Gather! Old and New Members Alike! [Team Ryuurei]

[strangevisitor]

Liquid absorption. That was BRILLIANT.

"Jiro, you're a genius! I'm gonna need lots of cover, though, this is NOT gonna be easy!" Calling back after finishing a tight spiral to fell a few more of the fluid fiends, Shichuumaru looked back over his shoulder.

"Gabu! Infusion 90!"

"BU?!"

"YES! 90!" Fumbling with a pouch through his vine-entangled fingers to get to the seeds he needed, the boy winced as the larva bit down onto his neck. Larvae, being rather simple biologically, did not require much in terms of food for sustaining function. They only required sustenance in large amounts to grow and undergo metamorphosis. As Shichuumaru had discovered by accident during his training over the past year, he could actually treat Gabu as something of a chakra battery by over-feeding him.

And now Gabu was charging him back up, as he was most certainly going to need it. Casting the seeds to the ground, he clenched his teeth and began gathering the Zyurinton again. "Hibiscus Cannabinus...most absorbent thing I've got........Gonna be sore in the morning.." He mumbled to himself as he laid the vines over the seeds, subtly coaxing the vines to grow down into the earth, taking the seeds along with them, connecting them all together.

There was no moving for him in the next long moments. He only hoped Jiro and Yuki could keep him in the clear long enough.

"I'm going for it!"

[Tensei Kaori]

"Oi, Yuki!" Jiro called out to his teammate, now concentrating his Dance on keeping the ink creatures away from Shichuumaru. "We've got a plan! In the meantime, take these things out!"

"What!?" came the panicked reply. "If I do that, I won't have any chakra left to cover you!"

"Just trust me!"

"All right... in that case, both of you duck as soon as you give the signal!"

"You got that, Shichuumaru?" Jiro asked, continuing his defensive patterns around Shichuumaru. Soon as you're ready, you let me know, and then we both duck as low as we can. Then you'll have your opening to absorb all the ink as soon as Yuki does his thing."

[strangevisitor]

"G-got it.." He strained out. C'mon...GROW! Need more roots...bigger network..He could do this. Fuurin-sama said he had the greatest potential in 5 generations! This would be child's play in a year!

His perception broadened as the plants grew beneath the ground, roots spreading through the entire area, weaving and linking, strengthening. He could 'see' the ink-creatures swarming about, feel Jiro's footsteps as he danced about, keeping him safe.

The roots hit the barrier of whatever this strange zone was. Sweat trickling down his brow, Shichuumaru called out. "GO!"

Dropping low to the ground, on his knees in fact, he ducked his head low to avoid whatever Yuki was about to do. Pulses of Zyurinton surged down the vines and into the ground, preparing the plants to explode to life the moment they needed to. The Hibiscus would take care of the rest.

[Tensei Kaori]

"Yuki, NOW!"

Yuki barely looked to see if the other two boys had ducked yet. Obviously the had, or they wouldn't be signaling to him, and besides, all his attention was focused on the shields he was maintaining.

All of which, including the one he was crouched on, vanished with a single word: "Kai!"

Rather than let all of the energy dissipate from the released shields, Yuki held onto it, gathering what he could to replenish his chakra store. At his level it wasn't very efficient - he got back less than half of what he put into the things in the first place - but he'd need every scrap of it.

By the time his feet hit the ground a heartbeat later, Yuki's hands had already formed the appropriate seals. All there was left to do was to call out the technique:

"Kamisori no Kekkai!*"

The technique prepared, Yuki gestured outward in a sharp motion with his hand, directing the jutsu's course as he gathered his remaining chakra. Then, without hesitation, he released it: a paper-thin barrier honed to a sharp edge that quickly expanded across the area. It went over his friends' heads, slicing through the freed ink creatures as it went, adding their now lifeless black liquid to the ever-increasing puddle on the ground. It was the biggest he had ever made one of these, and because he was low on chakra, it wasn't very strong at all. Still, it didn't take a lot to rip through these things, so it was effective anyways.

It had better be. He was out of chakra. It was up to the other two, now.

As soon as a rain of resounding splats sounded around them, Jiro knew Yuki had done his job. It was Shichuumaru's turn at last.

"Do it now!"



*Kamisori no Kekkai - Razor's Barrier. This simple but effective technique is the only offensive jutsu in a young Sekimori's arsenal; all their other combat abilities rely on being able to use the jutsu they know to the desired effect. The original Kekkai's shape is modified to a thin plane - though younger, more inexperienced members tend to make theirs a little thicker - with a sharpened edge that cuts in the direction and area of effect the user specifies: the larger, or more specific, the target, the harder it is to summon and control. We see this with Yuki: in his tired state, he is able to create a large Razor Barrier, but it isn't strong or sharp enough to do much besides cut down ink people.

[strangevisitor]

"Do it now!"

There was no particular technique to invoke for this, the Kyousei clansman was working off instinct alone. Surely, this was Zyurinton in its purest form. Clenching his jaw so hard, he feared his teeth might crack, a final pulse of chakra was sent down the vines and into the network of roots.

And the black ground exploded into verdant emerald. Long stems shot up from the earth, leaves sprouting this way and that as white blossoms seemed to pop into existence. As the plant grew, the strong root network he had created siphoned the only readily available liquid it could, drawing the ink right through the ground, the lowest lengths of the stems slowly turning black as the fluid was drawn up into them.

Even the grass seemed to lend a hand in the absorption. Either that or it was just stained.

"Gotcha~." Shichuumaru broke into an exhausted grin, dropping back on his behind as the vines wilted away from his hands. Hands which darted to shield his eyes as the area suddenly became very sunny again.

And who the heck was applauding?

[Tensei Kaori]

"Oi! Oi! You all right?" came Jiro's voice from across the now-sunny patch of ground as Yuki let a leaden hand drop down to his side. He heaved a sigh; that fight had taken a lot out of them. And for what? What was the purpose of attacking them with such pitifully weak ink people?

And what would have happened if they had let themselves be grabbed?

Instead of going to his friends, however, Yuki stepped in front of them and put a protective arm out to the side in what he knew was a feeble attempt to shield the others from the applauding stranger.

"Who are you?" he asked, an unusually defiant look in his gray eyes. "Are you the one who attacked us?"

[strangevisitor]

The wind picked up, pulling several leaves from the trees and the already-wilting plants away and into a tight spiral. From within the leafy cyclone a figure shimmered into view and stepped outside of it, hands still clapping.

"Well done, boys." The pleasingly-featured man grinned, nudging his glasses up until they 'clinked' against the metal of his headband.

"Who am I, brave young Sekimori-kun?

"And I, dear boys, am your Jounin Sensei from this day forward."

[Tensei Kaori]

"Our sensei," Yuki repeated flatly. "So this whole thing was some kind of test, then?" He frowned thoughtfully. "I'd been looking forward to meeting my new sensei, but this isn't really what I was expecting. Sorry if I seem rude, but -" he tugged on the shoulder of his haori, indicating the inky handprint there "- you can understand why I'd be a little suspicious."

"Don't be so hard on him, Yuki," came Jiro's voice from where he was offering Shichuumaru-kun a hand up. "Yeah it was scary, but you have to admit, it was kinda fun."

[strangevisitor]

Smiling softing, the artistic ninja bowed his head slightly. "Do forgive me the...surprise. But I had my reasons." Smoothly shifting from one foot to the other, he began to walk towards the trio, patting Sekimori-kun's stained shoulder as he passed.

When the slender hand was lifted, the ink stain was gone, a stream of the glistening black liquid flowing between the Jounin's fingertips before arcing over into an open pot in his other hand.

"You see, until recently I had never considered taking on a team. Much less serving as one of two new members to an already established cell. Tensei-kun and yourself know well how to work with eachother, after all." Ryuurei began to explain, aiding Jiro in supporting Shichuumaru until he'd recovered a bit.

"If I had just told you all that I would be your Sensei, and gave you some task to accomplish to test you that way, you would have had time to plan how you would work together, or even possibly just go about as you once had, expecting Kyousei-kun to follow your leads.

"But as every great artist knows, the best things come from inspiration, and quite suddenly at that. And so I guided you here..provided the...'inspiration'..to see how well the three of you could work together without knowing beforehand you would have to. I wanted to see your...natural potential, so to speak." He finished with a satisfied smile.

A test all along. That was...rather interesting. Straightening a little and trying to rely less on the others to support him, Shichuumaru chuckled.

"And here I thought I was done with tests involving ink after I graduated.."

[Tensei Kaori]

It took Yuki a moment to decide if his legs were stable enough to move forward and join the team, but eventually he did so and made it over without incident. "Yeah," Jiro was saying with a nod, "It was a real shocker." Suddenly the boy's face split into a big grin. "So how'd you like our teamwork, then, Sensei? And our idea?"

Yuki, who had been fingering a flower growing on one of the ink-blackened plants, looked up at this. "And what would have happened if we failed?" he asked softly.

[strangevisitor]

"There was no 'failure' option, Sekimori-kun. The attack would have ceased after that last wave." Ryuurei explained, shifting slightly to address the boys with one glance. "I did not expect you to devise such a cunning plan, admittedly, but the end result would have merely told me how much work I had cut out for me as far as team-building went."

"Thankfully, it seems you all work together quite splendidly." Grinning as he finished, he waited to see what else they had to say.

"Heh...WELL. So glad we meet your approval, Mister ' I don't know anything about ninjas'!" Feigning renewed vigor, the dark-skinned boy stretched and smirked at the man that was apparently his new Sensei...Really, he was just overjoyed at the thought of FINALLY being on a team.

Hitsuatsu-san just laughed.

[Tensei Kaori]

Jiro was relieved to hear that they wouldn't have failed the test even if things went badly, but his head was still reeling from events. He had just gone from either idling about or being sent in five directions at once with the reconstruction, to following directions left by messenger ink birds, to fighting ink creatures that wouldn't stop coming, to finding out he was on a team again and meeting his new sensei and comrade.

What a day.

Something, though, caught Jiro's attention. "Eh?" he asked, blinking. "You two know each other?"

[strangevisitor]

"Well, that's kinda how I knew where to come, when you mentioned the Hitsuatsu earlier. He was here painting the other morning when a kind of weird event went down." Shichuumaru chuckled, scratching the back of his head.

"Coincidentally, it's a good thing you didn't stay disguised as Ayaka-chan.."

[Tensei Kaori]

"That Ayaka girl again!" Jiro exclaimed, smacking his forehead. "Just who the heck is she? Are Yuki and I the only ones who don't know her or something!?"

[strangevisitor]

"It certainly would seem that way, now wouldn't it?" Laughing softly, he tucked an errant strand of hair back behind his ear.

"Coincidences are quite the curious thing, aren't they? Now, I do believe I've taxed you enough for one morning. How does lunch sound?"