8-Legged Walking Tranquilizers [Open|Shirayuri]

[Toraono Michino]

A bird cry echoed through the trees that shook gently to the breeze that brushed their leaves. Deep in their shadowed grove sat a masked ANBU operative with his legs crossed over his knees. The operative’s metallic hands gripped his feet as he hunched forward slightly. The man had slowed his breathing down to a crawl and following it was his heart which had all but stopped. Birds above cried out again before swooping down to land on Uzu’s metal shoulder and peck at the mask protecting his face. It squawked one more time before noticing something in the trees above and darting off. A Ranger was down the hill and a good distance away from the old assassin, but even for all his training he couldn’t believe what the geezer had asked for: Magna Aranea venom.

The spiders were a creature native to the Fire Country’s more kami-forsaken area of forest. They were the size of a large dog, extremely territorial, and probably worse of all - terribly venomous scavengers. They would set up a large web all across a territory and coat it in a poison that infect you through contact. It was potent enough to knock out every known genus of creature they had in the Wind Country, but was horribly difficult to actually get a concentrated form of. The amount of poison garnished from carefully harvesting the web was pitiful, and it took years of collection to get even a full vial.

Thus Toushin offered to collect some for the Rangers in exchange for keeping a little for himself. Half a vial, he had requested, in exchange for two jars. Their scientist scoffed at first but he looked at them dead in the face before telling him how he was going to do it. That was when the Rangers staff really started getting interested, just because they really wanted to see if any one man could do it; milk the spider’s fangs directly.

So, they rode out a very short distance into the biome on Dunestriders to the part of the woods where the spiders were carefully hoarded. Uzu slipped off his saddle, removed his cloak, and strode up the hill before turning his back to the trees where the spiders remained and settling himself into the position he was now. After he was settled, the madman reached up and plucked a strand of poisoned web with his shinobi prosthetic. Since his hand wasn’t flesh the venom harmlessly dripped off his fingertips. He lowered his body into a hunch and slowed his breathing…waiting now.

Everyone below saw it. The giant black spider with long legs reaching out…

 

[Teke]

This was going to be an exciting day for Shirayuri, just a week ago it was her birthday and as a gift, her father had arranged for her to be able to enter the Tracking Grounds on her own. She had been a good few dozen times with her dad before, so she was quite used to it all and for her age, she was very sensible when it came to not messing about in potentially dangerous areas. This gift was a show of trust between her parents and herself and she would do her very best to uphold that by not doing something stupid, at least that was what she told herself. She'd managed to hold off on rushing here the moment she got the permissions to do so only for the fact that she needed to show that she was going to be sensible about this and as such had spent the whole week leading up to this studying. This mostly consisted of the Fauna in the areas she knew of, her family could easily get a hold of any plant life when it was needed but they didn't dabble in the animal kingdom, that's where Yuri planned to make her name, even going so far as to combine the two into some quite potent cocktails.

Through her research, she had marked a few insects and arachnids she would pick up whilst she was there, some for topping up waning supplies and others for new things she hadn't tried yet. One of these things just so happened to be the venom of the Magna Aranea, a very dangerous beast indeed but she had no thoughts about confronting it if she could help it. She would be able to gather a good amount from the webbing it leaves behind to mark and protect its territory, sure it wasn't as potent as being able to milk the creature but that was a future endeavor she would look forwards too.

After a brief conversation at the Rangers HQ, she was set up with a Dunestrider for the day and left to explore the mini biomes. Before letting her leave she was given a fair warning about the group who were currently in the area that she was going to be heading too, advising her it would be best to avoid them as they were after dangerous creatures. Shirayuri had already put two and two together and knew quite well that there was only one creature in this area that was treated with such fear or respect, depending on whom you ask.

"This could be good. If they're distracting the Magna Aranea I can grab a bunch of venom from the webs on the outskirts of its territory with little to no problem." She thought to herself as she rode through the lush, green woodland.

It didn't take long for her to come across the pack of dunestriders left behind by the group she was told of, she would hop off of her own and hitch it to a nearby branch, just a little away from the other group as to not get confused or left stranded later, even if by accident it would be quite annoying at the thing was loaded up with her equipment. Anyone looking her way as she started to grab the supplies she needed would see a young lady, by her height you'd assume mid to late teens and she was dressed head to tod in dull grey and green equipment, clearly meant to help with hiding in the forest. She was covered completely including a mask that she would pull up over her nose and a sturdy pair of gloves that had clearly seen some use, there were specially made for gathering venom from dangerous places and included a chain mesh on the inside to help prevent skin punctures from things like fangs. With herself prepared she would start to move carefully around the hill, looking up and watching the strange fellow who had taken a seat up where she could only assume the arachnid itself would be stalking.

"Well, this could get.. and there it is." She said to herself, watching the legs of the spider appear as she approached a strand of the web. "On your six." She casually called out, up to the person.

In the meanwhile, she would take the opportunity to start collecting venom off of the strands, simply by gently pinching each one and pulling her finger along and letting the gathering liquid drip down into a vial being held steady with her other hand. She was quite skilled with her hands so it was a fairly simple task, usually, the hard part would be staving off the hunter but it was otherwise distracted, for now. She would be keeping her eye up to watch the happenings on the hill, people weren't permitted to kill the wildlife in these biomes unless specially granted permission was given so she was very curious about what was to happen.

 

[Toraono Michino]

Toushin had his mind and body completely centered. He could feel the touch of each blade of grass, the subtle change of temperature from the cooler forest at his back, and the quiet sounds of someone trying to quietly sneak up towards his position. The assassin’s eyes squinted open and looked to his left to see the girl as she pointed up and whispered her warning. Uzu continued to watch her presence over the deadly one slowly expanding its mandibles above him, actually impressed by her in a number of ways. Shirayuri was doing in seconds what some top researchers took minutes to do, and all without causing enough vibration to alert any other spider. Of course, Toushin was mindful that she was being incredibly opportunistic but, the child still had to have nerves of steel to even handle the poison she was milking off the web. Each stroke over the thin web with her special gloves was quick, mechanical, and he dared to say perfect.

The spider’s legs tapped the assassin’s shoulders. Magna Aranea had a 60 pound bite and once it touched a creature it could deliver the attack, with the venom, at speeds exceeding 1km. To say it was fast was an insult, because damn creatures had actually outpaced some of Suna’s fastest Rangers before. It was said, ‘you’re already dead,’ the moment the Aranea touches a creature from how fast it can bite. Toushin’s body, somehow, was able to react even faster. Before the fangs could pierce into his neck, the assassin’s metallic hands grabbed onto them. With an grunt and display of remarkable core strength, the assassin ripped the spider off it’s steel-like web and then slammed the creature into the ground. The giant arachnid was stunned, not from the attack itself, but from the sheer audacity, and even then it was for no more than a second; but that was all Uzu needed. Before the spider could come back to its senses, Toushin flipped it onto its back, released a fang, and speared his hand into a cluster of nerves underneath its jaw that made the nightmare fuel before him instantly go limp with a weak screech.

“You have exactly five minutes!” he yelled down to the team below who was already dashing towards the pair, “Milk the spider as much as you can, and then get the hell out of here!”

The Operative removed his hand from the spider and slid back into a standing position before casually strolling towards Shirayuri. His feet slipped between each and every web between them as if he knew exactly where they were, so as not to alert any more of the brood that laid beyond. The girl’s handling of the web was smoother than most of the Ranger’s guided hands, but he still worried. Even the most gentle slip would mean he’d have to kill a few spiders and probably a banishment from the Domes; not something Uzu needed. It was going to be bad enough that in five minutes a whole section of the forest dome was going to need to be closed off; Magna Aranea we’re not exactly known for being chill.

“Hey,” he called out quietly, “Grab a vial of the fresh stuff while it’s available, my treat.”

[MFT]