Starring:
Date: October 22, 2013
Summary:
Kuoroke sends Suterusu and Yuuto on a mission to a village in the Land of Wind where a madman with the ability to control chalk has single-handedly captured the town and its inhabitants.
"Chalkmate: The King is Dead"
A village in the Land of Wind
A group has been summoned to a briefing room at the dome. Kuoroke, as is his forte, has handled the paperwork for the a mission and now sits at the head of the table, ready to brief the participants on it. This team has been composed of Yuuto, whose particular skills may give him insight in the enemy's tactics, and two people who are, in addition to their functions as members of the team, babysitting him: Suterusu, whose unusual hobby may come in handy to preserve Yuuto's eyes, and Itami, whose position as a councillor make her perfect to closely oversee the mission. Kuoroke sits and waits for them all to be assembled.
As soon as they are, he begins. "This is Riita Sakunami, a villager." He shows them an image of an emaciated-looking middle-aged woman. "She has escaped her home village, with which we have had no contact for a while, and explained to us what has happened there. Apparently, Hakua Gashu has taken residence here. Hakua Gashu is a former patient of the Garatsuku Asylum, kept there because he was 'suffering' from megalomania and delusions. The staff's evaluation lead us to the conclusion that he believes himself to be the ruler of some sort of fictional world, and everyone in it his subject. He is constantly attempting to enforce this illusion on the world around him using his unique set of skills."
Kuoroke shows another image, this time of some sort of horrid, many-mawed beast. "This is one of his drawings, made in chalk. He can make these drawings come to life, much like Yuuto's skills, or perhaps similarly to my own. In his sick, twisted mind, these drawing are real creatures who are loyal to the rule of the king, and everybody else simply rebels trying to fight him. Approach him with caution: he has covered the city in drawings, allowing him to create a large force from virtually scratch. Several people have been chased out of their homes, only to return to find the walls entirely covered in these nightmarish things, forbidden to 'hurt' his servants on the pain of death. Since he considers most of the villagers prisoners, they can't leave their homes and the weaker ones will soon starve. You are to remedy this, by whatever means necessary. Questions?"
The figure would go when summoned. It is what he does, afterall. Listening in silence while the briefing is given, a small nod was given in understanding. This man may be beyond help. At the very least they needed to detain, or kill him. He would look to Itami, then Yuuto. Both have interesting attributes to bring to the mission, having some insight to how the skill works will be useful. "My question," That soft tenor would croon out in that semi-whisper, "is if I should just assassinate him.. or are we attempting detainment first, death as a last resort?"
Itami takes the paperwork in hand and looks it over as the briefing begins. She only momentarily looked up to the picture of the one that appears to have requested the mission. She flipped through the paperwork as the individual was mentioned and observed his information during the description of the details pertaining to Hakua Gashu. When his unique set of skills is mentioned, Itami jumps to genjutsu, but it's only just a guess. There's no telling what an insane man is capable of.
She focused on the image of some beast that was produced and lofted a brow in response. Huh. "I see. Is there anything else we can expect out of this particular individual? Any indication of where his skills might lie?" She questioned. "I…" She frowned at Suterusu. Death, so soon? He was detained prior, she's not certain what would make a difference now. "Anyway. I believe his skill level is high considering his rank here… Any advice on what to do with someone like him?"
After finally gaining his Sharingan and asking to be reinstated, Yuuto is being given just that opportunity. Though his face is covered in a blank white mask, the look in his eyes shows he is definitely ready for this. He silently listens to and looks over the given information, trying to take it all in as best he can. "So, basically, we combat one psycho with another," he says, apparently not lost on the fact that that has to be one of the reasons he was put on this as well. His mind is broken like that man's, so he would have some insight to how his mind works along with his abilities. "I can pre-prepare some of my own creations to take his on. If I can place them opposite his own, my creatures can take his 'servants' on. With any luck, he'll see it as an invading army or something." After a light pause, he says, "Water could also help. If we could wash some of his drawings off before he can bring them to life, it would increase our chances of keeping casualties to a minimum and decrease the amount he can use as distractions to run away if that happens to cross his mind." At the question of death, he ponders a bit, pausing a moment before he says, "If we can, I'd like to keep him alive. Copying his jutsu would be beneficial for me, but I haven't progressed enough with Sharingan to do that yet. If he could live until then, it would be useful later on… But whatever you rule as necessary will be done."
Kuoroke frowns at Suterusu. "I said any means because I meant any means. As far as I'm concerned, you can do anything as long as the situation gets remedied. But your tactics are up to the mission leader." He motions to Itami. Next, he considers her question, and answers, "He's going to make extensive use of his drawings because he believes them to be reality. Since he has already established his position in the village, you'll want to get past the drawings as soon as possible -fighting them all will simply exhaust you- and get to him. He'll try to stop you from doing this, however." Finally, he nods to Yuuto. "Quite right, water -could- help. However, if I considered you mentally unsound, I would never let you return to active duty again. Don't make me reconsider my viewpoint. If there are no further questions, you can go."
The figure gave a small nod. So whatever it takes, as long as the leader gave ok. Which means that she most likely won't tell him to simply kill the target. Pity. The figure stood smoothly as there didn't seem to be any further questions and would be more than ready to go. If everyone else went, he would as well, two clones would be sent ranging out ahead of him as he'd move with the others to head for that village and the crazed chalk drawer to put the man down and either return to his cell, or let the sand reclaim his flesh.
"Understood," Yuuto replies simply, giving a nod to Kuoroke. Well, he is a bit… off still. There's no denying that. However, now that he's able to basically see through it on command, it's not quite so overwhelming. Still, with Kuoroke, it seems that less is more when it comes to talking. Without another word, he'd turn to move out toward the village as well. A look of focus shows in his eyes as he moves ahead, pondering in his mind how he'll take this man down. Every so often, he'd cast a glance at something invisible, eyes narrowing a bit, but he has to stay focused. This is a test, after all…
Situated on a small hill, this village probably used to blend into the desert background: small, mismatched buildings, haphazardly strewn among each other, all build from sand stone. Now, however, it sticks out like a sore thumb, being coloured in garish, bright chalk on every visible surface. It's well past noon and the sun has begun to set, so it isn't hot enough for everyone to stay inside… yet the village is eerily devoid of human life, with no a single form moving on its surface. Suterusu's rare gift informs him already from afar that the place has been saturated with chakra as well as colour.
Interesting. It was overflowing with chakra and hiding people because of the chakra noise. Eyes narrowed in concentration, those two clones would be sent to search for more information, moving unseen with the terrain as he started hunting for the source of the chaos. The figure himself would quietly croon to Itami and Yuuto, "The whole area is saturated with chakra. It is hard to see where people are at because of it. I am scanning further. He is active here and those are valid drawings, so we must be careful." The figure would give his report, then watch and wait, ready for what Itami and Yuuto wanted to do to handle this. His own actions are as normal, different from most.
As they approach the village, Yuuto would begin to inspect the chalk-covered town from afar. Well, this is certainly going to be an interesting evening. He finally gets to use his jutsu unrestricted without getting in trouble over it again. "Lovely," he says, giving a nod to Suterusu and pondering to bit. He'd close his eyes for a moment, reopening them again to reveal his active mis-matched Sharigan, two tomoe in one eye and one in the other. Reaching to his back, he draws a scroll along with an ink-prepped brush, quickly unraveling it to draw what appears to be a small army of ants perfectly within a couple seconds. He then forms a handseal, bringing them to life and sending them creeping into the seiged town to investigate along with Suterusu's clones. Rather than stop and wait, he'd then begin drawing several creatures of various sizes on the scroll, preparing them for what's probably going to rather eventful. "I guess we'll find out who the better artist is today," he says as he begin adding in some rather horrific-looking creatures alongside the more normal ones, giving a glimpse of the creatures that haunt his vision. Oddly enough, he even pulls his mask off for a moment to draw a tiger and a few snakes on it before placing it back on his face.
Suterusu's clones sneak through the village, undetected, leaving and entering buildings without interacting with them and without ever being seen. Inside, they see the villagers all huddling together, usually hiding in bed, trying to save up as much energy as they can. The telltale signs of starvation are everywhere: everything leather or even paper, anything theoretically edible, has been eaten or is in the process of doing so. The clones are met with hopeless eyes sunken deep into skulls barely covered by pale, parchment-like skin. And everywhere, everything is garishly coloured.
After the place had been studied for a bit by the clones, they'd get returned. He wasn't getting any information other than a lot of people that were in dire straits. "I have not been able to find him. None of the people in the village will be strong enough to aid us. Most will be needing help, from the amount of materials they have had to survive on." The figure would shake his head slowly. Looking at the buildings again. "We may have to bait him out. If I hide and allow the clones to draw him out, I could strike with my own assassination. However.. we will be having to deal with the mass of drawings that has been done. I do not have water control."
"Nor do I, so it looks like we're going to have to use a different strategy," Yuuto says, pondering a bit. "Well, perhaps I should move in and put my own creatures in place for combat…. How about this." He unravels the scroll a bit more, making a quick sketch of the town and marking north, south, east, and west. "If I send creatures from the sorth, and you send clones from the north, that would allow us to infiltrate from the east and west while we've thinned out his forces a bit to deal with them," he says, illustrating each point with the mark of a brush. "If that moves his mass of chakra with them, we should be able to pick him out at least a little easier to pin him down and detain him."
The figure studied the plan for a long moment, before a final nod was given. It was as good as any. He'd have the distraction needed to be able to resolve this scenario his way, if required. Focusing himself, gathering his own chakra, those clones would form about him. They were silent, the poof of smoke from their appearance even muted for the desire of stealth. Immediately they'd all vanish into the ground, all but one heading off for the north. That one clone would go with the figure, a nod given to Yuuto that they were following that plan and he'd vanish off to the east. He'd wait then, ready for his assault on the chalk with the clones, while coming in under the radar himself. The time to attack? Yuuto's creatures starting chaos to the south.
With the plan approved, Yuuto would move the scroll back into position and begin making his way a bit closer to the town. Once he's close enough, he'd form a handseal, and creatures would begin flying off the page into life-size and rushing toward the entrance to the village. A light smirk graces his lips under the mask as he would turn to move around to the west side of the village to prepare to move in himself. He closes his eyes for a moment, waiting as the creatures would storm the entrance, making quite a bit of noise as they attempt to gain the attention of the maniac they're trying to draw out.
The village is quiet as Yuuto's creature stream in, until they're well within the borders of the brightly coloured roofs, walls and roads. When they are, however, the first thing that happens is a massive maw appearing fronm the ground itself, closing on his forces out of nowhere. Many dive aside but some are crushed, attack by an opponent they couldn't have anticipated. And from there on out, chaos starts: black forces, cornered from all sides, below, right, left, front and back, and even a few flying creatures from the nightmares of a madman circle them, outnumbered by enemies giving them no safe ground and no safe cover.
In the meantime, both Suterusu and his clones enter the village undetected, with no reaction from the figures as far as Yuuto can tell and Suterusu… well he's underground, he can't really tell much in his current state, considering everything above is a uniform blanket of chakra. Yuuto is either also not noticed by the myriads of eyes staring at him from all walls, or simply allowed to enter.
Once inside the initial area of that village, the sound of chaos reaching even them, the clones would start to come out. The immediate action as they came out of the walls, the ground, the roofs was to rub out chalk as fast as they could. Smearing the lines, disrupting the chakra as they could. One of them was on point to search for the target, preparing for the attack while he worked on harassing the chalk creations. Two clones would work on marking out what chalk figures it could, two started to attack those harassing the ink creatures, throwing kunai and shuriken that would be manipulated with wires to strike as many as they could, while the figure and the clone with him stayed within that stealth. Watching and ready for the true assault once a target was found.
The village is quiet as Yuuto's creature stream in, until they're well within the borders of the brightly coloured roofs, walls and roads. When they are, however, the first thing that happens is a massive maw appearing fronm the ground itself, closing on his forces out of nowhere. Many dive aside but some are crushed, attack by an opponent they couldn't have anticipated. And from there on out, chaos starts: black forces, cornered from all sides, below, right, left, front and back, and even a few flying creatures from the nightmares of a madman circle them, outnumbered by enemies giving them no safe ground and no safe cover.
In the meantime, both Suterusu and his clones enter the village undetected, with no reaction from the figures as far as Yuuto can tell and Suterusu… well he's underground, he can't really tell much in his current state, considering everything above is a uniform blanket of chakra. Yuuto is either also not noticed by the myriads of eyes staring at him from all walls, or simply allowed to enter.
Once inside the initial area of that village, the sound of chaos reaching even them, the clones would start to come out. The immediate action as they came out of the walls, the ground, the roofs was to rub out chalk as fast as they could. Smearing the lines, disrupting the chakra as they could. One of them was on point to search for the target, preparing for the attack while he worked on harassing the chalk creations. Two clones would work on marking out what chalk figures it could, two started to attack those harassing the ink creatures, throwing kunai and shuriken that would be manipulated with wires to strike as many as they could, while the figure and the clone with him stayed within that stealth. Watching and ready for the true assault once a target was found.
The plan of attack was set. While the ink critters, a much brighter chakra swarm on top of the chakra all over the place. Once the initial attack had begun, that clone would throw a metal tree up towards the heaviest secondary chakra source nearby while coming up through his own attack to aid the ink critters. The three other clones would stay relatively close to each other, when the sound of combat started, the flare from that metal chakra a contrast of the normal chakra that would cause them to begin their assault on the other side, metal trees going up to disrupt surfaces as they would come out for their own assault. Two of the clones were focused on wrecking as much surface area as possible, using metal wire to burrow along, breaking up what lines they could. The third was looking for the source of this chaos. The one who was going to pay. Meanwhile, the actual figure and his clone, continued their work forward, having a fairly good idea of the distance needed to go, by looking it over before going into hiding, they would move slower, to maintain that hidden factor as they'd seek out the source of trouble.
As the clone comes to help, the ink beasts would fight against the chalk creatures ferociously. Thus far, the plan seems to be working well. Still, as Yuuto steps into the village, things seem to be going just a bit too well. He glances around with his mismatched Sharingan as he walks through the buildings, leaving the chalk creatures around him untouched for now. If he leaves them be, maybe he'll draw less attention to himself for now. This leaves him with a rather strange situation… viewing the insanity of another mixed in with his own as the voices from his prison whisper to him. He doesn't hide his movements at this point, as he's fairly sure the eyes looking down and up at him have already spotted him. Who knows, the guy may just be crazy enough to lead him in..
The battle rages on the streets and in the streets, sometimes literally when the drawing drawn onto the surface prove to be little more than two-dimensional and the ink creature need to claw at it. With a roaring noise of rubble being thrown aside, the trees appear. The drawings on the upturned soil begin changing shape, manifesting, but their broken form give rise only to wailing wretches that dies quickly. The assault on the ink creatures diminishes as whoever's in control guides his focus to the clones, and they too are beset from all sides. Suterusu's underground progress seems to go unnoticed, while Yuuto's presence is finally reacted to, a snake coiling off the road under his feet and the road next to him and trying to wrap itself around him.
To Yuuto's particular vision, the entire village is a resplendent in a constant glow, ever shifting, ever changing colours as it flows from one drawing to the other, the colours oscillating around those of the chalk but not quite the same, and shimmering up to the skies. Whereas Suterusu is merely aware that the fight has gathered a great amount of the chakra the streets are suffused with, the Sharingan allows Yuuto to see the swirling maelstrom of chakra flowing through the drawings, over the street between them, and into the creatures battling his own creations.
In the meantime, Suterusu's third clone manages to evade attacks of random claws and jaws appearing from the walls and the pavement, mostly by spending a great amount of his travelling time airborne, but he has yet to find any real indication of where their prey is.
As the snake comes up by him, Yuuto would quickly unravel the scroll to have a tiger of ink leap off the page down at it to attempt to clamp its jaws down on it and pin it down before it can reach him. As it attacks, he would gaze at the various colors provided by his Sharingan as he attempts to find their source. It's a bit tricky when one is dealing with jutsu that can be remotely activated much like his own, but, if his chakra stretches between himself, Suterusu, and the battling creatures, the jutsuist himself must have a lookout point in one of the larger buildings where he's attempting to hide himself. He probably views it as some kind of kingly towering castle in his mind where he can rule over his subjects from above… With that in mind, he would continue to trek ahead as he gazes through the chakra-powered art to try to find the rival artist they doing battle with.
The wrecking of the ground and walls seemed to work well, those drawings shattered unable to react appropriately. While those things would come for the three clones, they together would perform hand seals in unison, all three dropping to a knee to plant their hands there. The standard move he used often, that capturing power of those wires snaking and burrowing through the ground to surround and capture, were turned to destroying surfaces instead. It was a rapid spread, the power travelling outward from the three clones as they would scar as much ground and walls as possible, the wires snaking out of building walls themselves to latch onto chalk forces and crush them in the razored grip. Closer and closer to the center, finally the figure himself would appear, along with his clone. They acted in pure tandem, able to mirror each other as they thought the same. There had to be a point where the focus was coming from. He could sense chakra flowing, but with so much around, it made it frustratingly difficult to find where that source was at. The one clone fought on with the ink creatures, mayhem there, while the clones caused their own trouble for this chalk person. Now to just find where he was at.
As soon as the wires begin to get ripped out of the wall, the pressure on the ink creatures, what few remains, vanishes, the drawings dispersing into clouds of chalk dust. The chakra is redirected, as Suterusu feels and Yuuto can see as a brilliant wave pulsing through the streets, towards these strings. Just ahead of where they're being ripped out of the ground, creatures appear from the walls, creatures with claws and creatures that look like many-armed rocks without eyes, creatures that look like monstrous felines with flames for fur and creatures that look like humans bristling with daggers on short, but highly mobile blades. They all move to intercept these wires, to keep them from being puleld further up, while their brethren dive in to sever them and then go for their masters. For the first time since they arrived, the small group of ink survivors, now garish in the remains of their enemies, start making real headway.
The tiger divers for the snake's head, at the wall, its heavy black body hitting the wall and sliding down as it bites down. The snake's thrashing tail, however, manages to grab Yuuto's ankle and whip him around before hitting him against the pavement pretty hard.
The searching clone dashes through the streets to see this mixture coiling around, but his purpose is somewhere else. The clown believes he's caught a slight difference, a slightly increase, of chakra somewhere around of the fighting, and dashes off in that direction, jumping from wall to wall while deflecting, or striking, the occasional monster diving towards him. With their master's attention diverted, he tears through the enemies with ease. Not so the clones that rip out the wires, who may be stronger than the ink creatures, but are also fewer, and are therefore much more outnumbered by the monstrosities diving for them from all sides, and biting at their ankles whenever those touch the ground for long enough. Going into the ground would be risky: too much of a chance of being chomped in half midway.
As he is grabbed up, Yuuto doesn't have much time to react before he's slung to the ground by the creature. He is momentarily staggered before he grabs the scroll again, this time opening to reveal a set of rather horrific creatures that spring off the page to life, one almost shinigami-esque with a giant scythe and the other a rather ghastly floating sprectre. As the spectre flies for the snake's head, attempting to claw it to bits while the tiger tries to maintain its hold, the reaper would swings its scythe in a wide arc up the creature's body in an attempt to rend it in two and shatter it to powder. Meanwhile, Yuuto continues to glance through the chakra-colored streets as the energy shifts, attempting to pin-point the location of this madman so he can be contained.
Something had to give. Sure, while the man was distracted the clones could do the job, they were afterall, clones of a strong jounin. However the full power of that person bearing down on them was too much. Even with the three clones on defense, they'd eventually poof, leaving nothing behind on the street. The figure, with his clone partner would both come to a stop, pausing as he'd contemplate what just happen. Focusing himself, the clone that had been helping the ink creatures would dissapate as well. That seal done, all five clones would seperate from where he stood, spreading out as that tentative location was detected for where the target was at. As one, on that roof, they formed the seals, again moving in unison they'd take a knee, planting a hand to the ground. It was one thing dealing with three clones doing that move, It was another having the real figure in there, pouring the chakra in with the clones. There was an accelerated growth of wires, the vicious threads of steel much more faster in spreading, in disrupting surfaces. They easily covered a wide area, 300 feet range from where the figure knelt while disrupting as much surface as possible and seeking, that person, that source of the chalk attacks, to be caught within blazing hot grip of razored wire.
The new wires, ripping through the ground, cleave through the monsters. But their defenses seem to be weak, the creatures disposable: some dissipate even before the orange-red sheets the glowing wires paint in the air as they are pulled together reach them: with the drawing on the walls and streets around Suterusu destroyed and useless, those on the periphery of the village are brought in, and that means that the first one to be in trouble is Yuuto: while his three beasts are making short work of the snake, behind him, where the wires didn't reach, a new, albeit smaller, wave of beasts appears.
The searching clones continue their movement through the village, but it seems the monsters came with a kicker: the chalk dust they've dissipated into, still saturated with chakra, obscures their vision and their chakra senses alike.
As the creatures come his way, Yuuto would glance over his shoulder to see the beasts coming his way, as well as that this place is beginning to become a clouded mess of chalk. What doesn't help is that this causes more of his own apparitions to appear along with the chalk ones. While he can tell the difference in which ones actually have chakra and which don't now, the whispering voices in his mind continue to egg him on more and more. He'd bring his hands up to his head for a moment, gripping it as more and more chaos floods his senses, clecnhing his eyes shut until finally… "SHUT UP!" he roars out as he reaches to his back and grabs a sword, opening his eyes once again to reveal that a second tomoe has appeared in the eye that was off-balance, creating a full Sharingan II. Suddenly, the chakra colors would become much more clear to him, and the voices still whispering seem to only fuel the fire as he steps into stance and lunges directly at the charging creatures. Wind begins to whirl around the blade as he lunges at them, adding extra damage to his strikes as he would begin swinging at the chalk creatures. Of course, this also gives an effect that's not very nice for someone who's mask is lying in floating powder, as the wind that adds force to the attack would also blow through to try to push the chakra-laced chalk out of his line of vision. "Your art will wash away with the rain and be blown away with the wind!" he calls out to the other madman in the area. "Ink is a permanent print, a memory engraved for the generations to come! Guess who that makes the better artist!" he calls out as he strikes, the ink creatures coming to back him up once the snake has been finished.
The figure had to deal with chakra infused dust. Then again, the dust couldn't effect him as much as the actual creatures were. Not able to really find anyone, all of the clones would go to ground. Those who were under attack would get poofed, it was just how it happen, why clones were in place of the real him, they would spring free of him as they did get ate, although the wires had helped to clear a signifigant area of the village now of chalk monsters. With Yuuto dealing with them, he'd go to ground, slipping back into hiding as he'd gain his breath back, focus himself again and prepare for another assault. Hiding as he was, it'd be hard to find him, but for the moment he wasn't able to actively search. The scenario wasn't right, so he held off while Yuuto cleared the air and he could start again.
The creatures claw at Yuuto as he hacks at them, scattering their bodies in great, but sparse clouds of dust around himself. For every hit he lands, two seem to be aimed for him. For every strike he blocks, the ever-growing bright cloud around him yields another lunging form. Yet Yuuto continues whirling, his arms given power by both pride and madness, while Suterusu hides underground. Finally, Yuuto cut and battered but still quite in fighting shape, the fight end rather abruptly as the few remaining creatures retreat, and a great, rumbling crash sounds through the village. One of the nearby houses literally explodes as from it arises a disturbing creation: it has a long, flexible body, not unlike a snake, with four rows of long, multi-jointed limbs with sharp edges, tipped with vicious blades, spiralling around its body, two clockwise and two counterclockwise.
It has no head. Instead, this thing has a pedestal on the top, bearing a throne, and on it sits a disheveled, unshaven, but quite comfortable individual. Besides him, there are three people on the pedestal, all wearing some sort of ill-fitting wooden armour, coloured as brightly as the remained of the village. All of them seem to have a great amount of shallow cuts over their faces and hands, which remain exposed, and all three seem to be barely standing with exhaustion, especially in the creature's sudden movements.
"So you've decided to slaughter my citizens and my guards, invaders!" He announces. "Know this: miscreants like you are not welcome in these lands, but I am merciful. Leave now and I may spare those closest to you when my armies retaliate for your cowardly incursion." The surviving beings around Yuuto walk in a circle with slow, deliberate motions, but seem not to make any movement to attack.
Panting a bit, Yuuto looks around at the surviving creatures. He ponders what he's going to do next for a moment until the large chalk creatures bursts through a house onto the street. He eyes the incoming figures calculatively, trying to judge by their chakra what's what. The three men are likely just being controled with chalk, not a bad innovation of its use. Hopefully he'll get to see enough of it to copy how this is done and gain this man's abilities to add onto his own. While he could argue with this guy, trying to reason with him would likely be pointless… and look a bit odd coming from him. "Invasion should be expected when you are a ruler…. So should assassination," he says, and suddenly the ghoul and the reaper would charging toward the man. The reaper goes first, going to try to strike at the monstrosities legs as the ghoul flies up at the man himself. It appears he's going for a direct attack. One might question how good a plan that is, considering he has at least three guards that will try to defend him. However, it appears Yuuto is not just standing back, as he runs up a house while using the two ink creations as a distraction to jump off its roof and over the ghoul and the man's guards. As he soars in the air over them, he holds a single hand seal, and suddenly the tiger and snakes would leap off his mask, the tiger attempting to pounce the man and bring him down while the snakes would attempt to slither around him and act as a binding to keep him down once the act is done. Of course, if this DOESN'T work, he's in the open air above this monstrosity and a bladed throne, which could prove to be a bit of a problem.
Interesting. Well, that resolved the issue about needing to see where this guy was at. Watching from the shadows, that chakra would already start gathering, the focus strong within the figure as he'd draw a kunai. Those red eyes would focus on the man at the top, the clones with him would come out of the wood work, four of them literally coming out of roofs of nearby houses to launch upward. All of them together would throw metal wires, that razor wire seeking to wrap about the beast that carried the 'ruler' as well as snaking upward to latch onto guards and the man himself. It wasn't nearly as strong as what had previously been used, but it would still serve as a solid distraction while the real figure with his clone defender, gathered power.
With a helpless whimper, one of the guards is thrown carelessly into the reaper sent towards the madman, to be destroyed swiftly. The wires catch only a corpse. The others two move to defend him from the ghoul and Yuuto's two new creations, but are held back by the wires - only momentarily, however: the literally hundreds of bladed appendages of the ever-rising serpentine body slice right through the metal wires as if they were made of regular cloth, releasing it and them again. The beast lurches upwards, striking the ghoul and crushing him with the blow. The drawing on their armours tightly entangling the poor villagers' bodies, forces them towards the tiger and the snakes that already close in on this would-be king. Thanks to Suterusu's delay, they are not nearly fast enough, however, and both beasts descend onto his form, only to find themselves in yet another cloud of chalk dust as the ninja substitutes himself for one of the creatures moving below. "Very well. If you will -not- leave my lands, then I shall execute your co-conspirators."
And so comes the second act: forced out of their homes, lurching in an unsteady gait as they try to resist the chalk-covered, wooden suits moving them over the streets, comes the entire village's population, all closing in on Suterusu's clones rather clumsily, or being helped up the throne-creature's body by its bladed arms towards Yuuto. Even as they close in, they beg for aid. The kicker has yet to come, however, in the explanation where they got the lacerations on their face: a set of sharp blades arise from each of their collars, turned inward, ready to strike hard and deep, most likely killing them. The madman makes a motion and young woman's head is sliced apart like a melon, her decapitated corpse still moved onward by the uncaring armour.
Crazy or not, this bastard's good…. As his attack attack is evaded and creations crushed, Yuuto ponders what else he can do to beat this guy… then comes the kicker. While turning around to look, the former Chuunin sees the girl's head split in half and fall to the ground with a thud, only for her body to continue moving. His eyes suddenly get a lot more intense as visions of the night his mother and girlfriend were killed flood around him, and what appears to be an aura of the Scarecrow standing over the other madman would begin to laugh while the chalk-driven drones attempt to surround both him and the clones of Suterusu. "… Die… Die… DIE DIE DIE!!" his voice grows maniacal as he brings his hands into a seal, leaping into the air and breathing out a massive fireball down at the madman from atop his own creation. As the fireball races down, however, he's not wasting time, as he would appear behind the man with a sword in his hand, attempting to ram it directly through his back with a gale of wind strengthening his the blow to scatter any chalk that the man may have on his body. Of course, there's always a chance another civilian's going to wind up being put in the way of the attack, but this guy needs to be brought down.
"Knights, defend your king!" the man commands, and one of his poor victims, eyes squeezed shut and mouth wide open, screaming, in terror of what is inevitably to come, is hurled in front of the fireball, followed by what appears to be a younger relative, a son to a young father or a much younger brother perhaps. The question may never be resolved as he flames consume them, armor and all. "Fine, if that's what you want!" The madman forms a few handseals and, in a circle erupting from him, the blades strike each of the knights. "Your co-conspirators will pa-" with a gurgling sound, he staggers forward: blinded by his monologuing, his delusions of grandeur, the would-be king staggers forward, a blade embedded in the spine between his shoulderblades, the winds churching and tearing at the flesh around it, splattering Yuuto with blood and bits of flesh and bone. "Will… purgle… gurgle…" Spitting up a bit of blood, the man staggers forward, away from Yuuto, and half-collapsing, through eyes that can clearly barely see, sends in his entire shambling horde to storm Yuuto, while he himself falls to the ground in front of him.
As his clothes are spewed with blood and tattered flesh, Yuuto watches with enraged eyes as the 'king' of this chalk city begins to fall. "Go defend your castle in Hell," the ruby-eyed former shinobi says, as he draws another kunai from his side, wind surging with the blade as he flings directly at the man's temporal lobe while leaping back into the air in hopes of making the man completely braindead to stop his victims from further harming themselves or each other while keeping himself out of their grasp via kunai lobotomy.
As his cloths are spewed with blood and tattered flesh, Yuuto watches with enraged eyes as the 'king' of this chalk city begins to fall. "Go defend your castle in Hell," the ruby-eyed former shinobi says, as he draws another kunai from his side, wind surging with the blade as he flings directly at the man's temporal lobe in hopes of making the man completely braindead to stop his victims from further harming themselves or each other while keeping himself out of their grasp via kunai lobotomy. However, rather than wait and see, he reaches to his side and unravels a scroll, sending out a set of ink creatures that he crouches down between to allow them to hold back the barrage until the madman's chakra fades enough for the armor to stop moving.
The madman rolls aside feeble, and his monstrous servants lurch to his aid, both trying to trample Yuuto with their sheer mass and force themselves between the two of them. A quick, limp hand makes its way to Yuuto with a rib-cracking punch while he's throwing the kunai, but then out of nowhere, ink coalesces into the forms of beasts and they stand between their master and the tide, which in turn erupts in a wave of wails as the blades one again begin closing in- suddenly, the motion is cut short as the kunai does its damage. Several more people, their skulls sliced open, collapse. A few are cut, but most are only uncomfortably close to the blades around them. The would-be king makes no more sound: he is dead. His one-time servants can finally collapse from exhaustion, leaving the two shinobi - and their creations - the only ones standing.
