Ask to Join Naruto: Warring States

[Godjacob]

As Niko decided to part when the area had began to get crowded, Mitsuko took another sip of her tea; finishing her cup as she set it aside on the counter before her neutral gaze shifted up to this self-professed bandit "king" of sorts. Seemed he had taken issue with her statement, even if he tried to mask it behind his delivery which he peppered with flair.

"If you desire to prove that you are above the cowardly thugs I've encountered across this land to get here, then prove it with action and conviction. Not merely words. I am sure this festival will give me a chance to see the type of person you are." Mitsuko mused as she looked Akuto in the eye with that.

"Suppose you'll have to wait to see how a true disciple has fun." Mitsuko mused, with a small smile of all things crossing her lips.

Course, her expression shifted when the wolf transformed into a werewolf which THAT had taken her by surprise as her eyes widened a bit. She had been told to expect the unexpected in the ninja world but even this had tossed the young samurai for a loop.

 

[~Nilion~]

Niko paused in place as Akuto howled over his shoulder, never turning to look the miscreant in the eye.
As the little bandit finished his speech up, the Hokori prodigy carefully adjusted his bandana before turning back to give Akuto a small smile.

“You know, using the fact that someone looks normal as an insult doesn’t hit as hard as you’d think… it just reminds everyone else that you look like a homeless freak.” And with that, the Hokori disappeared into the sea of adults, a devilish little grin on his face as he did so.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

One of the rats in Kaldo's pockets hissed when Mizu mentioned poison.

"No! No poishun. Poishun food is bad" Kaldo said.

"There better not be any poisoned food! I kill a motha fucka that poisons food!" Kaldo said in rat speak to which all his lil rats agreed.

"I could use some time to shlack off. Nice tree lay under and forget about work. But meybe you got good point. Sometimes shouldn't shlack off. Need to get stuff done right way. Do it right firfthst time, no get yelled and and do it again" Kaldo said.

"So what you cook?" Kaldo asked.

As Kaldo continued to speak with Mizu, his scruffy looking rat, Twitchy came running by. Twitchy sat on a tent next to Kaldo. Looking down at him with a conceited grin telling Kaldo all the stuff he saw and heard. Kaldo thanked the rat in rat speak, and it leaped off the tent and landed on Kaldo's stomach, sliding towards and in one of Kaldo's many pockets. The rat gave Mizu a long hard glare as it slowly slid in Kaldo's pocket. It even lifted it's paw up, pointing at it's eyes before pointing at Mizu's eyes before pointing back at his own, then back at Mizu.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Akuto

Homeless freak? Hmph! I was going for a more glorious freak vibe. Bah, I guess some people just don't get what style is these days. I swear people just ignore this cape.

Huffing at the boy, he turned to the samurai, who had this...aura about her. Like she wasn't going to be convinced with theatrics. Her gaze was like a knife, cutting through the air around him. But he liked playing with danger. Despite a noticeable bead of sweat forming on his brow, he gave her a snicker.

"Heh...hope you'll make it entertaining for me. You got backbone chick, what they call you?"


......

Mizu


"Ha...not much honestly. I can make-"

He was cut off by the arrival of a rather...oddly menacing rat that glared daggers at him, giving 'I'm watching you' hand signals before slinking down into cover amongst Kaldo's clothes. Blinking for a second, Mizu shook it off and continued.

"...Uh, anyway, I can make like...fish? Eggs?" He shrugged. "Honestly? Just enough to survive really. Ain't gonna be cookin' up the most delicious cuisine if you know what I mean, haha."

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Kaldo...~

Kaldo paused for a moment in confusion... "Wait... you make feesh eggs? You don't look like you live underwater..." Kaldo said in bewilderment.

"I knows alls about good food though. Put it in front of me and watch it dishapear!" Kaldo said.

"Though in all fairness... I wonder what's going to happen soon" Kaldo said placing Krum back in his pockets. His other two rats were still scurrying about somewhere eavesdropping on more conversations or eating. Kaldo didn't care because he knew he'd catch up with them eventually.

 

[kyuukestu]

GONG...GONG...GONG!!

The herald of a large bronze gong echoed for miles and miles; it was the signal for all shinobi participants to gather—the fair was about to begin.

Chi Lin found herself moving along with the crowd of ninja gathering in the festival square, where a small podium had been erected and a nondescript man stood to address those who had gathered. He waited for several minutes, enough time for even the laziest of ninjas to arrive, and then loudly cleared his throat.

“G’day Maggots and welcome the first trial of the Shinobi World Fair, the Ninja Clash in the Land of Rice, the Senju-Uchiha Usurpation Conference—whatever you wanna call it, we certainly didn’t have the foresight to settle on a name, but I digress; today, many of you young and aspiring youths will find out that before you lies a broad path to mediocrity and a narrow path to greatness; today you’ll find towards which path you are most inclined; some of you will accept your fate, destined to become no-name cannon fodder and others will fight, defying all odds to carve your marks on history—or you’ll die trying. The Hokori aren’t paying me enough for this inspirational shit.

Many murmurs erupted at the man’s “rousing” introduction, but he wasn’t done yet.

“Alright quiet down. The first challenge you’ll be faced with is a race, you’ll follow a pre-determined path to its conclusion, surmounting all obstacles in your way; that will be all. Line up at the fair’s northern gate; the race will begin in 20 minutes.”

With that, the man walked off the platform.

Chi Lin’s expression fell to a frown. A race? What kinda crap was that? Where was the promised Shinobi on Shinobi murder? She certainly hadn’t come here to run cross-country with her ‘respected contemporaries’. The Daoist scowled and almost turned to leave, but just as she prepared to do so, an idea rose to the forefront of her mind. She considered it for a moment, finding it more and more pleasing as time passed.

A race for shinobi certainly couldn’t be a mundane event and, if it proved to be boring, couldn’t she just spice it up herself? Mmm, yes, that sounded like an excellent plan indeed.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Akuto


"..."

"..."

"BWHAHAHAHA!!!"

The boisterous boy cackled like a hyena, both of his knuckles squarely on his hips.

"A race? Pssssht! Puh-lease! At least make it a challenge for me!"

Oi, better be some race. I want there to be hordes of vicious carnivores, booby trap galore, and lines of hostile ninja warriors! Anything less would just be too easy!

Akuto turned to his two female friends next to him, putting on a face, closing his eyes and giving a long, dramatic bow.

"I must bid the adieu, my ladies." He said, flashing his head up in a grin. "I've a race to win."

With that, he fluttered his cape in front of himself before sprinting off in the direction it was to start. Although his run was far less refined and graceful than his cape made him think it was.



Mizu



"Huh...a race?" Mizu brushed his nose, cracking an excited smile. "Well, about time, I say! C'mon Kaldo, we can go together, it'll be fun!"

Mizu gestured to him ago follow along as he began to make his way toward the starting point.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Kaldo...~

Kaldo nodded at Mizu before standing on a table, kicking plates off and using rat speak to recall his last two rats. As Kaldo jumped off the table and proceeded to join Mizu a yellowish-brown rat with spiky fur performed a front flip before landing in Kaldo's pocket. Tail sticking out and wiggling around before the creature fully slid in the pocket. A white rat with a brown spot on it's eye squealed as it leaped in another one of Kaldo's pockets, like a miniature war cry. Kaldo was ready to go. He smiled at Mizu.

"Rashe? We're going have rashe? Kaldo supa fasht. Going to win rashe. Can you keep up?" Kaldo said pointing at Mizu excitedly.

 

[Godjacob]

Mitsuko herself continued to scan this bandit king, noting the slight glimmer of sweat as her direct and to the heart method seemed to nerve him if only a little. Though he continued to play up his bravado as he asked for her name. Standing up as she heard the gong sound off, she seemed to offer a little something that had yet to be seen in this convo.

A light smile.

"Mitsuko. I look forward to seeing your true valor on the field." Mitsuko explained as she overheard the instructions for this "race" of sorts that was to be the first event and the instructions seemed to be clear enough.

With a roll of her eyes as the man she had a convo with made a theatrical dash, Mitsuko walked over to the starting area as well as she stretched a bit to get loose and prepare for the events; she had not been sure if she'd win, but she was determined to leave a good showing and prove her way to the ninja all around her.

 

[~Nilion~]

After a rather strange flurry of back-to-back encounters, Niko decided it would be best to get back to his escorts as the exam would likely be starting soon.

“Akamichi are here… but they won’t be a problem. What about the other contestants?” The large, hulking escort piped up as he saw the clans prodigy returning.

“They’re… diverse, but I think I can manage.” The blonde haired boy spoke carefully as his eyes washed over the crowd of competitors once more.
He was hoping to spot a Genjutsu user, but they’re hard to identify off looks alone. He knew his primary goal in this tournament was to make the Hokori look good… but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t wanna battle someone he had a disadvantage against for once.

—————————————————

After the first announcement and a small objection from the second shortest of Niko’s escorts, he walked over to the field and began stretching his arms and back. Though this was almost completely unnecessary, as he was actually using the moment to circulate a bit of excess Yang energy throughout his chakra system.

“Whew… a battle of speed it shall be!” Niko said to himself as the Yang chakra saturated his body and invigorated him for the race. No real change to his appearance could be seen and he was already likely among the faster competitors, so this power was intended to really throw off the other’s expectations.

 

[Draco Nightshade]

Haru
Hearing the question, Haru curiously tilted her head to the side before answering the strange girl. "Yes, I am." Walking over to Kazue, Haru reached out with her right hand and introduced herself. "I'm Haru. You are?"
@=Nightshade=

Luna
Hearing that the first competition was a race, Luna immediately changed back to her original form and followed Mitsuko. "Wait for me!"
Reaching the starting line, Luna sat herself next to Mitsuko. "Can I team up with you?"
@Godjacob

 

[Grand Master Koop]

Upon hearing the announcement of the first event, Aishu furrowed her brows. A race? Is this some kind of joke? She came here for the promise of facing powerful warriors, not this glorified running contest. "What a waste of my time." She mumbled to herself. She nearly decided to leave altogether when something surfaced inside her mind. The loud obnoxious man mentioned this was the first challenge, meaning there will be more. A combat event is still likely to be coming up. If anything, this race could be used as a way for Aishu to see what the competition is capable of. After all, if they can't even perform well in a race, what hope do they have to win against her in a fight. As such, the woman decided to stay for a while longer, deciding to humor the event some more.

 

[kyuukestu]

A look of sadistic glee flashed through Chi Lin’s eyes as the. contestants gathered on the starting line. Hidden beneath her sleeves was a bottle of poison, a bit of heat would begin spreading the poison amongst the participants through the air. The poison wasn’t deadly, but anyone who inhaled too much was going to be knee-deep in shit—literally.

At that moment, the overseeing called out the rules: “The rules of this race are simple, follow the path while clearing all obstacles or challenges in your way. You’ll have to find the path, but I trust that a little Intel Gathering isn’t too hard.

“Be warned; attacking or directly influencing other participants is disallowed! You may begin!”

Chi Lin scowled and put away the poison. Kill joys.

Fortunately, the race wasn't as straightforward or boring as she'd imagined and their first task was to find the race track. Ahead of the group—perhaps a kilometer of flat, open plains away—was a large forest. It seemed the clues needed to continue the race would lay within.

Spoiler: Obstacle One: Intel Hunt

The randomizer has spoken, intel hunt is the first event!

There are multiple types of intel within the forest:

• Hidden Ninjas roam the forest, they know the way but they won't reveal it easily.
• Markings on trees point in three different directions: North, West, and East.
• The Birds chirp in morse code

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Akuto


Finally, it's started!

Akuto skimmed over the rules, barley even paying attention. Instead, he focused purely and getting ready to run. Right as he had prepared to run off, a plume of red gas plumed out from his specialized shoes. The gas would serve to stick to and disorient people right from the get go, along with giving Akuto a burst of speed, shooting him forward in one built up to! Cape fluttering in the wind, the bandit king yelled out.

"Victoryyyyy!!!"



Mizu

"Wha-"

Pooof!

Mizu was suddenly surrounded by a red mist of some kind. Shutting his eyes so they wouldn't get messed up by whatever this was. cautiously, he swung his maraca clubs around in front of him, attempting to disperse a lot of it around his face area, but a lot of this has was sticking to his baggy pants and his bare arms. It stuck...gumming up his movements. His pant legs sometimes stuck to each other, making it awkward to run.

"Eck...what is this stuff?"

That was a bad start. As the perpetrator rocketed off, Akuto was handicapped to begin, attempting a stunted jog in the direction, getting out of the residual mist. His shoes slicked and slacked, sticking to the grass as they went, forcing him to slow down.

"Kaldo! How are you fairing??"

 

[~Nilion~]

“Victory, huh? Positive?” After Akuto dashed off past the now hindered competitors, he would suddenly hear a familiar voice mumble a reply from right over his left shoulder.
Niko was running alongside the smaller boy at the exact same speed. Both his facial expression and breathing were incredibly relaxed, making it appear as if he hadn’t even started running yet.

“Your abilities looked unique. Kekke Genkai? Hiden?” The Hokori boy spoke up once more as he continued to perfectly match the opposition in pace.

“Damn annoying, whatever it is…” Although Niko wouldn’t dare let it show, the back of his legs been clipped by the cloud on take off. He could feel his heels stick to the earth and resist with every step he took.
He could ditch the shoes… but he’d rather try to find out a bit more about this ‘Bandit King’ and what’s got him so gassed up.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Akuto


Bwhahahaha!! That was soooooo easy! They'll be too gummed up to catch up! I like, totally win by default now! I could prolly just take it easy and make it there before they get past the second obstacle-

“Victory, huh? Positive?”

"Bleh?"

The hell is this dude. Someone managed to bypass his surprise attack? How?? And to match his speed despite his built up explosive launch? Inconceivable. Akuto gave him a look of ire, glancing up and down at him. It was the normie! His gas launch wouldn't last forever...he could feel his burst of speed already beginning to level out.

"What's it to ya? How'd you even- bleh! Doesn't matta!" He spat. "How about we work together? You'd find I'm rather...attractive!"

That's when he would place his hand on the boy's shoulder, a thick secreting ooze coming from the palm. The goal? To make it so his hand couldn't be shaken off!

 

[=Nightshade=]

“I’m Kazue…” Kazue trailed off as she looked beyond Haru to a gathering of people. A man began to shout at the crowd, seemingly giving instructions. Kazue crept closer, walking lightly around Haru to eavesdrop. Before long, Kazue found herself by the starting line, not that she knew it from where she stood at the back of the pressing crowd. Instructions bombarded her ears, and in some half-aware part of her mind she took them in and understood. The prospect of a competition was one she had not heard for a long time, since before the time she had been wandering alone— and she felt a smile spread, alien, across her face as her heart rate picked up. She had no idea what this was for, save what the rules had been, but she was curious and her excitement wouldn’t relieve itself.

As the words “you may begin” rang out above the heads of the crowd, Kazue tilted her head up, where a flare like the ones used in her clan’s rituals exploded soundlessly in a starburst of light. No one else reacted to it, and perhaps it wasn’t even real to them, but with the imagined fire in the sky, Kazue’s instincts took over. She darted between contestants like a lizard through cracks in a rock, and when that became too difficult as people slowed, cursing in irritation at a red substance that stuck them to the ground and each other, she instead clambered up the nearest person and leapt from shoulder to shoulder like she had done with branches in her swamp. People shouted after her as she crested the main clump of those who had gotten caught in the attack and began to hare after the ones ahead. A sound of surprise came from Kazue as she tripped on the open ground and had to roll back to her feet. The three-legged gait she was used to that allowed her to move quickly through trees and over muddy ground was more of a hindrance in open plains, where having a hand on the ground was just another way to get tripped up.

The two at the front of the pack were slowly pulling further from Kazue, though imagined footprints showed their path taken. They seemed to be having a jolly good time chatting about something that Kazue couldn’t quite make out. She blinked twice, then broke into a run again, still crouched to run on all fours, unable to catch up with the two in the front, but sure she could make up ground once she reached the trees.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Kaldo...~

"Rhetorcal queestion. Kaldo always do good!" Kaldo said to Mizu before leaping into the air.

"What 'bout you? How you fairying so far?" As Kaldo replied again.

Kaldo began running like a madman with his arms flailing wildly. Even dropping down on all four like a rabid animal a few times. Though for the most part he ran using his actual legs. Occasionally turning his head in various directions to see any ninjas that were also competing. Little beady rat eyes poked out of Kaldo's various pockets staring into directions that Kaldo wasn't looking in. Giving him 360 degree view at all times.

 

[~Nilion~]

While Niko could’ve evaded Akuto’s attempts to touch him, he instead allowed the smaller competitor to latch on. It was obvious that this Akuto was up to something, so the Hokori boy saw it in his best interest to act first.

“You know what? We got off on the wrong foot. Of course we can work together! In fact, I’ve got a technique that could help us get an even bigger lead-“ Niko quickly strung together a series of complex hand signs, before muttering under his breath, “Fragments of Brahma.”

A hand would suddenly erupt from Niko’s shoulder, ripping straight through his shirt before latching onto Akuto’s hand with a death grip.
As Akuto began to lose speed, Niko began to put on speed at a faster and faster rate.
He had to burn up a bit more of his reserves than anticipated, but not enough to be a cause for concern.

“Hang on tight!” The pair soon entered a more densely packed part of the forest. At this rate, Akuto would either need to keep expending chakra in order to catch up, or get rag-dolled around while being dragged from behind.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Akuto


"What the- HOLY MOTHER-"

Akuto was not prepared for directed body horror. So as his own grip was overtaken by another grip, he tried to struggle, but his efforts weren't as effective as he anticipated. So his hands continued to secrete his sticky starch goop, oozing down the hand and dripping down onto the owner's clothing.

...Then he sped up.

"WAAAaaaaAAAAaaaaAAAA-"

Akuto's head and body flailed back and forth with the increase of speed. This guy could go faster??? His cape flapped sporadically as he was helplessly jostled about, dizzying in the process.

He had already Drenched the hand in his sticky starch, the hope that it would trickle down his body and gum him up enough to make his reflexes to make it difficult to stop his next move...if he could even see right to preform it. His mouth began to swell up and his chest puffed out.



Mizo Mizu, cause yes that's both his names


"Honestly? Kinda a rough start here...!"

He was starting to fall behind his rat loving friend. He needed to somehow keep up. Looking at his twin maracas, he had an idea. A way to keep up without needing his legs! raising up his arms, he yelled out.

"Earth Style! Boulder Hammer! Combi!"

He stomped, debris of rock rising up from the ground around him. The two maracas all of a sudden were covered with large amounts of stone. The maracas became a single stone club that dwarfed his size! He swung it down to the ground, using it as a lever. He flung himself, bursting the club behind, the two maracas nursing out of their dense earth casing and staying in their owner's grasp.

Mizo plopped down ahead, nearly reaching the forest. That gave him a nice lead! But he wouldn't be able to keep it very long, as his max speed was crippled at the moment.

 

[kyuukestu]

A moment after the race had started na explosion of red mist gunked up many the participants, and Chi Lin was among the affected. The sticky, icky substance restricted her movements, but didn't seem to do much outside of that; neither her skin nor the surrounding plant life seemed overly affected by it, so at the very least it wasn't super dangerous. As a fire release user, Chi Lin's first reaction was obvious—she'd burn away whatever this ick was.

Vigorous flames ignited across her body and her expression shifted from mild disgust to surprise. She could tell immediately that whatever this red substance was, it was highly flammable, as her flames erupted with strength beyond what she'd expected. The flames quickly spread to the 'slower' participants, turning the starting line into a sea of fire.

Chi Lin acted swiftly and, with a burst of speed, she flickered out of the sea of flames. She tch'd as her cloak burned away; she had increased the strength of her flames, rapidly consuming its fuel source—the red mist—but also burning away her ick-drenched cloak. Regardless, her quick action allowed her to evade substantial harm. Others weren't as fortunate.

Anyway, Chi Lin took off at a leisurely pace, leaving the screams of immolated people behind her as she donned a Tanuki-inspired mask.

"How unlucky~♪"

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Kaldo...~

"Fly you shun of a bitch! Flyyyyy!!!" Kaldo said as he watched Mizu soar through the air.

"Krum look at go. Do majeshtic. Kaldo want fly too!" Kaldo said jumping and throwing his arms around in an attempt to catch Mizu. Unable to catch him midair, Kaldo continued to run like a raging lunatic. He would eventually reach the forest and climb the first tree he saw. He climbed it like an animal in it's natural habitat. Standing on a large branch, he sent out three rats to scout ahead.

Choclat, Rebies, and Twitchy were too eager to explore. Across tree branches and behind leaves the rats did hide and move about. Choclat found a sign pointing east. Rebies was spying on some birds and Twitchy was certain a ninja was nearby. Careful, the rat maintained its distance. Cautious and avoiding detection.

 

[~Nilion~]

Niko dragged Akuto along as long as he could, allowing the strange slime to spread further and further across his clothes. He waited till mere moments before it would slide down onto his skin, before throwing up a single hand sign to disperse his Jutsu.

“See ya!” Niko’s extra limb fizzled away, cutting his connection to Akuto. The very moment the connection was cut, Niko jumped directly up towards the tree-line, meaning all of the pairs excess momentum would likely carry the bandit king into the tree just a few feet ahead of the pair at a considerable speed.
If this weren’t enough, as Niko went airborne, he slipped his slime coated jacket off his shoulders and allowed it to fall directly for the spot Akuto would likely impact.

“Now… about those hidden ninja…” Rather than waiting to see if he was successful, the now jacket-less Niko shifted trajectories and pressed onwards, hoping to lose Akuto in the process.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Akuto


Akuto was forced to gulp down what he was about to do as he was dude my sent airborne, flying at alarming speeds toward the a squirrelly looking tree. This is when the stained jacked Stuck to his face, wrapping around his body, practically turning him into a sack with a cape sticking out of it.

That's when he made impact. Flying through branches and taking one after another, before eventually stopping an a particularly bushy set of branches. His head ripped through the jacket, his hair messing up and his body tangling with the branch and jacket.

"Uwaaaah..." he uttered, still dizzy and now disoriented from the crash landing.

That's when he snapped to, noticed his messed up hair. Instead of trying to free himself first, he managed to free a hand to help fix back up his edgy hair style. Priorities. Now he just needed to somehow get out of this...mess.



Mizo


Now entering the forest, Mizo's first objective was completed. Now he just needed to find these so called ninja and find out where he was supposed to be headed? Now how was he supposed to do that? He walked briskly, putting a hand to his chin, trying to figure out a way he was going to go about this...

"Maybe...that could work. I just need to find a good venue..."

 

[Godjacob]

Slash!
​

Much like a number of competitors at the starting line, a sudden blast of smoke had trapped Mitsuko's sandals in some gunk which only furthered her distain for this "bandit king" as he seemed willing to sink to any low to get the edge. Regardless, Mitsuko had as quickly drawn Star Seeker, her own personalized Chisa Katana and slashes at the gunk on her heels with a blue outline of chakra at its tip cleaving through the presumably home-brew material and soon Mitsuko had regained movement.

Mitsuko had made one goal clear, whether she won the race or not remained to be seen but she was determined to catch Akuto as she'd refuse the idea of losing to someone who employed such underhanded tactics; even for the standards of the ninja world. With that, Mitsuko took in a single deep breath and soon enough woosh she dashed ahead at staggering speed.

Mitsuko moved with a single-minded focus and picked up momentum as she bounced off one tree to the next, her athleticism on display as much as her running speed as she quickly worked to regain some ground. Already she passed a couple of competitors who had managed to free themselves before her but the true contenders had been at the front of the pack.

A blue shimmer seemed to gleam off her body as she shot out ahead, and aimed to catch up to the front of the group as he face seemed focus on gaining ground with each leap and each burst forward of her legs.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Kaldo...~

Kaldo recalled his rats and began forming a plan. All three rats stood in front of him on hind legs and baited breath. Kaldo was going to look at the sign but most importantly, he'd go after the ninja.

Kaldo was going to start his plan off with genjutsu. Kaldo secreted a foul odor which spread to his rats. Anyone within 10 ft of his rats would 6 rats scurrying about for every one rat Kaldo had. Eighteen(3) rats ran along the tree line while the remaining 3 sat in Kaldo's pockets. The rat decoys could not physically harm anyone but striking them would not make the clone disappear.

As Kaldo neared the ninja, his rats were the first things to appear before the ninja, but not as hostile. Instead they were running along past the ninja. Almost as if they were running away from something. An attempt to distract the ninja. When the ninja looked yo see where the rats were coming from, Kaldo made his move. Kaldo now had long hairy rat arms and had lunged at the ninja with a sneak attack from behind. Sand in his hand which would be thrown in the eyes of the ninja as he turned to look around.

Kaldo managed to get the sand in his eyes and grab him. The ninja had quick reflexes and swung a kenai which Kaldo managed avoid getting cut, but subduing the ninja was easier said than done. He managed to wrap the claws of his other hand around the next. The tips of them pushing into the ninja's neck. If Kaldo applied any more pressure, his claws would break the skin.

Leaning the ninja back so his head was facing the ground, Kaldo began to speak.

"Give you two opshen. Tell where we are and go neckt. Can do that?" Kaldo said. The ninja used the opportunity to try swing one of his free legs to kick Kaldo in the head. Kaldo ducked his head and was only kicked in the back which did minimal damage since he only hit muscle. Kaldo grabbed his rat, Rebies with his free hand that wasn't holding the man's throat. Rebies immidiatly began to violently squirm, claw, and bite anything it could. Kaldo began to move the rat closer and closer to the ninja's face before the man pointed in a direction. The man then demanded to be let go of, to which Kaldo did. Though the man should have phrased that better and was dropped down the tree. Kaldo caught the man by the ankle and threw him as hard as he could. Which wasn't a lot, but at least he didn't splat on the ground. Now that this had been dealt with, Kaldo knew where to go. Kaldo held his arms out. The rats crawled up his arms and onto his shoulders. Kaldo began to continue down the treeline in the correct direction. Occasionally looking at signs as he made his way threw the woods.

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Mizo



After finding a suitable spot, relatively sparse with trees, Mizo gave a nod of approval before closing his eyes.

Bum, baddum. Bum, Baddum

He clicked with his shoes. Ever two clicks he'd hit the drums on his ankle by clicking his heel. He swayed his hips to the right, his Maracas picking up the beat. He bent his knees, before swerving his belly to the left, bringing his hips to swing to the left. A visible musical note was produced after he hips swung. Sounds of a musical instrument not playing...a flute? After a few more seconds of this Gypsy styled belly dancing, another instrument was picked up. A shamisen.

Soon enough, it felt like a whole band was playing. The ground around him became checkered, almost tile like. Lights began to shine, multicolored as they whirled about. The sound was alluring somehow...like one couldn't help but check it out. The goal was to achieve an audience: namely the ninja in hiding with the information.

 

[Godjacob]

Mitsuko continued to race through the trees. Bouncing from branch to branch in an incredibly display of agility and speed. She seemed to be pleased with herself that she made up some ground, her single minded focus was to get to that group in the front and overtake them; perhaps she'd even take advantage of a fight among them to progress ahead if it came to it.

While direct attacks on each other seemed frowned upon for this event, she expected ninja of all people to find ways to bend rules on this.

As Mitsuko moved about the distance sounds of...music? Of all things was heard, she had no idea what spurred this on but she only guessed whatever stunt this is could not be good, so she tried to move ahead and away from that area though she wondered what else would possibly get in her path as she continued to gain ground...

 

[=Nightshade=]

Kazue, after being passed up by a few people, finally reached the forest. Her bare feet didn’t hurt, accustomed as she was to climbing and leaping through trees, and her toned muscles weren’t sore— but she was out of breath from the tumbles she’d taken and riddled with shallow scratches. Sounds of other competitors disappeared into the wide swath of trees without any hesitation, confusing Kazue. How would they know which direction to go if they just ran in with no forethought?

She realized that she’d been staring blankly through a tree trunk and blinked a few times. The trunk came into focus, revealing wood grain that was decidedly not natural in a spot. Kazue approached the tree and traced the symbol with her fingertips, searching for long-lost lessons on how to read and write. It took her a second to remember, but she finally recalled the symbol. East. She blinked once more, and when the symbol didn’t disappear or start floating away, Kazue sprang into motion—far faster than she had on the open plains—bounding between tree trunks and swinging off lower branches, staying below the canopy to search for more symbols. She could have moved even faster in the wide spread of branches higher up, but if the path changed direction, she wouldn’t know. Kazue knew she’d save more time by not getting lost than by moving a hair faster.

 

[kyuukestu]

At her leisurely pace, it took 10 minutes for Chi Lin to arrive at the tree line. She didn’t pause to consider anything as she’d had plenty of time to think about her strategy on the way here. As she stepped into the forest she latched onto a tree branch, breaking it off as she walked past. She immediately began to infuse the branch with her yin-natured chakra, and dragged it through the ground, allowing its leaves to rustle against the forest floor. At regular intervals, she suddenly lifted the branch and struck whatever was nearby: shhhh. . .smack! shhhh. . . smack! shhhh. . . smack!

A curious thing about genjutsu is that when casting one at a significant range, the user didn’t need to be aware of their target's location; for example, you could use sound-based genjutsu to affect a target you couldn't see. This was part of what made sound-based genjutsu so potent since the sound could travel further than the user's senses. This quirk allowed Chi Lin to use her genjutsu like a faux radar, as she would notice anyone, or anything, that fell into her genjutsu.

Of course, if any participants were around, they’d also be subject to the build-up of her genjutsu, but if they were still on the first obstacle after 10 minutes then that was on them; surely, the oversees wouldn’t blame her if others got implicated as she dealt with the challenge before her, right?

After a few moments, Chi Lin could feel her chakra lurch as something fell prey to her genjutsu.

“I found you~♪”

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Akuto


The bandit king had been stuck here. For a bit. His arms were freed, as well as a single leg. Now dangling upside down from the branch, the boy's cape was draped down behind him as he was thinking heavily, a first under his chin.

"Ya know. Im startin' to think I just lost my lead." He said to himself. "You would think that someone like me wouldn't be stuck in a branch right now. Psssht, well, I guess I can figure out where I'm suppose to go-"

ZOOM!

Suddenly, Kazue flew past him. Akuto was briefly disoriented from the speed, snapping to shortly after. Wait..that broad looked like she was movin' out with purpose. Hey! Wait up!

Holding his breath and puffing up his cheeks, a single burst of red gas shot from his tangled shoe, breaking him free. He sputtered gas from either shoe, before they synced up, jetting him up toward a branch to run off off.

Gotta follow that crazy chick, or at least her trail. Someone movin' that fast sure gotta know where they are headed!




......


Mizo


At this point, the young musician had gathered quite an audience. Several contenders for this race had arrived, snapped to, and fled. One after another. However, a rather old one had arrived, one that couldn't possibly be a contender at there age. That had to be the informant! So before they could snap out of their pseudo-trance, he raised both of his maracas, aiming at the man to be between the two.

"Music Style: Translocation Net!"

A musical cue played before he fired a musical bar from the two maracas, the net showing several musical notes written on it. The rainbow colored musical bar wrapped around the man right as he snapped to, either end of the bar linking to itself.

The drum beat got faster as his clicked his feet at a higher tempo. right as he did, he did he twirled both of his maracas and brought them apart. Right as he did, the translocation net teleported, with man inside right in front of him, his left maraca pointed at the man, keeping him hostage.

"Óle!" He exclaimed, finishing his song once it had come to a climax.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Kaldo...~

"What you mean Kaldo not geeve opshun two?" Kaldo blurted out loud.

Krumm looked at Kaldo and explained to him in ratspeak that Kaldo only mentioned one option to the ninja from earlier. Kaldo began scratching his chin with his rat arm. He then looked at his arm and undone his jutsu.

"Huuuh...Option two is he tells me where to go next!" Kaldo said in ratspeak.

"But that's option one" Krumm commented.

"Yeah, well it's option two... too. We get the information one way or another. Is the two options" Kaldo continued.

Twitchy looked at Kaldo with a look of disgust as he shook around and spasmed.

Kaldo was too much in a hurry to worry at the moment. Eventually Kaldo found himself going lower and lower as the thick branches were fewer and fewer. As Kaldo made his way down the path, the air felt different. A whole lot more moisture in the air. Kaldo slid down the tree to feel a wet texture under feet. Water. No. Mud. a few inches of it. He began to tread through the mud when he noticed one of his feet felt stuck. He pulled on it which was relatively difficult to do, but he managed to pull it out.

Confused and bewildered, he reached over and stick his hand into the mud. Reaching around for whatever pulled onto his foot.

"Huh... What was that...? Gah!" Kaldo muttered as he noticed his hand was sinking into the mud. He pulled it out and swung the mud off his hand. Just to make sure, Kaldo dipped his hand back into the mud another time to make sure it was actually sinking and not his imagination, he did so again. Kaldo took a good look at the area where his foot and hand sunk into and tried looking differences between that area and the safe area he was standing on. Kaldo grabbed a long stick and began to poke and prod at the ground as he began to make his way through. Kaldo attempted to latch on to the side of trees then latch on to the next tree and move from tree to tree, but many of the trees were too thin to feasibly avoid the murky swamp below. Kaldo leaped off the tree he held onto and splashed into the mud then let out a raspy roar which turned into coughing and ended with a burp. "ONWARD!" Kaldo said in ratspeak. His rats let out loud squeaks to show equal enthusiasm to match Kaldo. He began to tread faster now.

Occasionally twisting and turning and wandering around patches of mud he believed may have been quicksand. There was a slough with moss growing atop the water. A few logs floated atop of the wat- no wait, that one opened it's eyes and swamp under the water. Definitely not a log. A Trees grew out along the bank and several stumps poked out of the water. Kaldo threw a clump of mud at one of the logs and it didn't move. Kaldo ran across the water and made his way atop the log. Definitely wood. Kaldo saw movement in the water then made a handsign to create a small pillar of earth beneath the surface of the water which made ripples in the water, thrusting his log forward. Kaldo made it roughly 15 ft out further into the water before one of the crocodiles began making it's way towards him. "It's a swamp thing!" Kaldo yelled.

Kaldo made the same hand signs from earlier to thrust himself forward once more, then the crocodile opened it's large gaping mouth to snap at Kaldo, but he leaped off the log and landed on a large stump. Crsssh! The crocodile made a cracking splashing noise as it bit into the log. Kaldo broke off a large portion of one of the thin trees and held it like a spear. He began running atop the water towards it, and when the creature opened it's mouth, he thrusted the tree as far for the creature's mouth as he could shove it before the creature bit down on the tree. Kaldo used this opportunity to get away. He ran to a larger stump where he stood atop. Using the moment to take a brief rest before continuing down the watery surface.

 

[Godjacob]

Mitsuko continued to race ahead, gaining plenty of ground as that music sounded off but she moved further from it as she continued to scan ahead, she figured she saw a few distant figures ahead, but just the tail end of them. Considering she had began held back at the starting line, she internally was pleased that she seemed to be closing in to the presumed front of the pack.

"Hey get out of our way!"

Mitsuko's attention turned to a pair of ninja that were behind her, a pair of siblings it seemed and while she lagged a good distance ahead they tried to close the distance as all three seemed to take the tree route and Mitsuko figured they'd want to get a leg up on her. and while "direct" means of hindering another contestant were barred, one of them displayed an example of more indirect as she tossed what seemed to be a smoke bomb to the tree ahead to her right side, which exploded and produced a fume to block her vision.

Underhanded...fine, want to play this way...

Mitsuko had to close her eyes to block the smoke as she jumped forward while the two sibling ninja worked to gain on her with this distraction, however, Mitsuko placed a hand on the handle of her trusted Star Seeker, and as she had already gotten a good picture in her head of what was ahead, leaped to a tree that had a particular large branch before her...

Slash!
​

With a draw so quick that neither sibling even saw her draw a blade, she cut through the branch as it fell down and landed right on the path the siblings had moved about, which forced them to divert back with a curse.

Mitsuko then shot ahead with a burst of speed, and began to see a figure ahead of her, little did she knew this figure was someone who had earned her a bit of frustration today, and promised to make this race a touch more interesting....

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Kaldo...~

The Crocodile recoiled and spit out the part of the tree that was still in it's mouth. Giving Kaldo an opportunity to run with his metaphorical tail between his legs.

"Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!" Twitchy chanted as he, glaring down at the crocodile. Kaldo was fast, but the crocodile swam at a speed that was slowly decreasing the gap between it and the ninja running on water.

Kaldo ran to a particularly tall stump that poked three feet out of the water. Would give Kaldo a good vantage point before the croc could catch him. As Kaldo looked down at the croc, it nearly stopped dead in its tracks.

"Shtupit cocodile! Can't catch Kaldo!" Shouted the boy revealing a pale full moon or rather two full moons to the croc then slapped one. He turned and adjusted his pants with a quickly fading grin as he realized just how close the croc was now. The beast lunged out of the water and Kaldo reacted fast enough to leap in the air. Using his jutsus, he gave himself rat arms and a tail.

Krumm had to hold Twitchy back as the lil guy was ready to throw hands. Kaldo's tail wrapped around the beast's waist and claws around the soft throat of the crocodile that was now thrashing about and dipping in the water below.

Unlike the ninja in the woods, Kaldo wasn't holding back on grip force now. Though wrapping his hands around the croc's neck was reasonably harder. His many rats latched onto the insides of Kaldo's pockets. Luckily his rats could hold their breath for a while because that's how long it would take to wound the croc. Rebies and Choclat had cautiously made their way from Kaldo's pockets clutching his clothes so not to get swept away in the water. They eventually climbed along Kaldo's tail and wedged themselves between Kaldo's tail and the croc's waist. Twitchy saw the other two rats leave the safety of the pockets and wasn't going to stay tucked away if these two went. Krumm reluctantly went but only to follow Twitchy and make sure he didn't get do anything stupid like jump in its mouth.

Twitchy crawled across Kaldo's furry arm, tail slapping in Krumm's face. As Twitchy was close to the Croc's face, he spit food particles he had between his teeth at the croc. Then lunged at it, ready to gouge it's eye out, but the croc jerked its head away causing Twitchy to miss and scratch the the skin on it's cheek. Despite the rat's size, they had remarkably sharp claws. Three small claw marks sat on the croc's cheek.

Being the smartest rat in, Krumm bit down on Twitchy's tail, pulling him to safety. Both rats held onto Kaldo's wrist as they nipped and prodded at various spots around the creature's neck.

The other two, Rebies and Choclat bit at the soft portions of the underbelly. Rebies wasn't satisfied biting the croc in the gut so when the croc stopped flailing around, Rebies took the opportunity to go for the family jewels to devastating effect. The more the croc thrashed about, the more bite force the rat gave. Eventually the croc would slow down to to blood loss around the neck.

Kaldo grabbed Twitchy and Krumm then pushed himself off the croc's back, "Ow!" Yelled Kaldo as Choclat bit into Kaldo's tail so not to lose grip. Kaldo got himself onto the stump, then looked and saw an angry Rebies doggy paddling to which Kaldo didn't hesitate to scoop up. A drenched Kaldo would now be receiving complaints from all his angry rats. Except Twitchy who wanted to wear the croc's skull like a hat. Kaldo wasn't even sure if that was possible.

"Choclat did gud" said Choclat.

"I did bestest!" Rebies commented.

"But most importantly, Choclat did gud" Choclat said patting himself across the back with Krumm's paw.

"Kaldo not very considerate. My fur all wet" Pokey complained.

"You and Spot did nothing. I did all work. Praise me!" Twitchy sneered.

"I did most important work, supervise" Spot said.

"Supervise this" Choclat said before burping.

"Focus! We still haven't gotten outta this swamp yet!" Kaldo said.

"That sounds like you problem. You brought us here. Get us out" Twitchy said.

"And next time stop jumping in water. I smell almost as bad as Rebies now" Pokey said, trying to rub all the water out her fur.

"My momma said I smell beautiful. Don't hate me cause I'm beautiful" Rebies snapped its paw.

"Can we be quiet long enough to get outta the water at least?" Krumm asked.

"Can you be quiet long enough to go fffk yourself?" Twitchy went.

"Twitchy!" Kaldo snapped.

"TwWwiTcHyyY...! That's you" Twitchy sassed.

Being the more mature rat, Krumm rolled his eyes and didn't waste his breath with a response. After a few minutes of silence eventually Twitchy managed to apologize. Albeit it was a somewhat fake apology. The rest of Kaldo's trip across the slough was silence. All sorts of insects could be heard. The occasional frog. Kaldo had safely found another log to ride. He didn't see any crocodiles in the immediate area, but he was weary. He no longer had a tail as he didn't need it, but kept rat arms to paddle through the water.

 

[~Nilion~]

While Niko didn’t have any Genjutsu or special tactics for luring in one of these hidden ninja, he did have incredible senses, as well as a solid understanding of basic tracking etiquette.
So instead, he remained high in the treetops, moving slowly and carefully as to not give away his position. He remained just on the outskirts of what sounded like battle, knowing full-well he would likely be able to catch any runners.

And to his luck, after a moderate wait, Niko’s eyes finally locked on a unique-looking individual.
He was considerably older than the other contestants and appeared to be heavily battle damaged. His clothes? Covered in rips and dirt. His face? peppered with a fine mix of sweat and scratches. If this weren’t enough, there appeared to be a kunai buried three-to-four inches into his right shoulder.

“He’s pretty badly hurt, so he’ll likely wanna fall back to a safe and secure location to lick his wounds. And judging by how far out we are, it would be a lot less dangerous limping to an exit than back to the start…” After the Hokori had taken a moment to consider his target, he shifted his position in the trees to slightly lower branches. Not low enough to reveal him, but low enough to allow the Yang user an extra bit of maneuverability as he followed his target deeper into the woods.

—————

After a surprisingly short journey, the ninja stumbled into a tree and leaned on it while digging through his inner jacket pocket. He retrieved a few basic medical supplies such as a bandage, antiseptic bottle… a Senbon and ninja threading?
Niko had to give it to him, this guy seemed resourceful. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be enough to stop what happened next.

Without making a single noise, Niko positioned himself high above the injured ninja, aligned his own elbow with the targets left shoulder, and dove from the treetops.

Craack!

“AAaaaggh!” As Niko landed elbow-first directly on his target, he could feel a hard snap along the shoulder, before feeling the limb slightly crumple in towards his targets body. The man in question let out a brief whale as the jabbing pain sent him to his knees. Blurry eyed, he looked up to his unknown attacker.

“I shattered your collarbone, don’t move it around too much. What’s more, your right arm appears to be pouring a fair bit of blood. You can’t win this fight, you likely can’t even make it out of the forest. So… you lead me to the exit, or I leave you to die.”

 

[Shen: King of Digimon]

Akuto


As his target he was following darted out of sight, he made it right to the edge of the forest, where a swamp awaited him. He skid to a halt, putting up his arm defensively as he stopped on the last branch.

Eck! Mud! Why'd we have to go to slogsburg, eh? I have an IMAGE to uphold dontcha know? Can't go around dirtying myself up. Bleh. Just my luck.

He jumped off the branch, falling down to the mud below. His shoes vented red gas, acting like landing thrusters as he haphazardly jostled around in the air. So when he made is somewhat controlled landing, he didn't splash any mud up on himself.

Cautiously, he raised his cape with one hand, keeping it off the ground so it wouldn't drag in the mud. When he prepared to move out, a target came up from behind him. Took him a second to identify, but his mouth cracked into a snicker when he did.

"Oh? Samurai chick taking the rear?" He asked loudly so she could hear. "What happened to all this showin' me up talk? Cause looks like you've been chasin' tail this whole time ya big mook. Ha!"



Mizo


After carefully remembering the information his captive had so graciously given him, he decided to make his way towards the end of the forest. Would be a little if a trek though, he wasn't as speedy as a lot of the other blitzers at play here, but at least he had knowledge! Jogging his way toward the location, he ran across the ground. He never got how some people were able to jump from branch to branch...wouldn't the branch break under the pressure? Besides, he was far more secure on the forest floor than an non-sturdy branch.

 

[kyuukestu]

“Well done little ones,” Chi Lin stood at the edge of the forest, on the border between the forest and the swamp, perched along her body were several small forest creatures: birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and others. Genjutsu was effective on more than humans, after all, any creature with a sufficiently developed brain could be influenced and animals were even easier to control than humans.

It wasn’t difficult for the forest creatures to lead Chi Lin to the exit; after all, the organizers couldn’t possibly have traversed the whole forest while avoiding every single organism therein. Which ninja would even be constantly on guard against regular rodents and songbirds? Maybe if the forest dwellers showed signs of being influenced by chakra for surveillance or otherwise; but, only the most paranoid of people would be always on guard against regular animals.

That being the case, as long as Chi Lin had the animals relay the activities of the people who were in the forest about 20 minutes prior—before any of the participants could possibly have entered the forest—then those people were certainly the test’s proctors and organizers, she could then follow the path they took out of the forest.

Now that she’d arrived at the second obstacle, Chi Lin released her genjutsu, and the forest dwellers scattered. The illusionist gazed at the swamp and then threw her branch into the water. As it hit the water the branch was quickly torn apart by a ferocious set of jaws.

Now that they’d moved it was far easier to identify the predators that lurked in the swamp. Chi Lin could see their eyes just above the water’s surface, carefully watching her.

“Since you want to look then enjoy!” After weaving a few hand seals, four will-o-wisps began to revolve around Chi Lin, casting their light across the swamp’s water. Chi Lin simply waited, using the lurk-and-ambush tactics of the predators against them. The longer they watched, the greater the effect of her genjutsu.

A minute later Chi Lin was gliding across the water’s surface while her will-o-wisps spun around her. Upon closer inspection one might notice that a float of swamp-dwellers was below her feet, carrying her through the swamp.

 

[~Nilion~]

While quietly watching from a distance, Niko spotted both Akuto and Mitsuko on the outskirts of the swamp. The former had jumped down into the mud below, revealing it to be surprisingly deep and just thin enough to sink right through.

“It would be those two.” The young Hokori muttered to himself while infusing chakra into his feet. He activated both Water Walking and Chakra Walking at the same time; the first was intended to create more solid footing when he stepped down and the second would allow him to push off the any surface, no matter how slippery the ground or awkward the angle.
Now fully prepared, Niko dashed off as if the race had begun again, aiming to blast by the other participants. As he flew past, the thin, soupy mud behind him was kicked up into the air, where it would likely shower the pair in a brown rainstorm.

 

[ThAtGuY101]

~Kaldo...~

And just like that, Kaldo was nearing the water's edge. He found a nice tree just begging to be carved into. An arrow pointing to the right. If one looked to the right of the arrow, they would find a crudely drawn middle finger with the words written above it reading as, 'Made you look'.

Contempt with this, he continued onwards. Though not without munching on some wild cranberries he wound. As well as some water chestnuts and a few other edible plants he found while traveling around the swampland.

Kaldo even had to catch Rebies as the little leaped from his pockets. As agile as rats may be, catching a bird mid-flight was not going to happen. At this point, Kaldo found a quicksand pit and decided to use earth style to make stepping stones to travel over the pit rather than around it. He drew a smiley face on the last stone as well as another message, "if you are using these stepping stones, your welcome" before running off further down the path so not to be spotted.

 

[Godjacob]

Mitsuko had raced to get ground, trying to make it towards the front of the pack and she seemed to do just that, to make it even better, the person she caught up with happened to be the person she desired to beat in this race the most. Immediately Mitsuko's expression shifted to that of an annoyed scowl as she landed just before the swamp and shot a dagger Akuto's way.

"I commend you for living up to your title, and nothing else. But if you think a cheap trick like that would keep me back, you are a bigger fool than I anticipated." Mitsuko mused to Akuto as the matter of how to transverse the muddy swamp was now the new topic as it seemed to cause disgust and some problems for certain contenders.

However, before she had much chance to process this, another figure seemed to speed through them, and mud shot up and Mitsuko had to leap back as she wanted to avoid making a mess of her kimono this early while another contender seemed to speed past them.

"Apologies but I cannot waste my time with you. I have a race to win." Mitsuko mused a bit as she pulled out her master's blade. His Katana, Midnight Maiden, and scanned the swampy field ahead of her as she took a deep breath and some chakra seemed to gather.

"Single Sword Style....Unyielding Slash!"​

Mitsuko drew her blade and delivered an open slash with the air, and the current of air and chakra actaully slashed across the swamp ahead of her; cutting a path several feet within the swamp and a literal parting of the (Figurative) sea as a clear path was opened as mut and water was shot into the air by the force of the invisible slash. All the way up to a distant log, with this opening Mitsuko quickly dashed along the "dry" path and raced with a burst of speed to the log. She landed on it as the water an mud would descend back down and began to close the path behind her as she glanced at Akuto. And of all things, passed a smug smirk.

She would then prepare her blade to repeat this process, and advance even further along this path.