Mission in Mt. Marrow

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Eating the last bite of her unusual breakfast of strawberry cheesecake and ice cream, she ran the dishes under the tap and put them to wash later. She was going on a mission today, one that would take her away from Gekkousato. She hadn't traveled to many places outside of the sun and moon villages, her most recent adventures being when she was tasked to find some tracks in a freezing area with Keiji. Keiji...her heart ached a little as she thought about him. So much had happened since then, and now she was conflicted in what she had thought was solid love. The girl needed to get away again, and so was more than happy when a mission in Mt. Marrow showed up on the mission board. Ami grabbed at the chance immediately, not caring who were partner may be. She simply needed to get away, to escape.

The Hyuuga would make her way beyond the village gates, heading down Kataki Road. The weather was nice and sunny at least. She wondered who she was going to be paired up with since she had heard that another moon shinobi had taken the same mission. Ami knew that there was a collapsed mine, with people trapped inside it. It seemed like such a relief that she was going to be doing a rescue mission since the fair share of her missions since she returned from the mountain ranges had been some sort of wild animal (bear) slaughtering or protection or escort mission. She was beginning to get tired of these missions, not really unappreciative of them so to speak. Ami wanted something new, something that she could do that didn't feel like routine. So the collapsed mine seemed to be perfect, especially since she was looking for an escape route from her worries and troubles.

Finding the Cindervine Jungle wasn't exactly difficult. She had been here once before, her mind vaguely recalling doing a mission about mushrooms and bugs. She shuddered at the thought of the crawling creatures, her innate fear of the little things enough to make her physically ill. Ami would have no trouble finding the mine in question as a small number of people huddled in an area would give it away instantly. She recognized a familiar figure standing close to it, someone she hadn't seen in ages. The girl ran forward, a smile on her face as she yelled a little too loudly. "Karite!!! Long time no see!" she waved at her teammate energetically.

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She realized that she might have been too overly excited, screaming her friend's name. the girl gave Karite an apologetic look as she made her way towards her. There were people trapped inside the mine it seemed and her friend had told her of her plan on getting them out. She looked up at the skies, checking to see if the clouds would indicate any kind of rainfall. Luckily they were okay for today. The last thing she needed was rain to make the mind collapse any further. "Do we know just how many people are still inside? And what about injuries?" Ami was more so speaking to herself than anyone else. The leader of the workers would tell her that there were at least a group of nine people stuck inside.

Nine...

She wasn't sure just how many skeletons Karite could summon and how much time was needed for the entire ordeal to be finished. The young Hyuuga looked around and saw that there were already injured workers that had managed to escape just before the mine caved in. They had escaped with a few minor injuries, nothing too bad. Ami would call to inside the mine, hoping to get an idea of just how many people they still needed to rescue. "Can anyone here me?" she would listen intently for a reply. There was a groan or some sort of noise from within indicating that at least someone was still alive. She questioned the person and found out that there were two or three of the workers who were quite heavily injured while the other five or six were suffering from minor cuts and bruises.

"How long do you think we have?" she would turn towards Karite. She had never rescued anyone or anything before but knew that the longer they took, the harder it was for the people trapped inside to survive. She looked around and found some spears, trying to see if they could at least help with the digging efforts. There were already some men who were busy on the job and seeing as she didn't exactly have the same abilities as Karite, she would take a spear too, and begin digging at the cave entrance. It was a going to be a very long process and she hoped Karite would be able to at least help them speed it up.

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Ami would forever be amazed at the fact that Karite could just create a corridor in the ground, knowing that she herself would never be accomplish the feat. The girl nodded her head, knowing that they really needed to be quick. In the back of her mind, even as she was making her way down the corridor, she was thinking about the reason behind the cave-in. It didn't seem like a natural disaster because none of the surroundings other than the mine seemed to have been affected. Ami would call for the help of some of the other workers outside, knowing that if it was just her she wouldn't be able to get all the injured bodies out in time. The girl was also going to hold off on Karite's skeletons just in case of sudden unexpected happenings, which seemed to be occurring a lot in her recent missions.

She would find two of the nine people closest to the entrance of the cave. One of them seemed to be the rather heavily injured men. He was bleeding from the head and obviously unconscious. The other man was trying to apply some pressure from a cloth or bandage of some sort to his head. Ami would call for two of the workers to try and get the two of them out, also asking to see if there was a medic around. From her knowledge she hadn't seen any medical shinobi at the scene, hoping that at least a couple of them would have arrived by now. The green haired kunoichi would keep searching, walking deeper along the corridor. It felt ominous and slightly strange to her and she couldn't shake off the notion of dread that seemed to be building. As she neared another clearing, she would find the answer she was looking for.

The girl struggled to see what had caused the cave in. The walls of the cave were slightly burned, perhaps by explosives. She would continue to go deeper into the cave when suddenly there was a loud noise. It shook the earth around her and the screams of men from further beyond where she was standing made her stomach churn. "Karite, need those skeletons!" she almost screamed at the top of her lungs, the panic in her voice unmasked. She could hear the movements of some of the men as she stood there. Perhaps they had sensed that she was there, or they were simply trying to run for their lives. But she was a little stunned as the men moved towards and then past her, hoping that Karite's skeletons would be behind her to lead them to safety. The girl was still going to have to check if there were others further down though, groaning to herself as she burst into a run.

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Ami would walk deeper into the cave, her heart beating rapidly against her chest. Her step still quickening, she would look behind her to find two skeletons and a wraith close behind. Good...Karite had heard her, she thought to her own relief. Although the skeletons still were a little eerie to her, she was glad to get all the support that she could, knowing that she had at least four injured people remaining in a mine that would most likely collapse for a second time. In her mind she was trying to devise a plan, something that could help her race against the clock. The shaking grounds had stopped momentarily, particles from around the cave falling onto them as they made their way towards the end of the cave. It was a deeper cave than she had imagined, her heart sinking more as the ground once again shook from below her. This was definitely no natural disaster, the girl concluded, having reached the end of the cave. Three more of the nine men trapped inside had managed to escape out into the clearing bringing their total to four, which simple math would tell her it was one man between the each of them.

She quickly began to assess the injuries. Although a medic herself, she could tell that the heavily wounded man would need more than just one person. She wondered if Karite's skeletons would listen to her command, unsure of whether they were strictly tied to their summoner or not. She decided to have the lightly wounded help, as they half dragged the limp body of the man with them down the corridor. The ground would continue to shake, first slightly, and then gradually more violently. Whatever was causing it to shake had to be stopped, or they would have to get themselves to safety before the entirety of the cave collapsed. Ami decided on the latter option as she was unsure what was the root cause of these little explosions. The green haired girl would turn on her heel, the entire group of them now making their way back to safety. It was only fortunate that there were not many who were heavily wounded. The Hyuuga kept looking back, her footing careful as the ground began to shake very violently.

Another bigger explosion would find its way towards the group as they ran. The girl frantically hoped they would make it out on time, the debris and mud from all around them beginning to make it difficult for the group to keep pushing forward. "Keep moving, don't stop!" she ordered the men knowing that if they stopped for even a fraction of a second, it could cost their lives. They would continue down the corridor and soon towards the entrance where Karite would be waiting for them. They would make it to safety, just in time. The only thing left to do now was to treat the injured and to wait for perhaps the entire collapse of the mine. If that was the case, they would have to stay behind to assess the situation as well, to try and find the cause.

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They had made it out alive, the girl watching with horrified eyes as the mine caved in once more. Two seconds late and they would have been trapped in. She let out a sigh of relief as she turned her attention to the men around her. Medical shinobi had finally arrived at the scene, taking care of the injured as Karite and her were left to do the second part of their mission...which was probably the most important part: investigation. Ami thought about her friend's question, replaying what she had seen and heard while she was in the corridor. There had been a blast, or something dangerously similar to it. Now that she thought about it, she was definitely sure it was not the eruption of the dormant volcano. But what was it...?

Her eyes traveled back to the mine, or what had been a mine just moments before. "I think there was definitely an explosion that had nothing to do with a volcano..." she was thinking aloud, playing through the other possibilities. Ami suddenly realized what it could possibly be. "I have a feeling it was some kind of explosive..." again she was talking more to herself than to Karite. The girl would try to look for some clues because if it were really explosives, someone or something must have planted them there, jeopardizing the lives of the workers. This was slowly turning into a more serious and grave situation than she had imagined.

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She thought about the options Karite had presented. She leaned more towards the latter option, her innate distrust in people getting the better of her. But if that was true, there was little way for them to prove or find the person responsible, unless they investigated everyone involved, including the two heavily injured individuals who were en route to the hospital. Ami considered their options and suggested that they at least look into both options. "Although I am leaning more towards your second option, I guess it'd make sense to look into both. The idea of delayed explosives means that someone or something had deliberately put it there beforehand...we could go and ask the villagers or the workers to see if there's been any suspicious activity." She still couldn't begin to understand why people would put explosives intending to harm people. Was there something deeper?

They'd have to get to the bottom of it for the sake of the people.

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Ami nodded her head, already making her way to the leader of the group. Her eyes swept over the injured workers and those who had escaped unscathed. They were all busy doing something, either huddled over the injured or caring for their own injuries. The girl wondered which of these men were responsible for the attack, or perhaps a group of them were behind it. They all looked so innocent...She would reach the leader, who was busy giving orders for the rest of the crew. "Hyuuga Ami..." she would start by introducing herself, having forgotten introductions all together since she arrived at the site. The man looked at her, realized that she had helped some of his men out of the mine and gave her a warm smile, thanking her for her efforts. Ami brushed the words off lightly, not used to having gratitude expressed for simply doing her job. "Say, how long have you and your men been out here at the mine?" she would try to ask casually, hoping her sudden question wouldn't startle him or anyone around them.

Thankfully it hadn't as he answered her honestly. "We've only been out here a little less than a month. We heard there was some kind of reward for finding things in the mine so we came out as a group. Beside we were all working out here well before this came about." Ami nodded her head, seemingly remembering the fact that there had been a notice posted in the administration building about a reward for digging up treasures in the mine. She hadn't taken much notice of it because she was no treasure hunter and didn't think that there was such a thing as finding easy treasure to begin with. But she wouldn't judge, seeing as these men probably had their reasons. "Did you all join together?" The man thought for a moment before replying.

"All ten of us? No. We started out as five. The other five came later. Actually the two men sent to the hospital are two of the five that joined later. The other three are over there." He waved at three men that were sitting closest to them. They were having medics look at their injuries. She recognized them as the men who had rushed past her through the earth corridor when she was trying to look for the seriously injured. Her eyes would meet Karite's and her head would point a little towards them, a sign that perhaps they should start with those three first.

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Ami would bow to the leader as they finished their conversation, walking back towards the injured men. She could see that Karite was already one step ahead of her, having taken one of the three men the leader had indicated aside to have a few words. She was about to make her way to the duo when she heard one of the men run away. Ami was about to stop him when Karite would once again be one step ahead of her, trapping him in the earth corridor. She saw him fall through the door and then her friend close the door abruptly. The Hyuugan could guess what was expected of her next, which was not something that she was particularly fond of doing. Ami would only pray that she would not have to hurt the man for him to give her the information she wanted.

"I'll let you know if I need your help..." her eyes narrowed as the door opened for her to enter, the man obviously knowing the reason of him being trapped there. She moved down the corridor slowly, her face expressionless as she followed the man, who was still trying to run for his life down the corridor. The girl would just watch him silently, his face exhibited panic as he kept looking back towards her and running away at the same time. He would trip and fall, possibly tripping over his own foot. The man was still trying to move backwards with his hands, backing down the corridor. "i think that's enough..." she hissed as he froze. Her words were cold, collected and her expression mixed with her voice gave her the image of being a lot more evil than what her appearance would give off. This was the side she had refused to show others and had wanted really hard to keep it a secret.