Orochimaru had provided the change point, placing a few of his experiments in the Forest Of Death. He viewed it rather as a farmer might, checking crops to see what might grow in a particular patch of soil.
"So, Training Ground 44. The Forest Of Death," said Komugi as he walked the perimeter.
"We just need to watch for anything strange coming out of it," said Inaho, currently twenty-one and feeling as if the world were passing her by. She'd graduated with the other two and most of their graduating class had either dropped out of the ninja program or were chunin. Two had even made jonin!
"Yeah, and if we see a tiger that isn't attacking us - we do NOT attack it," said Gennai. "They told us that three times. Did they think we were hard of hearing or something?"
"Maybe the 'or something'," said Inaho. "I... oh. THAT tiger."
Komugi whirled, kunai ready but not throwing it. Because if he DID kill the tiger - he had a feeling that he might end up demoted to Academy Student at this point. The kunai fell to the ground as he realized what he was seeing.
There WAS a tiger there. And not at the same time. It faded in and out of visibility and was standing on a tree's trunk and quite obviously using a variant of wall-walking to do it.
"How did you spot it?" asked Gennai.
"It LET me," said Inaho. "It made a coughing noise then prowled up and down the tree in plain sight."
"Awfully confident tiger," said Komugi. "You suppose it's someone's animal partner? You know, like the Inuzuka and their wolfdogs?"
The three considered that idea and relaxed slightly. It was using a ninja technique so that made a LOT of sense, as well as the don't-attack order.
The tiger growled again and vanished in a swirl of leaves.
"Wha-" began Komugi, almost ending in a shriek as the tiger was suddenly THERE nearby. Though it wasn't facing him, he could tell from the ear-flicking that it WAS paying attention to what he was doing.
"If that IS someone's animal partner," said Inaho nervously. "Then what is it staring at over there?"
"I don't see anything," said Gennai, he started forward only to have the tiger turn its head and growl at him before turning its attention to a particular patch of grass again.
"I've got a very bad feeling about this," noted Inaho, drawing a pair of kunai and hooking explosive tags up. "Uhm, here kitty kitty. Stay where you are while I try this?"
The grass rustled slightly.
Inaho threw. While she was hardly the best in the village, she had reasonable aim and speed. The kunai went into the clump of grass with a thunk and by the time it had reached it, she had her handseal ready to trigger the tag.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" shrieked something slimy and furry and mismatched limbs as it leapt out.
"Shit!" exclaimed Komugi, leaping to the side and throwing three shuriken.
Flames exploded from the mouth of the tiger, causing the creature to shriek again and leap into the trees.
"That thing was waiting to ambush us?!" said Inaho. "What WAS that?"
"I don't know, but I'm suddenly a LOT more fond of tigers," said Komugi as he nervously tried to keep track of every shadow and spot of cover.
"It spat fire and used a shunshin," said Gennai. "I want to meet the ninja whose tiger that is."
The tiger let out a rumbling cough.
"Pretty pretty," said something in the treeline in a voice that didn't sound quite human. "A pretty to play with. Bad kitty keep pretty away."
"Oh god, it's after me," said all three members of Team Komugi. The tiger didn't understand human speech to that extent, and so didn't roll its eyes.
"Pretty pretty come to Kikimora."
The three genin looked at each other, momentarily ignoring the tiger whose tail was lashing angrily about. Each pointed at themselves, clearly questioning.
"Is Kikimora a name?" asked Gennai.
A tongue stretched out of the darkness, snapping around Gennai and pulling him forward. A tiger lashed out and the tongue was severed.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Komugi exclaimed. One second Gennai was standing there, the next he was halfway across the clearing with some kind of severed barbed tongue wrapped around his head and something was screaming off in the brush. "Game over man, game over."
Then there were masked ANBU rushing past him and the tiger and that thing's screaming stopped abruptly.
"Genin. You need to report," said an ANBU, stalking towards their position.
"Ah?" began Komugi.
"Genin Gennai was dead as soon as the toxin hit his bloodstream, otherwise the snapped neck from where the Kikimora was drawing him in would have done it," said the physician. "The two other genin are just in shock."
The Hokage nodded.
Owl, one of the ANBU, stirred. "Genin Komugi was in shock. Genin Inaho was also in shock, but was able to give a report. Apparently Ramen detected the ambush and tried to warn the genin about it. It is quite likely from what we observed, that the creature would have been able to kill all three and then escape to the village itself had Ramen not done so."
"What exactly was the creature?" asked the Hokage.
"It was human, female, approximately fourteen years old," said the doctor. "I just got the forensic report. Genespliced, probably in agony from it. Frog, snake, raven or something similar, and starfish from the look of it. Even though it arrived dead, it was beginning to show signs of revival by the time the corpse was in the morgue for examination. We're going to have to burn it down to ash to be sure."
"Do so," said the Hokage coldly.
"One of Orochimaru's experiments apparently, like the ants and the tiger," said Owl.
"We have seen no evidence of loyalty to Orochimaru from Ramen," said the Hokage. "I know its a risk, but I won't reward the saving of two genin with death."
"Out of the six ANBU responding, the creature identified as Kikimora was stronger than four of us," said Owl. "Poisonous slime, acidic blood, able to use Water Release, claws, and the speed and strength were at least low jonin level. If it had gotten into the sewers, it would have been a problem."
"Yes, I realized that," said the Hokage. "That apparently had also avoided the sweeps I ordered when those wasps showed up."
"What of their sensei?" asked the doctor.
"They don't have one. Their original jonin-sensei was killed on a C-Rank mission which went wrong," said Owl.
The Hokage paused. "I must have missed that notice. Who is in charge of the team then?"
"Technically the paperwork end of things has been handled by genin Komugi. That's one reason they've only gotten D-Rank missions for the last five years," said Owl. "On paper, their jonin-sensei is Morokoshi."
"Their jonin is a retired ninja who owns a tailoring shop," said the Hokage. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose briefly. "Owl, assign someone. I want a list of recommendations of active jonin or special jonin qualified to act as a sensei - even if they're only part-timers."
"And their third genin?" asked Owl.
"The graduation of the current Academy class is in two months," said the Hokage. "If he passes, I have a candidate."
"So you're our new genin," said Inaho, looking down at the little kid. Fresh out of the Academy. And they got a new sensei tomorrow. Finally.
"Yup! Naruto Uzumaki!" declared Naruto with a grin.
Inaho shook her head. "Tone it down a bit, kid. You know what happened to our team?"
"No," admitted Naruto. "Iruka-sensei just said you had an opening on your team."
"Come on then," said Inaho. "I'll fill you in on the way. We usually meet at Training Area 4."
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(Posted Sat, 04 Jul 2015 15:32)
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