Forest of Death II
Just like the Akimichi had offered his teammates, he had cooked the fish caught by the brunette. As it turned out, he truly was a master chef in the making, carefully preparing the meal as a professional cook would. With the kunai in hand, he worked delicately, emerald eyes fixated on the meal before him. The meal he had prepared ended up replenishing his teammates and his own energy fully. After their rest, they were ready to resume their route.
Sen made the decision that the best way to make their way to the tower would be high above to avoid being ambushed by other teams. In a constant pace they jumped from one tree branch to the next, steps careful and soft to not make unnecessary noise or crack a branch. Their steps had to be without mistake. Tensions were running high, muscles taut as a bow.
When Izumi landed on a tree branch, suddenly a stinging sensation began to bubble up in her right knee. The pain thumped against her knee caps, allowing for a hiss to rush past her lips. Tears began to decorate her lower lash line, but she blinked them away, hoping for the sensation to subdue at any moment. While her pain tolerance had become higher, so had the pain she was feeling. As Izumi landed on another branch, ready to push herself off again, she felt the stinging sensation intensify in her right knee. Yet again a hiss rushed past her lips, her pace interrupted. When she landed on the next branch, she was barely able to keep her stability. The brunette quickly fell behind her teammates.
"Izumi," Sen was worried about her friend, brows furrowed as she tried to figure out what was wrong. "Are you okay?"
She and Chihiro both slowed down to match their friend's pace, making sure the girl wouldn't topple over at any moment.
"Do you need more rest?" Chihiro moved closer to her, ready to stabilize her if needed.
"It's my knees." admitted Izumi, cheeks taking on a shade of red. The inconvenience of it embarrassed her deeply.
On the other hand, she was glad to have told them, as they immediately showed understanding of her situation.
"Can you make it to the tower?"
Sen stared ahead, focused. "I would say it's three kilometers north. Can you do that?"
Izumi swallowed harshly, attempting to blur out the painful sensations. "Yes." She had to. They couldn't potentially lose this because of her.
Her teammates nodded, concern gleaming in their eyes accompanied by trust. If she said she could do this, then she could.
With a strained push, Izumi managed to jump to the next tree branch. Her feet wobbled upon impact but she remained stable, doing the same thing again to jump onto the next branch. Again and again she managed to keep her body upright despite the pain being omnipresent. By her side jumped her teammates, eyes carefully fixated on her as they got closer and closer to the tower.
"What do we have here?" From above the team, a chilling voice came, its owner hidden high in the trees.
Team Kushina froze in their steps, turning towards the source of the ambush. The lack of light during the evening made it difficult to distinguish a figure. They had no idea how many opponents there were.
Sweat began to form on Izumi's forehead, settling by her brows. When standing still, the pain became worse, thrumming uncomfortably against her knee caps and bones. As venom would, it spread down the length of her leg, also settling near her ankles.
"Little Genin I would say." Another voice joined the first, a soft thump indicating that another presence joined the one above.
"Give us your scrolls real nicely, and we won't harm you." Behind the Genin stood another opponent, voice mocking.
They were surrounded.
Chihiro was panicking. "How-how do you even know we have the scrolls?"
It was quiet for a moment before chuckles erupted from the figures, the sound gradually growing louder.
"Don't you dare try to deceive us. Give the scrolls. Now." demanded the first voice firmly. The tone sent a shiver down Izumi's spine.
Sen gave both of her teammates a sharp look. No. They have come so far, giving up so easily was not an option.
"Do you really wish to fight us?"
"If necessary." Sen almost spat the words, glaring at the figures. In her mind she concocted up a plan to escape the situation as victor, all she required was the trust of her teammates. Her dark eyes trailed over to them, to find both of them giving her nods. It was all the confirmation she needed.
Sen's hand wandered to her weapons pouch, the one without the two scrolls, to search around for what she needed. Her gaze she meanwhile kept on the opponent to not raise any suspicion. Carefully her fingers wrapped around three kunai, to their ends were paper bombs attached, escape weapons she had prepared while her friends had prepared the meal. In a swift motion, she pulled her hand forward, aiming a kunai at each of the shadowed figures. The way she threw them was ideal to hide the paper bombs until they were lodged into the branches, ready to explode.
"Boom!" She yelled out to Chihiro, who immediately recognized the signal.
He weaved the hand signs necessary, rushing towards the ground with the confidence provided to him by Sen. "Super Fist Jutsu!" During his fall his fist inflated to become bigger, chakra emitting around it. Once he made contact with the ground, the earth began to shake, opening up into a hole ready to swallow everyone up. Around his waist wrapped a rope before a sharp pull to it pulled him onto a tree into the bodies of his teammates.
Simultaneously, the paper bombs went off, their opponents falling right into the hole prepared for them. The tree branches they stood on fell along with them, burying them in it. As a safety measure, the last jutsu was Mud Wave by Izumi, who created a hardening shell of mud around their opponents, encasing them successfully in it. Once they got out of their hole, team Kushina would be far away enough to not be ambushed again.
━━━━
Within the tower, their next challenge was a written text they had to decipher, telling them to open both of the scrolls they had collected. Since something they had previously been told not to do had been expected of them, they assumed the text to be part of a genjutsu. It then turned out that it was not a genjutsu. After opening their scrolls, they were greeted by the sight of their sensei as delighted as ever with a huge grin etched onto her gentle features, eyes crinkling at the size of it.
"You three did it!" Her arms reached out to them and Kushina grabbed all of her students, pulling them into a loving embrace. It was a tight squeeze, their cheeks pressed against each other as were their sides and legs, but it allowed the tension to release from their muscles and their postures to relax. Sen wiggled in the grip in an attempt to get out of it, but was pulled back in by her teammates, who also embraced her affectionately. She let out a sigh of resignation, relaxing. Their sensei sniffled. "I knew you could do it."
The Genin all smiled at that, hugging the woman back. "Sensei!"
"I'm so proud of you!" Kushina sniffled again. Before pulling them further into her embrace. As a mother would, she cuddled them almost to death, showing them all the love and affection bottled within her. Kushina loved her Genin and nothing could make her less devoted to them.