"Looks like we found the bastards." The giant of man stood behind a rocky outcropping at the edge of a small cliff overlooking seemingly endless forest. He spoke to another gentleman, an unnaturally lanky fellow with a big, gooffy grin plastered on his face.
"Ts-haha! Yup we did Kokuma-buddy! I was beginning to wonder, heh, that we wouldn't!" The giant man rolled his eyes. as he poked his head out just enough to catch a glimpse of the horizon. They had tracked them almost all of the way to the border between stone and grass. He watched as a small dot; a hawk flew in towards where Douba had spotted their prey. "Douba, is the bird with them? Perhaps a messenger?"
"Oh~ yeah buddy. Looks like it. He's got metal on him. Prolly a message case or something. Heh, cant tell from this distance." Kokuma nodded. He had to give it to the younger jounin. he was always laughing like an idiot, and called him buddy when they definitely were not friends, but his skills were invaluable.
"Good job. Lets move out." He started making his way nimbly down the rock face.
"Aww shucks, it was nuthin, Ts-hah!"
On second thought, maybe the negatives outweighed the positives.
"Oh~ looks like they got the place pretty trapped up there, pal. There's metal wired lace all through the trees. Looks sharp, too." They had gotten much closer to where their opponents had been resting, except it looked like they hadn't been resting after all. They had been preparing an ambush. Once again, Douba's metal detection had proven invaluable.
"They expect us, then. Remember, they must be fairly certain their team leader is dead by now... If we can manage to throw them off with taunts, that may cause them to make mistakes. Now, is there a clear path of approach for us?"
His lanky companion's eyes, covered with a metal sheen, darted about quickly, and he turned and shook his head widely. "Nope. Whoever did this is rea~lly good. A trap expert, maybe. The only safe method of entry is from above, and I'll bet they are prepared for that as well... heh... guess that makes this a little complicated, huh?"
"Not really. I will just have to use a less conventional method of travel. Once they are distracted, you will enter from the top." He nodded to the younger man, and then started his handsigns.
"Sounds like a plan, pal! good lu~ck."
He sunk into the ground slowly, hearing only the sound of Douba's low giggling as his waist, chest, and then head went under.
A short swim later, his head came up behind a rock, barely poking out enough to view the enemy team... There were two of them; just like the kage had said. From this distance it looked like a male and a female. He could barely make out what they were saying, so he listened closely.
"-looks like they've definitely found us. The hawk saw them on the way in. At least two."
A girls voice. She seemed sad, rather than worried as she spoke to the man next to her. They were both dressed in special ops blacks- free of village identification. The man nodded slowly. "I knew they wouldn't be far behind... It's likely they've sent some of their best."
"if they killed ge-"she began to speak, but was cut off by the man.
"Don't say his name; they may be listening, even right now... I know. We... might not make it out of this one. Which is why its important that... the bird at least gets the message to... Our leader."
They turned to each other, standing there for a moment. And then they embraced in a long kiss. It was... odd behavior for a shinobi on a mission. He saw the sparkle of a tear falling from the woman's face as she pulled away, and nodded. "I... I understand."
She then kneeled next to the bird, her back to him, and seemed to fiddle with a capsule on it's leg... That was the messenger. Time to shoot it! He burst from the ground, pulling a kunai, and flinging it through the air at the bird of prey. A wire came from the side and smacked into it, and the bird shot off into the woods. Damn it! It looked as if the element of surprize hadn't been enough. They would have to kill these two quickly of they were going to catch up.
"We've been expecting you." The wires origin, the male, spoke with a smirk, a wire already grasped between each finger.
As if on cue, Douba sailed through the air, landing at his side just as he landed from his attack. Then woman rose to her feet, and turned to them, a disturbingly blank look on her face. The four ninja stood across from each other, each assessing the opposing team.
The unnamed man was the first to speak. "Iwa shinobi, listen and listen well. You made a mistake in following us; one you will pay dearly for. You see, you have fallen right into my trap!" He then pulled at his wires, and then with a mighty swing, launched them above their heads, letting go of the ends. The wires flew up to the top of the clearing, and then froze in the air. A glare came to Kokuma's face. They were trapped in. The opponent pulled another set of strings from a set of spools at his sides, a look of grim determination set on his face. "Douba, handle the girl. I'll take care of this one."
"Yessir!" Hmm. It looked like the younger jounin wasn't so talkative in combat. Maybe he wasn't so unprofessional afterall. "I got his handled, pal! Ts-hawhaw!" Or... not.
Their prey began moving immediately. The man started swinging his wires around; they cut almost anything they touched, slicing deep into a tree behind him. The woman made a bee-line for Douba, who giggled playfully, and ran to meet her. The trap-master then targeted him. swinging his slicing wires in his direction. In a flash he cranked out some hand signals with speed only a master could manage, and slammed his hands into the ground, causing a wall of earth to meet the wires, which cut in, but not all the way through. He jumped to the top of the wall as his opponent struggled to pull his wires free of the stone. In a fluid motion, Kokuma reached to his side, pulled a large knife, and launched it at his opponent. The man, obviously not an amature, ducked the blade, and finally got his wires free, pulling one hand around in a wide swipe at him, and the other down from the top to make it so he couldn't just jump over the first attack. He opted for plan c, leaning backwards to fall behind his wall. As soon as he landed he rolled to the side in time to dodge the second set of wires as it came down from above, bending over the wall and slicing deep into where he had been standing moments before. With a mighty pull, the man brought the wall down. Damn; this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.
"As you can see, I'm more than a match for you, Iwa shinobi." The man spoke, swinging his wire again, Kokuma jumped, barely sailing over them and ducking the second set as they flew past.
"I wouldn't get so cocky. I'm just warming up." he stayed in his crouched position, completeing a set of handsigns, and pressing his hands against, and then into the ground. The other man saw a chance to attack, and swung his wires quickly. Ten hands of stone popped out from around Kokuma to stop them, grasping them tightly. The enemy shinobi's eyes widened, and he ditched the wires, bolting to the side just as another set of hands burst from the ground at his feet. They clenched and found air.
"You would be the stone fist, Kokuma, then." The man came to a halt, reaching behind his back to grab more wire. "This may be a challenge."
"Looks like your team has done thier research. Your leader was a pretty knowledgeable fellow, too. You know, before he died in a very painful fashion." His opponent's eye twitched, and he sent another hand from the ground to try and grasp him. He got ahold of a foot this time as his foe tried to jump to the side. Before he could do anything with the advantage, the man pulled a jagged looking line from his back; it was like a saw blade, only long and thin. He flung it at the stone hand, wrapping it around three times, and then pulling hard enough to sever it cleanly. It crumbled to dust. "What do you say we end this quickly, huh? I've definitely bought enough time for our message to get too far away to track. We might as well find out who is going to leave this place alive, right?" The man jumped to the far side of the clearing, neatly avoiding Douba, who was chasing after his opponent and swinging two long metal blades that had taken the place of his hands at the girl. She dodged and sidestepped his attacks with unnatural agility, sometimes seeming weightless.
"Remember when I said you had fallen into my trap? It was no lie. You won't survive the next thirty seconds." Kokuma quickly pulled his hands from the ground as the man reached down and grabbed some wire that had been burried in the ground. He looked up to the woman, still engaged in battle, and spoke sadly, "forgive me..." And then, with a mighty yank, he pulled on all of the wire he had placed around the forest, causing the complex pattern he had created to close like a knot... A knot with his opponent in the middle. All of the trees around the clearing were sliced clean in half; it was Kokuma's only hint as to what was going on. He reacted quickly, his handsigns coming faster than ever. He finished, raising his hand to the sky. A round, thick wall of stone came up around him. Douba and the girl were not so lucky. The wire caught both of them, and dragged them all of the way to the stone wall, pinning them against it.
Not to be set back by the wall his opponent had blocked his attack with, the enemy did a hand sign, and then reached up his hands to point them at the wires that he had suspended in the air at the beginning of the battle. "It's over." He swung his hands down, and the wires shot down into the hole in the top of the circle like giant deadly spears.
"Yeah. It's over." The trap master went rigid as he heard the voice right behind him. It wasn't the voice that made him go rigid, though, but the large knife in his back. He fell to his knees, sputtering up blood. "I haven't lost, you know... I killed your team mate... and you..."He coughed up more blood. Clearly one of his lungs was sliced clean through. "you didn't kill any of mine." Kokuma looked up from the dieing man to see not a woman pressing against it, but the figure of a lifeless bird. His eyes widened. She must have switched places with that hawk somehow! He looked down to the man, who laughed a little more, sunk lower, and then opened his black suit wide. "So long, then." His chest was plastered with explosive tags! Kokuma quickly dove to the side, narrowly escaping the loud explosion that engulphed the man.
He rolled to his feet and waited for the smoke to clear. First, he eyed the mess left over from the explosion. His opponent was definitely dead. They wouldn't be able to get any information from him either. He sighed heavily, and walked on up to the round wall he had made. "Douba, you alright?"
Not to his surprize, a giggle came in response. "Yup. I protected myself. Figured i'd let him die thinkin he'd actually gotten something done, yaknow?" He had protected himself well. Where the wires touched his skin, it had been morphed into a silvery metal. Little blades came from under the wires, severing them with some effort. The silver then faded back into his skin. "I'm gonna hafta get new clothes now... bummer. Oh well, though. say, that was pretty cool, the way you sank into the ground before his attack came. Howd ya know he was gonna attack from above, too?
"Because he was smart. He had to have known that I would block the first attack. He didn't take into account my other abilities though... I guess no one can think of everything."
"Cept you, huh? hah hah!" The man giggled for a moment, and then paused. "The hawk lady is too far off for me to detect. I guess this means we missed her, huh?"
"Yes... Yes it does. Nothing we can do about it now, though. We have to report back to the Kage." He took one last look at his opponent's charred remains, and then they both jumped off into the distance.