[LOG : MATTHEW & INO]
Who Ino & Matthew
What Fighting monsters to get upstairs. NOW WITH ILLUSTRATION, LULZ.
When Last night/early this morning
Where ALL OVER THE PLACE.
Rating Uh .. PG? Some swearing, some blood.
Matthew picked his way through the castle floors, emotions locked away for the moment so that he wouldn't allow himself to focus on his surroundings and how twisted they had become since everything had gone to Hell. A small flashlight was held in his mouth, hands too busy attempting to find paths in the dark to allow him to get to the lower floors- to the kitchen, to Ino. he was moving as fast as he could; he was worried about the girl, and wanted to confirm she was all right as soon as possible, shinobi or no. Besides, he had something to return to her- her necklace, tucked away safely in the pouch he kept attached to his belt.
Sliding down a barrier of rock that had fallen onto the staircase, booted feet finally touched the ground of the first floor lobby, and Matthew shifted the flashlight form his mouth to one hand. He walked quickly towards the kitchen, keeping his wits about him in the almost choking darkness.
"Ino? Ino!" he flashed the light about, eyes searching for her familiar form in the dark.
Ino sat quietly against the wall, kunai held at the ready with one hand, a few food items she had managed to snatch held in the other. The dark, the blood, the ... rusty chains ... this was all way too much to take in right now. And goddamnit, she was supposed to be calm, to be a good shinobi when things like this happened ... but that blood that had been on her wall when she had woken up had, admittedly, scared her speechless for a minute or so. She hated admitting it to anyone, but she was worried.
... Worried about the others, that is. She knew she'd be able to hold her own against some guy that was going around murdering people ... the only question was, what about her friends that couldn't? What about Tatsuki, or Misa, or Lana, or Roy --
Ino's thoughts were cut off immediately, the sound of her name almost echoing through the room. Creepy. She stood up and kept the knife out - just because the voice sounded familiar didn't mean it really was. An impersonation, or a transformation jutsu ... it wasn't impossible that either of those things could have been at work. To kill those other two, she wouldn't be surprised if it was.
"Matt?" she replied finally, glancing around cautiously.
Matthew gave a sigh of relief when he saw someone stand up in the dark, and heard Ino's voice. He flashed the light on her, careful not to get it in her face, or blind her.
"Thank St. Elimine you're all right," he said, his voice monotone for a second before he allowed himself to feel again, though relief flodded out the anxiety and anxiousness the surroundings caused. He opened his pouch, pulling out the necklace as he walked over, smiling gently at the younger girl before simply slipping the necklace around her neck.
"I believe this is yours," was all he said afterwards, lowering his hands as he tucked the flashlight into his belt. Now, it was just time to get out of here, and back to his companions on the 26th floor.
Well, he certainly did a good job of acting like Matthew. And sounding, and looking like him. She glanced at him, lowering the kunai but still gripping it. And what was he pulling out of his --
Ino's jaw dropped as he put the necklace on her. As soon as he finished, she quickly glanced down at the part of it she could see on her chest. It was the exact same necklace she had lost ... Well, that had certainly helped. Nobody else knew that he had given it to her but him ...
She looked up to see him walking, and she ran a few steps to catch up. "Wait, but -- how did you -- where--? I can't ... believe you found it ..." She glanced down at the necklace again, tears practically welling up in her eyes. Practically the only good thing to happen so far today ... "I'm so sorry for losing it."
Matthew blinked at her reaction for him giving her back the necklace, feeling a bit guilty about talking it. She really did treasure that... it came as half a suprise to him. He glanced at her for a moment, before pulling her into a hug.
"Don't worry about it. It's all right," he assured her, pulling back from the hug. "Let's not worry about that for now- we have bigger things to worry about after all, right?" He smiled, patting her on the shoulder- it was difficult to remember that she held much the same line of position as he did. Why? But he shook his head, making his way back to the stairs.
"If I remember the path I took down here, it should make it much easier for us to get back up to the 26th floor," he murmured to himself, before motioning for her to climb up the rock slide to get to the stairwell behind it. As the bloodied, chain link walls and flooring appeared in his flashlight's beam, Matthew allowed himself to slip into emotionlessness, not about to let his memory of the path or his judgment be clouded by them. Not right now. They just needed to get to a safe haven, right now.
The hug took her by surprise. Today was just full of those, wasn't it? She ended up accidentally dropping the loaf of bread she was carrying before she remembered what she was supposed to be doing and wrapped her food-less arm around him, returning the hug.
"Thank you." A smile crossed her face as she nodded. "Right ... this whole thing," she said, gesturing to the crappy condition the castle seemed to be stuck in. She followed him closely, pushing chakra into her feet to stay balanced on the rocks. She stopped for a moment, realizing that she might also be able to do that for Matthew as well.
"Matt. Hold still for a second." She said suddenly, grabbing his foot and surrounding it with a faint glow of chakra. Hopefully that would help a little ...
A look of mild surprise registered on Matthew's face when Ino implemented chakra into his feet, experimentally releasing the rock his hands clung to for balance. He stayed standing, and he smiled slightly, nodding his thanks to her before trekking the rest of the way up the rock.
He hopped off onto the stairs, waiting for Ino to join him on the stairwell before pulling the flashlight out of his belt, flashing the beam of light through the darkness as he recalled the path he'd cleared and taken to reach the female ninja. Once he recalled it he nodded, beginning to head up, making sure to slow himself down so that Ino would be able to keep up.
He had a foreboding feeling that this trip up wouldn't be as easy as his trip down, though, and din't like the fact that he was getitng it. It was like the feeling he'd gotten before all of this happened.
Ino nodded back, following closely behind. A few times, she had heard some strange sounds and had quickly whipped her head around and held out her kunai threateningly, only to find that it was simply the sound of someone talking, or water dripping. It sucked, having to be this on guard all the time ... but it wasn't anything worse than the Forest of Death ... yet. Her thoughts on the difficulty of the trip echoed Matthew's - when was the shit going down?
She heard another noise, though, a different one this time. She clenched her kunai again, getting down slightly. That one wasn't a water drip, that was for sure ... "Matt ... did you hear that?" Ino whispered.
Matthew paused when Ino spoke about the noises, slowly and discreetly tucking the flashlight into his belt again and drawing his twin daggers. He didn't want to frighten Ino more of it turned out to be nothing, but... he had heard it. It definitely was nothing.
His body was tense as he listened for the sound to come again, sense of hearing heigtened in the suffocating darkness about them. He was trained for this, for protection, for assassionation. He kept emotions locked away, not about to let the possibility of it being a person cloud his judgment for now. He had to consider it a threat until it was proven otherwise.
It came again and Matthew leapt into action, whirling about in a tornado of red cloth to leap behind Ino, slashing through the darkness. A dog like yelp resounded, and Matthew shined the flashlight towards the source- the light revealing a creature that looked like it had come from the very depths of Hell itself, its overly long tongue cut from matthew's blade and bleeding as it growled at them, bristling in fury.
"INO, RUN!" Was Matthew's simple command, preparing himself for when the beast went to attack again, body tense and mind running at a mile a minute trying to figure out where the hell such a creature had suddenly come from.
What the hell kind of dog WAS that?! she wondered as the light that was shining on it went back to the other direction. She could still make it out, though, and decided not to run just yet. She pulled a piece of paper out of the pouch on her leg, throwing it swiftly towards the dog and forming a few handseals. She quickly pushed herself off the rock to catch up with Matthew, grabbing his cloak and pushing him to the ground in order to avoid anything flying from the --
BOOM!
... Explosion. She glanced back and waited a moment for any more sounds before moving. "What the hell was that thing, and where did it come from?" she asked quietly. This wasn't going to be Ganados part two, was it ... ?!
Matthew shook his head, sheathing his blades. "I have no idea, and I'm not sure I want to." He grabbed Ino's wrists, and looked her straight in the eye. "But we can't stay still for long- it was an animal, and animals travel in packs. Who knows how many others are there. Whatever you do, Ino... do not panic, and do not lose sight of me. Hold on to my cloak, if you have to. Do you understand me?"
It was rare that Matthew ever became serious, but... this whole situation just called for it. he wasn't going to allow himself to lose anyone, not here and now, not like-
His mind hit a blank spot, and a pang of annoyance mixed with regret surged up beyond his carefully constructed barrier, the barrier he'd spent years perfecting as a spy to keep his emotions back and his head calm. He supposed it was because of his loss that he couldn't remember who hed lost, and that meant it was that girl named Leila.
But he shook that off- the past was the past, nothing to be done. This was the present, what he could touch and affect, and he was going to affect it as positively as he could.
"As long as there's no more zombies," she said, rolling her eyes for effect. She blinked at the sudden contact, both eye and otherwise. ... He was seriously worried, huh? She had to admit that she was, too, but there was nothing that was going to change by being worried or upset. She took a quick deep breath and nodded. "Got it. You'd better do the same, okay?" She smiled slightly, before squinting to make out his expression. Damn darkness was making this a lot harder than it should have. "Are you okay?"
Matthew nodded at her words, releasing her wrists and moving to stand and continue on up to the room. He paused at her question, before nodding again, smiling just slightly. "Yes. I'm fine. But... let's push on, before more creatures arise to attack us." He was also worried about his friends on the 26th floor- were they all right? Had the creatures appeared there, as well?
He went to walk again, before remembering something, glancing back at Ino. "What about your friend, Sakura?" He remembered that he had promised Ino to help look for her, and even if he did simply want to get them back to the safe haven as soon as possible he wasn't one to break his word for such a selfish reason. It was against his personal code, even if he was a thief, a spy and an assassin rolled into one.
"Right." She glanced up at how much more of a ways they had to go. ... Goddamn giant castle. She began to walk again, as well, pausing at Matthew's question.
"Sakura ... I contacted her. She's ... well, her room's turned into a temporary clinic. I might ... have to go down there occasionally and help out, if she's not still pissed at me for not staying down there with her." She paused. "That sounds bad, but I know Sakura can take care of herself. I have to protect you, and Roy, and everyone else, I can't be stuck in the clinic waiting for injuries to happen." She glanced at Matthew for a reaction to this.
Matthew paused at this, torn. All of them knew how to fight- even Roy, the childish of them all, had had a blade on him when he had arrived. But... he knew very well that Ino was most likely set in her opinion, and simply nodded, not about to argue with her.
"Then St. Elimine's blessing to her and the clinic staff," he said simply, before tilting his head towards the staircase and continuing to traverse his way up it. It was going to be a long night, if there's attacks continued without the darkness lifting, and the Ostian gripped the hilt of his twin blades a little more tightly. But they'd be all right- they'd have to wade through a taste of Hell, perhaps, but they'd be all right.
She smiled when he didn't contradict her or anything, just accepted her opinion. She really didn't want to argue, especially now. Now was definitely a bad time to argue. She followed up the staircase, occasionally knocking a small rock off the stairs and down. She just hoped there weren't very many monsters, or that it would be easy to get rid of them for the others ...
"Saint Elimine, huh? What's she like?" Ino asked quietly. The silence was creeping her out more than annoying her, now.
When he heard Ino ask about St. Elimine, he smiled a little bit, chuckling softly. "You would probably be better off asking Lucius about that- he must have studied the religion more to become a cleric. But St. Elimine was kind and gentle," he replied, picking his way through the darkness and eventually reaching the second floor.
The route directly in front of them was blocked by yet another rockslide, and so he headed through the corridor towards the other end. They would probably have to stop in a hopefully unoccupied room to rest, eventually, and regain their strength before finally making their way up to the final floor. What with those inventions called 'elevators' shut down, as expected...
She nodded. "Well then, maybe I will! That guy will be up there too, right?" She glanced around warily as they reach yet another floor. She jabbed at the elevator button irritatedly before following behind again. The halls were so creepy now ... and you couldn't even hear people talking behind the doors, just dripping and small rocks falling and growling --
Wait, growling?
Ino turned around to find some kind of dark mass behind her. Eyes wide, she immediately aimed her kunai on hand directly at the center of the dark mass, praying it wasn't a person or an innocent dog or something like that ...
Matthew nodded at Ino's question. "Yes, Lucius will be up there as well. That will also give us a major advantage against these creatures- he's a bishop, and uses light magic that gives him an advantage against dark magic users, and creatures of the darkness."
And speak of the devil... yet another of thise infernal dogs from Hell. He turned to face the creature, rushing to meet it before it tackled Ino, and instead getting knocked to the floor by it instead, one of his daggers falling out of his grasp and skidding across the floor. He barely registered the pain of his back hitting the cement added with the tongue that had stabbed him in his side, and gritted his teeth, glacing up at the beast and sinking his knife in its chest, digging it in before slicing it from chest to stomach to effectively killed it.
Unfortunately, by doing this be became covered in blood, but it didn't matter as he pushed the beast's corpse off of him and wrenching his knife out of its corpse.
"How many more?" he muttered, glancing about in the darkness as he stood, his stabbed side complaining about the movement.
"Well, that's good, then ... " She paused, wondering what the difference between the two was.
Ino watched him in shock, swearing mentally as she watched the dim scene. She didn't want to get in the way and get him hurt even more ... ohh, she was really thanking her medic-nin training right about now.
As soon as the ... whatever it was was dead, she rushed over, attempting to help him up. As soon as he was standing, she formed a few handseals and placed her hands against the wound, healing it rather quickly. "Not too many, I hope ... " she trailed off, pulling out another kunai. "What floor are we even on?"
Matthew watched as the wound in his side healed up, smiling slightly. "Thank you. But if I get hurt again... don't use it too often, all right? You need to conserve your energy." Briefly he searched for his lost dagger before finding it, picking it up off the floor and sheathing it.
"No idea... hopefully a lot closer to our goal than we think," he replied, glancing back at her and wiping a bit of blood on his face away. "Anyway. We need to move on. We can't stay still too long unless we take shelter in a room." And that'd be horrible if they suddenly burst int an occupied room, with him all covered in blood now.
But he walked on with her, finally reaching the second staircase at the end of the hall and starting up, careful of where he stepped.
She shook her head. "It's okay, small things won't be too much of a big deal. But I'll be careful not to use it too much." She gripped her kunai and glanced around again.
"Right." She followed closely again, keeping her eye out for anything suspicious that she could make out. "How are we gonna know if we're there?" She glanced over at the nearest door and rubbed at the plate near the door. "1815," she read out loud. ".. I think. Can't tell if it's an 8 or a 0 ..."
"Hold on a moment." Matthew pulled out his flashlight again, shining it on the plate to assist Ino with seeing the floor number. "Better?" he asked, tilted his head.
"The same way we're trying to tell where we are now- hope the plate numbers can tell us," he said simply. "Or hopefully I'll recognize how twisted my floor looks by now." He hoped it was the latter, really- he didn't trust the plates right now, with how everything else looked in this nightmare-become-reality.
Ino nodded, leaning in just a little. Looked like it really did say 1815, but ... it was possible that it was all Genjutsu, just like before the Chuunin exam where those guys had made it look like they were on the right floor. She shook her head. This was like the Chuunin exam all over again, wasn't it? "Better be a damn good reward for doing this crap again," she muttered, before turning towards the path upstairs.
"Well, hopefully the plate numbers are right," she offered. "This is turning out to be just like an exam I took ... well, except that exam didn't have those weird monsters." She glanced around for some kind of familiar sight, and then back to Matthew. "Which way?"
Matthew raised a brow at Ino's mutterings as she looked at the plate number, but shrugged it off, simply nodding with Ino's words about hoping it was the right numbers. He turned the light away from the plate, flashing it down the hall. "If I remember the path correctly, it should be this way," he replied, waiting for her to come back over to him before continuing on through the darkness, careful to watch his step and keep the flashlight aimed slightly at the floor.
Ino adjusted the food in her arm, following behind. She heard a few noises echoing through the halls every so often, glancing around to look for any kind of hint as to where they were or how they were ever going to get to where they needed to be. There didn't seem to be anyone in the halls, either ... though that was probably for the best.
"... I wonder how long this is going to last."
Matthew sighed softly, shaking his head. "I hate to say, but who knows? When the castle pulls stunts like this... it goes all out." As was obvious already. After a few more minutes of walking he could see the stairwell, flashing his flashlight up it, and glad to see that it didn't see to be blocked off, or lead to a sudden drop off. "Here we go- next floor, then."
He started up the stairs, not quite noticing the unnatural shifting of the shadows on the wall...
"Yeah ... well, I just don't wanna see any more people die." She paused, glancing up the stairway. "Alright! An actual flight of stairs!" She began up the stairs as well, behind Matthew. The shadows shifting did not escape her attention, however; she gave Matthew a shove to get him out of the way and immediately threw two shuriken, one at each hand of this bizarre ... man coming through the wall? She paused for a moment, realizing it could be Tyki or -- well, she didn't really care if it was one of the twins ...
However, it became evident that it was hostile, whatever it was. She pulled out another kunai and threw it straight where the heart should have been on the wall person, before returning to check on Matthew. "Sorry about that~"
Matthew stumbled up a few steps, whirling about with one knife at the ready, to see Ino handling a... man that had apparated out of the wall. There were things in the walls now too? He shook his head, lowering his weapon. "No, that's all right. You saved me, so I can excuse a little shove~"
He finished climbing the stairs, flashing the light about to see that this was one of the floors that had walls and floors consisting of chain link. "Be careful," he warned simply, before starting off, watching his step on the rusted chain link. At least there was always noise to fill the silence, even if it was the sounds of their feet on chains.
She laughed lightly, glancing around for any more of those bizarre wall .. men. She followed in silence, until the reached the next floor. Groaning in irritation, she stepped out onto the chain link. It looked rusty, and creaked ... there was no way this stuff was going to hold the both of the --
She heard a snap underneath her foot, immediately jumping towards the wall and hanging from the ceiling. That, at least, seemed to be stable ... She let out a small sigh of relief, glancing at Matthew. "That stuff's really weak right there," she said, pointing to the spot where a link had snapped.
He turned when he heard the snap, to watch as Ino kept herself safe. He nodded slightly. "All right, then I'll have to be more careful." He was trained to keep himself light on his feet- to silence his foot falls, as he had been during the entire journey. It seemed, though, that even with that he'd have to watch his step.
He continued, dearly hoping they wouldn't have to face another of those hellish beasts while stuck on such unstable ground.
She watched Matthew carefully from the ceiling, more concerned about him falling than anything else at the moment. She was so focused on listening for another snap that the figure standing nearby almost passed her attention. A nurse? No, it couldn't be, it was holding a HUGE weapon. It seemed it hadn't spotted them yet, though ... Swearing under her breath, she stabbed a kunai easily into the ceiling and secured it with chakra, running a rope through the hole and throwing the other end to Matthew, indicating that he should climb up it. She pulled out a handful of shuriken then, aiming for the most vital areas.
When he saw the rope fall, Matthew instantly glanced through the darkness, finding the shape that had caught Ino's attention. He grabbed the rope as it lifted its weapon, managing to climb high enough fast enough to avoid... whatever it had just swung at him. What was that? It was too dark to tell, damn it... he switched the flashlight from his hand to his teeth so he could get a better grip on the rope, turning his head to get the light on the creature so Ino could aim better. Perhaps it would blind it for a moment as well, to make it easier to hit.
That hadn't killed it ... damn. There was no way she could use Shintenshin in this situation ... and she'd save the other special attack if there were a lot of enemies. She hated wasting weapons, but there was no way she was retrieving them now ... There was still the exploding tags she had left, but would that explosion make it difficult to move afterwards? She didn't have much time, as the nurse .. thing had found them.
"Ha--!" She let out a triumphant noise suddenly, noticing the stairwell behind the nurse. She let go of the ceiling, landing a kick directly on the monster. Gathering energy into her hands, she proceeded to punch the thing as hard as she could. A few snapping noises echoed in the hallway. Perfect. She waited for the links to break a little further before placing an explosive tag on its chest. She jumped back up to the ceiling, grabbing Matthew's hand and pushing off the ceiling towards the stairwell, activating the tag simultaneously.
Matthew held on to Ino's hand, not taking time to glance back as they flew through the air, the explosion behind them helping to get them to the stairwell in one piece, if not a little hurt. Rubbing his head, Matthew glance back at the floor... unpassable, now, but he was sure the castle would fix that soon enough. He glanced at Ino, standing before offering a hand to help her up. "Are you all right? That was good trick," he said, simply waiting to help her up and start up to the next floor. He decided not to jinx their luck like that again, as well.
Ino wiped her forehead with her forearm, exhaling loudly. "I'm fine," she replied, reaching up to take his hand. She stood up quickly, brushing her thighs off. "Thanks. I just wish some of my other stuff worked on you." It would make it a lot easier if she was able to do Body Replacement and bring Matthew with her, after all.
Glancing around, she sighed again. "At least there's no giant snakes or leeches." She paused. "I probably just screwed us over by saying that out loud."
Matthew couldn't help but laugh at that. "If it makes you feel better, I probably jinxed us back there by thinking to myself 'I hope nothing attacks us while we're walking on this stuff'?" He smiled slightly. "So if you just jinxed us there, we'll be even. Now, let's continue- we're one floor closer to our goal, and still in one piece."
With this said he started up yet another staircase, praying that they would reach the right floor, the right room, soon.
Ino laughed, too, glad to see that Matthew was alright as well. Even if it was a good time to just be silent and conceal your emotions, she liked the joking Matthew better. She waved her hand reassuringly, though. "Well, the giant snakes would most likely mean that someone summoned them, and I don't think anyone could do that. Orochimaru's not here, anyways."
She followed up the staircase, running her fingers through her bangs momentarily. She was feeling a little better, a little more relieved now that things were going smoothly, and the 26th couldn't be THAT far away.A shower right now would be really nice, she thought decidedly, pulling out another kunai just in case.
... And then they got home, Lucius freaked over blood-covered Matthew, and they lived happily ever after.
What Fighting monsters to get upstairs. NOW WITH ILLUSTRATION, LULZ.
When Last night/early this morning
Where ALL OVER THE PLACE.
Rating Uh .. PG? Some swearing, some blood.
Matthew picked his way through the castle floors, emotions locked away for the moment so that he wouldn't allow himself to focus on his surroundings and how twisted they had become since everything had gone to Hell. A small flashlight was held in his mouth, hands too busy attempting to find paths in the dark to allow him to get to the lower floors- to the kitchen, to Ino. he was moving as fast as he could; he was worried about the girl, and wanted to confirm she was all right as soon as possible, shinobi or no. Besides, he had something to return to her- her necklace, tucked away safely in the pouch he kept attached to his belt.
Sliding down a barrier of rock that had fallen onto the staircase, booted feet finally touched the ground of the first floor lobby, and Matthew shifted the flashlight form his mouth to one hand. He walked quickly towards the kitchen, keeping his wits about him in the almost choking darkness.
"Ino? Ino!" he flashed the light about, eyes searching for her familiar form in the dark.
Ino sat quietly against the wall, kunai held at the ready with one hand, a few food items she had managed to snatch held in the other. The dark, the blood, the ... rusty chains ... this was all way too much to take in right now. And goddamnit, she was supposed to be calm, to be a good shinobi when things like this happened ... but that blood that had been on her wall when she had woken up had, admittedly, scared her speechless for a minute or so. She hated admitting it to anyone, but she was worried.
... Worried about the others, that is. She knew she'd be able to hold her own against some guy that was going around murdering people ... the only question was, what about her friends that couldn't? What about Tatsuki, or Misa, or Lana, or Roy --
Ino's thoughts were cut off immediately, the sound of her name almost echoing through the room. Creepy. She stood up and kept the knife out - just because the voice sounded familiar didn't mean it really was. An impersonation, or a transformation jutsu ... it wasn't impossible that either of those things could have been at work. To kill those other two, she wouldn't be surprised if it was.
"Matt?" she replied finally, glancing around cautiously.
Matthew gave a sigh of relief when he saw someone stand up in the dark, and heard Ino's voice. He flashed the light on her, careful not to get it in her face, or blind her.
"Thank St. Elimine you're all right," he said, his voice monotone for a second before he allowed himself to feel again, though relief flodded out the anxiety and anxiousness the surroundings caused. He opened his pouch, pulling out the necklace as he walked over, smiling gently at the younger girl before simply slipping the necklace around her neck.
"I believe this is yours," was all he said afterwards, lowering his hands as he tucked the flashlight into his belt. Now, it was just time to get out of here, and back to his companions on the 26th floor.
Well, he certainly did a good job of acting like Matthew. And sounding, and looking like him. She glanced at him, lowering the kunai but still gripping it. And what was he pulling out of his --
Ino's jaw dropped as he put the necklace on her. As soon as he finished, she quickly glanced down at the part of it she could see on her chest. It was the exact same necklace she had lost ... Well, that had certainly helped. Nobody else knew that he had given it to her but him ...
She looked up to see him walking, and she ran a few steps to catch up. "Wait, but -- how did you -- where--? I can't ... believe you found it ..." She glanced down at the necklace again, tears practically welling up in her eyes. Practically the only good thing to happen so far today ... "I'm so sorry for losing it."
Matthew blinked at her reaction for him giving her back the necklace, feeling a bit guilty about talking it. She really did treasure that... it came as half a suprise to him. He glanced at her for a moment, before pulling her into a hug.
"Don't worry about it. It's all right," he assured her, pulling back from the hug. "Let's not worry about that for now- we have bigger things to worry about after all, right?" He smiled, patting her on the shoulder- it was difficult to remember that she held much the same line of position as he did. Why? But he shook his head, making his way back to the stairs.
"If I remember the path I took down here, it should make it much easier for us to get back up to the 26th floor," he murmured to himself, before motioning for her to climb up the rock slide to get to the stairwell behind it. As the bloodied, chain link walls and flooring appeared in his flashlight's beam, Matthew allowed himself to slip into emotionlessness, not about to let his memory of the path or his judgment be clouded by them. Not right now. They just needed to get to a safe haven, right now.
The hug took her by surprise. Today was just full of those, wasn't it? She ended up accidentally dropping the loaf of bread she was carrying before she remembered what she was supposed to be doing and wrapped her food-less arm around him, returning the hug.
"Thank you." A smile crossed her face as she nodded. "Right ... this whole thing," she said, gesturing to the crappy condition the castle seemed to be stuck in. She followed him closely, pushing chakra into her feet to stay balanced on the rocks. She stopped for a moment, realizing that she might also be able to do that for Matthew as well.
"Matt. Hold still for a second." She said suddenly, grabbing his foot and surrounding it with a faint glow of chakra. Hopefully that would help a little ...
A look of mild surprise registered on Matthew's face when Ino implemented chakra into his feet, experimentally releasing the rock his hands clung to for balance. He stayed standing, and he smiled slightly, nodding his thanks to her before trekking the rest of the way up the rock.
He hopped off onto the stairs, waiting for Ino to join him on the stairwell before pulling the flashlight out of his belt, flashing the beam of light through the darkness as he recalled the path he'd cleared and taken to reach the female ninja. Once he recalled it he nodded, beginning to head up, making sure to slow himself down so that Ino would be able to keep up.
He had a foreboding feeling that this trip up wouldn't be as easy as his trip down, though, and din't like the fact that he was getitng it. It was like the feeling he'd gotten before all of this happened.
Ino nodded back, following closely behind. A few times, she had heard some strange sounds and had quickly whipped her head around and held out her kunai threateningly, only to find that it was simply the sound of someone talking, or water dripping. It sucked, having to be this on guard all the time ... but it wasn't anything worse than the Forest of Death ... yet. Her thoughts on the difficulty of the trip echoed Matthew's - when was the shit going down?
She heard another noise, though, a different one this time. She clenched her kunai again, getting down slightly. That one wasn't a water drip, that was for sure ... "Matt ... did you hear that?" Ino whispered.
Matthew paused when Ino spoke about the noises, slowly and discreetly tucking the flashlight into his belt again and drawing his twin daggers. He didn't want to frighten Ino more of it turned out to be nothing, but... he had heard it. It definitely was nothing.
His body was tense as he listened for the sound to come again, sense of hearing heigtened in the suffocating darkness about them. He was trained for this, for protection, for assassionation. He kept emotions locked away, not about to let the possibility of it being a person cloud his judgment for now. He had to consider it a threat until it was proven otherwise.
It came again and Matthew leapt into action, whirling about in a tornado of red cloth to leap behind Ino, slashing through the darkness. A dog like yelp resounded, and Matthew shined the flashlight towards the source- the light revealing a creature that looked like it had come from the very depths of Hell itself, its overly long tongue cut from matthew's blade and bleeding as it growled at them, bristling in fury.
"INO, RUN!" Was Matthew's simple command, preparing himself for when the beast went to attack again, body tense and mind running at a mile a minute trying to figure out where the hell such a creature had suddenly come from.
What the hell kind of dog WAS that?! she wondered as the light that was shining on it went back to the other direction. She could still make it out, though, and decided not to run just yet. She pulled a piece of paper out of the pouch on her leg, throwing it swiftly towards the dog and forming a few handseals. She quickly pushed herself off the rock to catch up with Matthew, grabbing his cloak and pushing him to the ground in order to avoid anything flying from the --
BOOM!
... Explosion. She glanced back and waited a moment for any more sounds before moving. "What the hell was that thing, and where did it come from?" she asked quietly. This wasn't going to be Ganados part two, was it ... ?!
Matthew shook his head, sheathing his blades. "I have no idea, and I'm not sure I want to." He grabbed Ino's wrists, and looked her straight in the eye. "But we can't stay still for long- it was an animal, and animals travel in packs. Who knows how many others are there. Whatever you do, Ino... do not panic, and do not lose sight of me. Hold on to my cloak, if you have to. Do you understand me?"
It was rare that Matthew ever became serious, but... this whole situation just called for it. he wasn't going to allow himself to lose anyone, not here and now, not like-
His mind hit a blank spot, and a pang of annoyance mixed with regret surged up beyond his carefully constructed barrier, the barrier he'd spent years perfecting as a spy to keep his emotions back and his head calm. He supposed it was because of his loss that he couldn't remember who hed lost, and that meant it was that girl named Leila.
But he shook that off- the past was the past, nothing to be done. This was the present, what he could touch and affect, and he was going to affect it as positively as he could.
"As long as there's no more zombies," she said, rolling her eyes for effect. She blinked at the sudden contact, both eye and otherwise. ... He was seriously worried, huh? She had to admit that she was, too, but there was nothing that was going to change by being worried or upset. She took a quick deep breath and nodded. "Got it. You'd better do the same, okay?" She smiled slightly, before squinting to make out his expression. Damn darkness was making this a lot harder than it should have. "Are you okay?"
Matthew nodded at her words, releasing her wrists and moving to stand and continue on up to the room. He paused at her question, before nodding again, smiling just slightly. "Yes. I'm fine. But... let's push on, before more creatures arise to attack us." He was also worried about his friends on the 26th floor- were they all right? Had the creatures appeared there, as well?
He went to walk again, before remembering something, glancing back at Ino. "What about your friend, Sakura?" He remembered that he had promised Ino to help look for her, and even if he did simply want to get them back to the safe haven as soon as possible he wasn't one to break his word for such a selfish reason. It was against his personal code, even if he was a thief, a spy and an assassin rolled into one.
"Right." She glanced up at how much more of a ways they had to go. ... Goddamn giant castle. She began to walk again, as well, pausing at Matthew's question.
"Sakura ... I contacted her. She's ... well, her room's turned into a temporary clinic. I might ... have to go down there occasionally and help out, if she's not still pissed at me for not staying down there with her." She paused. "That sounds bad, but I know Sakura can take care of herself. I have to protect you, and Roy, and everyone else, I can't be stuck in the clinic waiting for injuries to happen." She glanced at Matthew for a reaction to this.
Matthew paused at this, torn. All of them knew how to fight- even Roy, the childish of them all, had had a blade on him when he had arrived. But... he knew very well that Ino was most likely set in her opinion, and simply nodded, not about to argue with her.
"Then St. Elimine's blessing to her and the clinic staff," he said simply, before tilting his head towards the staircase and continuing to traverse his way up it. It was going to be a long night, if there's attacks continued without the darkness lifting, and the Ostian gripped the hilt of his twin blades a little more tightly. But they'd be all right- they'd have to wade through a taste of Hell, perhaps, but they'd be all right.
She smiled when he didn't contradict her or anything, just accepted her opinion. She really didn't want to argue, especially now. Now was definitely a bad time to argue. She followed up the staircase, occasionally knocking a small rock off the stairs and down. She just hoped there weren't very many monsters, or that it would be easy to get rid of them for the others ...
"Saint Elimine, huh? What's she like?" Ino asked quietly. The silence was creeping her out more than annoying her, now.
When he heard Ino ask about St. Elimine, he smiled a little bit, chuckling softly. "You would probably be better off asking Lucius about that- he must have studied the religion more to become a cleric. But St. Elimine was kind and gentle," he replied, picking his way through the darkness and eventually reaching the second floor.
The route directly in front of them was blocked by yet another rockslide, and so he headed through the corridor towards the other end. They would probably have to stop in a hopefully unoccupied room to rest, eventually, and regain their strength before finally making their way up to the final floor. What with those inventions called 'elevators' shut down, as expected...
She nodded. "Well then, maybe I will! That guy will be up there too, right?" She glanced around warily as they reach yet another floor. She jabbed at the elevator button irritatedly before following behind again. The halls were so creepy now ... and you couldn't even hear people talking behind the doors, just dripping and small rocks falling and growling --
Wait, growling?
Ino turned around to find some kind of dark mass behind her. Eyes wide, she immediately aimed her kunai on hand directly at the center of the dark mass, praying it wasn't a person or an innocent dog or something like that ...
Matthew nodded at Ino's question. "Yes, Lucius will be up there as well. That will also give us a major advantage against these creatures- he's a bishop, and uses light magic that gives him an advantage against dark magic users, and creatures of the darkness."
And speak of the devil... yet another of thise infernal dogs from Hell. He turned to face the creature, rushing to meet it before it tackled Ino, and instead getting knocked to the floor by it instead, one of his daggers falling out of his grasp and skidding across the floor. He barely registered the pain of his back hitting the cement added with the tongue that had stabbed him in his side, and gritted his teeth, glacing up at the beast and sinking his knife in its chest, digging it in before slicing it from chest to stomach to effectively killed it.
Unfortunately, by doing this be became covered in blood, but it didn't matter as he pushed the beast's corpse off of him and wrenching his knife out of its corpse.
"How many more?" he muttered, glancing about in the darkness as he stood, his stabbed side complaining about the movement.
"Well, that's good, then ... " She paused, wondering what the difference between the two was.
Ino watched him in shock, swearing mentally as she watched the dim scene. She didn't want to get in the way and get him hurt even more ... ohh, she was really thanking her medic-nin training right about now.
As soon as the ... whatever it was was dead, she rushed over, attempting to help him up. As soon as he was standing, she formed a few handseals and placed her hands against the wound, healing it rather quickly. "Not too many, I hope ... " she trailed off, pulling out another kunai. "What floor are we even on?"
Matthew watched as the wound in his side healed up, smiling slightly. "Thank you. But if I get hurt again... don't use it too often, all right? You need to conserve your energy." Briefly he searched for his lost dagger before finding it, picking it up off the floor and sheathing it.
"No idea... hopefully a lot closer to our goal than we think," he replied, glancing back at her and wiping a bit of blood on his face away. "Anyway. We need to move on. We can't stay still too long unless we take shelter in a room." And that'd be horrible if they suddenly burst int an occupied room, with him all covered in blood now.
But he walked on with her, finally reaching the second staircase at the end of the hall and starting up, careful of where he stepped.
She shook her head. "It's okay, small things won't be too much of a big deal. But I'll be careful not to use it too much." She gripped her kunai and glanced around again.
"Right." She followed closely again, keeping her eye out for anything suspicious that she could make out. "How are we gonna know if we're there?" She glanced over at the nearest door and rubbed at the plate near the door. "1815," she read out loud. ".. I think. Can't tell if it's an 8 or a 0 ..."
"Hold on a moment." Matthew pulled out his flashlight again, shining it on the plate to assist Ino with seeing the floor number. "Better?" he asked, tilted his head.
"The same way we're trying to tell where we are now- hope the plate numbers can tell us," he said simply. "Or hopefully I'll recognize how twisted my floor looks by now." He hoped it was the latter, really- he didn't trust the plates right now, with how everything else looked in this nightmare-become-reality.
Ino nodded, leaning in just a little. Looked like it really did say 1815, but ... it was possible that it was all Genjutsu, just like before the Chuunin exam where those guys had made it look like they were on the right floor. She shook her head. This was like the Chuunin exam all over again, wasn't it? "Better be a damn good reward for doing this crap again," she muttered, before turning towards the path upstairs.
"Well, hopefully the plate numbers are right," she offered. "This is turning out to be just like an exam I took ... well, except that exam didn't have those weird monsters." She glanced around for some kind of familiar sight, and then back to Matthew. "Which way?"
Matthew raised a brow at Ino's mutterings as she looked at the plate number, but shrugged it off, simply nodding with Ino's words about hoping it was the right numbers. He turned the light away from the plate, flashing it down the hall. "If I remember the path correctly, it should be this way," he replied, waiting for her to come back over to him before continuing on through the darkness, careful to watch his step and keep the flashlight aimed slightly at the floor.
Ino adjusted the food in her arm, following behind. She heard a few noises echoing through the halls every so often, glancing around to look for any kind of hint as to where they were or how they were ever going to get to where they needed to be. There didn't seem to be anyone in the halls, either ... though that was probably for the best.
"... I wonder how long this is going to last."
Matthew sighed softly, shaking his head. "I hate to say, but who knows? When the castle pulls stunts like this... it goes all out." As was obvious already. After a few more minutes of walking he could see the stairwell, flashing his flashlight up it, and glad to see that it didn't see to be blocked off, or lead to a sudden drop off. "Here we go- next floor, then."
He started up the stairs, not quite noticing the unnatural shifting of the shadows on the wall...
"Yeah ... well, I just don't wanna see any more people die." She paused, glancing up the stairway. "Alright! An actual flight of stairs!" She began up the stairs as well, behind Matthew. The shadows shifting did not escape her attention, however; she gave Matthew a shove to get him out of the way and immediately threw two shuriken, one at each hand of this bizarre ... man coming through the wall? She paused for a moment, realizing it could be Tyki or -- well, she didn't really care if it was one of the twins ...
However, it became evident that it was hostile, whatever it was. She pulled out another kunai and threw it straight where the heart should have been on the wall person, before returning to check on Matthew. "Sorry about that~"
Matthew stumbled up a few steps, whirling about with one knife at the ready, to see Ino handling a... man that had apparated out of the wall. There were things in the walls now too? He shook his head, lowering his weapon. "No, that's all right. You saved me, so I can excuse a little shove~"
He finished climbing the stairs, flashing the light about to see that this was one of the floors that had walls and floors consisting of chain link. "Be careful," he warned simply, before starting off, watching his step on the rusted chain link. At least there was always noise to fill the silence, even if it was the sounds of their feet on chains.
She laughed lightly, glancing around for any more of those bizarre wall .. men. She followed in silence, until the reached the next floor. Groaning in irritation, she stepped out onto the chain link. It looked rusty, and creaked ... there was no way this stuff was going to hold the both of the --
She heard a snap underneath her foot, immediately jumping towards the wall and hanging from the ceiling. That, at least, seemed to be stable ... She let out a small sigh of relief, glancing at Matthew. "That stuff's really weak right there," she said, pointing to the spot where a link had snapped.
He turned when he heard the snap, to watch as Ino kept herself safe. He nodded slightly. "All right, then I'll have to be more careful." He was trained to keep himself light on his feet- to silence his foot falls, as he had been during the entire journey. It seemed, though, that even with that he'd have to watch his step.
He continued, dearly hoping they wouldn't have to face another of those hellish beasts while stuck on such unstable ground.
She watched Matthew carefully from the ceiling, more concerned about him falling than anything else at the moment. She was so focused on listening for another snap that the figure standing nearby almost passed her attention. A nurse? No, it couldn't be, it was holding a HUGE weapon. It seemed it hadn't spotted them yet, though ... Swearing under her breath, she stabbed a kunai easily into the ceiling and secured it with chakra, running a rope through the hole and throwing the other end to Matthew, indicating that he should climb up it. She pulled out a handful of shuriken then, aiming for the most vital areas.
When he saw the rope fall, Matthew instantly glanced through the darkness, finding the shape that had caught Ino's attention. He grabbed the rope as it lifted its weapon, managing to climb high enough fast enough to avoid... whatever it had just swung at him. What was that? It was too dark to tell, damn it... he switched the flashlight from his hand to his teeth so he could get a better grip on the rope, turning his head to get the light on the creature so Ino could aim better. Perhaps it would blind it for a moment as well, to make it easier to hit.
That hadn't killed it ... damn. There was no way she could use Shintenshin in this situation ... and she'd save the other special attack if there were a lot of enemies. She hated wasting weapons, but there was no way she was retrieving them now ... There was still the exploding tags she had left, but would that explosion make it difficult to move afterwards? She didn't have much time, as the nurse .. thing had found them.
"Ha--!" She let out a triumphant noise suddenly, noticing the stairwell behind the nurse. She let go of the ceiling, landing a kick directly on the monster. Gathering energy into her hands, she proceeded to punch the thing as hard as she could. A few snapping noises echoed in the hallway. Perfect. She waited for the links to break a little further before placing an explosive tag on its chest. She jumped back up to the ceiling, grabbing Matthew's hand and pushing off the ceiling towards the stairwell, activating the tag simultaneously.
Matthew held on to Ino's hand, not taking time to glance back as they flew through the air, the explosion behind them helping to get them to the stairwell in one piece, if not a little hurt. Rubbing his head, Matthew glance back at the floor... unpassable, now, but he was sure the castle would fix that soon enough. He glanced at Ino, standing before offering a hand to help her up. "Are you all right? That was good trick," he said, simply waiting to help her up and start up to the next floor. He decided not to jinx their luck like that again, as well.
Ino wiped her forehead with her forearm, exhaling loudly. "I'm fine," she replied, reaching up to take his hand. She stood up quickly, brushing her thighs off. "Thanks. I just wish some of my other stuff worked on you." It would make it a lot easier if she was able to do Body Replacement and bring Matthew with her, after all.
Glancing around, she sighed again. "At least there's no giant snakes or leeches." She paused. "I probably just screwed us over by saying that out loud."
Matthew couldn't help but laugh at that. "If it makes you feel better, I probably jinxed us back there by thinking to myself 'I hope nothing attacks us while we're walking on this stuff'?" He smiled slightly. "So if you just jinxed us there, we'll be even. Now, let's continue- we're one floor closer to our goal, and still in one piece."
With this said he started up yet another staircase, praying that they would reach the right floor, the right room, soon.
Ino laughed, too, glad to see that Matthew was alright as well. Even if it was a good time to just be silent and conceal your emotions, she liked the joking Matthew better. She waved her hand reassuringly, though. "Well, the giant snakes would most likely mean that someone summoned them, and I don't think anyone could do that. Orochimaru's not here, anyways."
She followed up the staircase, running her fingers through her bangs momentarily. She was feeling a little better, a little more relieved now that things were going smoothly, and the 26th couldn't be THAT far away.A shower right now would be really nice, she thought decidedly, pulling out another kunai just in case.
... And then they got home, Lucius freaked over blood-covered Matthew, and they lived happily ever after.