Starring:
Juudai, Cherii, Kanae, Tsurure
Date: March 21, 2015
Summary:
The bridge is being built, but some people just can’t stand for it. Iwa-nin have thus been sent out to take care of the pesky bandits that are plaguing the bridge workers.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Bridge Building, Part 1: Protect the Workers!"
Between the Land of Grass and Land of Earth
A call had gone out to anyone willing to help find the people attacking the bridge that was being built in the Land of Grass. The bridge would become quite the great grower of trade between the Land of Grass and the Land of Earth so shinobi from the Land of Earth were definitely on call. However, people in the Land of Fire would benefit as well given they could then possibly start looking into trade to the Northwest as well. As such, they want shinobi to not just protect the bridge but also to help fight. Given the importance of this mission, Juudai herself has gone out to survey the progress of this bridge as well as meet with the man in charge. Further, she has tasked particular shinobi to join her here. One of which is already with her.
Standing beside her as she awaits the arrival of the rest, Tomoe sighs and idly picks her ear with her pinky. She is sparcely outfitted. Having on a pair of loose gi like pants and a tank top, she only has a pack on otherwise. Her feet are even bare. On her hips, one on each side, is a pair of nunchuks. Her hair is spiked up and strangely green, only about an inch or two long. She looks at her pinky finger after pulling it free before looking to Juudai and then looking forward as she awaits the others.
Search and destroy, eh? That's a type of mission Cherii can be decently useful for. After all, searching tends to take a while, and when people are out hiking around all day, they like to have a good meal when they take a break! Or even just something energizing to snack on as they go. And of course, Cherii and her hive can hold their own on the destroying part, too. Cherii arrives and gives a bow. "Tsuchikage-sama. Kamizuru Cherii, reportin' fer duty. Top o' th'day, everyone."
Kanae steps into line shortly after Cherii, bowing a bit to everyone there. "Kaseki Kanae is here too, Sensei!" she reports, the genin looking ready for anything that didn't involve getting killed. She has lunar and snacks with her to replenish her energy supplies. "So… We're doing what exactly..?"
A short boy wrapped his scarf a little tighter around his neck as he walked, as though cold this spring.
Tsurure had been called to join this mission to ensure the safety of this briidge being built between the Lands of Earth and Grass and he joined under the directive of his orders. His peridot eyes surveyed his surroundings as he approached, his flowing mud-green cloak covering all but his black shoes. It seemed that the others had all made it before him, but from the sound of things — Introductions — they hadn't been there long. He soon stepped up to all, nodding in greeting.
"Sasaki Tsurure, reporting."
A nod to each, Juudai gestured to her right, "This is Tomoe. She is a strong Chuunin, but will not be the leader of this team." She nods and gestures to Cherii, "That is to fall to you. I want to see what you can do, Cherii." She nods her head, "Tomoe will be supporting you in this fight and will be there in the event that the enemy proves stronger than anticipated." She nods her head, "Not to mention, I want this done cleanly. I will be here along with some others to help protect the bridge builders." She nods her head, "I want you to…" She then blinks and Juudai takes a step back even as an arrow lands where she was standing.
Glaring at the direction of the arrow, a grinning man stands on the branch of a tree and then hops down even as more men come rushing out as he lands to attack. It seems the attack has come to the camp where the bridge builders are. Juudai turns and walks back toward the main tent, "I will be protecting those in charge. I expect you lot can handle this." She idly pulls up a cigar and lights it with a zap.
Tomoe looks to Cherii and gestures idly, "Oye, looks like you're up." She chuckles and pulls out her nunchuks, flipping them back and forth in her hand a little as she moves in with the group to be prepared for the onslaught. It seems that they won't be hunting bandits after all, the bandits have come to them. Even as Tomoe grins and flicks aside an incoming arrow, more come flying in.
Cherii blinks. "Oh aye? If ye say so, Tsuchikage-sama." And then, arrow! So much for the search part of the search and destroy. Cherii narrows her eyes at the enemy archer. "Whisht, I dinnae fancy his face, grinnin' like that when he missed. They've probably got a plan that's more than just pepperin' us wi' — " Oh look, more arrows. Let's see, Cherii's best defense would be to pull out some boulders she's got stored in scrolls, but that would be a nuisance for the bridge builders, maybe even dangerous — how is she to know how much weight the bridge is rated to hold at this stage of construction? c.c So she goes through some handseals and looks around for something to replace herself with…unfortunately no good candidates come to eye quickly enough. x.x "Ow! Blasted twig from a beetle-chewed stripling!" Cherii mutters, pulling out the arrow that went through her honeycomb dress at the shoulder. >.< Fortunately the wound is shallow, thanks to the beeswax. "A'right, Tomoe-san, I'll cover ye, so try tae get in close on th'bounders. Kanae-san an' Tsurure-san, you do th'same, but hang back a bit, try tae get a guid look at th'surroundin's, look fer any reinforcements they might have hidden, an' support Tomoe-san if she needs it. Ready, go!" Cherii wills a small swarm of her bees to come out and buzz over to the archers, stingers at the ready.
Arrows come flying into me, hurrah. Hurrah. Wait, no, these hurt! Kanae wasn't thinking they'd be attacked until she was wounded, and even then she was clearly surprised that she even got an injury. Now there's an arrow in her side and a glare in her eyes. "Hai…" she grumbles at Cherii, wanting more to just go after the people who made her a pincushion. But going for their reinforcements was the next best thing!
Tsurure fixed his eyes on Juudai only as long as it took for her to introduce Tomoe, looking to the woman. He studied her as their directions were given, the fact that he'd drawn opinions written clearly on his face, though the exact words could not be read. His eyes left her though, as soon as Cherii regarded Juudai as…
"Tsuchikage?"
And then the arrow came in and he quickly turned his attention to the direction it came from and the man with the bow. Chakra rushed to his fingertips as he prepared himself for confrontation with a downward draw of his brows, taking a slight crouch as — an arrow tore through his chest, causing him to explode into a cloud of clone smoke.
His true form kneeling right behind where the clone had been, he listened to the orders from Cherii and quickly… gave her a perplexed and vaguely annoyed look. "What?" He could barely decipher a word through her thick accent. He quickly shook his head. "Whatever." So far, he wasn't impressed. She'd already been hit by an arrow — along with the other genin — and she hasn't been a very helpful leader these two seconds into the mission.
So Tsurure simply did his own thing, stepping in front as he rushed through handseals. "You're definitely a new village. Takes a foreigner…" the rest of his words fall off, replaced with, "Doton: Earth Whirlpool," as he claps his hands together and slams his foot into the ground. The earth jolts into sudden movement beneath the man with the bow and anyone around him as the ground turns liquid, a large whirlpool forming to drag them down.
Around six bandits were standing next to the leader of this little attack when the attack came in. The leader jumped out of the way of the whirlpool like attack, landing on a tree nearby and standing sideways even as four of his six archers are sucked down into the ground and scream out in pain. The bandits really weren't built to take on any type of real attack and are out of it pretty quickly. The remaining two take aim at Cherii and Kanae even as the leader aims right for Tsurure and smirks as he fires off another arrow. Meanwhile, close to two dozen bandits rush into the camp even as workers run screaming back toward the tents that are closer to the still being built bridge. A few are cut down before they get far.
Even as this takes place, Tomoe ducks under a slicing blade as one is aimed at her. She is rushing into the crowd without much care even as she flicks her nunchuks about. She whips one into the gut of one of the bandits before spinning it upward into his face. A roundhouse kick puts down another even as her spinning nunchuk whips into a man's head three times before he even falls his face already swelling from the brutal whirlwind of the nunchuk. She whips it under her arm and grins.
Meanwhile, several of the bandits throw blades at the group in general as they close on the shinobi.
Cherii is well aware of what sort of attack to expect now (not to mention, y'know, expecting to be attacked), and she prepares accordingly. A cluster of simple clones poof into existence and run with her as she closes the distance toward the enemy. With plenty of decoy targets around her, Cherii doesn't have to worry too much about being shot at; the few projectiles that do come her way whiz through her doppelgangers. Being far from the speediest shinobi around, Cherii takes the time to gather her chakra as she runs. "Watch yerself missie!" Cherii shouts to Tomoe. "Ye're in pretty deep an' there's more comin'!"
Kanae is able to block the first wave attacks, meaning that the area of earth and had put up turns into a needle holder instead of herself. Of course, she still gets injured, but it's better than the first time. "Where are you.." she asks aloud, trying figure out just wear her attack should be aimed.
Tsurure made a quietly annoyed sound.
His assault was unsuccessful. He'd managed to take down 4 of the 7 but the leader was his real target and if he hadn't taken him down, it was all for nothing in his peridot eyes. And a counterattack was mounting.
He quickly flashed through handseals, pushing chakra into the ground at his feet. It soon lurched into motion, small lines of dirt raising on either side of him as he began sliding away from the bandits and their leader, retreating towards the camp.
The leader's arrow sliced through the air, managing to cut through his cloak and slice into his side, drawing blood and a grunt from the boy. "Arch…" But he continued his movement, heading towards the camp — and abruptly swerving his path to try and avoid thrown knives from some of the bandits that'd assaulted the camp. He managed to evade most but one got in and sliced him, bloodily cutting into his neck, too deeply for comfort. Had it been on the other side, he'd be dying.
He briefly clenched his teeth. Not the best situation.
"HIT THE LEADER!" he called out. "He's the only one we need to worry about!" And that said, a pillar of earth suddenly rose out of the ground beneath him, suddenly sending him flying into the camp. "I'll protect the bridge! Just take him down!"
He moved through handseals as he soared, eyes looking on what was going on below before he landed in the center of the camp with a pulse of chakra from his feet, four clolumns of earth shooting from him to strike out at the bandits furthest into the camp to send them flying backwards.
"Tomoe! You got my back?"
(FIXED POSE)
Kanae is unable to hit the bandits as they rush in but Tsurure is able to break two easily. They fall down even as two more are forced to dodge out of the way. Meanwhile, Tomoe breaks two more under a barrage of strikes. Even as a third ducks under one of her attacks, they bandits are now surrounding her. At this point, only about a dozen are left as they surround Tomoe who calls out, "I got ya! They got me though." She chuckles and then flips her nunchuks around, going on the defensive as she looks at the quadro that have taken her as a target. The remainder, eight of them are splitting off. Several are going for Tsurure who appears to be the greatest threat, four on him even as the other four go for Kanae and Cherii. Their strikes are using blades to try to cut the defenders up. At this point all the workers are escaping.
Even as he watches the fight from afar, the grinning man nods to the two remaining archers and then a smoke bomb is thrown down. Unless the defenders of the bridge are keen eyed, they won't see the leader again nor his two archer buddies as they escape. Is the attack over? At least for the dozen left over, it isn't.
For a guy who keeps losing his followers with only a few injuries inflicted on shinobi to show for it, that bandit leader sure does grin a lot. :P But, smoke happens to be an infamous weak point of bees, so Cherii can't do much to wipe the grin off his face once the smoke bomb is deployed. Besides, she's got more immediate problems to deal with. Her clone entourage continues to protect her from the inexperienced bandits, drawing their strikes with convincing looks of dismay before vanishing into nothingness. "Ach, ye think ye're a braw pair o' boyos, don't ye noo? I'd like tae know what reward yer leader promised ye tae make ye think attackin' shinobi was worth it." >P Cherii's hive swarms out in force, attacking the bandits. She also sends a small portion of the bees to attack one of Tsurure's adversaries, hoping to decrease the pressure on him.
Kanae glares a bit as more people are incoming. Just how many things do they need to deal with? Neverending stream of bad-guys, grumble grumble… The girl blocks both attacks, though just barely, with a barrier of earth. The only defense she can use. "Hmm…" she says, seals forming to explode the ground and make it harder for the bandits to see. "Tsurure-san! Try and hit them hard!" she calls out to him, trying to work together in this situation. Blind and helpless targets mean that it's easier to hit them, so…
"Ah!" sounds Tsurure's frustration. "He's getting away!"
But there were more immediate things to worry about — namely the dispensible bandits the man with the grin and his two archers just left behind. They came at him with their knives, forcing him to slip through another series of handseals.
He traveled between the four bandits, sliding along the earth with no visible means of propulsion, skating between them and attempting to do the same with their blades. Once more, two managed to get their strikes in, one knicking him on a shoulder and the other managing to puncture him, slightly, in his thigh causing him to kneel slightly.
"You dispensible /peons!/" spat Tsurure.
The earth took him a distance away from the four before rising upwards, giving him a pedestal and some breathing space as he pushed through more seals, his tanned skin looking thin from blood lust. It was time to end all of this. Past time, and he was definitely going to try and see it done.
His handseals finished, he held the snake seal and released a pulse of chakra. And another. And a third, a teeth clenching hard. With each pulse was released three spires of stone from the ground, shooting out at various bandits. The two about Kanae. One around Cherii as they were distracted by her bees, though dealing with the smallest cloud. Two of those surrounding Tomoe. And the four around him, though if he missed one of these in his initial assaults, he would leave Cherii to defend herself in the state he's in.
Jutsu performed, he sucked in a deep breath, sweat beading his forehead.
The two bandits on Cherri are dead before the stone even reaches them. They simply die horribly to the bees that are stinging them as they wish, well, that they had chosen a different line of work. They aren't truly dead right off but that poison will do the job. They fall over even as another that was on Tsurure dies as well. The two that were fighting Kanae get dirt in their eyes and then the earth smashes into them and they die. Well, they aren't dead right off either but unless they get medical attention they won't survive.
Meanwhile, the two on Tomoe jump to the side to avoid the Earth coming at them only to have one get kicked in the gut before a nunchuk smashes into the back of his skull. The other gets hit right in the nose by both pieces of the nunchuk being punched at him as if Tomoe were jabbing two ends of a staff into his face.
Among those that were on Tsurure, one is able to dodge. The other two are put down just like their friends. Even as that one grins, he looks around and blinks. He realizes he is the last man standing and then drops his knife and holds up his hands, "My give up."
About time one of these guys showed a shred of common sense. -.- Maybe that bandit leader's grin has some sort of proximity hypnosis effect that makes his followers stupidly fearless as long as he's around. "Tomoe-san, take that'n intae custody if ye please," Cherii directs, figuring she's the best candidate for the job since she's the only one who got off without a scratch. Not that the bandit's likely to be a problem for any of them, but no sense in taking chances you don't have to. "I'll stay wi' ye just in case. Kanae-san an' Tsurure-san, report the situation tae th'Tsuchikage, then go get yerselves patched up. Good work."
