Chapter 3: The Second Wind

The following things are carried over from the previous topic.
Mukade Would have 3 Shuriken in Koe left,  he has 1 HP damage and 1 Senbon in his leg.
Amaya Would have 1 HP damage
Kazuo Will have 2 HP damage (one from the fight, one from Souran's attacks afterwards + bruised ribs)

All weapons and tools that had been given, were taken away once more.

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The trio would wake one by one and would find that they were outside in the desert somewhere. They were placed neatly in a row, basic clean clothes at their feet. On top of each set of clothes there were placed 2 0.5l water bottles. On each stack they would find a tool or weapon pack as well. At Mukade's feet there would be a pack of 20 Shuriken and a compass, at Amaya's feet she would find a Kunai pack (10 Kunai) and finally at Kazuo's feet he would find a medpack and 10 small sealing tags.

Besides those items there were two things they might not expect to find. Two scrolls. On the one it said Read me and the other was blank except for a red dot sealing the scroll.

Their surroundings were bare desert and nothing really stood out. It seemed to be a generic patch of wasteland. No water in sight and the plant growth was scars, except from some weeds and cacti.
At first glance the only wildlife that could be spotted were either bone remains or was the scorpion slowly walking over Mukade's chest.

At first the terrible fuzziness that accompanied waking up, compounded with sore injuries and fading drugs, made it utterly impossible for Kazuo to form a coherent thought. For several long minutes after regaining consciousness, he simply continued to lay in the dust of the desert, head lolling about as he shook cobwebs away and tried to remember when someone hit him with... was that radiating pain in his chest the shape of a chair leg?

Finally his mind mustered up the coherency to think of checking his ribs to see rather than feel the shape of his injuries, but those thoughts were made totally irrelevant as what had happened rushed back to him. I hate arguments... if only I'd had time to ponder my words more carefully...

Easing himself to a sitting position, he gave his head one last shake, and began to take in his surroundings. His teammates were easing into consciousness, his own early awakening likely due to the amount of pain he was -IS!- still in. Stifling a moan, he carefully shifted to examine the belongings placed before him. The medical kit would be helpful, but he grit his teeth in frustration when he realized he hadn't been provided ink and a brush for the sealing tags he'd received. "Spiteful man."

He tied the equipment packet low about his waist, carefully packing in the clothing as well. As irritating as it was to have his belt so unusually heavy, he was wary of strapping anything about his upper body at the moment. Finally, he retrieved the two scrolls set apart from the other equipment. Best not to need to read this more than once. He turned to his apparent team, hoping they'd awakened by now.

Amaya woke groggily, whatever she had been injected with hadn't killed her so it looked like Souran had decided to give them their chance. She sat up and covered her eyes from the glare of the sun above them. Around her, the two boys who had been with her before lay nearby and apparently alive. Particularly, the youngest of the three seemed to have woken already and collected his things. "A wonderful mess this is" she sighed, the anger and frustration apparently gone, being more concerned with more pressing matters right now. Carefully she stood carefully after collecting the weapons she'd been given. "Will you be able to move... we've two days and it'd be best if we get collected and ready to go as soon as possible" she looked Kazuo over, he was not in good shape, at least to her untrained eyes. This had become quite personal after that little debacle that left them here. If nothing else she was going to return alive to spite that man and continue to do so until she could prove her worth.

A slightly heightened breath came from Mukade as his eyes opened, he sighed as he blinked and squinted at the bright sky above, and Amaya's voice that he could already hear speaking something. He reached up and felt his face, revealed his glasses where still there only to take them off for a moment to rub his groggy eyes that squinted at the bright light above them. Once he'd returned his glasses to his face he moved to get onto his elbows only to notice the unnatural weight on his chest, he looked down and suppressed a gasp at seeing the scorpion sitting on him 'Didn't they see it?' he hissed internally, not sure how long the other two had been conscious.

With some hesitation he slowly raised a hand and produced a single chakra string, slowly moved it to connect to the scorpion and flick his hand to throw it away, hopefully at least a good few feet.

((if this is successful he then begins to examine what's at his feet.))

Mukade: Attempt to fling the scorpion:

Gen Stat (/2) + Animal Ken Skill = 3 (roll = 0) No bonus due to understanding how the scorpion would react.
Speed Stat + Ninjutsu Puppetry = 7 (roll = 0)

Difficulty to not get stung = 2
(No warning about the scorpion, movement before getting rid of it.)

Roll failed.

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Unfortunately, though Mukade's effort was to be commended, his earlier movement was enough to unsettle the scorpion. So when he moved to sling the beast away, he actually made the beast sting him. It was unfortunate he was not warned or helped by his two teammates.

What Mukade would notice most of all about the situation is the pain. It was a burning sensation emanating from the point of impact outward towards all extremes of his body. After Mukade had flung the scorpion away, he would notice the tip of the tail still stuck in his chest.

The pain would be excruciating, but seeing as the sting was close to his heart and he was still breathing, it would mean it would probably not kill him. There were 1000's of species of scorpion, but only a few had venom strong enough to kill a human. However, the poison was enough to debilitate the boy. After half a minute he would notice his eyesight messing up, it was almost as if he was not wearing his glasses.. Around the wound a thick red mark would form, spreading outwards to follow his veins.. Was Mukade more sensitive to poisons than most other people?

(STA roll to resist poison = 2 (-2 due to Immunodeficiency flaw (-2 on STA rolls to resist sickness or poisoning)) = 0 dice = 0 successes. )

There is poison running through your veins, luckily it is (probably) not fatal.

At the very moment Mukade flicked his fingers to hopefully throw the scorpion away his eyes flashed open in alarm as his back fell back to the ground. A moment of shock passed before his gritted teeth opened to shriek out. It was a gargling, high pitched whale that attempted, but failed, to exclaim profanity.

His back arched slightly as he clutched his chest, "Yep... that definitely stung me..." he thought, only slightly surprised it managed to reach through his outfit. he attempted to focus his mind and recollect what little medical training he had while also looking over to where the scorpion had been thrown too, seeing if he could identify what type it was, perhaps giving him an indication of how deadly and long lasting the effects would be... though he suspected he'd not feel okay for a long time.

(Medicine E and Animal Ken D. and Survival D if it helps)

Not to mention he'd just noticed he still had a senbon embedded in his leg... STILL! though right now whatever pain that caused was nothing in comparison to the one in his chest. He managed to tear open the small hole caused by the stinger larger so he could see the mark and felt his heart metaphorically drop at seeing the deep red marks... of all the people to get stung it had to be him... He'd always been particularly poor at shrugging off sickness. it was part of the cause of his compulsion to keep clean.

He quickly saw the tip of the scorpions tail still there, he grunted angrily and painfully as he (as carefully as he could manage) gripped it and pulled it out... he then finally realised the other two might not have realised what happened. Having noticed Koe near his feat before now he very quickly threw several strings out too it and fell back groaning as the puppet said, "Scorpion. stung. chest. pain. hurts."

Kazuo's first thought was that some animal was attacking when he heard Mukade's unusual screech. He spun on his heel, into a simple stance, to see that while his assumption was correct, it wasn't for the right reasons. Scurrying away was a small scorpion. The scorpion? I... remember, but... Shrugging off the beginnings of guilt, he zeroed in on the creature, and tried to use what he knew from his preparatory genin training to identify it and hopefully lessen the damage to his teammate. And he is my teammate and this is my fault, my fault.

(Survival D, specialty in extreme environments, +2 focused)

In addition to checking the scorpion, he would also secure the two scrolls to his person as he moved closer to Mukade and opened the medical kit, hoping beyond hope for a steroid to be inside.

Amaya turned to Mukade, looking to see that he had woken... apparently to the sting of a scorpion she had missed. She still wasn't thinking straight it seemed, this whole situation had her getting quite frustrated. As Kuzuo went to help with his medical kit, Amaya looked around, hoping that she could pick out exactly where they were. She was quite sure they all had at least some knowledge of the deserts around their village, so maybe there was something that could tell her where to go.

[Survival D: Try and figure out where they could be in relation to the village]

Intelligence (3) + Animal Ken (2) + Bonusses (medicine and survival)(0) = 5

4 successes, (very good roll)

Mukade would know that were it deadly, he would be dead by now. So surviving thesting was not really the issue. He would also know that the scorpion that stung him normally would not have given a person such problems, Amaya and Kazuo most likely would have handled it better.

Mukade would know that the poison would be filtered from his system in a day or so, but that until then he would suffer multiple symptoms most likely more then he has already.
But what it would be, he would not know due to his own body's reactions.


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Kazuo, Mukade flung the scorpion off a couple of meters away, so you will get a roll based on the sting that you could find. Also, with environment I look at flora and the effect of weather more than the fauna. Fauna knowledge would be more attributed to a specialty like "Wildlife" for survival or Animal ken.

Intelligence (2) + Survival (2) = 4
1 success

Kazuo would remember something about quickly sucking out the poison to reduce its effects. However it would need to be done quickly. The boy only remembered that particular lesson because he was sucking on a Popsicle as it was explained to him in the class.

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Intelligence (3) + Survival (2) = 5

2 successes

As Amaya looked around, she would know from the mountains in the far distance and the rocky outcrops in that direction. And a remembered funny shaped mountain top, that they were standing near the border of the land of wind (suna), the land of stones and the land of rain.
Very inhospitable and highly dangerous region of the land of wind.

She also knew that were they to normally walk, they probably would not make the trip in the appointed time frame. So speed was of the essence. Sunagakure would be somewhere south - south-west of them, but the exact distance or direction was not completely known to Amaya.

Resisting the urge to gag as he remembered what needed to be done to prevent more serious damage, Kazuo collected the tweezers from the kit and removed the stinger from the wound with little preamble, following up by applying some disinfectant to the area before shuddering in revulsion and sucking the wound dry.

He wasn't sure how much he should continue the awful practice, so he stopped somewhere around three or four spit-ups when he actually spit up what was left of his stomach contents. He was left wishing for water to rinse with, but not so much from the bile as from the ever-disturbing experience of touching skin that wasn't his own. He settled for wiping at his face until the dirt passing from his hands and clothes bothered him more than the human taste in his mouth.

Mukade felt himself somewhat relieved as he realised that it would not be fatal... as he wouldn't be thinking about it by now if it was. As Kazou approached Mukade he attempted to remain still, quickly seeing the med kit and knowing what the other academy student was attempting, though he still found himself at least a little surprised as Kazou leaned down to attempt to suck the poison out, anything to relieve at least some of the pain was appreciated and welcomed.

Once Kazou was done Mukade slowly sat up, gently rubbing a finger over the tender red hole in the centre of his chest, as it continued to gently weep blood. he let out a light groan and looked over to Kazou... who'd just finished emptying his stomach... Mukade felt slightly offended but hid it for simply how thankful he was. With one hand he padded Kazou's shoulder and with his other he attached strings to Koe again, "Thank. you. Kazou... sorry."

It still hurt, not just the wound but even just moving hurt, the painful venom still effecting his nerves... he could only hope it'd wear off sooner then later. He let out a shuddering sigh as he reached down and pulled the senbon from his leg, letting out a light hiss as he did so. He he then turned away from the other two and went into a knelling position. He then removed what remained of his shirt and sleeves before taking a pad from the med kit and placing it against the wound on his chest, followed by a small amount of bandage to keep it in place. He then rolled up his pants leg and began to clean and bandage the wound there.

(Medical E, Survival D, intelligence 7)

Once finished he let out another little groan, touching his chest as he reached over to the 'clean' pile of clothes... it was then he noticed his vision was beginning to blur. 'ohh great...' he thought to himself as he pulled the clothing over his head... He found himself REALLY wanting a sink to clean his hands about now.

He then turned back to Kazou and Amaya. He'd pulled the collar up on this shirt, though it wasn't anywhere near as high as his old one. He began too look around, not entirely sure where they were. "Either. of. you. know. where. we. are?" Koe said while Mukade went to look at the Compass he'd been left.

Amaya watched on with interest as the two began to try and help Mukade with his sting. It was probably a good thing too, since they needed to get moving if they were where she thought they were. "As far as I know... we're north... north east of the village. Near the end of our borders... Though, feel free to correct me. If I'm right though, we haven't got time to walk. We'll have to get moving as soon as possible and keep a good pace. Look for a source of food and water where we can" she looked to those clothes that had been left, seeing as they looked cleaner than what she was wearing now, so she decided to simply change into them. It didn't take her long at all, and the fact that those two could have watched really didn't seem to bother her. Should this new set of clothes not provide enough protection from the sun, she would use her old clothes to cover any skin that was still showing, making a make-shift hood and face wrap. "So, I guess you could check that compass of yours and point us in a south-westerly direction... probably a bit more south than west. Unless one of you know better?"

Mukade would rip open the wound on his legs as he pulled the senbon free, apparently the wound had closed around the wound, but by pulling it out, the boy had re-opened it, making it bleed profusely. He did however manage to put a bandage on his chest.

Kazuo's attempts to suck out the poison would result in a shorter period of effects, but the effects would still be noticed by Mukade for the next 4 hours.

As mukade started to move for his gear and weapons, he would find movement to cause nausea as well. So the effects of the poison are: Heavy pain in the chest, blurred vision and nausea.
In terms of gameplay this results in lessened Investigation, Focus, Stamina and a small penalty on skill rolls that require concentration for the next 4 hours.

Kazuo, having replaced one disturbing sensation for another, was mostly unaware of the two speaking behind him. He caught enough of Amaya's final words to interject. He turned, still twitching to wipe at his face. "Actually, I do have a better idea. It would be best for us to determine what, exactly, our mission parameters are before returning to the village." At this, he brandished the 'read me' scroll. In his other hand, he pulled out the red dot scroll. "It is possible that completing our mission will give us either some kind of time extension, or equipment to make the passage easier. I was waiting until everyone was conscious to examine the scroll in case of a one-use only seal mechanism, or some other trap that would prevent us from reading the contents." At this, he replaced the red dot scroll, and opened the read me scroll, reading it aloud as he went. He would keep a careful eye on the writing on the scroll, watching out for sealing inscriptions that might indicate a trap.

(In regards to his leg; ohh okay, fair enough, but he did successfully bandage it right?)

Mukade hissed and bit his lip at the additional pain pulling the senbon out caused him.

The young Chikamatsu turned to look at Amaya as she spoke, he was about to see if he could see any useful information about their surroundings before the girl began to... undress... Mukade almost instantly had to hide a blush and looked away. He realised that both the other two where also looking away from eachother and sighed, Amaya did have the right idea, and every moment spent in these dirty, torn, and blood stained pants was driving Mukade further insane, even with the constant pain in his chest to distract him. He stood up to begin changing his trousers only to notice the nausea, "uugh." he groaned slightly, managing to change his pants almost as quickly as Amaya did. He was glad to finally be in clean clothes again, but was somewhat embarrassed that he needed to do it in front of them, and that Amaya managed to do it so much more nonchalantly.

He then picked up the compass and it was only then when looking at it, then their surroundings that he noticed his vision. He tried cleaning his glasses on his sleeve but quickly realised it was a side effect of the venom... shit.

(still make investigation attempt anyway.)

He slowly lowered to his knees, (careful of his recently reopened wound) and began to inspect Koe for damage, as well as load the set of shuriken into its launcher. While doing this he listened to the other two. He nodded to both of them, Amaya would likely have a better idea on where to go then them, and he wasn't even aware of the scrolls before Kazou mentioned them..

Mukade continued to prepare Koe, as well as try to get use to the uncomfortable feelings in his body as he listened to Kazou speak. His hand occasionally going to his chest to try and ease the pain with pressure.

Amaya looked at the scrolls that Kazuo revealed, of course they would have some sort of other objective. She really should have thought of this being the case. "Ah, right. Well we had best read that quickly, we really must get going"

Quote :

So... you still live...

Well, your mission, besides not dying, is to deliver the red marked scroll to a man dressed in black, with a straw hat. You will receive a blue marked scroll in exchange for the red marked scroll.
You will not open either scroll and you will not return without the blue marked scroll.

You will find the man by traveling south from your current location. After a day's march you will come across an oasis with a small hut, he will await you there. He will only be there for one day, do not fail to deliver.

You have one day extension to get back to Suna because of this mission, but do not fail.

Souran.

*Note: Mukade would know that Souran's calculation of a one day march, was at Mukade's speed, not Kazuo's.

Mukade felt his hidden throat gulp as he read the instructions, followed by his father's signature. Even though Kazou spoke the words out to them Mukade heard the words in his father's voice when he replayed them in his head as he thought about the commands. He found himself mentally scolding himself as he actually felt intimidation from it.

He gave a pained wince as he bent over and picked up the compass and held it up to study it for a few moments, his other hand moved onto Koe, "South. is..... that. way." he then pointed off in the direction with the hand holding the compass.

Mukade quickly realised that if Amaya was right they needed to get moving straight away. He leaned over Koe and quickly opened up it's shuriken compartment and emptied the 3 left inside it before re-loading it with the full 20 pack. he then simply placed the left over three on his own person. He let out another weak grunt as he placed one foot on the ground in a kneeling position, then forced himself onto his legs... he wobbled a little, feeling like it'd been days since he walked. a combination of his wounds and venom no doubt.

Koe was strapped to his back once again, but with a couple fingers he still manipulated it's voice, "We. must. move. at...." he seemed to stop mid sentence as something occurred to him They did not all run the same speed... in fact Kazou was at least 3 times slower then both Amaya or himself. He'd regrettably noticed this during their fight with Souran, who'd have to have been reffering to Mukade's own speed in this message, after all it was the speed Souran would have been most use to seeing in one of their age.

"Kazou." Koe began, "We. must. move. at. top. speed. if. we're. going. to. make. this. 'mission'. on. time.... I'm. not. sure. if. you'll. be. able. to. keep. up. with. Amaya. or. I."

Closing the scroll, Kazuo looked to the direction their mission would lead them, and sighed in relief to realize they wouldn't be sent spinning off in another direction because of it. Of course, Mukade had to ruin it. It was a little selfish, and perhaps a bit from frustration, but Kazuo couldn't help but be angry at him when Mukade effectively said that Kazuo would slow them down. Grunting, he started to walk south. Almost forgetting, he pulled out the red scroll and tossed it to Amaya, figuring Mukade would be too incapacitated by poison to catch it himself. "It won't be necessary. I can travel alone. The mission does not explicitly require my presence for the transfer, and... I fully realize I am not as fast as either of you. If you are forced to keep my pace, or worse, exhaust yourselves carrying me, when you already have Mukade's poisoning to consider, our contact will leave before we arrive, and none of us will succeed. I will leave the mission itself to you two, and hopefully I can meet up with you while you rest and recover at this oasis. From there, Mukade will hopefully be healed enough that I can be-" He winced, fortunately unseen as he was facing away from them yet again, "-carried the rest of the way to Suna proper. I would have attempted to travel directly to Suna, but the angle of travel would waste more time than it will save in daily survival efforts."

Remembering his cursory glance at the medical kit, he wondered if the adrenaline shot could be sparingly used in such a way that he could keep himself running at his top speed for a much greater period of time than his team mates, as exhausting and damaging as the process may be. If he could manage that, he might be able to reach the oasis at the same time as them, considering they would need regular rest throughout the day, and do his part to save time for the survival test.
(untrained medical)

"Mukade is quite right.." she stated, catching the red scroll as it was passed to her. She had seen how quickly Kazou could move during their test with Souran. It sounded like they might not make it in time if they had to carry or wait for him. It was simply their smartest option for success. It was more important to get the scroll to their destination after all. "I suppose so... it's probably our best chance to meeting this man. Though we've wasted enough time as it is." she looked around, generally in the direction they would be travelling. "We'll wait for you there, it can't be too far. But only for so long, we still have to make it back to the village afterwards" she nodded. [b]"Lets get going" As soon as the rest were ready, she would head off with Mukade, heading south.

As the trio would start to head south, Kazuo would quickly start to fall behind. It would not be long before he would no longer

Kazuo would remember hearing about that trick, but that could be from a movie, not trained in medicine it was hard to say if it would work as he thought it would. It might, seems like he will only find out after trying.

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OC:

Guys, you can continue posting until I interrupt. For now the scenery is like described. Until you say he we will just keep moving and nothing else happens, I will speed the story along.
Just to make clear: Amaya and Mukade have the only compass, the shiruken (of which a max of 10 are placed in Koe, the launcher only holds 10) Kazuo only has 10 small seals and the only medpack.

For now I assume that you all moved along.

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Few hours later....

Amaya + Mukade

Would find that very little changed, they left behind Kazuo and the Mountain range. And welcomed the bones, cacti and packs of wild animals, which mostly left them alone.
Mukade would start to feel better, but had vomited a couple of times to date.
He would have drunken 1 bottle of his water to re-hydrate. As to Amaya's half bottle.

They remained on course, but their water is going fast.
They are at 50% of the distance


Kazuo:
Had a reference for walking south, namely Amaya and Mukade, but after they had escaped his horizon, he had to find another way to make sure to hold the right direction.

(How do you plan to keep going south and do you plan to use the adrenaline.)
Kazuo is at 20% of the distance.

As soon as his teammates disappeared in the glaring sun, and possibly the horizon, Kazuo began trying to use their footprints as travel guides, and, barring a sudden sandstorm, would likely continue to do so for the rest of the day. Should he not be able to do that, he would use his knowledge of the seasonal track of the sun, and knowing that it sets in a generally westerly direction, follow that, instead.

(tracking E, supported by academics B)

Kazuo continued to mull over the use of the adrenaline, but remembered another potential danger that turned him away from it's use, at least in the daylight. Should he decide to use it, and simulate the fight or flight response, he would also rapidly dehydrate, a severe danger in the desert.

With his new plan, he would still probably use the adrenaline, but only upon nightfall, when the dehydrating effects of the shot would be least felt in the cool night, and having the extra energy would be most useful. Hopefully, he would get far enough at night to make use of the 'oasis' promised by Souran.

The roll was more Survival (D) supported by Tracking (E), but the result was that Kazuo would mostly manage to go roughly south.

Though after moving south for another hour and it already being quite late in the day, he would find that his full speed run wore him down. Though he had only drunken half a bottle of water, moving at his full speed took a toll. Kazuo would not last this pace long anymore. It was surprising he managed for so long.

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OC:

Should Kazuo use the adrenaline, it would be a huge risk. I would like to make this known to Kazuo's player. The reason I say this is because this is your first event. But doing your trick will involve a chance roll and a possible outcome is death for Kazuo.

Finally deciding against the adrenaline help for now, Kazuo would simply continue to press on. Hopefully he could catch the rest of them and use them for rest when he got to the oasis.

(ah... final decision made.)

Mukade found himself squinting and running with a pained breath most of the trip, the stops to empty his stomach didn't help either his emotional or bodily mood... though they kept moving, and he would check their compass every few minutes to ensure they were still going in the right direction. Mukade moved his arm to take another small sip from his water container, noticing not much remained. 'We'll need to find a way to get more water soon...'

As the hours went by he'd noticed the effects of the poison slowly lifting, and knew he probably had Kazou to thank for that, even if it was subtle... Kazou... it was really unfortunate they had to separate... maybe...

His speed began to lower as he put the bottle away and attached a string to Koe, only one string to manipulate the puppet's head, "Amaya... We. should. find. some. way. to. leave. directions. for. Kazou. It. would. be. too. easy. to. get. lost." He began to look around them. trying to find something they could use. "Perhaps. stones... mark. an. arrow. south... We. could. use. our. old. clothes. as. a. flag. on. a. tall. cactus. or. something. to. hopefully. get. his. attention. from. a. distance. if-once. he. come's. this. way."


(Craft C, Survival D, and maybe Tracking E?)