Crystal Crustacean Crisis! [Mission]

[Toraono Michino]

Missions that involved physically removing things were not normally the kind of jobs that made their way into Tama’s rather overstuffed mail box but apparently today was the exception. The scientist probably wouldn’t have even noticed it when he walked outside that morning had something glittering hadn’t been attached to it. The blonde standing outside in the wee-hours of the morning with his simple cup of black coffee suspected that his mate probably had a hand in making sure the piece of paper in his box had attention grabbing qualities. With a soft sigh, instantly recognizing the red type of paper the Mission Dispatch used he reached out with the free hand and snatched it off the mailbox.

Setting the ceramic cup on top of the mailbox Tama pressed his thumb against the wax seal on the letter and channeled some of his chakra into it so that it would weaken enough to break. His hands easily folded open the paper and his bi-colored eyes scanned over each trace of lettering scrawled by hand.
The mission called for the physical removal of some crystal coated crustations that appeared around the lake this time of year to harass the local scientific teams sent from the Keystone, and Genin were usually the ones sent to deal with kind of mess. The fact that he had survived into Chunnin rank only to see yet another Genin level mission in his box did little to help a growing temper.
It was when his eyes crossed over Okibi’s name on the piece of paper did he realize why this was stuck to his box. He wasn’t overly sure if she had talked them into it or that the village knew more about his private life than he was comfortable with. With another sigh Tama read the directions for which part of the lake he would be needed at and crumpled up the paper before simply walking back into his house; the coffee he turned back around for eventually.

An hour later Tama was at the edge of a rather empty lake shore.

His hair was pulled back into a ponytail for he mission and he was dressed once again in the same kind of body suit that he wore back in his exam but this time with a bit of a sleeker look. A single belt with a few pouches were the only things that marred the complete suit as he even decided to for-go the use of shoes once again.
A bare hand reached out to touch the cold water of the lake, causing gentle ripples to roll out into the large body of water. His bi-colored eyes shot back and forth looking for any signs of the crystal menace but saw really little to nothing to suggest that the crabs were a problem at all. For not the first time that day the blond wondered if Okibi was trying to mess with him.

Seeing as how she hadn’t shown up by the time he did the scientist took the liberty of getting a few thing ready since it seemed like he was going to have plenty of time. His left hand reached back into one of the pouches and removed his blood ink pen from inside to press his scarred thumb against the end to begin filling it.

[MFT]

 

[Okibi]

Re: Crystal Crustacean Crisis!

She'd put the 'official' dispatch notice in Tama's mailbox early that morning, and now she was getting ready to surprise him at the lake. Okibi chuckled to herself as she worked on setting up a small network of invisible wires around the lake, from which would hang the 'crystal menace' she'd asked Judori to help her with. With just a few twists of her fingers she would be able to manipulate the puppets just the way the ex-steward had showed her. She was gonna get Tama so good.

"So you dont think he's going to notice that these things are fake." Said Seven, who was sitting off to the side, watching his human set up her little 'prank'. It was more of a statement than a question. "He seems just a little too smart for this dont you think?"

Okibi scoffed as she stepped back and dusted her hands. Then she slipped the invisible lines over her fingers and gave them an experimental tug. The crystal crab puppets that had been sitting on the ground limply sprung up into the air, their legs clacking around like the real thing. "If I do this right, he wont know what the hecks going on." She said, making the crabs dance with a laugh. She'd heard the stories of the crustaceans that would periodically invade the Starlit Lake, making a mess of things and chasing off the researchers who studied the lakes special properties. Of course, she'd never seen one herself, so she didnt know how accurate her puppets were . . . but she was pretty sure Tama had never seen one either, so it didnt matter! "It'll be hilarious, just wait and see." She said to her canine companion.

Seven sighed and shook his knobby dog head.

Then there was the sound of snapping twigs off to the side, making both of them jump and spin around. At first, it seemed as though nothing was there, but slowly the darkness of the woods became lit up with many, many pairs of small glowing eyes. Okibi and Seven slowly took steps backwards. "Uh . . . you think Tami caught on to us?" She asked the dog softly. Seven shook his head, taking more steps back. "I dont think he has anything to do with this."

Just then, Okibi's heel fell against a small pile of rocks, making them fall and clatter. Just like that, it was like any wall holding back the mass of eyes fell, and a great wave of real crystal crabs came bursting out of the foliage. Gasping, Okibi tried to claw at one that came close to her, but her hands froze in the air, held back by the wires she'd set up around the trees. Cursing, she snapped the wires and made a run for it, her puppet crabs clanking together as she dragged them. "Run!" She shouted, Seven at her heels and the tsunami of crustaceans at his.

------------------------

Tama would just be filling his pen with blood when a loud ruckus would shatter the quiet of the lake. Okibi and Seven burst out of the shrubbery near him, leaping into the air. Okibi squeaked with surprise when she was tugged backwards, her puppets, still attached to her hands, get snagged on the bushes. "Dammit it all!" She cursed, turning around to try to work her fingers free of the wires. The sound of the crabs clattering and scurrying through the woods was getting closer by the second. Any moment now they would be on her like brown on poo!

[MFT]

 

[Toraono Michino]

Three out of the four jutsu traps that he had set up around the clearing were rigged and ready for use. A smile crossed his face since at least one of them had been set up for just in case this all turned out to be a prank after all. Once stepped on it would send a pulse of chakra up into the thing’s body to cause a temporary paralysis so that Tama could simply get his revenge by tickling the absolute sin out of her.

Not that he knew rather or not the Okibi was ticklish, but it wouldn’t be hard to find out if she couldn’t resist.

Tama was mapping out where he could place another trap when he heard the sound of loud rustling to his right. His bi-colored eyes shot in that direction as he crouched into a combative stance, prepared for anything to come out of those bushes except for what did. Seeing Okibi tangled up in the puppet strings and trying to get out of the bushes like a panicked cat was so funny that it honestly threw the scientist off of his guard completely. It only took him a few seconds to figure out what the hell was going on, a prank that wasn’t going her way apparently, but when he started to move forward with a chuckle he heard what it was she was running away from.
Odd that he hadn’t questioned that in the first place.
The sound of crystals clacking against each other at a face pace told him that rather no not it was a prank, something real was coming out of all of this.

Tama picked up his pace and got to Okibi in time to see the horde of multicolored crystallized crustations stampeding at them. Immediatly the blonde focused a large amount of chakra into his hand and sharpened the edge of his palm to begin cutting through the strings as quick as he could, constantly smacking away the puppet crabs that kept swinging in his way. His eyes looked up to see that the deadly crystal pinchers were getting ever closer and finally he just muttered “screw it” and grabbed his mate and as much of the bush as he could before ripping it out of the ground with a roar and running back into the safe zone of his clearing.
The scientist turned to face the crowd of crystal rainbow coming at them and flipped the Okibi Bush over his shoulder to form a few seals and stomp the ground to activate a row of seals on the ground that suddenly exploded upwards to create a large wall that would hold them off for a second, though he was sure they would be able to figure out rather fast that the wall didn’t extend to the water.

“So! Do you know how to kill a crystal crab?<i></i>” he asked her with a terrifyingly honest sound in his voice.

 

[Okibi]

They were getting closer. She could feel the bush leaves shivering around her with the thundering approach of the crystal crab tidal wave. Okibi fiddled furiously with the strings tied around her fingers, but the more she fought with them the more tangled up she became. Cursing loudly, she tried yanking her hands away from the mess, and only succeeded in cutting into her skin with the strong wires.

Seven came skidding to a halt in the mud on the lakes bank, kicking up the soil in his haste to get back to his human and help her. He was beaten to the punch though when Tama went flying by him to Okibi's aid.

Okibi blinked at her mates appearance, not even realizing that in their panic and desperation to get away from the threat, they had stumbled upon the very person they - or rather she - had been trying to trick. She'd never been so happy to see the blond in her life. "Tami!" She exclaimed. Her joy was momentarily shadowed by surprised when the scientist unceremoniously gathered her, and a good portion of the bush, into his arms and hauled them away from the impending crab tide. Okibi sputtered and spit leaves out of her mouth as she was thrown over his shoulder and carried a safe distance away, just as the crabs came exploding out of the forest and hit an invisible barrier. She could hear the creatures clamoring and clawing against the barricade.

She spat more leaves and twigs from her mouth as she reared up on Tama's shoulder and pushed the shrubbery away. Shimmying her way down his body, she made quick work of clawing off the rest of the wires tangled around her fingers; now that they'd been cut slack by Tama's efforts, removing them proved easy.

"I have no idea!" She declared after Tama asked if she knew how to kill the things trying to get to them. "I didnt think there would really be any out here! It was just supposed to be a joke!" She kicked at the crystal crab puppets for emphasis.

Seven sidled up beside her, keeping an eye on the wall of crabs that were slowly scuttling their way towards the lake, where the barrier did not extend. "Maybe you can kill them the same way you kill everything else?" He suggested, sounding just a little snide. Okibi frowned for a moment, and then grinned as she cracked her knuckles.

"We smash?" She said simply, sounding very much like the uncultured and ill-educated curr she used to pretend to be. She glanced up at Tama, questions in her eyes. "Like the way we smashed those toads? And that stupid metal spider?"

 

[Toraono Michino]

Tama looked back at Okibi as the crabs began to surge up from the water and towards the land in their general direction. A strange feeling of frustration was building in his chest for a second that the entire scenario was built up from a simple prank. It didn’t take his mate any time at all to start up a grand scene of chaos did it? Turning his eyes back to the crabs that were starting to emerge from the water and form a defensive line the scientist sighed and clenched his fists,
“Looks like we’re fighting alright. Okibi, Seven, try to keep them down at the shore as long as you can. It should only take me a few seconds to prepare but I can’t be disturbed while channeling my energy. Don’t go too crazy, though, I don’t want to have to change up my strategy because I have to rescue someone.<i></i>” Tama’s eyes looked over at the girl who started all this mess though a knowing smirk was still lifting a corner of his mouth.

He sent the chakra he had learned how to continually store in the back of his hands into the Ryuu Seal on his chest and cause a chain reaction of chakra expansion in his body. Placing his hands together as if in prayer he manually connected his chakra coil to the flow of nature energy in the cave, which was massive as it turned out, and closed his eyes to allow the energy to fill his vessel as to be able to fight at his full potential.

While the scientist was preforming his preparations for combat the crystal menace charged with a line of ten crabs that were pincher to pincher. Despite any previous thoughts to them being just animals the creatures seemed to have some sore of high hive mind intelligence. Even as the first line of crabs were charging in to take over beach another battalion was being formed but in an arrow formation. A screeching cry roared out of the crabs as they neared Okibi and Seven with their deadly pinchers raised in the air.

 

[Okibi]

Okibi pursed her lips, just slightly irritated by Tama's insinuation that she needed saving, and often. Huffing, she threw her head, whipping her hair in his direction as she turned to the shore of the lake, Seven at her side. "As I recall, it wasnt I who got stabbed through the gut last time." She declared childishly.

Two seconds later there would be no more time for words. The crabs had found their way around the barrier and were now charging madly toward them. She didnt understand; why were they even doing this? What had they done to warrant the ire of these crabs? In fact, where did the crabs even come from? The Starlit Lake was one of Okibi's favorite places to visit on her off time, and she'd never before run into these periodic visitors. Where did they go when they werent here?

"Seven, how bout we try those moves we've been working on?" She said to her canine compadre, cracking the knuckles of her left hand. Leaving Tama to do whatever it is he does when he tells Okibi to hold off the enemy while he 'prepares', the white haired wonder charged into battle with a bellow. Seven followed right at her heels. When they were within ten feet of clashing with the wave of crustaceans, they leapt into the air in perfect synchronization, curling their bodies and spinning in a rapid, wheel like motion. They splayed their claws, turning their bodies into deadly circular saws that tore through the front line of the crabs and launched them into the air over the lake.

"Keep em busy!" The spinning Okibi yelled. Seven didnt have to be told twice before he wheeled back around and headed for the horde. Okibi circled around, coming in from the side, except this time she didnt bother with the crabs, and instead aimed for the lakes shore bed. Amping up the destructive force of her attack with chakra extensions, she tore deep into the mud of the lake, creating a deep fissure. The charging crabs that Seven missed in his own attack fell into the pit, bumbling over each other and unable to climb the steep incline of the long pit.

Okibi popped out of her saw shape, panting as she landed on the trunk of a nearby tree. Seven was still having at the shelled bottom feeders, and she took that moment to survey. The wall was still holding up, but she had to wonder how long that would last, and the ditch she'd made was filling fast with crabs. It wouldnt be long before they'd just be able to scuttle over their brethren in Tama's direction. Looking towards scientist, she balked when she saw he was just standing there with his eyes closed and his hand held together. "Now isnt the time to be praying Tami!" She hollered.

 

[Toraono Michino]

“There is always time for a quick prayer<i></i>,” Tama whispered to himself with a smirk as Okibi yelled back at him from the battlefield. He was far, far, away from being the religious type given his field of choice but...to activate his true powers a simple prayer was needed. It wasn’t just a normal prayer either as the words spoken were of a lost language and the pose itself aligned oneself with the nature around them.

A thin white aura began to line the scientist’s frame as his eyes slowly began to open up to reveal the dojutsu he had created trying to mimic the Sharingan. His bi-colored eyes now shared the same shade of reptile green as his pupils had narrowed into slits then turned horizontal with hooks at each end of the slit. Tama could now see all of the abundant nature energy in the cave and the amount that was there absolutely amazed him. Had he known that such a source of power existed down near the lake he would of been preforming his nature training here instead of the underground basement in his house.

The scientist moved his hands apart and clapped them together to send a wave of his chakra strength mixed with the power of nature chakra out to brush past all of the crystal crabs. To Okibi and Seven they would feel a deep warmth of love, but to the enemy they would feel a dark cold chill of death and the destruction that he was capable of causing if given enough time.

Unfortunately it didn’t even cause them hesitate for even a second. They continued to rush blindly over the ditch and towards the still blonde.

“Well, I warned them,<i></i>” he said to himself as the tattoo on his chest began to glow a deep red color. His hand reached up to the hidden zipper at the nape of his neck and pulled it down to his waist line so that he could open up the one-piece suit and remove it from his upper body to reveal his bare upper muscular frame. The dragon tattoo began to slowly move and slither up his chest and towards his face where the jaw opened up over his left eye. Once again he placed his hands together in prayer right as a small legion of crustations were but a second away from tearing him to pieces.

“Awaken, Dragon of the Heavens.<i></i>”

A pulse of sheer nature energy roared through the cave and shook it a little. The crystals began to vibrate with energy that was easily shifting in and out of them as the crabs that were near him were lifted from the ground and thrown backwards towards the waters, crashing them against their fellow crustations. Another look at Tama’s eyes would reveal them bi-colored once again, but this time his left eye was a glowing golden color. It was a power he had never shown before simply due to a small fear that he wouldn’t be able to control it, but with the extreme abundance of nature chakra flowing through the crystals it became as easy to control as breathing.

“Hey Okibi, check this out,<i></i>” he said completely out of character for a person who looked like he had a Jesus complex.
Without a single hand seal woven the scientist simply lifted his hand and the nature energy in the room began to gather towards the center of the army of crabs, deep in the lake where his companions were not. A sudden burst of swirling death appeared there in the water causing a vortex to lift itself from the water and draw a large number of the creatures towards it. Spinning unmercifully in the torrent of death the creatures let out a strange shriek that probably would of thrown off the Inuzuka a little if it caught them right, but before they could scream for long the scientist lifted his other hand and turned the nature energy from a form of air into that of electrical, rushing through each and every last creature inside of the liquid tornado and killing them all instantly. Tama then threw his hands behind his back in swiping motion and everything that was inside of the liquid swirl was thrown out and far away to each side of the crab army.

The crabs suddenly decided that it would be a good idea to retreat after that.

A booming laugh came from the scientist on the shore as their enemy began to retreat as if hell was chasing after them.
“Did you see that?! Yeah that’s right, run! Run you cowardly crystallized crustations, and when you get back home tell ‘em that Tama and Okibi rule these shores!<i></i>”

Feeling that the battle was obviously over the scientist gladly dropped his control on the power that was flowing through him and allowed it to return to where it belonged. The dragon tattoo slithered back to its resting spot and the scientist dropped to his knees suddenly as a cold sweat began to cover his body. He shook a little from the massive amount of energy that had been flowing through him but it had been worth it - they had won! Right!?

No.

Almost as soon as Okibi and Seven rushed back up to the exhausted sage another rumble would shake the lake. He looked back towards the lake with sore eyes that had reverted back to their sleeping state to watch in absolute terror as a claw the size of a monolith began to emerge slowly from the middle of the lake...

 

[Okibi]

Okibi watched the events unfold before her from the safety of the tree, her expression slack jawed and awed. Seven wheeled himself clear of the devastation and ground to a halt on the forest floor beside his human's tree. His expression was almost a match for hers. They watched as the crabs were lifted and dragged towards the center of the lake by a force that was not physical. Their startled screeching was rather grating on their sensitive ears, but the sight was much more disturbing. A dark vortex erupted up out of the lake, taking the crabs with it, throwing them around in an enormous and deadly vacuum. A torrent of lightning shot through the tornado suddenly, killing all the crabs within it, and Okibi couldnt help being a little fascinated when they all just stopped struggling. Theyre bodies were being flung around in the vortex like limp dolls; like her puppets.

And as suddenly as it all happened, the vortex dispersed, flinging crustacean corpses in all directions, raining down on their brethren. The crabs that remained didnt seem to want to stick around anymore, and really, Okibi couldnt blame them. At the same time, she and Seven turned their slack jawed expressions on Tama. It wasnt the first time they saw him display strange abilities, but it was the first time they saw it on such a scale.

Dropping down from the tree, Okibi shook herself free of the astonishment and loped toward her mate, coming to kneel next to him in the mud where he'd collapsed. She placed her hands on his shaking shoulders and gave them a rub. "Jeez Tami, overkill much?" She said with a laugh, nuzzling the side of his sweaty face. She wasnt about to complain about his methods; he'd killed the majority of the menace and chased off the rest, completing their 'mission', but that didnt mean she wasnt going to rib him a little.

But, all thoughts of joking fled when the ground suddenly shook beneath them, and the water of the lake began to bubble. Okibi and Seven watched with no small dose of trepidation as the biggest mother effin claw they'd ever seen slowly rose from the lake, towering over them. The shadow that was cast in the already dim setting was daunting.

Getting to her feet, Okibi kept a firm hand on Tama's shoulder, telling him without words to stay down. He was obviously exhausted from his expenditure of energy, and needed to rest. She could handle things for a while . . . hopefully. "Seven." She called, growling softly in her throat. The doberman was at her side instantly, leaping onto her back as her body was engulfed in a billowing, thick steam. From within the opaque cloud, the sound of Okibi's growling slowly changed, becoming deeper, and more animal-like. It grew in volume until Tama would be able to feel the rumble not only from the monster emerging from the lake, but from the sheer force of the snarl coming from within the fog.

Slowly, the smoke would lift away, dispersing into the air, and what it revealed was indeed shocking. No longer was there a young girl and her dog, but in their place an enormous, hulking monster of a beast. It was stark white, ghostly colored, with glowing red eyes - two pairs of them set into two separate heads - positioned above two snarling, toothy maws. The heads, neck and back were draped with wispy white manes, trailing all the way down to it's tail which swished with agitation. Claws the size of a mans fingers poked out of aws the size of Tama's head, and deadly pointed horned curled around their craniums like wicked crowns.

The beast didnt even spare Tama a glance as it erupted off the muddy bank with a snarl, making an enormous leap for the clawed monstrosity, it's mouth agape and ready to latch on.

[MFT]

(Their double headed wolf form looks like this, just imagine the colors the way I described them. You can go ahead and godmod their actions in your next post and 'kill' them. 8D We should wrap this up soon.)

 

[Toraono Michino]

The claw rising from the depths of the waters was followed slowly by the emergence of the entire creature that seemed to be in size equal to that of a small island. Its mandibles clawed open as it lifted its head and roared a fierce war cry at the two small shinobi who would dare bring harm to its brood. Elsewhere the smaller crab began to emerge from the waters again but at a strong distance from the upcoming fight as if they were spectating.

Tama’s weary face and sore eyes watched grimly as the creature rose from its resting place to challenge the duo. The ever running joke of how his life went from semi-normal to insane was starting to wear thin his general mental stability.
Yet thankfully he would have time to recover, if even just for a few seconds, as his mate combined with Seven and transformed themselves into a large two-headed Cerberus. The scientists’s eyes widened with a strike of sudden super curiosity and the need to know how she did that.

In short he was rather impressed.

Tama was overwhelmed with joy at how far she had come from her initial return to their village. Closing his eyes for a second and focusing a little bit of his remaining chakra into his eyes he activated his dojutsu to look again at his mate’s Double-Headed Wolf technique. While he couldn’t gauge an exact readout of her strength like the Sharingan could, he could get a educated guess by watching how much the land around them reacted to their burst of chakra.
A grin appeared on the corner of the scientist’s mouth as he dropped the dojutsu and placed his hands in prayer again, leaving his mate to reign in destruction while he gathered the strength that was going to be needed to whoop this crustation properly.

Okibi and Seven charged in headfirst before changing the direction of their attack at the last second as the giant claw came crashing down. The giant screeched in annoyance as the duo ran up the length of the crab’s arm and leaped towards the face once they reached the injunction between leg and body. The giant creature raised up a second smaller claw in defense but right as the pinchers began to close around the double headed wolf the duo twisted their body and with an extra push of chakra began a fast rotation that made the claw bounce back off when it tried to grasp them. This action also propelled them forward to crash with a drilling attack into one of the crustation’s only fleshy weak points - the eyes.

A loud painful screech shook the caverns as the thing desperatly tried swatting at its face in the attempt to get Okibi away but was doing himself more harm than good.

Tama unleashed a long deep breath that he had been holding to fully relax his body to allow the nature energy to be absorbed through his flesh. The blonde grunted a little as he felt the nerves of his body beginning to throw a feeling like his whole body being on fire into his mind. The young man cried out and pain and collapsed to the side a little. He was panting hard as the exhaustion of using so much of his strength. Even though it had been strongly enhanced by Nature Chakra it was still his power that was controlling it. As talented as he had become in being able to use this special self-created technique he was still not a true sage that could flow Nature Chakra through them as easily as breathing. The scientist was sure that if he would focus all his attention into attaining that level he could do so quite easily; but it would force him to give up certain other abilities as well.

The sudden cry of pain from Tama was probably the greatest of his mistakes today though. Even more so than using up all his power to take out all of the crustations while trying to show off in front of his mate.
The sudden noise of pain coming from her mate cause Okibi to turn her wolf head away at the wrong second, allowing the giant crab to make a quick counter strike between the two heads that forced the jutsu to cancel out and force them apart. Tama’s eyes widened at the sight as when he looked up from the sound of sudden canine pain. Seven was flung away to skid across the water a little bit before hitting the beach with a crash while Okibi was simply thrown hard against the stone floor of the cave five feet away from the scientist.

A small crater in her body shape was formed against the ground and the force of the landing, shinobi or not, caused some internal bleeding that was forced from between her lips.

“OKIBI!!<i></i>” her mate cried out as he twisted his body in her direction in time to see the monolithic claw come crashing down on the spot where she was.

Tama felt the air escape his lungs in a scream of terror that he could not hear. His right hand was outstretched towards where the claw had landed while his left elbow was doing all it could just to prop up his body. The scientist’s heart began to beat quicker and quicker as he continued to star at the unbelievable and he seemed to stop breathing.
Memories of their times together began to flash through his mind as warm tears began to slowly bead up in the corner of the shinobi’s eyes. That time she surprised him in his lab, the first time they kissed, the dance at her birthday celebration...the day he found her at the gate a year after spending every last bit of his resources looking for the girl.

The day he promised that she would never be hurt ever again so long as he lived.

Air was finally sucked back into his lungs, but when the oxygen had filled both muscles it was released with a sudden overwhelming scream of rage. Black energy began to crackle around the scientist that seemed to twist around him like the black souls of the undead and lift him from his prone position back to standing. All rational thought had left his eyes as they became completely milky white and the black seal that surrounded the dragon tattoo began to pulse with a life of its own.
A sudden wave of black and purple energy rushed out of his now floating body that carried the pit of endless rage and death that Tama had worked so hard to keep locked away but the black evil that rested in his chest had found away to connect with the natural evil that tainted his soul from his sins. The seal embedded itself into his flesh and instantly all of the color rushed away from his exposed flesh to leave nothing but pure black as his body actually began to morph into a different shape. His face was pushed forward a little bit as if forming a snout. His mouth split apart his cheeks and became hardened in the shape of fangs that were overlapping each other. A thick tail formed behind him, his feet widened and became clawed, and his muscles began to thicken and widen his body out.

The blackness that was covering his form exploded away in another wave to show that Tama’s skin had become reptilian and hardened to the strength of steel. Clenching his transformed hands into fists he tilted his head back and let out a deep loud roar of rage and challenge. The crab screeched in response as if it understood the transformed scientist and lifted it’s gigantic claw from Okibi’s form to swing it hard and fast at the reptilian Tama.

The entire attack was stopped by simply catching an edge of the crystal claw causing a rush of air to blow past him from the weight of the giant’s attack being so suddenly stopped.

A look of sheer rage and insanity flowed from Tama’s eyes as he screamed at the claw he had caught and strengthened his grasp on it which caused cracks to suddenly appear. Then with an amazing feat of strength grabbed the claw with both hands with the same crushing strength and ripped it off the crustation. With a single flicker of movement the claw and Tama was suddenly right over the large crab before it could even get a chance to scream in pain. With another scream of madness the creature of the curse seal slammed the point of the claw into the back of its owner, driving it into the lake and impaling it into the bottom of the lake bed. The sudden speed of the godly attack caused two giant waves to rush off and wipe out the crabs that had gathered to watch the fight and crush them against the walls of the cave, ending the threat once and for all.

The creature stood on top of the crystal pillar that was now sticking twelve feet high out of the water and let out a roar of victory over his opponent unaware of why it was fighting to start with. The sudden memory of what had caused this anger to rise also caused a sudden very human hand to come erupting out of the chest of the cursed beast. The creature tried to resist but the true master of the body had managed to over come his sanity and emotions in the defeat of his opponent to reseal the beast back in its cage. A second hand appeared beside the first and pulled the creature’s chest apart as out climbed the blond. Once his whole body had been extracted the creature’s shape broke down into shadow energy and rewrote the seal on his chest around the dragon tattoo once again.

A sudden body shake cough caught the scientist as he dropped to his knees in his sudden weakness. No doubt he had probably shaved off a few years of his life tapping into that power, even if it was on accident. A greater concern filled his mind though as he struggled back to his feet and leaped down from the pillar and into the water. He slowly climbed out onto the surface of lake using the remaining bit of his chakra and ran to the shore where the crater containing Okibi was. He dropped down into a crawling motion as he neared it and moved his body quickly up to her. She didn’t seemed to be breathing or even moving and a sudden rolling wave of sadness dropped on Tama’s shoulders. He started to sob as the tears came back again. He leaned his body over and layed his crying face down to bury it into her chest, sobbing to himself over and over again how he had promised to protect her, taking the entire incendent as fault on his part.
“I...I never got to even get the time to try and describe how I felt about you...we were supposed to do so much more Okibi...<i></i>”

 

[Okibi]

On the other side of the lake, Seven groaned as he pulled himself out of the small ditch his body had created when he was skipped across the lake and crashed into the shore. Mud and rocks slid around him, and he hissed when the smooth surface of a stone slid across a particularly sore spot on one of his legs. Felt like it was broken. "Auuugh. This is gonna hurt so much more tomorrow." He said to himself, continuing to pull himself free of the mud.

He came up short when the most enraged, deranged howl split the already shattered serenity of the Woods. The large crab answered the strange bellow with one of its own; was there another creature they had to fight off now? Seven scanned the shore of the lake for whatever made the awful noise, and spotted the large black . . . thing that was facing down the gargantuan crustacean. What in the world . . . where did it . . .?

Any questions were momentarily wiped from his mind as he watched the crab and black creature - which was considerably smaller - go at it. In all honesty, the bout didnt last long at all, and it seemed that the black thing had the absolute advantage. It ripped the enormous claw off the enormous crab like it was nothing! By the sands . . . was it going to turn on them when it was done with the crab? Seven watched in awe and trepidation as the tiny black thing made quick work of the crab, skewering it with its own claw and pinning it to the bottom of the lake. He watched the creature land on the tip of the claw - the carcass - and howl with victory.

What happened next was the very last thing the dog was expecting. Then again, he should have realized sooner than Tama was nowhere to be seen. When the human hand popped out of the creatures chest, followed by the rest of the blond scientists body, Seven could only gape. Tama, Okibi's shy, albeit brilliant mate, had just done that? How in all the hells?

Once again his questions were put to the side as he watched Tama leap off the claw and stumble his way across the lake water and to a crater. Seven eyed that crater, and slowly made his way to it as well, limping all the while. It wasnt until he was halfway there that another question registered in his head. Where was Okibi?

He stopped for a moment and eyed the crater again as a ice cold dread started to seep into his veins. He worked his way into a painful, limping gallop across the mud, and came to a bumbling stop at the small craters edge. His bright blue eyes widened, so much so that you could see the whites all the way around them. Tama sat in the center of the small hole, cradled the limp body of his human . . . who wasnt moving.

Of course, only the worst of thoughts came to the forefront of his mind first. He hadnt seen what happened to her after he and Okibi had been separated, but apparently she'd gotten much worse than him. The blasted hole she was lying in was testament to that. Sevens head dropped, what little strength he had left giving out as his worn and beaten body collapse. A pained whimper escaped him, but it was derived from a pain not of the physical kind . . . but the kind that left a heart broken and battered. She couldnt be . . . His Little One . . . she just couldnt be . . . de-

The whimper escalated into a howl, piercing and mournful, echoing throughout the massive cavern.

-------------------

Now, had either of her boys stopped to really survey the situation they would have noticed a few things. For one, her body was completely intact. If she had been utterly smashed by that gigantic claw, surely her body would also have been smashed to bloody bits right? But, there she was, nary a scratch on her aside from the blood leaking from her lips. Secondly, they would have noticed the indentation in the ground around her; a smaller crater within the crater her body had initially created. At the last moment, just before the crab would have crushed her to oblivion, she was able to throw up a gravity barrier, slowing the crabs crushing blow, but unable to stop the force entirely. Hence the two holes she was lying in. While she had saved herself from death, she did have all the wind knocked out of her and blacked out.

And lastly, if Tama actually pulled himself together and listened to the chest he had his face buried in . . . he would have heard the faint beating of her heart.

It might have been Tama's words, or Seven's mournful howl that woke her, but either way she kind of wish she could have just stayed knocked out. Every little bit of her hurt. Stupid mother- That crab was so going to get it when she got herself up again. If she could get herself up again. Blinking mud crusted eyes, Okibi coughed, and it made her entire body shake, wracking her with more pain. Blood splattered from her lips and she groaned, trying to roll over.

But she couldnt because a certain blubbering scientist had his arms wrapped so tightly around her she could scarcely breathe.

She coughed one more time before squeaking out, "I know Im irresistable even when Im halfway dead . . . but could you lighten up just a little Tami? Cant breathe."

 

[Toraono Michino]

Tama’s sobs stopped suddenly as a gasp of air entered his lungs. His mind reeled at the sheer impossibility of it all and gently released his grasp on Okibi’s body to pull her away from his chest. Tears fell unceremoniously from his face as he looked down at his mate dumbfounded. A trembling hand slowly reached up to touch her cheek before he just simply broke back down, burying his face in her neck as he pulled her close again; he did managed to take care of how hard this time though. He wanted to kiss, scream, and cry at her all at once and try to put into words the expression of just how much his world had almost been shattered completely.

--At the Hospital
An Hour Later--​

Once the scientist was able to finally get a hold of his emotions the trio had managed to hobble their way into the hospital to gain the craziest of looks. He swore he felt the burning glare of a certain Inuzuka that worked there as they were quickly escorted through the entrance and into the ER. They were separated at this point as Okibi was taken in to get some bones checked out while Tama was immediately hauled off to the IC ward.

The scientist hadn’t realized at the time, since he was so damn happy Okibi was alive, that he was suffering from severe chakra deficiency. Despite his massive stores of chakra the use of the curse seal at its highest form came at an extreme cost that would have easily killed any normal guy. The scientist felt like his insides were kind of on fire but he couldn’t exactly pinpoint what it was exactly.
An exam given by the local Hyuuga medic revealed the blonde’s dirty little secret - the multiple chakra coils - and that one of them had been utterly destroyed. It looked as if a massive amount of raw energy had simply burned it away leaving nothing remaining of that chakra coil. However unless it was removed it would eventually rot inside of him causing him certain death via septic. This was told to him as much and the scientist simply asked for a quick shinobi to go to his house and call for FELIX and tell him that ‘master says fetch the book titled “Advanced Chakra Coil Studies” from the basement.’

Within the hour the book was retrieved and the most advanced theories on chakra coil surgery were applied on his body once again to save his life. It was the first time he had allowed someone else other than himself to do it though, and it was an interesting perspective.

Once the emergency surgery had been finished Tama awoke from the blur of the painkillers to find himself in a hospital room. He felt significantly weaker aside from the drain the drugs were putting on his mind. He lifted the sheets overing his body before even looking around the room to check the incisions. A look of mild disgust washed over part of his face as he sighed at the lack of talent the surgeon had in making good lines.

“Oh well. Guess they’ll be some more scars to chalk up on the board...<i></i>”

[Mission End. You can post your hospital experience/reaction to the emergency surgery and it should all be over.]