Tracks

Tatsuya had arrived in the Kellen Plains. His mission: search for any clues that might lead to the source of the strange tracks that had been discovered in the area lately. He looked around pensively, glanced downward, and kicked over a log that was next to him. It rolled a few feet down a soft incline and came to a stop.

“Yes, I see… I have no idea what I’m doing.” Tatsuya was not a tracker so he had little beyond what an average person would have as far as tracking down this beast goes. He hoped his partner would be better suited for this and he could just focus on protecting them from anything nasty that lived this far up north, though why anything did he couldn’t say. He shivered a little from the cold and drew his jacket closer to him.

The Nara’s smooth black hair was pulled back behind his head with a hair-tie, as usual. A simple black patch covered his left eye and he wore a black jacket over a white dress shirt with the first two buttons undone, black leather gloves one of which had the seal for his puppet on the palm, black slacks, and steel-tipped dress shoes. He was armed, of course, but he liked to keep his weapons out of sight until they needed to be used.

Cure walked through the cold with a slight frown on his face. This area was certainly dangerous his senses were practically going haywire already. It wasn't too much longer before he saw the Nara clansmen who'd be his partner in this investigation. The man looked so confused it was a bit adorable. Shaking his head he came forward showing himself as he took stock of their surroundings. Luckily tracking had never been an issue for him and although he did not have as much skill as Soji he still had plenty of practical and learned experience with it. In his higher pitched gender neutral voice he spoke to the man who'd be his partner. "Aren't Nara known for their intelligence and strategy?" There was no heat or malicious intent behind the words just the slightest hint of playful teasing as he pointed to an are of snow that looked semi-fresh in an oblong shape. "I'm Cure your partner, knock away that snow and we should find our first track. It's been covered since there's been some time since it was first made." When Cure said partner the word sounded just a bit ambiguous and beneath his mask there was even a playful smile. Was this little gremlin teasing the serious and business like Nara under these circumstances? Maybe......

Tatsuya shrugged as his partner appeared, “I can come out on top a’ any fight you throw at me, that doesn’t make me a big game hunter.” He looked at the Uzumaki, they had a bit of a reputation but then again so did Tatsuya, so he was hardly one to judge. If they were half as dangerous as hear-say said they were he was glad to have one out here to watch his back.

He looked around at the snowy ground and wasn’t sure what Cure was seeing. At least one of them knew what they were doing. There was a puff of smoke from the Nara’s hand and he summoned forth his puppet, Piero, the clown-faced puppet held a scythe in its arms and wore a heavy cloak that covered its body. With a subtle manipulation of its strings, the puppet would release one hand from the scythe and let out a gout of napalm from the hole in its hand.

“Sorry, left my shovel puppet at home.” He didn’t want to destroy the evidence so he didn’t aim right at the spot Cure had pointed out, but just being near the super-hot napalm as it arced over the ground would quickly melt the snow and reveal what they were looking for. Tatsuya whistled,

“Guess they weren’t exaggerating, huh?” with the snow melted it revealed the massive footprint in the ground underneath it. Tatsuya had no idea what kind of animal left a track that big but he was pretty sure he could lay down in it if he wanted to.

“Creepy. Looks almost human. ‘Cept for the fact its the size of a boat, course. If that ends the toes then it looks like its headed father up into the mountains, no?”

Cure nodded his head absently as he examined the footprint before speaking. "That's not all, a foot print that sized isn't from something that'll be anywhere close to easy to fight. Also tracking it will be much harder since judging based on width and height of the footprint each stride of it could probably cross very long stretches of distance." He didn't know anything in general that could make such marks on normal conditions but he had read more then enough history and mythology to have an idea of what it might be. He sincerely hoped he was wrong though as that was not something that could be handled easily. All the same the notion made Cure a little queasy. "We have too choices that we'd be advised to take now....A: go back to the village for reinforcements as this thing might not be something we can contest if we find it alone.....or B: try to find one or two more tracks and see if by some miracle we can catch it unawares without getting ourselves killed.......I highly recommend the second option." This is the conclusion Cure came to after considerable thought. He really felt this mission should be postponed and they should seek further guidance with the village after making it clear what they've seen.

Tatsuya crouched down and looked closer at the footprint. It wasn’t as deep as he would expect it to be for something this size, not much more than a wagon’s tread, almost like the creature was incredibly light-footed. That tracked with what they knew so far. Yes people had been finding these massive footprints but no one had seen a creature, nor had a giant monster been tearing shit apart like you’d expect a giant monster to do, that would definitely have been hard to miss.

“Yeah. I think you’re right about that. We found the tracks, confirmed they were real, I think we need to talk to the village about what they want to do about it. I ain’t here to fight Godzilla.”

He’d stand back up and dust his pants off. Regardless of what the village decided to do about this, it was definitely a bigger deal than Tatsuya had initially thought it was going to be, this was not a two-man job. He would reseal his puppet back into his glove and look toward Cure.

“You ready to head back then?”

Cure held up a his hand in a hold on a minute sign. He thought he'd heard something and despite not wanting to get involved with whatever made those tracks he also preferred not to be blindsided by it either. After waiting a minute he did not hear any sound again but by that point he'd had a rough clue from where he had heard the sound from. After ensuring there was no sudden sounds or movements Cure made a motion for the Nara to stay put before diving into the trees behind them towards the left. He only had to travel a little ways to see a set of the same huge footprints but two this time and these were deeper and set in a way that gave Cure the impression of crouching. With a strange premonition he looked up and over to see a small trail of footprints with yards of separation in between them. Each print was of one foot as if whatever made them had put one foot in front of the other step by step and from the light impressions of the footprints Cure put it all together to know that the thing had definitely snuck away.Which meant that there was a very high chance it had been nearby listening in to them and probably decided to sneak away when Cure had discovered that track in case it was found out. This also meant something even more terrifying....whatever made these tracks.....were intelligent! Something that size with intelligence and stealth skills!!! Cure felt a deep shiver run down his back and not only did he disregard and not follow the tracks he rushed back to the Nara saying, "We're leaving now!" He would rush away not bothering to check and be sure the Nara had followed him and only once they were halfway back to the village would he slow down and calm himself enough to tell Tatsu what he'd discovered.

Tatsuya nodded and pretended to continue to examining the scene so as to not tip off anyone watching them. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it up while really keeping his eye on Cure to see what was going on. It did not take long for him to find out. Cure was soon running back, shouting to flee. Tatsuya didn’t need to be told twice, he put his cigarette out in the snow and was running after Cure. He didn’t see or hear anything in pursuit of them but he trusted his allies enough to believe that whatever Cure saw was worth immediately vacating the area. Once they had gotten some distance away Cure stopped and explained to Tatsuya what he had saw…

He felt a chill and it wasn’t from the cold, “Goddam, that giant thing was right there and we had no idea?” He’d feel embarrassed if he wasn’t just relieved they hadn’t been eaten. Getting ambushed as a shinobi normally means you die. “Retreat was definitely the right call, this is not a two-man job.” What the hell kinda animal was smart like that? Maybe animal wasn’t the right word at all. Tatsuya couldn’t help but be a little excited on top of his reasonable fear. He had a feeling that whatever this “animal” was it wasn’t like anything anyone had seen before. He wasn’t done with it just yet. He’d prepare and come back for it. He wasn’t sure what he would do with it then. It’s not like it had actually caused anyone any trouble, the only reason they were here was that people were reasonably frightened of something able to make tracks that large. The creature hadn’t hurt anyone or anything that he was aware of though, it hadn’t hurt them just now or even tried to despite the fact that it could have easily gotten the drop on them. Yes, that decided it, when the time came Tatsuya would try and talk to the creature if such a thing was possible. If it was peaceful then he could leave it be, he wouldn’t kill someone just because they were bigger than their neighbors.

Cure also had some time to think about it clearly after they were far enough away he didn't have to worry about whatever it was changing it's mind and....what? Cure was not the type to kill indiscriminately if he could help it. He was a medic after all and he preferred to save lives not end them. That didn't stop the fact that he did have blood on his hands after all he was still a ninja. There was no way he could just take it down because it was powerful and smart. There were very few times when Cure as a lawful man of logic ever disobeyed his orders but for a creature who made no moves to end his life when it could have how could he not want to do the same and life was very important to Cure. His life and others! If someone was innocent no matter what he wouldn't kill them. It's something that had caused problems for him both in the Sun Village and in his family but compared to his family the Sun Village was basically just disappointed and superficially punished. They didn't result to torture. Cure shook his head clearing the dark thoughts of his past from his mind. He had no time to be an edge lord he had to think of what he would say to their superiors when they returned to the village. He spoke aloud to help calm his nerves as he practiced making sure his voice was still gender neutral. "Hey, so it's huge, intelligent, and probably knows people are tracking it. Yet even we couldn't get one look at it besides it's tracks. However it seems peaceful or at least like it might mind it's own business. I suggest a diplomatic or level-headed approach and maybe if it's intelligent enough a negotiation to ensure it has no intention of harming others. .....Sir." After thinking a minute Cure figured this might be good enough. Sure let's just go with this for now!