Feeling [M][Nai]

[Chae]

name; PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!
rank; b
description; This has to be the strangest thing we’ve ever brough in before, a creature composed entirely of sticky gooey jelly. To be honest, we actually have no idea how to defeat it ourselves. All melee skills seem to do nothing more then separate the shape shifting amorphous blob of goo. Good luck and don’t get swallowed up.
reward; 300 experience, 5,000 ryo
minimum shinobi; one
mission status; interminable

A strange wind, one unbecoming of summer weather, a wind that was unusually frigid even for Mizu no Kuni's moist and brumous whether. Back from retirement, chewing on his millionth stem of wheat, Ju stepped out from the village gates as they closed behind him with a loud boom.

"Ah, now that shit smells amazing."

he said aloud yet to himself, looking up into the clouded sky with a bright smile as if the sun had been shining every so brightly. His little vacation from the ninja world was, admittedly, overly long; knowing this, his desire to come back and take the bull by the horns grew stronger than ever before. Even so, he knew his own limits and opted to not go balls deep just when he came back to serve his country and village, nay, instead, he merely requested for a mission that was -for the most part- intermediate.

The scroll which contained information on the delegated task was unraveled gently once seized by Ju's hands. Walking (just slow enough for his partner to catch up) down an empty, misty road, he held the scroll out in front of him laterally, reading over the provided data for a second time.

"Man I tell ya' these missions get weirder by the day."

[Naitome]

enter.

The gates had their own temperament; they were like a living organism, somehow more than simply another feature of the land and as he nodded in the direction of the posted guards and exited their relative safety, he could not help the feeling that he needed to say 'goodbye'. It felt like he was always leaving the village now, always off to complete some task or assignment that often prevented him from gaining the opportunity to enjoy his village. He pulled his cloak closer in the chill wind, and looked back one last time as the massive doorway closed with finality.

Staring straight ahead, he came upon the other to whom he'd been assigned this mission, and gave a polite wave, bowing slightly, and speaking with a slightly hurried tone

Hello, and well met. I am Akuharu. Are you ready to leave?

He took note of the opened scroll as his eyes cast a somber glance towards the fading day. It would be night soon. A fine time to begin the hunt. A fine time to learn more of the caliber of shinobi the Hidden Mist now produced.

Nameless and Akurojin-no-hi were strapped to his back, his packs were full, and he reached up to remove his headband, out of habit. Though not exactly a covert operation, if he was out of the village, he would not advertise his place of origin unnecessarily. He would gesture towards his companion to perhaps do the same, before tapping a finger against his chin and smirking a bit.

If only I knew exactly where we were going...

[Chae]

Reading over the scroll intently, Ju looked back instinctively as the sound of a voice accompanied with foot steps marred his brief moment of silent reading. Ju looked back to lay eyes upon a fellow as equally handsome, which, he saw as competition should they have ever found themselves amongst a group of sexually deprived women. Shaking odd thoughts from the forefronts to his mind, he pushed them down into a tertiary level of thought just as his partner introduced himself. Akuharu, not a bad name at all, or so Ju thought. He immediately noticed that a surname had been purposefully skipped, perhaps for security measures or even trust issues, hell, maybe both. Even so, Ju respected Akuharu's reluctance to give his full name, however, Ju took it upon himself to 'break the ice' for lack of a better term.

"Kang Chae Yoon, pleasure to meet ya'. . .Akuharu. And yeah, I'm all set and ready to kill this. . .this, well, mission says its a 'shape shifting amorphous blob'. Sounds like the type of shit that deserves to die.""

Once spoken, he laughed boisterously before settling down to give Akuharu time to speak for a second time. He drove a good point, the goddamn mission information managed to somehow leave out the coordinates of the blob. Chewing down on his wheat, he shrugged it off and answered the best way he knew how.

"I say we just roam around and just kill every thing that looks like a blob y'know, whaddya think?"

[Naitome]

"Kang Chae Yoon, pleasure to meet ya'. . .Akuharu. And yeah, I'm all set and ready to kill this. . .this, well, mission says its a 'shape shifting amorphous blob'. Sounds like the type of shit that deserves to die."

It is difficult for me to believe that anything deserves death, so much as merely experiences it one way or the other.

It sounds like a fascinating creature, though. I'd be interested to know how it came into being. Whether or not it thinks or has a name or understands language. We might be able to merely convince it to live elsewhere. For all we know, it could be a native to these lands.

Akuharu could not quell the student in himself; he was endlessly entertained by discovering new things, life-forms and languages and people. Though the creature their mission demanded them to kill sounded dangerous, he had no indication of whether or not it had harmed anyone, and no real reason to so wantonly destroy another life-form. He found it quite sad to be sent off to hunt something down that to his knowledge, might be the only one of its kind in all of Mizu No Kuni. But his partners zeal for death did not seem careless or evil. He smiled, almost against his own will..he found the older genin funny.

"I say we just roam around and just kill every thing that looks like a blob y'know, whaddya think?"

I think that nobody will safely eat jello tonight.

He answered, laughing quietly, and pointing to a narrow passageway through a throng of overlapping trees that seemed to be the most direct path away from the village. He would begin walking, the sounds of ambient nature swelling up as insects danced and fought overhead, things burrowed through the dirt, and the ever present Mist of their homeland filtered in around patches of water moistened bark.

How long have you been in Kirigakure?

He asked, giving the man enough time to respond as he pushed leaves and over-sized vines from in front of him.

Any special skills I should be aware of before we reach this blob?

[Chae]

Chae looked straight ahead down through the throng of trees as each step carried them down the most obvious road from the village. During that time, Akuharu spoke, expressing the apparent difficulty in him believing that anything deserves to die. While he respected his opinion, Chae had been cut from an entirely different thread when it came down to beliefs and faiths. Having been raised as a Kushinada in the same family as the Mizukage (and previous), they were taught to be ruthless and to have a level of compassion and affection that existed only for Kirigakure comrades and loved ones. While Chae stuck to what he grew up to believe, he found himself unable to dispute or cut down that point that Akuharu mad - not that he actually intended to.

Akuharu's point of view, admittedly, impressed Chae as he himself never thought to look at certain things from different angles. As far as he knew, the blob could be a native, it could be the last of its kind, and it could be an intelligent life-form. However, programmed to obey Kirigakures military orders, once an objective had been explicitly laid out, he refused to question it. Soon enough Akuharu answered Chae's following question with a subtle joke that actually invoked laughter. This was good. If there had been one thing that Chae absolutely enjoyed about having a partner had been having one who knew how to take a joke and could lighten the mood with one. Calming his laugh, Chae now answered Akuharu's question.

"Since birth, so roughly about 27 years. . . "

He paused momentarily, stroked his beard, thought, and continued on to answer Akuharu's secondary question.

"Other than having this sole affinity for Raiton ninjutsu and the basics, that's roughly it. . ."

He sent minuscule sparks of chakra down to his hand thereafter, causing harmless sparks to travel through his fingers as though they had been an endless conductor.

"Heh, my raiton is really strong. What about you, what ya' bringin' to the table?"

[Naitome]

"Since birth, so roughly about 27 years. . . "

Interesting. I've only been a shinobi for two months. I completed the Chuunin exams about a month ago.

Akuharu answered casually, as the two moved through the wild land of Mizu No Kuni. Their gait was steady, but swift, and they covered ground easily as conversation made the trip far easier to undertake. He'd seldom performed missions in the company of others, and this excursion made him consider something the Mizukage had brought up in previous talks with him; the formation of his own genin team. Though his aspirations to become ANBU as well as Jounin were considerable, he couldn't stifle his ambition to perform well as a leader of others, ever cautious of the trials and tribulations such a position might incur.

"Other than having this sole affinity for Raiton ninjutsu and the basics, that's roughly it. . ."

I look forward to seeing it in action.

A small display of the man's prowess followed, as a contingency of lightning was birthed near his palm, radiating slowly up and out as it fizzled into sparks. Akuharu whistled appreciatively, as moisture slowly pulled itself from their surroundings and collected before them in the form of a rotating sphere, which briefly changed to become a simulacrum copy of his own face, then a swirling star, then a small fox running in place before exploding outwards with a dull 'pop' as each wet droplet suspended itself in the air. They returned to Akuharu's outstretched palm, collecting into a singling spiraling point in the center, then fell to the ground like rain.

"Heh, my raiton is really strong. What about you, what ya' bringin' to the table?"

I've mastered water release, which makes for an excellent offensive combination with Raiton. I'm also...an Uchiha. I'm a bit faster than most, and have been training with weapons for the entirety of my life. Even though he's a jinchuuriki, i've got about....half the chakra pool of the Mizukage, so a fair bit more than most anyone else I've ever met.

They continued walking.

[Chae]

Chae watched intently as Akuharu displayed his own mastery over an element opposite to Chae's own, yet, undoubtedly mixed well when combined. With a basic spark of chakra, the infinite moisture within Mizu no kuni's air and soil began to gather, creating a rotation sphere that soon morphed into a vague replica of his own face. Chae lightly chuckled at the image of water resembling a face, admiring just how malleable water could be. Finished with show and tell, the water above Akuharu's palm tell to the ground like rain. Thereafter, he revealed himself to be an Uchiha, which, admittedly, surprised Chae - in a good way!

He looked to the side and observed Akuharu in awe, almost as if he'd just met a mythical being that only existed in children's stories. Chae's awe rapidly continued to grow as he went on to explain that he housed half of his cousin Akira's chakra, which in and of itself spoke volume about the his charka capacity. Chae smiled and looked ahead just as Akumu finished his spiel, allowing a reasonable amount of time to pass before speaking himself.

"Hehe, man, glad I'm on your side, wish I had a partner like you back when I slayed that slut of a Tsuchikage. Y'know, you'd think that for an aburame, they'd have the sense enough to fight from a distance. But died a Kiri ninja, and for that, I respect'em!"

Giggling innocently, he rolled back his sleeves and reached down towards his waist and unfastened the small jug of sake that hung from his obi sash by a thin rope. Popping its top, he savagely allowed to liquid to pour in his mouth like an unconstrained waterfall.

[Naitome]

"Hehe, man, glad I'm on your side, wish I had a partner like you back when I slayed that slut of a Tsuchikage. Y'know, you'd think that for an aburame, they'd have the sense enough to fight from a distance. But died a Kiri ninja, and for that, I respect'em!"

You defeated a Kage? Most impressive. I'm glad I'm on your side as well. I've heard of how powerful most village leader's are; I'm sure it was quite a battle.

They spoke freely in this fashion for some time, learning as much as they could of the other while the light retreated into the skeletal eruption of fauna congesting the Mizu No Kuni wilds, alert but also relaxed, trading stories that helped pass minutes into hours, searching. They passed the man's Sake back and forth, and walked a circular perimeter that expanded outwards, using the gates themselves as a center point, as it was the most logical boundary from which the creature would be forced to remain outside of. It was not long before they came to a series of maze-like roads, leading into the heart of a strange little town.

Obscure paper-covered buildings rose high into the air; there were what looked like the lost equipment of street performers and the vestiges of some unknown festival spreading booths that crowded walkways with streamers and lights. Music could be heard drifting up above the electric hum of various running engines; there was food and hastily assembled games and what looked like the artwork of children depicting the likeness of an old man sipping from an enormous jug of water.

There were several hundred cramped homes. Vehicles. Storefronts and flower-filled parks and the brick remains of factories coated with exhaust and oil.

But there were no people. No sounds of laughter or children or complaining old men. Not a single footstep disturbed the rising tones of instruments, whose sounds seemed to bleed in from nowhere at all. Not a single stray dog rooting through the rampant remains of restaurant dregs seeping like urine into dank alleys No insects floated aimlessly above the garbage.

There was no life at all.

What...what do you think happened to everybody?

Akuharu asked, noting as he looked through the windows of several abandoned houses how there was still half-eaten food on the tables, how toys were scattered about, water running from faucets...things merely left wherever they had been.

I don't see any weapons, no blast marks, no corpses or blood or signs of battle...it looks like...

...like they all just got up and left.

[Chae]

The more they walked and the more they talked, Chae found himself growing more and more fond of Akuharu and his personality. While Kushinada had never been known to have many friends, it appeared as though -through Ju's eyes- Akuharu began to become more than just a mere comrade. Well, he had to be considering that Ju considered his sake to be precious like his own child, and to have shared it with another spoke volume about their relationship. Nevertheless, the usual walk & talk easily turned 10 minutes of travel into several hours, enough so that Chae just said 'fuck it' and refused to keep track. Fortunately, the fruits of their hard-work partially paid off as they came up upon an odd village that Chae, in a weird manner, actually enjoyed - visually.

But as all ways, his entertainment came to a short end as both he and Akuharu examined the town further, side-by-side with about 3 meters of space separating them. Everything seme halved; half eaten food, unfinished art and festival activities. Open food markets were knocked down and trampled upon, almost as if a large group of people attempted to escape from something. Luckily, Chae had an idea of what and he had been confident that Akuharu shared the same hunch. Partially peaking in windows and doors which were left wide open, homes were vacant and somewhat trashed, even poorly packed bags that seemed to have been forgotten laid sprawled out along the ground.

Without even a sliver of life in the town, a cold wind stirred - eerily so, telling countless warnings that the two Kirigakure warriors hadn't been alone.

"What...what do you think happened to everybody?"

"Well, from what I can gather, that goddamn blob is around here somewhere, watchin' us maybe. If this thing is as dangerous as stated, well, I don't see everyone making it out alive. But like you said, there is no sign of struggle, only fear and a desire to escape. This blob, what if its something like hozuki, chemically, and can break down anything it digest into nothingness much like we do with our saliva."

Ju said, turning his 'playful' switch off and revealing his more, analytic and professional side that few ever managed to witness.

"Kirigakure even has hasty and violent civilians, so maybe they attacked, but, according to the details of the mission, doesn't seem like that strategy ended too well on their end."

[Naitome]

"Well, from what I can gather, that goddamn blob is around here somewhere, watchin' us maybe. If this thing is as dangerous as stated, well, I don't see everyone making it out alive. But like you said, there is no sign of struggle, only fear and a desire to escape. This blob, what if its something like hozuki, chemically, and can break down anything it digest into nothingness much like we do with our saliva. Kirigakure even has hasty and violent civilians, so maybe they attacked, but, according to the details of the mission, doesn't seem like that strategy ended too well on their end."

It's certainly possible. But look around; no flies, no birds....not a single roach or rat or anything. How is that possible? How could it be that not a single living thing is left anywhere?

Akuharu asked, noticing a peculiar itching sensation build up on his skin.

Do you feel that?

He said in tandem with scratching a bit at his own exposed hands, trying to rub away the irritation as his eyes flickered and swirled, becoming two blood red spheres in the unwelcoming dark of the ghost town.

I'm gonna get a better look at---


dear gods...

The flow of chakra showed to him by his Sharigan eye permeated throughout the entire area; merely activating his kekkei genkai dojutsu brought with it a sensation of being nearly blinded by an overwhelming discharge of colliding energies. Somehow, beyond the boundaries of what he understood as nature and shape transformation, lay the entirety of the town held fast like fossilized sap. They'd entered into it without even knowing. His breath caught in his throat as he looked up into the sky; even the light of the moon and the passing clouds were distorted, as if being viewed from the wrong side of a prism.

Chae....


....I think we're....I think we're already inside of it. I think the whole town is.

[Chae]

The words that came from Akuharu's mouth startled and promptly mind-fucked Chae harder than anything or anyone had ever done. To have been inside the beast, believing that being ingested had turned into a high possibilty at that point, he silently grew enraged as well as his insatiable desire to slay the creature from the, preferably from the inside out.

"Im-fucking-possible. This creature really has the capacity to go so large that it swallows an entire town without being digested?!"

Swigging on his bottle of sake to relieve the momentary stress, he passed it back over to Akuharu and paused to gauge his reaction. Ju continued forward through the town, looking at the lifeless town yet again.

"If what you're saying is true, do you think that no one is here because they were somehow broken down into nothingness - chemically."

Once spoken, Chae looked back with a face of utter seriousness and hoped that Akuharu hadn't shared the same theory, because if he did, Chae knew they had limited to time escape.

[Naitome]

"Im-fucking-possible. This creature really has the capacity to go so large that it swallows an entire town without being digested?! If what you're saying is true, do you think that no one is here because they were somehow broken down into nothingness - chemically?"

I know little about medicine or the sciences, how the body works or how such a creature could achieve this feat. But I know what my eyes are telling me. There isn't a single thing in this area that possesses chakra, and whatever we're inside of...is definitely alive.

Akuharu spoke with a matter-of-fact directness only slightly different from his normal speaking tone. Adrenaline had negated the effects of their shared Sake and now, his mind began to work through the information that he knew to piece together what he did not.

The tingling sensation on his skin began to build up, and his eyes, for the briefest of seconds, caught some residual flow outlining the thinnest layer of his skin. The crimson red of his eyes spun with tiny black flecks as he saw tiny spheres of tightly packed chakra kneading itself deeper into his body. Perhaps this was the 'digestion' process Chae had mentioned earlier, but the thought disturbed him almost more than their location.

Chae...

He called out, turning to view his parnter.

Use one of your lightning attacks, I want to test something. Just do something simple, anywhere in the area, but aim for the air itself.

[Chae]

For the msot part, Akuharu knew just as much as Chae did, which, at that particular moment, turned out to be very little. That sharingan was power, enough so that myths and legends were created behind it greatness and because of that and his trust in Akuharu, he refused to doubt his eyes. Observing Akuharu to gauge his reaction, he noticed the small frame of time which Akuharu used to look himself over as though something -out of the ordinary- had gone completely wrong. Before he'd even be able to voice his concerns, Akuharu called out to Chae and kindly requested his assistance in the form of some raiton technique aimed directly into the air.

Nodding his head in agree me, Chae looked deep into the heavens as his hands danced through the constellations with a speedy gait. Upon completion, his right arm wave from left to right which formed a bow and arrow comprised entirely of raiton chakra, one of which he seized with both hands and aimed diagonally up into the sky.

"Ready. . ."

Confirming his willingness, Chae's left hand pulled the arrow back and released it not even a second later. With great speeds it zoomed out into the atmosphere. From there, curious eyes eased back upon Akuharu, trying to grasp just what he had planned to do.

[Naitome]

"Ready..."

Now!

Akuharu called out, just as the arrow is knocked and released from its bow, a surge of lightning flowing through its tip and dispersing in the air. But what follows causes the newly appointed Chuunin, and his genin comrade, to be assaulted by a terrible liquid ripping that moves erratically throughout their surroundings, and throws the Uchiha to the ground.

The space that the town occupies, contracts violently, like a muscle spasm, and it seems that a thick green film motions itself inwards from the boundaries of the tiny village. What at first seems to be a sphere or a glob of pus sheds its ambiguous nature and takes on a more humanoid appearance, as faces and arms and legs and screams ring out with unbridled fury from every corner of its massive faceless body. It appears as if the very souls of the villagers have been swallowed up in its 10 meter height, though Akuharu knows that this is a childish thought motivated primarily by horror. He cannot believe what he sees, and turns to Chae, gesturing wildly as he leaps to his feet.

Kami help us...

And he his feet become a blur of retreating steps that allow him a better look at what they've unleashed.

It's body still crackles with electricity, fuming, the great faceless mass undulating towards them and away in sweeping motions that suddenly become hands or smiling teeth or knives. It raises its enormous right hand, and a gathering of the liquid essence bulking up its pale hide rushes forward, the crimson glare of the Sharingan revealing to Akuharu an intricate flowing of chakra that at first, does not seem to make any sense at all. The limb lunges forward, towards where the both now stand, extending easily as it collects moisture from the air that only adds to its already impressive size.

Reacting instinctively, Akuharu pushes Chae out of the way, his mind racing through tactics that each seem as flawed as the next. He can only regroup, a few meters away from the squat base of the creatures stumbling, gathering chakra that glides throughout his tenketsu like a tidal wave, his left hand beginning to coil together a visible circle of flame. The creature moves, coming to rest between the only two buildings taller than it's own body, and Akuharu stares at the weak foundations of the structures even as he calls out to his partner.

The building on the left...you think you'd be able to make it topple over?

He questioned, as the tomoe within his eyes focused on the opposite dwelling. He can only hope that Chae is thinking along the same lines that he is.

[Chae]

The fruits of the duo's efforts produced rather, unusual and unexpected results as the two were greeted with a terrible ripping of the general area. Nearly losing his own balance as the creature began to suddenly contract as a green film descended from the upper boundaries that trapped both Akuharu and Chae. Within seconds, it merely hovered before the two as it began morph itself into a more humanoid form. While believing that such a creature couldn't perform such a feat, Chae considered that it could've quite possibly learned to specifically give itself a human-like shape from incessantly consuming and digesting everything of that particular species.

"That's some sick stuff."

Following suit, Chae followed Akuharu and eventually obtained a more advantageous look at what they had to deal with in order to ensure their survival. Chae noticed that streaks of plasmid bolts continued to run across its body, suggesting that lightning related attacks proved to be the most effective. Bracing himself as its hands raised, Chae soon found himself involuntarily rolling after having been pushed out of the way of a surprisingly fast attack. The power of the sharingan when wielded by a more than capable shinobi turned out to be an invaluable asset even to a two man team.

"Damn, too slow again."

Regrouping a handful of meters away, Chae heeded Akuharu's words as he quickly glanced over at the building of interest and immediately knew how to take it down.

"I'll tear it down faster than you can say green lardass."

With a mere thought and a burst of chakra, a 'cloak' of pure, raw lightning chakra enveloped his entire body, amplifying every possible physical attribute within Chae's body. Grinning. . .

He vanished.

Moving at incomprehensible speeds (to the naked eye) he struck each corner of the building with simple yet powerful (5th gate strength) chop in a manner where the building's foundation failed to support its body and toppled over and onto the blob. With speeds that nearly rivaled hiraishin, Chae moved around to Akuharu's flank, curious as to what exactly he had in mind.

SPOILER: Click to show

Chakra no Yoroi: Raiton no Yoroi