Though not the first time he had been in a VTOL aircraft, this was Soryu's first time traveling to Amegakure. He was familiar with many lands but had never been assigned to this one before. Of course he was as familiar with the city as he could get without ever having been there, having used this flight as an opportunity to touch up on Amegakure's history and culture with the book he bought on the subject after initially receiving this assignment. The provided map of the city would also surely be handy to memorize. It didn't take long to get a decent understanding of where he was going and the majority of the flight was spent instead thinking on the subject matter of the "expedition" at hand.

Soryu was aware of the scale of the attacks that Konohagakure suffered and knew that this was somehow involved. The Hokage, and the other Kage for that matter, must have information that leads to the New Continent to capture or kill the men responsible. As of right now there was very little details that Soryu was certain of. He was simply told that the details would be explained in a briefing in Amegakure. All he knew for sure was that he would be working with shinobi from other nations and that they would be going into uncharted territory. He could only assume anything else. The higher-ups wouldn't send shinobi to simply explore a new land, so calling it an expedition seemed not quite right to Soryu. But he'd call it whatever they wanted him to call it as long as it gave him something to do.

But as the aircraft landed and he stepped out into the rainy grime that is Amegakure, he couldn't help but think about what it would be like working with these other shinobi. After all, their respective nations had been at war with each other in recent memory. His companions here could be enemies he faced in the past, or know people he had killed in the war. That would be awkward... The blue-haired shinobi wasn't able to ponder on the social aspects of these questions for long before another young man holding an umbrella approached him. "Soryu Shinano?" he inquired, clearly a guide of some kind. "Yo. Good guess," was his response said in earnest, seemingly unaware of the potential sarcasm he might've come across with. "I'll be taking you to your room." Soryu simply accepted this with a shrug. If this man was dishonest and leading him to a trap then acting suspicious would give away how prepared he was. But in reality Soryu knew that Konoha wasn't about to be betrayed like this. Whatever it was he was going to learn here, it was bad enough that it has all the nations thoroughly fixated.



During his stay at the hotel room he was finally provided with a dossier with more basic information. Most relevant was the briefing time and the short profiles on who his squadmates would be. The others were all jonin, so Soryu wasn't worried about their level of experience. Though he couldn't help but note that one was from the Empire of Stone and another from the Isles of Mist, two countries whose men he had to face in the past. Granted he couldn't recognize either Nagi or Yuhi in his own memories, though he recognized the "Dog Division" that Nagi hailed from. He also couldn't recall if he ever fought anyone from that division so he discarded the thought altogether. It wouldn't do to assume his new squadmates would have a vendetta against him, as he knew he had nothing against them. Not like anyone would even know who I am anyways, he assured himself, leaving the dossier on the hotel room's bed as he headed out the door.

Upon entering the briefing room he saw that more shinobi had been called than he initially assumed. If it wasn't clear to him how important this was to the various leaders of the nations it was impossible to ignore for sure now. This is surely about something more than just stopping a terrorist... Soryu stopped himself from thinking on the subject too hard, instead redirecting his focus into honing in on his squadmates. Even though he wasn't late, or he didn't believe he was, the other three were already gathered. Being the last to arrive hopefully wouldn't leave a bad impression on the people he would be trusting his life with. Soryu shrugged to himself before putting on a friendly smile and approaching his squad. "Yo!" he introduced, placing one hand on Nagi's left shoulder, for better or worse, and raising his other in a friendly wave. "Soryu Shinano, jonin of Konohagakure, reporting for duty." He didn't let his hand linger on Nagi's shoulder for too long, as the gesture was intended to be friendly and trusting rather than creepy or infuriating.

The dossier he was given didn't have many details on his comrades here other than official stuff like their names, pictures, ranks, and so on. As it stood he had no idea what any of them were capable of or what their personalities were like. With exception to Yuhi, whose age wasn't detailed on his paper, Soryu knew that he was the eldest of the team. Judging on appearance though it was likely he was older than Yuhi as well. This meant he likely had more experience in the war and in combat as well, but all four of them were considered skilled enough to be ranked jonin so he avoided making that assumption. The man from Kumogakure appeared slightly troubled but the other two seemed at least comfortable or calm. Only one thing in particular was nagging in Soryu's mind with this introduction to his team: Is this man really a man? he thought to himself as he looked Yuhi up and down.

Before his gaze could linger too long and give away his thoughts the man at the head of the room finally began his briefing. Soryu took his seat, next to Nagi but making sure not to bump into her with his gear, and paid close attention to what exactly these "details" were that the Hokage didn't share with him before sending him out. The Suna jonin recapped what Soryu already knew about the terrorist attacks before finally revealing something new. The identity of the one behind it, or at least one of the men. There was obvious intrigue about his longevity but Soryu's concerns quickly went to how this previous expedition turned out. In fact the implications of previous, secret expeditions into the New Continent distracted Soryu so much that he was only snapped back to attention to the briefing at the mention of the word "Hokage." Just in time, too, for the mission concerning him and his squad. Squad One, they were called, and they were going to be heading to this Nori Kinsei's last known location. That's an interesting name...

With the briefing concluded he rose from his seat and faced his squadmates. "I'm already prepared and brought all my weapons and tools. Good to board whenever you guys are ready," he informed them, trying to remain professional and informative. The flight out would be the time to learn about his comrades and hopefully bond with them to some degree, but out of respect for them and the mission he didn't want to be overbearing or get in their way. "Good to go?"

When all the other VTOL aircraft kept going straight, yours went left, bending off in an almost ninety-degree angle when a certain mark had been reached. Mission brief...? There was no mission brief. No official one, anyway. You were being inserted as part of a spec-ops team under the guise of providing escort and reconnaisance services to scientists that had been sent out alongside this expedition. This op was, so to speak, under the radar. As vague, shady and strange that might've been.. you were already on an undercover spec-ops mission, namely the expedition itself.. why make that even harder? It would soon become clear, as in the distance a rosebud was visible on the horizon. There was no mistaking it - a god-tree. So that's why you weren't allowed to mention this, even to your fellow expedition members? Curious.

As the VTOL approached, so did the rosebud, showing it's full length, growing larger and larger the closer the VTOL got to it. The team inside would be alerted by the pilot through their headsets that the estimated time of arrival was 'Tee minus 30 seconds'. Time go get ready, if any time was needed. The red light switched on, alerting the shinobi that they were getting closer, before the pilot piped up again. "We're gonna have to do a free jump. Sorry, but take a look at the ground and you'll see why." Indeed, he was right. A single glance out of the windows would've told them all they had to know - this place was inhospitable, inaccesible to most humans bar those with tremendous willpower and a desire to get through. And even they couldn't stay for long. "The scientist-folk have set up a temporary shelter with some wooden beams on the floor, try aiming for those to soften your landing." It was highly unlikely that the scientists could've made a jump like that, so it was quite clear that they had arrived on foot - but for Shinobi, especially those of the caliber present inside of the VTOL craft, it was an easy task. Then, the green light turned on, and they knew what they had to do. Never the less, the pilot reminded them, shouting, "t minus 5 seconds. Green light, go, go, go!"



With a thunk, the doors slid open and they were allowed to jump out on the left and right side of the craft, before the doors slid shut again and the VTOL turned around. They were alone now. Well, almost alone. As soon as the group had landed on the wooden ‘platform’, that was just a series of planks laid in a row on the ground, and had collected themselves, they would look up to find a new person. “You’re the crack team of specialists?” he politely asked, before looking at the clipboard in his hands, and making 4 checkmark motions with a pen. “Wonderful. My name is Doctor O. Okaminari, but you can call me doctor. I am a bio-engineering specialist, and as you can see behind me, that giant tree is the reason we are here. You’ve all signed the NDA disclosure contracts, I presume? If not, I’ll have it forwarded to your PDA’s. Not that those work out here.” He turned around and made a gesture with his hands that said ‘follow me,’ as he guided them through the makeshift camp. To the right side, there were 2 tents – 1 was filled with electrical facilities, though it seemed to be at a standstill for some reason. The second tent had PC’s and laptops in it, as well as a variety of PDA’s, magnifiers and other science equipment. None of them seemed to be working.

“Something is interfering with our electrical equipment and, as much as it pains me to say it, we will need to perform some manual labour here to stand in for our electrical equipment.” He gestured to the left, where another set of tents was. Three in total, all filled with 2 beds and some personal items. So, there were only six scientists here. But where five beds were freshly used, a sixth was cleanly made and the items near it had been cleaned up and put into a box.

“We’ve made a casualty. Assistant Dr. E. was caught by local fauna, and could not escape. We have yet to recover his body… and that is also no longer possible. His body sank into the swamp leading up to the tree, and we have a suspicion his biomatter was absorbed into the biosphere.”

Suddenly, Dr. O. Okaminari’s footsteps came to a halt as he stopped at a boundary that had been created in the dirt using sticks. “This marks the no-go zone. Us scientists can’t go further than this before you all cleared the way. So, that is your mission goal. Move up to the god-tree and set up a safe position for us to go to and do our research. Any valuable information you can find while you are there is classified as top-secret and needs to be handed over to me, and thus you cannot share it with your fellow expedition members unless otherwise specified. Is that clear?”

Once all four shinobi had affirmed, Dr. O. Okaminari gave a solemn nod and let them get on their way. The path ahead was marked clear and it was almost as if it was a straight line forward, of about 500 meters, before they would reach the god-tree. It was… strange how some scientist could’ve died in the area between the god-tree and the camp, which was less than even a kilometre. To local fauna no less?

Now that they could see the god-tree from up close, it was also very apparent that this was not a regular god-tree, as far as god-tree’s can be regular. This one was a god-tree undoubtedly, but it had malformed or adapted into the local environment, it’s colour a muddier brown, not a lush green. The rosebud at the top lacked any color whatsoever, and had turned a shrivelled up black, though anyone with a remote sense of chakra could feel that there was a faint, but powerful source of chakra somewhere within the tree. Could it be that a chakra fruit was present within the tree?

Unlikely. But whatever it was, they were tasked with finding out what was near the tree.

Whoever took the first step into the swamp wouldn’t notice the effects right away. Neither would the second, or the third, or the fourth. Only when they were well into the swamp, almost halfway to the god-tree, would they notice the effects that the swamp had on them. The path warped, left, right, trees moved up and over, arching over the path, and the god-tree suddenly vanished from sight, suddenly reappearing behind them, this time not 250 meters away, but almost 2 kilometers away.

It was quite obvious what was going on here – genjutsu of some sort – but whenever one of them tried to dispel it, it wouldn’t work. Something… strange was going on here. And to make matters worse, when the effects seemed to become more subtle and less extravagant, it was then that they heard a loud sound – almost like coughing, barking, and a soft tinge of a whistle whenever the sound ended before it restarted. It was getting closer, and it was getting closer faster. And it came from all sides.

Miyu Tachibana - Squad 3

Miyu was about to go off on Homuru, and a bit Boshu before she was stopped by the speech. She was NOT going to fail because of some dumb secrecy. Wasn't like she was asking for a details of their secrets, she hadn't exactly given much about herself. She just wanted to maximize the chance for success. If she couldn't act because she didn't know what they could do, she would... do something?

At least they can do jutsu.

Miyu shook the voice in her head away. She succeeded. She had to succeed. She'd just find another way if she couldn't rely on her whole team. She was at least grateful for Kinzo. He'd given something useful she could work wit. Lighting was pretty powerful, a long range combatant was even better.

Still, the meeting continued.

Wait, why wasn't I briefed before?

Probably too young. Or unimportant. Even if she was a jonin, Miyu had the distinct feeling occasionally that her village just didn't want to deal with her half the time. Well, that was alright, she was trusted enough to be here, wasn't she? Success would prove anyone wrong.

Her squad was incharge of following tracker bugs set on Nori. Easy enough. It was a little annoying her squad wasn't guarenteed to run into him, there were 2 others on his trail as well. Still, just made this a competition. And Miyu always won.

They were quickly dismissed to the VTOL's. On the way up, Miyu muttered to Kinzo.

"Thanks for being sensible, at least. I'm better close ranges. I don't care about age, nation, or anything else. I just care about getting results. I have the feeling you'll be a big help."

She climbed into the aircraft, and quickly got to work shuffling through their supplies. "Enough" and how much were two different questions.

---

Was probably the first to notice the other between himself and Erika. A buzzing beetle told him one of the four shinobi he was looking for had been spotted. Scattered amongst the crowd, the Kinzoku drew no attention, and eventually gathered back to their master and keeper. They crawled in beneath his coat, and then burrowed beneath the skin into the network of tunnels carved into his body. With the last of them already bundled away out of sight, he turned with a smile to the approaching girl from Suna. He noticed her eyes first, a frosty blue, and the light blonde tinting of her hair. She was indeed a desert flower.

Reaching out, he took the flower, letting the stem spin between his thumb and fingers. Still beautiful and a symbol of peace apparently. "Peace is so fleeting. I guess that's why flowers represent it then?" He cooed out, teasingly at the over enthusiastic shinobi who sat by his side. His hand tugging on his cape so she wouldn't sit on it.
"Since the dawn of the ether itself, our threads had already been entwined. Only death may sever it now."
"Erika. Erika Yamanaka of the Church of Heiwa."
"Erika Yamanaka of the Church of Heiwa." He spoke when she did, matching her words and smiling back with a noble grin. It wasn't soft, but it wasn't hard either. It was confident, and turned up a little on the right side. "I hope you don't mind, but I made sure to read through the full file they sent me, and a few others. It wasn't much, but your church sounds fascinating. I recall a brief time where a member of the nobility tried attracting others to it. It wasn't successful, but it was fun to hear about." Tucking the flower into the brim of his coat, the insect shinobi couldn't help but chuckle. Just something about how perky she was managed to endear her to him instantly.

The opposite case was Shizuka Ichimi. Eita barely had time to speak as the wind child rushed right in. Speaking like a million miles and hour was too slow for him. He found himself swiping a hand about, gripping the flower when the breeze knocked it from his coat. Clearing his throat, he felt... Agitated, primarily from the clear breaking of his personal bubble. This didn't help that as soon as Shizuka rested a hand on the coat, the beetles inside his body immediately went haywire. Something was touching the host! Was it bad!? But before they could do something sudden, Eita acted first, by gracefully reaching down, and grabbing the Konoha Kid's hand with two fingers. "Well, I do agree that it's soft. You see, it comes from a mammoth beetle. My family fought several other bug clans to claim ownership of it. The fur that it grows during mating season is simply divine. And it breathes like you would not believe." Eita explained as he lifted Shizuka's hand away. "But, no touching. Though considering your introduction, your name is Shizuka, correct?" He added a coy little smile as he turned to both. "I apologize, I was unaware we were doing gifts. I should have expect that. But don't worry, I'll have something for both of you as soon as our fourth and fifth arrive." Honestly he was hoping Shizuka's lack of manners wasn't indicative of some probably in Konoha's social circles.

---

Sakana sure seems like the dramatic type, Koko thought to herself as she curled her fingers under her chin in a thoughtful pose. If she was a brute, she would have struck him right in the face by now, and if she was particularly emotional, she would have raised her voice quite quickly. Alas, Koko was neither, and she held her thoughtful pose, scrunching up her nose and flicking her eyes towards the ceiling – more so to ignore his further tangent in a semi-polite manner rather than any actual need to think over his words.

But now that she was staring at the ceiling with her fingers propped under her chin, little thoughts flitted to the forefront of her mind – perhaps there was a technique to this pose that caused her to focus more intensely on thought. Sakana was a fish, so surely he knows that Koko means stork? Or do they perhaps not have storks in the Empire of Stone? Due to the Isles of Mist’s professional relationship with the Empire, Koko had visited the country on multiple missions and occasions. However, it never occurred to her to look at the fauna of the place.

The distant commotion of a Konoha shinobi caught Koko’s attention. The brunet sped to his own squad amongst his shouting and, writing him off as nonthreatening at the moment, Koko turned her observance to the conversation continuing around her. While she was intentionally unintentionally preoccupied, Sakana had let his chokehold on the squad’s communication go and handed the proverbial reigns to the other Kiri shinobi (or, in this metaphor, would it be the proverbial arm stronghold?). Koko smiled politely at her fellow shinobi, but let his cold voice buzz into the background.

From what she has gathered thus far into the rather pointless conversation – or, at least, pointless to her – Sakana seemed to be the most sociable of the bunch. Meanwhile, Shinji appeared to be most businesslike and could quite possibly be the oldest among them. The third member, Miyako, was quite polite and a tad like stale bread. Koko might have worried about Sakana becoming an irritant to the other members of Squad Four, but it seemed quite pointless to fret over it when the other two were perfectly blank to his brash behavior.

“– is that you bring to the table?”

Koko blinked dumbly before tilting her head towards Miyako to show she heard her. Humming, Koko tapped the pipe at her hip, if only to prevent her from lighting it. It wouldn’t be good to bring out something that was technically considered a weapon in a room full of paranoid shinobi. Paranoid shinobi who don’t recognize the importance of relaxing and tobacco.

“What do I bring to the table?” Koko mimicked, if only to buy her some time to find the appropriate response. If Miyako expected her to wax lyrically about her skills, then she would best prepare to be disappointed. However, it would be dumb to refuse to share what she can do as it could bereft the squad of trust and offend the other girl. Koko’s small polite smile became wider and she adjusted her straw hat in faux-sheepishness. “Like Sakana-kun said, I’m just a grunt – a sword for hire!”

Thankfully, before the conversation could be carried any further, they all were urged to take their seats for the briefing. Koko slunk into a seat, draping her calf over her other knee and slouching back into the seat with half-lidded eyes.

Most of it was boring details; as her feelings are for most things, Koko was mostly bored at the details of the mission. She supposes there is some excitement into going to the New Continent, but she didn’t want to let her hype grow to substantial amounts only to be disappointed later. It was best to stay subdued until she was sure the New Continent was worth what everyone thought it was.

Despite her wishes to remain uninterested to avoid a total let down, Koko couldn’t help but lean forward in curiosity at the bio-terrorist attacks. Koko wasn’t the type to mess with biology; she preferred only messing with simple plants and poisons. However, the airborne contagion that was plaguing the nations was undoubtedly deadly and the concept of a poison that could achieve the same effects was riveting. With her, albeit limited, knowledge of medicine, it would be interesting if she could apply any knowledge found about the contagion to creating a poison. However, it was equally extremely unlikely.

Koko tried not to pout when the briefing was over, and the bio-terrorist attack victims no longer being presented to her. To cover up any lingering disappointment and attempting to inject a nice healthy dose of friendliness amongst her new comrades, Koko flashed a happy grin to the others as she gracefully wobbled towards the location of the VTOL.

“Yeah, let’s get going, kiddies.” Koko smirked, beckoning the others forward with a wave of her hand. As if in afterthought, Koko paused and cast a warm yet casual glance towards Miyako. "And feel free to take the role of leader. Giving orders and doing all that leader-ly stuff isn't really my strong suit."

Following orders from foreign shinobi is probably not her forte, either, but Koko felt mentioning so would be more detrimental than helpful. It wasn't that she would openly defy Miyako - she just wouldn't give going against them a second thought if her orders were stupid. Pragmatism, really.

---

Yuhi paid as little actual attention to Nagi as she did to him, and did the same with Soryu. If pleasantries were to be exchanged, there would be plenty of time to exchange them later--for now, the most important thing to Yuhi was ensuring that he understood everything in the briefing. Unknown territory came with unknown risks. Unknown risks were exceptionally difficult to mitigate, relying primarily on guesswork and conjecture. Yuhi did not like relying on guesswork and conjecture for anything but writing and theorising, and when his life was on the line it was even more important to him that he take as few actual risks as possible. If he could improve his - and by extension, he supposed, his teammates' - odds in the upcoming mission he would absolutely do so. As the briefing began, he readied the pen in his left hand and the book laid squarely on his lap and begun the process of taking notes. Ordinarily, if simply writing quickly for himself, he would not bother to encode his work - but given the amount of documentation pertaining to secrecy that had crossed his metaphorical writing desk he elected to take no chances and write his notes in a simple cipher.

The characters aligned themselves neatly across the blank page of the book, evenly spaced and perfectly legible, spilling forth from his pen as he took down the information that was relayed. He paid especial attention to the mentions of the afflictions, his brow furrowing more and more as he listened. He had heard very little of the attacks and getting definite information like this was equal parts concerning and exciting - he could have spent hours cross referencing his extensive collection of research to match the infection to something that he had encountered before but every connection that he offhandedly made felt incorrect. After the slides passed on the screen showing the progression of the victims' symptoms, he was quite certain that he'd never encountered anything like it before and that it was likely to be synthetic or to have evolved in isolation over a significant period of time in order to display such abnormality. His knowledge on such things was not quite as profound as it perhaps should have been offhandedly, but he had devoted a considerable portion of his extended life to the research of such things at Kinjiro's command and could comfortably theorise on such a disease's origins if little else about it. He wrote every detail down in cipher, making sure to describe the pictures as quickly as he could given the time that he had, and when he was satisfied that he'd written everything he felt necessary he turned the page in time for the next slide to begin.

As the image of Nori Kinsei showed up, Yuhi regretted that his artistic capabilities were sorely lacking. He would have liked to have at least gotten a good sketch, but instead settled for writing down every detail provided about him. As many details as Yuhi could objectively glean from the photos provided, Nori's involvement in the spreading of the unknown contagion and sketches of the blueprints. He made these in as much detail as the time allowed, mentally noting that they would likely be of great importance in the future--if not to him, then to someone on the expedition. He did not write down much regarding the tracker bugs--a small paragraph of ciphered text simply to remember exactly what the assignment entailed. With that finished, he closed the book and placed the pen into the left pocket of his jacket.

As the presentation finished, he wasted no time standing up and immediately setting off towards the VTOLs on the roof. He would have plenty of time to get properly acquainted with his new teammates on the journey to the New Continent.

---

Getting aboard the craft was quite simple. Another confirmation of identity, another set of directions to follow. Yuhi entered the vehicle and took the nearest seat without much fuss, settling in quickly and taking stock of his surroundings. He made sure to take the PDA intended for him and gave it a quick gloss over. It would be useful for its picture-taking capabilities, he thought to himself, but little else. He preferred to take notes down by hand by a significant margin--offering him a guarantee that he would be able to use the information and being able to cipher them to comply with the NDA. He idly wondered if he should send a copy of his notes to Kyoko, but thought better of it until he was firmly out of Amegakure. If he'd had time to wander around he could easily have made a dead drop that one of her various informants could have picked up and delivered to her, but the situation was far more pressing than that--and the thought of having his lungs endure even a second more of the vile smog within the borderline diluvial city was absolutely unbearable. He would ensure that she got her pound of flesh when it was less inconvenient for him to do so.

As his new squadmates would board the ship, he'd give them a nod of greeting and a smile - both fairly genuine, though any attempt at seeming genuine could just as easily seem disingenous.

"I apologise for my earlier terseness. I wanted to be sure that the brief got my full attention, as we'll have each other's attentions for the foreseeable future! I am Yuhi of the Jikangai clan, and I presume that I am here to serve in a strategic and informational capacity--I'm more of a librarian than a shinobi, to tell you the truth, but I shan't be found lacking in martial prowess should I be required to do so. If there's anything you'd like to know of me, please ask. Otherwise, I will be acquainting myself with the PDA and making preparations for the trip." Yuhi explained once everyone was assembled, and would reply to any questions asked of him. Otherwise, he busied himself with preparations for the expedition.

As the craft veered off from the others, Yuhi grew more curious than ever. Adding another squad to explore the three locations mentioned would have ultimately been pointless, but what could have required the level of secrecy that they had been subjected to? As the distinctive blossom came into view over the distant horizon, Yuhi very audibly gasped. It was quite unmistakeable, and exceedingly rare - he thought that he might not have seen a God Tree for an exceedingly long time. Very little was known about them, and what little was known was sequestered away by powerful and influential collections of people. Fortunately, when the shinobi world had been young, the Jikangai clan had been one such collection of people - and accordingly, there was still literature in their library regarding God Trees. He had a copy of every book in their collection with him, but it would likely provide little other than a solid foundation to base assumptions on - after all, very little was actually known about them even now--never mind when the material in question was written.

"Amazing... I wasn't sure I'd ever get to see a God Tree..." he mumbled, largely under his breath, taking a closer look out of the window to admire the scope of the thing from afar. Though a little overtaken by awe, he made sure to survey the land around the God Tree also--and he was unsurprised by what he saw. This would not have been handled with the delicate care and secrecy that it had been if it would have been easy to just stroll up to what was essentially one of the wonders of the world. As he began to process the fact that the VTOL would not have anywhere to land over this sort of terrain, the pilot's voice came through the headset advising them that they'd need to jump. Yuhi made sure to gather everything that he needed (though he had largely bundled everything together already) and prepared himself to exit the craft. The green light blinked, and he was the first to jump off of the craft. The drop was quite short, around 20 to 30 meters, so it only took a quick concentration of chakra in the legs to hit solid ground comfortably--or at least, hit the wooden planks as instructed. Solid ground, it appeared, was not a phrase that should be used lightly in the area they had landed in.

When the Doctor greeted them, Yuhi offered him the same greeting and confirmation of his identity that he had everyone else in Amegakure. He also took a deep lungful of the air in around them - and though it was not necessarily pleasant, it didn't feel like inhaling acid and smoke. That alone made it smell decidedly sweet. As the group were led them into the camp, Yuhi looked around and began surveying his surroundings as analytically as possible. The terrain was an inconvenient mixture of swampy and forested, so movement would need to be precise and careful. It would be useful to attempt some amateur cartography of the region, though that could be addressed after the immediate issue of the God-Tree and the quandary they were undoubtedly stuck in. The air was thick with humidity, but felt quite like how he had imagined it feeling after reading about this sort of climate - he decided then that gleaning little details such as these was less helpful now than it would be later, but mentally catalogued his observations regardless.

Upon hearing about the scientist's demise, Yuhi was immediately confused. To be restrained by the local fauna and swallowed by the swampy marsh in what was essentially plain sight of the camp seemed wildly implausible - no matter how one envisioned the situation, there was something not right. A detail omitted, or an external force at play.

"You said local fauna? I presume that your missing scientist was supervised from afar during his foray - can you describe the animal for me?" Yuhi asked the doctor, simultaneously pulling out his pen and book and getting ready to write down whatever the scientist said - this time, without a cipher. His companions might find it useful to have the information available to them, and this was not something that he would need to keep later. When the time came, he would be sure to write an encoded summary of the events that transpired.

After his question was answered, he would progress up to the boundary with everyone else. There, he would wait for the others to speak and collect their thoughts. They could create a plan of action for themselves after everyone had had time to get to grips with the situation.

N@j8cob@Tuujaimaa@Savato

"Oh, hey." Tsubaki said, nodding back to the... man? Their voice sounded pretty masculine, but he decided it might pay to let someone else take a guess first so he could avoid the embarrassment. "I'm Izuku Akiyama."

Of course, destiny couldn't let him off easily, and made it clear it had no intention of giving him a break by sending Shinrikyo straight towards the two of them, quickly informing them that, yes, she was in fact his squadmate.

He'd be lucky to make it to the New Continent at this rate.

"Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but all the experience I had in the war was losing loved ones and cooking for refugees. As for why I'm nervous, that's probably due to the fact that I'm the only genin on a squad of high level jonin, and one of the the members of that squad is the actual boogeyman of my country these days. But hey, that stuff isn't too big in the whole scheme of things, so I'm sure I'll calm down soon enough. No need to worry about me."

He shrugged lazily, his panic already beginning to disappear as he chewed the rolled up paper.

Finally, he looked up when the final member of their squad arrived, a blue haired man from Konoha.

"Izuku Akiyama, genin of Kumo." He said, giving a small wave to the man. "Don't look too relieved though, I'm a pretty damn good genin..."

Before he could say anything else, however, the man at the front began speaking, giving them the details of their mission. For his part, Tsubaki simply sat in silence. Deep down, he wasn't entirely sure how he'd even found himself in this position, rather than travelling with the support crew as a chef like in the Raijins original plan, but eh, he'd make it through. He wasn't the same crybaby genin loser he'd been in the empire. Now he was a cooler, more laid back genin loser, which was technically better.

He stood up and stretched as the blue haired guy, Soryu, spoke up at the end of the debriefing.

"Yeah, may as well. I've got all my bigger cooking equipment heading over to the main base, so hopefully I'll see that again. I've got the smaller stuff with me though, so I'm good to head off."

---

Tsubaki whistled in appreciation as the god-tree loomed into view.

"'s a pretty big tree..." He said simply, before listening to the pilot explain what they needed to do. Turning back to the others, he let a small grin grow on his face.

"Well, I guess I'll see you guys at the bottom."

And then he let himself fall out the door, eventually correcting his position and managing to land on his feet, channeling enough chakra into them that he didn't have to worry about just jamming his knees through his brain.

Once he was on the ground, he remained relatively silent, particularly through Doctor O's recap of the situation. The only exception was a quick 'Yep' when the doctor asked about the non disclosure agreements. However, he did find himself getting a little excited when he heard some strange new fauna had killed a scientist. Not the 'dead scientist' part, but the cool, new animal part. He hoped he would discover more details on the creature at some point, figure out how best to prepare it if they should manage to encounter and kill it.

However, he'd kept his mouth shut, just to make sure nothing too insensitive came out and he could focus. He didn't even talk when they found themselves in the genjutsu around the tree, instead merely raising a brow. It wasn't like speaking would help, not if the others were all trying the exact same thing.

However, it was the strange whistling that made him ready his staff, looking around curiously.

"And here I was worried the other teams would hog all the fun!" He said, a grin on his face. "Any requests for how I cook them once we're done?"

Tapo shrugged as he walked off the Vtol. He never did enjoy being carried in these marvelous machines, he'd much rather travel with more natural means, down a stream or on the back of an animal, sadly, Tapo knew full well there was no animal in the world that could keep up with these hovercrafts of Sunagakure design. He hated Amegakure. Not because it always rained - he found that rather refreshing, and he quite enjoyed the more rural areas of the land, but the city - the capital itself was awful. The smog in the air clogged his lungs, it stung in his nose and his eyes and it put him in one really sour mood. He pulled his brown hood up over his face as he walked across the landing pad, waving off the greeting crew.

Tapo had made his own accomidations for the brief, at an apartment complex in a small, crammed dorm room, far less spatious than the hotel rooms that were on offer. But, the apartment had a greenhouse on the roof - an area where Tapo could put in his earbuds, meditate and read his books. He had packed his own food for the next couple of days, before the brief and if it wasn't for the public appearances, protocol and such, he'd rather have stayed home till right before the brief. He wouldn't go outside or make contact with anyone, only moving from the greenhouse to his bed for the next day and a half.


Tapo was up bright and early. He had done a perimeter sweep before heading in for the brief - not that he was working security but it was a hazard of his way of living. And, he in general didn't trust any of the shinobi from the other nations. A frown was painted on his pale face as he sat down a row further to the front of the rest of his squad - next to his old sensei. Captain Hensei Uchiha, the chief officer of Konoha Intelligence in Amegakure and his immediate superior.

"Tapo, my boy. You're off duty, you don't have to be watching your back like that." Hensei told him with a soft, yet stern smile. "Perceptive as always, Captain." Tapo conceded with a short bow and a pleasant smile.

"It's an occupational hazard, am afraid. How are we looking on security? These situations usually bring trouble with them." Tapo said, sitting down next to Hensei as the Sunagakure jonin was getting ready for the briefing, the room filling up and the brief would start in just a minute.

"Iwagakure patriots caused a barfight last night, butted heads with some of the Mist Mercenaries. We've had a couple duels go down, a few personal squabbles. Noone died. I do appreciate that in these young peace times." Hensei said, his crows feet showing, he brushed his greying black hair out of his face, as he turned his attention to the main stage, listening in on the briefing. He had already gotten his advance copy of the intel, but paid attention out of respect.

"You had best turn around, Tapo, or your new teammates might think you are not present."Hensei told Tapo once the brief came to a close, Tapo smiled and nodded in appreciation. He stood up and walked out of the row once it cleared out, getting closer to the group of three.

"I would be number four. I'm Tapo Hanabiro. Nice to meet you three." He said formally, again nodding politely.

---

"But for us to work well as a unit, it may be advantageous for all of us to know what the others can do."

Kinzo had said these words to him before the briefing had begun. Both he and Miyu didn't seem to respond well at all towards Jinzo's decision to keep his abilities a secret. He allowed his mind to dwell on them further now that the briefing was over and they had made their way to the VTOLs that would be used to fly them to the New Continent. As far as briefings went, this one was surprisingly short and to the point. Especially given the gargantuan coordination effort from all five nations. Jinzo was mildly impressed at how smoothly things had gone, though he didn't allow it to give him a false sense of security for the coming mission. Squad Three seemed to be allocated the task of tracking down this Nori Kinsei alongside two other squads. Jinzo allowed himself a wry smile to form beneath his mask. Despite not being much of a competitive spirit, he couldn't help but feel confident that they'd be the ones to track him down. After all, his squad had not one, but two of the Empire's Tiger Agents assigned to it. If anyone was going to find this man, Jinzo was sure Squad Three could pull it off. But he needed to rectify the earlier situation first.

"My apologies, Miss Tachibana." He spoke finally, raising his voice in order to be heard above the whine of the aircraft. "I sensed your earlier disappointment towards my uncooperativeness. I never meant to offend you. It was merely force of habit, given my usual line of work for the Empire." Jinzo regarded the girl as she seemed intent on checking through the supplies they'd been allocated for the expedition. The walk from the Great Hall had been awkwardly silent, at least on his part. "If it would please you, however, I would be happy to display my abilities to you once we reach our destination." Bowing his head as a show of respect, Jinzo chose a seat facing toward the back of the craft and began to strap himself in and prepare for takeoff.

There was a certain relief that came over her once she had affirmed the noble-like man before her was in fact, one of her compatriots on this escapade. It was unfortunate that she could not accurately recall the dossier on this individual. Knowing things about a person beforehand would give her a general sense of how to proceed, but then, why bother with such things? She had her faith to guide her with each new person she came in contact with. As Eita fiddled with the flower between his fingers, a curious smile would come to rest on her face.

"Peace is so fleeting. I guess that's why flowers represent it then?", Eita cooed out teasingly at the over enthusiastic shinobi who sat by his side. His hand tugging on his cape so she wouldn't sit on it.

Erika sighed deeply, leaning forward in her chair as she pondered to the floor beneath them, her hands slightly tucked under thighs. "Perhaps....", she breathed, looking up to him as her head titled slightly, "Though maybe this is why my Lord beckons for my contributions. You see..." Erika paused as she caught her breath, glancing off into the distance for a moment in a pensive manner, "I have since come to learn that life is not a tantamount of repetitious gears. Everything changes. So maybe...." She returned her gaze to him, smiling sweetly, "with a bit of faith, peace doesn't have to remain but an ephemeral ideal either."

"Erika Yamanaka of the Church of Heiwa." Eita spoke when she did, matching her words and smiling back with a noble grin. Erika battered her eyelashes, nodding in tandem with his words as confirmation. "I hope you don't mind, but I made sure to read through the full file they sent me, and a few others. It wasn't much, but your church sounds fascinating. I recall a brief time where a member of the nobility tried attracting others to it. It wasn't successful, but it was fun to hear about." he said. Erika looked at him with her watery blue eyes and tittered, "Not everyone is meant for the calling regrettably."

Waving his hand in the air, Shizuka began to shout, “Hey guys!” now cupping his hands around his mouth as to somehow amplify his voice, “HEY! IT’S ME, SHIZUKA!” Sprinting up to his teammates he kept making himself painfully noticeable, drawing unnecessary attention to Squad 2.

Erika turned her attention to the newcomer once he made himself known, standing in an attempt to hand him one of the flowers she had picked. “Oooh you’re pretty” Shizuka said as he ogled the blonde haired kunoichi, the gust of wind collecting behind him would cascade forward, blowing the flower out of her hand. Erika turned her head and squinted her eyes as the air came gushing towards her and Eita. Her hands gripped tightly to the sides of her religious gown to keep it from inappropriately blowing upwards.

Once the gust subsided, Erika looked back to the teenaged shinobi and smiled, dusting off her gown of any potential debris. She was slightly tickled, "You're very sweet Shizuka, but Heiwa cares not for such frivolous details. However, I do sense a radiant energy from within your vessel.", she said, taking her seat next to Eita once more and giving the bug ninja a charmed expression. Her focus returned to the teenaged shinobi as he continued to speak to her, his compliment towards her bow gaining him a soft smile, but then, when he spoke of a familiarity between them, her smile disappeared as she pondered, though no vocal response came in return.

She gazed at the floor pensively, quoting scriptures from the Book of Heiwa in her head until she came to one that coincided with her current thoughts. She had tuned out a bit from her two compatriots as they began to discuss the intricacies of Eita's precious cloak, the younger shinobi clearly unaware of the word boundaries. The mostly jovial interactions between their group finally came to a pause once the briefings began. Her eyes had narrowed and were alert as she paid especially close attention to the presentation before them, recognizing some of the Suna-nin who were delegating the briefing and giving them a subtle nod when they looked her way.

With the briefing finally over, Erika turned back to her compatriots to speak about it, but was immediately stopped as a formal voice called out to them. "I would be number four. I'm Tapo Hanabiro. Nice to meet you three."

Erika stood up to meet the latest member of their group, bowing slightly as she did so. "Even the stars shutter from your arrival. The Lord Heiwa welcomes you into the fold Tapo." she said with a gentle expression, taking his hand into her own and closing her watery crystal-like eyes as if she were feeling some type of otherworldly presence, "The Lord Heiwa does not falter. He senses a peculiar spirit within you." she said cryptically, opening her eyes again as she let go of his hand, a soft smile highlighting her delicate features, "Wonders shall follow your actions hence this day. It has been written."

She turned from the new arrival and looked to all of them, quoting a scripture of encouragement and then saying a brief prayer to bless their journey. Once she had finished, she placed the Book of Heiwa back within the straps on her back. "Now then, shall we proceed with transient introductions, continue forth with the expedition, or, does anyone need a retelling of the information that was assimilated moments before?"

---

They had their orders and there was no time to waste. As they would all board their attributed VTOL, it'd take off, leaving behind the foul, humid air of Amegakure behind. In a matter of minutes, the hub city was nothing more than a small spec of colors in the horizon with the excessive amount of ascending smoke and smog still visible at their distance. On the opposite end, they could clearly see the gargantuan mountains serving as borders to the New Continent. As they drew closer, the particularly large fences became noticeable. And a they flew over, the shinobi could remark that there was not one row, but six of them in gaps of about one kilometer. They ranged as far as the eye could see.

Around that time, each of their PDA's would flash to life, and display a form of radar on the screen. At the top right hand corner, a flashing dot with multiple numerals below it. They indicated coordinates, distances and so on. That was their target, with the numbers becoming more precise as they progressed through the mountains.

A giant, barren steppe greeted them. The soil grey and the sky covered in same color clouds. If the squad had been expecting something particularly exotic, they'd be quickly disappointed. Though, the absurdly large fissures on the ground were at least impressive, giving off more of a Canyon-like feeling, despite the ground being complete flat beyond these peculiar crevices. The trip itself wasn't too long, as their ship would seem to be hovering over the dot after a twenty minute flight. Though, the speed of the VTOL had actually allowed quite a bit of ground cover in a short time.

It hovered over one of the Crevices, one more narrow than the average though plenty enough for them to fit in without feeling too claustrophobic.

"Down there's yer stop, fellas. I be hoverin' round 'ere 'till you gimme some signal. Use them cords to drop down, we dunno how deep the trenches are, so better safe than sorry."

The pilot spoke through his mic, as the engine was quite loud. Indeed, the squad could make use of cords to descend down into the abyss where they could get a better read of the area and find the stationary tracker. The VTOL wasn't going to move an inch, making the descent rather safe. Not that they would need to lower themselves too much as they would quickly start to notice far too 'artificial'-like rock formations in the first few meters down. As if a lot of the stones had been chiseled as some point in time.

The more they'd lower, the more it'd be obvious. Metallic plates, odd bars and even detached, small pipes. It was as if they were exploring the grave of a demolished building with only skeletal remains to find. Though there lacked any sort of proof that there had been any foundation here. Perhaps something behind the rocky surface?

It was dark at this point. The team had what they needed to survive for a while, including food pills and tools. This came with a flashlight. Eventually, they'd hit the bottom of the fissure. A good three quarters of a kilometer down. The surface was metallic, very cold. Around them would be more rock and random pieces of metal. Until they'd end up noticing the giant, ten meter tall circular access into a completely metallic interior. A form of giant pipe, a hollow cylinder that greeted them in its bowels shrouded in complete obscurity.

Should they make a noise, it would echo through the tube. Should they march in, they would feel the air getting colder and colder. Their PDA would indicate an even more precise location as they hit the ground, pointing into the metal tunnel itself. Their flashlights couldn't seem to really reach the end of it. Miyu, however, could briefly sense that there was a considerable lack of natural energy present at some point in the tunnel, more so than there is in the whole visible parts. A waypoint, perhaps?

There was little to find in said giant pipe-access beyond just rubble and broken off steel. It clearly wasn't natural. Though, about fives minute after they had touched the ground, whether they had entered the tunnel or not, they'd feel a sudden rise in seismic activity. A minor earthquake. Nothing to really knock veterans off balance, but it was felt even in the sky.

"What th-zzzzt-gott-zzzzzztttt-holler at-zzzzztttttt ..."

They did they communication was hampered here. And this area in particular seemed to be hazardous to wireless communication. Still, the PDA was able to track their target. The quake lasted about ten seconds. Would it be enough to deter our young heroes?

---

---

A frigid glare was turned toward Soryu as he had made physical contact with the chief inspector. Had he been a little more sudden and he'd have a jagged tail piercing through his guts and spine at this very moment. Instead she only jumped and turned her attention to him. Clearly displeased.

"Don't do that again, Leaf."

Mood now shot down, the Shinrikyo proceeded to set herself for the presentation, notepad whipped out of her vest's inner pocket with a small pencil bound inside the rings it used to keep the pages together. Only three points with a word each were written down as the presentation went on. A contrast to those seeking to garner as much information as possible from the brief. Overall, the Empire's envoy was nothing less than relaxed. One leg over the other and blue eyes easily focused on the objective.

Once over, she'd turn her attention back to the 'Genin' of the squad.

"Izuku. Was it? Lying is bad. No nation would be stupid enough to send some Genin on such a mission. Not even the monkeys of the Cloud. Now, we have a whole adventure where we can open up and have as many epiphanies as we need to be honest with each other."

She stood, her same smile as before plastered back on her pale visage. It was time to go and board the VTOL. The New Continent awaited and it seemed as though their team had the unique task out of the bunch.

---

"'Kay. I'm here to notice what others don't. And take down threats as swiftly as possible."

Back leaning comfortably on her seat in the VTOL, Nagi had her arms crossed while facing Yuhi. Though her eyes were more interested in the phone in her hand. A tool she used for her job most of the time, but when bored, it served as a nifty boredom remedy with classic bejeweled. It would be once they'd get into proximity of the God Tree that her pre-Smartphone era gadget would just suddenly lose all power and shut off. A scowl quickly reined on her visage as she frustratingly attempted to reset the item a few times.

It'd be Yuhi's reaction to the giant bean stock tree that'd get Nagi to forego restarting the phone and instead dedicate her attention to the big plant. It was a big tree to her. Nothing more, nothing less, which made her question why it was of so much interest to Yuhi and what she assumed to be HQ's goals involving it. It wasn't hard for the detective to deduce that they'll be working around that thing in some way.

"God Tree? What's so Godly about it? Excuse my lack of historical knowledge but, really, what is it?"

A bit annoyed at the fact that she didn't know something as seemingly grandiose, she was quickly to narrow her gaze toward Yuhi in this situation. Though it wouldn't last as they would have to leap off the ship at this point. Another quick glance at the Tree would be offered, capturing the environment around it at the same time. The air was foul. Nothing like the pure atmosphere of her Empire. So many disgusting environments in one go. A desert would have been more enjoyable than this, or a Steppe.

She'd likely hop off last with the landing being as typical as it'd be with the read of her squadmates. Down at the camp, they were greeted with the famous Dr. O. A popular figure that had gotten the Stone's attention, though his practices in bio-engineer often clashed with the traditionalist morals of the Stone. Still, a noteworthy man.

"Tell me, Doctor. How does this relate to our fugitive's work? What can this tree provide to solve our current pickle back home? Our goal is that, after all. Please, do enlighten me, Doctor. And even you, Yuhi Jikangai."

Answer or not, they had a mission to do and Nagi was one to do her job right. Fauna that captured and killed some nerd? How was that even remotely intimidating? These lab coats would likely die to a herd of dying raccoons. She'd be quick to take the first step out of the 'safe zone', serving her goal as a sort of enforcer and fearless investigator. Black boots stomped against the damp soil, her gait quick but not enough to be considered a jog.

"Hmmm."

An optical illusion. There was no way this thing was even farther than before. Nagi was no adept in Genjutsu, being one for some good ol' close and personal fisty cuffs. But this was very obviously some sort of illusion. Besides, a veteran could easily deduce when they were compromised in such a way. And a Tree wasn't exactly smart enough to be /that/ subtle. At least not a Juubi Tree, known to be mindless by few, but Nagi just never thought a Tree to be smart.

Natural energy was sucked into her being, enabling the lass to have a different kind of 'feel' of the environment. She didn't have any sort of sensory, no. But one could see it as sort of 'tasting' the environment. A different sense. One that could perhaps help her orient the team toward the Tree despite this illusion. Though, despite it all, she'd still try the conventional method as to see if it actually does the trick or not.

"Kai."

Other than the Cloud ninja, it seemed to Soryu that his assigned squadmates didn't exactly appreciate him. Yuhi ignored him and Nagi snapped at him, but at least this Izuku fellow returned the greeting. I could've sworn the file on him said he was a jonin. I think I should've paid more attention, he couldn't help but think after Izuku introduced himself as a "pretty damn good genin." Hopefully he can provide more than just liability. Like Nagi said, it'd be odd to send a genin on something this important to the Kage... For now he had to ignore the open hostility Nagi had towards Izuku, as clearly there was some past history between the two and Soryu knew that getting involved with that wouldn't help anyone. Of course it would have to be addressed at some point in the future of this squad was going to be working together for a long run, as the cohesion of the unit was far more valuable to Soryu than petty relationships. Life was the most important thing, after all, and the potential risk to his from an extended quarrel in the team didn't appeal to him at all.

The personalities demonstrated by his squad so far didn't paint a remarkable picture. It would've been better if his friendliness was returned, but at least the situation didn't seem dire. Soryu felt that even right now after just meeting they could work together if push came to shove. Sure, probably not in the most efficient manner but working together was better than four "lone wolf" types failing to communicate completely. Most the team seemed rather silent, or at least reserved, but that didn't dissuade Soryu. "Well, let's get this show on the road then!" he proclaimed to Izuku and Nagi, as Yuhi had already left ahead of them without a word. On the surface it appeared as if he was blissfully unaware of the tension between his two squadmates and of Nagi's irritation with him personally, meaning he did a good job at projecting his charisma over his true concerns. Hopefully his smile would eventually be infectious to these people but as of right now he didn't honestly expect the squad to mesh together very well during this upcoming flight.



It was only when they were onboard the VTOL did this Yuhi fellow finally address the team and introduce himself. Apparently he was some kind of support role, equating himself to a librarian that just knew how to fight. A vague description, but at least it was something. Nagi as well felt the need to vaguely explain her capability, but even more direct and to-the-point than Yuhi. Though Izuku didn't give clarity, the picture Soryu had of the team now was that he and Nagi were likely intended to be the muscle. Or perhaps Nagi the muscle and Soryu as back-up muscle. Yuhi was surely a support role in combat with more use out of combat, and Soryu assumed that Izuku would be similar in a way considering he was only considered a genin. Either way, now he felt it would be best to give his new friends some intel on himself. "Ah, well I'm pretty well-rounded in my skills. I can do a bit of everything, so I'll likely just be filling in for what we need as a team at any given time. You guys can count on me, I'll always have your back." He didn't expect these three to fully believe his capability right off the bat, but Soryu still spoke in earnest. If all else failed he would at least ensure this team survived.

The unannounced but obviously coordinated change in the flight plan immediately bothered Soryu. When his squad's VTOL aircraft diverted from the rest, despite there being no apparent need based on his knowledge of the map, he grew suspicious. Not of a potential trap or betrayal, but of the intentions of the people organizing this expedition. Clearly the mission briefing given before was a red herring, to convince the other seven squads of a false story. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't even know who is in charge of this operation, Soryu thought to himself, bringing a hand up to his chin and staring down at the floor between him and Izuku as he contemplated. Surely I just missed the part where that was explained. I know the Hokage isn't controlling this, and I can't recall hearing any names I recognized... Surely the ones in charge of this expedition were chosen by the Kage in either a vote or as a representative committee, but then again... His thoughts trailed on like this but to no proper conclusion. The more he pondered the more questions he was left with, eventually prompting him to give up on trying and direct his attention elsewhere. Such as to his squadmates.

He didn't notice the God-Tree until Yuhi had made an exclamation about it. The phrase was unfamiliar to Soryu, but he felt like he had a pretty good understanding of what this "God-Tree" was once he had a look at it. A massive, monolithic trunk that he could practically feel. It almost made him feel uneasy but Soryu wasn't so easily intimidated. "That is a big tree," he agreed with Izuku. When the pilot made clear what was to come, Soryu stood from his seat and patiently allowed his comrades to all jump first. Not so that he could use them to test the waters, but because he wanted one last look at the landscape from the air. This location wasn't on the map provided in his PDA (not that he could've accessed it right now anyways) and he wanted to get a clear understanding for navigation purposes before he returned to ground level. With a deep breath he stepped over the edge and allowed himself to fall. The trip down was quick and like his teammates before him rather uneventful. He had properly braced for the impact and felt completely fine after landing.

They were quickly approached by this scientist, one Dr. Okaminari, that Soryu couldn't say he ever heard of. He paid attention to some things going on in the world but not the sciences. The stuff plainly didn't interest him. And this doctor's demeanor was endearing but at the same time he had a sinking feeling that he would be at least a little bit annoying and overbearing. "Yeah, we're the... crack team..." he confirmed, his smile fading slightly at what he perceived to be an insult, though he continued trying his best to maintain a friendly aura for this civilian. Soryu ignored the talk about NDAs and PDAs and the bio-whatever jargon. This stuff may have been up Yuhi's alley but the finer details weren't his to worry about. He only really began paying attention once the important things were brought up. "Local fauna..." Soryu repeated to himself as he gazed off towards the God-Tree from the line of sticks. He presumed this meant some kind of animal, but considering the gigantic magical plant before them it wouldn't do to exclude the possibility of carnivorous plantlife attacking them.

He didn't get to assess the situation long before the others stepped ahead of him to enter the "no-go" zone. Soryu had to resist calling out to them to wait a moment longer, so that they could gather their thoughts better and coordinate a plan of attack, but considering he was actually the odd one out in wanting to wait longer he decided to remain silent and adapt. Stepping forth and being subject to the same illusions he was actually glad they made their way in so quickly. He would've failed to account for such a detail from the "outside" looking in. "We don't need to panic," Soryu spoke up to his team, in regards to the genjutsu effects they were under. "This is one of two possibilities. Either we stepped into a genjutsu or, what I think is more likely, what we were seeing before we began walking over here was the actual genjutsu and we are now perceiving the environment correctl-" Soryu stopped himself mid-explanation as the strange sounds began. Instinctively he removed his bow from his back and drew a single arrow, notching it and turning around to face the direction the team came from. The sounds came from every direction so he figured if each member focused on a 90 degree quadrant, with him taking the rear, they would have maximum awareness.

Is this the fauna the man was referring to? Definitely some kind of beast. A civilian could be killed by an average wolf, so we've got no real intel on how dangerous this is. I could kill it with an arrow, or perhaps I would need to use ninjutsu to be able to do the job. But I can't just waste chakra on regular animals, so I have to be ready to switch tactics if my weapons alone aren't cut out for this... Already his mind was racing on the possibilities of this coming encounter. How many hostiles, what they could be like, whether or not he would even be strong enough to defend himself alone should his team briefly fragment in any possible chaos or disruption. "If this is just wildlife then we want to preserve our energy. Surely we'll need it as this can't be our only danger..."

Boshu Sen'Yo

---

Various places

There was a moment before the briefing began where it looked as though Miyu wanted to say something after Kinzo had given a more accurate description of his capabilities, before giving a piece of his mind to Homuru over the reluctance to detail what he could do. It made sense that they'd be agitated by a lack of information, she'd had her share of frustration due to not knowing what an ally was capable of.

Well, they'd get over it later.
Probably.

Silence reigned over the squad during the briefing, Boshu herself paying close attention to the details of who they were after and why. As images of those who were hit by the White Gas were shown she found herself angry, the fact that a man like this would show up so many years after vanishing just to re-enact the attacks that occurred in his time made no sense... Yet concern lingered in the back of her mind as she tried to think of what the reasoning might be, perhaps he was turned to the side of whatever was in the New Continent in order to execute their attack on a grander scale. If that was the case he certainly succeeded, but now the eyes of the shinobi world were on that land to find and destroy someone who dared jeopardize the peace that had only recently been attained.

Having a PDA to track one of the bugs that had been put on him was both a blessing and a curse, especially if he knew the bugs were there the whole time, it would allow him plenty of time to set up any form of trap he could ever imagine.

------------

It was a small relief being on the VTOL and soon leaving the choking cloud of smog that lurked over Amegakure, not enough to truly ease her concerns over the tracker bug these teams were meant to follow but it was something right?

Whilst Miyu fussed over the specifics of what they had in terms of supplies and Homuru attempted to make some kind of amends with the girl, Boshu was sat there, staring at the blank PDA as if just looking at it was going to give her some much-needed answers about what to expect upon landing.
So focused on her thoughts, she was only snapped out of it as the PDA lit up and displayed the co-ordinates of the tracker bug and their own location, a few seconds later she stowed her PDA away and moved to look out one of the side windows of the VTOL, eyes scanning the terrain around them to take note of the fences that surrounded what she could guess was the whole continent maybe.

The longer she spent taking in the sights of their surroundings the more she genuinely thought that there was actually nothing to the continent, but she couldn't let herself slip into such a naive state of mind, this was an important mission that they had been tasked with and she wasn't about ready to fail just because everything was quiet on the surface.
Eyes traced the cracks and crevices that littered the ground below their craft, she couldn't spot anything in the darkness from this height but it was worth being wary of them just in case.

Patiently the huntress listened to their pilot and gave him a quiet nod of confirmation, he couldn't see it but it felt right. She'd use her flare technique to let him know they needed extraction at the ropes.
"Get your stage faces on, Squad 3, we've got a traitor to hunt down." Boshu took hold of one of the lines they were descending from and was the first out of the craft, descending at a fairly brisk pace so she could reach the bottom of this crevice and establish that nothing was immediately endangering them, taking note of everything she could see on her way down.

Chiselled stone as if someone had been here, pipes and metal plates, bars... all kinds of signs of whatever civilisation used to be in the area. The concern that Boshu had worried over earlier was starting to bubble up from the back of her mind once more.

Instead of fiddling around with any of their tools Boshu quickly formed one of her flares and launched it further below her into the abyss that was their entry-point, easily illuminating their way down for the next few minutes at the least. In this time she'd get boots on the ground and release her bow from the confines of the seal on her wrist, allowing it to unfold with a solid click that reverberated down the all-consuming tunnel that seemed to be their only way in.
One look at it sent a chill of dread up Boshu's spine, an enclosed space was no good for an archer, let alone a long ranged fighter like Kinzo. Thankfully, when it boiled down to it she wasn't just a bowman so she figured Homuru and herself would be okay, though she couldn't say much for Kinzo or Miyu.

The light of her flare failed to breach the deep, inky blackness of the tunnel that was present before her and the rest of the squad, so she made use of the flashlight she had as part of the equipment given to her and used it to try and light the tunnel, to little avail. "It must stretch on for quite a way if our lights can't reach the end of it." She idly commented as she took slow, careful steps into the dark, taking the lead for all intents and purposes.

It was about this time that the earthquake hit, forcing Boshu to stop part-way into the tunnel and wait for it to die down, she took a look to the rest of the squad. Initially she was looking to see if Kinzo and Miyu had been discouraged at all by it, just to be sure of whether or not they were planning to stick around.

In the event that they decided to keep going she'd give a small smile of confidence and continue on, beginning to give quiet orders to her companions.
"Homuru up front with me in case we need to block the entrance and get out of here sharpish. Tachibana, Uragiri, keep an eye on the entrance as we head in." She kept her flashlight pointed ahead of the group and further into the tunnel, the end of this thing couldn't have been too far, right?

---

Sakana glared at Shinji a while, seemingly not really impressed with the way he handled his remark ‘tactfully’ as if he were a businessman. The repetition in his speech, saying over and over that he had no problem with them, and that he needed him to introduce himself, made him look more nervous than calm and collected at any rate. “.. right.” On cue, Nagi Shinrikyo passed by, telling him that it was all ‘in the name’ and that we had to guard our own interests. It was funny, because it was true, but Sakana didn’t laugh or smirk at her remark. Rather, she eyed both Shinji and Koko as assets that were there simply for the ride. Like Nagi said, he couldn’t rely on them to guard anything other than their own assets – and similarly, they should expect the same from him. Except he wasn’t here for the explicit interest of the Iwagakure Empire. He was here for his own, by grace of the Emperor. The remark Nagi made about him being from Kumogakure, however, fell on deaf mans ears. Sakana served no man but himself. Whether that is a Raijin dynasty of sorts, or an emperor in an ivory tower.

Sakana paid some attention to Miyako, but seemed more in deep thought than anything. When Miyako finished her little speech, he simply nodded. Yeah, having Miyako at the head would be fine. Not like it’d matter much. In the heat of the battle, only your instincts and fate can save you …or kill you.

Just like Koko, Sakana immediately turned to face the commotion caused by these Konoha goons. It was so like Konohagakure to send some children to play in a game of life and death – not that Sakana could make any remark on that, since he was only 16 and possibly the youngest member of the entire team, if not the expedition at a whole. But to act like this, blatantly yelling and screaming. “Idiots,” was all he’d add on to the matter before turning back to his own group, a hint of irritation visible in his otherwise bland, boring face.

He cocked an eyebrow when Koko called herself a sword for hire, before realization set in that she was potentially mocking him. Rather than fire off, like he usually would’ve, he lowered his eyebrow and grinned at her instead. Fate would take care of her – he couldn’t make any judgement on that yet. Something he could make a judgement on was that she was playing dumb – acting like an airhead, casual, go-with-the-flow type of person that so many shinobi seemed to want to be – and that judgement was that it’d come to bite her in the ass later. “Sounds like your only skill is existing..? I hope Iwagakure didn’t pay a premium to have you on board then,” he added, though he was quite sure that Koko, of all people, had an ace up her sleeve. The logical thing would be to assume that her pipe was a weapon of sorts, but that was too obvious to be her trump card. He’d just have to wait and see. As for Sakana, his trump-card wasn’t something he could forego telling his team about.

“Unlike these goons, I should probably tell you what I can do, for your sake rather than my own. Miyako, put me on the front line. The reason is…” he said, undoing his flak vest and raising his mesh shirt. He revealed the Ura Shishō Fūin seal on his chest that would activate on his death. It’d generate something akin to a blackhole that would, essentially, kill everything around Sakana when he dies. In fact, Sakana was more or less a weaponized failsafe, a suicide bomber if anything, in the most extreme fashion one could think of. “.. the reason is that if I die, and you guys are next to me, you die too.”

---

With the team assembled in the VTOL, Sakana would spend the rest of the trip being quiet. They flew over the border between Kumogakure and Iwagakure as they headed north-west towards this new continent. A dark place that Sakana had only ever heard rumours of, rumours he’d discarded as vague lies drunk men tell in a bar. Turned out it was the truth, and a pretty dark truth at that. Biological warfare was nothing new, but in this capacity it certainly was new. Where as this type of combat had usually been restricted to jutsu with biological impacts, which meant there were counters to this type of attack, this new threat was nothing of that sort - at least, that’s what he inferred from the briefing.

While they travelled he mostly stared out of the window, giving the impression perhaps that he was deep in thought, strategizing potential threats, making up tactics and strategies to use against these threats, and above all, how to best achieve their goal. The truth was, they didn’t have any information in regards to what they were doing. They were unaware of what threat they were facing, they couldn’t make tactics and strategies because of that, and their goal was as vague as it was ever going to be. When they started approaching a dark cloud, he suddenly turned his head into the seating area of the VTOL, speaking up. “Anyone else feel like this is a suicide mission?” he plainly asked, and as if by some divine intervention, a sudden crack and an explosion outside of the VTOL shook the entire craft up.

Sakana waited about one whole second for the pilot to pipe up about some weather problems, but he didn’t say anything, and a single glance out of the windows confirmed that their wings were, in fact, gone. The ground would come closer, not so rapidly as the craft still had some forward momentum, but the time to act would be now lest the entire team die here. “Miyako, shoot me to the ground.” he’d say, getting up and sliding the door open on his side of the VTOL, waiting for Miyako to get up and ready to use her wind techniques to propel him forward to the ground as fast as she could. Once she was ready, he’d inform the team of his plan. “Once she propels me off, you guys jump after me right away. I guess you might die, but you’re gonna die for sure if you don’t follow me. Trust fate.”

With a loud thump from the air making way for Sakana, Miyako would propel him forwards using her wind chakra, shooting Sakana off like a literal bullet heading for the ground. Any normal human would’ve died on impact, and even a shinobi would have a hard time pulling this idiotic plan off without any lasting damage, but Sakana went ahead and did it anyway. As he soared towards the ground he rapidly formed handseals. “DOTON! Doryū Jōheki!” He adjusted his position so that he could land on his feet, hopefully with a bit of momentum carrying him forward so that he could land in a roll, but as he picked up more and more speed it seemed very unlikely that he’d be able to do it. With a very large thud he connected with the ground, his brows furrowing in pain as he felt a shiver of pain running up his leg from the impact, twisting his ankle quite badly in the process.

Before he allowed himself to react to the pain, he smashed his palms into the ground, raising himself into the air by forming a earthen platform moving upwards, closing the distance between himself and those of his team that had chosen to follow him down, allowing them to land on the platform from a smaller distance to lessen the damage – if any damage occurred at all. Once they were all safely on the platform, he slowly began lowering it, bringing them to ground level. During the ride down to the ground the loud bang and cloud of smoke in the distance told them precisely what would’ve happened had they not jumped. Most likely their bodies would’ve fused with the metal of the VTOL in a smoldering pile of fire and metal. “Motherfucker..” was all Sakana had to say in response to his twisted ankle. It was pretty bad, and definitely would impede movement during the entire duration of the mission, but it wasn’t something he couldn’t get over when they were done. He’d just have to pull through this time.

Shinji listened to the others when Miyako spoke up it seemed she was going to be the leader of this group, and Shinji just nodded agreeing as he didnt want to have the leadership position. Then Sakana spoke again the moment Sakana revealed his failsafe of a jutsu Shinji only had two thoughts, 'Don't let him die next to me or just dont let him die' Shinji never did go into what skills he can do or even what were some of his jutus. Still fresh from war Shinji doesnt like revealing his jutsus to anyone unless he has to.

---

Once on the mission Shinji sat in the VTOL with his eyes closed as if napping. He wasnt asleep though he was just listening to everything around him. The VTOL was loud but yet Shinji was trying to hear outside of the giant airship too see if he cannot get any intel of what he was about to drop into. Any information would be better than the information they didn't get when they started out to this mission. Shinji didn't expect there to be much information to this new land, but he still didn't like going into an arena without a little bit of knowledge about it first.

It wasnt long until his little fake nap was interrupted though first there was a loud bang, and then the VTOL started to fall. His eyes instant shot open just right when Sakana jumped out of the plane with his plan to save everyone. Truth be told Shinji didnt hear what Sakana as he was tuning out the sounds inside the VTOL. So instead he acted. Shinji looked around quickly and then slammed his hands together in the snake sign and started to focus a lot of his chakra. A moment later he jumps out of the plane yelling, "Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave " After that Shinji expelled from his mouth a large amount of water in the form of a huge wave of water.

Shinji jumps onto the wave and slides down the crashing wave as if it were one big slide. He slides down the water onto the earthen platform created by Sakana. Using his chakra to keep him a float ontop of the water and to keep him from sliding off the platform. The water goes down the earthen platform creating a make shift waterfall once this was all said and done. Shinji left enough water for his other two teammates to use should they follow behind him. His whole idea was to use to water and use it to displace the landing so he can hit the land without hurting himself. He glances around quickly though once down to see where his teammates are and to check on their conditions if everyone made it out of the crashing fiery death that was that VTOL's fate.

Shinji does ask, "Is everyone alright?" A rather simple question and obvious one to ask after something like this but Shinji was trying to figure out the situation to see how the rest of the squad members were if they could hear him after. That's even if they landed near him.

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 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.” 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’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.” He stood still for a moment longer, having already been halted long enough, before busting out a rude, “are we done here?” 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 easily 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 very 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.



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!

---

Yuhi listened to the doctor's explanation and nodded along, beginning to understand what had happened from his account of the events. He believed he was correct in that thinking a factor had been omitted from the explanation that they'd been given - not knowingly, as the doctor's recollection had seemed quite forthcoming (and there was little reason to lie to the individuals supposed to ensure your safety) - but there was something that was not quite right. Nagi's interrogation of him seemed to have earned her nothing but his scorn (and rightfully so, in his mind) and as she factored him into the equation, he gave her a look of equal parts desire to educate her and disdain for her lack of understanding. She was singularly focused, it seemed--she had been given her mission, and like her division's moniker she was determined to sniff it out to the exclusion of anything else. That was an immensely useful trait for a detective, and even knowing as little about her as he did he was quite certain that she was a stellar detective - but this mission did not require a detective. It required a cohesive unit of individuals who acted with proper information and planning, and apparently Nagi and Izuku preferred to act before those stages were complete. Yuhi got a very different vibe from Soryu, though - he was quite certain that the blue haired ninja was processing the available information in his own way and preparing to act in kind... Though the haste with which half of their team acted prevented him from really being able to do so.

"Thank you, Doctor. We will report back once we have made progress on the mission." He offered, a tinge of disdain and a tinge of apology in his voice, as he stepped away.

Though there had been no time for it earlier, Yuhi made sure to answer Nagi at least briefly before she brazenly stepped foot into the swamp.

"God Trees are the progenitors of chakra. I'm sure you know the history in some form, perhaps allegorically--Kaguya ate of the tree's fruit and became the first to wield the power of chakra. A tree similar to this one is the reason that history's course was altered from the normal to the extraordinary, and why we all exist in the fashion that we do." He spoke hurriedly, attempting to give his teammates at least a fragment of the knowledge required to appreciate the sheer importance of what was unfolding before them. He immediately got a sense of who was taking him seriously and listening to him--that was, Nagi and Soryu--and made a note to have a frank discussion with Izuku about the importance of cohesion once they had survived this ordeal. Indeed, most of the group seemed to follow Nagi's lead into the swamp without so much of a second thought (again, with the exception of Soryu who hesitated slightly), and Yuhi took the opportunity to observe precisely what was happening with them as they progressed into the swamp.

He noted first that they seemed to be walking in circles - peculiar enough, given that the God Tree was straight ahead of them, but it did make plenty of sense given the story they'd heard about the deceased scientist. There was clearly something perverting the sense of perception of those who attempted to approach the tree - and, thinking about it, that did not seem too out of place. Though his knowledge on the God Trees was quite limited, he had read that they possessed some form of sapience (not perhaps an intelligence, but a will that could be expressed by any means it had available to it). Given the pulsating tangle of chakra he could feel within the tree from even here it occurred to him that perhaps the God Tree was defending itself by using genjutsu, or something akin to it. How it was applied did not immediately come to mind, though he wagered that at this point he had almost spent as much time as he was going to be able to without actually stepping in to the swamp. Just before his foot crossed the threshold, Yuhi barked out a quick question to test whether or not his companions could hear him:

"Are you aware that you're walking in circles?"

There was no response. Indeed, it seemed that his working theory of genjutsu rendered them unable to hear him - though he was quite curious about whether or not it would be a shared illusion or an individual experience. It seemed likely to be shared, he figured, if it was some protective instinct of the God Tree. Given that the scenario was very likely about to involve the mysterious local fauna attacking him, Yuhi removed the Yata no Kesan from his backpack and allowed it to hover gently over his open right palm, and continued to walk towards his squad. As the illusion took control of his senses, he found his way to the group rather quickly and attempted to explain to them his perception of the situation amidst the sound of the apparent local fauna beginning to close its way in.

"I believe that the God Tree is somehow influencing this genjutsu--a protective measure, perhaps, to halt our approach? Given how suspect this seems, I'm inclined to believe that we should investigate the tree at the earliest possible opportunity. It will likely offer us a way to end all of this and establish the safe zone - though I am certain that of all of us, I am the only one with enough knowledge about the God Tree to end things in such a manner." Yuhi spoke quickly, having also heard the tell-tale sounds of the local fauna coming towards the group. He found it particularly odd that there was a whistling sound, and as they came into view he took in their measure as best as he could while preparing himself for combat. At their most basic level they had the forms of wolves, but there were subtle changes from most of the specimens he had ever encountered. Their gait was longer (though he wasn't sure if he could attribute that to the wolves or to the genjutsu), their snouts were oddly shaped for carnivorous predators, and there was a flower on the very tip of their tails which seemed to emit the whistling noise that he'd been hearing. The flower in particular struck a chord with Yuhi, who began thinking about it as he kneaded chakra internally in preparation to fight the wolves.

It looked remarkably similar to the bud atop the God Tree, which further lent itself to his theory that the tree was the ultimate cause behind the unique fauna and the genjutsu that they found themselves in. It would explain why the genjutsu was a shared experience, as they did not seem to each be having similar but completely distinct instances of the genjutsu due to their ability to communicate with one another (and Yuhi's lack of being able to communicate them when he was not within the genjutsu). He didn't have much time to ponder the implications further, however, as his perception was fighting against him. Where once the wolves had been plainly visible, they were now simply gone. His periphery told him that something was moving, and as he swivelled his head to take a look there was clearly the form of a wolf where before there had only been a tree. Genjutsu were not something he had a great deal of experience in, though he had picked up as many tips as possible from Kyoko whenever she elected to talk about her abilities. Much of the trouble with dealing with a malleable genjutsu that could adapt itself was the intelligence behind it--only particularly intelligent beings could alter one's perception on such a fundamental level that it becomes impossible to distinguish from reality. It was a relatively safe risk to assume that the God Tree did not have such a level of intelligence, or its defence would likely be far more intricate than ambushing those who came close to it with its minions and genjutsu.

As his mind raced with the possibilities, he didn't notice that a wolf had leaped right at him and attempted to sink its teeth into his midriff. As the bite happened, Yuhi curiously felt no sense of pressure. He wondered for a second what had happened, thinking the seals on his body should have activated, before realising that the attack itself was illusory and snapping his thoughts back to reality. With enough chakra prepared, he activated his Shikigami no Mai and dispersed a loose cloud of paper within a few feet of him. He could not rely on his senses to accurately track the beasts, so he would ensure that they would not reach him without navigating through his weapons of choice. Sure enough, between the illusory attacks that simply phased through the paper and were clearly not real, one of the wolves made its move and lunged at him with a vicious bite. A piece of paper stuck to the top of its elongated snout, and with a quick burst of his chakra the kanji for "Cut" would appear on the piece of paper, and in an instant the wolf's jaw and the beginning of its head were severed vertically, not quite splitting open due to the length of their snouts. The wolf crumpled to the floor immediately, blood oozing from the clean cut and slicking the paper so that it slid off into the marshy mess below. He wasn't expecting it to have done that much damage, truth be told, as the effects from his bloodline were quite weak without an enormous amount of chakra to back them up - but the wolves seemed to be similar enough to common animals that the effects were quite pronounced.

The next wolf came for him from behind, opting not to leap towards him but to go for his legs in order to prevent his escape true to their harrier style of combat. It managed to avoid several of the loosely floating sheets of paper, and got within two feet of Yuhi before he channelled fūton chakra into a single sheet along its edge and brought it straight down, slicing through the wolf's spine and into its body before emerging cleanly from its belly underneath. The strike served to paralyse the creature's body immediately, but its momentum carried it forward enough to land a weak bite against his calf before it actually died. The teeth barely managed to touch his flesh, but it was a solemn reminder of the dangers of combat - Yuhi had been sloppy, and had this been a stronger enemy he could have suffered an actual injury instead of the mild tinge of pain he currently felt. When he'd finished, he noted that his teammates had similarly beaten their own attackers - and that Nagi had been beset by considerably more wolves than they had. He afforded himself a brief moment to wonder why before deactivating the Shikigami no Mai and gathering up the errant sheets of paper, about 20, and arranging them into a neat stack in his hands while his mysterious cube idly floated beside him.

"The flowers on these wolves are too similar to the bud atop the God Tree for it to be a coincidence. Keep that in mind." he stated, nodding towards Soryu. Nagi seemed too headstrong and cocksure to consider the implications of the statement, and Izuku was... well, Izuku. Not much of a strategist, to put it lightly. Soryu was certainly the man he trusted the most with any sort of strategic advice from his brief time observing his team. Then, all around them, the illusion changed. He noticed nothing but an entrance to the God Tree revealing itself, and his heart raced at the possibility of getting to discover what was within the tree and study it in further detail. The violent roar reached his ears, but he barely even considered what it meant as he started to walk towards the God-Tree, then stopped and looked at the monstrosity that encroached upon the group. He hesitated for a second, before impressing his chakra into the stack of paper, emblazoning each of the twenty pieces with a more grandiose version of the commonly recognised symbol for an explosive tag, and foisted them upon Soryu.

"I see an opening for the tree - I'm going to go and see if I can stop this before it really begins! Use those explosive tags in the fight, and good luck!" he called out, simply unable to both pass up the opportunity to research the God Tree and put his theory to the test. Everything was far too connected for it to be a coincidence. Nobody else would be able to do what he could within the tree, and though it meant abandoning his team to fight the monster without him he truly believed that the best outcome would result from him examining what he believed was the source of all of these troubles. If his team hated him for a hundred years for his decision, he was certain he could live with that. He'd have forgotten them by then, anyway.

He made a mad dash for the opening, and climbed inside.

With Yuhi catching up the team was reunited in close quarters. The effeminate man gave a quick hot take on the cause of the genjutsu, one which made sense to Soryu. It was unlikely there was enemy shinobi here. Surely it was the tree, in some fashion, causing this mess and accordingly defending it. "Yeah, we should probably check that tree out for ourselves," Soryu agreed, only briefly turning his attention towards Yuhi. "But we might want to make sure we don't get killed on the way there, first." Just as he finished speaking he saw his first glimpse of the creatures that were befalling the squad. He didn't even have the time to fully take in the details of the thing before he had his bow drawn and let an arrow fly. Unfortunately for him that his snap reflex was for nought, leaving Soryu with a frown as he watched his arrow phase through the mutated wolf as if it was a mirage. It's definitely there, though. I can hear its breathing and the other noises it keeps making. It's in that general direction at the least...

A second wolf, equally bizarre in appearance, approached from behind the first. Soryu wasted no further time in drawing another arrow and taking aim. This must be the genjutsu at work. My hearing isn't precise enough to pinpoint their exact location when they're that far away and I can't just shoot at random to keep them at bay. They'll just charge me and I won't be able to figure out their exact attack until they've sunk their teeth in... Yuhi's warning about the buds on their tails made their way to Soryu just as he heard the whistling sound again. A perfect timing of coincidence to give Soryu the idea he needed. I don't need to waste chakra after all. The whistling sound was independent of the other animal-like noises these wolves made. It didn't sound like it came from the same source, but it sounded just as close. The growls came from their mouths, the whistles surely must come from the greatest and most mysterious anomaly of their anatomy: the bud on the tail. Without any warning to his comrades he broke into a quick sprint, keeping the arrow notched on his bow as he made distance from his allies.

This attracted the attention of the two wolves that were prepared to strike. In order to maintain their exact distance, if not close in further, they had to chase him. But Soryu didn't run very far, only several meters, before sliding to a halt and turning to face the approaching beasts. As dumb animals they wouldn't have known any better as to the importance of the direction he ran, but their feral eagerness to chase him would be their downfall. They couldn't have realized that the angle he took was to line up the two distinct whistles in one exact direction. Despite the images of the wolves being that of two running side-by-side, Soryu could hear the whistles lined up perfectly. They were running single-file straight towards him. He couldn't risk just shooting one and being attacked by an invisible enemy while he prepared another shot and it was too risky to use ninjutsu when he would very likely need it later. He needed to kill them both in one blow for maximum efficiency and safety. And Soryu's longbow had a lot of power behind it, one that surely couldn't be wielded by normal civilians. Enough to make it through a wolf or two if not stopped by any bones.

"Sit."

And thus he released his drawn bow, aimed as best he could at the overlapping whistle sounds. To his eyes it appeared as if he split the difference between the parallel wolves but he knew that his eyes betrayed him. The arrow cut through the air at high speed but it didn't go very far before it vanished from Soryu's vision. Blood spattered out of nothingness where the arrow disappeared and a split-second after the rest of the wolf came into his view. It was a well-aimed shot with no shortage of luck, as it went through the creature's open maw. But where did it go after that? Soryu's vision was obstructed by the collapsing wolf corpse but soon behind it appeared another wolf out of thin air. The arrow's course had become apparent to Soryu now. It had gone through the first wolf's mouth and clipped its spine as it went out, paralyzing and probably instantly killing it, where it then flew into the second one's left eye. A deep blow, embedding itself through the wolf's brain and likely sticking into the back of its skull. The second wolf wasn't dead yet but it was certainly dying as it let out one last howl of pain before collapsing on the ground and whining incessently for several seconds. Its legs kicked and kicked until it stopped whining and moving at the same time, all of a sudden.

That was a good shot, but when all is said and done, Soryu began to think, his smirk vanishing as he looked upon the bodies. I was incredibly lucky. Despite how far he thought the wolves were based on the sound, the nearest of the bodies lay mere feet from him. Obviously it had skidded to a halt so it died a little farther away, but Soryu had to guess it was all of a meter and a half away when his arrow struck it. His guess was that these creatures were at least twice as far away, if not more. Had he hesitated even a second longer in aiming his shot he would've likely been caught by the throat by the invisible beast and ultimately perished. For such simple, weak creatures that from an outside perspective would've been seen as two easy kills for Soryu... he was well aware of how close he truly was to dying. Perhaps I should've been more open to using ninjutsu on animals...

He had no idea where his first arrow could've possibly gone, but Soryu at least knew he could retrieve the one he just shot now. But first, he had to assist his comrades. Turning to face his team, which was now five meters away from him instead of immediately adjacent, he saw that they either all already finished the wolves attacking them or were just finishing them up. He resigned himself to quickly analyze the body of the second wolf he killed and then, rather unceremoniously, yank out the bloody arrow from its eye socket. The body gave one last twitch, presumably from the brain being damaged further, and Soryu stood to his feet to gain his distance from the putrid smelling corpse. It only just now died. These things just stink on their own... Deciding the arrow wasn't worth the tainted smell, he tossed it on the ground and jogged back to the team. "If any more attack us, we can locate them through the genjutsu by the whistling sound their tails make. The genjutsu doesn't mask its true position so the illusions won't fool our ears," he announced his findings to the team, though it seemed like the genjutsu may have been lifted as the environment around them suddenly warped again to present a straight path towards the God-Tree.

"That wasn't suspicious at all..." But nonetheless the team had to persevere onward. Soryu had escaped his encounter completely undamaged, but he was on edge now and more alert. In fact, he decided to avoid the possibility of getting ambushed by unseen creatures altogether and formed several handseals. After taking a deep breath in he had to stop walking for a long exhale. Having released his chakra into the air around the area he could detect the true shape of the environment around him. Everything that had a physical form would disturb his air and thus he would feel it precisely. To his surprise what he saw around him largely matched what he was sensing, meaning the genjutsu still was present but was less detached from reality than it was before. As the team continued walking forward his sensing range began to spread with the air. Just as it reached the God-Tree itself, thus confirming their distance from it, he was able to sense a presence behind it. "Yo, hol-" he tried to get out before being interrupted by a loud and very different roar. The ground began to shake and the large creature he felt showed itself to the team. "Yeah, that."

It appeared to be made entirely of mud, or at least covered in a very thick layer, so Soryu decided his bow likely wasn't going to be of use. But as he stowed it away he noticed Yuhi beginning to run off towards the God-Tree itself instead of staying with the team. "Hey, wait a minute!" he began to protest, though Yuhi responded by handing him a stack of different-looking explosive tags and proclaiming that he was the only one who could examine and accordingly impact the God-Tree enough to disable its defenses completely. The logic wasn't completely there, but Soryu knew that of the four there that Yuhi had the best odds of being able to do it. It just wasn't a guarantee anyways, as the man hadn't exactly grown up in a God-Tree farm or anything. "That's fine, then. The three of us can take this thing anyways!" As Soryu stowed the new explosive tags and turned away from Yuhi and back towards the mud creature he felt something catch his step and almost trip him. Looking down towards his feet he saw a strange plant sticking out of the ground secreting gas. SHIT! He quickly ripped off his entire left sleeve and wrapped it around his face, covering his nose and mouth. A late reaction to any possible poison was at least better than no reaction at all. This thing looks important though. I didn't see anything like it up until this point. Perhaps now that we're closer to the tree these things will be more common. I'll take this one now while I'm thinking about it. He had business to attend to in the form of a mud monster attacking his team so Soryu made it quick and clean. He dropped to one knee and in one hand he grabbed the glowing, gassy bulb while using the other to give its stem a quick slash with a kunai knife for a smooth cut. And like that the strange plant was removed.