The Unnamed Seeking the Unknown [Contract Search]

[Nanashi]

In the expanse of the desert, no sound is heard but the wind, the sand, and--curiously--the tread of great feet.​

Having taken a break from their training at the Toraono dojo, the nameless newcomer to Sunagakure made their way into the desert sea beyond the Dojo's gates. If they were to be taken into the clan which guarded the entry to the village, then it was only fitting that they learn the lay of the land outside. However, that necessitated a degree of study just as all aspects of shinobi life did. As with their investigations into the layout of the underground village itself, they would need to know the lay of the countryside of Wind Country better than they presently did. When it came to terrain, the best way to plan around it was to immerse oneself in it. To that end, they sent their selves about, Sharingan alive and memorizing theirview from atop a huge, clay creation. The toujigikou form piloted the immense chakra clay creature that bore them through the dunes. Below, their sand-shifting Sunaku self set out feelers to sift and sieve the dunes, while drifting sedately above the ever eroding dunes perched atop a nimbus of silicate particulate. Though a new sensation, the split-souled sage reveled in the rush of riding the creature. The rush of the wind in their ears, tugging at their clothes and running across their skin, combined with steady, relaxing wumph wumph wumph of the clay beast's fet, set them in a clear-headed state of focus. It reminded them of the distillation of awareness which had always accompanied them into battle. There was no future. There was no past. Only the now.
Beyond simply learning the topography of the dunes, they also tracked what life the lay within the desert. Their original body filed away memories of the size, sort, tracks, and other relevant information of any creatures encountered. As with all knowledge, an understanding of the local lifeforms could only benefit a guardian. If one knew nothing of the local wildlife's habitual behavior, then one had no way of recognizing when the same creatures were startled, disturbed, or otherwise acting unusually. Beyond the utility of such knowledge, the shinobi once rightly named Uchiha Akane had been far more comfortable in the presence of animals than people. Animals were typically straightforward in a way that people were not, but they also possessed an intuitive grasp of matters which most people, adults at least, had long since learned to distrust and second-guess. And there was, of course, the matter of the rumored megafauna inhabiting the country's environs. Immense, intelligent beasts as well as the colossal sandworms of wide renown. And so she scanned, searched, and observed the desert expanse from afternoon into evening and on from evening into the chill moonlit depths of night, reasoning that any large creatures residing in the desert would either be burrowers or would be likely to rest during the day in favor of reserving activity for the cooler evening and nighttime air.

WC: 509
Linked to Contract mods here.

 

[Kazumi]

You have located the Shark Contract! Do you accept?​

 

[Nanashi]

Absolutely!

 

[Kazumi]

The noon sun beat high overhead as the trio of one ventured through the sloping planes of the nearly barren desert. Small creatures hidings with their bodies buried amongst the sand, s few scattered avians soaring the blue skies overhead, and the faint gusting of heated wind were the only disturbances outside of themselves that could be seen or heard for miles. The sensation was not unlike being lost at sea, though the solitary set of shinobi were well equipped enough as to not so easily lose their way on these desert seas.

A faint shifting of something through the earth and sands below could be felt, something moving through it as a fish would through water. A sandworm perhaps? That possibility became a near reality as a sudden explosion of sand from under the clay beast sent it soaring up into the sky, with a massive gray finned form erupting from the sands below it. Massive jaws bit down into the lifeless automaton as its twenty-five foot long body slammed down onto the sands, once again sending showers of the particles scattering up in the air. It was obviously no worm, with what appeared to be a massive dorsal fin atop its back and an even larger caudal fin flailing back and forth as it seemed to try and rip its pray to shreds in its powerful jaws.

As the sand settled, the great land bound beast's thrashing slowed and eventually stopped as it appeared to try to look at its pray, the shark's maw opening as it released its prey. The large eyes on the side of its head appeared to look around in confusion as it turned its head to the side of the clay creature, and with one swift motion it slammed its head into the consturct to send it sliding forward in the sand a half dozen feet off. "What is this thing!? It is not food! Where is my meal that I have been hunting!?" Its mouth opened and closed as it spoke, but even though it had no suitable lips or tongue with which to speak, its voice somehow resounded with a great, albeit bewildered, strength.

 

[Nanashi]

As the earth beneath them began to shift, the two bodies atop the clay creation leapt free, the nameless shinobi's paranoid instinct warning them of the danger before it struck. The original, petite Uchiha body landed at the end of a graceful arc, eyes already tomoe-bedecked. Tomoe beginning to rotate as the redhead made direct eye contact with the immense squamous predator, the nameless shinobi prepared her Uchiha form to call up her Mangekyou if the creature offered threat to her. Beside the diminutive, clawed firebrand, the clay-shaper had tucked a hand into one of his hip pouches to start processing chakra clay for further explosives. And from her perch up above, the Sunaku body giggled uncontrollably as she called up control over the cloud of powder tossed up by the beast's breaching antics.

Speaking from the blonde Tojigikou's lips, Nanashi addressed the immense shark. "You just bit into the thing you were hunting. It's not a meal. It's a bomb. Try to eat any of the three of me and it's a bomb that will go off. Who am I speaking with here?"

 

[Kazumi]

Its jaws continued to move as it spoke, appearing as if it were trying to work the taste of the inedible beast from its mouth. It seemed to be in no hurry to respond, its head flailing around somewhat as its eyes worked to take in the trio of humans surrounding it. "Eat you? HAH! Why you humans think yourselves a worthy meal has always been beyond me." As its resonating voice faded into silence, the shark began to shift its body around, almost thrashing as sand was kicked up around it, slowly engulfing the creature as it seemed to recede half way into the sand.

Once its hind section and belly was submerged under the shifting sands, its flailing ceased and its body had moved around so that it faced the one that spoke. "You will know me as Asano, one of the greatest sand sharks to ever exist!" The beast rumbled in what you could only assume to be a prideful laugh. "Now, tell me why I shouldn't crunch your bodies to chum for wasting my time here!? I seek for greater prey than lowly humans!" The gaze in its large eyes seemed to be staring at all of the humans at once, its steely gaze seeming to show it had little care for which way this proceeded.

 

[Nanashi]

Widening her tomoe into the intricate pattern of her Mangekyou, the former Uchiha continued to look the immense creature directly in one of its immense eyes. "I don't presume that. I don't presume I'd not be. I am simply informing you that to attack any of me would be a waste of your time, even presuming your survival of it. And given how thoroughly I'd be trying to cook you alive from the inside out if you try to eat me, that isn't a given." As the redheaded shinobi spoke, the other two bodies collapsed to the sand, immobile and apparently dead. "On the other hand, I have been out here tracking the movements of the beasts in the region. So you have a choice." She continued to make direct eye contact. She'd learned more than a decade ago that one did not back down or show the least moment's hesitation to any sort of apex predator. Weakness was to be exploited, and against such minds, it was a fatal flaw. "I can point you toward more satisfactory prey, or you can try to eat me, fail, and die at worst or be horribly maimed as your best result."

 

[Kazumi]

The large eye's gaze continued to focus on the talking human, even as the other two next to her collapsed onto the ground. A few long moments passed, and just as it felt that the massive land-bound fish might decide to try to eat the small human the beast suddenly burst into amused laughter. "You amuse me human. Most of your kind would faint in fear, as they should." Its gaze shifted from one unconscious body to the other before resettling onto the single one left standing. "I have not had such amusement in quite a while, little human. Normally I might eat you as a snack, but this desert heat drains me and I have not had a satisfactory meal in far too long."

Its massive head turned away from the nameless girl as it looked out towards the seemingly endless dunes that spanned towards the horizon. "I give you this opportunity to back up your claims. Assist me in my hunt for a worthy meal, and I will spare you. If nothing else, perhaps you will serve as bait for my prey." Suddenly its head shifted back towards the shinobi, kicking up a small wave of sand as it did. "It would do you well to stay on my good side, and so I recommend that you do not reject my most gracious offer..." As it stared over towards the former Uchiha, a looming killing intent formed and began to hang heavily overhead.

 

[Nanashi]

Cocking an eyebrow at the belligerent shark, the Assassin allowed her Mangekyou to briefly open before subsiding to her normal Sharingan, leaving the implicit threat hanging. "An acceptable offer. How could I turn down the chance see if your self-aggrandizement is warranted?" Running back through her search before, she considered what she'd seen and chose the most likeable species of herd animal or megafauna which would constitute a suitable meal for the beast. That ruled out he wyrms, since she doubted even the monstrous predator this creature thought himself to be could bite clean through their armor, and she did not look forward to the onerous task of hacking her way through the armored scales to cut free the meat beneath. And she had no doubt whatsoever the shark's opinion of itself would demand such a measure. Turning on her heel, she bunched her feet beneath her, then launched forward in an arcing leap, calling over her shoulder, "Try to keep up! And remember. Try to cheat or eat me, and I'll have your fin for soup stock!"

From behind the deparing Assassin, the form of the Monster began to stir, then rose to her feet. Condensing the sand into a steel-hard shell around herself and the prone form of the Artist and called forth another nimbus of sand to slowly carry both of the forms back toward the village.

 

[Kazumi]

The shark's form submerged into the sands as the girl leapt up into the air at a quick pace. At first it had disappeared from view, but as her feet neared the ground from her jump she could see a dark triangle knocking up sand as it sped across the ground as quickly as she was. Soon they reached the top of a dune and the massive beast burst out its side as it sent a shower of sand into the air. "I spoke that you amuse me human. Do not mistake that for leave to test your luck." As soon as it finished speaking, it slammed into the side of the next dune, diving into it with surprising ease as it slipped into the sands without a trace. As the seconds of travel turned to minutes, a lone injured wolf came into view on the horizon to Nanashi's left. It appeared to be dragging one leg behind it, specks of blood lingering on the sands behind it as her superhuman eyes spotted the sand clumping on the bloodied wound hindering its hind right leg. From what she could tell from the shark's fin, the beast either did not notice the animal or it did not seem to care as it continued on through the sands.

 

[Nanashi]

The Assassin did not take the shark's rejoinder personally. Posturing and the like was innate to predatory species. She'd given her statement of strength, and it would stand or it would not. Either way, she'd made her own posture evident. She'd back it up, but she'd only do so if needed. Skimming over the next dunetop, she veered her path to trace the wolf's blood-trail. Anything which could scatter or hurt wolves at least stood a chance of being large enough to satisfy a shark, as meals went. Turning her course, she made sure to make harder footfalls to indicate the shift.

 

[Kazumi]

Continued to scatter the sands, the great shark‘s eye raised from the dunes as it sensed the human was no longer following it. Kicking up a small torrent of sand, it veered off from the direction it was headed and sailed straight towards the wolf. The much smaller canine, seeing the oncoming shower of sand, turned and began to try and escape. Within seconds the shark had caught up, but instead of biting the wolf of devouring it whole, the shark simply slammed its head into the wolf, sending it tumbling down the side of a large dune. When it finally settled down, the creature did not appear dead, but it certainly was worse for wear given the massive force that likely cracked a few of its ribs.

Without slowing its pace, it continued onwards towards where the shinobi was pacing off towards. “That little creature was not worth a predator of my magnitude’s notice, human. Do not think that-“ Its rumbling words were stopped by an even stronger one as a small explosion of sand nearly half a mile ahead was followed by a whimpering canine cry that was silenced within seconds. Enough of the sand cleared a second later as sight of the scaled carapace of a sandworm burrowed back down into the ground. “That one the other hand… keep up if you can human. Finally something worthy of my attention!” Excited bloodlust coated the beasts words as it submerged into the ground once again, nearly doubling in speed as it somehow shot through the dunes towards where the sandworm had submerged.

Near the site, nearly a dozen wolf corpses lay scattered about with various degrees of damage, ranging from barely able to move to barely recognizable as a canine. From what the nameless shinobi was able to see, it was not a full grown sandworm, if the tales are to be true. It appeared to have been six feet in diameter, but even with the Sharingan it was difficult to tell with the short duration it was visible. It was either a young sandworm or a runt, but that did not make the creature any less dangerous. Less than one hundred meters away sand could be seen shifting about as the great subterranean figure shifted around in the opposite direction of the shinobi and shark, a distance that the sand shark was all too eager to eliminate.

 

[Nanashi]

As the shark began to grumble about the size of prey, presuming that she'd intended for it to eat the wolf, she simply kept moving, picking up her pace as she felt the earth shake. Seeing the shark speed up, she took a moment to apply a gravitic reduction to herself, then leapt through the air, flying huge distances to touch down near weightlessly and launch herself forward again. The shark's tune changed entirely when it felt the shaking earth. Arriving at the scene of what could only be called a massacre, she quickly spotted the perpetrator, already departing from the scene to find more prey. Moving in closer, she built up gravity-altering chakra, and then changed that of the wyrmling, causing it to swiftly fall up into the air. Once a sufficient height was reached, she reversed the creatures personal gravity again, sending it slamming to land atop the sands, exposed from its fall.

"Alright, shark! Show me what you've got!"

 

[Kazumi]

The long armor plated annelid flailed about in the air momentarily as it was lifted out of the sands by a strange unseen force before it was unceremoniously dropped back to the ground at nearly twice substantial weight. Although the worm showed no obvious sign of damage to its body or the thick plating which covered it, the creature flailed about for a few moments atop the sand, presumably in pain. It thrashed about for a few more seconds, knocking billows of sand into the air before its head reached up and slammed its head down into the sand as it began to burrow itself back into the sands once more.

While the sand burrowing shark did not match the pure speed that the much smaller shinobi possessed, it made up for it in sheer force as its massive jaws bit down into the armored carapace of the young sandworm. The impact dislodged the half submerged sandworm from its burrow as the two sailed through the air before impacting against the side of another large dune a dozen meters away with another plume of sand. The shark’s jaws tightened down on the carapace, causing a distinct cracking sound as the plates began to chip and crack under the grip of the shark’s bite. The long worm’s tail continued to flail about, wildly at first but soon it seem to gain purpose as it worked to free itself from the shinobi’s hunting partner.

While sandworms are not intelligent in the strictest of senses, when threatened they are one of the most fearsome creatures that called Wind Country home. The massive creature’s tail whipped around and slammed into the side of the shark, attempting to dislodge it, but it somehow managed to keep its jaws locked down on the armored carapace even as the worm continued to attempt to free itself. More cracking sounds could be heard as the shark continued to bite down, but long bleeding cuts began to surface as the worm’s armor ripped and sliced the shark’s hide more and more with each flailing slam of its tail against the shark’s body. It was unclear which of the two would surrender first, but only one of them had armor protecting it from the other’s assault.

 

[Nanashi]

Seeing the directness by which the shark struck the foe, a smile slipped across the Assassin's face. However, her sharingan, noted, the next several minutes would prove telling to the creature if left unsupported. Rushing in, she called forth an immense gravitic distortion about her fist and slammed that hand into the young sandwyrm's armored hide, sending fractures running through it as a sudden force impacted it far beyond what the lithe killer could exert by muscle alone. Taking hold of a section of plate, she ran through handseals and then called a screaming sheath of lightning-aspected chakra about her hand before plunging it deep into the beasts side, up to her elbow. Gritting her teeth, she withdrew the hand and held on tightly in case the beast counter-attacked, not wanting to break an arm in the process.

[MFT]

 

[Kazumi]

The force of the slam against the juvenile’s armor of the sandworm as enough to send a dozen small cracks through that plate, and with her magical eyes it was a small task to pinpoint the perfect location where the armor was not the weakest. As her arms jabbed into its side, the beast began to flail about wildly. It ceased its defensive against the shark, but it thrashed and slammed both her and the shark against the ground as they both struggled to hold on. After a few moments of thrashing, the shark jerked itself backwards and a chunk of the two inch thick plating ripped off as the shark flopped through the air to land a few meters away. This left a roughly oval shaped section of the armor missing, with notable amounts of the worm’s vital fluids leaking out as sand clumped together over the fresh wound. The shinobi would find herself about to be slammed against the ground if she continued to hold on to the writhing and flailing worm. Regardless of the shinobi's decision to try and hold on, she would find that the shark was nowhere to be seen once she managed to get a look in its direction.

 

[Nanashi]

Knowing that remaining in close to such a powerful creature was a signiificant risk, the Assassin allowed her sharingan to bleed outward into their Mangekyou configuration. Running through handseals for a massive blade of wind while using chakra channeled through the soles of her feet to cling to the side of the wyrm's carapace, the Assassin kept crouched low to the beast's back. Calling up the immense blade of wind, she sent it slicing deep into the beast's flank, causing a further gush of blood into the sand about them. Tensing at the oncoming collision, she called up a shell of black flame, which absorbed the impact, even as her left eye began to bleed in a trickle from its tear-duct.
Amaterasu having done its job, and not wanting to pay its toll even further, she allowed the ebon inferno to abate, calling forth a simple gout of flame and directing it at the gap in the monstrous creature's protection. Calling out to the sand-swimming predator she was assisting, she told him, "If you want the kill, you'd better try and finish it soon. I'm not getting thrashed just to balm your pride!"

[MFT]

 

[Kazumi]

The thrashing continued as a resounding roar of pain cascaded off into the horizons as the worm smashed its side against the ground, possibly hoping to crush the pesky human attached to it. Sand, blood and other unknown fluids covered the wounds on the creature’s side as well as the shinobi’s arm and any other spot unfortunate enough to be exposed to the sticky fluids. The worm began to spin around in a circle, as it let off another roar of frustrated pain, the fire burning its exposed flesh as it simultaneously cauterized its wound. The spinning continued for a few full gyrations, enough to knock off the shinobi unless she risked serious injury. Once free from the mounter, the worm coiled around and the shinobi founds its maw, small by sandworm standards, but easily large enough to consume her whole, bearing down upon her with primal ferocity.

 

[Nanashi]

Finally releasing her grip on the beast and launching into a weightless arc backwards, the Assassin quickly scanned for the shark's location. Not seeing it, she resolved herself to keeping the beast's attention herself. Calling forth the Darkling Flame, she breathed out a tiny, nigh-invisible spark of deep blue flame. Splitting into four sparks in midair, they trailed to her hands and feet, wreathing them in the same blue flame. As fire covered her hands and her feet, a rippling heat haze spread out from it, making her silhouette and features wavering and indistinct. That blue flame suddenly ignited into a blue-white brilliance which left dancing after images over any onlooker's vision. Not moving as the monster closed in on her, the red-headed shinobi vanished into a puff of smoke as the beast's maw bit down on her position, leaving the sandworm chewing on a subtly hissing log. A heartbeat later, the wooden morsel exploded in the creature's mouth as the Assassin wrenched the beast her way with a sudden sharp shift in gravity, letting the pull set it up for a powerful, flaming uppercut.

[MFT]

 

[Kazumi]

Moments before the rings of spike-like teeth bore down upon the shinobi, a bright flash illuminated the depths of the creature's terrifying maw. Rows and rows of centrical teeth that looked like an inside out drill that existed to grind both rock and shinobi alike to a fine dust threatened to devour her. The eyeless creature, unphased by the flash, consumed the unsuspecting log moments before the explosion shook the creature's insides violently. Then, as flaming fist met carapace, another cracking sound echoed as another part of its exterior began to break. While not devoured, the nameless shinobi would be rather lucky to not have broken her fist by punching that rock hard shell with her fist, even one that was on fire.

Falling down to the ground, the worm writhed for a moment, perhaps in pain before its head burred itself into the ground as it began to burrow its way down into the earth. Within a moment, it slipped down under the sands as easily as a fish into water, leaving only a circle of disrupted sand and blood where it once had been. Silence one again took hold of the area, as neither shark nor worm were anywhere to be seen. That peace would not last forever as, seconds later, another explosion of sand brought both the shark and the worm flying out of the ground. The shinobi's ally had its jaws clenched firmly down upon the damaged segment of the worm as they both soared nearly twenty feet up in the air from the aquatic creature's charge.

As they both reached the apex of the flight, the shark bit down on the exposed area, sending a shower of blood and fluids to scatter around as it took a chunk out of the worm's side. It then proceeded to somehow spin around in mid air and slam its tail onto the creature, sending it careening down towards the ground, where a certain shinobi had landed herself after her own attack.