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[img]https://i.imgur.com/mlG2SR2.png[/img]
[b][color=black][sub]Nagi Shinrikyo - [@Savato]
Aragami Tsubaki - [@Rabidporcupine]
Soryu Shinano - [@J8cob]
Jikangai Yūhi - [@Tuujaimaa][/sub][/color][/b]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXJ4HZ3-248[/youtube][hr][/center]

The doctor only glared at Nagi as she asked her inquisitive questions. Perhaps it was innate for a detective, but if she was going to continue doing this on spec-ops missions that required NDA’s, she was going to find herself eliminated by some higher power sooner or later. [i]“I am under the clauses of an NDA myself as well. You’ll have to excuse me when I refrain from telling you anything of the sorts, miss.”[/i] True or not, it was a final answer, and one that didn’t give her much except the animosity of a very influential scientist at that. If any of the shinobi had guessed that there was some other interest in this tree beyond finding a terrorist, they’d have been absolutely correct, but with nobody to prove it, it would have to remain a sneaking suspicion for now. That said, to assume there was nothing here that was related to the ‘pickle at home’ would also be erroneous. They were, after all, not mutually exclusive. 

The doctor gave a similar reply to Yuhi, though it was less abrasive and mean, and more uninterested. He was a bio-engineer, not a zoologist, so the question was really out of his expertise in this case. [i]“I’m not sure. Truth be told we don’t even know why he went in there. We were still setting up the camp at that time and only found him because he screamed. By the time we got there we were lost as well. We only managed to escape by a stroke of luck, so you’ll have to excuse me if I didn’t manage to get a good look at whatever monster this was.”[/i] He stood still for a moment longer, having already been halted long enough, before busting out a rude, [i]“are we done here?”[/i] It was clear he hadn’t expected these shinobi to ask any questions at all. What were they even here for if they couldn’t figure out the situation for themselves? What did he know that they didn’t? Nothing! He wasn’t a fighter, he didn’t know anything about these beasts, he was just here to investigate that tree!

The team setting foot into the swamp was, perhaps, their first mistake, but it was undeniably one they had to make to progress. The only one with the sense to hang back seemed to be Yuhi, which allowed him to see that his team was walking in a circular motion, rather than straight towards the tree – not that this would help him in any way. 

As Nagi dispelled the genjutsu, she would be allowed – briefly, no longer than half a second – to see how the world truly was. In truth they had barely moved forward and had been walking in a circle for a while now. The camp had been gone from vision for a while now, which might’ve explained why the scientist that wandered off had died out of sight from the camp. The doctors story was adding up – and now they didn’t have just ‘a pickle at home’ but a pickle in the swamp-jungle too. And to make matters worse, once the genjutsu had been dispelled by Nagi, she was put back under it’s effects immediately. At that point, her experience in investigation and deduction, as well as the makeshift sensory, would’ve likely allowed her to realize that it was the swamp vapors rising up from the swamp itself that were causing the genjutsu. Again, this was not something they could easily stop – gasmasks weren’t exactly standard gear. Even a makeshift cloth over the mouth and nose would do little to help them here. 

While Soryu’s idea of forming a defensive circle would’ve helped wonderfully in any other situation, the genjutsu made a defense like that extremely hard for anyone except for Nagi, who could use the natural energy to ‘sense’ things, and even that wasn’t a hundred percent foolproof. 

The monsters appeared soon enough, taking the shape of wolves with long narrow snouts akin to the way a vulture had a long neck and a naked neck to reach into the bodies it finds. These wolves’ snouts were meant to reach in deep to clean everything out. At the end of their tail was something that resembled a flower, which was where the whistling noises came from. All in all it would’ve been an interesting specimen were it not for the fact that they were incredibly fast and incredibly aggressive. 

Luckily for the team, they were also incredibly weak. One single high powered punch from a taijutsu user, or a single low level technique would [i]easily[/i] get rid of these things. Two of them were headed for Soryu, two of them were headed for Yuhi, and two were headed for Tsubaki. For some strange reason, about five of them were headed for Nagi – perhaps she was the most threatening, perhaps there was another reason. Yet another motivation to push forward to the tree and learn more, figure out how these cretins decided who to target?

For all four of them, the genjutsu would play part in their fight, as the beasts randomly disappeared and seemed to hit them even if they missed and the environment seemed to be changing, where trees would suddenly be revealed to be wolves, and vice versa. It was doing everything it could to confuse the opponent. It was the most basic of genjutsu, but it was doing real damage now. The wolves attacks were very benign, not doing much damage if any at all through the flak vests, merely grazing any open part of the clothes they were wearing. They were clearly wolves – not exactly experts in personal combat, pack animals that hunted together and tried to tire out their prey, and this time had chosen a target that was far above what they could take. Never the less, combined with the genjutsu, they were a [i]very[/i] big nuisance. The doctors story checked out again, because it wasn’t unlikely that these creatures had simply chased the other scientist around confusing him and driving him away from the rest before he fell, and they could murder him. 

When the four shinobi would inevitably defeat these wolves after taking some minimal damage, if any at all, the environment suddenly shifted, and the road to the tree was clear now. It was almost inviting them to continue. For once, the genjutsu wasn’t playing tricks, and the trees curved overhead to form a path towards the god tree, almost like a sacred entry way for some cult. 

The four were allowed to take as much time as they wanted to, but inevitably had to press onwards to complete the mission. If these wolves were anything to go by, though, then they would have an easy time completing it. Once the group came closer to the tree, once again a violent roar was heard, with footsteps coming closer, shaking the very ground they were standing on violently, as a giant made of mud came from the backside of the god-tree. 

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At the same time, from his position at the backside of the group, Yuhi could easily spot an opening to enter the God-tree’s trunk. There were undoubtedly invaluable wisdoms there and, frankly, even if there were not, these was a lot to learn from entering the god-tree itself regardless, especially given the faint but powerful sense of chakra that was coming from inside of it. However, even an imbecile would know that going inside the god-tree would require them to abandon their team, which would put the entire team at a disadvantage. As if fighting a giant monster made of mud wasn’t a big enough disadvantage already, even when you were fighting 4-on-1. Abandoning them now would surely make the fight much harder if not downright impossible. And leaving the mud monster alive would mean the mission had failed – the mission to establish a safe research outpost, that was. The time had come for Yuhi to make a hard choice. 

Would he choose the tree, or would he choose his team? Would he choose irreplaceable wisdom and knowledge, or would he choose the people he’d been sent here with to accomplish a mission?

Yuhi wasn’t the only one that was presented with a choice however. As Soryu would move forward through the path leading up to the god-tree, he’d stumble over something on the ground. When he’d look down to see what it was, he’d find a small bulb-like plant that was continuously secreting gasses – in fact, they were the genjutsu gasses. On it’s stem there were small, very light blue specks that almost seemed to emit light, and pulsed in the same tempo as the gasses were being secreted. It seemed alluring to touch it, and grabbing one for analysis later on might prove to be a benefit, but if he wanted to do it, he’d have to do it now and hang back for a bit, leaving his team to fight the mud monster on their own while he took it out of the ground. If he didn’t grab it, however, the chance seemed forever lost, as the genjutsu would likely make it very hard to find one again. 

Whoever was left when everyone had made their choice would have to deal with the mud monster, as it roared loudly and moved it’s hands down, reaching into the watery soil and pulling out a rock, before hurling it at the remaining shinobi with a tremendous and extremely large amount of force, giving them very little time to react. Do, or die!