Brother Bear

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Bears...Ami heaved a sigh as she opened the scroll to her newest mission. She had been assigned to this mission, not voluntarily, and was slightly more than just agitated. She couldn't count how many bears she had seen and killed since she became a Genin. It seemed like every other mission she had done involved some kind of bear and it greatly peeved her that she would be tasked to go take care of more this time. She remembered her last bear mission where she had teamed up with Ryojin and battled three quite intelligent bears in Nikkousato. She wondered if there were more intelligent bears, and if so, she wouldn't mind taking one back to her village for experimental purposes.

The girl walked out of the village gates and turned down Kataki Road. From what she knew, she was supposed to meet a sun shinobi, making this her tenth or so collaboration mission. She didn't mind the idea at all since she liked meeting new people and learning from them. The meeting place was supposed to be a roadside inn, a much more interesting place than just some tree or rock off to the side. She wondered about the bears as she walked, and also about her partner. Ami was wearing a black dress with her two katana sheathed underneath her red silk obi. Her weapon pouch would be strapped to her left thigh. She hoped this mission would be an interesting one.  

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And her eyes would make a quick sweep of the area before landing on a familiar figure. She remembered him from somewhere, from a mission perhaps. His attire had certainly helped jog her memory as she had never seen someone who dressed quite like him. If she remembered correctly the man was a puppeteer. Ami would give him a small nod as their eyes met, her gaze drifting to his clothing for a moment before returning to his face. He was the second person to have an eye patch, the other being Kenji, that she had met and was intrigued by it, opting not to stare too obviously at it. He was a little older than her, judging strictly by appearance, and she was quite happy to rely on him a little on the mission. Her fatigue from constant missions was taking a toll on her that she had been too stubborn to admit.

At least this was going to be an easy mission...she hoped.

As he approached, she would give him a small smile. Ami recalled that they had not quite exchanged formal greetings and introductions the last time, caught in the spur of the moment. She would right the wrong this time, bowing her head a little and saying in a soft voice. "Hyuuga Ami, from Gekkousato. It's nice to see you again." She was not great with introductions or conversation starters, always feeling a little strange when giving her name. It wasn't as though she was embarrassed to admit that she was a Hyuugan, seeing as many didn't even know her clan, but somehow saying her own name unnerved her. Her eyes would meet his once more as she continued, "I apologize for the last time we met. It wasn't pleasant..." she allowed her words to drift, unsure of how to finish the sentence.  

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Ami would simply smile and nod as she heard him introduce himself. Nara..she remembered having met another boy by that family name but it had been such a long time ago that her memory was starting to fade. She would agree to starting the investigation. So, the latest attack had been right here at the inn? That explained why they were sent here, she thought to herself. The young woman would follow Tatsuya quietly to the scene, which was quite a scene. She saw the massive hole in the wall and the claw marks. There was no doubt about it...a bear or perhaps more than one bear had been here and done its deed.

"All witnesses and victims often say the same thing...so let's just follow these tracks and get this over with." By now Ami had seen and heard so many bear accounts that she was actually tired of listening to them, which was a little mean. She often heard accounts of how menacing, rtuhless, scary and deadly the bears were, which to her meant practically nothing. She was more interested in just eliminating the creatures and then calling it a day. The girl would take the first step, following the obvious trail the bears had left behind. This would lead them outside the inn and down the road, hoping that Tatsuya shared the same sentiments and would follow.

She wasn't in a particularly killing mood but she was getting a little agitated at the prospect of having to fight bears again. Ami would slow down so that she walked beside Tatsuya, her eyes never moving from the tracks. They would find themselves walking away from buildings and towards the forest. "I've just seen and heard about so many bear attacks now that the novelty is starting to wear off on me..." Ami was speaking more to herself than to her partner but she had to get the frustration off her chest. She had fought a good ten or fifteen bears since she became a Genin and she was getting a little more than just tired of the creatures. 

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If Ami had been expecting to see normal bears just appearing out of the woods, she would be in for a rude awakening or at least a surprise. She would follow Tatsuya, her eyes widening as the tracks on the ground changed abruptly. There was no doubt that what she had thought were bear tracks would shift into..,tracks? The girl stopped for a moment, quizzical, before her eyes would meet Tatsuya's briefly. It was apparent that they were both thinking the same thing--how weird it was that the bear paws would have suddenly ceased. The last time she checked bears weren't able to just conceal their tracks and definitely not in the middle of a trail. And what about the human prints? There were many unanswered questions that she guessed they would just have to find out with their own eyes. She nodded her head at his suggestion of continuing to follow the now bizarre trail.

The tracks were not easy to follow as the two shinobi would soon learn. If they hadn't been trained and hadn't gone on missions specifically dealing with this field, they would have lost track of the trail. But they managed and soon what met their eyes was something even more bizarre than that of the prints on the ground. Ami saw that Tatsuya had taken to the trees, perhaps to get a better view. She was no tree climber and knew that she was probably too clumsy to not give away that they were spying if she did take to one of the branches, even though she had slept on enough peach blossom tree branches enough that she had great balance. She would crouch down, the grassy plains concealing her frame as she looked at the picture in front of her, the perplexed look from her face more than apparent.

There were a bunch of men dancing around a fire and oddly enough they were wearing...bear skin? Her eyes narrowed as she continued to observe them. Could these men be responsible for the attack in the inn? If they were, the hole in the wall had been clearly made by a bear...so could these men imitate what a bear could do? Ami had never heard of people capable of doing such things. And more importantly, what was the motive behind their attack? All of these questions played in her mind as her head would turn to the trees, looking at Tatsuya. She was going to wait for him to make a move, if he wanted to, the veins around her eyes forming as she silently activated her Byakugan. 

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Ami would see the water shark, a familiar ninjutsu she had used many times herself from Tatsuya. So he had decided to make a move, which was probably the best course of action since they could use it to their advantage. She would see that the water shark would work its magic and take out one of the ten shapeshifters, if you could call them that. The rest of them would react, her eyes widening as their bear skins fusing with their bodies. So they were the 'bears'...The girl would take a moment to process what she was seeing before she activated her Byakugan, her vision changing to replace their faces and bodies with their chakra systems. She could have used ninjutsu like Tatsuya but she wanted to get up close and personal, knowing that she could count on her partner to cover distanced attacks.

The girl would move to her nearest target, and since she couldn't really differentiate one shapeshifter from another, she was going to go in for two of the rest of the nine. It was probably easier for her to take out two together. Her chakra would concentrate to the palm of her hands. Her movements were swift as she surprised them, her chakra releasing from her body the moment she reached close enough to the two of them. Her attempt was to take one of them out with her eight trigrams sixteen palms. And since their reflexes were not as quick as hers, she would connect at least one of the chakra point consequently connecting all sixteen. She had chosen to take out the man to her right, her eyes keeping an eye on the chakra system and movements of the man on the left.