Manzo sat with his back to the tree. He was high enough up in the tree that he could keep watch. It was his watch after all and from this vantage point he could keep watch on his charge. So far it had been an uneventful trip but that was not reason to slack off this close to home. Taking a moment he formed the practiced hand signs to summon his new best friend. With a puff of smoke Sluggy appeared with his distinctive acidic drool that hung from his mouth and never seemed to drop.
Looking around he quickly assessed the situation. Sluggy never knew what the situation was when he was summoned on this plain.
”What is going on Manzo?” Sluggy asked him
”Nothing much. Just a night of guard watch. I was hoping you could spare a few moments to do some quite training. Have to be careful not to wake my traveling companion there. “
Sluggy looked over at the sleeping form before nodding his acceptance. [color=#00ff00”I have to say you are getting better at summoning me. I have never felt stronger after being summoned.“[/color]
Smiling at Sluggy’s words Manzo responded ”Well I have been working at it, need to make sure you are at your peak when I need to call on you for more than a chat. “
The smile that Sluggy gave him indicated that he was an unnecessary thing but Manzo knew that there was power in the summons. If he messed it up in some way then Sluggy would be weaker than he should be. As it stood now, this was his partner and any mission that the ANBU sent him on he would need have every tool he could use available to him. Especially when he finally tracked down his cousin.
Despite the initial reason for summoning Sluggy to do a little training they did not immediately get to this. Instead they spent the time quietly catching up.
As kept his vigil he spotted a group of figures attempting to stealthy creep closer to the camp. It seemed that this evening was not going to be completely boring. The only question was could he managed to take care of this problem without waking his charge.
Quickly he weaved the hand signs for Lure of the Flytrap to block the troublemakers path and encase them in a world of acidy fun.
In front of the group a fly trap quickly grew from the earth and swallowed three of the group. Knowing that he would never be able to do two at once because of the nature of the creation jutsu he decided to try on a whim. After all just because you were told you could not do something doesn't make it necessarily true. With his new wood style he was working on perfecting his new fighting style so it was good to experiment with new things.
Much to his surprise a second, though smaller, fly sprung from the earth and enveloped the remaining troublemaker.
As the second flytrap was created Sluggy looked at Manzo questionably after all it was a jutsu he was familiar with and obviously as far as he knew he could only summon a single one. A discussion would have to be had after this was done.
Quickly looking for any other troublemakers Manzo did not see any but still left Sluggy on their vantage point indicating to him that he should keep watch. Things were always better with a partner.
Jumping down he went to the second smaller flytrap. He was still unsure how well this second creation would hold so if he was going to talk to someone he thought it would be best to deal with the one in this trap.
With the wave of his hand it spit the troublemaker out onto the ground then posed menacing at him. Squatting down Manzo addressed the man. He was already covered in burns from the acid inside the fly trap and did not look happy, not that Manzo truly cared about the last part.
”What can I do for you? You and your friends seemed to have stumbled into my trap.“
”We weren't doing nothing, why are you picking on us.” The man tried to play innocent.
”It might behoove you to tell the truth. Well more for your friends at the moment. My fly trap is rather hungry and it doesn't sound like they like being dissolved slowly. But do be quiet about it, I don't’ want to make a lot of noise.“
”You bastard”He spat just before he swung his sword at Manzo.
Manzo jumped back to dodge the attack then pulled upon his connection to his slug family with his nature energy. He may have lost his tremendous speed but he had been working to gain a portion of it back. Something at least that would make him feel better. The most he had been able to do was briefly speed some of his actions us. It was not much but sometimes it was all he could do to, to rely on his instants to give him the speed he needed.
His skin took on a sheen while his eyes got a bit bigger. If these bandits thought they could come and have an easy raid they were in rude awakening. Weaving his hand signs quickly he thought he would use this opportunity to experiment a bit more. He decided to use a combo that was overcharged, starting with Heartburn Disorder followed by Negative pH then tried to keep the combo going with Sleeping Forest. He was a little surprised to find that the final jutsu went off, and truth be told only did it as an after though realizing that he would need to keep the noise down and what was about to hit this trouble maker was not going to be pleasant. He fully expected for the trouble maker to make a lot of noise.
As the trees around them began to encase them Manzo’s troublemaker started to vomit the bile that was in his stomach. His skin began to renew its burning in the same areas that had been burned from the inside of the fly trap. Manzo’s earlier suspicions were correct. This was not pleasant or quick or quiet. He was glad that he had erected the dome. Taking mercy he put the poor trouble maker out of his misery with a quick strike from his kunai to the back of his neck.
With the one bandit on the ground a burning bloody mess. Manzo turned to the first flytrap. He could still hear the muffled screams coming inside it. With a wave of his hand he released them onto the ground.
Before they could get their bearings he spoke to them. ”Your friend there“ Manzo pointed to the mess ”decided he did not want to be cooperative. Perhaps you will be a bit more helpful.“ He let his speech sink in for a moment before he continued.
”It is late and you can guess that does not make me happy so I will only ask this once, What do you think you were doing here.“ The answer was obvious but he wanted to hear it from their own mouths.
Seeing the mess that their friend was, these three could not talk fast enough in order to prevent similar fate from happening to them. Unable to make out what they were saying, as they were all talking at once. Stopping them he indicated that the center one should do the talking.
“We were just trying to make a living. It is hard to scrape out a living with no work prospects so we help ourselves to warwards travelers.”
”I can understand that it is hard for you, but you now have two choices. The first is I let you join your friend.“ It was good to be straightforward. ”The second is I let you leave with your lives, with the understanding that they now belong to me and you will work to pay me back by finding an honest line of work and be a productive member of society, no matter how hard it is. You choose option two, know that I will be checking up on you and I may even have a favor to ask from you in the future.“ Manzo truly hoped they chose option two. He likeded to build up his network and he wanted to give them a second chance.
”Umm we would like to take option two but if we do then the boss is just going to kill us, and our families”
Manzo sighed. Things never could be as simple as that could they. Releasing the forest dome, he signaled Sluggy to come down, the Slug appeared next to Mazno, causing the bandits to give a start. ”I am going to have a chat with these guys boss. Need to make sure this area is safe for everyone and everything to travel. I need you to watch over our sleeping travel companion. If he happens to wake up let him know I will be back soon. “
WIth that Manzo grabbed the speaker bandit by the scruff of his neck and took off letting the bandit give him directions.
The bandits hideout was not too far away, for which Manzo was grateful. He did not want this to take too long so he decided to go in as showy as possible. Avoiding the front door, Manzo went to a side wall and extended his hand. A shaft of wood started to be produced from it and inserted into a crack in the wall. With an explosion of chakra and force the wood expanded all of a sudden then retracted into his hand leaving a hole in the wall.
It wasn’t his most impressive entrance but he was still learning what he could do. As he walked in he could tell most of the eyes in the room were on him. ”I am here to speak with your boss.“ There was silence while any remaining eyes turned to look at him.
”And what do you want” a massive figure with an even more massive mace came strolling towards Manzo. Manzo was big but where he was big was mostly around his middle making him not as impressive as he could be, whereas this figure seemed to be all muscle.
One day they will learn that just because you have muscles doesn't mean you are the strongest one in the room.
”Are you the boss here?“
”Yea that is me, what's it to ya?”
”It seems that you are going into retirement, and I am here to ensure that happens.“
The room suddenly filled with laughter.
At least it was before it was filled with screams, as a giant wood creature, the Thousand-Handed Statue formed out of the ground, busting through the roof and sending the bandit boss through the nearest wall and permanently embedding him into the nearest oak tree.
”I don't’ like to be laughed at“ Manzo said in a quite voice. He really did not care but he knew he had to present himself with strength to this group. As he said that the room fell deathly silent.
Manzo then gave the remaining bandits the same choices the others
”You now have two choices. The first is I let you join your former boss.“ indicated the figure that was not apart of the poor tree. ”The second is I let you leave with your lives, with the understanding that they now belong to me and you will work to pay me back by finding an honest line of work and be a productive member of society, no matter how hard it is. You choose option two, know that I will be checking up on you and I may even have a favor to ask from you in the future.“
It seemed that they were not stupid as looked because they all decide living was a better option.
”I am going to leave my man here” Indicating the bandit he still had by the scruff of the neck ”as my lieutenant. He is going to let me know if there is anything i need to know going on in the area “ He turned to look at the bandit ”Right?“ The bandit nodded enthusiastically. ”And if any accidents happen to him there will just be a lot more tree decorations so you need to make sure he is nice and safe.“ Manzo said the last part with a smile on his face and almost seemed happy about it.
Dropping the bandit he vanished from them, releasing his sage mode and returned to his camp.
As he got back he found Sluggy standing watch. ”Any problems?“
Sluggy shook his head ”All is quiet here, you get everything taken care of?”
”Hopefully, but I will have to check up on them latter. For now let us just hope the rest of the night passes uneventfully. “
Looking around he quickly assessed the situation. Sluggy never knew what the situation was when he was summoned on this plain.
”What is going on Manzo?” Sluggy asked him
”Nothing much. Just a night of guard watch. I was hoping you could spare a few moments to do some quite training. Have to be careful not to wake my traveling companion there. “
Sluggy looked over at the sleeping form before nodding his acceptance. [color=#00ff00”I have to say you are getting better at summoning me. I have never felt stronger after being summoned.“[/color]
Smiling at Sluggy’s words Manzo responded ”Well I have been working at it, need to make sure you are at your peak when I need to call on you for more than a chat. “
The smile that Sluggy gave him indicated that he was an unnecessary thing but Manzo knew that there was power in the summons. If he messed it up in some way then Sluggy would be weaker than he should be. As it stood now, this was his partner and any mission that the ANBU sent him on he would need have every tool he could use available to him. Especially when he finally tracked down his cousin.
Despite the initial reason for summoning Sluggy to do a little training they did not immediately get to this. Instead they spent the time quietly catching up.
As kept his vigil he spotted a group of figures attempting to stealthy creep closer to the camp. It seemed that this evening was not going to be completely boring. The only question was could he managed to take care of this problem without waking his charge.
Quickly he weaved the hand signs for Lure of the Flytrap to block the troublemakers path and encase them in a world of acidy fun.
In front of the group a fly trap quickly grew from the earth and swallowed three of the group. Knowing that he would never be able to do two at once because of the nature of the creation jutsu he decided to try on a whim. After all just because you were told you could not do something doesn't make it necessarily true. With his new wood style he was working on perfecting his new fighting style so it was good to experiment with new things.
Much to his surprise a second, though smaller, fly sprung from the earth and enveloped the remaining troublemaker.
As the second flytrap was created Sluggy looked at Manzo questionably after all it was a jutsu he was familiar with and obviously as far as he knew he could only summon a single one. A discussion would have to be had after this was done.
Quickly looking for any other troublemakers Manzo did not see any but still left Sluggy on their vantage point indicating to him that he should keep watch. Things were always better with a partner.
Jumping down he went to the second smaller flytrap. He was still unsure how well this second creation would hold so if he was going to talk to someone he thought it would be best to deal with the one in this trap.
With the wave of his hand it spit the troublemaker out onto the ground then posed menacing at him. Squatting down Manzo addressed the man. He was already covered in burns from the acid inside the fly trap and did not look happy, not that Manzo truly cared about the last part.
”What can I do for you? You and your friends seemed to have stumbled into my trap.“
”We weren't doing nothing, why are you picking on us.” The man tried to play innocent.
”It might behoove you to tell the truth. Well more for your friends at the moment. My fly trap is rather hungry and it doesn't sound like they like being dissolved slowly. But do be quiet about it, I don't’ want to make a lot of noise.“
”You bastard”He spat just before he swung his sword at Manzo.
Manzo jumped back to dodge the attack then pulled upon his connection to his slug family with his nature energy. He may have lost his tremendous speed but he had been working to gain a portion of it back. Something at least that would make him feel better. The most he had been able to do was briefly speed some of his actions us. It was not much but sometimes it was all he could do to, to rely on his instants to give him the speed he needed.
His skin took on a sheen while his eyes got a bit bigger. If these bandits thought they could come and have an easy raid they were in rude awakening. Weaving his hand signs quickly he thought he would use this opportunity to experiment a bit more. He decided to use a combo that was overcharged, starting with Heartburn Disorder followed by Negative pH then tried to keep the combo going with Sleeping Forest. He was a little surprised to find that the final jutsu went off, and truth be told only did it as an after though realizing that he would need to keep the noise down and what was about to hit this trouble maker was not going to be pleasant. He fully expected for the trouble maker to make a lot of noise.
As the trees around them began to encase them Manzo’s troublemaker started to vomit the bile that was in his stomach. His skin began to renew its burning in the same areas that had been burned from the inside of the fly trap. Manzo’s earlier suspicions were correct. This was not pleasant or quick or quiet. He was glad that he had erected the dome. Taking mercy he put the poor trouble maker out of his misery with a quick strike from his kunai to the back of his neck.
With the one bandit on the ground a burning bloody mess. Manzo turned to the first flytrap. He could still hear the muffled screams coming inside it. With a wave of his hand he released them onto the ground.
Before they could get their bearings he spoke to them. ”Your friend there“ Manzo pointed to the mess ”decided he did not want to be cooperative. Perhaps you will be a bit more helpful.“ He let his speech sink in for a moment before he continued.
”It is late and you can guess that does not make me happy so I will only ask this once, What do you think you were doing here.“ The answer was obvious but he wanted to hear it from their own mouths.
Seeing the mess that their friend was, these three could not talk fast enough in order to prevent similar fate from happening to them. Unable to make out what they were saying, as they were all talking at once. Stopping them he indicated that the center one should do the talking.
“We were just trying to make a living. It is hard to scrape out a living with no work prospects so we help ourselves to warwards travelers.”
”I can understand that it is hard for you, but you now have two choices. The first is I let you join your friend.“ It was good to be straightforward. ”The second is I let you leave with your lives, with the understanding that they now belong to me and you will work to pay me back by finding an honest line of work and be a productive member of society, no matter how hard it is. You choose option two, know that I will be checking up on you and I may even have a favor to ask from you in the future.“ Manzo truly hoped they chose option two. He likeded to build up his network and he wanted to give them a second chance.
”Umm we would like to take option two but if we do then the boss is just going to kill us, and our families”
Manzo sighed. Things never could be as simple as that could they. Releasing the forest dome, he signaled Sluggy to come down, the Slug appeared next to Mazno, causing the bandits to give a start. ”I am going to have a chat with these guys boss. Need to make sure this area is safe for everyone and everything to travel. I need you to watch over our sleeping travel companion. If he happens to wake up let him know I will be back soon. “
WIth that Manzo grabbed the speaker bandit by the scruff of his neck and took off letting the bandit give him directions.
The bandits hideout was not too far away, for which Manzo was grateful. He did not want this to take too long so he decided to go in as showy as possible. Avoiding the front door, Manzo went to a side wall and extended his hand. A shaft of wood started to be produced from it and inserted into a crack in the wall. With an explosion of chakra and force the wood expanded all of a sudden then retracted into his hand leaving a hole in the wall.
It wasn’t his most impressive entrance but he was still learning what he could do. As he walked in he could tell most of the eyes in the room were on him. ”I am here to speak with your boss.“ There was silence while any remaining eyes turned to look at him.
”And what do you want” a massive figure with an even more massive mace came strolling towards Manzo. Manzo was big but where he was big was mostly around his middle making him not as impressive as he could be, whereas this figure seemed to be all muscle.
One day they will learn that just because you have muscles doesn't mean you are the strongest one in the room.
”Are you the boss here?“
”Yea that is me, what's it to ya?”
”It seems that you are going into retirement, and I am here to ensure that happens.“
The room suddenly filled with laughter.
At least it was before it was filled with screams, as a giant wood creature, the Thousand-Handed Statue formed out of the ground, busting through the roof and sending the bandit boss through the nearest wall and permanently embedding him into the nearest oak tree.
”I don't’ like to be laughed at“ Manzo said in a quite voice. He really did not care but he knew he had to present himself with strength to this group. As he said that the room fell deathly silent.
Manzo then gave the remaining bandits the same choices the others
”You now have two choices. The first is I let you join your former boss.“ indicated the figure that was not apart of the poor tree. ”The second is I let you leave with your lives, with the understanding that they now belong to me and you will work to pay me back by finding an honest line of work and be a productive member of society, no matter how hard it is. You choose option two, know that I will be checking up on you and I may even have a favor to ask from you in the future.“
It seemed that they were not stupid as looked because they all decide living was a better option.
”I am going to leave my man here” Indicating the bandit he still had by the scruff of the neck ”as my lieutenant. He is going to let me know if there is anything i need to know going on in the area “ He turned to look at the bandit ”Right?“ The bandit nodded enthusiastically. ”And if any accidents happen to him there will just be a lot more tree decorations so you need to make sure he is nice and safe.“ Manzo said the last part with a smile on his face and almost seemed happy about it.
Dropping the bandit he vanished from them, releasing his sage mode and returned to his camp.
As he got back he found Sluggy standing watch. ”Any problems?“
Sluggy shook his head ”All is quiet here, you get everything taken care of?”
”Hopefully, but I will have to check up on them latter. For now let us just hope the rest of the night passes uneventfully. “