Ibiki groans as he looks over his team. Sam is arguing with tazuna about the joys of burning things vs creating things. Jake and William are debating how best to invade the village they live in, and yugao is reading a romance novel as they walk along a dirt road. Ibiki groans again, why can't he just pawn off these kids? He was happy working in the interrogation department! Life was simple then, just torture somenone until they tell you what they know. Ibki is pulled from his musing by the sound of clicking coming from william. Everyone looks to the heavily covered boy as something emerges from his coat.
A black scorpion the size of a pug emerges from the shadow of William's coat and crawls up to his head where it perches with an unhappy hiss. The scorpion has large pincers and a deadly looking tail that is capped by a stinger that looks like a needle for humans from the size.
"William?" Sam asks.
"Yes?" the tall boy replies.
"Why is there a giant fucking scorpion on your head?" Sam is edging away from his friend as he says this.
"He was wandering around my room when I awoke this morning. His mother lost him and he found his way to my home. He likes the smell of my honey and has decided I am his." William drones.
"It's a he? How can you tell?" Jake asks with confusion, lacing his words.
"The tail and build. The females are bulkier and have shorter tails than the males. He is slender for his species and his tail is 1.5 times his body length." is the reply.
"What kind is he? Does he have a name? How old is he? What's the average lifespan for his species?" Jake has a notebook out as he barrages William with questions.
"He is a great emperor scorpion. He responds to the name manson. He is three weeks old. Sixty years typically but some records say they can live up to a century or two." William holds the now named manson as he speaks.
"Great emperor! Those things have the worst venom I've seen! One sting and your nerves go into overdrive! A papercut feels like a limb is getting sawed off!" ibiki exclaims as he walks over to william.
"They have a nerve agent in their venom? Can I get a sample?!" Jake asks before crying out his next question. A small jar appears in his hands as excitement leaks from him.
"Hold on kid. If anyone gets a sample then it's me!" ibiki barks. The bandana wearing man is soon wrestling with the long haired boy as they bicker over who gets the venom sample.
The rest of the party watch this with amusement as they take a break from walking. Tazuna ambles up and grumbles about taking too long.
"Actually sir. We are in fact having a good time. A civilian pace would have taken us a full day to get where we are now. You being in good shape for a civilian has allowed us to travel at close to double the usual pace. We should reach your home in two days instead of four." William tells the old man.
"Really? I thought I would be slower since I'm old. Hehe! Take that youngins! This old man has still got it!" tazuna replies first in wonder then with joyful boasting.
Sam smiles at the joyful old man before there is a pair of loud thuds. Jake and ibiki are both holding their heads as yugao glares with her sheathed sword raised.
"Behave! You're making us look bad in front of the customer!" the purple haired woman barks.
Both men nod and glare at each other one last time before the journey is resumed. The journey is silent as everyone has begun to do their own thing. Tazuna is just walking along and enjoying the scenery, same as ibiki. Yugao is back to her book as Sam focuses on trying to make a small flame ignite on his finger. William and Jake are both reading scrolls as they walk. This lack of awareness, or at least the appearance of it, is what makes the ambush go off.
Two men lead out of a puddle in the road and charge the group. Yugao and Sam both charge the enemies, Sam with his hands dripping molten rock and yugao with her sword in one hand. William leaps back and his sleeves bulge as insects swarm out. Jake grabs tazuna and dashes into the trees. Ibiki follows jake.
The two men are clad in ragged cloaks and mismatched armor. The defining traits on them are the matching headbands, large clawed gauntlets, and the gas masks they both wear. The headbands have slashes through them and the gauntlets are connected by a chain that has a multitude of knifelike points emerging from the links. The men cry out in anger and lunge for their enemies.
Yugao slides under the chain and slashes the back of the man on the left. She twirls before slashing at the chain and snapping it. Sam follows her lead and spits a ball of lava at the man on the right. The man quickly dodges but his cloak ignites from a few splatters of rock. As the right side man is struggling to take off his cloak he is swarmed by bees and cries out in pain before falling to the ground. Insects obscure his form as they feast on his chakra. The man on the left shouts in worry before he is attacked by yugao and sam. Yugao twirls gracefully and slashing at him as Sam supports her with lava shots and in one case, a dragon, the dragon covers the man in the molten stone and he quickly perishes. Yugao sheathes her blade and glares at sam.
"Oops?" Sam offers nervously.
Ibiki emerges from the woods with tazuna and jake on his heels. The three men turn to look at the mass of insects still covering the man and then look at William as he approaches. The silence is interrupted by an angry screech and Manson leaps off William to begin whacking the poor man already covered in insects. The bees move away from his face and the scorpion joyfully begins turning it purple by hitting him with his claws.
The bees flow back to william and everyone takes a moment to check themselves for injuries. The beating from Manson has yet to stop. Ibiki chuckles and walks over to the excitable scorpion. He grabs him by the tail and lifts the arachnid off his foe. Manson hisses and snaps his claws at ibiki.
"NO." ibiki states firmly.
Manson curls up and clicks softly in fear before scuttling back to william and hiding behind him after ibiki drops the large insect. Ibiki drags the unconscious man into the woods as William picks up Manson and holds him like a cat.
"So anyone gonna question why the orange haired kid spits lava and made a fucking dragon out of the stuff?!" tazuna cries.
"No. he does that all the time. Although he seems to forget that drowning your opponents doesn't work with lava." yugao replies as she glares at sam.
"It was in the heat of the moment! Adrenaline and stuff!" Sam defends.
Yugao glares some more before she removes her backpack and hands it to sam. He struggles with the heavy object before finally shouldering it and yugao nods before resuming her book.
"What's in the bag?" tazuna questions. It seemed way heavier than a regular sized backpack should be.
"My books. All of my books." yugao replies.
"She carries a full library at all times. As a form of weight training she has had seals applied to expand the interior. There are approximately one hundred large books and fifty of the small books like she is currently reading.'' William explains.
Tazuna stares with wide eyes at the woman as Sam groans about sadistic women. Ibiki returns and reports to the team about tazuna being targeted by a powerful man named gato. Ibiki explains that gato has an army and they can't continue as they are built for assanation.
"Ibiki. What if we wait here and send word that we need an assault squad? Then we can continue the mission and still be able to complete our goal. The assault squad can deal with the army as we eliminate gato." william questions.
Ibiki goes quiet before he nods and pulls out a scroll. He places a hand on it and a small monkey emerges in a poof of smoke. The monkey has a small satchel on its hip and a little blue hat sits on its head. It salutes cutely and ibiki explains the mission along with his request before asking the monkey to tell this to the hokage. It nods and vanishes in a plume of smoke. The team is told to make camp and they shall wait for the answer from their boss.