A Prank Gone Wrong (Milestone)

There are few places that pranksters hate more than training grounds. As open spaces, they have few, if any places, where a jokester can develop a prank without detection. The kinds of people who went to training grounds regularly are often stuffy and serious and the custodial staff that regularly waited on them screamed of class. As far as any prankster was concerned, the training ground was an enemy who needed to be defeated and exposed for what it really was: a prison.

As he contemplated all of these things, Senju Seiryu, a young genin who was as frustrated with the training ground atmosphere as he was brash, hoisted his crossbow against his shoulder. For all its faults, the archery range was relatively empty today; there were only two or three other people on enormous property and they all looked to be around his rank. As he aimed at the target, his mind drifted to the brief conversation he had with his mother the other day. You're absolutely disgraceful. Will you remain this weak for the rest of your life? "Huh, absolutely disgraceful my ass. I couldn't care less what you or anyone thinks of me," he said under his breath, "I live for me and me alone." He pulled the trigger, releasing the iron-tip arrow in his crossbow. A burst of sparks flashed as the arrow completely missed its mark and bounced off the rim of the circular target, whistling just a few inches above the head of the raven haired girl not too far from him and crashing into a tree.

Seiryu winced; that... that was close. He scratched the back of his head as spoke, blushing throughout, "Oi, hehe, um, that was close wasn't it? Hehe, err, sorry about that... Hope you're not hurt or something."

The plan was to meet up with her brother, Kohaku, after he ran a quick errand. Yet, Shinobu stood unaccompanied at the training field and being forced to wait was the one thing she could not stand. She pulled the string of her bow back to its furthest point, and held her pose. Holding the pose, she let any emotions she had built up slowly drain from her mind. Stay calm.  No matter how long someone makes you wait because they are a dumb ass, use your anger to learn to deal with the stress and perfect your shot.  These words, with some minor adjustments, were that of her teacher and resonated within anytime she took a practice shot. Slowly, the breath flowed from her body. Thwack.  Dead center of the target.  Two arrows were lodged into the target on either side of the red circle, while 7 others were littered at the foot of the target.  

Shinobu brought her arms to her side and was readying to take a break when something flew over the top of her head.  She slowly turned toward the culprit. "Watch where you're aiming that thing," she said, a slight twinge of suppressed anger in her voice.

(Been so long since i've written that this took forever just to make lol)

Seiryu could taste a bit of blood as he bit his tongue nervously; sassy as this kunoichi was, she was even cuter. His cheeks blushed for a brief moment before he snapped back defensively, "Well watch where you... err, stand! Yeah, it's hard to focus on my target with your forehead blocking most of the visibility in the training ground!" He was about to pout and turn away when he saw the multiple arrows lodged in the center of the kunoichi's target board. His mother's words rung through his mind; he'd never be able to get her to quit nagging if continued to plateau on even his most basic shinobi skills. Maybe the meanie with the black hair could offer him some pointers? He grunted reluctantly before walking to her target board, "Hey... uhh.. I noticed that your aim is pretty good or something... How is a girl like you making that many shots?"

Even for someone as shy as Shinobu, she could not allow someone to openly berate her like the blushing boy was doing.  "Is the only thing you are good for is harassing others?  Why are you judging others based on their gender?  Have you no dignity?"  The kid's blushing angered her even more, although she did not know why. Her temper was already teetering from her brother's reluctance to keep his word and his final question sent her over the edge.  She raised her bow and pointed it at his forehead, "I could show you first hand how a girl like me can make that many shots."

Seiryu inspected his fingernails, "Well.. if you're offering or something, I guess I wouldn't mind seeing how you got those shots in." The young Senju clansman tried to maintain a modicum of pride as he stepped out of the kunoichi's way to see how she prepared her shots. As much as he'd like to pretend otherwise, he was really impressed with Shinobu's accuracy, as displayed in the shots already lodged in the target board. "The name's Seiryu, by the way. What's yours?"

She eyed the boy for a few silent seconds, contemplating on whether she should give her name to him. "...Shinobu," she finally replied.  She grabbed an arrow and turned towards the target at the end of the range.  She inhaled deeply as she raised her bow with her right hand and drew the bow string back to its full length.  She stood perfectly still, except for her hair lightly flowing in a breeze.  The moment the breeze ended, she slowly released the air she had been holding.  The muscles throughout her body relaxed.  Finally, she released the string and arrow.  The arrow flew down the range and hit the center of the target.  

"And that is how you do it," she exclaimed without taking her eyes off the target.

Seiryu admired the kunoichi's impressive focus as she readied her shot. Big forehead or not, she was clearly way ahead of him in her training. He gave her a nod of acknowledgement as the arrow connected with the center of the board. "Not bad, hmm. Didn't realize shooting this thing required so much focus." He lifted his crossbow and tried to imitate Shinobu's stance. He exhaled slowly as he positioned the crossbow, allowing the same breeze that flowed through Shinobu to pass through him. He pulled the trigger and connected his shot a couple inches below Shinobu's in the first ring outside the center circle.

Before Seiryu could manage to get out a swear, though, a loud boom shattered the target circle, sending splinters of wood and iron outward in every direction. The wood chips grazed Seiryu's arm and cheek before lodging themselves in the grass behind them. Seiryu turned to Shinobu and pointed at the crater before them, "What the hell is that?" In the crater lay a precious, small white rabbit. Its fur was deeply charred fur from the impact and its body hunched up in a fetal position from the pain. As Seiryu went to pick it up a second boom could be heard in the distance -- this time the explosion from a bomb. Sirens could be heard from the city center as more explosions went off in the direction of Konoha. Seiryu grabbed the bunny and hid it in his shirt. "We have to go help the village!"

I guess he doesn't just carry that thing for sho-.  The loud blast rattled through her head, cutting off her thoughts.  She immediately threw her right arm up, bow still in hand, to cover her eyes.  Wood bits bounced off her body. Once the onslaught of wood chips ended, she glanced to her right to see a large piece of metal that kept the target in place had just barely missed her. That would have gone worse.  A trickle of blood ran down her forearm.

Shinobu's ears were still ringing, making it difficult to make out what Seiryu had exclaimed.  She was about to move to stop him from running towards the blast when a second explosion was heard further into the village.  The boy was then yelling about the village, but Shinobu had already moved to gather her equipment.  She quickly strapped the quiver to her back, tightened her kodachi to her waist and hooked her two deep red mini gourds to either say of her hips.  She then took off full sprint to the sound of the explosion, with only one thing on her mind. Please, for the love of all things, don't let me find this idiot at the center of this mess

It took the two genin six and a half minutes to reach the village square from the training grounds. In the time it took them to get there, two more explosions had gone off in the village; one by the historic Ichiraku Ramen shop and one by the village academy. ANBU soldiers flew overhead from building to building in a frenzy, throwing a wave of shuriken and jutsu at an unnamed shinobi on a clay bird in the sky. In the streets, Konoha shinobi crossed blades with a horde of undead people; many of whom looked like former civilians. The scene was straight from a horror film, as the shinobi who were unfortunate enough to be overtaken were devoured by the undead wave.

In the midst of all this carnage, a plump Konoha jounin with red hair and an enormous mace landed before Shinobu and Seiryu. "Good, fellow Konoha shinobi. My name Akimichi Gato and I am a jounin commander for Squad 4. Ten minutes ago, two S-Rank shinobi invaded our village after a stink bomb blinded our guards at the village gate." Seiryu's face reddened; he had placed that stink bomb at the village gate two days ago as part of a prank... He made brief eye contact with Shinobu and shrugged. Gato did not notice Seiryu's blushing, however, and continued, "I don't have time to debrief, but I need you two to take this scroll and get as far away from the village as you can until things settle down here. Whatever you do, it is imperative that you do not let anyone get their hands on that scroll. Treat this as if this an S-Rank mission-" Just then, four zombie corpses leapt to take a bite out of Gato's shoulder. The Konoha jounin spun around and smashed all of their bodies with a single swing of his mace. He turned back to the two genin and threw the scroll in Shinobu's direction, "GO, NOW!"

After leaving the training grounds, Shinobu slung her bow over he shoulders and ran with a hand planted on the knife hanging from the back of her hip.  The village was in total chaos.  While she was keen to avoid any confrontation with the strange attackers, Shinobu continued to survey the areas for her brother.  Suddenly, the Akimichi jounin appeared before young shinobi and began to give a quick breakdown of the ordeal.  However, his sit-rep was severly lacking of any information.  The one piece of his quick status report that stuck out was the use of a stink bomb.  What high level enemy organization would resort to using such a childish tactic to invade one of the major villages?  She did not notice Seiryu's guilt riddled face as she listened intently to the man.  Shinobu caught the scroll and stuffed it into the pouch that held her bomb tags.  She glanced over at Seiryu and then nodded at Gato and took off running towards one of the village exits.

Shinobu's mind was racing.  Get out of the village,  protect the scroll, avoid confrontations.  She had so many questions about what was going on but could not bring herself to ask anything of the man who was fighting for his life.  What were the contents of the scroll? Why would two S-Rank criminals be after it? Would this mean some sort of fight against people way out of her league? Her one hope, as she headed for the exit, was that her brother would stay safe and patiently await her return to the village.

The smell of sulfur is unique for both its potency and its offense. When sulfur is released into the air, it fuses with nearby oxygen particles to form sulfur dioxide. The combined molecule lodges itself in the anterior wall of an organism's nostrils, binding with nerve receptors both in the nose and in the lungs to evoke the sense of smell.

Of course, while the biochemistry of sense perception is universal across human beings, the senses can often be dulled or intensified by the emotions of the perceiver and other sensory stimuli in the area. As Seiryu and Shinobu ran towards the village gate, the images of strife and suffering that surrounded them made the distinct stench of sulfur from the explosions above practically blinding. It was all Seiryu could think off as the two genin rushed towards the village exit; the smell of sulfur and the images of carnage that accompanied it. For all his displays of toughness and grit, the Senju genin had never actually seen a dead body up close, yet alone rushed through a war zone. His anxiety was only made more acute by the mission that had been thrust upon by that Akimichi Gato. Had they not arrived at the village gate as quickly as they did, it's very likely that Seiryu would have cracked under the pressure.

The small shack by the village gate where the chuunin guards normally checked entrance papers into the village was empty. Outside the shack, the scattered remains of a recent shuriken duel littered the floor, though (fortunately) no corpses were around to show who had won. Seiryu slowed down to a walk as soon as they reached the boundary between the village gate and the forest. He was already out of breath when they first arrived at the village and the subsequent running that they did to get out of it had him beat. He turned his head to the village somberly, "To think that anyone could bring our village its knees like that... I don't get it." He checked his hip just as somberly; he still had a full bag of seeds from Uncle Hikari's compound. Good. There was no telling where their journey would take them and what they would need.

"It looks like we can go a couple of ways from here. If we follow the path straight ahead, we should be able to get to a hill that'll give us a good vantage point to survey the area. We could also veer into the forest and hide out thereabouts," he pointed in the direction of a far off grove that housed the ruins of an old Janshin temple, "What do you think? Which way should we take this scroll?"

Shinobu may have been maintaining her composure, but she was nervous and scared. Highly ranked criminals were after the item in their possession and there was no telling if they had other accomplices waiting for escapees in the surrounding area. They had to avoid making contact with the enemy. Not just for the possibility of losing the scroll, but to preserve their own lives as well. "The forest," she responded quickly. "It'd be nice to get on the hill because no one would be able to sneak up on us. But if it means being in the path of a possible enemy that is anything like those guys back in the village...." Her voice trailed off and she began to move into the forest.