Sniff. Sniff.

Deer.

By the scent of things the creature was rather close. Close and probably grazing: it would never expect what was about to come. The female Inuzuka grinned which revealed that the majority of her teeth were rather pointed; including the canines which were the longest at all. Ashi’s appearance took feral to new meanings: she no longer looked – at least for the most part – human: where regular ears would have been were two canine-style ears on top of her head that started as golden blond towards her hair line to match the majority of her hair and which got significantly darker towards the ends, as well as not one tail but six that followed the same coloration as her ears and which poked out through a slot in the back of her black and white fur coat. Any sort of other markings or changes to her body were hidden by her outfit outside of the famous red Inuzuka facial markings that adorned her cheeks; a jacket with a black front and back, and white sleeves and hood which were lined in white fur, black pants, and bare feet. Her hair, which faded from white to golden blond in various places, was shoulder length and disheveled – in desperate need of a brushing.

Yellow colored eyes darted in the direction that the scent was coming from as she took off soundlessly. This deer wasn’t exactly the fight with a bear or some other higher-tiered predator she was looking for, but it would do nicely to stop her rumbling belly in its tracks before it got too annoying. These changes of Ashi’s had come along after her delving into Senjutsu had begun, and the overall out-come of it had been her becoming much more like her canine companion than ever before.

Akai, the canine companion in question who was rather large even by ninken standards, took off in the opposite direction of Ashi: the pair were a flawless team after thirty some years of training together, and they would work flawlessly yet again to bring this deer down. The process would be simple enough in the fact that Ashi would make initial contact and Akai would kill it from its blind side. That was, if no one got in their way as the two streaks of fur and limbs darted through the trees.

Peace. It was a rare thing in the world, even less so the pure peace of the deep forest. For all the ancient looking trees, this place was young, extremely so. Oh, there was history here, but it was a new growth forest, only a few decades old. It played at being ancient like the forests of his childhood home; those where true beasts of the world. However, this youthful forest wasn't without it's perks. A wholly new place to explore and learn, filled with beasts and flora that would have never existed together before; the skill of biodiversifying the forest was heavy handed at best; dump it all together and whatever survived won the right to stay alive. It was because of this that so many conflicting beasts shared the same territories: he'd been stalking a lynx for the giggles, it was hard enough to track one when he was in his prime; being long passed that point meant it was a struggle, a good hard struggle that felt good, made him feel like he was still useful. If he could still track and trap the master predators, he could handle the rare ninja he would encounter. He needed that; to know he was still capable of working. Between his advancing age; sad, that at not even properly 40 he felt like an old man; and his declining health; so much blood when he coughed, the almost fear on Amaya's face last time he'd stumbled into her office; he had been feeling all together useless. Not good, for an Inuzuka or Ookamizuka, even less so for the dog-wolf hybrid.

The hint of a leaf crunching hit his ears, causing him to pause in his movements. He was high in the trees, moving along the branches that might as well have been super-highways of the forest; the mossy covering making his own movements silent as they could be. Something was moving near the forest floor; something large, if he was hearing correctly. A slight lean to the right and he was looking over the edge of the branch and downward; he was hidden from view by the shadows of the high canopy, but he still had a birds eye view of the lower areas. Was that... a dog....?

Akai?

Oh, Ashi was hunting too? Glorious. The target was obvious, he'd been smelling deer for a while, but had ignored it in favor of the lynx he was trailing. However... this would be a good show, so he allowed himself to sprawl on the branch like a resting dog and watch his favorite cousin and her partner work. His own ninken was back home with his son, likely sprawled under the sunny window in his office or something equally lazy. Fun times, fun times.

Ashi kept her path straight towards the deer while Akai continued a half loop; the timing would be precise and allow Ashi to meet the deer just a hair before Akai would. Ashi moved in stealthy silence, feet not even reaching the ground as she bounced her way off of the thicker trees that would shake less. The purpose of this of course was that it kept her from rustling the numerous leaves on the ground: plus it was fun.

As she reached the clearing that the deer was in she came to a skidding stop in front of it with her legs shifted slightly wide and her arms up – fingernails having changed into claws as she entered into the clearing; a grin on her face and the look of a predator in her eyes. The deer froze, spooked by her sudden appearance, which left Akai to be able to come in from downwind un-noticed. The large dog, mouth opened, barreled into the deer. The two rolled in a ball of snapping teeth and terrified kicking, but the deer was no match for the canine that weighed easily a hundred pounds more than it.

Akai didn’t allow the deer to suffer though, and make quick work at snapping the deer’s neck which caused it to die instantly. Akai leapt off of the deer and sat nearby, tail wagging happily away as she looked towards Ashi.

Ashi laughed in response to Akai’s obviously proud look and walked over, scratching Akai on top of her head for a moment. “Good work, buddy. Now, let’s eat shall we?” Ashi walked over to the deer and began to skin the thing; however she didn’t bother using a knife and instead made quick work of it with an elongated claw.

Borun had been wandering through the forest for what felt like hours. Though his concept of time was broken from his years of imprisonment. The torn being had only escaped said prison at the crack of dawn, in his panic he had been running all day. Now lost in the dense growth he slowed down to get a grasp of his surroundings. Trees, trees everywhere. Not that he knew where he was going anyway, Borun's stomach growled in anger. All that running had made him hungry, fortunately the place was brimming with life, but it was the smell of blood he noticed that enticed him so much.

It wasn't too long ago that he smelt the iron like scent in his last victims and it was one he felt attracted too, he knew very well that was where food was and it wasn't too far away. Wading through some thick plants he perched on a small hill spotting 3 figures nearby.

One seemed to be human like. Another seemed to be a canine, Borun couldn't really remember them too well. The third one had small antlers and wasn't moving. 'Antler they killed one of your people' Borun thought slight shock of sorts coming over him. 'Don't be such a fool Borun, I have no people'.


'I see' Borun replied too him calming down slightly. 'You are hungry no? Maybe you should ask it nicely to share it's meal' Antler chuckled, slight malice in his voice 'these humans come in all sorts of shapes and sizes'. Borun wasn't so sure about that idea, wouldn't they just want him back in his cage. Then again he didn't want Antler to be mad at him either, with a few tentative steps forward he began to approach the beings ahead, his chains rattling as he moved. "H-hello?" Borun was already regretting approaching and just wanted to move on to find his own meal, but he knew Antler wanted to speak to them.