An adventure in the Torre Celeste! : PART 2 [OPEN2STUDENTS]

[Kagetsu Yuii]

Continued from here.

The blue haired Sensei said nothing when Hikari raced off to join Komora on her 'mission'. Yuii watched, unwilling to try and stop the second girl from wandering off. Let them be Ayumu's problem.

Yuii had led her remaining students down and down into the underbelly of the Raikage tower, a place that seemed to stretch out and connect to the many old mines that had once been the cash cow of Kumogakure's early people. The neatly worked stone became plain walls, then dampened and roughened until the stairs looked freshly chiselled into the rock. Wires had been pined to the wall as the went further down, with evenly spaced lights in metal cages illuminating the eerie black rock. Large grey centipedes congregated around the glow but writhed away to safety as they passed. "Watch your steps, use chakra if you must." Yuii warned, indicating towards the black stone made slick by condensation. "I don't need one of you going ass up and turning this into a water slide."

"Oh there is probably no need. They'll be fine. She's probably just retrieving Komor-" Yuii started to reassure her stalwart student, unconcerned if the two class troublemakers returned or not when her headset crackled to life. What would Hikari do but fall asleep mid mission or get them locked in down here- and Komora? She couldn't even imagine what Komora would do. The girl was an unpredictable storm. The academy would have a difficult time passing and placing those two; woe to them. That wasn't Yuii's job.

Ayumu's secretary was on the other end, and it became evident quickly that everything was not 'fine."What? No, I only sent the one. -She what? No, no, no I didn't order them to do that. -Well I'm sorry but we've already made it downstairs and I have a group to look after. They could get in trouble down here too. Can't Koga- fine, if you're going to play dirty like that. Yes ma'am, right away."

The room she led them to jutted off the odd stairwell suddenly and looked to have been recently buried beneath rubble. The entire thing seemed to have been carved into the rock itself, and it included half destroyed, long stone carvings of demon like creatures and shinobi in the midst of battle. It stretched off into darkness beyond, though several electric lanterns had been left behind for their use.

"Alright, go get them. Bring them here. We'll wait." Yuii asked of Kyo, directing other students to grab a light and find somewhere to sit while they waited.

[Goodluck]

 

[Hotaka Kyo]

Kyo had followed along with their Sensei, quietly noting the way that they went, and taking care on the steps even before she mentioned that they should be doing so. The Centipedes were interesting to him, though he didn't take any of them up and simply watched them as they passed with a bit more interest than the rest of the plain and roughened walls. It wasn't until the blue-haired woman had been interrupted by the headset that anything interesting appeared to happen. And that was simply that, he did indeed need to head after the other two after all, as the other one had gone off on their own to cause more trouble alongside each other it seemed. The room they had entered while talking was the most interesting one so far, with the large reliefs of the creatures and shinobi in battle, partially destroyed lining the entire thing. He didn't have long to take it in though, as she had ordered him to retrieve the two troublemakers and bring them down to the area they were in while she had the others grabbing lights and finding places to sit.

Kyo wasted little time, just enough to give a small bow and a sharp, "Hai." before he turned and retreated back up the stairs they had come down, chakra flowing liberally to his feet and hands as he leapt up the winding staircase, throwing himself up and around it with much more speed than they had used to enter it. He knew where he was heading, so there was no need to slow down, and he luckily didn't encounter anyone on the way down the stairs on his way up, so the travel went quickly enough. It didn't take long for the boy to dance around the corner of the office, pause to give the secretary a bow, and enter the office of the Sennin, where he once again gave a bow, this time holding it as he waited once more for permission to rise, he explained in a respectful manner his presence as he did so, "I've been sent by Yuii-Sensei to retrieve the two students that have been causing trouble on your floor Ayumu-Sama."

 

[Kogami Ayumu]

The past few minutes had been spent with Ayumu trying desperately to keep the two students distracted from causing more of a ruckus in the Legation. He had called for Yuii to be sent up in order to retrieve her students and was banking on that happening any moment now. There was talking outside and for a moment Ayumu thought that, perhaps, the sensei had arrived. Instead, moments later, one of the students from earlier strolled in. 'She sent ANOTHER student? I feel like she's trolling me at this point,' Ayumu thought, trying to hide his disappointment. At least he was the most well behaved student of the class as far as Ayumu could tell. Kyo stated that his purpose was to retrieve the two who had been troubling the office. So Yuii had indeed sent a student in her place. To be fair, she had the rest of the class to contend with, but at this point Ayumu felt pretty certain the two girls in his office were more trouble than all the rest of Yuii's kids combined.

"OKAY. You three are going to go and find your sensei now," Ayumu announced, having long since started to run out of patience. He was beginning to figure out how Komora worked. He had to be very explicit and specific with instructions for her. "You remember her, right? Blue haired lady, about this tall?" Ayumu said, placing his palm flat at about the height of the top of Yuii's head. "She needs you to go back to her now so that you can finish your mission for today. You're on a very important mission to retrieve that sword and she is your mission leader, got it? You can't get distracted anymore, she needs you," Ayumu explained, hoping that this would get the message across to Komora. He also had to hope that Hikari was actually listening this time.

"Your fellow student here is going to lead you to her. He's following her orders too, so follow him," Ayumu said, pointing to Kyo. He had tried to be very clear at this point. It occurred to him that the two of them were very easily distracted, so it was possible that Kyo would lose them along the way to their ADD. "I'll be coming too, just to make sure you all make it to her safely," Ayumu said before gesturing to the door for Kyo to lead them. He would try to keep them on track the whole way back to Yuii, whatever that required. If he literally had to bind them, he was willing at this point. He also kind of wanted to glare at Yuii in person now for the hassle she sent to his office.

 

[Shinrya Riko]

Ayumu had tried to distract Komora and Hikari with the strange box that he had in his room. Komora didn’t really get it, but she did think it was interesting how the little squares moved around on it. When she reached out to touch it though it seemed that there was glass blocking her fingers from touching the strange digital figures. Moments later another familiar face entered the room. She didn’t know this guy to well, but she did know that he had been apart of the group she had come here with earlier. It seemed this was enough for Ayumu. No more friends in the office. He addressed Komora, gesturing with his hands as though to make an imaginary Yuii in the air, but Komora had never understood body language before and she wasn’t suddenly going to gain the ability now. Instead it was the words she listened to. The blue haired lady. Yes, she only knew one lady with blue hair.


Komora looked at Kyo. Ayumu said that he knew where she was, to Komora that meant that he must have just come from where she was. Her eyes fell upon his feet. Hints of condensation that had dried on his way here. Every single detail was caught in her eyes. She leaned over to him and sniffed him. The dense smell like underground. The dots were immediately connected for her. She was virtually an encyclopedia when it came to blades. A blade kept in the belly of the Kage tower? Komora knew exactly where that was. She didn’t need to wait for Kyo. ”Ayumu-sama, Komora will go help her now.” Despite her use of the honorific there really didn’t seem to be any recognition of respect in her tone.


She bolted out of the room, ahead of Kyo although possibly she could fall behind Hikari should she decide to teleport again. Unlike before where there was a very clear trail to follow, Komora’s steps were much more careful - and worthy of a student of the academy. She ran down the black stairs. Her steps were solid on the slick surfaces and then finally there was Yuii and the rest of the class. Komora caught eyes of the centipedes. Ayumu had warned her that Yuii needed her help. A fan of Kunai appeared in her hands and with a flick ten centipedes were now pinned to the walls by her kunai.


Komora stood with a serious expression on her face for only a moment before reverting to her usual confused look. ”Komora is here.”


She announced.

[Tracker Ability]

 

[Hotaka Kyo]

With the reply from Ayumu, Kyo had looked to the two girls as they were playing a game system. He gave the slightest shake of his head as Komora rushed off, he waited a few moments for Hikari to move before he reached over and snatched her up like he had when she had fallen asleep, tossing her once more onto his shoulder and heading out after Komora at the urging of the Sennin. She should have waited as ordered, but she hadn't and was already on the way, as he stepped out into the hallway he saw her heading in the right direction at least. He moved quickly, he had no doubt that the Sennin could keep up with him, and he powered down the hallway, making sure to keep some ways behind Komora as he followed her back down the way he had come, he wasn't sure exactly how she had figured out where he had come from, but he was glad that she had figured it out at least and he hadn't had to chase her down and subdue her with the other girl already riding on his shoulder.

The stairs weren't any real trouble, even with the girls added weight, of course he channeled chakra as he was supposed to, no use in wasting time falling even if the likelihood of it was very low. Besides, he remembered Yuii's instructions to use it on the way down the first time he had descended the stairs with her. He arrived just a moment after Komora and watched as she impaled several of the centipedes that had been crawling on the walls, while he shook his head slightly he dumped his load near the other students, approached Yuii and gave a small bow, "The Sennin has accompanied us Sensei, and I have finished my task." he said gesturing towards the man he had assumed had followed them down the stairs as he had said he would. He moved to the side, to stand with the other students, and to get out of the way of the Sennin. He stood there quietly watching and waiting to see what was happening next, and to hear about the portion of their retrieval mission to retrieve the sword for the Sennin, which it seemed he might actually do himself at this rate.

 

[Kagetsu Yuii]

While Kyo was away, Yuii busied herself explaining a bit of the safety talk. She droned on about keeping an eye on each other, being aware of their footing and so on until even she felt bored by it. Thankfully the trio of students and surprise guest Ayumu returned to brighten her day.

"Thanks." Yuii glanced between Komora and Hikari and wondered how two children had caused so much trouble that Ayumu had felt the need to escort them down. And boy did Ayumu look grumpy now, so it must have been quite the chaos to make a grown man so unhappy with a couple of kids. They were just students, after all, she thought, tilting her head at Ayumu curiously, shouldn't he be used to handing children? She had only experienced Hikari's sleeping and Komora's knocking rampage so far and she lacked awareness that Chou had given her the key to Komora's behaviour.

She hesitated, forgot what she was saying then decided that was enough 'teaching,' for now anyways. "Everyone, find a buddy." Yuii announced, pushing people together, "Uh, Kyo would you mind looking after Komora?" she asked sheepishly, still not sure what it was the odd little girl had done but Yuii could only guess. It only made sense to her, then, to put the most responsible student with the least. Plus, then Hikari wouldn't be left with her whom could clearly not be trusted to follow instructions.

"Alright, listen up. No more games." She commanded, handing out flashlights to each of them. "The academy weeds out the weak, but you have all been at it for awhile so it's safe to say you can and will be Genin. You should be ready for missions that don't involve dog walking and dish washing. You might not feel ready, but your feelings don't matter." Yuii could remember her first proper mission and the terror of knowing she could fail. Something like this had a pretty low risk of death,about the same as walking through a construction zone, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. "A Genin works along with Chuunin and Jounin pretty often and let us be perfectly clear; The chain of command is never to be ignored during a mission. You can ankle bite, throw mud cakes, test your strength and challenge a fellow shinobi all you like within the constraints of the village- the laws here will protect you most of the time,- but as soon as you're in the field those rights are moot." She continued, crossing her arms. Hard hats? Who needed hard hats when their little heads could be healed up.

"I tell you to attack, you attack. I tell you to run, you run. I tell you to take three steps to the right and pirouette? You don't take the second to question it. Ninety-nine times out of one-hundred what I order you to do is going to be the best possible path to take, and pray to Raiden that you're not that margin of error." This was a nicer version of the speech she had been given. Yuii's Academy teacher had been a gruff man hell bent on traumatising his students. She could and would do better than that.

"Right, kunai? You all have one yes?" she asked, pulling her own out, "Stay armed. This door has been sealed for at least a half-decade. Maps show it's at least three rooms beyond. Our objective is a sword thought to be hidden down here along with a whole lot of other junk left behind by a past Sennin. But! Kage and Sennin? They don't like having their stuff meddled with. There might still be some traps down here. Also rats, big ones. If you see one stab it unless it talks to you. First bit should be safe so off you go. Oh, and stay with your buddy. I see one of you roaming alone and you're going home with a full beard drawn on your face." Wouldn't it be their luck to run across a contract beast down here and try to slit its throat? That was bad luck for certain.

And off they went, down the dark stone 'cave' that seemed more like a hallway. Lots of darkness, lots of shadows, lots of squeaks that sounded suspiciously like the sound's Ayumu's game had been making.

Yuii took that chance to join Ayumu and have a quick conference over why he looked like he wanted to strangle her."What? Why do you look so mad?" she asked quietly, elbowing her Sennin, "Did they set something on fire?" She could only imagine the whole of the Legation running around like mad trying to put out flames. The pair of girls didn't look singed, though, but Hikari was still sporting her moustache.

(Can RP walking and killing some stuff. )

 

[Shinrya Riko]

Komora wasn’t listening at all. She was examining the bugs that she had stabbed with kunai and how they continued to twitch while stuck in the wall. Then suddenly Yuii changed her tone. ”Alright Listen up!” Komora noticed the change in tone - although it the actual tone’s meaning didn’t quite get through her head. She turned to look at Yuii as she spoke. ” No more games.” Komora tugged on her ears as she listened. That was fine with her she didn’t like playing games anyway. ”he academy weeds out the weak, but you have all been at it for awhile so it's safe to say you can and will be Genin. You should be ready for missions that don't involve dog walking and dish washing. You might not feel ready, but your feelings don't matter.” At which point Komora raised her hand. IF allowed to speak she would add ”Komora wants to walk a dog.” Not knowing what that actually meant but it sounded fun because puppies were fun! If Yuii continued to the next part without acknoweldging her she would forget what she wanted to say but still have her hand up.


Komora’s eyes narrowed as some of the words to her felt like instructions at last. Chain of command to not be ignored? Despite being learning impaired she knew what that phrase meant. Komora nodded as Yuii explained that they were to attack and do things whenever she had said so. Of course that was only natural to her. Yuii was at the top in her mind right now of course she would do what Yuii said. Komora fanned out kunai in both hands as search officially began. Her strategy would be to block the path of any rats she saw by throwing a kunai infront of them. ”Is Talking?” She would ask the rat. If she received no response or the response was just a squeak she would throw another kunai into the rat to kill.

 

[Kogami Ayumu]

Silently, Ayumu had escorted the students to their destination beneath the Torre Celeste where the rest of the class was peacefully following Yuii's instructions and generally being well-behaved. Ayumu couldn't help but wonder why Yuii couldn't have sent one of them to deliver the robes instead of the two hooligans he had encountered. To his relief, despite having run off on her own, Komora had already found her way to Yuii once more. Somehow, something he had had said about telling her to find Yuii had gotten through to her. He had told her very explicitly to look for her sensei, even giving her a physical description. Somehow that must have been enough.

Upon seeing Yuii, Ayumu actually crossed his arms and glared daggers from the corner as she addressed her students though he didn't interrupt her and simply brooded in the corner. She gave a pretty good speech about following orders, something some of the students probably needed to hear, and handed out flashlights. She gave them their instructions and set them loose on the Kage's basement. They'd be searching the next few rooms for the supposedly special sword. When they found it, it would need to be delivered to Ayumu. He was just going to go ahead and stick around so there were no more students running around the Legation again. Ayumu's arms were still crossed as Yuii fell back to his side and asked him why he looked so grumpy. He sighed as he watched the students spreading out to look around.

"Did you send me your two problem students or something? They didn't set anything on fire but that one terrorized my poor secretary and staff while that one tried on the robes," Ayumu said quietly to Yuii, shaking his head at the thought. He'd lower his voice when any student got near. "They need to learn some discipline," he said emphatically as he unfolded his arms. Then he gestured to Komora, who was currently talking to- no, stabbing a rat. "That one's going to need some special attention. She seems to have trouble focusing and understanding what people are saying to her. It's almost like there's a far younger child trapped inside her. I've half a mind to find out who thought it wise to admit her and ask them some questions," he said scratching the back of his head. "That's not to say she can't cut it, but it'll take something extra," Ayumu said, not entirely sure he believed his own words.

 

[Hotaka Kyo]

When their instructor thanked him Kyo gave a solid nod. He watched the other students as they were instructed to find a buddy, before he was asked to look after Komora, he gave Yuii another nod, "Understood." Was all he said as he turned and moved next to the girl that he was to look after. He listened to the speech the instructor made as she handed out Flashlights for them to see, while Kyo could get around fine with out them due to his tremor sense, he still took one, as he assumed his partner wouldn't be able to function the same. While many of the others may very well never have done anything beyond the most basic of missions, Kyo had a bit more experience than them, having already run several missions that were technically far out of his league as an academy student. Hunting down criminals, dangerous creatures, escorting caravans and other fun things. He understood the need to follow orders and to do as told when they are running the show out in the field, even if most of the time he preferred to work alone away from supervision, or at least interference that came along with oversight, especially if many of them where anything like they acted in the village, even if he understood the idea of separate personalities at work and at home.

Rather than say anything he simple affirmed that he understood what Yuii was getting at, he simple replied "Hai!" When she had finished her speech and pulled his own Kunai from a pouch as she said to stay armed, he preferred to simply utilize his unarmed techniques, which were far superior to his capabilities with his Kunai. He slide the Tear Jerkers around and readied them as well just encase, they were the better option for him anyways. They had been told to be wary of traps, something he never particularly liked, he would rather face a living opponent, whether it was something like the Dire Squirrels in the Nimbus Delectatio, thieves in the city or bandits in the country side. At least then he could actually hurt his opponent, but with a trap, it was only you or yours that got hurt, and there wasn't anything that you could do to harm the trap, it wasn't alive and it didn't matter what you did to it, it didn't feel anything. The threat that had been leveled at the end of the speech seemed so out of place to him, a beating would put the lesson in their heads much better than a simple drawing, especially one that most children would simply laugh at before they got it washed away.

If Komora added what she wanted to with her raised hand the scarred boy would clench his jaw and give the lightest of sighs. Kyo followed along behind Komora, simply watching her actions and being on the look out for traps, he'd rather not be held responsible for the girl having tripped one and getting injured, nor did he particularly want to be injured himself. Otherwise, he simply followed along quietly.

 

[Kagetsu Yuii]

Yuii did allow Komora to ask her question. She was curious to know what the odd girl needed and was only slightly perturbed when she asked to walk dogs instead of adding to the actual conversation. "You can request a mission to walk dogs any time you like after the lesson." Yuii quipped before going back to her speech.

She watched on as students cornered and stabbed the rats while spreading out to search. Some held back and checked the first room, others moved into the second room beyond and become vanishing single points of light. Komora had taken Yuii's instructions literally and amongst the squeals was the repeated 'does it speak?'. Another pair overheard Komora asking the grey, gnashing rodents if they could speak and decided to copy just in case their teacher had meant her instructions. None of them would speak, of course, but Yuii didn't think it hurt anything.

So far the prophesized traps remained untriggered.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Yuii chuckled quietly and nudged Ayumu with her elbow, "sounds to me like you got bested by a couple of pre-pubescent girls, Kogami." She wasn't going to admit that Hikari had wandered off on her own or that she had hoped to distract Komora for awhile. That would out Yuii as the unskilled teacher she was. So far both girls seemed to be participating properly again; which was in her favour.

Ayumu seemed concerned about Komora. Yuii crossed her arms and watched on as the girl continued her rat massacre with Kyo watching on. While strange, Komora seemed mostly harmless to others. The early candy stabbing made her wonder for the girls own safety, but ninjas were known for high-risk activities.

"I just have to get her through the classes," She shrugged and surveyed over the group again, "You should talk to the headmistress if you're concerned, right? Unless you're ordering me to do it?"

From the caves beyond came a low rumble and shouting. One of the students shouted about spiders and there was a brief flare of light as someone used fire. Tendrils of smoke streamed, followed by four blackened and panicked but otherwise unscathed children.

The youngest boy had lost his eyebrows to whoever had used a Jutsu. "There are big spiders in the third room!" he reported, quivering, "they're huge Sensei! One tried to eat my face!"

Yuii grimaced and whistled for attention, "Alright, everyone back here. I'll go check this out." On second thought, maybe this was a good chance to see for herself what Ayumu was worried about. If Komora couldn't follow simple orders or carry out low-rank missions then his issues were valid. If she could, well, Yuii would write her off as quirky. Also, she thought, eyes falling on Kyo, that one looked 'ready'. "I have a hunch. Care to watch?" she asked Ayumu, holding out a light.

"Kyo, Komora. Come with me." Yuii ordered. She led the way down into the second room, now devoid of rats, and on into the third. There wasn't much to see besides stone and old rat-chewed crates. They could only see as much as their flashlights showed them.

In the back corner were the spiders, easily spotted by the dimming embers of a burned crate. At least a dozen of them clung to the walls. Their bodies were easily the size of her own head, and she couldn't blame anyone for using fire by the look of their fangs. The fire had worked judging by the curled, burned, eight-legged husk on the floor. "Damn, they are big," Yuii exclaimed, moving her light up along the wall. Someone had triggered a trap that caved in part of the wall. It looked like there was another room beyond the original three, and that it was where the spiders were coming from.

"We need to check over there, but I don't want one of those spiders jumping for my face,"she grumbled, moving her light back to the eight-legged biters. One of them hissed and spat a bit of venom in their direction. "Better kill them to be safe. Komora, you kill those ones. Kyo, the rest." she shifted her light from one group, then another then stood back to watch.

 

[Shinrya Riko]

There was some excitement that made Komora pause her rat murdering. She looked over at the four singed students that approached Yuii. They excitedly explained their stories and how there were large spiders. Komora didn’t really get what they were talking about, but she thought it was interesting how one of their eye brows was missing. She had already begun to walk over to them with the intention of touching the place where the boy’s eyebrows should have been. Of course, that was until her name was called. "Kyo, Komora. Come with me." She followed behind Yuii, obediently. They entered the forbidden area, and the strong stench of burnt spider filled the tomb-like air.


Fire seemed to be effective against these ones it seemed to her. "Damn, they are big," Yuii lifted her light and examined the up the wall. "We need to check over there, but I don't want one of those spiders jumping for my face," Her light was brought back down and seemed to have disturbed the spiders. It hiss and spat some poison. Komora reflexively huffed a short stream of fire to interrupted the poison from hitting anyone. She went back to looking pretty clueless until Yuii called her name again. Better kill them to be safe. Komora, you kill those ones. Kyo, the rest." Much as she had before, Komora didn’t acknowledge the orders. Instead she just starting carrying them out without hesitation.


A fan of Kunai appeared in each of her hands. Throwing knives at things is what she did for her circus act back in the Mochizuki troupe’s big tent. She slung a plethora of kunais in volleys into the spiders with her keen eye. She was definitely above an Academy Student’s level when it came to accuracy. By the time she was done, it looked like someone had used a high ranking weaponry jutsu on her side of the room, as the number of kunai sticking out of everything in Komora’s section looked like someone had just dumped a cart of kunai. Seriously. Where did she hide these things?

 

[Kogami Ayumu]

Yuii elbowed Ayumu and poked fun at him, suggesting that the real problem was that he couldn't handle two girls. Ayumu's mother always told him to be thankful he had a son because girls were more difficult, but he didn't think that was exactly the problem here. For the most part, she seemed unconcerned about Komora and suggested that Ayumu direct his concerns to the Headmistress. Ayumu sighed, shaking his head. He thought he ought to step down and make Yuii be Sennin, then it would be her problem! He had no idea the prophecy he had just foretold in his mind was't that far off.

Ayumu stopped walking as there was sounds of crumbling stone ahead followed by shouting. 'Oh lord, don't tell me this place is caving in? Well, I had a good run anyway,' Ayumu thought, shaking his head. He cocked an eyebrow as a flash of light emanated from the room ahead and four singed students ran out one of them missing eyebrows. Unprepared for this sight, Ayumu turned his head away and covered his mouth with his arm, stifling a laugh as the boy explained what they had encountered. He exclaimed that a spider had tried to eat his face but it looked like the fire had been more successful at that feat.

Yuii rounded up the students and proclaimed that she would check out the new threat. She looked at Ayumu and asked if he wanted to watch as she acted on whatever hunch she had. He shrugged and made to follow her as she grabbed Kyo and Komora and began making her way to the spider room. Ayumu, like most people really, wasn't a big fan of spiders. His hand rested upon the hilt of his blade. If a spider so much as looked at him funny with one of its many eyes it was going to be dead in a hurry. He shone his flashlight ahead with the others, scanning for any of the arachnids that might have followed the students.

After a few moments they had reached the area in question and Yuii had located some of the spiders with her flashlight. She commented on their size as she moved the light around to see where they had come from. More still were coming from the fresh hole in the wall. "Ugh, I have got to get the exterminators down here," Ayumu commented. As Yuii mentioned moving into the next room, one of the spiders spat at them though the venom was intercepted by a quick burp of flame from Komora. At least she had good instincts. After being instructed to do so, the two students set to work clearing out the arachnids with impressive efficiency. Ayumu steadied his light on Komora's half of the room as she slew many of the spiders with her seemingly endless supply of kunai.

"Well, it looks like you brought the exterminators with you. Hmm, I guess if the order is direct and simple enough she can follow it pretty well," Ayumu observed, wondering if this was the hunch that Yuii had. Suddenly, his observation was obscured by something directly in front of his face. One of the spiders had been on the ceiling and had just now descended from a single thread a few inches in front of his face. It hissed and Ayumu instinctively jumped back a foot, drawing his sword and slicing the little bastard in half with one stroke. Half of it fell to the ground while the other half remained suspended from the ceiling The imminent threat gone, Ayumu observed his sword which was now coated in spider guts.

"Ugh, gross!"

 

[Hotaka Kyo]

Kyo had tensed up at the commotion – he felt the wall collapsing and the flurry of movement in the tremors that the other students and their new found opponents made after what he assumed had been a trap was sprung upon them advancing carelessly. Still he kept to his assignment and simple followed along with Komora. After all, this was his task, and while he would prefer not to trust those he didn’t know, that wasn’t a choice a nin got very often on missions and team assignment – and definitely not in the sort of position he was gunning for upon graduation. If they couldn’t handle it, he was sure the instructor would step in instead of allowing them to be harmed too much, they were rather nice to the students (far more than his family and their training was) at the academy most of the time after all.

The fire jutsu that was used had been quick thinking – though the fact that they had hit their own team members and obviously caused some damage was unforgivable in the scarred boy’s mind, it meant that the person using it couldn’t control themselves and would be a danger to the rest of their team if things became to harried for them. Which was also why he didn’t trust the other students, the fact that the instructor didn’t mention it then and there and berate them for it, felt wrong to the young scarred nin. Then again they might simple wait until the end of the class to get on the students, individually instead, he wasn’t sure and was giving their Instructor Yuii the benefit of doubt in the matter. When the instructor had whistled and ordered them back, Kyo had follow Komora – still keeping a watchful eye and his tremor sense searching for traps around him and his current partner.

When the instructor ordered him and Komora to follow her to inspect what had happened, Kyo did so, taking the right side of the formation silently – staying a full two paces behind and two off to the right to keep from bunching up so much. A single Chakra bomb or similar area of effect type of attack that might occur in a trap could be particular effective against a group bunched up any more tightly, as well as the members risking getting in each other’s way if they hadn’t drilled together, which none of them had. The air in the area stunk, the burnt spiders hair and meat filled his nostrils, unfortunately it wasn’t as pleasant a smell as a burning man’s body – and Kyo snorted quietly, clearing his nostrils, though it did nothing to get rid of the stench that hung in the air.

Kyo watched with approval as Komora intercepted the attack on them, utilizing what had already proved effective against the creatures, he would give her a small nod if she looked over to him after or around that point. Due to the darkness, Kyo essentially ignored his sight, instead relying up on his other senses, in particular one of his families notable ones, sensing the tremors of the enemies and noting their locations as he did so. To the others it would simply appear as if he was staring off straight ahead, not apparently acting on the order to kill the spiders for a single long moment before he performed a quick set of hand signs summoning three fist sized boulders that went hurtling off into the darkness before he quickly twisted around and slammed a fist into the ground, which sending several rushes of earth moving of as well – the boy launched himself after the two attacks and into the darkness, launching a long stream of attacks with his fists all about him at any of the surviving spiders. The attacks themselves were controlled and forceful, brutally so, that punctured those spiders hit as if struck by some kind of piercing weapon despite the fact that he had used nothing buy his empty hands.

With the attacks finished, he would step stand in the darkness a moment, scanning for any additional enemies or other things of note before moving with purposeful strides back to the position he had started in. Once there he would resume a neutral stance, his hands resting above his waist and for all intents and purposes appearing as if he was simply relaxing, even though he continued to be watchful of the surrounding area with his various senses. He didn't seem to mind the blood, guts and whatever other goo that he had found itself on his hands and body from his various attacks.

 

[Kagetsu Yuii]

[fontsize=]The spiders were child's play for the two super-students. They had the finely tuned reflexes to avoid the spider's acidic venom and the quick combat skills to choose, aim and deliver certain attacks. They each chose distinctively different attacks. Komora decided to play 'pin the kunai on the arachnid' while Kyo tested if stones did break bones but both were effective in raining death upon their eight-legged foes. Spider guts coated the cave walls, Kyo and Yuii's shoes where the boulders had crashed them to paste. The spiders on Komora's side hissed and curled into balls as they died quickly from their multitude of puncture wounds.

Yuii watched on with approval as both students took care of the pests with little effort. There was a certain skill level that students were expected to reach before they ranked up. The life of a Genin was filled with danger, so while one could expect their first few missions to be simple, they did eventually escalate and push one towards chuunin or it's equivalent. Yuii was new to teaching, but like all shinobi, she had watched her teammates grow and mature, so she had a good sense for when someone was 'ready'. These two were fully baked and turning black and crispy. Ayumu must see it too?

"You will find, Kogami, I am right more than I am wrong," she chuckled, giving both students a thumbs up, "Good work. We had better go see what is in there." A responsible teacher might have checked on the gaggle of students left behind to entertain themselves, but Yuii was new and inexperienced. The draw of a little adventure was enough to make her forget she was, sadly, the adult here. Lithe and light like a cat she scaled up the stone wall and hauled herself into the spider hole. It wasn't a tight squeeze for her, but Ayumu might find it claustrophobic.

The room beyond was more stone cave carved into walls. This one was much more intricate than the last, however, and Yuii found herself mesmerised by the spiderweb covered, demonic totems twisted in agony as they fell to the sword of one repeating warrior. As she set herself down on the floor and waited for the others to follow, Yuii had to wonder if this place was a reflection of one man's hubris or if the battle apparent had happened. If it was true this place had belonged to a Raikage then either scenario could be true.

Now on the other side, it was apparent that the students had set off a trap meant to deter people from tampering with a hidden door here. Damage or erosion had caused it to backfire and create the hole instead. Yuii peered at the old mechanism that, she guessed, would open up a proper door into the fourth cave and tried to figure out how it worked. If she could work out what triggered it, maybe they could do the same for any future rooms.

"It's fine enough, come on over." she shouted back.

Along the floor was a multitude of wooden crates in various states of decay. Spiders scuttled between boxes or hung, hissing at the interlopers from their webs. The ones in the room were much larger and angrier than the ones before. "We're looking for a black and silver box bog enough for a sword. Check the crates for them?" Yuii called, seemingly unconcerned with the eight-eyed hoard watching their every move, "Oh, and kill the spiders." On cue, six the size of dogs descended from the ceiling and and swung for available faces.[/fontsize]

 

[Shinrya Riko]

Komora giggled at Ayumu’s reaction to the spider that came down in front of him. She was actually still looking for spiders to kill since Yuii hadn’t told her to stop. "Good work. We had better go see what is in there." Yuii said. Once they had climbed up into the place that was revealed by the trap, Komora simply looked around for more spiders while Yuii contemplated the art of this place. The pleasures of art and vanity were completely lost on someone like Komora whom did not have any sense of appreciation for any of the design of this place. The only thing she cared about right now were spiders. She was still tossing a kunai here and there at creatures that were skittering around the room. "We're looking for a black and silver box bog enough for a sword. Check the crates for them?" Yuii said.


Komora wasn’t sure what a bog was, but she assumed that it was a spelling error and the Yuii actually meant box. Komora nodded and took a step towards one of the boxes so that she could check the contents. "Oh, and kill the spiders." Six spiders the size of small dogs leapt towards the group. To any academy student they would no doubt be terrifying, since most of them were still small and the average height of the dog meant that the creatures easily were tall enough to reach Komora’s chest. Komora actually was scared of these bigger spiders, but her orders from before didn’t leave room for hesitation. Her mind calculated that there was no way to intercept them all with kunai so her hands shot through some handseals like lightning.


She inhaled sharply with one hand cupped at her lips. When she exhaled, it was the fireball technique! However she manipulated the technique to split up into six smaller parts so that there would be one smaller ball of flame for each spider. The smalls balls would explode on impact which hopefully set them on fire and give enough of a push back to prevent them from actually landing on someone.

 

[Kogami Ayumu]

Ayumu chuckled at Yuii's confident boasting. He had to admit, both Komora and Kyo appeared more than capable as students. When on task, they carried out their actions efficiently and with purpose. He was impressed. He returned his attention briefly to his spider gut covered sword and swung it vertically a couple times with enough force to remove a good portion of the gunk. It wasn't getting sheathed for now, he wasn't going to get that shit on the inside of his scabbard. He almost didn't notice that Yuii had already scurried through the hole in the wall. He looked up when she called out finally noticing that she was gone and the students were in the process of climbing through themselves. Sighing to himself, Ayumu shook his head.

"Into the spider's den," he muttered reluctantly, approaching the hole in the wall. Putting his fingers to his lips he gave a sharp whistle to indicate to the remainder of the class that they were advancing. Whether any of them would brave following the smaller group through the hole without being explicitly instructed to remained to be seen. After squeezing uncomfortably through the hole, which proved even more difficult while wielding his unsheathed blade, Ayumu shone his flashlight around the room. He marveled at the depictions on the wall but paid more attention to the rest of the spiders that awaited them. These ones were even larger and angrier than the last.

"So gross," he whispered, preparing his sword in case anything descended from the ceiling again. Six of the largest spiders were already on the floor and engaged by the students. Ayumu was more apt to let them handle the little monsters so they could hone their skills unless something came at him specifically or one of them was in true peril. He was also in no hurry to accumulate more spider guts on his sword. Unfortunately, the spiders were no less interested in him just because he wanted nothing to do with them. A smaller one skittered across the floor towards him earning it a sharp kick which sent it flying into one of the large spiders Komora had set ablaze to share its fate of burning to death. He found himself glad to be wearing gloves as he grasped the leg of another which had descended onto his shoulder and flung it into the flames as well.

He crushed another beneath his boot and immediately regretted it as he inspected the mess it left behind. Looking up, he found that Yuii had settled in inspecting the door and presumably trying to figure out how to open it. "Yuii, have you considered hitting it really hard?" Ayumu asked, suggesting his preferred technique. He was happy to oblige if asked. Meanwhile he had resigned himself to using his sword to fend off the ravenous horde of the smaller spiders. He quietly whispered an apology to the blade and a promise to give it a bath later.

 

[Kagetsu Yuii]

"We can't solve all our problems by hitting things," Yuii replied in a singsong voice. One of the gears groaned and snapped her fingers, eliciting a frustrated growl from the Academy teacher. "Even if it's a piece of crap," she muttered under her breath.

Unlike the other student's Komora's accuracy was dead on. The spiders shrieked and three immediately burst into flames while the others remembered their early arachnid fire safety and rolled out the fire. Whatever they spat seemed to be extra flammable the stone floors continued to burn in pockets. One of the burned spiders made a lunge for Komora's knee, while another spat a string of web to the ceiling, scurried up then swung down for her face. The third retreated back in amongst the boxes; becoming someone else's problem.

Having almost lost her finger for the third time Yuii swore and finally gave into Ayumu's suggestion of percussive maintenance. She grabbed the largest rock on hand and smashed it hard against the mechanism, which gave a satisfying bang. At first, nothing happened, then like a sullen child the until now hidden doorway slowly ground open."Oh, would you look at that!? Good call, Kogami!" Yuii exclaimed as the gaggle of students came into view.

"Alright! Let us find that sword and end this Raiden forsaken mission. I feel like we've been at this for months!"

 

[Shinrya Riko]

Komora’s line of sight was blocked by a spider coming for her face. With little time to form seals or throw kunai she whipped out her taijutsu. 1! 2! 3! 4! Hit combo! She swung her rfists in a volley of attacks, however she had been unfortunate to not see the spider that had gone for her leg. As soon as she battered the one spider to dust the second one latched onto her leg and bit her. It was too difficult for her to fight a room full of spiders seemingly by herself, as to her it appeared that Kyo was just standing still while she brawled with all of the venomous creatures. She summoned her chakra again and coated herself in a wreath of flames, which set the spider on fire. She watched it whither and die, but the venom had already been injected.


The girl looked down at her leg. It was already healing due to her extremely fast metabolism, but that didn’t mean anything for the venom. She collapsed next to the spider as she felt her body become paralyzed due to the toxins that had been injected into her. She could no longer move, and it was difficult to breath. A spider horror attached some web to her and began to drag her away from the class. She could only watch in terror as the hungry fangs of the spider hovered above her. She couldn’t call out or scream. Only watch as Yuii, Kyo, and Ayumu got further and further away. Maybe they would notice her in time before she became supper to a forgotten spider?


Komora wasn’t the one to get upset about alot of things. Usually she was the one making people upset instead - but in this case she was genuinely frightened. She looked at of the corner of her eyes at Ayumu and Yuii who were distracted with the device, and the rest of her class mates could barely fend for themselves. Maybe if Kyo had been assisting her fight the spiders she would have been able to handle the double team as they - but it was what it was. Tears weld up in the girls eyes. Her entire body felt like it was made of soft putty. It felt like she had no mouth - and she must scream.

 

[Kogami Ayumu]

Ayumu had allowed himself to become complacent. To him, the spiders were trivial beasts that weren't even strong enough to yield experience points. They were just annoying. It had seemed as though the students had everything under control on their end, so he hadn't paying them close attention. He batted away spiders with relative ease though he was distressed over the spider guts and kept glancing over to see if Yuii had managed anything with the door. When, at last, Yuii followed his advise and successfully jarred the door open by smacking it with a rock, Ayumu let out a triumphant chuckle.

"Naturally," he commented with a smirk. As Yuii proclaimed that it was time for the students to locate the sword at last, Ayumu finally took a moment to check on the students. It was at that moment he noticed Komora's limp body being dragged across the floor.

"Oh, shit," Ayumu muttered, observing the puncture wounds on the girl's leg. She'd been bitten which explained her rag doll impression. Ayumu quickly held out his hand and dropped his blade, completing a couple of quick handseals before it hit the ground. Instead of clanging against the ground the blade stopped in mid air. With a flick of his wrist, Ayumu sent the blade hurtling across the room as if it were a projectile thrown by an invisible hand. Upon reaching Komora it stopped and then spun in an arc, slashing the webbing binding Komora to cease the dragging.

Ayumu himself was only a couple of moments behind the blade and as he reached Komora's side he took the blade once more and drove it into the gaping maw of the spider that was hoping to snack on a student, skewering it. Placing a boot on the spider's head he pushed it away as he pulled the blade out like some kind of messed up sword in the stone. The pockets of ignited spider fluids on the ground made it easier to see fortunately. Ayumu verified that no spiders were attacking and then knelt down by Komora to look at the wound.

Though she was still conscious, she couldn't move. Her impressive healing factor was doing nothing to stop the venom now coursing through her veins. There wasn't anything Ayumu could do either. Despite being married to a medical shinobi he had no skill with medical jutsu himself nor any plot convenient antivenom in his belt pouch. Unfortunately, the venomous spiders were something Ayumu hadn't known about beforehand.

"You're going to be okay, just hold on," Ayumu reassured Komora, refraining from giving her an encouraging pat in case she was in pain. "Yuii... I don't suppose you have any medical expertise, particularly with nasty spider venom?" Ayumu called to her. He didn't dare to hope any of the students might be a budding Med-nin in Training. Worst case scenario, they would have to call a Med-nin down or evacuate the poor girl. He started digging in his belt pouch for his heatset, just in case. Hopefully it would work from the basement of the Torre.

 

[Hotaka Kyo]

Kyo had faded away as they entered the new area, without being instructed further to eliminate the spiders he instead went about doing his own thing, that being sinking into the ground after stepping into the room and disappearing from sight after a quick set of handseals, this was always one of his favorite things to do and kept him out of sight and out of mind when he wanted to be that way, which was more often these days. The now earth encased boy simply listened and felt about him with his tremor sense, watching the others actions from the safety of the earth.

Kyo was impressed despite himself at Komora’s showing, though you wouldn’t hear him admit it out loud. The Instructor and the Sennin where both skilled as they should be, and while he noted their movements and what they did, he wasn’t particularly impressed with them as he expected more of them. He also took the time to examine the stone carvings of the warrior fighting the demons. Demons had been an issue with Cloud for a long time, wars had been fought and even to this day, so long after their end, anything dealing with them had been viewed suspiciously, such as the man in the market who had been promising power and showing off his abilities as he bragged about them being demonic in origin. Kyo hadn’t ever followed up on what had happened to the man, or those that he had taken in to ‘enhance’ with his powers. As his mind was going over this and absorbed in the carvings, the others were still fighting, he hadn’t paid it much mind, they were all capable, even Komora, despite her other issues, and spent as much time as he could memorizing the carvings on the walls, as this was likely the only time he would get to see them, and their might be some hidden meaning to them that would be of use to him at a later time.

It was while he was taking in the carvings that Komora was bit, he didn’t even notice it then, although he felt something was off at the time, he shrugged it off. Though once Ayuuma sprang into action Kyo noticed what that something wrong was, and that it had been Komora being bitten, no longer active and being dragged off. Taking one last moment on the carvings he finally turned his attention back to the battlefield. He made his way slowly over, still underground before popping back out and kneeling over his fallen companion. Kyo wasn’t one for the medical arts, though he knew some small jutsu’s, though he wasn’t sure it would be of any use on the poison that was coursing through the young girls veins that was causing her problems at the moment, he focused his chakra in his hands and leaned down over the bite, the soft orange glow of the boys chakra infused the hands as he laid them on either side of the bite wound, he allowed the jutsu to do its work, helping close the wound and hopefully helping with the damage that the girl’s body was surely suffering from the venom.

*OOC* Kyo is using [*]Mystical Hand (R1) on Komora.