Starring:
Ryuusei, Shuuren, Shiiru, Roku
Date: October 27, 2015
Summary:
Some members of Tea Country gather at a port and head out to rescue some of Shiiru's friends from captivity.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Breaking the Chains at Sea"
Land of Tea - Port
Ryuusei has been in Tea long enough to form a good first opinion about the people living here and the people running the show. She likes it a little more than Konoha. Things were simple here, and the people weren't always closed and suspicious about what information they shared. Likely because Tea wasn't a shinobi village, and people spoke freely and whatnot. It was like living out in the country, only there were far many more buildings. There were no secrets in Tea. At least, those in tea knew that having them were nearly impossible.
Ryuusei has nearly been here a full week, only a day to go. Her daily schedule has usually been to get up, swing Kaiyo around a few times, change into her Shuuren-Uniform, clips a few leaves on a few bushes and trim some trees, eat breakfast, train some more, eat lunch, explore the areas outside of town to see if she can't find a source water containing otters… Play with some otters… Go home, change into her usual clothes after realizing that water and thin white dresses do not go well together and finish off with some training. Sleep, rinse, repeat ad nauseum. A simple life for a simple girl. Just what she wanted.
It is the afternoon, and she is currently laying across a bench with hands behind her head and a spring in her mouth wearing a long-sleeved white dress that compliments her hair. Today, she even learned what stockings were supposed to do after getting it beat into her head by the tailor. They're pulled up your legs, right? Right…
No secrets in Tea… right… Shuuren has at least done quite a good job at making that appearance. The Daimyo has done his best to keep any dark side of dealings that have to go on behind the scenes separate from the appearance of the country. Still, it's nowhere near as dark as dealing with a shinobi village, as the villagefolk are actually paid attention to and kept well.
Stepping down the road where Ryuusei happens to be laying about, Shuuren seems to just be enjoying the scenery as he glances around. As he starts to pass by, he notices Ryuusei relaxing on a bench. "Glad to see you're still enjoying the village," his smooth voices rings out as he turns and approaches, though still stands a comfortable speaking distance and not at an angle that would be considered ungentlemanly to stand by her while she wears such a dress.
Standing a little ways behind Master Shuuren. A young woman dressed up as a maid. She doesn't say anything, and just stands attentive. SHe doesn't say anything for now.
Arriving at the scene of the Ryuusei lazing about, Shiiru peers at the girl on the bench before a glance is delivered to Shuuren. A shrug as the backpack carrying shinobi to be considers, "So, uh, you just laying about or we going to go take care of things?" A look again to Shuuren, "Or is the boat not yet ready?" A hmm before the dirty scamp simply drops the backpack to the ground causing the sound of shifting sand to come out, "I really wouldn't want to keep things waiting."
Ryuusei was having a a grand old time. The sky was full of puffy clouds, though it was atrociously hot. Must be why she was taking the afternoon to simply laze about. Wearing a nice dress, but acting relatively like a peasant. You can take the girl out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the girl… The Daimyo has come by daily to check on her so far, so she always expects to see him. Sometimes it feels like he is everywhere at once. When he approaches she turns her head to the side to look, hand slipping to take the wheat-sprig out of her mouth as she closes one eyes. "Daimyo-dono…" She says with a slight smile, "It's growing on me…" It's going to be heard to leave when she does. She sits up and yawns as she tugs the skirt of her dress down. "Nothin' is ever perfect, but then again if it was, I'd know I was one one of those ninja-mind-tricks." Seems she left her big blade at home. It wasn't with her at the moment.
Ryuusei would eventually be bothered to stand -all- the way up, as she lefts her hands up over her head to stretch and yawn loudly. "Feel like I'm forgetting something…" she says as she opens both sides, though they are lazily half lidded. Then she realizes. "O-oh, right!" She rolls her shoulders back, chest out, legs spaced a little. It was just as she was taught, she just lacked a big blade for intimidation effect at the moment.
Shiiru's arrival adds the promise of adventure, at least. "O-oh… Y-you're going already?" She wasn't exactly sure if she was invited, but she also wasn't quite sure she'd be any real help either. After all, she knew a seven year old Akimichi that was chuunin-level! She never underestimates people, because the biggest surprises often come in the smallest packages. "Shiiru-kun, Daimyo-sama… Ano… Maid-desu." She says to the person nearby.
"I know it must be if you're comfortable enough to leave your blade behind," Shuuren says with a smile to Ryuusei. Then she remembers she forget it, and he chuckles, saying, "Apparently quite comfortable." As Roku comes up behind, he looks over to her and lifts an eyebrow at the silent 'maid'. He only looks at her for a moment before looking to Shiiru and nodding. "The ship is being prepared. Going at the speeds we're going to be going can wreak havoc on a ship, so it's best that we have it fully ready before we take off, else they might elude us."
Roku remains quiet. She needs to have SHuuren's permission before she can talk. THe woman looks at the group. One can sense quickly that she's not quite a normal being. For starters, one can feel the chakra radiating her. And second, she coughs a few times, and then quickly covers her hand, though a small spot of blood is on her lips…She just bows to Shuuren, and moves behind him.
Glancing to Roku, Shiiru hmms before saying, "Hello, there. You, uh, have something there." The teen points to Roku's lip and then shrugs before nodding with a sigh to Shuuren before grinning at The girl on the bench. Keeping that deeper voice, Shiiru says, "Be happy to have you along."
"O-oh, alright. L-let me grab Kaiyo! I… I'll be right back…" Ryuusei would nod to everyone present to be respectful, before she runs off… Of course, about a few blocks from start she realizes she was running without her shoes on. She would quickly be seen running back, panting a little. "A-ah, gomen! I… Forgot my sandals…" She takes a quick seat and slips them on, before she stands up and takes a deep breath. "Okay then! T-this time I'll be right back!" The next time you see Takaha Ryuusei, she would definitely be lost… likely having not been informed where the docks are… or if the city even had docks!
Glancing back to Roku again, Shuuren lifts an eyebrow again. "… Giving up too information without permission once doesn't mean you can't have normal conversation," he finally says before looking back to the others. When Ryuusei runs back and forth a couple times, he shakes his head and turns walks over to a soldier to inform him to direct Ryuusei in the right direction when she comes back out. "Let's go then," he says as he looks back to Shiiru and Roku before moving down toward the docks.
Roku shakes her head a little bit as she stays behind him. She just bows a little bit deeper, and tries to keep her chakra level down. She squeaks, and rubs the blood off her lip. The woman shiftylooks for a second before wiping her hands on a handkerchef, and stays a little behind Shuuren.
Watching Ryuusei run off, Shiiru chuckles before shaking her head. THe teen glances to the girl as she then looks back to Shuuren, walking with him after grabbing up the backpack. The teen follows after the man and only kinda watches Roku, unsure of her even before saying, "So, what is the plan then?"
"We use the information given to me from the contacts to triangulate their general travel area. The ship shouldn't be too hard to find since your friend gave us a pretty good description of it," Shuuren says as he glances back to Shiiru. By the time they arrive at the docks, a rather impressive-looking ship is waiting for them. He steps onto it and glances around, double checking some details and then walking over toward the helm to talk to the captain as they wait for Ryuusei to arrive.
Roku stays off the ship. She still refuses to get on a ship unless she's in lala land, and if she wakes up on the ship, she panics. So, yeah….
Looking to Roku, Shiiru scratches at her head. She then shrugs and looks to Shuuren, "So, we are going without that one then?" A huh and then a shrug, "Really odd. I thought you shinobi types could like, walk on water or something." A shrug and she steps on to the ship before nodding, "Well, I lok forward to seeing my friends again.
Ryuusei would be running as fast as she can in her old outfit, the one she came to this very town in. She holds her blade to her chest as even the guards had trouble keeping her on the right path. "WAAAAH! I'm so lost…" She would huff quite heavily as she moved down the street, finally heading towards the docks. She was late, and it probably would have benefited her not to come along. Guess the spirit of adventure is strong in this wanderer. Ryuusei would board the ship, panting rather heavily as she rested her blade. "O-okay! I'm here!" She would call out, looking around at those on deck.
"Uh, miss… Who are you and what are you doing on my vessel?" Called the captain of the ship that Shuuren, Roku, and Shiiru was -not- on.
"Ano… G-gomen! Gomen-nasaaai!" She would raise her blade over her head and rush to the next ship. This was probably the right one, given the fact that there were two blondes on board. As she ran up the boarding ramp, she would slip and trip up onto deck. She went for a short tumble, but wouldn't be deterred as she stood up. She was sweating so much you could sware she was a Hozuki or something… "Shuuren-dono, gomen!" There she was!
Eyeing Roku as she stays on the dock, Shuuren blinks a few times. "If you're coming along, get on the ship. If not, go back and do your chores." Seems she's not getting much sympathy for a phobia that she kind of earned. Looking back to Shiiru, he says, "We can, but the rest of you aren't going to be able to keep up with me if we run, and there's not a guarantee of rest positions, so we're taking a ship."
When Ryuusei gets on the wrong ship, he looks over at it and blinks… and again when she trips onto the deck. This girl needs a lot of training, but that's what helping her train and bringing her on missions is for. "Alright. Here we go," he says as he pulls a lever that yanks the anchors up for him then takes the wheel while some of the crewmen untie them from the dock. In a matter of minutes they're on out the sea with the sails out and moving steadily toward their destination.
Shaking her head at Roku, the girl shrugs and gets up next to Shuuren to lean on the rail. She watches Ryuusei before finally the girl is up on the ship. She looks her over before looking to Shuuren, "OK." She leans her back into the rail and nods, "Well, lets get this show on the road."
This was the first time in Ryuusei's life that she, a direct descendent of the Hozuki clan, has ever been out on the sea! Already it feels like home, like she needed to feel the rocking waves. "So this is a ship?" She asks. "Wow. This is kinda nice." She would pick up her blade, Kaiyo, and drag it over to the mast, settling the large waved bronze blade against it before walking over to the port side and looking over. "Can you smell that? That smells amazing! It's like river-water, except I don't see any otters, and there's definitely salt in there…." So far so good.
As they move out through the sea to the east, Shuuren looks down at his reference maps of the points he got from his contacts that the ship had visited. Since they are on the sea, it does take same time, but, in much less time than it would take a normal ship, they are getting close to the area where the ship they're looking for should roughly be around this time. "We're getting close, Shiiru." While he does notice that Ryuusei's enjoying herself, but piloting the ship is what's most important right now. It may be odd to see a daimyo that works as the pilot of his own ship, but apparently he's quite practiced at it.
For her part, Shiiru doesn't seem to be bothered by the sea. She moves around the ship helping where she can. She even grins and looks at Ryuusei and nods in agreement to the feel of the ship. After a while she moves to the bow of the ship and moves out as far as she can to see where they are going. She seems to enjoy keeping a look out at what is going on. When it is mentioned they are getting close, she moves closer back to Shuuren and looks at the charts he has before hmming.
This is a fast ship. If Ryuusei were knocked off here, she would be swept away and taken to Kiri… Where she would likely meet her end in some unfathomable way… For some reason, it feels that inner social anxiety problem (Even though she's used to Shuuren's stature at this point that she's at least solved it with him for the most part) has melted away. Out on the water, she is definitely a natural. "Mizu! As far as I can see!" She says as she does a little spin on the spot. "I bet I could get some if only I could put Kaiyo in it. then I could save it for later." She says as dances over and grabs her blade, dragging it over to the side, and attempts to wave it into the water. It was just too far from deck to water's surface though… In the end, she simply ends up making her way to the front of the ship to look out over the sea as the breeze tugs her ponytail back and makes it flutter behind, wind catching her skirt briefly. Happy otter on the water.
As they move, Shuuren finally takes note of an island nearby that is supposed to be the latest stop for the ship they're looking for. "Here we go," he calls out as he turns the wheel to start heading into the port. As they get closer, the ship comes into view at the port, and he says, "That's the one. I'm going to pull in directly behind them and keep them from escaping. Be prepared for a fight." Within minutes they're doing just that, blocking off the port and dropping anchor as they come up behind their target.
Watching the situation arise, she glances back at Shuuren before looking forward. She draws in a quick breath before looking back to SHuuren, "I can't walk on water, we have to get close enough for me to get across." She then rushes off to the closest point to the other ship. Even as they approach, the ship appears to be letting men off at this small trade island so they can go get supplies. Moving like this isn't easy and often stops are required. Even as they do though, the men start to look and point at the ship that is blocking their way. At first a single man notices but soon alarms start to rise on the ship even as a larger man with a peg leg and a large blade on his back comes walking up on to the stern and looks back at Shuuren's ship before he starts barking out orders. No attacks yet, but they appear at the ready.
"Walk on water? Who does that?" Ryuusei says with a raised eyebrow. "Why would you want to…" She mutters quietly. "Water is much more fun than land." She unseats herself from the railing and grabs her blade. It's just bandits. She has fought a bandit one on one and has won, so she… She can do this. "I'll just… think of this as training." She would walk over towards Shiiru. "I-I'm ready to help you f-find your friends, sir." She closes her eyes and nods her head. "U-um… R-right… S-sorry. N-not find, right? Because, they're already found, they just…" Forget it. She looks away, blushing a little. As she usually does, she opens one eye and leaves the other closed as she rubs the back of her head.
Glancing to Shiiru and then to Ryuusei, Shuuren blinks and asks, "Really? Neither of you can? We'll make that next on the things both of you need to learn." He casts another glance at Ryuusei as she starts her stuttering thing with talking to Shiiru and shakes his head. "Focus on the task at hand, not a simple mistake in speech." And with that… BOOM! They ram the other ship and give everyone on it a good shake to let them know their teeth are about to get smashed in while they try to pick themselves up off the floor. "Move!"
Nearly falling over, Shiiru grabs on to the side of the deck to hold herself steady. The man with the peg leg simply stares on as they hit his boat. He grumbles and he seems to stare right at Shuuren even as his boat rocks. He doesn't even stumble or step oddly. He just stands on his deck. The man then starts barking orders before he starts to move. He doesn't seem to take his eyes off Shuuren though as he does move. The man seems intent on taking down the 'Captain' of the other ship.
As the ships collide, many people stumble and fall while others rush forward. The sound of children crying out can be heard from the hold of the other ship and that is all Shiiru needs to hear to shore up her bravery. She calls out to Ryuusei to move and even as she starts to try to get on to the other ship, she focuses on her chakra and crawls up on to the ship even as the first men come running to slice at anyone coming on to the ship.
Ryuusei still doesn't quite really get that they were actually going to, you know, run -into- the ship. She is quite easily knocked down onto all fours as her blade is kicked away a little, "W-we just up and crashed -RIGHT- into them!?" She asks as she gets up to dash and grab her blade. She bets the kids down below might have been hurt by that… She swore she saw wood splintering. She was likely the last one to get her bearings and head over to the point of impact, where likely there were no gaps to jump. She drags her blade along into the wood as she holds her hand in front of her, being unable to run properly.
As the peg-legged man locks his eyes on him, Shuuren smirks slightly. He glances to Ryuusei to be sure she's going to be okay before he suddenly seems to vanish. When he reappears, he's directly in front of the man spinning into a powerful roundhouse directly at his throat before vanishing again to reappear as he drives another kick at the back of his good leg with intent to send him to the ground. Mercy is apparently not on the list of things to be shown to someone who kidnaps children to sell them into slavery.
Even as she comes on to the ship, Shuuren blows past her to attack the Captain. The captain ducking under the attack by Shuuren only to have his leg kicked out from under him. He stumbles to the ground but the old sea dog is ready as he slashes at him with that nasty looking blade of his that appears to have some kind of poison on it. Even after his slash he rolls up to his feet, well, foot and peg, only to end up right next to a cannon. Two men of his already had it turned just as the Captain had planned and he takes the cigar from between his lips and lets out a "Yar har…" with a grin as he lights the cannon's fuse to fire at Shuuren.
Shiiru hears the blast and eyes the situation only to have two men rush at her slashing and then sand bursts oout of her pack to block the attacks. She then sends two blasts of sand into each of the men. only to glance over toward Ryuusei as two more scalliwags rush over to try to slash at Ryuusei.
Ryuusei focuses chakra into her blade, causing it to dispel water that quickly comes up to create a shield to protect her. It turns the pirate's first blade, but it can't turn the followup attack. Her heavy blade brings up to try and block the blade, but it was too slow and he adapted and slipped his blade against her arm, cutting into the sleeve and drawing slight blood. Not the first time she has bled. "A-aah!" She says as she withdraws the bleeding arm from the hilt of her blade, slipping the pommel against the pirate's chin to stun him before swinging the blade one-handedly to try and follow up.
With a movement of his hand, Shuuren seems to swallow something as the captain stumbles forward from his kick. As the blade comes his way, he rather easily steps out of its way before sidestepping around the canonball heading his way. In the motion of the sidestep, he is suddenly around the other side of the captain as he moves through a handseal. Oddly enough what appears around his hands looks like the same Chakra Scalpel technique one would use to heal wounds as his arms stretch out a bit to strike at the achilles tendon of his remaining leg and the back of the knee of the one that's missing a bit of itself. If it hits, there's no blood, no sound of bone breaking, none of that, as the surgical jutsu that is meant to heal by doing no damage on top of the skin is now being used to attempt to sever tendons underneath it and disable the man from behind able to move other than by crawling on his belly.
Sand comes up here and there to block the attackers as she rushes forward, sending blasts of sand at men as they attack her. One guy gets hit and another gets to her as she dodges around. SHe then stumbles down a set of stairs and looks around for an entrance to the hold, looking desperate as she hears more kids cry out. While at this same time, one of the two pirates on Ryuusei goes down only for another to rush forward. The slash on his friend only urging him and his compatriot on as they attack Ryuusei with reckless abandon and slashing.
The captain goes down in a heep with a growl as he falls on to his belly and then pushes himself over on to his back. He glares at Shuuren and makes a quick gesture before Shuuren will attempt the man trying to lock a genjutsu into his brain that, if successful, will give him a sudden overwhelming feeling of sea sickness.
It would be nice to see how her comrades were doing, but she was too busy doing her own things to even turn her eyes away from the people trying to kill her for a moment. Though, one thing is clear, she was confused as to what sand was suddenly doing on board the vessel. Where did it come from? Who was using sand? That isn't earth manipulation… … … A few moments later she would turn her head towards the pirate whom swung upon her, blades slicing against her torso and drawing more blood. It was shallow at the very least… She would swing her blade in a large arc to try and get some distance from the pirates with their far smaller blades. A little red appears on her shirt, as she reaches to grip the wounds now. "Link it…" She would spit. "I'm… I'm not doing anything right!" She was so interested in helping, but wasn't helping properly.
"Ah, so the pirate knows some Genjutsu. Nice tactic to try and keep yourself alive… if you're fighting someone foolish enough to not be prepared for any battle," Shuuren says, that calm smirk remaining on his face as he brings his hands into a seal, purging himself of the invading chakra with ease. He then reaches down, placing his hands on the man's throat and moving his fingers against the muscles to cause the man's body to relax so much that it locks up temporarily before he grabs a rope holding one of the cannons on the ship and makes a loop around his wrists to bind them together. Once that's done, if successful, he'd literally grab the canon with a single hand and toss it overboard with intent to send the man to a watery death and make the weaker men panic.
Struggling with Shuuren, the man doesn't let him get his hands on him for the lock up of his muscles. The captain isn't giving up that easily but perhaps he should have. IHs arms are bound and his cannon sent overboard. He lets out a cry as he is yanked over board flailing and into the water, his legs unable to properly kick and his cannon providing the weight to yank him down anyway. Even as he does, a man goes down to a slash from Ryuusei and another jumps back only to watch the captain go over. Quickly men start rushing away as they watch the captain go down only as Shiiru crushes another man to death in sand before she finds a hold door and uses her sand to blast away its lock and open it up, "Shuuren!" She calls out even as she looks down at a group of whimpering kids chained up below.
Ryuusei is glad that in the end, she provided some help. She reached to the cuts against her torso, placing a hand on the blood and looking at it. Combat is dangerous, and she knew this going in. "S-so we're finished now?" She asks, looking around. Shiiru had already gone to free the children. Children that would hopefully become productive members of society. "We can return now." She notes with a smile "Good. That was all that was needed from her and her unskilled fighting abilities.
"Almost," Shuuren says with a glance over to Ryuusei before moving down to the hold where the children were being kept. He looks to Shiiru and nods before walking over to the children and saying, "I'm Nagamura Shuuren, the Daimyo of the Land of Tea. Just hold still. I'll get you out of this, and then we're headed back home to Tea Country with Shiiru to set you guys up in a nice place to live where these kind of men can't ever bother you again, hmm?" With that said, he reaches into his coat and grabs a couple tools to pick the locks on the chains. All those years making watches and working as a shinobi apparently helped with this kind of stuff, as he picks the locks rather easily and gets them free.
Looking at the kids, Shiiru seems genuinely concerned but she goes around comforting people. Many of them make comments like 'Where you been?' or 'I knew you'd come for us!' and others still just seem scared or are crying as she looks at each, making sure they weren't hurt too badly. When she's finally sure of herself she goes back up to the top of the ship and sits on a railing, sighing and holding her face as she shakes her head.
Shuuren's legion grows. He has taken the children onto himself so that they can refuge themselves in tea. Someday they'll definitely become farmers or something. Ryuusei would dance around the splinters that were the result of two ships colliding with each other. Shuuren's little speech was actually rather inspiring to her, and she suspected that if she were ever captured or in trouble that he'd extend the same sort of hand to her. She would be back on board within a few moments as she settled cross-legged, placing her blade upon her lap…
Once everyone's aboard, the anchors are pulled up, and they begin their journey back to toward Tea Country… Shuuren should probably send someone to deal with that wrecked ship so it doesn't look like he has bad manners…
