[Kuishinbou Kuebiko]

Standing outside the gate at the north end of the village, Kuebiko waited for his ally to approach. It seemed pertinent to take the path out of the village towards Hohei-chō. This was one of the more heavily-traveled routes, and much trade took place upon it, goods from Shōwa and Nishigō flowing down river past the capital city to Kusagakure no Sato. This made it a very profitable route for bandits, who were able to scalp goods from undefended merchants.

The south path had been a less appealing option, considering the road to Kawauchi fell between two military outposts and was thus much safer from criminal influence.

Kuebiko brushed his hair back over his ear after it was blown out of place by the wind and sighed softly as he stared out at the horizon.

This was the kind of mission Kuebiko dreaded. Go on the road and indiscriminately fight any troublemakers you come across! He was not the sort for it, but there was also little excuse to avoid it. He was a shinobi and a shinobi did what he was told, went where he was pointed. This was important work, wasn't it? Bandits were a threat to the common people. Defeating them would increase the common safety. Complaining would just point eyes towards him, make him seem disloyal. This was not something he wanted. All he could do was pray that him and his companion would pick a lucky path and this would be a peaceful day.

When he spotted Honō Mako approaching, he turned to greet him, dipping his head in a shallow bow.

"I am Kuishinbou Kuebiko. I look forward to working with you."

[Honō Mako]

Given the nature of the mission Mako had been assigned, it was only natural that the two shinobi would take the path to the North. Mako had done bandit cleanup on the Southern route before but it usually turned out to be more of a leisurely walk than a C rank mission; and due to the ease of the Southern route it often didn't pay nearly as much and he still needed to pay rent when all was said and done. Rather than move towards the northern gate with great haste, the young shinobi took his time walking through the streets, stretching and yawning in the cool morning air before casually putting both hands in his pockets.

This was the kind of mission Mako got out of bed for in the morning. It was nice and simple and he’d get to practice a little bit of his taijutsu on some unsuspecting thugs. He always hated when things got complicated with needless details: don’t kill this person, don’t be noticed by these people, knock out this person, etc. He always preferred it when the mission was simple, and this was as simple as it got: if there was a goon on the road, take out the goon on the road. All he could really wish for is that he and the person he’d been partnered up with would get some action on today’s mission.

Once he breached the threshold of the gate, a voice called out to him, pulling him out of his thoughts and back to reality, and the figure it came from quickly bowed. Rather informally, while the man’s head was still pointing downward, he’d give a casual one handed wave before calling out himself, "Yo, nice to meetcha, name’s Mako, Honō Mako. Hopefully we get to beat down some ne'er-do-wells.” Mako would chuckle at his own choice of words before Kuebiko came back up from his bow, and he stopped dead in his tracks with his jaw almost dropping.

Mans was practically a model with that jaw-line and flowing blond locks, meanwhile Mako looked like he’d just graduated middle school. He’d quickly clear his throat into his hand before regaining his composure a little before adding, "So, uh, Pretty Boy how do you wanna do this. I don’t know if you’d prefer a normal patrol, or I can summon a Lion cub to help sniff out any camps near the road. Dealer's choice.” Kuebiko’s answer would dictate how he approached the situation, if he just wanted to do a standard patrol Mako would follow his lead, but if he wanted to be a bit more thorough Mako would take a moment to make the necessary hand seals and bite his thumb before placing his hand down casually to summon Hanatarō on the dirt road.

Kuishinbou Kuebiko

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsu:

Only used if Kuebiko wants to be a bit more thorough:

NAME: Kuchiyose no Jutsu [Summoning Technique]
RANK: C
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low - Very High depending on summon.
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu [General]
ELEMENT: None
HANDSEALS: 5
DESCRIPTION:

One of the most common and beneficial techniques in the known shinobi world. Simply drawing blood and releasing a mass of chakra from one's extended hand is capable of calling an animal or otherwise to one's location. As a Space-Time Ninjutsu, this technique is capable of instantly displacing an intended summon from wherever they may be to the requested location, though there are obstacles that can prevent this. To use this jutsu, one must first make a contract with whatever they are summoning, living creature or not. Both the size and the stamina of what a shinobi calls upon increases the demand of chakra they must spend to perform the jutsu.

Summon:
NAME: Hanatarō
ELEMENT: Doton
TYPE: Lion
RANK: D
APPEARANCE:

Hanatarō is a lion cub whose fur takes a dark brown color with his underbelly taking a lighter shade of brown. His eyes are golden, expressing a carefree attitude. While his nose and ears are of a dark color. His tail is of the same length for a cub of his age, ending with a light patch of fur on the end. All and all, he resembled a normal lion cub.

PERSONALITY:

Personality wise, Hanatarō is a carefree and playful lion cub. Sure of himself, he presents himself with pride of being one of the sons of the chief lion of the pride. However this often leads him in trouble as he has barely begun to make forays into battle, more often than not training with his siblings.

ABILITIES:

Tracker: Even at their young age, Hanatarō has distinguished himself for his acute sense of smell. With this he is able to locate targets and even capture the scent of incoming individuals, with a relative good accuracy within a range of ten miles.

[Kuishinbou Kuebiko]

...Pretty boy? The stunned response and the nickname left Kuebiko slightly off kilter and confused, his already generally grim expression pulling further into a frown, brow knit together in thought. Mako moved on from it quickly to discuss the mission, however, so he decided not to comment on it. Perhaps it was a one-off? He was quite used to nicknames he had a distaste for, so he was willing to overlook it this once.

He had enough to think about with Mako's question, after all. Why was Mako leaving it to him to decide? Kuebiko was perhaps the worst person to decide this. If he had it his way, he would say let's go back and only pretend we did it. Not exactly a very heroic kind of thought.

"Uh," he said, waffling, not hiding his uncertainty as well as he wished he could. "I suppose we should be thorough," he said, and immediately regretted it. That would only guarantee a fight, wouldn't it? That was the last thing he wanted, but he also didn't want to seem like he didn't care, and he'd allowed that impulse to rule him.

"I'm a tracker, too, so... It would be a waste not to try." By the end of the sentence, he was practically mumbling. Thus was the route taken. Mako summoned forth his small lion companion to join the mission. With that resolved, Kuebiko began the trip down the path.

On the road, there would inevitably be some empty time, some time to converse, before they found anything of note. Bandits avoided straying too close to Kusagakure. Only as close as they could get without being immediately noticed.

"Do... you do this kind of mission often?"

[Honō Mako]

Given the grim expression at the nickname of ‘pretty boy’, it was pretty obvious that Kuebiko wasn’t too fond of the nickname that he’d been given; but Mako wouldn’t have too much time to worry or think about that because as soon as he’d summon Hanatarō, he’d pat the lion cub on the head and explain the mission to the small thing, "We’re looking for Bandits, so if we pass by any campfires near the road go ahead and give us a heads up.” With a vibrant nod of understanding from the young lion, Mako would stand back up and both of them would start walking down the road at almost the same time as Kuebiko.

While the small lion playfully ran through the grass on the sides of the road and started pouncing on nearly every small living thing he could spot in the grass, Kuebiko would finally pipe up and extend a question to Mako, likely trying to start some small talk to pass the time a little more quickly. The young Honō would bite at the opportunity and start talking pretty enthusiastically, "So normally I’m on missions a little further astray from the village, but since I was between teams for a while I wasn’t doing nearly as much work as I usually do, ya know; but missions like this aren’t all that bad, they pay decent and they’re pretty easy and fun.”

Before extending the question back to Kuebiko which was typical for these types of conversations, he’d do a fast bow, almost so quick that Kuebiko would miss it if he weren’t paying attention, "Sorry about the pretty boy thing, I was just trying to give you a badass nickname.” He’d rub the back of his head in embarrassment as he tried to explain with a nervous chuckle, "My friend on my old squad was a lot better at it than I am.” Mako would let that fester for a little bit before the slightly embarrassed look on his face would return to a smile and he’d finally return to conversational norms.

"What about you? I can’t imagine this is the type of mission you’re normally into.” Mako would try to quickly explain, "No offense, but with the duds you’re rockin’ I probably would have thought you were royalty instead of a shinobi.” Of course it was obvious that first impressions were wrong, because Kuebiko was on this mission with him. He was trying his best to avoid annoying Kuebiko, because if he did it’d mean that the two of them would have to travel in painful silence, but as a man who’d only ever made two friends he wasn’t particularly good with people.

Kuishinbou Kuebiko

SPOILER: Click to show

Summon:
NAME: Hanatarō
ELEMENT: Doton
TYPE: Lion
RANK: D
APPEARANCE:

Hanatarō is a lion cub whose fur takes a dark brown color with his underbelly taking a lighter shade of brown. His eyes are golden, expressing a carefree attitude. While his nose and ears are of a dark color. His tail is of the same length for a cub of his age, ending with a light patch of fur on the end. All and all, he resembled a normal lion cub.

PERSONALITY:

Personality wise, Hanatarō is a carefree and playful lion cub. Sure of himself, he presents himself with pride of being one of the sons of the chief lion of the pride. However this often leads him in trouble as he has barely begun to make forays into battle, more often than not training with his siblings.

ABILITIES:

Tracker: Even at their young age, Hanatarō has distinguished himself for his acute sense of smell. With this he is able to locate targets and even capture the scent of incoming individuals, with a relative good accuracy within a range of ten miles.

[Kuishinbou Kuebiko]

While Mako talked, Kuebiko's gaze lingered on the little lion skipping through the grass. Hanatarō was a playful young animal, yet his sense of play still involved the hunt. That was only nature, wasn't it? Maybe he shouldn't get so philosophical about everything, but he couldn't help it. When Mako said these kind of missions were fun, though, his eyes slid back to the Honō. He was one of those types, then?

Before he could get too irritated, Mako apologized for the nickname, throwing Kuebiko off again. This conversation felt very... hot and cold. The awkwardness of first-meetings was almost palpable. Kuebiko wished he was a more sociable person, that he could approach conversation more competently. That would make things so much easier, wouldn't it?

"Royalty?" He asked, looking down at himself. He didn't seem quite so offended this time, at least. "I probably spend too much of my money on clothes," he admitted, finally cracking a bit of a smile. "It is kind of wasteful considering how often they're ruined in the field, but I like having nice things, so... Uhm. Well, I'm a medical shinobi, so I usually stay at the hospital or do rescue work, make a steady income off that. Enough to support my bad spending habits." He fussed with the sleeve of his shirt, mostly so he could avoid eye contact as he talked.

"The leadership wants me to keep my skills sharp, so I still get missions like this now and again. You're right about these jobs paying well, though."

Now, to address the awkward nickname thing.

"And about the nickname... Don't worry. It just caught me by surprise." At the end of the day, he really would take it over Ryōken.

Unfortunately, their casual conversation might come to an end soon. At the edge of Kuebiko's sense of smell, he began to pick up notes of smoke. A campfire, or something else burning?

[Honō Mako]

Mako listened intently as Kuebiko basically ruminated out loud regarding what Mako had said about him and his style of dress and when he mentioned being a medical shinobi the young Honō perked up at the mention. Despite being a Special Jounin and working among the Ops teams for the last couple years, he actually hadn’t had the opportunity to work with a medical shinobi yet; although the ease of the mission meant it was unlikely either of them would sustain injuries. Once Kuebiko had finished talking he was too focused on the medical shinobi bit to even address the nickname situation, "Does that mean that if I…”

Mako’s words would immediately get interrupted by Hanatarō who started making quiet lion cub sounds as they picked up a scent on the wind and pointed east off the path. Given how they had communicated in the past, the young Honō could only assume that meant there was something that smelled off to the east; and the cub was young and still wasn’t all that comfortable speaking to Mako yet, so that was about all the information he could gather on the matter. Mako would quickly give the young Lion an enthusiastic positive affirmation, "Good work Hanatarō!” Without any hesitation, he'd quickly pick the small lion cub up under one of his arms before setting his eyes back to Kuebiko and addressing him with a bit of hesitance, "Uhh, so I hope you mind taking the lead since you’re a tracker. Once we get close enough that I can see them, me and Hanataro will jump out and give them the ol’ one two.”

The young grass shinobi would make some punching and kicking motions as the lion flopped around under his arm like an oversized house cat. It was pretty obvious that the young cub had practically no combat abilities but due to the cat’s pride Mako was remiss to send him back home when the mission wasn’t super dangerous. He would prepare to follow Kuebiko as he asked a pretty important question, one that he probably should have led with before talking about jumping into the action, "I forgot to ask. Do you have any tricks I should keep an eye out for? I know some shinobi use a lot of jutsu that can cover the whole battlefield. I just kinda assumed since you were a medic I could jump in and punch some people.”

Now that the two of them were getting ready to move towards a potential bandit camp, it was important to get a basic idea of how they might best coordinate. Mako would typically prefer to capture bandits unless they were particularly dangerous, but he’d definitely follow Kuebiko’s lead on this one. Additionally given the situation, with Hanatarō in tow his lava wouldn’t be something he would be able to actually use this mission. Due to the heat it radiated, Hanatarō would be at risk of receiving severe burns just by being carelessly carried into combat; that meant that he’d likely be relying on his taijutsu and genjutsu, and if things got too dicey he’d have to set the cat down before using some of his other tools.

Kuishinbou Kuebiko

SPOILER: Click to show

Summon:
NAME: Hanatarō
ELEMENT: Doton
TYPE: Lion
RANK: D
APPEARANCE:

Hanatarō is a lion cub whose fur takes a dark brown color with his underbelly taking a lighter shade of brown. His eyes are golden, expressing a carefree attitude. While his nose and ears are of a dark color. His tail is of the same length for a cub of his age, ending with a light patch of fur on the end. All and all, he resembled a normal lion cub.

PERSONALITY:

Personality wise, Hanatarō is a carefree and playful lion cub. Sure of himself, he presents himself with pride of being one of the sons of the chief lion of the pride. However this often leads him in trouble as he has barely begun to make forays into battle, more often than not training with his siblings.

ABILITIES:

Tracker: Even at their young age, Hanatarō has distinguished himself for his acute sense of smell. With this he is able to locate targets and even capture the scent of incoming individuals, with a relative good accuracy within a range of ten miles.

[Kuishinbou Kuebiko]

The small lion noticed the scent, too, pointing the duo to the east. This confirmed what Kuebiko had thought. There was a chance it wasn't a group of bandits at all. Kuebiko would cling onto that hope until he couldn't anymore. Maybe it was just a group of traveling merchants who had stopped off the road for a break. Those types probably wouldn't settle out in the wilderness with a campfire, though, not unless they'd had something break down.

Mako asked for Kuebiko to take the lead, and he nodded slightly.

"I'll take point," he confirmed, quietly, stepping off the path and following the scent of smoke into the brush. There were no extremely heavy forests in this part of the country, only smatterings of wooded areas that intermittently speckled the landscape. That meant the number of places a group could hunker down stealthily were quite small. 

"I primarily use genjutsu and other capture techniques," he informed Mako in response to the question of his skills. "Nothing exceptionally wide-ranging, so you won't have to watch too carefully for me. Is there anything I should be wary of on your end?" He knew from the mission assignment that Mako was a Honō, but that didn't necessarily mean he would have the clan's signature skill at his disposal.

With Kuebiko following the smell of smoke on the wind, the three neared the source quickly. Over a sparse treeline, smoke filtered, and the light of a campfire flickered, casting shadows between the tree trunks.

If they approached, quietly and cautiously, they could make out details about the group around the campfire. No forehead protectors or sign of affiliation with Kusagakure, but certainly armed with several standard-seeming weapons. One sat near the fire cleaning his blade of dried blood (unfortunately, Kuebiko's sense of smell wasn't keen enough to distinguish whether it was animal or human). They had in their possession what appeared to be an overturned merchant's cart, with piles of goods stored in the sideways vessel, possibly commandeered. The group seemed rough and were sharing rude stories over the fire. None of it was necessarily direct evidence of theft, but together it didn't paint an innocent picture.

[Honō Mako]

As soon as Kuebiko accepted the initial responsibility of taking the lead, the young Honō would follow him off the path; and Mako would run as lightly as he could, partially to be as stealthy as possible and also to make the ride as smooth as possible for Hanatarō. Assuming they were just regular bandits, the limited amount of trees would make it incredibly difficult to hide an encampment in Nohara no Kuni. When Kuebiko mentioned that he didn’t have any exceptionally wide-ranging attacks at his disposal, Mako would breathe a sigh of relief before answering in a slight whisper, as if he wasn't gonna just yell like an idiot in thirty seconds, "Try to stay away from my lava if I have to use it. It’s hella hot.”

That kind of warning seemed like common sense, and it honestly failed to convey the exact nature of his lava, which radiated an intense heat far beyond the range of normal lava; with the excitement of combat looming right around the corner though, it was incredibly difficult for the adrenaline filled teen to find more precise wording. It didn’t help that as soon as the words left his mouth Mako would spot the smoke from some sort of fire and race ahead with reckless abandon. If there was a shinobi among them he’d change his strategy to something more passive, but for now he was just here to have some fun.

With that in mind, Mako crashed through the small bit of foliage between him and the camp while yelling and announcing his arrival, "GERONIMO, BITCHES!” As soon as their heads turned towards the young shinobi’s direction, his right foot would already be cracking against the side of one of their heads with a nice solid round-house kick. Hanatarō who was helplessly flopping around under Mako’s arm would make incredibly intimidating growls and fruitlessly scratch at the air in the direction of the next closest guy to Mako, who would shout, "What the… Who the hell are you?” The other guy across the campfire who had been cleaning the blood off his sword was the quickest to counterattack and with each sweep Mako would utilize the most basic of Taijutsu, Kuikkurōtēshon [Quick Rotation], to rotate both his own body and Hanatarō’s body out of the way.

It was crude and simple, but with Mako and Hanatarō holding all their attention it’d afford Kuebiko the opportunity to use a Genjutsu unimpeded, and that would hopefully give him another opening to down another one of the Bandits. That was the conclusion Mako had come to upon hearing his new friend utilized genjutsu and capture techniques, but he was more than capable of switching strategies if his partner chose a different action. As the other Bandits finally joined in on the attack, Mako would pull a kunai out of his pouch and do his best to deflect and dodge the attacks as his friend finally got into position. The funny thing being that if they weren’t bandits, what they were doing right now would be considered self defense.

Kuishinbou Kuebiko

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Kuikkurōtēshon [Quick Rotation]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 0
DESCRIPTION:

Utilizing chakra in the feet, ankles and legs specifically. It is a small amount of energy, but used precisely on reflexes and timing. This technique is gauged this way. When timed, the user can twist themselves abruptly out of the way of an attack. Like a speedy side-step, but a rotation of one's body to the side. A spin-move. This is only attacks in an immediate vicinity(three meters) anything else is too big an attack. Usually Taijutsu, but sometimes this technique is effective against close-range ninjutsu.

Summon:
NAME: Hanatarō
ELEMENT: Doton
TYPE: Lion
RANK: D
APPEARANCE:

Hanatarō is a lion cub whose fur takes a dark brown color with his underbelly taking a lighter shade of brown. His eyes are golden, expressing a carefree attitude. While his nose and ears are of a dark color. His tail is of the same length for a cub of his age, ending with a light patch of fur on the end. All and all, he resembled a normal lion cub.

PERSONALITY:

Personality wise, Hanatarō is a carefree and playful lion cub. Sure of himself, he presents himself with pride of being one of the sons of the chief lion of the pride. However this often leads him in trouble as he has barely begun to make forays into battle, more often than not training with his siblings.

ABILITIES:

Tracker: Even at their young age, Hanatarō has distinguished himself for his acute sense of smell. With this he is able to locate targets and even capture the scent of incoming individuals, with a relative good accuracy within a range of ten miles.

[Kuishinbou Kuebiko]

Hey - Hey! Instead of stopping to consider the elements at play here and even contemplating the possibility of talking to these people to ascertain their intentions, Mako just jumped right in, getting right to attacking one of them. A swift kick to the skull, no hesitation. It made Kuebiko grind his teeth, almost hard enough to make his jaw sore. Still, now that Mako was in the fray, Kuebiko couldn't just leave him to trouble all by himself, even if he would deserve it for the way he'd approached things!

Some dark part of him considered leaving Mako to his fate. The smarter part of him knew that these bandits were not as experienced at combat as Mako and that Mako would win out in the end - which would leave Kuebiko in trouble if such hands-off behaviors were reported to the Kusa Lord.

No, he would just have to resolve to put an end to the fight as quickly as possible, with as few causalities and injuries as possible. Afterwards, he could give his teammate a stern talking-to about looking before he leaped.

Rushing to join the fray as well, Kuebiko raised his hands to render a hand seal. Several of the foes would look to spot the new arrival and end up witnessing the hand seal for it. Immediately, three of the "bandits" (presuming they were such, for now) would full under the effects of Chikyū o Shifuto [Shifting Earth]. They wobbled, struggling to stand, as though the earth were being rocked by a violent earthquake, and they could only cling to the ground for purchase.

That would leave two properly standing, including the one Mako was currently engaged with. The sword-wielding bandit didn't fall under the effects, as his attention had fully been on Mako. He looked to his fallen comrades and barked,

"What the hell is wrong with all of you? Get up and help me!"

It seemed none of them had shinobi training, at least not enough to recognize a genjutsu given the context. That didn't mean the bandit wasn't decent with a sword, however. When Mako blocked one of his strikes with a kunai, he twisted his blade, trying to use the force to disarm Mako.

The second standing bandit tried to take aim at Kuebiko, arming himself with a nearby cooking knife, evidently less prepared for a fight than his counterpart. Kuebiko withdrew a kunai from his own belt to block a strike. He didn't excel in physical combat, but he could hold his own for the most part.

[Honō Mako]

Needless to say, shit was going down. All five of the conscious supposed bandits were scrambling for weapons or already had them, but before they could honestly have an impact on the fight most of them began to wobble and fall on their asses. After what Kuebiko had told him, as well as his general shinobi knowledge, it was pretty obvious that they were being hindered by a rather simple genjutsu; and because of the simple illusion they would struggle to even get onto their hands and knees before falling back to the ground. Given the genjutsu’s effectiveness on these lowly bandits Mako would choose to take a similar approach with the guy he was going up against.

Even without the bandit being a shinobi, it’d be difficult to hold back a sword gripped with two hands while casually one-handing a kunai; so rather than try to hold onto the glorified knife when the bandit tried to disarm him, Mako would just drop it and use Kuikkurōtēshon [Quick Rotation] again to get his and Hanatarō’s body out of the way. When the bandit turned in the young Honō’s direction with the intent to swing again his eyes would meet the Special Jounin’s glare and his body would immediately lock up due to Genjutsu Shibari [Genjutsu Binding]. Mako’s eyes darted down to the ground for a mere moment with the hopes that the kunai would have just dropped straight down, but it seemed like the force from the sword had sent it flying off into the grass.

The bandit’s eyes would widen with a special kind of fear as he shouted, "What the hell’d you do to me!?” Mako would let loose a slightly disheartened sigh and just look at the guy before responding, "Don’t worry about it, man… but you made me lose my kunai, so I’ll be taking this.” The young shinobi quickly reached down and pried the sword out of the guy’s hands while making a rather audible, "Yoink!” It’d take a second or two to actually rip the sword out of the guy’s grip, but once the weapon was in his posession he’d turn his attention back to Kuebiko who would soon be clashing with the last guy on his own. It looked like it would be cooking knife vs kunai.

Just before they got close enough to start stabbing Mako would lean a little bit on the guy he’d basically turned into a statue before asking Kuebiko, "Do you need any help?” It was a little late for that though. Before Kuebiko would even get a chance to answer he’d be met with the bandit trying to stab at his midsection; the stab itself made it painfully obvious that these guys had no shinobi training, there were Academy Students that had better form. Technically the fight wasn't finished yet so there was more Mako could be doing, but with one guy unconscious, one guy frozen like a statue, and three guys continuously falling on their asses the last real threat was the guy with the kitchen knife.

Once this last guy was handled they would basically be able to do whatever they wanted with them. They could question them, inspect the overturned cart, or see if there was anything identifying on any of the guys they had fought here.

Kuishinbou Kuebiko

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Kuikkurōtēshon [Quick Rotation]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Taijutsu
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 0
DESCRIPTION:

Utilizing chakra in the feet, ankles and legs specifically. It is a small amount of energy, but used precisely on reflexes and timing. This technique is gauged this way. When timed, the user can twist themselves abruptly out of the way of an attack. Like a speedy side-step, but a rotation of one's body to the side. A spin-move. This is only attacks in an immediate vicinity(three meters) anything else is too big an attack. Usually Taijutsu, but sometimes this technique is effective against close-range ninjutsu.

NAME: Genjutsu Shibari [Genjutsu Binding]
RANK: B
CHAKRA USAGE: To Use: Medium | To Maintain: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Genjutsu
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 0
TRIGGER: Visual
DESCRIPTION:

As the name suggests, the user binds the opponent in a genjutsu by the opponent viewing the user glare, rendering them incapable of movement; and this genjutsu can be used on more than one target at the same time. Unlike other genjutsu that use illusory objects to stop movements, this genjutsu simply affects the target's sense of touch to make it feel as if every inch of their body surrounded by hardened cement, effectively paralyzing the target. Once the target(s) are bound, the user or an ally can rush up to the enemy and deliver a devastating killing blow.

Summon:
NAME: Hanatarō
ELEMENT: Doton
TYPE: Lion
RANK: D
APPEARANCE:

Hanatarō is a lion cub whose fur takes a dark brown color with his underbelly taking a lighter shade of brown. His eyes are golden, expressing a carefree attitude. While his nose and ears are of a dark color. His tail is of the same length for a cub of his age, ending with a light patch of fur on the end. All and all, he resembled a normal lion cub.

PERSONALITY:

Personality wise, Hanatarō is a carefree and playful lion cub. Sure of himself, he presents himself with pride of being one of the sons of the chief lion of the pride. However this often leads him in trouble as he has barely begun to make forays into battle, more often than not training with his siblings.

ABILITIES:

Tracker: Even at their young age, Hanatarō has distinguished himself for his acute sense of smell. With this he is able to locate targets and even capture the scent of incoming individuals, with a relative good accuracy within a range of ten miles.

[Kuishinbou Kuebiko]

As the last-man-standing lunged at Kuebiko, he couldn't help but feel a deep sympathy for these men.

Kuebiko ducked to the side, less practiced than Mako, but still managed to avoid a glancing blow. He grabbed the bandit's arm - the man was strong, with the right training he could've been dangerous - and in a motion he'd practiced while learning the Handcuff technique, he twisted the man's arm around behind himself. He kicked the back of the man's knee to drop him and grabbed his other arm, holding both behind his back. He couldn't use chakra to bind him, since he was still maintaining his genjutsu, but he could hold him here for now.

Anyone with a weapon was a threat, and it was clear these men had a little bit in the way of fighting experience, but it was more bar brawl experience than contending with trained soldiers. As a genin, or even a chuunin, this may have been a much more frightening fight, but Kuebiko had too much mission experience just like this by now to feel such a fear, which was almost disturbing to him. He still wanted to give these men the respect of treating them like proper threats. They were. One lucky swing of the knife could end Kuebiko's life.

So he made sure to pry the knife from the downed man's hand and toss it aside, out of reach.

He looked up, breathing a little heavy, and saw Mako leaned against the other trapped bandit. Treating him like a statue, mocking him in defeat. This time, he couldn't hide his little scowl at that.

Alright. Calm down. It was time to question these people.

"What do you want with us?" The man on the ground asked. He was furious, but the strength of his voice was also obviously put-upon. He was a little frightened.

"We're... investigating reports of bandits in the area. Ones attacking merchants along the road for goods," Kuebiko answered, eyes sliding over to look at the overturned merchant cart.

[Honō Mako]

Now that all the bandits had been neutralized, Mako would make his way around the overturned cart as his ally mentioned that they were investigating reports regarding bandits in the area, and he got about the response that one would expect. The man who was still frozen from the genjutsu binding would do his best to spit in the direction of Kuebiko before exclaiming, "Like we’d tell you assholes anything! Plus you guys were the ones that attacked us!" Given the state of their campsite, however, and the fact that there was still dried blood on the sword that Mako had commandeered was more than enough reason to suspect they were bandits.

In the lull they were currently in Mako was able to get a better look at the cart and the goods that had once been contained in it. Not only was there dried blood on the cart and goods strewn across the ground, but with a bit of rifling he quickly found a ledger. The contents of the book were primarily a record of sales that the owner of the cart kept track of, but after seeing the name inside the front cover Mako’s heart sank a little bit. The cart belonged to a trusted older merchant that often made his way through Kusagakure, not only did the guy always talk about his family back home but he was just generally a good guy. With the book in hand, Mako would shout to the other side of the cart where the bandits still were, "Shut up, idiot. If you’re gonna try to play the victim card, at least chuck the shit that identifies the owner of the cart.”

For Mako, the book combined with the blood was more than sufficient evidence, but a more thorough examination would show that the containers that had been overturned were marked with a rather well-known merchant crest that corroborated the book. Mako would look down and address the little lion, "Please join Kuebiko, Hanatarō,” before tossing the little book to Kuebiko and sliding the katana he’d stolen under his belt. Once the book and the lion were over a meter away, his ethereal blue lava would quickly manifest over the wraps covering his hands; and without any hesitation his fist would meet the stomach of the man who had originally had the sword.

Not only would the blow cause the guy to lose consciousness but Yōton: Kogasu [Lava Release: Singe] would burn a hole through the guy’s clothes, leaving severe burns on the point of contact as well as 2nd degree burns on the guy’s entire body. Needless to say, Mako was pissed, and he didn’t care if he got a glare of disapproval from Kuebiko; once the guy was unconscious and fell to the ground, Mako would let the jutsu end before crouching down to the guy’s unconscious body to casually pat down the areas where the guy’s clothes had started to catch fire from the close proximity to the young Honō’s blue lava. The guy would probably live, but the next couple months would suck.

Mako’s tone was a bit more serious now as he looked up to Kuebiko with a relatively somber and angry look on his face, "So what do you think, Kuebiko. What should we do with the rest of them?”


Kuishinbou Kuebiko

SPOILER: Click to show

NAME: Yōton: Kogasu [Lava Release: Singe]
RANK: D
CHAKRA USAGE: Low, Very Low (Drain)
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu
ELEMENT: Yōton
HANDSEALS: 1
DESCRIPTION:

By using the Honō Clan natural immunity to their own techniques, the user coats their forearms and hands with a thin, yet burning, layer of Lava. This supplements the user's physical attacks usually performing taijutsu, with the added effect of causing minor burns on their opponents, that are more superficial in damage as opposed to being devastating burning.

NAME: Genjutsu Shibari [Genjutsu Binding]
RANK: B
CHAKRA USAGE: To Use: Medium | To Maintain: Low
CLASSIFICATION: Genjutsu
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 0
TRIGGER: Visual
DESCRIPTION:

As the name suggests, the user binds the opponent in a genjutsu by the opponent viewing the user glare, rendering them incapable of movement; and this genjutsu can be used on more than one target at the same time. Unlike other genjutsu that use illusory objects to stop movements, this genjutsu simply affects the target's sense of touch to make it feel as if every inch of their body surrounded by hardened cement, effectively paralyzing the target. Once the target(s) are bound, the user or an ally can rush up to the enemy and deliver a devastating killing blow.

Summon:
NAME: Hanatarō
ELEMENT: Doton
TYPE: Lion
RANK: D
APPEARANCE:

Hanatarō is a lion cub whose fur takes a dark brown color with his underbelly taking a lighter shade of brown. His eyes are golden, expressing a carefree attitude. While his nose and ears are of a dark color. His tail is of the same length for a cub of his age, ending with a light patch of fur on the end. All and all, he resembled a normal lion cub.

PERSONALITY:

Personality wise, Hanatarō is a carefree and playful lion cub. Sure of himself, he presents himself with pride of being one of the sons of the chief lion of the pride. However this often leads him in trouble as he has barely begun to make forays into battle, more often than not training with his siblings.

ABILITIES:

Tracker: Even at their young age, Hanatarō has distinguished himself for his acute sense of smell. With this he is able to locate targets and even capture the scent of incoming individuals, with a relative good accuracy within a range of ten miles.

[Kuishinbou Kuebiko]

While it seemed very likely that these individuals were in fact bandits, he understood their frustration. Mako had come in fighting rather than trying to discuss anything. Whether or not the bandits would've been amicable to conversation was questionable - this probably would have ended up in a fight either way. In that sense, approaching stealthily and ambushing them was the wise decision. To a group not so trained in stealth as shinobi, that might seem like a dishonorable tactic. Shinobi weren't really supposed to care about things like that, or if they did strongly believe in honor, they at least had a very different idea of honor from civilians.

He slowly stood, keeping the bandit's wrists in his hands, and navigated the man closer to the overturned cart so he could retrieve some rope. He used it to tie the man's wrists while Mako searched the cart for evidence. He should start carrying rope for this purpose instead of relying on finding it.

Before he could think too long on that fact, it seemed Mako had found something. And he wasn't happy.

He sent Hanatarō to join Kuebiko and tossed him the book. Kuebiko had to let go of the bandit quickly in order to catch it, glad that he'd already bound the man so he couldn't attack. He looked at the book and frowned, expression growing even darker. This merchant was a recognizable one, a presence in the merchant district of Kusagakure for as long as Kuebiko could remember.

He was about to question the bandit when he looked up to see Mako, hands aglow with striking blue lava. Kuebiko had never seen anything like it, but he knew what that kind of radiant heat meant. He tried to protest, but it was too late - Mako had already slammed his scorching fist into the swordsman. He went up in flames, passing out instantly from the pain. Kuebiko bit his tongue so hard he almost swore he tasted blood.

"What the fuck!" The bandit beside Kuebiko gasped, clearly weighing the benefits of running away and risking a similar immolation. "Oh, god? Is he breathing? Shit, shit, shit..." Mako had effectively intimidated the remaining bandits. Even if they could flee, it was unlikely they would try.

Abandoning the tied up bandit entirely to come closer, Kuebiko said,

"Tie up the others. I need to treat him, but I can't while maintaining my genjutsu." His tone was cold. He hated having to heal someone as disgusting as this, but burns that severe over that much of his body would certainly kill him before they could get him back to the village. "I wanted to try to search the area for the merchant, but I guess that will have to wait."

[Honō Mako]

Mako would nod and simply say, "Sure thing, we can still do both of those things. Hanatarō, look around the area for the owner of the cart and come get me if you find anything.” Kuebiko had wanted to look around the area for the owner just in case he was still alive, maybe, but Mako had basically already given up on the idea of finding the old man alive. Hanatarō would immediately sniff at the air, and start wandering around the cart to track the scent of the merchant that was still on the cart. With the amount of blood on the cart, he had simply assumed that the merchant was dead; but it was definitely still possible that he had made it out alive.

While Hanatarō performed his duty Mako would pick up some of the rope that Kuebiko had been using before approaching the rest of the bandits and reassuring them to the best of his ability in his current mood, "Look, your friend will be fine, my buddy here is a medical shinobi; but maybe you guys should have picked a different line of work.” One of the bandits would snap back rather quickly, "The fight was already over. You didn’t have to fuck him up like that.” The young Honō would start the rope-work before tying the rope rather tightly around the bandit’s wrists and looking him dead in the eyes with a great fury behind his own, "After what you guys did, you guys are lucky i stopped at the guy with blood on his sword.”

As he finished tying up the bandits in silence, Hanatarō would slowly creep back into the clearing with his head held low; and when Mako looked back at the young cub, Hanatarō would simply shake its head to indicate that what it found wasn’t pretty. This time instead of taking his anger out on the bandit’s he’d punch the overturned cart as hard as he could before shouting, "Damn it!” From the one impact with the cart his knuckles were bleeding and the wood was cracked and splintered, but he was doing his best not to make any more work for Kuebiko. He could tell that Kuebiko wasn’t pleased with the way that the young Honō had conducted the mission, but Mako was pissed at how powerless situations like this made him feel. Shinobi were capable of stopping monsters like these with ease, but in the end they were still human and they couldn’t be everywhere at once.

Rather than dwell on it for too long he’d look to Kuebiko who was fixing the mess that he’d already made before piping up, "What do you think? Should I go get his body and take it back with us, or should we send somebody out to get it? We aren’t too far away from the village, so honestly it doesn’t really matter.” Mako’s tone was a lot different from when they had started the mission. Sure, he preferred to take people alive, but these monsters were barely people in his eyes. They were willing to bring a life to an end just to earn a couple of bucks. It wasn’t all too different from shinobi taking a life in the grand scheme of things, but usually those cases were threats to the country or bad people like this and not simple innocent merchants. Either way, despite the successful nature of the mission, it felt like a failure.

SPOILER: Click to show

Summon:
NAME: Hanatarō
ELEMENT: Doton
TYPE: Lion
RANK: D
APPEARANCE:

Hanatarō is a lion cub whose fur takes a dark brown color with his underbelly taking a lighter shade of brown. His eyes are golden, expressing a carefree attitude. While his nose and ears are of a dark color. His tail is of the same length for a cub of his age, ending with a light patch of fur on the end. All and all, he resembled a normal lion cub.

PERSONALITY:

Personality wise, Hanatarō is a carefree and playful lion cub. Sure of himself, he presents himself with pride of being one of the sons of the chief lion of the pride. However this often leads him in trouble as he has barely begun to make forays into battle, more often than not training with his siblings.

ABILITIES:

Tracker: Even at their young age, Hanatarō has distinguished himself for his acute sense of smell. With this he is able to locate targets and even capture the scent of incoming individuals, with a relative good accuracy within a range of ten miles.

[Kuishinbou Kuebiko]

Mako had his lion cub with him, so the young cub was set to the task of finding the body. Kuebiko hoped, on some level, that the old man was still clinging to life, but he knew that was an overly optimistic dream. These men had only been sitting here laughing and having a good time because the poor old man had already bled out.

That suspicion was confirmed soon enough when Hanatarō returned with a notable somberness. He'd found the corpse, then. Kuebiko kept his head down, trying not to let his frustration with the situation swallow him the way it had Mako.

They'd technically done well. Discovered a crime in progress, solved a murder, put a stop to it before anyone else could be hurt. That didn't make it any less bitter, though. He stared at the charred flesh under his hands and pondered why everything had to involve so much violence.

Kuebiko was a medic, but was also a genjutsu expert first. He found himself lacking in techniques for dealing with such extensive burns. The best he could do for the man was utilize his suiton to wash them and pull out the heat from the skin, preventing further deep tissue damage. Then he took the bandages from his first-aid kit and wrapped them around the wounds.

"Take a tarp from the cart and wrap the body. We'll take it with us so no wild animals will get to it before we send anyone back," he answered. It took everything in him to remain civil, but he wasn't going to break the front of teamwork in front of the prisoners if he could help it. Arguing methods of approach could wait until they made it back to the village.

Transporting a corpse and an unconscious burn victim along with several prisoners wasn't going to be easy, but they'd manage it somehow.

He went to the cart himself, pulling out what tarps he could find. The type one would pull over the goods to cover from the rain. He offered one to Mako before taking the other over to his vile patient, laying it out and moving the man onto it. As he did, he spoke to the other bandits.

"I need to keep him on his back as we transport him, which means I'll need help carrying him. Can any of you agree not to cause any trouble and help me?"

There was an uncomfortable silence that passed between the bandits, the clear look between each of them to see if anyone planned on making a break for it, if any of them were bold enough to volunteer, a general clear displeasure at being prisoners.

Eventually, one of them - the one who Mako had first knocked out earlier, actually - relented and stepped forward as volunteer. After checking the man was definitely unarmed, Kuebiko would unbind his hands and the man would help him lift the tarp holding his friend.