Starring:
Date: August 4, 2013
Summary:
Sakuryu enters the Pirate fortress and runs into a Captain claiming Shirayuki lineage. After some discussion on what it means to be a Shirayuki, a small alliance is made in order to find the Shirayuki Relic of Legend that resides in the Fortress.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Journey of the Unproven Princess - A Rogue Shirayuki Captain"
Frozen North Sea (north of Kirigakure)
Sakuryu takes a little breath, stretching out before slipping into cliffs. She carefully watched her steps and kept to the shadows, letting her light footed steps guide her from shadow to shadow to move in deep. She would look for any sort of notice to where the armory, the sneaky parts, or of course her treasure. Though a captain to *intimidate* with the true power of shirayuki can't hurt.
The caves are a network of tunnels and end up acting like a maze. Luckily for Sakuryu, she has her hidden mist technique to keep her both hidden, as well as alert to anyone that might become enveloped by the mist. With the explosions occurring on the other side of the compound, this side is fairly quiet. The occasional pirate is surrounded and lost to the mists (or at least Saku's needles). Still, after a few minutes of searching, she hasn't found anyone worthy of acknowledging her name or a treasure room. She might even be running around in circles.
But then she comes upon something that might just make her feel better about this one man operation. She comes across a powder keg room. There are barrels in here, and barrels, and barrels, and vats, and hoppers, and all sorts of machinery dedicated to crushing and producing the powder and kegs. These look like they are meant to get loaded onto ships, so there must be a ship somewhere close by that maybe she can snag a Captain to get them to tell her where the heck she should be going.
Sakuryu smirks a little bit as she slips through the maze mentally speaking to herself. "Man these guys wouldn't last five minutes in the bloodmarsh." She smirks as she disorients, incapacitates and on rare occasions kills the pirates, making sure they are hidden till she's out of the way. She let's out a breath and slips into the room with a sigh. "This place is confusing." She grumbles before looking around at the massive amounts of powder. "This….this will come in handy." She grins and looks in her bag before setting up some remote explosive tags, making sure they were hidden before smiling. "With a powder room that must mean I'm near an armory….time to find an informant or another room." She grins and dashes off
There aren't overly many signs, which makes this place difficult to navigate. The few signs that are available are mostly chicken-scratches of people trying not to get lost themselves. Sakuryu manages to get lucky and find her way, mostly by following after the breezes and going down down down, to the loading dock. Yup, there is a port, large enough for one of the massive ships, at the bottom of the cave tunnels. Currently, there is a large ship inside. There is also a crew. How does Sakuryu get aboard…
Saku thinks a little and looks to see if the cannon ports are open. She looks around before examining the crew and if the area was able to be penetrated by her stealth jutsu and her natural skill. She closes her eyes and meditates a moment. "Things can be difficult here…if the treasure is on the ship….it would be unfortunate to destroy it…which could easily be done by blowing the powder room to bring the caves down onto the ship.
The cannon ports were closed. With the ship being inside, they didn't need a cannon going off accidentally to not only sink the ship but also cause the caves to collapse…so the ports are closed. Still, with her skills, she might be able to jimmy one open with those ice-needles if she can get down to it.
Saku thinks for a moment before nodding, she finds some rigging at the sides of the ship to toe off an anchor to climb as well as removing her shoes to not create any sound for her climb. She closes her eyes before throwing a kunai with the rigging into the side of the ship where noone would be standing, soon using the rope to get to the side of the ship, using tree walking to carefully ascend to the nearest window to carefully pry it open, since this was the aft of the ship it should be near the captains quarters…
And in Sakuryu gets! The window does indeed lead into the Captain's quarters…but it is the Captain's private head. Once inside, she could hear the Captain speaking to someone else. She, yes, female Captain, says, "We have to get the supplies loaded as quickly as possible. Someone's attacking and we need to get out of here." She pauses. The other person speaking is either very soft-spoken, or might not be speaking at all…but the Captain answers, "I don't give a snowflake about the rest of the pirates here…not if it means having my ship sunk. If we're not shoved off in the next five minutes, people are walking the plank." A door shuts and the sounds of a chair scuffling can be heard.
Sakuryu just blinks at the situation, this…was…disgusting.. She closes her eyes and lets herself relax as she listens carefully. "This was quite strange… a female pirate captain…" She thinks for a moment before shaking her head. "No, this is the captain…even pirates have to accept things now…" She smirks silently speaking to herself as she waits for the captain to leave her quarters. With a ship preparing for undocking she'd have to leave the room for the deck to command the ship. And of course Saku had been smart enough to bring the kunai and rope in with her just in case of such a thing.
The Captain leaves the room to go do whatever, perhaps command the ship as Sakuryu thought. When the coast is clear and Sakuryu heads out into the Captain's quarters, she'd be met by the Captain, holding a cross-bow at Sakuryu's head. "You really don't think I know what the noise of the windows in my own quarter opening sounds like? Who are you, why are you on my ship, and you have until I can count all of my finger's off to tell me what you're doing here." She looks to be missing one or two fingers.
Sakuryu smirks a little bit. "I am a Kunoichi of the village hidden in the mist, but I am not acting within their accords. I am acting upon the name of my clan, the noble clan Shirayuki. She looks at the captain. I am here to stop the false claims to our name and reclaim the treasure of our clan that you so greedily hold. Either take me to where the item is or I will be forced to incapacitate you.
The small teen girl probably doesn't look too intimidating , that was usually a help, but in this situation…. Well the captain didn't know it but she'd soon be dead even with that crossbow, many underestimate kunoichi, especially those of her age.
The Captain eyes the girl and says, "False claims? I was born to the Shirayuki clan just like you. I might not have the gift of the frozen blood flowing through my veins like your lot, but that doesn't make me any less of a Shirayuki. Besides, if anything, you are the one giving us the bad name. We were pirates long before shinobi came to us looking for help…and /some/ of us are pirates still." The Captain then thinks for a moment. "Shirayuki treasure? I haven't heard of anything like that. What treasure are you talking about exactly? Which one?" She moves, still keeping her cross-bow aimed at Saku, and walks for a collection of scrolls, before grabbing one with her free hand.
Sakuryu glares. "The Shirayuki clan lead by the head and first of our noble heritage Hyoukai have always had the gift that shows our nature!" She balls her hands into fists. "You may have been part of his crew before he took his rightful place but the Shirayuki are truly the noble clan of the Hidden Mist, allowing you to rest here when you don't even share blood is the truest thing to do to a clan." She narrows her eyes slightly before letting out a breath. "I know not which of our clans treasures are in your position, only that is rightfully of my blood and only one of my clan should wield it!"
The Captain laughs, "Not everyone is born with the kekkei genkai. Sure, most are, but not all. Still, what is it to be of a clan, that they have some random ability of the blood, or that they act in the manner of the clan. If you're a Shirayuki, prove it…be a thief. I present to you a riddle. If you can steal the answer out of me, I'll tell you where you can most likely find this treasure that you seek. I've been to most of the treasure rooms, and I've never seen any of the old clan relics or weapons…" and she throws out the scroll, which actually has a fairly sizeable list of drawings that look like old clan relics and weapons. "If it is here, then they've kept it from me too, and there is only one place that it can be…the Admiral's quarters here in the caves. I'll tell you how to get there, but first, 'What can you see in the middle of the sea?'"
Sakuryu smirks a little bit before chuckling to herself. "Yes but the Shirayuki dropped the nature of the thief and pirate to be noble and true! We hold true power and shine in the village, we can demand respect and guide things silently!" She narrows her eyes a little bit before tightening her fists. "And if you think that I am a child you are sorely mistaken, I come from a village in the water you fool you think I didn't hear that a million times?" She sneers gently before looking at her. "It's the letter E and I'm not sure what of this list you have. And if you truly claim heritage you will come back with me and become a true blooded member instead of a cur of the seas."
The pirate laughs, "You don't think a pirate and a thief can be noble and true? If anything, a thief knows more about being true because they are so talented at deceiving…but deception without truth intertwined does not go far. A pirate has to be noble and loyal to those in their crew. Hyoukai-sama knew this. He was a pirate. Did he sit back and guide the clan silently? No…he stole his respect by being a noble pirate among shinobi." When the girl gets the question right, the female Captain nods approvingly, "Fine. How about this, we both head to the Admiral's quarters and we see from there. If, and this is a big if, IF the Admiral has whatever it is you think he has, then we'll talk about what's wrong with that statement. Being a cur of the seas is your heritage, whether you like it or not kid. And there is more honor in it than you think."
So, she lowers the cross-bow and heads out the door, "Come on. Henge into someone like my crew if you can. I know your ways well enough." The Captain moves along the boat, out the main plank into the caves, and through the tunnels towards the Admirals quarters. It isn't too far.
Sakuryu huffs before shaking her head. "I don't know henge, get me as a capture or give me an outfit to use. Either that or I can sneak around like I was before." She chuckles a little bit before stretching slightly as she looks around.
The Captain would take her as a captive then…better access to the Admiral that way. When the guards she a familiar Captain coming with a prisoner, along with a quick bogus explanation, they let the both of them into the Admiral's quarters. The Admiral is a big man. He could easily dwarf most Akimichi. When he sees the Captain come in, the Admiral says, "What is it. We're under attack and I've got too much going on. This better be important!" There are a few other younger boys in the room too who must be acting as runners for order delivery.
Sakuryu huffs and growls as she thrashes at the not too obviously loose bonds. She acts the part of the angry prisoner making it look like she was obviously an attacking prisoner.
The Captain states, "I captured this one here. She told me that they're Shirayuki from Kirigakure that're attacking. They know you've got it and they want it back." Good use of vagueness there. The Admiral grows a little pale at the sound of that, either that or he hasn't eaten in five minutes. The Captain spots this and adds, "We need to move it now. Send your runners away, kill this wretched beast, and you and I can escape on my ship…now…before it is too late." The admiral thinks for a moment, and then sends the boys out. As the last one exits, the Admiral goes to the table he was standing behind, hits a button, and a trap-door opens in the floor. He leans down to pull something out, and that is when the Captain releases Sakuryu, if only for show.
Sakuryu looks at the captain. "Cur! If I was free I'd kill you." She huffs and growls out as she yanks and pulls and tugs…or at least looks like she is, those ropes a genin could get out of. "You'll never get away from it!" She glares at the pirate, falling to her knees as she gets moved. Her eyes are open and she's waiting to see and make sure it's what she came for.
The Admiral pulls out a small chest…you can't have treasure without a chest…and opens it revealing a kusarigama. The kusarigama has a harpoon-like whale-bone hammer, a crystaline fish-hook of a scythe that upon closer inspection might just be a non-melting stick of ice, and a long, thin, woven rope of some form of hair connecting them. The ice-blade gives off a feint blue light as the box opens in Sakuryu's presence. The Admiral blinks and states, "That's never happened before…" apparently puzzzled.
Sakuryu smirks. "Hehe, of course it hasn't, it's never been near a true Shirayuki!" She quickly pulls in chakra to transform herself into the highest shirayuki form she can, letting the air swirl around her like a maelstrom, the air freezing even colder as the ground has arcs of frost coming from her. With a grin she begins her onslaught of needles, making sure they don't kill him…. yet before binding him in the frozen lotus. She might as well see where he got the treasure before she gets rid of the lying trash. "Now you filthy cur, tell me how you got this and why you're claiming my blood before I take your life and send you to the sailors hell!"
