Within an hour the two would be at their target destination. Since it was a lower ranked mission, they could take a few minutes to discuss their ideas. As well as mull over plans.

[Belac]

Michio was ecstatic to see Fanho again, especially when the jonin smiled at him upon seeing Michio. When Fanho said to follow his lead, Michio did so with zeal, infact going ahead of him the first time he tried to keep up, before slowing down and trying his best to stay behind the jonin leader. When he was then asked to think of reasons behind the sudden increase in weed growth, Michio paused for a few seconds before catching back up with his current leader.

Michio was a tad confused at Fanho's question. Not the question itself, as that he understood, but more so why was he asking it? Wouldn't Fanho himself have already known anything involving the weeds before Michio had even thought of them? After all he was a jonin, he was more experience and knowledgeable in these things that Michio, and in almost every way. So what would be the point of Michio theorizing about this? Perhaps it was a test, or some form of mental training? Of course! That was brilliant!

Michio would furrow his brow, his mind racing with ideas, and after only a few seconds bursting with joy. "It could be some rouge wood release user, terrorizing our nation. Oh! Maybe its a shinobi scientist who wanted to try and grow the plants on farms to increase food supplies, but his experiment went wrong and is now running haywire! Oh, oh! Maybe its an angry forest spirit, who is taking out her rage on the near by farmers!" He stopped as he inhaled in shock as he came up with, what was in his mind, a brilliant idea. "What if the vines are all actually pieces of a spirit that takes the form of a plant, and those vines are how it keeps in contact with and interacts with the world!?" Michio's eyes were brimming with energy, to the point where one could swear the irises were rotating. It was obvious he thought these backstories were brilliant, and to him they sounded like origin stories for villains in comic books. He hoped Fanho would not only find these answers to be possible, but they were equally epic!

[Director]

Fanho's eyes fluttered with each suggestion as he nodded his head back and forth. These were all possibilities, but it seemed like Michio got more of a kick out of just creating these stories than focusing on the mission at hand. He let the boy continue, he had some decent insight, but one was a little outlandish. Not outside the realm of possibility, but definitely not likely at all. "Don't you think you're having a bit too much fun thinking about stories, rather than what exactly we could be facing? It could be something entirely out of your league you know?" The Jounin walked with his hands in his pockets resting. As they kept walking the farm could be seen coming over the horizon.

They still had a few minutes to talk, but from here Fanho could see the vines easily overlapping the yard. Underneath his breath he muttered, "Great..." The vines were easily a foot up to three feet thick, and some scattered as long as six feet. This wasn't some ordinary experiment, but definitely a spirit or some kind. However he decided to let Michio take the helm, after all, how would the kid learn how to be a shinobi if someone did everything for him.

[Belac]

Michio paused for a bit when Fanho brought up the possibility of the thing making the plants being far stronger than him. Could that happen? If so how would they handle it? Was that why Fanho was there? With that final question he relaxed. Of course that was why Fanho was there. "Well as long as you're here I don't have to worry do I? Anything I cann't handle you can." Michio stated, showing his naive child faith.

Once they arrived Michio was shocked at how bad the vines really were. They were huge, easily reaching the size of most house hold animals! These would take forever to cut! Michio sighed at the realization of how boring this would be. If it weren't for the fact that something could be behind this, Michio would assume this was another glorified chore mission! But he did know one thing, they had to remove the weeds before anything else. "Well....Let's get the boring part over with." He said as he pulled out five shuriken, each with with three meters of razor wire each. He would walk slowly around, almost with no energy, wrapping the wire around the bases of each weed, until he had wrapped ten weeds in a field of razor wire. Being a Jack of All Trades, Michio's Grandfather had taught him to do much with little. Though he much preferred unloading a gigantic attack on his targets, he didn't have the energy for that. He had to do as much as he could in one swift movement.

Michio also knew from his past experience that the best way to get rid of a weed without tearing the ground was to cut the weed from its roots and let the roots slowly die. Pulling as hard as he could, and with significant effort, Michio managed to slowly and steadily pull through all the weeds he had tangled. However he found himself tumbling backwards as soon as the last one was cut, much to his annoyance.

That was so stupid looking.

[Director]

Fanho gave a giggle as Michio mentioned anything he couldn't handle, he'd let Fanho handle. "Albeit you know your strengths, we'll get you there in no time. You may even surpass me, at least thats what the goal is right?" He flashed a wink at Michio before letting the young Genin take his time pulling out the weeds. The Jounin thought in his head, He can think of this as strength training. Fanho walked towards the farmer's house as he rapped at the door the farmer coming out of his hut with a pipe smoking from the end. The farmer blew smoke out the side of his mouth back into his house, blowing the smoke in Fanho's face would be bad manners after all.

"Hey mister, my names Fanho, and that kid pulling out the weeds is Michio." Fanho jested his thumb outside at Michio who was hard at work gutting the weeds out. "So you're in charge of figuring out who keeps weeding my farm? Its all over the damn place!" The farmer threw his hands in the air with frustration as he gested to the rest of his farm which was weeded down. Plants being strangled til they turned brown. It was like produce genocide. Fanho scratched his chin as he glanced to where the man pointed. "Any idea the reason behind it? See anything funny? Anyone approach you lately?"

"There was this one cloaked figure, he was huge, hulking looking thing. Walked with some kind of limp and some sort of hunchback." The farmer held his hands up higher than Fanho, and he even hopped to give his hand extra height to indicate how tall the bastard was. It reached about seven feet and ten inches. Fanho's eye brows fluttered in an underwhelmed surprise state. "We'll try to find this hunchback that's causing these weeds. Its definitely, uhhh..." Fanho paused as he scratched his neck. Obviously the thing wasn't human, but who knows what it was. "Unique? Don't worry mister, we'll take care of this thing, and make sure it isn't messing with your farm anymore."

Fanho waved Michio over after the farmer went back inside his humble abode. "Michio! We're gonna take a walk around the area. We'll come back to the vines in a bit. If this thing creates more, that just means more to rip so lets try to take out the head of the operation first."

[Belac]

Michio stared in awe at the idea of him surpassing Fanho. Could he really do that? After all Michio was only at the beginning of his training, frankly anything was possible. But at the same time he was a Jack of All Trades. He wasn't really talented at anything, and it was fairly obvious that Fanho had talent, at least in Michio's eyes. But it didn't hurt to imagine. Michio could see himself, standing tall and proud, holding Raiden in one hand, and that special jutsu he saw Fanho use in the other.

Michio had already gone through ten more weeds by the time Fanho got back. "I better stop soon. If I keep this up my Razor Wire is gonna dull." Michio thought out loud. Much different than earlier, Michio's energy was completely gone. This was reminding him too much of D-rank missions, or as they should be called in Michio's opinion 'glorified chores.' He had to start somewhere sure, but he already had started there! He had even done C ranks before, but now he was back at square one! It was a bummer.

Once Fanho waved Michio back, he was excited to be something other than taking care of the weeds. "On it Fanho-sensei!" Michio quickly used Tree Climbing to scale the wall of the man's farm, attempting to get a good look around the area. Where should they look for the nefarious perpetrator who dared to attack a Hi no Kuni farm? The area around the farm seemed the most logical... unless of course the enemy expected that, and thus stayed as close to the farm as possible.

"Fanho-Sensei!" Michio called out from on top of the farm. "Since you're faster I was thinking you should check the edges. I'll handle the central area and we'll meet up and cover the in between together! Sound good?"

[Director]

Fanho gave a confident shrug as he let Michio take over the planning. After all the mission didn't seem too dangerous, a perfect way to tune Michio's leading, and planning skills. "Sounds like a solid idea to me." Fanho began to walk away as Michio's scouting took him up into a tree. From the tree top Michio could see far out across the farm, and see the outline of some hulking thing if he were paying attention. The hulking thing would disappear quickly into the woods, and he wouldn't be able to see more than just an outline. This suspicious figure would go unnoticed by Fanho as he was scouting the other side of the farm, and entrusted Michio to take care of the rest.

As the young Jounin finished his sweep around the entire farm, he sped around coasting about half his usual speed to conserve energy. When he came back around to his young cousin of a Genin he waved him down out of the tree. "Spot anything interesting bud?" A grin crept across Fanho's face as he gave a chuckle before joking to his student. "Don't tell me you were staring at the sun, some Awai kiddos do that actually." His thoughts crept up about his student, he was young, full of promise, and definitely had a happy-go-lucky drive. The two of them were almost the exact same, in all honesty they weren't that far apart in age. It was probably why they got along so well.

[Belac]

Michio circled the center of the Famer's land, checking for foot prints, claw marks anything. But there was nothing, no evidence that any creature had been here. In truth Michio's mind was still caught on one detail... How was this happening? Just making plants from nothing, while very ninjustu in nature, was not something common. Plants were more along the abilities of the Senju clan.

So maybe it was a spirit? But what motivation would a spirit have for attacking a Farmer of all things? Farmers were about the most natural living of people. Make food for self, give food to others for something of value for survival, live off land and self earned food. Maybe assuming it was obsessed with nature was wrong. After all just because it has nature powers doesn't mean the spirit itself is obsessed with the rules of nature. Perhaps it just thought this place was its home and wants to scare the farmer off?

It wasn't until Michio found himself at a tree that he noticed a particularly long weed, one stretching straight up the tree, as if defying gravity. The thing would suck the life out of the plant for sure. He had to wonder however...what pulled it up there? Could he find the spirit up there? If so this was his chance to be a hero. Climbing the tree, Michio couldn't find any sign of spirits, ninja or anything non plant! It was so annoying. Just when he was sure he had caught it, he was actually chasing a random goose tail... or was he chasing a random weed stalk?

However, something was moving far away, just barely in the corner of Michio's eye. Twisting his body to see what was going on, he barely saw a behemoth of a creature sulk into the woods. He tried his best the squint at the area the beast left, but nothing. All he had was a shadow and a direction. He sighed heavily as he walked back down the tree. That was something sure, but it wasn't exactly a big show of his skills. Just as he got down, Fanho approached Michio, expecting an update. "Nope. Focused on finding...whatever it is we're looking for. I just saw a creature go into the woods. Should be follow it?"

[Director]

Fanho gave a resounding nod. "Sounds like our best lead so far, criminal not far from his crime." The Awai let the genin take the lead in following the shadow as they moved. Fanho only staying a few meters behind Michio just to be able to intercept if this mission turned out to be more than the genin could handle. However with a survey of the area, Fanho felt confident Michio was capable, and the threat was relatively low. As they trek'd in the woods Fanho took note of the vines wrapping the trees, and slightly livelier trees in the area. The Jounin tapped Michio on the shoulder as he brought a finger up to his lips to hush the genin. He pointed at the vines and revitalized trees as a sign they were in the right direction. From here it appeared they lost the creature, so Fanho and Michio once had to deduce the way to move. Which it appeared the creature left markings of muddy foot prints from a puddle the two had dodged just moments before.

The Awai pointed in the direction the beast came before holding his palm in a stopping motion, and pointed towards the thick tree branches that loomed above. The tree branches would give the topographical advantage they would need, and he hoped Michio would pick on this lesson about tracking and strategic placement of advantages. For someone like Fanho who had an array of flashy jutsu, he certainly knew tracking, stealth, and was getting better in the teaching aspect. Fanho scaled the tree quickly as he waited for Michio as the two would traverse the tree branches. As they would get closer they could start making out the creature's rough figure as it was cloaked in a dark brown moss covered coat. It blocked most of the view, however a glimpse gave way it seemed to be made of roots. With them making their way towards their target, a root slithered from behind the two as it grabbed Michio's leg attempting to jerk him backwards and down into the ground to ensnare him in the earth.

[Belac]

Michio nodded, quickly showing Fanho the direction he saw the creature go. Usually if an enemy was that far away, it would have been hopeless to try and catch up to it. But luckily for Michio, the creature was shambling at best. Even as a genin catching up to the thing would be easy. Trekking on foot, Michio looked around as the forest became more dense suddenly. The trees were almost touching, with only bushes between them, and vines wrapping around the trees in an almost protective manner. Michio wasn't a farmer, or a plantoligist, but he was certain there was no way all of these plants could live so close together and eat enough to live. Something was working here, and at two hundred percent. "Definitely an angry forest spirit." Michio commented, referring to his earlier rant on fantastical causes of these strange plants.

When Michio followed, he noticed the vines and plants all seemed to blend together. How was he supposed to fight the thing when he could barely tell one leaf from the next!? He couldn't tell anything apart except the branches, not even the root wrapping around his leg. "...eh?" Michio didn't have time to stop it, but he did have enough time to grab the branch, using Tree Climbing on his fingers to cling it. With his free hand, Michio drew Raiden, staring at the large root that was trying to drag him into the ground. Raiden was not going to cut that thing in one swing, so there was only one thing to do. Empowering his chakra with Katon, Michio placed both hands on Raiden's hilt, the blade glowing red with heat. Using gravity to help, he slashed downwards cutting the root down the middle. As the root retreated into the ground, Michio smirked... before remembering there was nothing to stop him from falling now.