The Ruins Rescue [B-Rank Mission]

[Uri]

The sand bit at his partially exposed face despite the cloak covering up most of it. Scalding wind bit at his body as he looked from over the hill and down into the valley of dunes and towering rock spires before him. How he had come to be involved in this mission he wasn't sure. Barely even a day's time had passed since he put his papers in for reinstatement, let alone applying for a mission, which he hadn't done in the first place. Something told him his companion may have had something to do with it, and in a moment of clarity, away from her usual drunken stupor, managed to remember Nori to pull him into this rescue operation. Irony would have it that Nori's gear was identical to what he had been wearing when he had last run into Bijou; the garments practical for the harsh weather of Wind country. His armor had instantly lost its shine from the dust and dirt. At his waist was a recently-forged katana from a local weapon smith, so that he wasn't completely unarmed when going out on a village-sanctioned mission.

Gusts of unforgiving wind deafened all out in the sandstorm. A hand reaching up to his ear, he tabbed the receiver to his headset earbud, "The ruins are located somewhere in this valley. They're probably covered due to this storm. We'll need to split up in order to find it in this muck."<i></i> His other hand gestured to the eastern side. After giving a polite wave, he descended down the steep slope, boots sliding through the ever-shifting torrent of sand as he headed west. Nori had passed through this area on his trip in, well before the wealth of sand had drown the area into a brown smear. Unfortunately, so many of the land markers were now completely missing and he couldn't make heads or tails of the terrain now. One hand pulled his cloak close to him and he moved in bursts of speed, tufts of sand sprouting up where he had been before being carried back into the storm's girth.

A researcher had gone missing coming out here. Wind Country was a treacherous place and it was easy to allow the elements to overtake one's self. A common person out here to study the ruins could easily become lost, but the first shinobi to be sent out here had also failed to report in. The weather was bad enough that they could have ended up trapped somewhere, or even devoured by the maelstrom itself. It was their job to find the ruins, find what clues they could and make an accurate report of the situation. At the very least, if the two before them had perished, word could be given to their families.

Let the hunt begin...

WC: 468

 

[Kakihara Shirokouu]

A creme sheet that almost blended into the sand whipped in the wind as it was dragged along by the girl's small frame. She looked like a Halloween ghost, only no holes for the eyes, her sweatpants and wrapped feet were the only things popping out of the bottom of the sheathe. You couldn't see her hands move, but if you were really perceptive, you might notice the small optic of sand that coalesced and crystallized in the storm. Bijou was not pleased. Her liquor was sandy and she was walkin' around with a blanket on her head. This was certainly not her idea of a good time.
Between the storm, the shround, and the slur, Bijou was not the easiest to understand. She yelled to help make up for it. "Whur is this place!? It couldabin 'pletely cuvered by sand in this shtorm!! I'm thirsty!" The unkown Nanjirou's continuous and cacophonous calling and complaining was uncharacteristic of most shinobi, who were reserved, intent, and serious. Bijou never tried to be conventional anyhow. She just rolled where she rolled.
Clicking on her headset, Bijou replied to Nori's advisement of doubling the ground they can cover. "Huh!?! Shplit up!? Whaddeva gets us there quicker! I want a drink!" The headset call started with a shot of feedback as Bijou screamed into the microphone, before leveling out as she rambled on still holding the call button. The drink she carried with her was gritty with sand, but she took a big swig anyway before stumbling, falling, and disappearing into the dune. Moments later, she'd shoot back up out of the sand with a big gasp for air. She continued the process, her sandy eye slowly floating along as Bijou jumped around sporadically, looking for the ruins or any sign of the missing operatives.

A glint appeared in the girl's crystalline eye. 'That's gotta be it.' She thought, smiling even if you couldn't see it. She whipped out her special bottle for a victory swig before jumping in a drunken and off-balance way and dipping into the sand. "Here we are~." She stood upon a flat stone slab, the only man-made thing marring an endless facade of desert. The only problem was... there didn't appear to be any door, hatch, or passage going down.

[Wd. Count] 382
[Total W.C.] 382
[Combined T.W.C.] 850

 

[Uri]

The sand was suffocating. If Nori hadn't been a native to Wind Country for nearly two decades, the weather now surely would have swallowed him whole, let alone whatever was lurking inside the dangerous folds of sand. Swiftly, he searched for signs or life, moving between gusts of wind as to not get caught off-guard by a powerful gale. It was the nature of the desert. When one wanted to hide something, it was easy, but when wanted to find something it was a near impossible task. Each time he would stop, he would send out a pulse of chakra from his body and wait for it to echo back. If it hit another life form, be it plant, animal, or human, it would return with that essence and let him no. So far there had been no such luck as he was combing the dunes. His partner was just as hard to track and without a tag back from her with her headset -if the signal could get through the storm at a distance- the odds of finding her were slim.

As he took another pause, waiting for the echo to return, he felt his whole weight quickly slide to one side. The sensation of vertigo wasn't odd as he had experienced being swallowed by sand before. He sank rapidly, the weight of his armor driving him deeper. Before he knew it, he landed with a hard THUD, his armor clanking where it hit stone. Nori was dumped at the bottom of a large mound that extended up to a hole in the ceiling. All around him were sandstone walls and glyphs of an ancient language he didn't know. While it would have been fascinating to study, that wasn't what had grabbed his attention. In one corner of the large room there was a small cube-shaped tent and all the amenities of a campsite. Hand come to rest on the hilt of his katana, he advanced into the setting. A finger run over one of the texts near the empty fire pit and the dust clinging to his skin told him no one had been there for a couple of days.

His foot hit a hardcover book and he paused to pick it up and thumb through a few pages. It was a text of some of the civilizations before the current generations. The researcher was trying to identify the ruins to the proper era, but didn't seem to have any luck ascertaining any clues judging by the multiple questions written within the confines of the book. Toggling his mic twice, he attempted to hail Bijou, but couldn't get a signal.

Other than the campsite, there didn't seem to be anything of note in the room. There was the glyphs, but deciphering them in that instantly didn't seem too likely. Otherwise he was trapped and without a way out. From one corner and all the way around he paced the rectangular room, running his hand over the etched forms in the stone.

"Mother Suna, what have I gotten myself into?"</COLOR><i></i>

[<COLOR color="maroon">Wd. Count] 511
[Total W.C.] 979
[Combined T.W.C.] 1361

 

[Kakihara Shirokouu]

Smack! Smack! Smack! Cshsssssssshhhhhhh~... The sound of Bijou smacking her headset to empty her ears of sand was the last thing that was communicated through the headset before it chirped the crackling sound of static.
"Nooooriiiiii!!!! Noorrrriiiiiiiiiiiiii! Where the hell did that brainy lil' punk go?" Bijou called out, her words disappearing in the whirling and violent winds that surrounded the platform she stood upon. I gotta find a way outta this storm. He must've done the same... The unknown Nanjirou scratched her irritated skin, which had been rubbed raw, slowly over time, by the abrasive sand that stung against anything and everything that was unfortunate enough to find itself in that wicked maelstrom.
The girl's voice had been trained to yell. It didn't get sore like it used to. She fought against the wind. Her voice against its howls. "Come on!! You've gotta be here somewhere!!" The drunken she-samurai stumbled around until a floor panel sunk beneath her foot, causing the ground to shake and her to trip. She crashed into the ground on a more-than-regular basis. She was used to it. You learn how to fall when you do it enough. This fall was different though. As she fell, the ground beneath her sunk, step-by-step, as it formed a staircase down into the ruins beneath her feet.
""Whah!-ah!-ah!-ah!-ahh!!! Unghh....." Bijou called out in staccato gasps of pain as she tumbled down the staircase that seemed to extend itself endlessly until she was emptied, somersaulting, onto the stone ground right at the feet of Nori. She took a gulp of sake from the jug at her hip, laughed her mouth into the shape of a smile, and joyfully greeted her tinkerer companion. "Heyyy!! There ya are, punk! Don't you dare run off without me again!" They had been successfully reunited, even if it had been unconscious on her part. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

[Wd. Count] 318
[Total W.C.] 700
[Combined T.W.C.] 1679

 

[Uri]

"Trust me, it wasn't intentional."</COLOR><i></i>

Nori's eyes gazed up at the stairs. A curiosity not because of having a sudden exit, but more so their sudden creation. The stones and walls could move, which meant that there was a means to advance further in from the room he was previously trapped in. Reaching down, he took hold of her forearm and hefted Bijou to her feet with one pull. However his attention didn't remain on her for too long as he started back around the room, pacing it at an even slower speed than before, eyes analyzing and picking apart every detail he could take in. After following the same path around the room twice, he stopped at a half-way point in the room. Blues eyes observed the old wall and the archaic language he couldn't read. This part of the wall was different from the rest. The symbol in the room, when observed closely enough and from a wide-enough perspective all converged in at this point. Mapping it out in his head it made sense. his theory was also further supported by the sudden break in the pattern where he stood, the dust in the room not quite settling the same as else where.

Peeling away one of the glove on his one hand, he brushed his fingers over the ancient writing, and smiled a moment later. Quickly he moved up next to Bijou, grabbing her at the waist and pulled her with him to the spot in front of the wall. Without a word, he pressed his whole hand against the wall, fingers fanned outward and the symbols at the tips of each of his fingers glowed a brighter blue. In a blur of motion the stone shifted and spun them into another room, throwing them both onto the dirt-laden floor. Coughing from the sudden gust of dust and hot air, Nori tried to right himself and found purchase, gripping for support, but it was a moment too late to realize it was Bjiou's firm buttocks he had been grabbing. Jumping back suddenly with ninja nimbleness, he bowed repeatedly, "Gomen, gomen, Go-..men..."<i></i>

His words came slowly and he stopped mid-apology. Before them was a massive cavern filled with intricately carved stone buildings, large turning mechanisms that moved stone platforms over long railways. It seemed an autonomous mini-city under the sand. In the center of it all was a huge super-structure that reached up to the ceiling and presumably to the surface out in the maelstrom.

"I.....holy shit..."<i></i>

{MFT}

[<COLOR color="maroon">Wd. Count] 419
[Total W.C.] 1398
[Combined T.W.C.] 1780