Braving the Sands (Armadillo Squad)

We were almost there. I could feel it in my bones as the excitement of battle would boil up into my mind, preparing me for the fight to come. I could see myself battling the giant spiked beast, and I could see myself in every possible scenario with my new comrades. Dying, winning, drawing; I saw it all, and readied myself for each of them. The first few days of the voyage into the Ressa Desert were fairly uneventful to say the least, as my company and I spent them getting ourselves used to the harsh winds and sand beating and grinding against our ragged bodies, quickly learning not to open eyes too wide or open mouth to talk for fear of the sand causing permanent damage. We made camp after the third day as soon as we crossed through one of the walls of never-ending sandstorm we would encounter. We lay under the moon of the desert and felt the sand cool beneath our padded feet and hands as we gathered around the fire for dinner. The tents had been propped, although we were forced to weigh them down with large rocks, because it would be impossible to try to drive a stake into the loose sand. With the fire flickering in front of me, and my face finally unbound from all of the wrappings I wore to protect my flesh from the vicious sand, I broke the three-day silence. "Does anyone here have experience fighting a Bijuu?" as I said this, I looked to Fukushu. "What of you? Surely you, who created an organization strictly based on the apprehension of the demons, have fought one of these things before, yes?" I waited his response as I felt the eyes of the others begin to point towards him as the conversation began.

I was sitting on the sand inside our campsite when the boy asked me a question about killing a bijuu, I responded truthfully "No I haven't fought a bijuu, I have the plan but have yet to put it into action, so this will be a first for me as well." I would take a sip from my water skin and adjust Ribenji on my back while waiting for a response.

I would chuckle as I realized this was the first time that question had been asked this entire time, after Fukushu gave his honest answer I would respond with a bit of truth from my past. "We may have never fought any of these bijuu but I am a professional hunter of Oni in my homeland so that experience fighting the supernatural should help quite a bit." I would take a swig from my sake gourd as the heat started getting to me again, had to keep cool somehow after all.

I walked along with the men, but I remained silent. I simply listened to them converse. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and stared at the ground, watching where I placed each step, looking up every once and a while because my mask provided little peripheral vision. I pondered about the current mission and what would lie ahead. I wasn't medically trained enough to heal a fatal wound if anything bad were to happen, but I did know enough to preserve the life long enough to get someone some additional help. Either way, I was hoping it wouldn't come to that.

I was shocked by the Uzumaki's answer. How could he expect to hunt these things professionally with no experience? "Oh well," I responded to him, "I guess you have to start somewhere, eh?" I then felt a bit relieved when my mentor reminded me of his past hunting demons, which was a story that I had been told already many times before. The foreign old man surely loved his storytelling. I then noticed that the smaller boy wasn't talking in the slightest. "Don't talk much, hm?" I said as I kicked a bit of dirt his direction to grab his attention from his own boots.

After camp that night, we would wake up as soon as the desert sun peaked over the horizon, bringing forth yet another day full of heat waves after heat waves. After a couple more days of travel, my feet were wearing and our rations were running low. I just hoped we met the beast before we ran out of food.

(been told to skip brad for now)

I chuckled as he commented on Fukushu's lacking of experience but he was correct, everyone had to start somewhere. I looked to Yuurei, his silence no doubt was a mixture of his own personality and the pain of the mark he had received from me in our last training session. Unlike Aeran's mark this one mirrored my own making it the most unbearable of the lot. I took yet another swig of sake and continued on like normal as we slowly approached the massive storm at the heart of the waste.

Ah so Shinobu already had some experience in hunting demons? How was I not aware of this yet? I just continued walking with the group as we began to approach the Sandstorm. I couldn't help but vocalize my thoughts by saying "Damn...Well I guess this is my initiation as to whether or not I was truly meant to do this or not." It may have came out a little bitchy sounding but I didn't intend it to be. I had no intention of running if the battle became rough, I would sooner die than not achieve the goal I had set for myself and for the Assassins.

I trudged along and shook my head as Aeran commented on my silence. I was in a substantial amount of pain, though. The mark Shinobu had placed on me was burning. It was a terrible experience, but I had no doubt that it would come in handy later. I sighed and kept moving along, bracing myself for whatever would come next.

On the road for the last day, I leaned close to Shinobu, my teacher, and whispered a comment about the Yuurei character, "Not a very personable fellow, eh?" I chuckled shortly for the last time on our journey as we slowed to a halt to set up camp for the night. Unfortunately for me and my company, this was the last time we would make camp, and we would not get a full night's sleep.

From amongst the crackling of the dying campfire, a roar could be heard piercing through the night. I woke up with a startle and rolled off of my bed-mat and grabbed all of my weapons. I through on some black pants and tied my belt around my waist to hold my larger weapons in place. I stumbled out of the tent entrance and saw the bastard. It had found us before we found it, and now we had a fight on our hands. I activated my Sharingan, wielded my scythe, and screamed, "EVERYONE WAKE THE HELL UP!"

I was woken up to Aeran yelling and telling us to prepare ourselves. I stood up and saw the gigantic demon in the distance, at least the search got a little easier on us. I drew Ribenji and began charging chakra to prepare a move. It was time to see if I had what it takes to lead this order, time to earn my wings.

I stepped out of the tent calmly as I took view of the monster, a smirk crossed my face as I thought of how it would feel to fight Oni again for the first time in over a year. My sword remained sheathed as I casually walked over to the beast, my chakra quickly swelling up inside me as a special seal made for things of it's kind was being prepared. All the while my face kept the smug grin on it, once more I was back in my element and it felt good.

I heard Aeran yell and shook from my sleep. I jumped from the tent as I placed the mask back on my face. The night was on my side. This was my element. Maybe we'd stand a chance against this beast. I'd be sure to not get myself killed though. I clenched Borei as tight as I could and thought back to my lesson with Shinobu. Fear and friends. Time to test the theory, though I doubted I could scare a bijuu.

I, the beast known as the Ichibi or the 1 tailed bijuu to the people of these lands, would be about my business as I traversed the desert with ease, I was used to it after all I was in my element. In the past few years that I've traversed this land I've met no humans in quite some time, which was quite fine by me they are quite annoying to deal with. On this night however that streak would come to an end as these humans would have entered my terrain, I was quite startled when I felt an unfamiliar chakra enter the area and as they neared my current position, unbeknownst to them, I grew more wary of their presence. From my position, I would be shrouded by the consistent sand that blew but my figure could probably still be seen but I could see those beings in the distance, I could feel their chakra and I wanted nothing to do with them. I would draw closer to their camp slowly and silently as possible, as I would take the advantage of surprise. I did not wish confrontation but these humans seemed like a threat to my existence and so I must take action. I would rise to my full height and draw in breath as I would release a roar like none I've done before, one of the creatures would react to my presence first and proceed to awake the rest of his companions, there was quite a few of them indeed. I would not be deterred however, I would raise my claw above my head and bring it down at full speed upon these fools, it would crash into the ground where they stood where it would erupt a cloud of smoke. I felt uneasy, although I always felt this way but now more then ever.

I immediately leaped as far as I could out of the way of the giant paw as I watched it descend upon the camp, crushing the fire, tents, and food of the entire company. I had only hoped the rest of the team dodged the blow as well as I was sure I would not be able to fight this thing by myself. As I ran sideways, I began rapidly performing handseals after re-sheathing my scythe on my back. I was getting excited as I began to imagine the rest of the battle, thinking of every outcome or obstacle I could face along the way. "Someone hit the bastard with something!" I yelled as I kept running and making seals with my quick hands.

Well shit. This looked to be a hell of a fight. I jumped away as the Ichibi brought its gigantic claw down onto our camp, causing it to be completely destroyed. I really had no idea what I would be capable of doing to this thing seeing as most of my seals were mostly just modifications to myself so I decided I would simply keep charging while keeping wary of the beast, looks like someone else would have to make the first attack to it.

I would see the creature's claw come crashing down and in the chaos move out of the way to be hidden by the cloud of sand it raised up from the impact. From this unseen position I rushed over the the beast's giant claw while a seal formed in my hand which I then slapped onto the beast. Should this work it's chakra would start draining from it and into myself but if it managed to somehow move to dodge without seeing me I would be able to try again in a minute.

Chakra Transplant Seal:

I jumped from the beasts claws and charged chakra into my hands and body. I watched as chaos was ensuing. This was not how I imagined the fight to play out. Our camp was gone and it was night. But that was also a benefit. A few more minutes and I'd be covered by the shadows. I flicked on chakra sensory to keep track of every body so long as they were withing a 10 meter radius. Game on.

95/100

As far as I could tell every single one of those human creatures managed to dodge my attack, it was quite surprising however this would not be enough to deter me from trying to get these vile things out of my land. One of the things had the nerve to climb upon me, I felt it touch me immediately and reacted upon instinct as I would roll up into a ball tossing the human off of my body before it could do any kind of damage or assault me in anyway. I would roll away from my current spot and uncurl myself from my ball state at least 30 feet away from where I originally was, the humans were scattered now, which meant it would be easier to kill them off one by one but harder to keep track of them all but for now I would wait for them to come to me.

I continued to form handseals and laugh a little bit as my group started the assault. I lept back several meters away from the Bijuu as it rolled past me, almost flattening me in the process. It only made it about 30 feet, still a reasonably short distance away from the rest of us. I began to run at it at an angle, approaching it from the outside as the others continued the direct assault. Hopefully I could escape its line of sight in time.

I jumped out of the way when the beast began rolling, I still had no idea what I was going to do attack wise, I began wishing that my clans seals were more combat oriented instead of stuff to help casually. I continued charging chakra and stayed prepared for any attack the beast might throw.

My seal had been planted with my touch and now it was starting to get to work, the chakra of the beast was being drained out in massive amounts at this point and being fed directly into me to be used. The power I felt was immense and once more I made my way towards the monster but at a running pace as I took time to kneed together some chakra for another attack.


330/250
-110 chakra from the nibi (10%)

I dodged the rolling beast and finished my charging. A seal formed on my body and I was soon consumed by darkness. It was perfect that night had fallen, because I blended perfectly in the shadows. I'd continue a chakra charge to my hands and hold my ground, watching for the next set of attacks. I could sense my comrades, but lost the sense of the bijuu, though I still clearly saw the beast.

70/100

Name: Shadow Morphing Seal
Rank of Jutsu: C
Element Affinity: -
Type: Fuuinjutsu
Distance: Self
Description: Charge required. After a charge, the user focuses chakra to the center of their chest, forming a seal of the kanji for "Shadow." This seal morphs the user, along with anything he is wearing, into the shadows, blending them with the environment. It makes it seem as if they'd disappeared from thin air. Shadows are required for the jutsu to work, though they can move short distances between shadows before they become visible. Lasts for 4 posts. Cool down of 5 posts.

This was getting ridiculous, as these creatures continuously avoided my attacks and just refused to lay down and die. I would have to devise another way to get rid of them and I believe I had found the answer, I would charge chakra and roll back up into my ball form as I did, I would have to keep on the defensive while I waited for this technique to build up enough power.

I finally made it behind the huge beast, and he appeared to be focusing on the rest of the group in front of him while he build up an attack. From his backside, I leaped up onto his tail, and finished my last handseal, unleashing the great fire dragon directly into the back of the head of the huge armadillo. The shock and the explosion was enough to send my flying back off of the back of the demon. Soaring through the air, I tried to fix my angle so that I could land safely, but it was too late. By the time I angled my head to see what I was flying at, I smacked into the roof of a building, bounced off of it, and rolled onto the ground.

I tried hoisting myself back up, but I couldn't breathe. I felt like my left leg had been broken, and rolled onto my back before looking at my thigh. It was scorched across the surface, and my pantleg had burnt off as well. I could see the burnt muscle, but I could not falter. I lifted myself back onto my feet and grunted in pain, and readied my scythe in both hands.

80/100

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