No bear should have a tongue this long. Or look so strangely monstrous when it reared up on its hind legs, more primate than bear. Hattori's nose wrinkled at the sight of it, knowing full well these creatures were more aggressive than their goofy countenance would suggest. It did not roar or snarl like northern bears would, but he knew it had rows of sharp teeth behind those flappy lips, ready to bite if he got too careless and close.

And speaking of close, he decided it was indeed too close to Tojo for his liking. Made a point of driving away predators in the surrounding southern territories, in case they got the idea of going places they were not welcome. Would other Tojo wolves come, or was this a matter he'd have to deal with alone? Time would tell.

Speech

Something smelled funny.

Her golden cat’s ears laid back against his skull, and the warning rumble somewhere between his throat and his chest seemed to insinuate that she should go the other way, but she wasn’t one to back down just because someone else said she should. She might have been tiny, but she more than made up for it with her tenacity. Besides, she could smell Tori around her, and she had been practicing her kicks and swinging around her bamboo practice stick plenty. She could be useful!

When she saw the goofy looking bear though… Well something seemed really off about it. Besides being far too close to their home everything seemed extra long, its body, it’s claws, it’s tongue…

She stopped alongside her leader, her forehead itching to hit the thing in the butt and send it on it’s way. “What is that?” She asked quietly, chin already tucked defensively as her dexterous paws wriggled in the dirt.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Fuji just seemed incapable of growing, like she'd made it a point of standing out as much as she could amongst all of her siblings. Hattori couldn't say he was overly surprised by her question, it was an odd looking beast indeed, but was she ready for this? Was she capable of holding her own? He felt a niggling urge to tell her to return to the bamboo but had to remind himself she was nearly a year old, as fully grown as her tiny form would ever be. Her mother wasn't the smothering sort and neither was he, she could handle this, he would make sure of it.

"A bear." He told her, not taking his eyes off the beast. "Follow my lead."

And then he was on the move, a blur of orange as he whipped in close and tested the bear's reflexes, how it would tolerate being pushed. As expected it took a swing for him, massive claw reaching out as Hattori deftly stepped out of the way and returned in kind with a thudding shoulder check, the sort that made bones ache.

Sure, Fuji had been brushing up on her fighting, she had outgrown her bamboo stick and held out hope for a sword for her birthday, but that was a while away yet. This thing seemed to big to be deterred by her kicks, no matter how practiced she had become. The Archer-Genji nodded almost imperceptibly as Hanzo told her to follow his lead. She could either use her horns to ram at it’s legs, or try to bite at the heavy paw that swung towards the leader (but she wasn’t sure she liked her chances of wrapping her whole mouth around that thing and she imagined it would taste horrible based on smell alone).

She tucked her chin and pushed forward with her extra weight giving her a decent amount of oomph. Leg or butt, she was gonna ram it and hope it got the bear moving.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Fuji was small, but distracting, a swift pink blur that kept grabbing the bear's attention. It seemed to be having a hard time working out what to focus on, the outward bigger threat, or the openings Fuji could open up for the dire wolf. It let out a snarl in frustration, back peddling a little only to stumble as a gnarled root came under paw. Capitalising on the opening, Hattori surged forward again, shoving hard with a shoulder to force the beast even further back. Now if Fuji were to get in the way and make it fall over, then this would be just too easy...

Speech

As the bear began to fall, Fuji saw her opening. She darted behind the foot that was snared on the root and clamped her fangs deeply in the ankle of the foot that came down to try and offer the bear some stability. It’s bellow was telling enough, and she tried her best to disengage and get out of the way but her sabre teeth were long and she hadn’t exactly used them a whole lot yet.

She also decided she didn’t much like the taste of predator blood.

Her tiny size may have been the only thing that saved her as the beast toppled backwards and landed on it’s butt with a groan, the bend of it’s limb allowing her to escape relatively unsquished. As the beast rolled and grumbled trying to get it’s paws beneath it again, Fuji looked to Hanzo for guidance. Was that enough, to move it on, or did they need to deal with it more… permanently?

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Though aggressive, the bear was driven soon enough. Perhaps it realised this was not worth the effort, that neither of them were going to leave it be, unless it left on its own accord. With a grumbling snarl the bear turned and ran, glancing over its shoulder in anticipation for the wolves to make chase. Hattori pondered for a moment, his brows furrowed as he glanced down at the pink koi.

"Shall we chase it?"He asked the tiny wolf, wondering if she would deem it worth the effort, or whether they had finished a job well done. He would trust her judgement on this, see what course she would decide to take.

With the bear on the run, it seemed the creature had gotten the message and when Tori asked her if they should chase it, she paused, watching the creature retreat. While it could be fun, it seemed a bit mean to just chase it for the sake of it. “Perhaps if it returns, but I think it got the message.” She was not one to shy away from work that needed doing but she also had never killed anything yet beyond a need to eat. Killing the bear seemed wasteful. “It smells so bad alive, I doubt it's worth eating and if the wind blew the wrong way we'd smell it rotting from home.” She said the latter with a grin and giggle, imagining herself trying to drag a bear carcass far enough away that they wouldn't have to catch wind of it before it was reduced to bones.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

The corner of Hattori's lips quirked slightly. He'd left it up to her, but he had to say he agreed with her conclusion. If it chose to return it would be dealt with, with less restraint than what they had shown today. But he did not think it would bother them again, regardless of means of communication their intent had been conveyed clearly. And as Fuji said, it wasn't something they could eat-or even want to- so in the end it would result in wasted effort. Certainly when there were better things to be doing.

"Very well." He said, pleased with the outcome.