One Step Forward, Two Steps Back [Open/PM]

[Shouyu Hoshi]

A surge of chakra began to flow into his eyes, flooding his capillaries with energy. The beings began to bulge neat his pale hues, stretching into his cornea. The chakra around everywhere was being siphoned to a source, of which he could not find, the tunnels were too... many. There were several routes, as if something or someone had excavated pathways underground. Just then, whatever was here, finally arrived, starving and attacking Haji.

Haji fended the beast off, calling for his mates. Hoshi tensed and lowered himself into the ancient Jyuuken stance. His eyes focused intently on the duel with this massive serpent. Kiri reacted with his cloak immediately, his manipulation of the shadow element manifesting into a solid form seeking the serpent. Hoshi watched as Kiri continued his assault, he awaited the proper moment. His eyes darted to the corner of his eye, catching view of Osu was somewhat motionless. Hoshi couldn't figure out why, Osuteno definitely wasn't scared, maybe it was the chakra stone that was highly affecting his very nature. Hoshi clicked his teeth, but looked up with a gasp as red rain began to fall. Hoshi gave a sigh of relief and lowered himself even closer to the ground in a different stance. As he did, Hoshi began to concentrate a significant amount of chakra into two major chakra points. After a massive build up, Hoshi began to infuse his very life force into the energy which gave an extra push, unlocking the gate of view and wonder. His eyes would lose paleness and become a vibrant white, a slight pale blue aura leaking around his outline.

That very same aura began to increase, and almost breathe like a fire. In an instant, Hoshi's aura would form the shape of a large dragon head with menacing neon blue eyes. The aura engulfed his entire body, and some, Hoshi took a step, almost like a stomp, and his aura released, the mixture of physical energy, willpower and chakra which manifested intself into the shape of a dragon traveled at high speed closing the distance. This was not the true attack, Hoshi was dashing within the aura slightly behind for the real maneuver. The dragon would seek to consume the agile and slithery serpent as Hoshi followed up with his palm cocked next to his underarm before he released it with a thrust. The result would be wave d physical burning energy.

 

[Yamanaka Utano]

Haji's muscles were straining to keep him from being crushed when he felt Kiri slam into his body full force. A great gush of air followed after them as the snakes jaws slammed shut with a force that could crush boulder as if it were clay. He shuddered momentarily as the creature angrily turned toward Kiri and himself. He stiffened.

"Stay DOWN" Haji rolled over Kiri and released his golden mucus once more as the great fangs crashed into him. The golden mucus crumbled away after one great strike from the snake and Haji shuddered. "Shit... I'm out of the good golden stuff" He said to Kiri with a grin. Just as he said that expecting another bite, Haji felt his skin become slick with something.

"Wha..?" Haji shuddered again "Oh this is gross" he tried to cover his face from getting covered in the blood rain. But as he complained about how unsanitary this all must be he turned to see the giant beast being struck over and over again by shark shaped blood bombs and a giant dragon shaped aura.

Haji wasn't sure what he was more surprised by, the giant blood sharks, blood rain, and clones that Osu was creating, or the fact that Hoshi, young, doofus, lovable, Hoshi, had activated not just one, but two of the gates of the Hachimon "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me" Haji whispered under his breath. He smiled and laughed lightly, then laughed uproariously as he watched the young nin fight. "Alright, I see how it is!" Haji said cracking all of his knuckles. "I can't let myself get beat out by the kid now, can I?" Haji began to growl as he surged forth as much of his own chakra as he could and opened up two more gates for a total of four. His skin turned a deep purple as his chakra infused mucus reacted to the opening of further gates. A poisonous aura surrounded his skin giving him a near demonic appearance.

In an instant Haji had departed the stone he had been standing on leaving a crater in the stone. He struck the Snake from the opposite side that it was being bombarded in a great crushing bear hug with all six of his arms. He squeezed as hard as he could and planted his feet to hold the snake still, his skin biting into the great armored hide of the snake, corrosive as all get out. "Someone give it a nice finishing blow" Haji spoke, his voice unusually level for someone straining to hold down the great beast.

[WC 433]
[MFT]

 

[Kiri]

With each person contributing, they were seemingly bringing the creature to a corner. It was still surprising how Hoshi was able to show such a magnificent aura, all the more spurring the beast in Kiri. Just then, blood began to rain upon them and while Haji was blatant to show his disprovable of it, Kiri knew who was responsible for it. He glanced over to Osu and saw that his mentor was visible struggling in this affair, probably because of the chakra draining stones in the underground cavern. But that would mean that they needed to escape as soon as possible.

Just then, Haji would show his own might, manipulating his chakra to strengthen him body, and without much of a hesitation, he jumped outward and attacked the said creature. It roared as they clashed, and from the looks of it, it was nearing its end. With Haji giving a final call to end the creature, Kiri’s instincts took in. Bolting away from the ground where they landed earlier, he would find the perfect angle as his chakra began to build up more and more.

It was one of his newly learned tricks, a stocking of his chakra, syphoning around his body as his aura cloak intensified. Then, upon locking eyes on the creature, Kiri would expel the energy wrought around his body into a sphere before him before it shot outwards into a stream of light. It was silent, leaving no trace of gust at the beginning, only to explode with outward gust as it sliced through the air and towards the creature.

It would sear through the creature’s tough hyde before penetrating and then through the organs, bones, and flesh, and out to hit the wall of the cavern behind it. Leaving a mighty last roar, an opening in its body, the creature would drop dead on the ground with a loud thud. Dust was everywhere, a short tremor in its wake.

Kiri gasped long and hard as he felt the effects of the chakra absorbing stones gaining at him. With his cloak and that last blast, it felt like he had poured out a big one without much notice. So he dropped backwards and sat on the ground as he continued to gasp for air while letting his eyes remain on the creature, making sure it was dead. Slowly, he would close up his chakra’s flow, his demon cloak aura disappearing, leaving his muscles a little weary for a moment.

But even with the creature gone, there was still the problem of escaping that underground place. Fortunately, from all the thrashing of the creature, as well as their combined might, a certain piece of the wall had collapsed to reveal a tunnel. And unlike the underground cavern, they could see a hint of metal along the walls of the said tunnel.

 

[Osuteno]

It seems with that the beast was dead… though it had brought many concerning questions to Osu’s mind. Dimeritium… a creature that seemed to be infused with it… Osu looked around him as his blood rain quickly lost chakra as it hit the ground, becoming regular blood slowly oozing into the soil and creating a terribly sticky mess… as expected… The least he could do then…

Out of the falling blood rain drops one suddenly stopped midair on its way down, now connected with Osu’s chakra. The chakra in it suddenly surged and all the loose blood in the cavern aside from the creature’s, even that staining skin and clothes, was pulled towards it creating a massive orb… or what normally would have been an orb as quickly as Osu was putting in chakra it was being drained back out. HIs arms fell off of his body due to him concentrating his chakra elsewhere. The orb roughly began to change shape until a rather rough looking sword several stories tall appeared in the air above them and stabbed down into the ground with great force…

Osu’s expression didn’t change but his eyes looked more grim as he stared down into the resulting hole, significantly more shallow than what should have resulted from an attack of that class and revealing for at least another meter down it continued to show the headache inducing stone. His head fell off.

“Room, leave, tunnel.” Osu’s decapitated head said with an exhausted tone. Despite his technically limitless production of chakra and vitality Osu wasn’t able to keep this high production mode on and simply moving took chakra from him unlike for most people. The chibi’s hopped down from his body to pick up his arms and hold the hands near each other. Osu poured a considerable amount of his remaining chakra into summoning a massive whale and having it swallow and store the monster’s body for later study. Of course the whale he summoned for the task lost what chakra it had rather quickly and barely had enough time to express its concern for Osu in whale song before disappearing.

The chibis climbed quickly back on to Osu’s body, looking exhausted and two immediately began meditating again to try and maintain enough chakra production to keep themselves and at least Osu’s head operational. The third waved for the attention of the others, pulling a body bag out of Osu’s sleeve. “Each, one chibi. Hoshi, body bag. Kiri, my head. Kiri, help put in body bag. Tunnel. Metal. Processed Dimeritium… Shouldn’t…” Osu sighed with the sheer amount of effort this was taking and the chibis took a moment from meditating to each hop on someone’s shoulder, blade chibi with Kiri, fisticuffs chibi with Hoshi, piercing chibi with Haji. Haji’s guest gave a small polite bow before sitting on his shoulder and meditating while Kiri’s and Hoshi’s companions pulled their ears until they started getting on Osu’s instructions.

When Osu’s head was picked off the ground and his body collected, he would sigh and let his body lose its humanoid shape safely inside the leak proof bag, becoming a mushy mess of flesh and blood where the others wouldn’t have to see it, and freeing him up to use more chakra for operating his head and chibis.

“This facility seems to be linked to research that only a few individuals in the village and greater Lightning government should know anything about,” Osu said much more fluidly, though not without great effort on his own part.

“The metal on the wall up ahead seems to contain a form of processed Dimeritium… but not the alloy more commonly used in the country.” Whether or not the others would pick up things that Osu was describing things that no one of his rank should even remotely have knowledge of would be up to their own common sense. What they should be picking up though is that he was suggesting that ahead of them was a facility that used technology and minerals they shouldn’t have access to, was in lightning territory, but didn’t appear to be run by the country.

“... My bloodline is being hindered in this environment but my hearing is still strong, I cannot sense anything with a pulse for some distance in, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t traps or the place is abandoned… Frankly this seems above our paygrade and possibly treasonous to trespass if it is a facility of the country… So I suggest we take a vote, do we want to try and rush through that tunnel and collect any information we can find while looking for a way back up to the surface, or do we want to try and figure another way back up and leave a one or two of us here to stake the place out while the others go inform the Raikage directly of this and the Raikage only. Not to sound unpatriotic but there are a number of the nobility I would rather not have know of a massive deposit of a mineral that could be used to cripple shinobi that isn’t under the control of the village. Much less if inside that facility there happened to be research documents on how to process the mineral into a more effective alloy, or say how to make weapons and maybe monsters out of it… Also if it isn’t apparent yet, I am very ill suited for this sort of environment and won’t be good for much other than being a slightly well informed and rather talkative head, though the little ones can fight a bit.” In response to the last statement Fisticuffs Chibi gave Hoshi's cheek a nudge and seemed to be giggling though it didn't make any noise. Piercing Chibi didn't stir from its meditation, while slashing chibi just looked sleepy as it gave a seemingly large but silent yawn.

 

[Shouyu Hoshi]

After the barrage of attacks, Haji had bound the creature with his might after opening a couple more gates. Kiri then finished the beast off with a rather powerful technique he hadn't seen before. It barreled through the beast leaving a gaping hole while opening up a new path. Hoshi began to breathe deeply, the chakra depleting from his system was beginning to take a toll. Osuteno then began to debrief the severity of the situation.

Osu was falling apart, literally. Even his words became broken like Hoshi had never heard. It seemed Osu’s construct was completely opposite of this stone, thus resulted in his current struggle. Hoshi cringed and followed through the door as Osu said. As he was on the move, Osu summoned a massive whale who had poofed almost in the same instant. Hoshi gasped at that moment. Osu then gave more instruction. His chibi revealed a bag, which he wanted to hold, and he did so opening the bag wide. Osu’s limbs were to be picked up and thrown into the bag, and Hoshi did as he was told. He was aided by the very fisticuff chibi who defeated him in battle, which was tugging on his ear.

Hoshi had no clue what Osu was talking about. Something with a D? And it was mineral which absorbed the essence of chakra, how weird. This situation became grim fast, and Hoshi sighed, wondering if he'd make it out alive.

“Osu, Haji and Myself should scout the area. We need to get you out of here where you can more easily have control. Having you under this stress puts us as a team short handed. Kiri, can you? I will defend my Sensei, as you will protect yours?”

Hoshi suggested to his foster brother with a nod. Two Hachimon down here couldn't be so bad against the stone. They had a better chance than anyone else here, Hoshi clenched his fist and nodded at that fact.

“We have at least get some intelligence of what is going on down here… this looks serious.”

 

[Yamanaka Utano]

A stone that absorbs chakra...<i></i> Haji mused as he reflected on the battle in the aftermath. He no longer carried the visage of his chakra, he had only left one of the gates open; The Gate of Pain, much to his discomfort. Looking over the beast, a great gaping hole in it now, he noticed that it looked nothing like any species of beast he had seen before. Before he could get a better look, the pile of parts and blood summoned a whale which swallowed the beast and then dissipated. She also set upon him one of her tiny clones, which Haji stared at with a bit of annoyance at first, but then admitted, albeit to himself, that it was kinda cute.

Then it caught his eye. The metal along the cavern. He frowned, a dangerous inkling growing in the back of his mind; a chill went down his spine. That's when Osu spoke about the innards of the cavern opened by Kiri's blast wave. Osu gave her opinion on their options as to what they should do; rush into the cavern further to scout, or find another way out and inform the Raikage. He agreed with her on one point for certain, this was WAY above their pay grade. Haji rubbed his beard and crossed his arms, deep in thought when suddenly Hoshi piped up in favor of the two of them exploring further within. Haji just shook his head, a stern look his face.

"We don't know what's down there kid. Not only that, but we don't know what happened up top either. What if some of the villagers are hurt? Or missing? Osu and Kiri are also not in the best of shape to be trying to get out of here alone. Since you and I are seemingly in the best shape because of.... well we will be speaking about that later" he gave Hoshi a grim look. "But for now there is a protocol to follow. We aren't setting a foot inside of that cave, we can most likely find our way out of here without needing to disturb whatever is in there now that the beast has been taken care of" he walked over to Kiri and pat the young nin on the shoulder. "We handled that pretty well, thank you for saving me Kiri, I was worried I was gonna be lunch for that... whatever it was" he looked at Osu... or at least what parts he figured were paying attention. "You and I should speak privately when given the chance"

"Priority is getting out and getting a message to the Raikage as quickly as we can. Maybe one of us can stay behind to check on the villagers if they need us" his gaze fell back upon Hoshi "Caution is our best tool at this moment. Once we have orders from the higher ups, perhaps they will allow us to head a mission back down here. But for now, let's get back to Kumo..." his hand fell back upon Kiri's shoulder "This one and I have some music to face as it is" oh yeah... that.

 

[Kiri]

As hilarious as it looked, Kiri couldn’t help but feel for Osu. Probably because he knew of the obstacles of having no control one’s body. Then again, Osu was different league all-together. With his body losing grip with each limb (and head) severing, Kiri quickly went to grab the head and carry. Just then, instructions were given and he nodded in response before his ear was pulled on by Blade Chibi. To be honest, he was surprised when they first appeared for he hadn’t seen them for so long, or maybe never at all, he can’t quite remember. It was hard to process things when your entire body was heaving with exhaustion from all the chakra being sucked out from you.

Needless to say, he would help in gathering all of Osu’s belongings (aka his body parts that were coming off) and he would put them in the body bag that Hoshi was tasked to carry. He kept a good long stare at it and knew something happened when the shape of the bodybag had changed. He wouldn’t want to intrude what it was when Osu did a fine job to try and hide it. Though he may have an idea as to what it was. Well, with a talking head cradled next to his chest, it wasn’t that hard to imagine.

When they were now settled and debating on investigating the tunnel further or escaping this place, Kiri was rearing to go explore, though Hoshi did have a point that he was loosing chakra quite fast. Perhaps Osu had a way to cope with it, but he didn’t. He could feel the agitated beast stir and he didn’t want to have any uncontrollable fits in this scenario if things got real bad. Not to mention that Haji’s words made him flinch at the thought of meeting the Raikage at long last. Now he really wanted to just get away from the scenario. Ah, but he was no coward. He shouldn’t escape.

Sighing, Kiri looked up to the closed up ceiling of the cave and said, “I could try and blast one more time…. it could break through, though someone would have to take care of the debris… and I might just end up… sleeping.”

WC: 376
[MFT]

 

[Osuteno]

Osu looked up at the ceiling. "Chakra based attacks hardly put a dent in this stuff Kiri, I just demonstrated that a minute ago. Only reason I did as much damage to the ground as I did is due to the weight of all that falling blood and the fact that, if just for a moment, it hit as a solid. The easiest way out would be a technique with physical force behind it... Earth techniques would probably be most effective though I don't have any personally. Hoshi activate your Byakugan and simply point if you can see past the ceiling. Your Byakugan can't penetrate through Dimeritium, so if you can see that means there is a section without it. You may need to reposition yourself until you can find it."

The Fisticuffs Chibi on Hoshi's shoulder was sitting cross legged and meditating but suddenly raised its fist and punched Hoshi's face. Rather than pain though, Hoshi would feel a considerable surge of chakra and the chibi broke apart though it was already starting to reform.

"Kiri it goes without saying you are to aim where Hoshi points at precisely the angle and position he marks it. Haji, we can blast as many holes in the ceiling as we want but you will need to get us up there... Do you think you can make it that far? Our best bet may be hoping that a large enough chunk of rock falls that you can jump off of... Also I know this has nothing to do with the task at hand, but could no one here mention this little condition of mine in the future? It isn't exactly a secret but falling apart like this is rather embarrassing and I would rather not have the fact that I am much more reliant on chakra than most people be common knowledge."

[Suggesting change in post order to Hoshi>Kiri>Haji and exiting on this coming round]

 

[Shouyu Hoshi]

Haji made perfect sense in his response to Hoshi, the people above, he would look up at the though. He gritted his teeth, for a moment feeling selfish to not even have thought about that first. Maybe it was the underlying foe they had just defeated, and the worry for more. Then again, a place like this, deters shinobi abilities, it was best to retreat as soon as possible. Hoshi nodded fervently to Haji.

"Yes, sensei."

Apparently he wanted to speak to Hoshi about something, privately. He looked down, and away from the others as Haji went on to thank Kiri. He basically stated the moves to be made, find an escape, and contact the raikage. Hoshi's aura dissipated in an instant, the pale blue vapor vanishing in thin air. He was beginning to heave heavily, the stone was even combating his hyperactive ability to keep chakra coursing within him. Kiri spoke up, Hoshi turning his head at the voice, who suggested another blast. Hoshi immediately agreed in his personal thoughts, but figured it be best to target a weak spot. Then Osuteno spoke the exact thoughts he was speaking aloud. Without hesitation he nodded and closed his eyes, and opened them once more.

His vision was highlighting chakra sources everywhere, but in his immediate range, there was no weak spot. What he did notice, was the stone was becoming less prominent in a further area, Hoshi tried to move but couldn't. That was until a recharged punch from the chibi jump started his systems again. Hoshi flinched and then clasped a tight fist. He took off at a light jog after Osuteno completed his sentence, asking his comrades to keep a secret. Some yards away Hoshi slid to a stop and looked directly up. He was smirking widely and beckoned Kiri.

"Kiri, here, found one."

Hoshi began to mark the spot with false explosive notes. The area was small, and needed pinpoint accuracy, so Hoshi wanted to give Kiri the precise location of where to strike. He marked up a circle with the radius of a half a foot. Once Kiri arrived, Hoshi would point once more. He would then deactivate his byakugan to conserve what fleeting energy he had left.

"They are only false notes, to mark the location. They won't detonate and cause any unnecessary damage. Strike precise and hard Kiri-kun, we're counting on you."

 

[Kiri]

Following the course of actions as suggested by Osu, Kiri saw nothing to argue with. Besides, as much as he would want to pursue the dangers of this cave (as crazy as it sounds for the call of adventure was always a pleasant thrill, and perhaps a reckless one), he had to keep in mind of the others. More so because he was worried for Osu at his current state. Of coure, he would not voice that one out loud or else he might accidentally offend the latter. His mentor was strong enough to survive even this one, and so he’ll just have to trust in his plan.

Agreeing, the group would get to start moving. Hoshi activated his Byakkugan once more and Kiri would follow him as they searched for a place along the ceiling that held little to none of those chakra absorbing stones. Despite still trying to catch his breath, Kiri would still go on, slowly building up his chakra, readying for the blast. It was only when they finally reached it that Kiri would assess the location. As per Hoshi’s direction, Kiri would nod at his brother. Yes, he had already accepted it – no halfs, no adopted, simply a brother. And with that, he let out a surge of his demonic energy around his body. Once more, his hair would change to a pale color and as his eyes turned golden. His third eye would open and more of the power surged out.

There was a sudden heavy feeling in the air as his chakra that poured out began to resonate with the nearby chakra absorption stones along the sides. It would appear as though he would have to be quick about it before he was drained of it all. But in order to that, he allowed his brother’s soul to grow more powerful, to release more energy, and to fill the area with a sadistically, nerve-racking chill of bloodlust.

Then, he felt the surge of power and formed a large sphere before him, shooting it at once. The stream of light shot across the distance and struck the designated area of the fake explosive note, and without fail. The ceiling broke, bits and pieces collapsing and threatening to burry them. Kiri gagged for a moment as he tried his best to close the connection with his soul, a bit difficult when all of his sense told him to act now and fast, in order to avoid getting buried. So he held out a bit longer, drawing out his sword and with the surging power of the demon, swung across, slicing large pieces of rock. Only when he saw that the others could be left alone did he finally give in.

A roar echoed as he let his beast’s instincts take over but soon enough his chakra outpour ended and he dropped on his knees, gasping for air. His hair and eyes returned to normal, and the third eye was lazily closing up. All the time, he never let go of Osu’s head. And once they were on the clear, they should be able to leave the underground cavern.

[Topic Left with Everyone upon Escape]