[Mission] Puppyhunt

[Samejima]

She had the mission on the slip of paper read out to her before heading out, one genin of Sunagakure on a relatively simple-looking mission. Naoki marched forth into Sietch, where the highest density of good food was and the largest probability of a few rogue dogs appearing was, at least to her. So all I have to do is find some troublemaking dogs... The barking would probably tip me off, should try and adjust before that. Initially, she just wandered around, somewhat distracted by the shops' wares and stopping by to chat with a few of the shopkeepers, asking if they'd seen any rowdy dogs around. The topic would usually drift further and further away from the dogs and more towards things like the situation in the Grand Palais or how badly people have been mauled in the past... Which led her to doubt her decision in choosing this place to start searching in.

Hmm... I should've thought this through a bit better. Canvassing the Sietch, believing herself to have searched every nook and cranny, she prepared to set back out for the Grand Palais before she heard a few barks in the distance. Naoki turned on her heel, taking off for the source, with the sounds of the streets being enough of an indication to navigate... until she lost track of where the barking might've come from. Ah geez! How could I have lost them... She walked around somewhat aimlessly again, still going in the direction she heard the barks in until she sensed a familiar face. "Yumi!" Naoki waved as she approached.

WC: 265

 

[Kazumi]

Clad in an long sleeved dress shirt, like the ones she had often wore before the incident had occurred, Yumi had been casually walking along the streets of the shopping district. She even had that little red ribbon tied in her hair once again, though it was impossible for it to do so herself, so someone must have assisted her with that. Across her shoulder, hanging under her right arm was a bag for carrying supplies in, not unlike an oversized purse. She had taken to using that to help offset the weight difference in her day to day activites and having to help her carry stuff had proven invaluable in the past.

Hearing the familiar voice calling off into the distance, Yumi turned and smiled as she saw Naoki approaching. She raised her hand up in the air to catch the girl's attention, though she obviously knew it was here. Yumi still could not understand how she could tell one girl from another though hearing alone. She could hear people too, to a much smaller degree and she couldn't tell them apart.

"Hey there Naoki-sempai, working today?" she asked curiously as she stopped her own travels, waiting for the other girl to approach. Presuming she was wearing her full mission type attire, Yumi would look her up and town, tilting her head slightly. "Something exciting from the look of it." Her red irises looked up towards Naoki's blindfolded expression and gave the older girl an amused smile.

 

[Samejima]

The genin was not exactly wearing anything different, but Yumi would've been able to tell she was doing something exciting indeed by her posture and light panting. Not much sweat had formed, as she hadn't been running for too long. Naoki returned the smile before nodding, "Yeah, on a mission to catch dogs today. Have you seen any around, maybe one that's been clawing at people? Kinda dangerous, but I think you should be able to turn in the mission too if we catch a couple!" Joint missions do sound nice, and we'd be able to cover each others' backs when catching one if she agreed...

The streets had gotten somewhat quiet, and Naoki snapped her fingers a few times to try and detect any tails swishing about, as well as to gauge Yumi's expression on the suggestion. She thought she sensed one sauntering down an alley, but would go after it a little while later. It wouldn't do to be abandoning a conversation just after initiating it after all.

WC: 170

 

[Kazumi]

"Dog?" she asked curiously as she raised her brow towards the blind girl. "Why are you looking for dogs? Lost ones or something?" She continued as the sound of a dog's barking could be heard far off in the distance to the east. Yumi turned and peered off in that general direction, her expression of confusion only growing with each passing moment. "They lost or something?" She had not heard about the bounty or the incidents that had been occurring apparently, as they seemed to have been a recent occurrence in this part of the village, one that had she had been spared up until now.

The blonde youth looked down towards her entirely inappropriate attire for such a job, but she shrugged it off with only a moment's thought. If you want some help I can try, but I can't imagine being much assistance. It would take a dozen of me to be able to do anything as well as one of you could." She didn't sound self-deprecatory, but it was the simple truth. Even with her training she was just an academy student after all, and one whose graduation was still not an assurance.

 

[Samejima]

The statement that sounded self-deprecatory anyway resulted in Naoki shaking her head vigorously. "I've had a lot more time to train anyway, and I mean, this is supposed to be a pretty simple mission... They're just stray dogs, shouldn't be too dangerous to catch if we're careful about it. They've been known to attack people, but we just need to stay out of their way and we'll be good." Naoki's head turned towards the barking, thinking that was probably where she'd lost them in the first place. "C'mon, follow me! I think there's a few over there, we'll just check if they're making any trouble..."

Assuming Yumi followed, the two would happen on a few children being terrorized by a group of four dogs. They all appeared to be mutts, each one mostly black with dark brown splotches in varying degrees.

"The Black Brothers!" One of the children, the oldest of the group of three 6-year-olds, was pressed to the wall he and the other two were cornered against.
"Big bro... what do we do..." A younger-looking girl, short and huddling into the first one's chest, muffled out.
"S-stay back! I'm warning you! I've got a battle yo-yo!" The last one seemed to be the bravest of the bunch, but he still seemed rather scared as he held out the yo-yo for all to see. And sense.

The four dogs were focused on the children, each one coming up to a height of just around Naoki's waist. It wasn't likely that they noticed any new arrivals, and provided Yumi had followed, Naoki would try and whisper a plan. "I have a net in my bag, here," she passed the net over to Yumi after minimal rummaging. It had weights she could throw to encompass the dogs. "I'll be the distraction, and when I give you the signal, just throw the weights here at the dogs, but uh, watch the kids, don't want to hit them or anything... I'll fix it up as soon as you throw it, so don't worry about getting it to spread, I just need you to throw it over as soon as you see me wave, okay?"

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi eagerly followed after the other girl, not entirely sure how she could help, but determined to do her best. The thought of assisting a genin on a real mission would likely prove to be a real boon for the girl in her attempts to graduate did not occur to her at the time, but in retrospect it surely would. As they came upon the scene, however. the gravity of the situation finally struck Yumi. She had never been in any sort of real combat before, nor any real danger. Sure she had nearly drowned, or broken her neck trying to climb a structure or rescue trinkets from a sunken ship, but nothing that involved real people in real immediate danger.

Her heart began to race as she froze next to Naoki, the other girl worked to explain the plan to her but it unfortunately went in one ear and out the other. She absently took the net from Naoki, but the lack of experience was clearly showing on the student's face as she stared ahead towards the mutts that were cornering the trio of even younger children. She could have sworn one of them reminded her of a friend she had back at her old village, and as that memory attempted to catch her attention a shriek from the girl snapped her back to reality.

One of the mongrels took a menacing step forward towards the trio only to be met with a hard smack across its jaw by the yo-yo as the boy swung it at the hound. It winced and momentarily stopped its advance, but after the pain subsided its snarl grew even fiercer and it let out a set of threatening barks as it bared its sharp teeth towards the boy who immediately retreated back with the other pair. Taking the sign of retreat as an opportunity, one of the four dogs leaped forward towwards tis prey, long claws bared and its mouth wide open for a vicious bite.

 

[Samejima]

No no no no Not having the luxury of thinking before the animal got to the kids, Naoki rushed headlong into the fray, jumping in with a flying downwards kick at the attacking dog and stepping back to position herself between the dogs and the kids after having completed a set of handseals to focus her chakra in between the palms of her hands to prepare for a Hyper Clap. The one which attacked had begun whining, retreating to join its own pack, and Naoki was able to secure the children before any of them got brave enough to avenge its brother (assuming the nickname from earlier had much more of a basis but just their coats and the way they banded together). The dogs were now barking and being way too loud for Naoki to keep listening to without silencing them somehow, and she sent them flying backwards into a nearby stack of crates with the prepared jutsu. It didn't go as she'd hoped, but she waved at Yumi anyway, motioning for her to throw the net by way of an arcing wave over the now disoriented mass of angry barking that was about five feet from Yumi's relative position and three from Naoki and the kids'.

"Huh?" The dependable looking older brother was now shielding his sister, and they were both crouched near the ground while she shivered somewhat.
"Whoa!" Bravado shattered for the minute, Bravado Boy seemed to be confused as to what just happened, only having seen Naoki's back.

It all hinged on this! Finish them Yumi! ...Until they broke free of the nets anyway, because there was no cage to be seen anywhere!

 

[Kazumi]

With a loud crash the four mongrels slammed backwards into a pile of appropriately places crates of goods. As three of them scrambled to their feet, one straggler having ceased its movement, they all tried to gather themselves into a sensible cohesion. Occasionally they bit at one another, wounded legs and other wounds causing them to be more aggrivated and frenzied than before. Yumi hesitated for another few moments, but as one of them pulled itself free of the trio she threw the net, trying to catch them all.

The net spun through the air and its form wrapped itself over two of the tangled hounds and the stilled one, but the third was quick enough to get out from underneath the net. It she didn't know better she would have sworn it purposefully avoided the net. Leaping upwards at the off guard aspiring shinobi, the hound dug its teeth into the girl's left forearm as she recovered from the throw. She let out a cry of pain as they bit deeply and drew blood. Instinctively she spun and pulled her arm from the hound, freeing her arm but making the wound the much worse. In one fluid motion she brought her right foot up and slammed it into the jaw of the beast, who spun back from the force. It twitched a few times in unconsciousness as it lay in a crumpled heap, only two of the dogs remained, but they were safely wrapped up together under the net.

 

[Samejima]

Ahh no way... Naoki didn't have time to go and shield Yumi from the one smarter dog, but she did have a means of recovering some of the girl's wounds now. She wasn't about to let the two dogs in the net get away however, performing a more rigid version of Distorted Aura on the net and its contents along with the other two unconscious member of the rabid dog quartet. This also served to quiet the dogs' barking, being enclosed in a sound barrier.

Rudimentary knowledge of medical jutsu in mind, along with a few quick handseals, she then went to secure Yumi's currently wounded state, being sure to keep the student absolutely still while she tried to use Mystical Hand on the wound. Man... I need to be a lot more careful with that task delegation, this isn't a good thing for a team leader to be messing up with! Inwardly cursing herself as she always did when someone was hurt on her watch, she put a significant amount of concentration into the healing, hopefully slowing the bleeding if not stopping it entirely. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I should've gotten to you quicker after you threw the net, should've known they'd go after you next... Can you move? Do you need one of those splint things?" she asked, bringing out a roll of bandages and wrapping the wound quickly and as methodically as she could. She probably doesn't, apparently those're only for broken bones right?

Meanwhile, of the three children, only the big bro remained, other two having left for home as he told them to. While the little sister appeared to be worried, Bravado Boy wanted to talk to the two girls, likely wondering how girls could seem so heroic. Once Yumi said her piece about the most recent attack, he would approach Naoki. "Um, thanks blindfolded nee-chan, yellow-hair nee-chan! My sis and that other weirdo left already, but they wanted to say thanks too. Is she okay?" he asked, peering around the older girl and waving at Yumi as soon as he caught her attention. He'd seem slightly distracted by the lack of a right forearm, but would otherwise remain silent.

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi tried to defensively clutch her left arm with her right, but alas it was alone in the world. Thankfully Naoki was soon rushing over to her as her left arm continued to bleed from the wound. Thanks to Naoki's capabilities and quick thinking the bleeding slowed and eventually stopped as she applied the healing magics to the girl's arm. Yumi was still wincing in pain until about the very end in which she was giving Naoki a very confused look. Until her stint in the hospital she had never seen medinin in action, and the possibility of Naoki being one seemed to surprise her.

As Naoki then worked to bandage up the arm, soaking up the remnants of blood that had escaped but did not quite venture far enough as to reach the ground, Yumi watched in grateful wonder. "T.. thanks Naoki. I didn't know you could do that?" As she asked she looked up and around Naoki to make sure that the animals were not going to be trying to take a bite out of their necks when they were not looking. It was then that she saw one of the boys looking over towards her. "Oh, don't worry. I will be fine. I've been though worse things than a small bite. Besides... blindfold here has me taken well care of." She offered him a comforting smile as Naoki finished wrapping the arm. Her attention refocused back onto Naoki and she tenatively asked, "are you aspiring to be one of those doctors?"

 

[Samejima]

Hearing Yumi's affirmations of being alright, Naoki relaxed some and nodded, standing up and ruffling the kid's hair. "Well, there ya have it! Head on home now, and come back to tell us if you see any others okay?" she said, before he rushed off with a quick grateful bow to the both of them. Naoki shook her head at Yumi's last question. "I just felt I should try and learn some healing techniques, especially since I'm going to be trying to help people! If I can't help people heal up at least a little, how can I call myself a Main Branch ninja, the all-rounders of Sunagakure?" she smiled, somewhat smug as she remembered she was, after all, a genin. Then slumped a little as she realized that as a genin, she actually failed to protect a student she'd forced into joining her on a mission. "With a job description like that, it's pretty bad that I couldn't help you before you got hurt... Do you think you might need to go to the hospital for that? It doesn't hurt too bad does it?"

Once Yumi was indeed okay, Naoki would stand up and dissipate the Distorted Aura cages, sending the sound waves into the conscious animals' ears to knock them out. Dogs had sensitive hearing after all, it should be enough. She'd then gather them up and flop them into the net, lifting it up rather easily due to her training regime up until this point. "Think you can head over to the mission drop off place with me? We'll get your rewards cleared up too!"

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi silently watched the younger youth go in silence. That silence was only broken when Naoki inquired on her current state. WIth a quick shake of her head she looked down to her quickly bandaged arm, the cloth spaked red in a circular area where her wound had been. "I am fine. Honestly, it doesn't hurt all that much. Just stings a little." Internally she was feeling some odd measure of relief, having heard that Naoki was not going to become one of those doctors. Sure they had likely saved her life and helped get her back on her feet... but she had had enough doctors to last her a lifetime.

She moved her left arm about and flexed the hand, "mhmm, feels just fine." She gave Naoki a reassured smile as she went about trying to help get the unconscious canines into the net. The one that had bitten her had its jaw broken, but that wasof little concern to them. It did have it coming after all, and Yumi was not even sure what they would do with these animals... Probably kill them... That thought gave her a small shudder of disgust and satisfaction. She glanced down towards her bandaged arm and a small part of her wanted to see that beast pay for biting her... Her attention perked back up however and she gave Naoki another smiling nod. "Yeah, sure. It will mostly be me just tagging along. You did almost all of the work after all, and I am just a humble academy student."

 

[Samejima]

"You helped bunches! That was a sweet kick by the way. Yosh, let's move out," she said, marching on ahead. Naoki would likely attempt some small talk with Yumi as they made their ways over to the designated drop-off area, keeping an ear out for any more barking along the way.

[Topic Left, WC: 1070 up until dogs captured]

 

[Kazumi]

Thankfully Naoki had the carrying of the canines covered, and so Yumi was able to relax for the entire trip back. Among the topics of conversation that arose was, "yellow hair? Has he never seen blonde hair before?" SHe sounded a little confused and even a little dejected by that, but with bounty in tow, her spirits couldn't dip down too far.

[Topic Left]