Fufu During the Hachibi Crisis [Open]

Fufu had been relaxing on one of her very few days off as the case was now that she was a ninja. Her job was very tiring, constantly running back and forth, returning elderly ladies' cats, babysitting - what her Sensei called "bodyguard duty" - cleaning up litter, and a full host of other menial, repetitive, and monotonous tasks. She found herself constantly realizing that things were more interesting in the academy, and she was learning very little now, and even worse, didn't get to put the skills she did have to the test.

Midway through this thought process, it happened. She saw it happen. A massive Ox/Octopus hybrid of a species she had never seen before materialized in the air. It had eight tails, and it was powerful. Immensely powerful. With the waving of a single appendage, the beast blew buildings apart, and each time, a mixture of dust, debris, and blood soiled the air. Fear caught in her throat and she didn't know what to do. Instead, for at least a full minute, she froze, fixated on the destruction taking place before her. She had never seen a living organism so large. She wondered if it was someone's great summon... But can a summon be so powerful? Surely it had to be something else...

Fufu's first instinct was to go join the fight and aid in her village's defense, and when she sprang to her feet to act on that urge, she hesitated yet again. "I have no skills that can actually help against that thing..." she said aloud, muttering under her breath. She changed tact then, and instead decided to head up the evacuation efforts in her neighborhood. She looked around, taking into account how many houses she had to hit to gather all of the residents, and paused just a moment longer to figure out the route she would take in order to be as efficient as possible, gathering the people and moving as quickly as she could.

Her next-door neighbors were the first she ran over to, banging on their door without restraint. They were bewildered at first, apparently not completely aware of what was going on. When they did see the massive beast looking over them, they seemed to think it was some show or display by the village's ninja. Fufu had to explain in short, panted breaths that the family was in danger and that they needed to move. Seeming to finally get the point, the husband and wife disappeared inside for a brief moment, panicked, and reemerged with an infant that couldn't be older than a month. Fufu's breath caught as she saw her... She was beautiful.

Fufu called out loudly and with authority: "Follow me!" The parents did so. As Fufu turned around to lead them to the next house, as was her plan to gather as many residents as possible, the Hachibi began closing its distance toward her. Not that it was chasing her or even aware of her existance - it just sort of shuffled its massive form around, and Fufu and the family the was guiding happened to be in its path. There were other ninja in the area now as well, also going door-to-door to gather the residents of the area, so Fufu cut her losses and turned tail, leading the family away from the massive beast. "Let me carry your daughter!" She said, "She's slowing you down and I can move with her much more quickly!" Fufu was right and she knew this, but it seemed the mother disagreed and she hesitated for a moment, but finally obeyed and handed the infant over.

Fufu nodded at her reassuringly and took off once more, leading the two through alleys and around corners, trying to find the nearest entrance to one of the underground bunkers. Boulders and debris flew through the air as a result of whatever intense battle was happening with the monster, and they moved so quickly that Fufu couldn't even spot their trajectory. She saw them, and she saw them moving, but could not tell where they'd land. Terrified for her life and the family's she simply continued her mad dash. Buildings around her periodically exploded as a rock hit them with massive force, or a gust of wind from one of the monster's many tails.

The group made it no more than a few hundred yards when a cluster of debris was sprayed dangerously close to its vicinity. Fufu tried with desperation to dodge the debris to no avail. Pebbles buried themselves into her body and it was all she could do to turn away and sacrifice her own body to shield the infant. Tears streamed down her cheeks. What do I do? What do I do what do I do what do I do? We won't make it to a shelter in time! Panic had begun to set in. She knew how to escape an enemy ninja. Or rather, at least, in theory. She knew what to do to fight one as well. But when the rubble of her home was used against her as a weapon? The buildings weren't strong enough to protect her. It seemed like even the ones that were made to be rather strong were getting blown apart.

With no warning a cement block hurtled directly at the group through the air. Like all the other debris, it moved so fast that Fufu could not judge its trajectory, nor did she have time to think about how to react. She slammed her shoulder into both the mother and the father of the infant she held, sending them reeling across the dark alleyway that they all stood in... and she misjudged. To her utter horror, this bit of iron reinforced concrete slammed into the couple that was only a few yards from her, turning them into pink mist and spraying Fufu and their own newborn child with ground up guts and blood. The baby let out a bloodcurdling shriek as if it understood what was happening.

Fufu's mind went blank. She was forced to look away from the parents, just in time to see what appeared to be a meteor shower sprayed in her direction. It was, in fact, parts of buildings. A lot of them. The monster had raked one of its tails across a rather industrial section of the village, and these ripped apart pieces of structures were all that remained from the entire area. Oddly enough, however, Fufu could see them. To a bystander, Fufu would become a different person. The baby's shrieks quieted, and it stared in awe at the young Ootsutsuki kunoichi. A faint red glow reflected off the little girl's pink skin, the same shade as the blood covering its arms, legs, and the blanket it was swaddled in.

Fufu. Could. See. She sprinted out into the open street, baby in arms, where there would be no obstructions to her vision, and she easily determined the trajectory of every single projectile the moment it was within her line of sight. She was able to dodge their landings the moment they were in the air and focus on the cloud of rubble, awaiting the next on that threatened her position. All around her, explosions of dirt and rock stung her cheeks as she sheltered the child with her own body, chipped cement stinging its way into her flesh. The next time she dove out of the way, she stepped in a puddle as the stinging cold of the water attacked her exposed ankles. Reactively, she glanced down, and the Sharingan of the Ootsutsuki stared back at her. She looked herself in the eye and in the moment, she made a promise. "I will protect you... child."

It was not much longer before Fufu found the bunker she'd been searching for and found safety.

[EXIT]