Chapter 4 : May the winds guide you

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).

"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."

When she was younger, the voice used to alarm her and send a chill down her spine. That reaction had stopped long ago though, and she had become familiar with the voice over time. She didn't mind it, even agreed with it in most cases, and her demon had proved itself a reliable ally over the years. More than once it had been right in threatening situations, saving her skin. She trusted that voice, and if it told her she was in danger, she needed to act on it.

"Alright, if you say so," she said aloud, answering the voice no one but her could hear.

She had gotten some interesting information on this dead man, but for all the things she'd found out, many questions still remained unanswered. Well, enough time spent on investigating a weird corpse that someone was trying to preserve for some reason.

Akira got down from the bloody rock with the strange seal on it. What was the seal for? She held the makeshift torch up to the rock and looked at the seal intently, memorizing it. Then she took a few steps back and gave the dead man one last scrutinizing look. Tortured, blood being drained, some preservative salve... She couldn't make much sense of it.

In any case, she had to leave, now.

Stealthily she crossed the short distance to the finding place where she'd found the flint. She scooped up a few sharp pieces and was reminded of her filthy hand. That's right, I still need to wash it, she thought. She turned her hand around in the torchlight, frowning at the stickiness attached to her skin. "Yuck." Her friends were going to have questions upon seeing her hand. Maybe she should go to the river first.

Much time to ponder this she didn't have, because Hiten came in view, standing not too far outside the cave, perched on a tree branch. "Well hello there, stranger," she joked. "I thought I told you guys not to worry." She held her bloodied hand close to her side, obscured in shadows thrown by the torchlight.

Meran was nervous... and it showed by his sand. It's movement was edgy, less fluent. As if it expected to go to work real rapidly. He had also seen that it was a puppet arm, but what was it doing here?

Meran clearly had different questions about the arm than Hina had. His thoughts strayed to Akira and to the vulnerability of their situation. It wasn't just the arm... An arm would not be enough to cause this tension in his shoulders, there was something more, something that recognized the information as not exactly right. He went over things in his mind.

Someone must have left the arm, but why leave that, why not take that along as well... Surely one would not leave one half and take along the other broken half?

But there was more that nagged in his head. The reason that he had checked around for suspicious things earlier... Things were going great for them, too good it seemed, they found this perfect place to stay, a great abundance of food and fresh water. There was nothing that actually seemed wrong and out of place, except that arm... And that was what put him on edge.

Meran tried to shake it of and turned to Hina, who was captivated by the puppet arm. He looked over the cooking for a bit, so thing would not burn and started to ponder about their situation. Letting everything they had learned about this area until today pass his mind, to see if there were some connections he had missed.

He got up and observed Hina putting the arm through its motions. Was there something odd about it? As she checked, he checked with her, using his own unique view to address the problem. In this moment she was their puppet master and he thought he knew what she would be searching for. He has know her since birth. True, he himself was little more than a baby at the time, only one and a half year old, but he had grown up with her and her clan. And if Meran knew anything about her... She would be more interested in the part itself, than she would be in the total context behind finding that part here.
At least not like Meran would, he enjoyed looking at the bigger picture and figuring it all out.

Meran had noted the damage as well, but what could have caused it? If there was a fight instead of an accident, why weren't there any other traces. Why, if he could extract the arm so easily, did the owner leave it behind?

Meran left Hina to her further studies as he himself went and tried to make more sense of the "Crime" scene, the place where the damage was caused to the puppet. He took a burning branch with him to find out more about the area. He had to be sure they were safe this night, it was after all, he who had suggested to stay the night.

At the find place he would stick the burning branch in the ground, then he would take out his little booklet and paces the area, sketching anything he would find interesting, to store the information, to better process it, so he could figure this bigger picture out.

• Subterfuge; used mostly to connect the information, find things wrong with the cave and things that do not seem to fit right
  
  
• Investigation; To find more clues on what transpired and to see if he could find out more about the arm.
  
  
• Tracking; To look for traces of what transpired here
  
  
• Intelligence; Using Meran's intelligence and willingness to learn he tries to process the information and recall information he has gathered in the past.
  

Hiten sat in the tree and stared at the stars. There was not much to see in the area and with the darkness rapidly setting in, it would be a waste of time and effort to go through the forest and search for his teammate. He should trust her capabilities of defending herself and warning the others should anything happen. He liked the sounds of the woods in the night. It always gave him a sense of how big the world usually was and that he rea..."Well hello there, stranger," The boy was slammed back into reality by the sound of Akira's voice. He sighed. "I thought I told you guys not to worry." Hiten looked at Akira and gave her a nod. "There is a small difference between, blatantly lieing and bending the truth Akira, But you are safe. And that is what is important now.. Did you find anything?

She blinked, feigning innocence. "Lying, me? No, no." She shook her head. "Okay, so I didn't exactly tell you not to worry, but I did say I'd be back soon. I wasn't gone long, was I now? And of course I'm safe, what were you all thinking?" She stopped there, realizing she was starting to ramble. She sighed, but a small smile played on her lips. Of course her friends would send someone after her. They cared for her well being. As always when they did something like this, it touched her.

Perhaps she shouldn't have left on her own, but there hadn't been a doubt in her mind she'd be fine alone in the woods. The only one keeping her company was a tormented dead man hanging upside down from a tree branch, and she was pretty sure he wouldn't pose much of a threat to her... or any of them for that matter.

All too aware of the bloodied hand hidden in shadows close to her side, she realized she couldn't keep her findings to herself any longer. "Come on down, Hiten," she called out, evading his last question. "Let's go back inside." She deemed it a better idea to tell them all at once.

Hiten smiled and jumped down.  And calmly spoke "Offcourse Akira.. You would NEVER lie to us.. How silly of me to even consider the possibility.. My apologies.." The boy smirked and walked towards the cave.

He inhaled and smelled the food when stepping inside. "Hmmm it sure smells delicious Hina, So what kind of ingredients did are you using to prepare the food? Ooow wait I see you have a new toy.. What it is for thing?." Hiten pointed at the arm Hina was holding.

"Not something that just grows in the wild... At least I hope it doesn't.. Imagine that." The thought of puppet arms growing in the wild sure was a fun.

[roll investigate/survival for the food. To see if it is done.]

As Meran concentrated his mind as his eyes, nose, hands and ears kept checking for additional details to add to the information he already posessed, a picture began to form in his mind, multiple pictures in fact, each of which showed various diffrent possibilities and with each new detail found his mind would wipe the no longer possible scenario's from his mind filtering them until only that which was still possible in his own mind remained in tact.
Still it all seemed quite like a mystery to him, the cave aside from the rubble of rocks underneath which he found the damaged puppet arm didn't seem to show many if any other signs of combat having taken place in the cave. Either someone has done a very good job to remove such evidence, or there was never a real battle in there.
Searching further through the cave he would discover they were not the first staying the night there, but this didn't come as much of a shocker seeing how ideal the position seemed to be in regards to that.
One would have to be a fool to be near this cavern, know about it and not make use of it if needed.
But some footpirnts and the freshness of the wood splinters on the ground that seemed to be ex-puppet material showed that there was someone staying there no longer than a week ago and by the looks of it, it was a group of two people. Potentially Genin like them, at least there was nothing there present to contradict it.
Meran would find nothing wrong with the cave itself.
Hina however while examening the arm would see the masterful craftsmanship that was behind it as the arm, while on first glance appearing to be a simple human-looking wooden puppet arm, was in fact a rather advanced peice of weaponry. In fact one of an expertise level she has only seen one person compare to in the past, this would be old lady Chiyo as not even her dad could craft such a masterpiece.
It was an S-rank limb part, it could de-tach and re-attach itself to the main body freely from the looks of it. The wood was prepared in such a way that it was more flexible and durable than anything she had ever seen. In fact she would know for a fact that even with the arm motionless and at her mercy, she'd have to try really hard to make a scratch in it even with a kunai, a really sharp katana would be required for this. The arm was equiped with 4 traps/weapons, but being unactive Hina could find and disassamble them if she wanted, but it just showed the skill of the puppet master behind it. The fist of the arm had a hidden blade in itself that could be retracted very fast, making it hard to even spot on the moment of attack, the blade naturally still had traces of rather potent poison on it. The fist itself could also be shot off like a projectile with the blade either out or hidden. It's de-tachable functions made it so that this fist could then later be reunited with the arm to be shot off again and again if needed. But using the fist like a projectile like this could definately surprise an unsuspecting enemy, but that wasn't all, inside the hollow arm which becomes exposed if the fist is shot out there is a net attached to a cirquit which is meant to be shot off right afther the fist, trapping the opponent to choose between being hit by either the spiked poisonous fist or the paralyzing poison drenched net meant to be his or her final resting place. Then at the side there was also an opening which had a scroll hidden inside of it. The scroll simply read 'Do Not Open ; Private Property'.

Soon as Hina would find the scroll Akira and Hiten would be re-entering the cave again together. Hiten would notice that the food was indeed done.
It was dark outside and aside for the sounds of insects and a few birds flying from tree to tree disturbing the calmness by rustling some branches it was also rather silent.

The more Hina looked at the arm, the more she got excited. It started with the material alone. She let her fingers run across the smooth material. She pushed and prodded the arm and let out small gasps of admiration. "Amazing," she whispered under her breath. She sheer and utter skill that this.. master craftsman had put into this piece was astonishing! It was almost as if the arm wasn't made out of wood at all. She could only hope to achieve such a level of expertise some day. Though, if she would have to make a guess, it would take her years to master this level of craftsmanship. She let out a small sigh of admiration. She really doubted if even her father, the strongest and most skilled puppet-master she knew, would be able to manipulate wood so delicately. It looked amazing, and it was so durable. She used her fingernails to try and gauge the durability. With wood like this, who would need metal parts for armour?! A small "Whoa." escaped her lips as she let that thought sink in. She let her fingers roam across the awe-inspiring material a little longer and then moved on to the mechanics of the arm.

She was not at all surprised when she noticed the arm was able to attach and detach. The moment she saw the skill in the woodcarving she realised this would be an S-rank puppet part. And even the weapons stored inside showed the skill of the master. She carefully studied the weapons inside and her eyes went wide when she noticed the hidden blade. An excited smile spread on her face as she attached strings to the arm to make the mechanism trigger. As the hidden blade shot out with a metallic sound she let out a delighted short laugh. "Haha! So cool!" If she hadn't been holding the arm she would have almost clapped her hands in childish delight. The light of the fire caught the blade and Hina noticed a sticky, fluid substance on it. She gasped. 'Poison!' She was about to touch the substance when she remembered her father telling her that you should never, ever, ever EVER touch an unknown poison. So she lowered her hand again. Away from the blade. What little she could gather from the poison was that it was strong. But that was no surprise. She wondered if she would ever find the crafter. She would have so many questions. And yet again, she wondered why anyone would leave such an excellent weapon behind. 'The owner must've been in a real hurry.' she thought.

She noticed another trigger. The fist could be used as a projectile. The idea of punching someone in the face from a distance made Hina giggle. "Hehe. Nice." She was almost tempted to trigger this mechanism as well, but opted against it. She didn't want to shoot away the puppet part, she wanted to study it! Besides, Meran would probably nag at her for it, causing her to be distracted from studying the arm. She let out a sound of wonder as she noticed the net hidden in the arm, with, again, poison. 'Now that's clever!' she thought with an admiring smile on her face. Working in layers and making your attacks not obvious. She could feel the inspiration bubbling up inside of her by just studying this weapon of great skill. She couldn't wait to take it home with her and show it to her parents! She was sure they would be just as impressed as she was. Maybe they even knew the maker! Hina had been wondering whether it could have belonged to old lady Chiyo.

She didn't waste long on that thought however. Those questions would be answered later! Right now she wanted to know more about this arm! She eagerly turned her attention back to the arm, studiously checking out every last inch that she could have missed. She found a small compartment in the arm. 'How many more things will fit in this arm!?' she thought in amazement. The compartment opened with a click and she gasped as a scroll became visible. A tiny squeal of excitement left her lips as she grabbed the scroll. Could this contain more information about the arm? About weapons? Maybe they were more ideas for other puppet designs! Maybe, maybe it could tell her who the maker was! By this time Hina was literally bouncing in her "seat" on the floor next to the fire place.

She didn't think about how it could maybe contain valuable information for a mission, how it could contain secrets. She was too excited about the "sheer awesomeness" of the puppet arm and so eager to learn more about it and its maker that she didn't think about how illogical it would be to keep design ideas for a new puppet inside an old puppet. She didn't notice how her friends entered the cave. And had she only thought for a second longer she would have remembered that while touching unknown poisons was a big no-no; opening scrolls from clearly high-level shinobi who don't want you to read the contents might be a bad idea as well.

That last thought first crossed her mind a split second after she had tore open the scroll with a huge beaming smile on her face, one hundred percent convinced to find some cool puppet design.

It was a heavy process of trying to figure out what the history of this place was. There was so much he wanted to know and so little input of information, but he managed to get a little idea of where they were and what had happened.

There did not seem sign of a struggle, so it probably would have been an accident, but why leave the arm? Meran glanced at Hina, who by now was discovering all sorts of things about it. Why would any puppeteer leave something like that?

Meran picked up a shard of wood from the ground, turning it over in his hand, while the other still clutched his notebook. The boy wasn't a puppet master, but he had been around puppeteers long enough to know the value of a good part. Hina was always nagging that she wanted the new model of this or that. Meran suspected the owner might come back for the puppetarm, but there wouldn't be anything wrong with Hina looking at it? Surely not, if the owner was a member of her own clan.
The problem would be prying the part from Hina's hands to return it to the owner. Meran half expected her to be surgically attached to the part by now.

AT least Hina would refrain from doing anything stupid.. Like doing things that she could not turn back. She was like Akira in that case. They both had a good set of brains, that would keep them from doing dumb things.

There was still a little voice in Meran's head, warning him that something wasn't quite right, but he could not place his finger on what. At that moment his belly grumbled from the hunger.
Meran looked at the new comers, with Hiten checking out the food.

"Thnx for finding her Hiten, I knew you could do it! Why did you go out alone in the dark Akira? That isn't what we agreed on in the hospital, you know that we aren't the most popular right now! How's the food getting along, Hiten?" Meran asked when he takes his place near the fire. He tucked away his notebook again, eager to eat and do the final preparations to sleep and travel in the morning. He knew one thing for certain, he wanted to get going at first light.

When Hiten and Akira arrived back, the smell of food met them at the entrance. Hiten started asking Hina about their dinner, but she seemed preoccupied and didn't answer.

Akira stepped closer and looked at the item in Hina's hands. A puppet arm. Frowning, she studied the limb. It looked very human, with exactly the right proportions. She'd seen her fair share of puppets, having spent years around Hina and her puppet crazy family, but none had ever looked like it could have belonged on a human body. It felt bizarre to see one that did.

"Not something that just grows in the wild," Hiten remarked, making Akira raise an eyebrow and smile dryly. "At least I hope it doesn't.. Imagine that." She let out a breath in a short laugh as the strange image went through her mind and she shook her head slowly. "Yeah, I don't suppose you get by those often," she joked, and imagined puppet arms popping out of the ground or growing on trees.

Growing on trees.

She quieted with that thought.

Meran noticed they had arrived. He held a shard of wood in his hand and Akira was acutely reminded of the flint in her own. She quickly tossed her makeshift torch into the fire, obscured her filthy hand by holding it close somewhat behind her, and watched the fireplace crackle as her stick stirred the wood upon coming down.

Akira remained silent when Meran thanked Hiten for finding her. It was more like the other way around, but she decided to let Hiten have the honors. However, his next words were directed towards her. "Why did you go out alone in the dark Akira? That isn't what we agreed on in the hospital, you know that we aren't the most popular right now!" She listened to his berating words and resisted the urge to sigh. She knew he had a point, but she hadn't felt endangered at all. She'd felt pretty relaxed in fact, up until her demon told her to get a move on. Well, nothing had happened so far.
"Relax Meran. There's nothing in these woods but..." corpses, she thought, but caught herself in time before she spoke the words out loud. "...things that will die if they attack me." Phew, nice save. "In any case... you're right, I'm sorry."

When Meran sat down to start eating, Akira moved to stand beside Hina. She looked down at the eerie arm where her friend had removed a scroll from a hidden compartment. Her earlier thoughts came back and she asked: "Can you make a puppet arm from a human arm? It looks eerily real to me." Hina was fascinated by the arm, so it must really be something special.

(Seeing as Hina bluntly opened the scroll in her possession I am now forced to perform 2 automated rolls for all of you....first roll is based in your knowledge of sealing as far as skill and stat which will be added as a bonus to a gen and speed roll do determine whether you see it coming. Second a speed and Taijutsu roll to check if you're actually able to avoid it. )

As the scroll would open a big cloud of smoke would evaporate from it rising to the top of the cave. Then a bright blue light would emerge from it beaming upwards as well and chasing away the smoke. The light seemed to be chakra based.

(Hina SLK stat + Jikukan....Stat = 4 (Roll Bonus = 3) Skill = 0 (Roll Bonus = -3) ....Roll = 0)
(Roll Failed)
(Hina GEN stat + SPD stat....GEN = 3 (Roll Bonus = 2) SPD = 3 (Roll Bonus = 2)...Roll = 4 (No bonus from understanding))
(1 success)
(Hina gets + 1 bonus on her getaway roll)

(Meran SLK stat + Jikukan....Stat = 3 (Roll Bonus = 2) Skill = 0 (Roll Bonus = -3) ....Roll = -1)
(Roll Failed)
(Meran GEN stat + SPD stat....GEN = 3 (Roll Bonus = 2) SPD = 2 (Roll Bonus = 2)...Roll = 4 (No bonus from understanding))
(3 success)
(Meran gets + 3 bonus on his getaway roll)

(Akira SLK stat + Jikukan....Stat = 2 (Roll Bonus = 2) Skill = 0 (Roll Bonus = -3) ....Roll = -1)
(Roll Failed)(rolled 1 = Exceptional Fail....Akira thinks it's ok not to mind it giving her a penalty on the next roll. Due to MISunderstanding the situation)
(Akira GEN stat + SPD stat....GEN = 3 (Roll Bonus = 2) SPD = 3 (Roll Bonus = 2)...Roll = 4 -1 = 3 (No bonus from understanding))
(0 success)
(Akira gets 0 bonus on her getaway roll)

(Hiten SLK stat + Jikukan....Stat = 4 (Roll Bonus = 3) Skill = 0 (Roll Bonus = -3) ....Roll = 0)
(Roll Failed)
(Hiten GEN stat + SPD stat....GEN = 3 (Roll Bonus = 2) SPD = 2 (Roll Bonus = 2)...Roll = 4 (No bonus from understanding))
(1 success)
(Hiten gets + 1 bonus on his getaway roll)

The bright light would then rapidly form itself into a cylinder shape and began expanding all throughout the cave as what seemed like metal walls began to sprout from it filling the insides of the cave as if a building began to instantly and automatically construct itself inside the cave. The 4 of them would be forced to either move completely outside or as close as possible to the very edges of the cave, but the last option was obviously a risky one seeing as they didn't know just how far this thing would expand itself from the scroll.
Or rather it was just a very large object, in this case a house being transported here from another dimension.
Meran would be the first one to see it coming and the only one in the group thus able to fully accurately react to the situation. He may choose to either grab two specified items from the cave on his way out or an item and drag along a team mate to give them a bonus in their escape.
All the items including the campfire that were left in the cave are otherwise now destroyed aside for a few I will roll for later. Or he may choose to ignore either and get a +3 bonus on his getaway. Choosing to still carry the items will reduce the bonus by 1 for each item. Choosing to help a comrade will cost 2 bonus points per comrade. (Challange level 3)
Hina would be closest to it but would only realize she should be moving the hell away when she saw the lights form into a soldid cylinder-like shape ready to expand. (challange level 3)
Hiten would be close to the exit together with Akira and would much like Hina only notice the signs of danger just as the light began to expand luckily for him he wasn't far from the exit.He can choose to help Akira along but this would increase his own challenge level to 3. (Challange level 2)
Akira would be standing there unaware of any danger pretty much almost until the metal walls comming from the scroll would be all up in her face. (Challange level 3)

(I will roll the actual outcomes once Hiten and Meran give me their decisions so I can make the correct rolls.)

It was like the world crumbled before his very eyes. Meran didnt care for a second about his own live when he saw the explosion of light appear in Hina's face. With that explosion of light, Meran's scream filed the room. No words were used, it was just a scream that feared losing all that was important in his life. His team was in danger, his niece was on ground zero of the explosion, his friends were also in harms way. All he cared about was about to disappear in front of his eyes....

He could not, he would not let that happen... Meran was the oldest, he was their big brother, their guardian, protector and rock they could build on. He had to do something. He could not bare to lose them, not now, not here.... Not when they were all still so young...

Anger flared in him because of the apparent hopelessness of the situation, he was about to loose them, he could not. He wanted to scream, he wanted to shout, to beg, to cry.... But it was going too fast, there was no time, but what... what could he do... The others were starting to notice something was wrong as well, but they were too late as well... He wanted to curl up into a ball, but somehow his body knew he had to stand, like it understood there was still a chance before even he had realized himself.

He rose from the ground, dozens of feelings raging through him, but he knew, he needed one most of all, one emotion he had to build on, to give him strength, to get him through this. Anger, Rage, Pain! He needed those emotions, he needed them to act. It was clear as glass what he needed to do, he needed them, they needed him, they were like baby sisters and a kid brother to him. It was his duty to protect them... All of them, as they would protect him should they be able to.

As he rose from the floor, he also rose to the occasion, his arms rose with him, commanding the sand as he knew he should and he began to move towards the exit, not as fast as he perhaps could have done as he was primarily focussing on getting the others to safety. Most of his special sand started to form  armour on his back, but not all. He saw Hina getting up to run for the cave opening, seconds after he himself already started to move and as he was making for the exit himself.
She was still clutching the puppetarm and Chouchou as she moved.

Akira was still standing, but she was dumbstruck by what was happening. She was not even moving to get out. But she was still near the opening.

A tear ran down the teen boy's face as his arms waved in the air towards the two with a fury, as if he wanted to physically push the girls outside. Even though the two girls were to distant from him to physically touch, the sand around him, both natural and special without a task, obeyed his command as it had done so as long as he could remember. A wave of sand moved in front of the kid, who rushed outside behind it, hoping that he could get his friends to safety, by forcing a wall of sand out in front of himself.

Would this hinder his own perfect escape? It would most likely, but he did not care, he needed them to be safe, more than anything in the world. He just would need to trust his own capabilities to get out safely himself. But he could not stand the thought of losing his niece who had been more of a sister to him than Kazenkou would ever be, nor his friend, that seemed icecold at times, but had as warm a heart for him as he had for the girls. And how could he fail Akira, sweet Akira, Meran had promised to look out for her, even if she might not like to be taken care of, but the red haired boy had promised, so he would protect her, she was also his little sister, but different..

A weird thought struck him... "Different how??" but it was only a fleeting thought as he had to focus on his own escape, instead shouting to his three friends: "FLY YOU FOOLS!"



Though I had the option to either take a couple of items or 1 teammate, I would like to try the move described above, because that would fit Meran. As his personal Honour code is Team first, they are his most important parts of his life. He would do anything to keep them three safe, even risking his own safety.

Seeing I had not seen any mention of it in the Admin post, I would like to remind Admin that all 4 teammembers have the merit [Combat Ready Mind]

Special Sand: Cover entire rear of Meran seeing that is exposed to the scroll, using about 2 uses to get the girls out as well.

Sand: Using all the sand, not used in the armour to create a wave of sand to push the girls from the cave, mustering all the sand he can. He himself behind the sand wave, heading for the exit as quick as he can.


Hiten would not doubt for a second, as soon as he knows something is wrong, the boy acts. He had the same Honor code as Meran holds. Without a doubt Hiten immediately did all he could to help his friends. Instead of running from the danger, he rushes closer to get Akira out first. He was too far away to help the others, but he knew he could only do so much. With pain in his heart he would drag Akira out with him, ahead of the torrent of light, sand and expanding metal.


Hiten asked me to post for him, because he is busy at the moment, he told me what to post in .2 of a second after I posed him the question.
Safe Akira...

(Here come the rolls guys, get ready)

(Meran . Speed = 2 (Roll Bonus = 2) Atletics =2 (Roll Bonus = 2) Roll Bonus from awareness = 3, Roll bonus lost due to actions undertaken to assist comrades -3. Challange level = 3....Roll = 1.)
(Roll Failed)

(Hiten. Speed = 2 (Roll Bonus =2) Atletics = 2 (Roll Bonus = 2) Roll Bonus from awareness = 1. Roll bonus from help by Meran, 1. Challange level = 3...Roll = 3)
(Roll Success)

(Hina. Speed = 3 (Roll Bonus = 2) Atletics = 2 (Roll Bonus = 2) Roll Bonus from awareness = 1, roll bonus from help by Meran, 1. Challange level = 3....Roll = 3)
(Roll Success)

(Akira. Speed = 3 (Roll Bonus = 2) Atletics = 3 (Roll Bonus = 3) Roll Bonus from awareness = 0, roll bonus from help by Meran, 1. roll bonus from help by Hiten,1. Challange level = 3....Roll = 4)
(Roll Success)

There it happened Meran's special sand covered the boy's back but with Sabaku boy's own strong intent and concentration in the heat of the moment his emotions seemed to conjure a large wave of Sand which would hamper the expansion of whatever it was that was comming out of the scroll providing his comrades with just enough time to escape out of the hole. He would see the special sand clutch around him on it's own as he would feel it pressing down.
This would be one of the few moments in his life when Meran actualy experienced a form of pain, one of the few he was familiar with, pressure pain.
Everything would turn dark before his eyes as the sand would surround him to prevent the large object ontop of him from crushing the boy into a pancake shape. Be he anything but a Sabaku right now he would have certainly be a human pancake by now indeed. He was trapped there under this huge metal thing which seemed to fill up 98% of the cave. Luckily for Meran it wasn't all of the cave giving him just enough room to keep himself alive. But not unharmed.
Meran receives 3 HP damage and a broken leg-bone.
The Object was now fully summoned and before the aspirant Genin, inside the cave now stood something that looked like a small metal-armored building, a mini-base of sorts. There was an opening at the front and on the inside Hina would notice a lot more puppet parts, all appearing to be human-like. And even an almost complete puppet dressed as a peasant or militia of sorts. Akira would recognise this puppet to be wearing clothing similiar to the corpse outside, the body posture seemed to be similair as well. But then there were a few preserved human limbs inside a glass refrigirator, medical equipment, monitors, a normal bed and a medical bed with straps to strap someone down in place and a few human organs here and there. In particular 2 hearts that seemed to still be beating despite being on their own inside two large tubes filled with a light green liquid.
It was quite a facinating display especialy because the entire place seemed well furnished, although very pragmatic and boring with only the bare necessities in place, it did have electricity, refrigiration, tool and everything else one might need aisde from drinks and food.
In fact it looked like a display they might enjoy to awe over for a bit, be it not for their team-mate still being stuck underneath this awesome visual spectacle Hina had so unfortunately summoned.
The animals in the surrounding area all distanced themselves from the location quickly as it seemed to make quite the noise. In fact if there were people nearby somewhere, they had definately just heard them. And with their 'political' position right now, that was definately not a good thing.

As soon as she opened the scroll she realised she had made a huge mistake. First smoke erupted in her face, but soon the smoke was blasted away by a column of light, blinding her. Somewhere her mind registered a scream, but she didn't understand what that meant, were it came from. A single word flashed through her mind. 'Shit!' She didn't think more, didn't say anything, in stead, she jumped up with the puppet arm in her hand and clutching over Chouchou's legs with her other. She started to sprint towards the exit of the cave as walls of some sort were materialising behind her.

The entrance seemed so far away, and she could see her friends standing there. Her eyes widened as the realisation hit her that they could be in danger. "RUN!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, while still sprinting towards the exit. She saw Hiten grab Akira and head towards the exit. She saw Meran make sand armour on his back, turn around and head for the exit as well. They would be alright! She would be the last one out of the cave.

However, Meran's hand swept up in a large gesture. He was controlling sand, but that slowed him down! 'No!' she thought. Why didn't he just run?! He could save himself. As soon as the sand hit her in the back she understood what was going on. She had never experienced the ocean, but she had seen images of tidal waves, and this is how she imagined one feeling. The sand pushed her forward, quickening her escape. The sand was pushing harder than she could run however, and she felt herself being swept up in it, and flushed out of the cave, for lack of a better word. She and the others burst out through the cave opening. Hina landed on her side and rolled a couple of times from the momentum as the sand stopped pushing her. Chouchou was still firmly clamped to her shoulders, but she had dropped the arm somewhere beside her. The sand was everywhere. In her clothes, in her hair, in her eyes. She raised herself up on all fours and coughed to get rid of the sand in her mouth.

(Que music)
That's when she looked up to see two of her friends. Only two. Where was Meran?!
"MERAN!" her scream of sheer terror filled the air around them, her voice slightly cracked. This couldn't be happening! She saw him! He was in front of her! He had been running! He had his sand armour! He couldn't have not gotten out! He had been safe! His sand always protected him from everything! Always!

She didn't even realise she was moving until she was halfway back to the cave entrance. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" she kept saying over and over again. Meran. Her oldest friend. Her dearest cousin. Her brother. He had always been there for her, she couldn't think of a day where she hadn't seen him or thought about him. All the things they had done together. The conversations they'd had, the family gatherings they'd attended, the pranks they'd pulled. She couldn't live without him. Not yet.

She threw herself down at the edge of the metal floor and screamed his name again. He had to hear her. A small rational voice in her head said that that room probably took up the entire cave, but she immediately squashed it. He had his sand! He was tough! He would survive! He had never died before, and she would never forgive him if he would start dying now! Her thoughts stopped making sense, but she didn't care. He couldn't die. He just couldn't. It was unimaginable. It wasn't the kind of thing that happened to them.

And then she realised that it was all her fault. Her fault. She had been looking at that arm. She had found that scroll. And she had opened it. The world began to blur around her as tears finally began to form in her eyes, but she didn't wipe them away. She was shocked, staring into empty nothingness as coldness took a grip of her heart. Had she... had she.. killed her brother? Had she killed her best friend? Had she killed.. Meran..

Tears uncontrollably rolled down her face. She couldn't imagine never seeing him again. They had to pull pranks on other people together and laugh from their hiding places. They still had to go on missions together. Real missions. Not stupid trainings or fake missions they gave themselves when they were little. They had to go to different countries together. All of them. As a team. Their team could never work as a three-man-squad, they needed Meran. They needed to evaluate their boyfriends and girlfriends for each other. They needed to attend each others' weddings. And become an uncle or aunt to each others' children. They needed to see each other as old people. They needed to live a life together. She needed that. She needed her brother. Her cousin. Her buddy. Her partner in crime. Her best friend. She needed Meran.

She had to save him! He was still alive, she knew it, felt it in her aching heart, and she had to save him!

She started clawing at the ground, irrationally trying to dig out all the sand under the floor. "Meran!" she screamed out again, "Can you hear me? I will come and get you, you hear?!" She continued clawing at the ground. "I promise you," she muttered furiously. Her fingers started to hurt from the exertion and she realised she was getting nowhere. She looked around for something else, anything else that could help her. The tears on her face were making clear tracks in her dusty face as she looked around her. 'There's got to be something!' she thought, desperately.

She looked inside the.. lab for a lack of a better term. There were human body parts in glass jars, humanoid puppet parts lined up neatly against the walls and on tables, there was medical equipment and even two still beating hearts in glass tanks.

Hina looked inside to find anything that could help her. Maybe there was a deactivation seal! To make the entire lab disappear inside a scroll again. There had to be! This was a transportable lab! There had to be a switch, or a button, or a seal or something. If she could find no such thing she would start looking at the puppets. Was there anything here she could use? Was there a puppet which was strong enough to lift or bend the floor. Was there a puppet which could saw through the metal floor? Or one that could dig underneath it to reach Meran? If she could find no useful puppets either she would start looking at the chemicals and tools in a last ditch resort. Was there anything that could burn through metal? A flamethrower? An acid? A saw? A drill?! Anything!

(Subterfuge C, Summoning jutsu E, Academics C, Science E, Medicine C, Investigation E, Chemistry D, Ninjutsu D (Specialisation: Puppetry)
It's a bit mixed, but hopefully it's clear anyway, if not, don't hesitate to ask me.)

00:00 -> 03:55 Song to set the mood.

=============================================

Silence...

Darkness...

Is this the end?

There was no light, nor was there sound...

Meran did not hear anything, did not see anything...

Should he be able to?

There was no taste, nor was there smell

The boy did not smell anything, but what could he be tasting?

So there was taste... DUM-DUMMM...

A SOUND! but not from outside, from within...

So he was alive, he should be able to see then... Why could he not?
Wheels were grinding in his mind... Why could he not?...

Why wasn't there any sound except for the beating of his own heart?

Slowly realization dawned on him as the next sense returned to his body... the pain... the excruciating pain, pressure all over his body, slowly crushing his body to death... Meran wanted to scream from the hurt, but still his mind shot towards the rest first?

He smiled as he realized that he had probably managed to get them all out safely. The gears ticked in his head to process all information available... The sensation of pain was overwhelming, pushing out the other thoughts he tried to have. But he had to think, he could not stay there and do nothing the rest of his life... Wouldn't take long though.

Meran began to chuckle and eventually outright laugh about the situation he was in, it started out as normal laughter, but soon the laughter let the pain sip through and the chuckles began to become screams or pain... But no one would hear him....

For a moment he passed out, but he returned, still in the darkness.. The screaming had done little to improve his situation, but it had allowed him to get his mind in order. Or at least less focused on the pain... Now he had to figure out how to get out of here... Meran tried to figure out what he could do, but all he could think of was, what would his father do....

Hmmm... his father would just get up and walk out of there... Gaara could lift a mountain with his sand..., it did require a giant amount of sand, but if anyone could do it, it would be Gaara....
But it was not Gaara that was in the current situation... It was Meran...

Thinking of his sister was no help either, she would never had gotten in this situation, besides... she was just as strong as Gaara. Especially with Shukaku sealed inside her... It would mean the big dude would have taken over, Gaara always warned for that situation, but meran's mind was drifting with those thoughts... Still he knew there should be a reason why he would think of both his father and sister....

Then it struck him! Why was it that they always had enough sand around them to perform such stunts?! He had known it to be a possibility, but he had never thought he would need it in Suna... So he was rusty at it, but he should be able to do it. His ancestors had all done it before him, hell it was how a big part of Suna was constructed!

It would take effort, but it was possible. His Sandcontrol was good enough!
He could turn the earth around him into sand!!!
A better name would be sort the earth around him..

The big question was... Was the building above constructed with a solid floor? Could he displace the mass beneath it, without it breaking? Should the breaking of the floor be a bad thing?

More and more he realized he should not care... Either way, it was his best shot to get out... His only shot... He summoned his strength and slowly moved his fingers... It would be slow, but perhaps it would work. He let his sand dig in front of him, while pushing him forward from the back. New sand from the front filling up the space behind him which he abandoned. He moved forward towards the exit of the cave like he was on a conveyor belt. His sand moving him as if he was in a stasis box, keeping his body in a shell of sand.

Sand control C, Sand Jutsu Skill C, Chakra Control C, Survival D

Akira had barely finished her sentence when the scroll opened and all hell broke loose. She hadn't seen anything coming, hadn't expected it really. All was fine and well mere seconds ago, the only odd thing being the eerie wooden arm in Hina's hands. Nothing had indicated the disaster that would fall upon them in the blink of an eye.

And then it happened, and all Akira could do was stare as the horror unfolded around them. There was a bright light and then metal walls came at them seemingly out of nowhere, advancing so rapidly she didn't have time to react. In a flash of a moment, she saw Hina scramble around to get away, Hiten hooking an arm around her waist to pull her along with him and the last thing her senses registered was the feeling of being swallowed up by sand.

The sand spit her out on the ground where she rolled on the grass before her instincts finally kicked back in, and she quickly got to her feet. She gingerly touched the arm she'd injured the previous day while she scanned her surroundings, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. She was relieved to find out she wasn't injured, despite the rather rough massage of the soil.

Hiten was near, and she saw Hina too. "Meran...?" she whispered, just when Hina's voice loudly echoed her thoughts. "MERAN!" Akira's grey eyes latched onto Hina as the girl hurried back to the cave. Wait, cave? There was a building in there! And Meran, where was Meran?

She ran towards Hina as the girl fell to her knees at the edge of the metal building inside what had been their cave. The girl with her three long ponytails looked lost as she called out Meran's name. Akira frowned and took a step back. Was Meran underneath?

Her eyes went wide. She placed her hands on her head as fear gripped her heart. She looked up at the sky. What had just happened? She quickly racked her brains and came to the conclusion it had been the scroll Hina was studying. Akira hadn't paid much attention to it, as her attention had been drawn to the eerily human wooden arm.

She looked back down and saw Hina start to cry. The sight was such a shock her hands dropped to her side. Happy cheerful Hina... crying. The entire world felt off balance as she saw tears rolling down her friend's cheeks. A strange feeling made itself master of Akira, she couldn't decide if she felt pity or sympathy... or something else. Whatever it was, her heart ached.

She didn't know how she felt herself. Meran had saved them with his sand, and now he was underneath a freaking metal building. She swallowed and stepped closer to Hina, getting down on her knees and doing the only thing that felt right at that moment. She closed her arms around her friend and held her close.

She lay her head on Hina's shoulder and wondered why she felt so strangely empty inside. Was it shock? Thinking of being shocked, why on earth had she stood there frozen to the ground when everybody was killing themselves trying to get out of that cave? Killing themselves... Was Meran dead?

She let go of Hina as the girl started to dig at the ground with her bare hands, trying to get Meran out. "Meran! Can you hear me? I will come and get you, you hear?!" She was obviously convinced he was still alive.

Akira stood up and placed her hands on her forehead. She was at a loss of what to do. That didn't happen often. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Unwillingly the image of Meran crushed underneath the metal construction creeped its way into her mind's eye, and she suppressed a shudder.

Her eyes flew open and she let out a breath she didn't knew she was holding. Meran was fine! He had to be fine! He had his sand that would protect him, always. Right?
No! She shook her head. I can't doubt it. I mustn't doubt it. Snap out of it!
Making up her mind, her arms came down and she was just in time to see Hina enter the building. Was that a smart thing to do?

She looked at the edges of the cave and searched for a crevice of some sort, an opening perhaps. Then she cautiously followed Hina into the building... and her eyes opened wide.

She stared in fascination at the human limbs and organs in bottles, jars and tubes. As she walked further inside, her eyes came upon puppet parts that, much like the arm Hina had held, looked eerily human. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the unfinished puppet, and she stopped in front of it. She narrowed her eyes as recognition washed over her, and she thought back to the corpse she'd found earlier on, so like this puppet.

When she backed away, she bumped into the medical bed with straps on it. She gently touched one of the straps with her fingers, and looked at the caked blood on her skin. Her mind reeled when dreadful thoughts intruded her mind.

"Preserving..." she murmured quietly, remembering the salve that had been smeared on the dead man. She looked around the room, seeing the body parts, the organs. The glass fridge. Pieces of human beings, being preserved. Her eyes went back to the medical bed. Straps, to hold people down so they couldn't move, couldn't escape... while someone cut them open, tore them apart.

Her breathing became shallower as she eyed the puppet parts, shaped so eerily human. The question she'd posed to Hina came back to her. Can you make a puppet arm from a human arm? "Hina," she said calmly, though she didn't feel very calm inside. A foreboding sense of dread took hold of her soul. "Can you make puppets from human bodies?" Vaguely, she remembered one of Hina's wild tales about a puppet master who turned corpses into puppets. But that was just a story, even though Hina swore otherwise.

She turned around, facing the familiar looking puppet again. She feared she already knew the answer to her own question. Her heartbeat drummed in her throat. You need to get out of here. I have a bad feeling, the voice of her demon echoed in her mind. It hadn't been just the site of the corpse that was dangerous, like she'd stupidly presumed. They were in danger in this entire area. Some sociopath was on the loose, turning people into puppets.

She felt panic rise in her loins as the realization hit her. A hand closed over her mouth, the dread in the pit of her stomach threatening to make her sick. They were in danger, they needed to get away. This laboratory... they were standing in the belly of the beast. Only now did she fully understand the urgency of her demon's words.

But Meran, what about Meran? He was trapped, if he was even still alive. For the first time since she could remember, Akira didn't know what to do. She simply stood there, staring at the puppet, looking aghast.