Chapter 4 : May the winds guide you

This topic is for:

• Akira
  
• Hina
  
• Hiten
  
• Meran
  

During the first post, each of the above mentioned players can describe the following:

• How they experienced the remainder of the night.
  
• Which weapon they have chosen from the armory.
  
• How they experienced the road to their current location.
  
• Anything they might find relevant and find the need to express before play commences.
  

This topic will be run by Green Admin and he will take over after everyone has made their opening post.

A short synopsis of the evening.

Quote :

Kazenkou would take Hina to grab some food, Hina would notice that she'd pay for this food from her own pocket. She would give 1 tray with 4 meals to hina, taking a second tray with 3 meals with herself.
After they returned, she pressed upon Hina to make sure Akira ate all of her food.

She did not enter with Hina, instead joining the three ANBU outside. She would negotiate with the flak jacketed ANBU and he would bow and leave the immediate sight of the students.
The other two ANBU would leave as well. But the four would know they would not go far.

Both the Flak jacketed and the White ANBU took a plate from the tray.

Kazenkou ate her food quickly, then she took up position to guard the room.

The night itself went by without any problems. Those waking up every now and then would notice Kazenkou checking up on them every so often, but she would quickly put them at ease if she notices anyone waking up from her coming and goings.
Wakers would also see the ANBU's changing shifts.

The next day the group would be taken to the armories by Kazenkou and they are allowed to pick 1 weapon each. The Kunai's given to them by kazenkou were taken back by her.
They were also given 2 half liter bottles of water each. These were placed in a pouch on a belt. One person also got a compass from Kazenkou.

After they all selected their weapons, they would be blindfolded, taken to a vehicle for quick transport and driven to an unknown location near the river country. The group was ordered to stay blindfolded, until 5 minutes after their dropping. Then the vehicle drove of, they only felt a strong wind after that.

Akira has -3 HP during this event. Arm is no longer broken and can be used, however the fracture is more prone to reappear. Doctors have warned her from using it and have provided her with a sling.

Players can use any information above for their first post. However, taking your blindfold off before Green Admin posts may result in dire consequences...

Have fun!

Hina had walked out the room, with Chouchou on her back, of course. As she excited she tried to spot the ANBU. Once she found the one she was looking for out of the three she attached chakra strings to her puppet and let Chouchou wave a him from her back. Hina had a huge shit-eating grin on her face. After Kazenkou had thrown her a questioning look she had just smiled innocently and replied she wanted to "let the ANBU know she was thankful for their protection". It seemed like Kazenkou was satisfied with the answer, since she just smiled back, lightly patted Hina on her head. Hina didn't think too much of Kazenkou paying for the food herself. She would probably get the money back later or something, right? After Hina had promised she would make Akira eat her entire meal she walked back into the room, with four plates balancing on her tray.

After she had finished her food, brushed her teeth, changed into a pair of pyjamas she plonked back on her bed and took to the considerable task of taking her hair out of the three ponytails and brushing it all out. Once she was satisfied that it was completely smooth she put it all in one thick braid. After a little bit more talk they all decided to call it a night and go to bed. By this point even Hina was yawning. She pulled the curtains for from the comfort of her bed by using Chouchou.

She had awoken once to the door opening, but it was only Kazenkou, who threw her a comforting smile. Hina felt much more safe knowing that Kazenkou and the ANBU were, if not all awake, at least working in shifts. This knowledge caused her to sleep through the rest of the night, because she knew she was safe and she would need her energy for the next days. Apparently they would have to walk from River's border. Yippee... Though, the prospect of being outside the city walls was exciting. And they got to sleep under the stars.

At the armoury Hina chose a medpack. (If this is not allowed, or an option, she'll likely go for a pack of kunai.) As she made her way back to the door she passed Meran. They locked eyes for a fraction of a second. Time to put the plan they had discussed the previous night into action. She took a moment to mentally prepare herself, and.. "AAAAAAAHHHH!!!" a high-pitched scream of utter terror filled the room and all eyes turned to her, "A scorpion! A scorpion!" She panicked, pointing to a corner of the room, almost in tears. She jumped around and grabbed at the sleeve of Kazenkou. "It's there! In the corner! Get it!" Her eyes were wide and her pupils dilated, tears brimming around the corners. She flung her arms to the side and attached chakra strings to 10 items on the shelves lining the walls, pulling her arms towards herself again she brought the items (she had chosen the ones that would open up or make a lot of noise) crashing to the floor where the "scorpion" was. (D rank Expression)

After she had been "calmed down" and assured that there wasn't a scorpion anywhere she walked out, skittishly. For all sights and appearances very flustered at just having had a panic attack. Outside she shook it off and tried to look like she was trying to get over it, flashing her eyes towards the door every now and then to make sure the "scorpion" wasn't coming out to get her. 'I hope he got something good,' she thought, completely calm on the inside, except for the thrill at having pulled a prank just now.

After a bit of goofing around when they got the blindfold on, Hina tried to trip Meran, which didn't work out well for either of them, she got in the vehicle. She knew where they were going. As she was led out of the vehicle she stood still, listened to the instructions of not taking off the blindfold for 5 minutes. As the car drove away she listened in which direction it went (Not sure if i need to do an investigation roll, since she's listening and any non-deaf person can hear which way a car drives. Up to admins.), quickly announced to her friends she would be counting for them and started counting in her head. 'One. Two. Three...' The wind pushed her hair, which was back in her trademark four ponytails again, in her face and she blindly pushed it aside, continuing the counting.

Meran almost did not manage to stay awake long enough for Hina and Kazenkou to return with their food. It really had been a long an tiresome day and he almost fell asleep where he sat. So instead of happily communicating and laughing, he quietly worked at preparing himself for bed.

He took use of the opportunity to take down his ninwire trap from around the door and store it away inside his boot. No one had known that Ranmaru had allowed him to keep that wire, so perhaps he could smuggle it with him to the exam as an additional item.

As the food arrives he would grab a plate to himself and eat his serving of the food. Taking great delight in the taste of the food. The four would all sit with each other and as they ate, Meran quietly explained his plan for the next day. He would need the help of at least one of them.
He would show them some notes in his book and explained to each what his goal was.

After diner, he quickly changed, but he was done way before Hina. Unlike her, he paid very little attention to his hair and would have slept in his clothes if his night clothes had not been brought.
The time Hina spend on her hair, he spend studying his book. Updating the notes on the different people and at the last, he stripped out 1 page, while laughing quietly. He tried to hide it, but the others would know he had thought up another little plan. He would show Hina what he had written down, before folding the note in half and placing it beneath his pillow.

He did not have the best night of sleep, though he was tired, he kept waking up to the noises in his room. At one point Kazenkou quietly reprimanded him, for trying to stay up, even though she had told him to sleep. But Meran could not help it, he wanted to sleep, but his mind kept him from a deep sleep, being alert and on the look out for trouble.
He slept lightly waking for each noise.

The next day, Meran would quickly dress into his traveling gear. Which basically was his normal clothes, but a scarf was added to protect against the harsh winds and a long traveling cloak. He knew his friends all had the same protection against the elements, but did their parents remember to get it to the hospital as well? Before he put on the scarf, he would put on his headband loosely around his neck. Filled with pride, but today he would need to prove he'd earned it.

As they left the hospital, Meran would make a detour by the ANBU that had protected them that night. He would bow for each of them, thanking them for their help and protection, however he would do something more towards the white ANBU. Meran would put on his most devilish grin, take out the folded piece of paper of the night before and hand the White cloaked ANBU the slip of paper. It read:

Quote :

"We know!  


Love Hina and Meran."

Slightly smaller in a little corner the following was added

Quote :

"She knew last.."

That small sentence was added after Meran had shown Hina. He had not told her about it either.


At the armoury, Meran would take his time choosing what he would bring to the desert with him.
The truth was, he had already picked the four items he would take and all this picking and choosing was mostly to position himself. This was a plan he had come up with last night. For a glance, Meran and Hina locked eyes and that is when the commotion would start.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Hina would scream, causing the distraction they planned the night before. Kazenkou would know that Hina was indeed terrified of scorpions. He turned around sharply to look in Hina's direction, but more to see if she was succeeding in grabbing the attention of the people present.
When she got their attention, Meran would quickly slip two packs of nin-wire and one pack of explosive tags beneath his travel cloak. He had chosen to grab these for their small size, making sure that he would not be spotted taking them. The chaos of the falling objects that Hina pulled towards her would also cover his theft. After the commotion, Meran would offer to help picking up the different fallen items.
(C-rank Larceny)

When the things settled, Meran would think for a little while longer and he would thoughtfully ask for the Ninjatõ. The weapon would seem strange to Meran's side, however a glance in the direction of Akira would quickly reveal the true intention of Meran's choice of arms. His weapon was the sand after all, so he would pick for the group. He flashed his grin for a second towards Akira and Hiten, they would know he already secured his weapons.
(This paragraph only happens if he succeeds, should he not succeed in the theft, he would show 1 pack of the stolen nin-wire and fain ignorance, saying he just picked his selected weapon and stowed it away due to the commotion.)

The tripping would indeed not work out well for the both of them. Meran would indeed trip, the problem for Hina was that he woudl trip over her and take her down with him, upending them both.
This resulted in Kazenkou clicking her tongue for their action and helping them both up. Meran was glad that Hina counted for the duration the blindfold had to stay on, because Meran himself had been trying to keep the passage of time, the directional changes and speed of the vehicle in mind during the trip. Which involved a lot of counting.

It did not work, except for giving him a slight headache, but he thought he could make a slight estimate on how far out they were actually dropped.. From the information that Kazenkou he had given him, he also knew that he would be in a north eastern direction from Suna. Those two would be enough for now, the others would have paid attention to other things. He calmly waited until Hina would announce when it was time to take of the blind fold.

The night was a long and dull one. Hiten slept from time to time but also spended a lot of time thinking about what was about to happen. He stared out the window and sighed.


When he was allowed in the armory Hiten immediatly picked a Senbon pack and walked out.
It was a simple and effective choice but somehow he felt urge to practise other weapons as well.. Maybe after the mission.


At the day they would leave Hiten made a quick detour to his home and geared up.
When Hiten was done he stepped in the van and tried to grab a little extra rest. The blindfold did not allow him to see his surroundings anyway. "See you guys when we arrive."

They were guided out of the bus.
Hiten kneeled and touched the ground. Trying to determine how humid it was. (Roll survival and whatever is needed. )

(Short and maybe lame post.. but not much time atm.. )

Akira needed little persuasion to finish her meal and she wolfed down the food with ease. Meanwhile Meran revealed his plans, which Akira wholeheartedly approved of. After the food her friends went to change into their sleepwear, but Akira needed to do no such thing. She was already stripped off her garb and clothed in hospital gown, lying warmly underneath the covers of her bed.

The one thing she decided to do before getting ready to sleep was undo her high ponytail. She rarely wore it loose, finding the long strands a major bother during training and... well, always actually. If she wore it loose the desert winds would whip it around her face, obscuring her vision, not to mention the tangles it caused... So she always tied it up, out of the way, save for a few strands framing her face.

She remembered having wondered if she shouldn't just cut it off and be done with it. She'd come close a couple of times... but stubborn pride always came in the way. She wasn't that vain, but she was proud of her hair. It reminded her of the fact she wasn't just a shinobi, she was also a girl, a kunoichi--and a good-looking one at that.

Though she considered her hair to be annoying at times, she needed only to look at Hina's hair to know she wasn't that bad off. As her shiny jet black hair cascaded down, she took to finger-combing the long dark locks while she watched Hina begin the tedious task of taking out her three ponytails and working it into a braid.

Oh yes, Akira had it easy. Hina's hair was twice as long as hers, and thicker to boot.

Sleep came as a blessing. She was usually a light sleeper, but after a long eventful day and surrounded by her friends, a sound dreamless sleep fell upon her with ease.

The next morning went by in a rush. Her parents had come by early on, leaving her travel cloak and scarf with the hospital reception. Not a word of encouragement was left, no note saying they bid her luck, wished her well, or anything at all. It was fine with Akira, she hadn't expected anything else from them. She knew they simply expected her to succeed.

One fleeting moment she wondered how they'd taken the news of her being injured, but the thought left her mind as soon as it had entered. She wasn't one to waste time thinking of her parents.

Kazenkou led the four of them to the armory where each of them was allowed to take a weapon. Hiten had gone first, wasting no time picking his weapon, leaving quickly. Apparently he didn't want to stick around to watch the plan spring into action.

Akira wandered past the rows of weapons, searching for the one weapon she was allowed to pick and taking her time, though she already knew what she would choose. And then it came, the shriek.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!!! A scorpion! A scorpion!"
Akira whipped her head around, wincing at the high pitched sound. God that's awful, she thought. Well done Hina, if that doesn't get everyone's attention I don't know what will.
She walked over to the area Hina had pointed and narrowed her eyes, searching for a little critter she knew wasn't there. Or...? The corners of her lips tugged upwards for a moment, but it was gone when she turned around and watched Hina with a hand on her hip and an exasperated look on her face. "Hina, it's just a scorpion, calm down," she called out. What's more fun than Hina overreacting at a fake scorpion? Pretending there actually was a scorpion. "Maybe I should catch it for you so you can have it as a pet and get over your fear!"
She started chuckling and walked away, wishing she could see Hina's face change from acted horror to actual horror. Not that anyone would notice the difference, they'd only see her becoming more afraid at the thought of getting a scorpion for a pet. Most likely there hadn't been a change at all though, and there was only the lingering doubt in Hina's mind that maybe there had been a scorpion after all...

She would search for a senbon pack and present it as her weapon of choice, taking the compass as well. The travel to their destination was long and mostly uneventful, apart from when they got into the van when she heard Hina and Meran stumbling over each other, the fools.

Akira kept standing after they arrived at their destination. She'd sat for so long in the vehicle, it felt good to use her legs again. She didn't really like traveling by automobile. When they were instructed to wait five minutes, Hina announced she was going to be counting. Akira eagerly awaited the moment she could take off her blindfold.

Meran sadly would not be able to nick his intended tools.
During the ride for the people trying to keep tack of the voyage proved very difficult, not only did they drive for what seemed like hours on end, the bus kept it's speed varied making guessing the distance nigh impossible. When they finally arrived it was already getting close to sundown by the looks of the position of the sun.
Hiten would instead of dirt or sand feel grass so they had crossed over into an area that is atleast of savana nature. Slowly the 5 minutes ticked by in an etarnal nature that is only experienced when you actively count time.

(Because of the modest description of what we'll see upon taking off our blindfolds I've taken it upon myself to add a little bit more flavour text. Please let me know if my visions don't correlate with the admins' visions and I will edit it.)

'298. 299. 300.' The five minutes were up. Without saying a word, and as silent as anyone could be, Hina reached up and untied the blindfold around her eyes. She blinked a couple of times to get used to seeing again. They were standing in a haphazard circle, none of them actually facing the centre. She was standing in between Hiten and Akira, with Meran on the opposite side.

Around them grass plains stretched out. Not the rich green kind of grass, but the longer, more yellow type. There were a couple of trees standing around here and there, providing small patches of shade during the, no doubt, still quite warm days. Not as scorching as in the desert, but hot nonetheless. Behind Meran the vague green and contours of trees could be seen. No doubt the beginning of a forest. On the other side of their little circle, behind Hina, the sun was on its way to set, casting everything and everyone in a soft golden light. Above the foursome a large sky stretched out, lightly hinting towards a darker shade of blue in the east, and become more red and orange by the second in the west. The temperature was comfortable, not too warm, not too hot. The kind of temperature you get between a hot day and a cool night. The air was more humid than the shinobi children were used to, seeing as they were obviously no longer in the arid desert. Wildlife was not to be seen, probably having been scared away by the motorised vehicle.

Hina reached over to Akira standing on her right and simultaneously put a light hand on her shoulder, while pressing her left index finger against Akira's lips, indicating her to stay quiet. She tugged at Akira's blindfold, causing it to fall loose. She reached over to her left and repeated the same process with Hiten. This caused only Meran to stand there blindfolded.

At their inquiring looks Hina pointed towards Meran with a twinkle in her eye. She clearly wanted them to pull a trick on the boy. Her earlier trick of trying to get him to trip worked out... badly. Besided, he hadn't managed to nick some extra weapons, which was kind of funny, seeing as how Meran was surprisingly very good at stealing things. So now that she had an advantage over him, not being blindfolded, she wanted to give it another shot. Also, she decided to let the others in on the fun as well. She made a shoving motion with her hands, indicating to her friends she wanted someone to give Meran a push, and attached strings to Chouchou. She let the puppet loosen herself from around her shoulders, making sure she didn't let Chouchou make the "rattling sound" her dad used a lot. Something about intimidating the enemy. She let Chouchou fly to behind Meran's knees and braced herself for a pull on the strings.

If Akira or Hiten could give Meran a shove he would instinctively take a step backward, trip over Chouchou and be sent to the floor. Of course he wouldn't harm himself. That would either his shinobi reflexes or his sand, in one way or the other, prevent. Meran's special sand made him in some ways the most infuriating person to pull pranks on, but in another way the perfect victim. Sure, she could never seriously hit him, which meant that not all pranks worked, but she could also never seriously hit him, which meant she didn't have to think about not hurting him.

*** Might Edit, depends on being pushed or not ***

Meran would fall... hard... He did not expect Hina to do something like that and his sand was all in armor, so it did not stop her. Luckily it prevented him from being hurt, but there still was a hurt look on his face, visible as the blindfold was knocked loose with the fall.

All the boy could do was look hurt at Hina. "That was cheap, Hina!" Meran would say and then looked down at the sand that was reforming around his body, forming the armour once more. "I thought we agreed not during missions... I trusted you..." He emphasized the past tense, playing up his pain. The thing that was hurt most was his pride. But he had indeed trusted her not to do such a thing in this situation. He had let his guard down and she took advantage of his trust.

He would get up slowly, playing as if he had indeed hurt more than reality and let out a moan every now and then. After getting up he would look at his surroundings, he didn't spot anything particularly interesting. After walking around he would look at the group and make a suggestion.
"Two possibilities..." He would raise two fingers, dropping one of them he would continue "One, we go on our way right now, getting as much distance as possible and walking while it is very cold."

He stopped for a moment calculating his words estimating the amount of sunlight left based on it's position. "Two, we make the most of the last hour of sunlight and make ourselves better prepared. We could set traps in the hope of catching a good supply food and stay warm near a fire in some shelter for the night. Rest a bit from our trip, as one keeps watch and then get moving about an hour before sunrise." Meran would glance around at the position they were at the moment.
Then he would give his opinion.

"Both have advantages and disadvantages. I would normally go for the second option right away, this is a lush area where I am sure we would be able to catch some supplies while not draining too much of our current supplies. We could make a dew trap to resupply our water and perhaps trap some animals for our food stocks. However we need to consider that we might have some Guuzou trouble on our way. So do we want to stick around at the drop site for a night?"

"Personally I am still in favor of being prepared before moving. You guys know that I am not a bad trapper..." Then again, he was not a bad thief either. He should work on his thieving skills... He would look to the others, waiting for their opinion.

"I would not mind getting some food to go before moving, but what do you guys think?"

Akira rolled her eyes in silence, though a smirk played on her lips. Fine, this once she'd oblige Hina. It did seem too good to pass up, and Meran frequently pulled tricks on Hina as well.

So she gave Meran a shove and saw him stumble and trip over Chouchou. The best part of it all: he immediately placed the blame on Hina. Akira's face was schooled into a placid mask, but inside she was chuckling. As expected, a guild trip followed with Meran trying to make Hina feel bad--which didn't work at all. And soon he moved on into serious mode, the past forgotten. Same old, same old.

Akira took a moment to glance around and take in their surroundings. She'd never been out of the desert. The only grass she'd ever seen was in Suna's botanic garden and in some yards of influential people who had too much money to spare so they wasted it on dumping sweet precious water that could have been used for people... on their greenery.

It was odd to stand in a sea of grass, moving like slow gentle waves in the occasional breeze. The trees were different than the ones she was used to as well. They were tough plants just like the sturdy, hardy desert trees, but loafier and much higher. She thought she recognized acacias.

Even though she'd never been outside the desert, she knew quite a bit about other environments, though only from books. From the looks of it, they appeared to be in a savannah. Behind Meran, to the east, were hints of a much greener and lush area. Behind Hina, to the west, the sun was setting.

"I think we should stay in this area for the night," she replied to Meran. "Not necessarily here in this exact place, but general here."

She pointed to the green area in the distance behind Meran. "Seeing that's east and it's lush and green, I'm guessing that must be River country. The sun is setting in the west behind Hina, and this sea of tall dry grass continues as far as I can see in that direction. That's the way back to the desert. Once we get there, we won't have much options as to getting food and water, so I agree with stocking in now."

It was pretty quiet, she realized. She remembered she had a compass on her and took it in her hand, checking if north, south, east and west were truly where she thought them to be. It was a survival exercise. What if those who had brought them here had left them in an area genjutsu so see if that would throw them off course?

(survival skill, reading compass. Not sure if I should put it here, but I'd like to know if our sense of direction is correct )

Hina smiled evilly at Akira's assistance with her plan. Akira shoved Meran and Hina held against the pull on the chakra strings as Meran instinctively took a step back to regain his balance and tripped over Chouchou. Hina started laughing as Meran landed on his butt. She let Chouchou fly back to her, the limbs flailing wildly to check for any damages, and attach herself to Hina's shoulders again. However, her laughter stopped at Meran's hurt look. "That was cheap, Hina!" Her insides froze for a split second. Was he really hurt? He couldn't be, right? She got a guilt-ridden look on her face. She had forgotten all about their agreement not to pull pranks on each other during the mission. It was just that this was their first mission ever and the opportunity was perfect and she hadn't been thinking and she didn't think he would get hurt. She bit on the inside of her lip, tearing a little wound on the inside of her mouth out of nervousness.

However, when he started moving around and moaning extra, pretending to be hurt she snapped out, "Oh suck it up, Meran! I know you have your sand armour." She played mean to hide her own discomfort and turned away from the other guys, pretending to survey the area instead. Her arms were crossed and she buried the lower half of her face in the desert scarf in an unconscious physical barrier against mental attacks. At a first glance it would look like she was sulking.

She listened to the others talking about possible tactics. Since she was still in her "bitchy mood", especially towards Meran, she couldn't help but point out the first flaw she found in his plan, "We have a litre of water each. And where would we store the extra water anyway? Sounds like too much work for too little gain." She stared the horizon and almost immediately felt bad for snapping at Meran. It was like she could hear her mother telling her she needed to be a kind person. A lady, in other words. She let out large sigh, dropped her arms and turned around to face her friends. She didn't quite look him in the eyes, in stead her gaze was directed at his left knee, "I'm sorry, Meran," she said, sounding slightly involuntarily, even though she meant it. She lifted her gaze and continued: "Also, I think it's a good idea to stock up on food and take the first night to do so. Since this is a warm climate a lot of animals will be out during the night. I suggest we also set up camp somewhere. At least one of us starts on making a fire. Trapping animals sounds good. We should find some animal trails."

Meran would take the bad mood of Hina, she had those every now and then. Dad had told him that it was normal for women to have bad moods. But he had also expressed not to ask them about it. It would make it worse. Meran just shrugged and took it like it was. He had some knowledge of the female anatomy since that talk and all his instructors had been very clear... When it was that time... lay down an offering, preferably something sweet, back away slowly without looking them in the eyes and when you are far enough away, run like hell...

Though Meran believed that it would not be as bad as the men in his life made it seem, it seemed better not to argue at that point. So he did not.

He did however keep his distance, but he was surprised she apologized. That made him risk a little key note."We might not be able to carry the water now, but we might find or salvage a container and it would mean that at the moment we can be less conservative with the water we do have." Meran hoped he would be able to find some way to carry extra water. It would be a benefit for the journey ahead.

"Well..." Meran would look around at the group. "We agree to leave in the morning then... I suggest we split up, two teams, one to set snares for the night and try and hunt some animals, the other to find a good camp site? Let's agree to stay close to each other though, not heading out further than we can hear each other."


Looking at the group, he would take out the 5m nin wire he salvaged from the fight with Ranmaru from his boot and hand it to whoever would go out to hunt. "I would like to go out to hunt. Who will join me?"

Meran would start preparing some simple traps from 2,5m of the 5m piece he had salvaged. If the group would not mind him going to trap and catch, he would set out and spread the snares around at promising tracks, he would also keep an eye out for big game. It should take only 30 minutes to an hour, then he would return to base, to see how things turned out over there.

[Skill checks!]
[INVESTIGATION] (E) On the area, mostly for signs of big game and also for things out of place.
[TRACKING] (D) for tracks of little critters (rabbits/rats/birds) and big game trails.
[TRAPPING] (D) To put down snares for the little critters.
[SURVIVAL] (C) To find natural containers for water, help him guide to the game trails and to find other edible foods.

"Not me," Akira replied. She could kill things, sure. But she wasn't much good at tracking and trapping, and Hina and Hiten were. "I'm going to look for a suitable place to set up camp and start a fire."

She let the others fight over who would go with Meran and started looking around. She searched for an outcrop of stone or dirt so they wouldn't have to sleep low on the ground, had a view of the surroundings, and so they would be able to keep a fire going without having to worry about lighting that sea of grass on fire. "Hiten, will you go help me? I need material for kindling." she asked after Hina decided to join Meran.

Next she'd collect dry grass, twigs, branches and rocks the size of fists to make a campfire. By the time Meran returned, she'd likely have a fire going already. She made sure to keep a reserve stock of branches she'd snapped in pieces to see them through the night without the fire dying on them. "I suggest we take on watch duty in turns tonight," she told her friends when they were all together again. "I'll volunteer for first watch."

(investigation D, survival C: look for suitable place to spend the night
survival C: start a campfire)

"I'll go hunting and trapping with you, Meran." she gave him a smile, letting him know that any and all foul mood she had earlier was gone now. And when she eyed the extra nin wire her smile became slightly larger. No matter how bitchy or snappy she may ever be to Meran or the others, they were still her best friends, and Meran was the closest thing she had to a brother. She could never stay mad at any of them for long.

"Let's do this," she said and went off with Meran to set some traps. Since she didn't have any nin wire, she instead looked for edible plants, roots, fruits or seeds around. As well as looking for animal trails and good places along those trails to set up the traps. She also kept her eyes open for signs of places where they could find water and things to store the water in. She was still slightly sceptical about the water, but then again, looking probably never hurt.

Medicine C, Chemistry D (Throwing these in because of "poisonous plants" and avoiding them, maybe. Not sure if herbal knowledge is included there.
Survival D, Traps D, Tracking D, Investigation E.

Meran and Hina ;

As the two academy students set out for the hunting and gathering tour by starting  with a little checking of the surroundings, but they would not find signs of big game nor any irregularities they would see as odd or out of place. It seemed like a quite heavily forested area with no sign of human life aside from them.
(Meran and Hina, Investigation Roll....1 success for both.)

As they would proceed to hunt for food Meran would realize that he was not really having his day for some reason. He was distracted in his mind it seemed which made him give lacking attention to the things he did causing him to miss important details and some flaws. Whatever it was his tracking was a bit off today but still he was able to find some Rabbit tracks, which was better than nothing. But by the time he found them and wanted to tell Hina about it she had already found more Rabbit tracks which had led her to a nearby gathering field full of them, the rabbit field was near a riverbank which seemed to be swarming with fish. It was evident that not many humans have come through here in recent years, or that the local authorities made a point of it to make sure this area wouldn't be heavily exploited. Still there was a hint of achievement for the young Sabaku even though it was instantly overshadowed by the success of the puppet master.
(Meran and Hina, Tracking Roll....Meran 1 success ....Hina 4 success.)

With the Trapping Meran would realize that it still wasn't his day, it was even worse now, maybe his previous failure in comparison caused his confidence to fail or maybe it was something else that was bothering him, whichever it was, he wasn't really paying attention when setting up his traps for the rabbits and the nets for the fish in the river. Both were quite easy tasks for the Sabaku, well the fishing he probably didn't have too much experience with, but rabbits and like-creatures he could definitively handle, or so he thought. Until he realized that with all of his traps, literally each and every one of them he had missed some kind of detail which caused the trap to either fall apart or not trapping the creature by either not being strong enough or having an opening that didn't hold, or in the case of the fish was large enough to go through. Whichever it was, his traps today just didn't go like they should at all.
But that wouldn't be a problem for the group at all. Luckily for him, while also potentially rather depressing, Hina seemed to have a lot more success with the trapping task as she was able to catch a total of 4 Rabbits and a net full of fish, It was hard to tell how many fish it were, but they could definitely hold out a day on those if they took it easy.
(Meran and Hina, Trapping Roll....Meran 0 success....Hina 3 success.)

The Sabaku boy however would have his moment to shine, maybe it was his lack of achievement thus far that drove him to push more for success. But success he would have when he went looking for other types of foods and not too far from the rabbit fields would realize all the rabbits ate fruits, he would have picked it up, he would also see them eat greens, carrots, carrots and berries, but non of those seemed to be on the field itself. Until he spotted one bush with berries which led him to another and as he kept tracking the small traces eventually they would bring the two of them to a riverbank near which there were trees with edible berries of 2 kinds and some carrots could be found not too far off. Meran was able to this way gather a 3 day supply of greens and fruits of good quality, nice and fresh and the fruits looked like they could last the 3 days they were good for also. Hina would find a few herbs that could be used as spicing and preservation-material for the fish she had caught.
(Meran and Hina ; Survival Roll....Hina 2 success...Meran 6 success (Special Success))

Akira and Hiten

In the meantime Akira and Hiten would set out to find a resting place for the night and set up a campfire.
While on the first task Akira would soon spot a very nice location. She had heard that the River Country was full of places like that spread over the country on sometimes rather unlikely locations, like this one. A deep large and roomy closed oval shaped cavern with a short narrow tunnel at the entrance right underneath a tree-branch in a heavily forested area. The inside of the cavern had enough room for 12 people if need be let alone the 4 of them. They'd have room to store away their things, have a campfire at save distance, have room for all to lay down, even room to dance probably if they wanted to. A nice place indeed. At least it seemed like the safest, most private and easiest to guard location that offered all they needed. And at the same time it would confirm her earlier theory of them being in the River Country.
(Akira Investigation + Survival Roll....Investigation 1 success....(+1 dice added to survival pool)...Survival 4 success.)

From there setting up a campfire would be no problem at all, they could either set one up outside of the short narrow tunnel at the entrance to the cavern or inside of it either would be good. The weather seemed to remain dry for the rest of the day , or rather night as it already was rather dark by the time all of them got back together again with their findings.
(Akira Survival roll for campfire.....3 success.)

The more Meran tried, the more he got frustrated.. All that he tried to do seemed to fail today. It started with the bloody attempt to steal some extra weapons. He did not know what went wrong there, but it set off failed attempts the entire day. Especially right now, he managed to fail each trap he prepared. Each search he intended and he did not manage to find any big game..

He was just about ready to give up and let Hiten take over for him, so he could go sulk in a corner, when he found the first berry.... He had almost thrown it away as well, certein that it would lead to yet another failure, but somewhere he found the strength to put aside his annoyance and he looks around to find some more... and some more... and then a lot...

It was enough for him to take of his scarf to be able to carry everything to the kamp. He'd even have to put some on his cloak which he would lay on a base of sand.

It was really remarkable how fruitful the land here was. It was a lot harder to grow these things in Suna. He hoped that they would have enough of these fruits and vegetables to get some home eventually. He'd show his father and let him have a taste of the riches of the far away lands.
Oh... and Kazenkou could have some as well... maybe... If she'd beg for them... Yeah most likely... She could have just helped him cheat! They were a team after all!!

He was still a bit miffed about the whole ordeal when they started heading back to what he hoped to be camp. It was already late and they still needed to prepare food and get ready to sleep. So when Hina had managed to gather her catches and Meran had his packs ready on his sand, he would lead the way back towards Hiten and Akira.

When they had found their camp he would put down the food in the cave, after which he would select a few choice vegies and fruits for their current meal.
"Watch Duty in turns was exactly my idea as well" Meran would continue their previous conversation as he sat down near the fire. "And if you want to take the first watch, I am ok with that. I do not mind to have the graveyard shift myself tonight. I also think one of us needs to sleep through the night each day. So we all get a good night's rest every 4 nights." Meran sat back for a moment, enjoying the fire, the other would know he would be planning something in his head.

The graveyard shift would be the shift in the middle of the three shifts. Considered one of the harder shifts, because one would have to sleep before and after instead of one long rest. Meran would most likely need the entire night's rest the next night, and either the first shift or the final shift would take the next graveyard shift, while the one that slept through the night would take one of their shifts. This rotation would keep all four as fresh as possible.

"Hina, would you please pass me a rabbit to skin? We need to start cooking this and I have an idea for the skin. Does anyone have a kunai I can borrow as well?" Meran would attempt to skin without any big errors, so they could use the skin later. They needed to craft something to carry the food with them...He would also keep a good eye out on their surroundings and the place they stayed at. It was almost too perfect....

Something bubbled up in the back of his mind, would the shinobi that dropped them here be so cruel?! It would explain his failures better followed by the grand success, it just seemed so unnatural... If it was not a trick, there would be a catch...


Skill Checks:

- Survival; Skinning some of the rabbits.
- Investigation/survival; Checking out the area where they stayed as he worked.(big game trails to see if we didn't accidentally decide to sleep in something's lair or such)
- Genjutsu; check to see if they were not under some genjutsu effect the sensei's put up as a challenge...
- Investigation to look out for trouble

With a focused mind Hina set out to search for animal trails. She was lucky to find a collection of burrows near a river. For a moment she just had to stand there and take in the sight. They didn't have rivers like that in Suna. In fact, they probably didn't have any rivers, period. When Meran came up to her to tell her he had found a trail she merely stepped aside to show him what she had found and he fell quiet. Not being able to help a small smirk Hina set out to set up traps.

After a while she had caught 4 rabbits and a net full of fish, and while she was waiting on the traps and net to be filled she had found some good herbs. While Meran had caught.. nothing. She could see he was less than pleased with these results and decided not to make fun of him. She knew that hunting and trapping was kind of a big deal for him, and she didn't want to rub it in. Besides, they had food now, so it wasn't as if they would be starving. Making fun of him would serve no purpose other than, well, making fun of him. She was however happy for him when he later found greens and berries to eat. Meat was nice and all, but it was a good thing that their diet would be more balanced this way.

On the way to their camp, they filled the quiet with smalltalk. Hina felt accomplished with four rabbits on a string in her left hand and a net of fish in her right as she walked towards the fire that either Akira or Hiten had started. She put down her catch and started on a rack they could use to dry/smoke the meat and fish on above the fire. "I'll take third watch!" she piped in when Akira and Meran talked about who would take what watch. She tossed one of the dead rabbits at Meran when he asked for one. Not thinking about how she was throwing around dead bunny corpses. She looked up from her work with a slight frown on her face at his question about the kunai though. Didn't... no one of them have a kunai? She didn't pick one, and she didn't think the others did. Of course, she had shuriken in Chouchou, and those would do, but it wouldn't have been as good as a kunai.

(Question for de admins. I said I'd pick a medpack, and a kunai if there aren't any medpacks in the armoury. So.. I'm guessing I too a medpack, since I never heard anything stating otherwise? But I'd like a definite on that now, so I'll know for sure. Also, is it logical that we're out on a survival trip without a knife? I'm just curious here.)

"None of us has a kunai," Akira answered instead of Hina. "Hiten and I chose a senbon pack, Hina got a medpack and you got ninwire. Chouchou has other weapons inside her though," she finished, eyeing the puppet. Senbon and shuriken. Which meant their entire arsenal of weapons did not have a single blade in it. That could prove bothersome...

She went over to Hina and picked up a dead rabbit, then looked around the cave in search of a sharp rock or flint. If she couldn't find one over there, she'd look outside the cave though she wouldn't wander far. For light, she'd take a stick from the fire and used it as a torch to light her way.

If she failed to find a sharp rock or a piece of flint to take with her, she'd go back to the fire, sit down and take a senbon from her senbon pack. The senbon were very sharp, sharp enough to draw blood if you scraped it over your skin. In other words, they were sharp enough to cut through flesh. Luckily she didn't need a large cut, a small hole would suffice, and she'd use either a sharp stone or a senbon for it.

She took the rabbit by the scruff and cut through the skin on the neck. Next she'd loop her fingers though the hole and pull the skin off the body in one smooth move. Then she twisted the neck and tore the head off the rump, before gutting the rabbit and finishing it by pushing a stick through the body, in the hindquarters and out the breast. The whole process would take less than a minute if all went as it usually did. She'd done this before, it came easy to her.

(Investigation D, survival C, athletics C: searching for sharp rocks and flint while maneuvering outside with nothing but a small torchlight.
Survival C, medicine C: preparing the rabbit.)

Akira confirmed what Hina already knew, none of them had a kunai. They did however choose two senbon packs and a ninwire pack, along with the extra bit of ninwire they already had. Maybe that hadn't been the best idea. Hina had been about to grab a kunai pack, actually, but then she noticed a shelf with medpacks, and figured that it would be wiser to make sure that if one of them got hurt, they would be able to heal them. Since no one knew how to use medical jutsu in their team. 'That's really something I've got to work on...' she mused.
"Meran," she'd say across the cave as she pulled Chouchou from her back with chakra strings. "Heads up." And when she saw she had his attention she would open the hatch to Chouchou's shuriken blaster and shoot a shuriken off at such a low speed that it made an arch through the air, so Meran would be able to easily catch it. "I want it back later, though." She said, as she attached Chouchou to her back again.

Hina watched as Akira walked over to her and nudged one of the rabbits closer to Akira with her foot. Akira picked it up and seemed to be looking for a sharp rock or something. If Akira were to go outside Hina would say, "Don't go too far." And keep her ears perched for any signs of Akira being in trouble.

As Akira walked back in the cave (this is if she walked out, otherwise it'll be around the time she would have) Hina finished up the rack for them to cook on. It wasn't really a rack. It was just two forked sticks on either side of the fire on which she could lay a third straight stick on. Hina then would let Chouchou drop a shuriken in her hand and start on slicing the fish bellies open and removing their entrails, making sure she didn't cut herself. Hiten sat down next to her and held up his hand for a shuriken as well. With a smile Hina dropped a shuriken is his outstretched hand as well. And they worked together in silence. It seemed like they would be taking care of the fish while Meran and Akira dealt with the bunnies. The razor-sharp shuriken sliced through the soft skin of the bellies easily. They left the skin and heads on and skewered the fish onto the sticks. As the fish were roasting above the fire, with Hiten turning them around every now and then, Hina sorted and divided the herbs she wanted to use to season the fish. A nice little bonus was that these would help preserve them as well.

They made sure the fire kept a steady temperature and had made a little "ember section" as well. When the fish were almost ready Hina plucked them off the sticks and she and Hiten filled the bellies with herbs. They then put them down belly-up at the edge of the embers, causing the flavour of the herbs to seep into the fish while the skin kept the meat from burning. By this time the cave was starting to smell deliciously of cooked food.

(@ Hina ; Yes you have a medpack. )

Akira would have a bit of a hard time finding the objects she was seeking due to nightfall having come a bit sooner than they had perhaps expected. However she would end up successful in her quest, but she would be successful in more than that, finding more than what she had bargained for.
As Akira had found the rocks she was seeking as well as flint nearby she would find a dead body hanging upside down in a tree by one leg. It appeared dead as it was motionless and had blood dripping down from it onto the big rock right below.
It appeared to be a peasant man around 40 with a short beard,a balding head, somewhat crooked teeth and he appeared to be severely tortured prior to his death which seemed to have been caused by simply hanging him up in that condition and leaving him there to die.
The tree where he was hung would be between other trees obsucring the sight. It was still rather dark and Akira had a hard time telling whether the man was from the Wind Country,the River Country or perhaps somewhere else. It was also hard to distinguish how fresh the body was but judging by the flies it wasn't too fresh.

Meran, Hina and Hiten would be successful at their attempts with the bunnies and Meran wouldn't be able to sense, see, smell or otherwise perceive any danger or genjutsu as he kept an eye on the surroundings. However instead of danger his eyes would fall upon a peculiar piece of woodwork he would spot inside the cave. It was in the corner of the cave, seemingly burried beneath a small pile of rocks, only one little piece was sticking out which he would see. But the Sabaku prince would know that it wasn't part of a tree as the piece of wood seemed to be smoothly shaped and polished, it was definatly the work of human hands. But it was unclear what it was exactly with just a few inches wood sticking out, but he could see that bit was part of something larger.

Akira picked up the remaining two rabbits and repeated the process of skinning, gutting and skewering. She handed the rabbits back to Hina, laying them on the ground next to her. "Maybe you can season these too?"

With Meran working on the remaining rabbit, she was done preparing the food on her part. She picked up the three rabbit skins and gave them to Meran. "Here," she said. He wanted to do something with them. Maybe he wanted to make pouches? Well, he could do what he wanted, she simply wondered whether he'd succeed. To make the skin into leather was a time consuming process, and they didn't have much time to spare.

She stood in the cave's entrance, gaze lingering outside for a moment as she decided on something. She turned to her friends. "I'm going back outside to get more flint and rocks," she notified the rest and walked back to the fire to get another makeshift torch. "I'll be back soon." She threw them a smile and went back outside, to disappear between the shrubs and trees.

But she didn't stop when she arrived at the place where she had found the flint and rock, well, aside from bending quickly to pick up a sharp piece of flint. She moved past the site, dodging a couple of branches and evading a few trees. There it was. She moved slowly, circling the big rock with the corpse dangling above. Her hand went up, taking the torch up higher.

She hadn't told the rest of her finding yet. They were busy preparing food after all, and that was a major priority. Meanwhile, Akira would figure out if this was something worth telling them. They were on a mission, and that mission was to get back to the village safe and sound. Her discovery was essentially of no importance to their mission.

Standing still and peering up at the man hanging upside down, Akira searched for clues about this man's identity. It was awfully difficult with him hanging there and her standing here. She turned the piece of flint over in her hands. "I could cut the rope..." she mumbled to herself. But when she mulled it over, she decided not to. By the looks of it, it hadn't happened recently, but it hadn't been all too long ago either because he was still somewhat recognizable and he wasn't bloated. The culprits might come back to check on the corpse or take him down, and they'd notice their little act hadn't gone unnoticed.

She didn't want to take the risk, so instead she stepped on the large rock to examine the body more closely. She scrunched her nose when the foul smell entered her nose. That thing reeked. She'd been hungry, but that stench made her lose her appetite.

Why would this man be tortured to death? He appeared no more than a simple peasant. What had he done? Who had done him in? Maybe he saw something he shouldn't have seen. Wrong place at the wrong time. Darker thoughts entered her mind. Did the ones who dropped them off know of this corpse?

With her free hand she turned the man around, careful not to touch his flesh but his clothes instead. She didn't fear death in the form of corpses and rotting flesh and bones. It was nothing, just an inanimate thing, and death was a shinobi's trade.
But it was almost time to eat and she didn't want to filthy her hands and get dangerous bacteria on her food. Wait, I just prepared those rabbits, she remembered. I need to wash my hands anyway. Shrugging, she continued examining the body as thorough as she could, even though she couldn't reach everywhere.

(Stealth D, athletics C: move quietly, don't slip or trip anywhere, especially on the slippery rock slick with blood.
Academics C, investigation D, medicine C, politics E, chemistry D, subterfuge C: get additional findings on the corpse, like where he might be from, his injuries, etc.)

"Maybe you can season these too?"
"No problem! I'll make them nice and autumn." She could almost hear the "ba dum tss!" at her bad joke. She was starting to be slightly less on edge. She had been alert before because they were on a mission, didn't know what to expect and didn't have any food, nor a place to sleep. Now they were in a cave with only one entrance, a nice fire to warm them and lots of food. With a smile she turned her attention to the rabbits. She decided to cut the meat into really thin slices, season them and dry/smoke them above the fire, effectively turning into "rabbit jerky". That way they would be kept well during their trip back to Sunagakure.

"I'm going back outside to get more flint and rocks. I'll be back soon." Hina raised her head to watch Akira go out into the darkness with a torch. And there it was again, that slightly different mindset that was creeping into her. It wasn't anything conscious she did, it was just a different way of perceiving the world around you. More alert. Less unobservant.
"Should she be walking around alone that much?" Hina questioned the boys, her hands reaching for a rabbit, "I thought we said we would always split up in teams of two." Plus, wasn't Akira still a bit sore from the fight with Souran? She plonked the rabbit down in front of her crossed legs and started on cutting the meat into strips. Clearly indicating to the boys that if they thought Akira shouldn't be out there by herself, one of them should go, because she was working on the food right now. Not that that meant she couldn't get up and follow Akira herself, but then one of the others would have to take over the food. She just wanted to get it off the floor and over the fire.

Speaking of which, it needed another branch. She picked one up off the floor next to her and deliberately placed it in the fire, poking around a bit first to make sure the embers were evenly spread. She turned her attention back to the rabbit, continuing her work with half an ear listening for any signs of trouble from Akira.

Meran would be a bit pre-occupied by the skinning and preparation of the food, so he wouldn't respond straight away to what happened around him, however after a few moments Hina would raise quite a valid point. Akira did seem to move out quite a bit. Perhaps a bit too much?!

But before too long, a quiet voice responded from the corner. It was Hiten, who was standing guard mostly for the last couple of minutes, paying attention to the fish every now and then, making sure it did not burn by turning it every minute or so. He would have no guard shift this night, so he had taken it upon himself to take a shift right now. They were after all in a hostile environment. Besides, Hiten never was one for preparing food. He rather do the shinobi tasks of fighting and protection.
He could survive quite admirably on his own and he did know how to survive, but if his friends wanted to take care of the work, he was cool with that.

So when Hina raised a question about Akira, he was quick to make it his task to explore and look after the girl. "Stay cool, I'll go check on her." He simply stated without a lot of elaboration. He was a boy of little words and mostly he only spoke when needed. Besides, he had kind of taken the task upon himself to loo out for everyone. So, he quietly left his post and turned to face this new task. Quiet, Cool and Relaxed are the three words that would describe him best right now and he would set out in the direction that Akira had set out in.

Meran would shrug and let Hiten take care of it. He would trust in the abilities of their friends. Besides... Akira was just looking for more rocks... It is not like she was doing something secret and dangerous or anything...
So the oldest boy of the group would focus on other tasks. Meran would get up and stretch and as he did so, sand shot away from his body in multiple directions. He had shifted most of his sand into their default tasks, so it was floating around his body, shielding him now.

With some effort, the boy directed a size 1 amount of his sand into the fire to heat up. He took care not to burn the sand or heat it up too much, but just enough to heat the grains to a point where they would sear flesh. He uses his special sand for this, because that sand could handle a lot more than regular sand, so this should not be any problem.

As he kept the sand moving among the coals and fire, he obviously kept it away from the food, but he kept it moving as well, so the grains of sand would warm up evenly and due to the current of air, more rapidly.

Meanwhile he would turn the rabbit pelts inside out, so the fleshy side shows. The boy knew that he could combat the decay of the pelts by removing the flesh, however they did not have a knife. So an alternative method should be used. Searing the flesh of, was also an option, which should work. Even though it was not ideal. The mayor downside to the method is that the pelt would end up more rigid and a little less durable, however it would be sterile and should hold out long enough for them to get back home.

The boy would remove the sand from the fire when it was heated adequately and make a bed from about half of it. Then he would place two of the skins on it. After which he would place the rest of the heated sand on top.

This would need to take a couple of minutes, so after preparing the first two skins, he would turn his attention to the other thing he found. The wooden object in the cave. He would send some of his sand flying towards the strange half buried object and with careful finger motions would start to excavate the objects from a safe distance. The things he found, he would let his sand bring towards himself and exhibit it before himself on the ground.

Halfway to his second task, he would return his attention to the pelts. That should do it for the first part, now for his next trick.
The red haired boy would place his two palms together and start to motion them in opposite directions, the two layers of sand would start to mimic his movements, scraping the flesh from the pelts. Again, this was not the ideal method, but it was the quick method...

After this treatment, it was time for another rest, in which time, Meran would heat up the following batch of hot sand. It would replace the previous batch, which after being replaced would return to the fire to burn clean.

After all that, which should take a mere couple of minutes, he would return to excavating the strange wooden objects. "What do you make of this?" He would ask Hina after things would start to appear.

Survival check and Saton check for the bunny pelt prep.

Hiten calmly walked towards a tree and jumped on a large branch to get a better view of the surrounding area. 'Typical Akira.. Walking off alone, Not telling where she's at.. Hopefully she's not getting into trouble.' He sighed and kept scanning the surrounding area. Through sight,sound,smell you name it.. he's trying.
**Survival roll. Tracking Roll.**

As the night grew darker and Akira's motions and actions grew stealthier and disappeared into the darkness towards the dead and hanged body to examine it, Hiten would find himself unable to track her movements at the moment it was way too dark in these woods at this time, they were lucky they had some fire.

As Akira would examine the body she would recognize the clothing as common wear from River Country, the man was a local, but probably quite far off from his place of origin as there weren't any towns or cities near the borders of the country, mostly just deep woods or open fields or rock formations with rivers, rivers everywhere...that's why they called it the river country maybe.
A farmer of some sort she thought, but she wasn't sure as some of his clothing seemed to slightly resemble some kind of village guard or militia too, but seeing his clothing was ripped here and there it was hard to be certain.
She couldn't tell how long the man had been dead, but what she did find is that his body was tinkered with before it was hanged, his entire skin seemed to be smeared with some kind of chemical substance, a salve of sorts. She recognized it as something used for mummification and for protecting a dead body making sure it wouldn't rot or deform but stay fresh looking for a longer time. It seemed like a somewhat advanced version though. The foot by which he was hanged was cut open at the back and bleeding out onto the rock, where underneath the blood now she would notice there was a seal engraved into the rock onto which the blood was falling. This salve made it near impossible for someone her level to figure out the time of death, she would be certain of that.
"You need to get out of here. I have a bad feeling. And you must live. You know this. It is my duty to keep you alive and make sure you grow strong." The voice would sound inside her mind.

As Meran began to excavate the wooden things he would realize that the piece of wood he had spotted belonged to a humanoid looking wooden arm, which clearly used to be a part of a shinobi puppet from their village. Judging by the damage on the end that would be connected to the shoulder being damaged the arm was torn off the puppet through some sort of bashing damage, perhaps the rocks that it was buried under. But there didn't seem to be any other puppet parts laying around, just a few more splinters of wood denoting that it was indeed from a puppet that had sustained damage. Perhaps the puppeteer had spare parts and preferred to substitute the arm with a new one rather that doing some repair work.

(Click it)
Hina nodded when Hiten walked out to check on Akira. She expected Akira to be just outside the cave, so not really anywhere dangerous or far off, and within earshot of them should anything happen, but it would be wise to not be alone either way. Especially since they had the ability to split up in groups of two. She and Meran continued working on in silence, with only the sound of his sand scraping against the rabbits' skins, the rustle of her herbs and the occasional crackling of the fire. Every once in a while a small batch of sand would float into her vision and nestle itself in the fire to heat up. 

She liked this little moment of relative peace and at least silence. Her head was so busy all the time, with her thoughts twisting and turning. And when she focused on one thing, it didn't allow her thoughts to drift all over the place, causing chaos in her mind. And the heat and white noise from the fire was soothing for her thoughts as well. Even though she still had an ear out for any trouble from outside.

After she had finished the last work on the food Hina put down the last rabbit and stretched her arms above her head, stretching her limbs out. Her back and shoulder joints popped and she let out a content sigh. She pushed her hair over her shoulders and leaned back on her hands, stretching her legs out in front of her. She let her eyes wander around the cave, and noticed Meran's sand was pulling something from under some rocks in a corner.

"Whatcha got there, Meran?" she asked, as she sat up a bit straighter.
"What do you make of this?" he said as he laid the thing down. She got up and walked over to the object his sand had just now placed on the ground. As she got closer she exclaimed "It's a puppet arm!" Even though she was sure he would be able to see that as well. A small smile of wonder and excitement appeared on her face. Whose was it? Why was it here? What happened to it? What happened to the owner? She looked up at Meran, a glint of eagerness and, dare I say it, nerdy excitement, glowed in her eyes. Meran on the other hand didn't look quite as excited. Of course not. This wasn't his area, this was hers. Meran would get excited over other things. Like black volcanic ash/sand which he could control. Speaking of sand, his was clearly not as excited about the find. It was stirring about a bit, floating through the air.

She hurried over to the arm and, after checking for any hidden seals or traps that might explode or activate upon touch, though she doubted it, she would pick it up. It obviously belonged to a Suna shinobi. She wondered if she knew the person. She walked over to the fire with the arm and sat down by the light for further assessment. "Come look, Meran!" she said, ignorant to the fact that others might not get as excited about a broken piece of puppet.

"See this?" she asked as she pointed to the damage, "Bashing. Something hard or heavy must've hit it. I wonder if there was a fight in this cave." she muttered. "I wonder why the owner didn't take it with him." If she had such a puppet part, she definitely wouldn't leave it behind. She would take it with her and repair the arm. She wondered what kind of puppet user would have such an abundance in puppet parts that they wouldn't care about one more or less.

She started scrutinising the arm. Trying to find clues about the maker; was it from the same shop Chouchou came from? Or was it custom made by a Chikamatsu? About how long ago it was made. If there were any weapons; both obvious and hidden. What the condition of the arm was, by checking the joints with her hands and by attaching her chakra strings and trying to control it. All the while muttering unintelligible things.

(Subterfuge C, Academics C, Craft (Puppetry speciality) C, Ninjutsu (Puppetry speciality) D, Investigation E, (not sure if I should add weapon searches).