Search for the Tsuchikanabo, Earth Club

[Kazimaru]

This is a samurai weapon known as a kanabo. For the purpose of the rp, this will be the weapon in question, which has been made in such a way that the user can manipulate the earth around them. It is about 4 feet long, half handle, half actual club, with iron spikes. It's heavy and a powerful weapon in the right hands, even without the chakra bonus.

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Shiro stood atop of one of the many small, roiling hills which dotted this area of the Land of Growth. Well, more specifically, a shadow clone of Shiro stood atop the hill. On orders of the Hokage, he, Hyuga Hitomi, and Hatake Hitomi had been sent out to gather information on, and if possible, apprehend a man who had gotten his hands on an elemental weapon from the Artisan Village called the Tsuchikanabo. A club that could move the earth around it at the will of the user.

Dismissing the clone the real Shiro sighs and looks at the girls.

"I wasn't able to see any sign of the man we're after out there. We must have lost him somehow." He says, leaning forward, legs crossed as he sits on the ground and thinks. "Maybe he used the club to sink into the ground? He could have caught onto us by now...we have been tracking him since he appeared on the border of Growth and Fire..."

"I don't think so. We've kept well out of sight and stayed a good distance behind him. I doubt he saw us, but..." Senko, the name Hitomi had told the others to call her in light of there being two girls with the same name in this group, says as she looks off into the distance, looking for any signs of the ground being uneven just in case. "Maybe he met up with someone else who spotted us though...we should be prepared just in case..."

[Demon]

Hitomi sat in focused meditation, searching for signs of chakra signatures underground but had no luck, sighing as she deactivated her Byakugan.

"No luck on my end either" She said, looking around at Shiro and Senko with a shrug, standing up and looking at Senko for suggestions of what to do next.

-=-

"Damn bastards and their fancy baseball bat..." Kenichi muttered as he stopped running, having lost track of the guy with the club he'd been hired to retrieve, scratching his head as he figured out how that could have happened. He tried picking up their chakra trail, but to no avail, though did sense a few shinobi not too far off, sitting around like they were planning their next move.

"Hope they ain't after my guy... maybe I ought to help encourage them to fail" Kenichi said, making handseals as he slams a hand to the ground.

"Earth Release: Summoning Technique: Mountain God" Kenichi yells, a giant man made of earth rising from the ground with the head of a kitten smiling in a cutesy way, dressed in tattered clothes like you'd imagine Rambo wearing stomping off towards the shinobi, Kenichi smirking as he took back off towards the last place he felt his target's chakra at.

[Kazimaru]

Before Senko could respond to Hitomi, the ground began to shake. Getting into a defensive stance she looks past the others to see a stone giant lumbering towards them.

"I think we have more to worry about than a rogue with a club..." she says as she draws her tanto, holding it underhandedly in her right hand, the blade glowing white with chakra, "I wasn't able to see anyone else around...but then again, with as big as that is, it could be further off than it looks. I don't see the creator, so I'm guessing this is a distraction..."

"Well,it worked." Shiro says with an annoyed sigh as he stands up, "Senko, you're lightning chakra is our best bet against that golem. I'll go around to the side and try to trap its shadow, you go for the kill." he says, then looks to Hitomi, "You need to keep an eye out for whoever use this technique. If he comes back, warn us. Defend yourself, but don't take him on alone. Earth users are often very good in taijutsu as well armor."

"You really are a little know it all..." Senko mutters before nodding to the others, charging on when they are ready.

Shiro creates several regular clones which spread out while he flanks to golem on its left side, moving towards the shadow. Senko runs straight up the middle, body crackling with Lightning Release Armor.

[Demon]

Hitomi nodded, giving the Golem a quick look with the Byakugan to see its chakra points, shouting them to Senko before body flickering away, tracking the trail of destruction back to its starting point, able to see a man chasing after another, holding an object generating chakra. Hitomi touched a finger to her right ear to activate their radios.

"I found our attacker and the target, pursuing now but I'm not going to engage until you catch up. Please hurry" She said gently before heading off to trail Kenichi.

-=-

"Huh, seems I'm being followed..." Kenichi muttered as he trailed his target, sensing the chakra behind him. He smirked and decided to let her for now, wanting things to be interesting later on so this mission wouldn't be over in a few more posts.

"Alright you bat toting bastard! Stop right there or I'll jutsu you right in the ass!" He yelled ahead of him at the guy he was chasing, already making hand seals.

[Kazimaru]

"Thanks, I'm on it!" Senko shouts back to Hitomi before body flickering up and landing on the right shoulder of the golem, stabbing her tanto as deeply as she could manage before sending a powerful jolt of lightning into the joint, which, if she had aimed correctly, should cause the arm to fall off. "How are things on your end Shiro?"

"I've got his shadow...don't know how long I can hold him still though!" Shiro shouts, standing in the shadow of the stone creature rather than having extended his shadow to reach it, hoping that being in the shadow itself would increase his abilities. "If you need some help, I've got plenty of black powder up my sleeve!"

-=-=-=-=-

Sanjo and met up with his brother Banjo, and together they were making their way into the heart of the Land of Growth, heading to a supposed Akatsuki hideout in hopes o contacting the organization and handing over the Tsuchikanabo in exchange for either a large reward or a membership invitation.

When they noticed they were being followed, Sanjo used the chakra of the weapon to mask their movements and they changed direction, only to start being followed by someone else.

"What should we do, brother?" Banjo asks, drawing out a scroll in case he needed to summon any of his creations.

"For now, nothing. Just watch." Sanjo says with a smirk, stopping long enough to make the hand seals needed to preform Earth Release: Earth Clone. Although he uses just enough chakra to create a single clone, dozens of them pop up out of the grass, creating a moving barrier between the retreating brothers and their pursuers.

[Demon]

"Alright dingle-berry, get ready to eat lightning... WITH YOUR ASS!" Kenichi yelled, gripping his right wrist with his left hand, and holding the right wrist down as he charged electricity into it, watching as a bunch of clones popped up.

"Chidori!" He shouted as he dashed forward, carving through the clones as he advanced on Sanjo, ready to make good on his word to feed lightning up his ass.

-=-

The golem's arm did fall, though through the giant's struggling, the arm swung backwards slightly, landing with the fist punching the earth, the arm then rotating a bit before falling behind the golem.

& quot;AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS" The golem hissed, as it was "programmed" to do when it lost a limb.

-=-

Hitomi watched curiously, now unable to figure out who sent the golem out. The man she was following was using lightning release, and the other earth... did their target spot them like Senko think?

She decided to stay out of the fight, only willing to step in to prevent their target from being killed, though even if she were just able to retrieve the club it would be enough.

"Fighting has started, the man I was following is using lightning release... please hurry, there's someone with the target now as well"

[Kazimaru]

When the shoulder of the golem came off Senko was able to leap off and land on it's back, using the tanto to stab into it so as not to fall off. She rode there on the back of the stone monster for a moment, listening to it scream then to Hitomi, before nodding.

"Shiro, you ready with that black powder?" she calls down.

"I can be in just a minute, hang on!" Shiro says, leaping back and releaseing the jutsu. A moment later he makes a chain of hand seals, then black powder begins to rain down on the golem, gathering around the feet. "Now!"

When Senko leaps off and flickers away, Shiro ignites the powder, blowing the golem away. As soon as they can see it isn't getting back up, the two nod to one another and rush off to catch up with Hitomi, getting there after a short time and stopping beside her to catch their breath.

"That's alot of clones..." Shiro mutters as he watches the stranger barreling through them. "And that guy...he must have a huge chakra reserve to be able to make that technique last so long. what should we do about him? He looks like he's after the same guy as us. If we get in the way he might turn on us as well."

-=-=-

Seeing how easily his clones are being taken out, Sanjo stops once more and turns to face the man, and after a quick chain of hand seals he causes two halves of a mountain to rise up on either side of Kenichi, then suddenly slam together. The force of this is enough to cause the ground all around to shake violently.

[Demon]

Kenichi looks around as the mountain halves rise up, and sighes as he jumps, using the air step technique at the last second to make sure his torso was out of the mountain, but his legs weren't so lucky. Kenichi drew a blade and sliced himself in two so he was no longer pinned, and feigned death when he hit the ground, looking up at the leaf shinobi as he whispered, "Avenge me".

He'd used up a lot of chakra to make it to this point, so he figured if those kids were after the bounty as well, why not let them do the legwork of disabling the magic stick, then once everyone was good and tired, he'd storm them and take that stick, smack 'em around with it, and probably go out for ramen when he got home.

-=-

Hitomi gasped when she watched the one man die so horribly, crying a bit as she looked over at Shiro and Senko, but noticed their target was getting away.

"Can we come back and bury him when the mission is over?" She asked through the sniffles, taking the time to ask the question before heading out, activating her Byakugan to make sure she would know where the clones ended and where the target began.

"Shiro, think your powder could make us a path? we don't need to take them all out, just get past them"

[Kazimaru]

"Yeah, we'll come back for him Hitomi..." Shiro says quietly, placing a hand on her shoulder before following her out. When she asks about the powder techniques, he nods and begins making hand seals. "I should be able to manage that. Black Powder Creation Technique!"

Once again the black powder begins to rain down, this time in a trail before them. When there is a decent amount on the ground, he pulls out a scroll and sets it down on the ground, then makes another set of hand seals, first summoning a large barrel of black powder, then using it to create a clone. Once created, the clone rushes forward into the mass of clones, body flickering into the center of them, and at the first strike he explodes, igniting the powder, blowing away any clones along the path.

"We're good to go." Shiro says, but then Senko takes the lead, and surprisingly enough, begins causing black powder to rain down on other clones and explode. "Did she...did she just copy my black powder techniques?"

Shaking his head, Shiro begins to follow along with Hitomi and Senko once more as he looks past them to the two rogue ninja who seem to be waiting for them now. One of them wields the club, the other...disappears suddenly from view, not even leaving a shadow behind.

[Demon]

The figure may have vanished from view, but his chakra network was still in plain view for Hitomi, who was watching his every move. She calmed her breathing as she focused and took off through the cleared path of clones, leaving them and the one wielding the Tsuchikanabo to her friends since only she could see this opponent. She ran initially for where the man had stood to keep the illusion that she did not know precisely where he was (assuming he moved, otherwise she'd go in another direction as though he HAD moved) and at the last moment pushed off of the ground to dash for the man, launching several blows to his chest, though this was a ploy to bring his arms up, wishing to close chakra points in them to keep his jutsu to a minimum.

-=-

"A hyuga, a copycat, and a guy who's way too into explosives. That copy cat's kinda cute though... maybe I should help them out once my legs grow back" Kenichi said as he studied the fighting, having crawled up the mountain to get a better look at things, his lower half having grown from the waist down, having just formed his knee caps.

"As for the guys I'm getting paid to beat up, one can go unsee-able, and the other has enhanced earth release prowess due to that fancy bat looking thing. I'm learning all kinds of junk up here... I should cut myself in half more often" He said, removing his cupped hands from his face since he wasn't sure if binoculars existed in this world or not.

"Chakra's at about 75% now too. Taking that decade to train really helped increase my reserves" He said, trying not to look as the skeletal structure of his shins formed, muscle oozing out of the bone as they went. "Better not let the copy cat see this if I'm going to get her number later. Should probably ask her name at some point" He mumbled, resuming the fake binoculars pose to pass the time until the next post, when his feet should be done forming.