[Karamatta Risuki]

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Breeding Ground Scouting MISSION RANK: D NPC REQUIRED: Optional RANDOM MISSION SCENARIO: Disabled PARTICIPANTS: One Participant must have completed Katsue Meeting. DESCRIPTION: Search the areas of the Katsue breeding grounds that are instructed by the Breeders, look for anything that could help lead to those poaching on the breeding grounds. (Find Insignia)

Risuki watches with a quirked eyebrow as Asahi drinks the entire glass of water in a moment, places the glass back down, and then rushes out of the small guest house, causing her to blink. She wonders if his cheeks being flushed meant that he was even warmer than he'd been before, but that didn't make sense. The redhead would have to make sure he was okay later. For now, she turns back towards Jingasa and shrugs her shoulders before letting him lead her and the other four guards back out of the guest house and towards the ruined fence on the eastern side of the breeding grounds, where they're likely to find Asahi anyways, since he'd been a part of their conversation up to that point. The redhead herself is busy making sure her fingerless gloves are fully tightened on her hands; she wants to make sure that she's ready in case any other bandits might show up. From what it sounded like, it seemed that whoever was taking or killing the scorpions was also keeping a watchful eye on the place and only attacked when their guard was down.

When they arrive, she can already see someone there, and she assumes it's Asahi. For the moment, since they're still among company, Risuki isn't going to ask him what his sudden and strange exit was about; she could ask him more about that when they were relatively alone. Jingasa points out the broken fence, dilapidated as it was. The destruction that had been done to the fence was still clearly obvious, showing a wide breach. It was interesting that they only took two scorpions at the most when they made such a huge break off the fence, and she turns to look at Jingasa, who's already beginning to explain to them both.

"This time is a little different, honestly. This is my first time seeing the damage they did to the enclosure this time around, but they don't usually take out so much of the fence when they do it. It's usually small, just enough to get a single person through, but this looks like it was made bigger."

Indeed, the wreckage of what was once that portion of the fence was strewn out, both inside and far outside of the enclosure, and she wonders if perhaps they might find some evidence among the debris.

[Oonakayama Asahi]

Risuki would be correct in assuming he was already by the wreckage, doing his best to catch his breath before they showed up. Patting his cheeks to calm down as he did his best to just not think to hard about it. Instead he inspect the fence, it was just destroyed, but it also didn't look like it would take much to knock it over. His adrenaline fueled brain already working overtime doing it's best to comprehend the glass, and the mess in front of him. After a few moments he would calm down enough so that when they arrived he was back to his usual self. No need to worry about him, or the remnants of his flustered cheeks.

Hearing what Jingasa was saying caused him to ponder it as well. So this had been the most the fence had been broken up. That was curious at the very least, if they never made a hole this big before, then something was up.

"Was it always this portion of the fence they targeted? Or was it random?" He asked the man as he knelt down, and poked at some of the debris trying to determine what could have possible broken it. Though he was no expert in woodworking, so he had no idea, it was all just jumbled pieces of scrapwood to him. "Do you think they did this so you'd rush to fix it, and maybe it'd be easier for them to break into from this point onward?" If they made hasty repairs they wouldn't last nearly as long as ones that were done properly.

So it would be a permanent gap in their defenses so to speak, but again he had no idea if that was what the enemy was thinking or not. Still he placed his chin in his hands, and looked around the area trying to find a clue that might help them out.

Karamatta Risuki

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki herself listens to Jingasa's wondering, but she herself isn't particularly interested in figuring out the reason why just from conjecture; it was hard enough knowing what someone was thinking when one was speaking to them face-to-face, and so figuring out their reason for obliterating the fence this time around probably wouldn't be particularly effective until they get to investigating more closely. As it is, she decides that it's about time she started the investigation in earnest by suggesting that their random conjecture wasn't going to get them any closer to figuring this mystery out.

"Ah, hell, as long as you've got all that runnin' out of yer system, we should start puttin' aside the debris and combin' through it. We can't read their minds from so little info, so we're gonna have to figure it out from piecin' it together outta what we can find from what remains o' the fence."

She throws the wolfdog pelt off of her back and straight ahead of her, into her own shadow before she performs a single handseal, infusing her will into her shadow and then sewing that into the pelt. From the perspective of those around her, it would seem as though the pelt were simply an animal skin floating towards the ground one moment, and then after she performs the handseal, the pelt transforms, taking on a lively form of a huge wolf-like dog, its fur a greenish that matches the green of the soles of her shoes. She realizes after a moment that it's likely the first time that Asahi has probably seen her make use of her clan's techniques, but she puts that out of mind for now. Sota could help out with the work of sorting through the debris and helping with the investigative work for now.

[Oonakayama Asahi]

To say that there were questions was an understatement as he witnessed her use her clan technique for the first time ever. The pelt that made her look like a barbarian was suddenly transformed into a dog that then began to help clear the debris out, and he assumed started to look for clues. Asahi wanted to pester her with questions about how it worked, but that wouldn't do in front the Katsue clan. Instead he decided to do things manually, and he began to neatly pile the debris into a sorted pile near the fence so that their clients could use it to fix it when everything was said and done.

He thought about using his own Iron Sand to help gather everything quicker, but there was always so much of it when he summoned it from his scroll that he felt it would just make things more of a messy, and hinder their investigation. So manual labor it was for him, all the while he kept a lookout for a scrap of cloth, a weapon, something that could have been left behind by their culprits, but of course he found nothing. Of course if there clue was metallic then he might be of some use, but he didn't necessarily want to start using his techniques right now.

If their enemies were watching, the more cards he had hidden the better off they would be. So he walked through the pen at a snails pace looking across the ground for anything that seemed out of place. A frown started to form on his lips, what if this was a wild goose chase, and the Katsue were up to something? Quickly he shoved that thought aside, that was doubtful.

"I don't see anything over here, what about you Risuki?" He said depositing another small load of wood into the growing pile.

Karamatta Risuki

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki is still combing through the other side of the pen, carefully considering the large pile of debris that had once been a fence along with her clan Nuime, the wolfdog that had once been her pet what felt like a lifetime ago. There doesn't seem to be anything on the ground from where the debris had landed, and she wonders that perhaps they should have marked where each of the debris was before they moved it in order to get a bit more information about how the fence had been destroyed, as that might have given them some kind of clue when she hears Asahi call out from somewhere she hadn't expected; she turns her head to see that he's now in the scorpion breeding grounds, and she freezes while Sota to her left growls softly in consternation at the newly developing problem.

"Hey, Asahi. Yer gonna wanna walk this way. 'N' do me a favor? Walk slow like, all right?"

She keeps her voice calm, but she's clearly reaching into her weapon pouch and drawing out her knuckle dusters as even the Katsue clan members freeze when they see just how deep into the breeding pen that Asahi had gone. They apparently had also been busy looking through the debris themselves, although they hadn't apparently found anything particularly helpful yet. Now they're not even looking at the debris, a look of worry across the leader's face as Risuki suggests that her teammate come towards her slowly. Near him in the sand is what might look at first like a bit of shiny black stone, but it moves just a little bit, and when some sand trickles off of the black "stone", it reveals that the substance has a clearly defined claw-like shape, rather similar to the shape of a crab's claw.

[Oonakayama Asahi]

He wasn't paying much attention to where he had walked as he looked around, and cleaned up the debris. So when he heard a slightly panicked voice calling out to him, and he looked up to see the Katsue all looking horrified at him as well, it dawned on him.

Ah....I'm in the scorpion pit....

Was the first thought on his mind before he saw the chiton armor peeking out of the top of the sand. He could fight them, he would probably win after all, but that would not make him any friends with the Katsue clan that they were suppose to be helping. So gingerly he began to walk towards Risuki, his hands were shaking a bit, but step by step he continued onward. It was at times like this he loathed the fact that he didn't have any of his Iron Sand available, and that it was always tucked away into a scroll. He would have to figure out something for himself, and his clan as a whole to overcome this weakness.

"If they're about to attack. Just shout." He half whispered to Risuki as he continued forward. The Katsue clan would hopefully be able to wrangle their animals easy enough he hoped.

Karamatta Risuki

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki watches the black chitinous armor carefully as her mission partner carefully and slowly walks towards her, her fingers firmly gripping onto her knuckle dusters, although she knows that the Katsue would likely be fast enough to retain control of these breeding scorpions before they could do much harm to the other Genin. Even Sota is whimpering and whining, but softly, clearly aware that the other humans were nervous and full of energy, but moving slowly and quietly. Thankfully, Asahi is soon outside of the breeding pit, although Risuki doesn't relax until she visibly sees the Katsue clan members' own body postures take on a more calm state, and then she beckons towards him to let him know that the danger was past.

She pulls the knuckle dusters back off her hands as well, replacing them back into her weapon pouch and then running the fingers of her right hand through her short red hair with a sigh of relief.

"Jeez kid. You know how to make even the D-rank missions exciting, don'tcha?"

With that, she lightly nudges him with her elbow, then looks back towards the debris again, noticing some bit of cloth that seems to have been caught on a splintered piece of wood from the fence, and she points it out to Asahi before she approaches it herself. It didn't look like the black cloth from the Katsue clan, this stuff was far thinner and a somewhat off-white, more like the color of sand.

"Whaddaya figure this could be?"

[Oonakayama Asahi]

It didn't take long, but soon he was out of danger, and a gentle sigh of relief left his lungs as he looked back at the scorpions that seemed to have settled down at the very least. Noticing her knuckle dusters, and realizing that she was preparing to potentially fight the scorpions to keep him safe, caused his heart to skip a beat, but otherwise he just smiled awkwardly.

"Pffffttt....I'm not a kid y'know, I'm a full fledged ninja just like you. I would've been fine....Probably...." He scratched his cheek embarrassed that he had even put himself in that situation, but he shoved the thoughts out of his mind, and turned his attention to the scrap of cloth that she showed to him. Furrowing his brow he didn't see anything at first, but the more he stared he felt like he saw a pattern of some kind on it.

"Is that a symbol on it? Do you think this is from one of the intruders? This could be a huge clue!?" Excitement flooded his words as he looked from the cloth to her with a bright smile on his lips. "I bet if we go back to the village, we could figure out what the symbol is, and unravel the mystery of the people taking the scorpions." He was all but assured of their victory when it came to research, despite how much he disliked reading himself.

Karamatta Risuki

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki smirks a bit when Asahi insists that he's not a kid, but a full-fledged ninja. While he probably could have handled himself, she was glad that she didn't have to put his statement to the test for now. The important find of this cloth with some form of strange symbol certainly makes the mission much simpler, and although she can see that the Katsue man looks confused about the symbol as much as the two Sunagakure shinobi are, Risuki has no doubt that it's likely within the annals of Sunagakure's tribal ledger. Even tribes and clans from outside of Sunagakure were written down, studied, and carefully observed, just in case there was any sort of dispute that Sunagakure itself would need to get involved with.

She nods at Asahi's suggestion that they take the cloth back to the village for study, feeling another smirk coming on, but she does her best to keep her face stoic and her voice dry for the humor as she responds.

"Glad to hear ya volunteer, Asahi! I'd hate to do a buncha readin' like that, I'd get bored to death!"

Risuki gives a curt nod to the Katsue group, and their spokesman smiles and nods back in response, slightly more formally, but with no less gratitude. With that sign of appreciation showing that the job is indeed done, the redhead turns back towards the village and starts walking in the direction of their hot, sandy desert home.

"All right then, let's head home."

[Oonakayama Asahi]

""Glad to hear ya volunteer, Asahi! I'd hate to do a buncha readin' like that, I'd get bored to death!"

He heard those words, and his jaw hung open for a second, and he looked at her then to the Katsue, and back to her.

"Wait what! I didn't volunteer! No wait don't make me read all of that alone!" He bargained with her but to how much avail would have yet to be seen. Instead when she offered no further discussion, and started to head home he hung his head in defeat, and gave a weak wave to those that had given them this job. A frown on his face, and sadness in his eyes, like a man marching towards his own death.

Of course it wasn't anything so dramatic, just the thought of being forced to study something for hours upon hours on end was not something that he relished in doing. Still maybe there could be some good that came out of this predicament, maybe if he showed her how good he was at studying that would get her to notice him? He mentally scoffed at himself. That was doubtful, as far as he knew girls only liked people that were strong, and he wasn't strong enough yet.

Though his cousin had told him that studying the past would help him in the present, how true would that actually be? It seemed he was about to put that into practice at the very least. If they could find out the meaning of this symbol then it wouldn't be much to longer until they had to fight the scorpionnappers right? Another frown on his lips as the thought about it. They could just bring them in for sentencing in the village right? The two of them wouldn't have to kill them would they?

That at least was a problem for future Asahi.

Karamatta Risuki