Welcome to Gaia! ::

~

Shikaku frowned as he laid waiting for something to happen. His signal, intended intially to alert Sora to his general location so they could lead the target back to him, had instead prompted her to halt and set up "Camp" in a small clearing. That would normally be fine, he figured, since by all previous indications Kensei was coming to them, should the whistling and shouting be taken into consideration, but now? Nobody was moving. Shikaku was lying as still as could be, all his effort pushed into expanding his hearing, to listen to every detail around him. Sora was doing something, what it was he couldn't quite tell from here, but considering she had just shouted quite clearly, it was a fair guess she was planning an ambush. Laxus was apparently not sure what to do, or simply didn't have anything to do, because as far as Shikaku could tell he was just standing there too.

The concern then, was Kensei. Less than a minute ago there had been some kid, who Sora described as looking and sounding like a relative, or even younger version of the man, coming towards them and shouting along the way. The child had then gone silent, replaced by what seemed an intimidation tactic, the all too common "Creepy whistling". But now even that had silenced. He couldn't hear anything from the direction now besides the typical sounds of forest creatures, and even that was fading now after Sora had scared them with her shout. He wanted to move, to go searching for the target again and maybe get the drop on him, but with his current lack of cover, and the spreading silence on top of it all, it was too risky. He'd have to wait for the others to do something. Anything at this point would be better than the current waiting, wondering if Kensei was a little more stealthy than his folder had implied and was stalking them. Considering the amount blatantly left out, it was entirely possible.

Squelching a rising growl in his throat before it could grow to an actual sound and give him away, Shikaku hunkered down lower, sliding just that little bit further under the bush he'd chosen for cover, and continued to focus on tracking every little sound in the area. Hopefully he'd hear Kensei before he spotted them.

~

~

Something didn't feel right here. Why was the target coming to them again? Why had he come here in the first place? The only reason Shikaku himself would have come here after betraying the village would be to draw pursuers off his proper trail, confuse them, get them away from where they should be guarding, and then make a run for it. But even if that was Kensei's plan, why was he still coming to them? There was no point in killing them, the village would just sound out another team, one hopefully more experienced in tracking rogues. Had Laxus offended the man in some way, and he was wanting to kill him on his way out for it? That made some sense, Shikaku supposed, and agreed with what he'd seen of the other genin so far. If it were the case though, would Sora and himself be on the hit list as well, just by association? That wasn't something he wanted to find out.

Raising his bow, the boy settled himself lower yet, sinking into the underbrush so deep now as to be nearly invisible even with the less than optimal cover. Picking a sturdy looking tree a short distance ahead of him, he sighted his target, and turned his eyes to the group, where he could finally begin to pick out a third figure moving through the trees. The lineup seemed perfect, now all they needed to do was subtly draw him this... The boy's thoughts froze as Laxus sank into the ground, reappearing a second later having moved towards himself, whispered something to Sora, and looked... Directly at Shikaku... "Idiot!" the boy thought, eyes widening sharply. If Kensei had caught even a glimpse of that his entire plan was blown. No, worse yet, he'd be the target of any sneak attacks the man had planned.

Deciding in a split second that he was not going to be killed for Laxus' stupid mistake, Shikaku moved, looping the crossbow back over his shoulder, making sure to disarm and unload it first, and rolled backwards onto his feet, twisting in place before darting back into the thicker trees as silently and quickly as he could move. Sora and Laxus would have to operate without him for a minute or two while he found himself a new cover.

~

~

Once Shikaku felt he'd moved far enough from his previous position to be safe, he drastically slowed his movement. He'd made far more noise than intended or expected, and likely drawn attention to his direction. Hopefully they would assume it was the wind, or a wild animal. No matter though, he was clear now, and moving slower and entirely silently, he began to loop back around the group's location, keeping a wide range this time. Earlier Laxus had said something about sensing metal in the area, and apparently having him know his location was a liability, so he'd have to keep distance from him too. Not knowing the actual radius of that ability, he'd simply have to keep as far back as possible.

As he moved, he kept a scan up of the entire area around him. Something simply wasn't right here. It was bad enough that the target had been coming towards them, but throw in that he was moving so slowly, rather than taking the advantage of higher skill he held back and started shouting... Any fight should have been over by now, but even as he considered it the sounds nearby indicated that first contact was just being made. No, something wasn't right, it felt like, like he was stalling? It wasn't at all unlike a few multi-person scams he'd pulled with some of his friends in the local thieves guild. One member distracts the mark while another picks their pocket. The first then sticks around to keep the mark from noticing they'd been had until the thief was out of the area... The unidentified third party from earlier had disappeared at some point, if he had ever existed at all... Besides that, a ninja could, with clones and henge, pull off such a move on their own if need be.

Shikaku scowled, hoisting himself up into a large tree on the opposite end of the clearing as he'd started and hiding himself in the leaves. Going completely still, he spread his senses in all directions. If this was a trap, or just a distraction, he was going to find out. Hopefully the more experienced genin could handle Kensei alone while he kept watch on the forest.

~