Starring:
Date: July 17, 2012
Summary:
Tsiro is brought along with Kiesuke and his student Kiku to assess his skill level while rescueing a kidnapped girl.
Poster's note: Profanity filtered in obvious places.
"Evaluation in the Field"
Border of the Land of Lightning
Now that Yuuka's had the baby and spends most of her time at home, Keisuke's life has gotten all the busier, despite his attempts to be home as much as possible. He's taken up her students along with his own. This gives him a great deal of responsibility in training the next generation, but he likes the idea of having more than a basic team trained to his standards. He also figures it's time Tsiro was tested for possible promotion since his skill level jumps have been quite impressive, enough to remind Keisuke of himself as a boy. Thus, when this mission came up, he figured this was as good a time as any to test the boy.
The daughter of a Land of Water nobleman has been kidnapped. Her parents have agreed to pay the ransom demanded by her kidnappers, or have at least led them to believe so after requesting that Kirigakure send a shinobi team to handle the situation. The objective of the mission is to kill the kidnappers and retrieve the girl unharmed.
Standing on the deck of a ship as it approaches the Land of Lighting, the giant Swordsman waves Tsiro and Kiku over as he rolls out a large map onto a table near the cabin. "Alright. Here's the deal," his deep voice rings out as he pulls out a pen and circles a rather large bridge near the base of the continent. "We are to meet the kidnappers here. Kiku and I will be henge'd into the forms of her parents and will have a briefcase full of paper fashioned to look enough like money to confuse them for a moment." He then circles a hill near the bridge, the peak of which gives a direct, unhindered view of the bridge. "Tsiro, your position will be here. When you have an open shot, or, if it seems the girl is about to be harmed, fire a Spitting Bone Needle at the man or men holding her. I'd like you to aim for the back of their necks, between their vertebrae to be sure they are disabled and unable to hurt or kill her." With that, he reaches to his side and presents a dagger made of his bone to Tsiro and then one to Kiku. "If all else fails, use these. I can guide them as needed…. Any questions before I explain the rest?"
Kiku nods her head a little bit as she takes a deep breath for a moment. "If worse comes to worse, I can also stop them. I think.", she says. The woman takes a deep breath. "It'd only be for a second though. A new technique that I leard.", she says. THe woman takes a moment to smile to herself. She mastered a new move! Yay! And its a fun one for her.
The woman looks at the knife a little bit. "Why do I always get the tiny toys?", she grumbles. The woman seems to have taken in a little bit of her team's personality now as she leans back, watching Keisuke. Hopefully he hasn't found out about her new trick. She really wants to test it on him at some point. If only to royally embrass him!
This was Tsiro's first real trip to the Land of Lightning, not that the boy was excited to be there or anything. He was a little excited to be out of the house. He nodded his head and moved towards Kiesuke's position on the deck. He then listened to the plan. He nods his head as he accepts the bone dagger. "Understood. What if the girl is not present?" Tsiro asked.
The boy then glanced towards Kiku. He then looks away towards the water. Her and that damn Genjutsu.
"We'll see, but give Tsiro first option to take care of it," Keisuke replies as he glances over to Kiku. "This is his test." Returning his attention to Tsiro, he smirks slightly and holds up a small black bag… The bag of bone dust he uses for that excrutiating, torturous way of killing an enemy. "We get the information out of them the old-fashioned way." That said, he tucks the bag back onto the side pouch. As the ship begins to approach the Land of Lightning Docks, he turns to walk into the cabin. "Inside for a moment, Kiku. We don't want them to see us using Henge and tip them off." Once inside, he brings his hands into a seal, causing a small puff of smoke to come out around him, revealing the look of a heavyset man in his mid-forties wearing a brown suit when it drifts away.
Kiku mutters, and nods her head. She wonders just how well her henge technique is going to work, but then again, its going to give her a chance to use one of her new style a bit more. She takes a moment ot henge into a black haired trophy wife. She holds the suitcase up to her chest, letting the henged…ahems hang over for just a moment. She takes a moment give a perfect smile.
Tsiro simply waits outside on the deck. This was his test and now he officially knew it. The boy glanced out over the water towards the land. After a few moments he moves out of view of the land. If someone was coming to watch these two, they would not want to see a shinobi from the land. Looks like he would probably be following them from a distance and then getting into place.
Now thoughts filled his mind of just how this test would happen. He most certainly would have to track the girl down if she was in the local area. That is unless they made it easy on them and brought her out of hiding for the trade. One could always hope. Now just to wait for the others.
The Henged Keisuke lifts an eyebrow at Kiku for a moment for the way she holds the briefcase before turning and walking out of the cabin. "Let's do this," he says as he steps out, the ship coming into the dock and to a halt as its crewmen tie it off then stretch the ramp down onto the docks to let them off. "She should be with them at the rendezvous point. These are simply desperate men, about the same level as mercenaries. They may have a few tricks, but not on the level of shinobi." He says that to Kiku, though loud enough Tsiro should be able to hear. No more help is given than that, as how he gets to his destination point and keeps himself hidden until his time to strike is completely up to him. Once he becomes a full-fledged Hunter, Tsiro will be doing these kinds of missions on his own, taking on Rogue Shinobi. Best to get some practice in now. "Come," Keisuke says to Kiku, leading her down onto the docks and starting to head up the mountainous path toward where they will meet the kidnappers.
Kiku is starting to wonder if Keisuke is just training her to be a secutary. Every mission she's been on lately has her standing in the back, waiting for basically nothing. The woman gives a small sigh before she resolves it in her head that if something were to happen, its likely that she's the last ditch effort to keep Tsiro from failing. That or able to stall long enough for Keisuke to go all Kaguya on everything that breathes…
Tsiro nodded his head as he over heard what Keisuke said. He waited a few moments for them to get some distance. He then placed his fingers together in a henge of his own. He now looked like some peasant boy. It was not far off from where he usually was, but it did away with some of the features that distinctly gave him away. Mainly the red eyes and the headband with the Kiri symbol.
Then the boy made his own exit from the boat. He watched as Keisuke kept Kiku beside her. It was for her own safety. Given her skill level and that hot headed temper of hers, there was no doubt she could find trouble if left to her own devices. Further evidence of this was the bone dagger given to each of them. Despite his hard exterior, there was some form of caring from the swordsman. More so than he would ever let on.
After a few moments of thought, the boy shook his head. He was making sure to walk like normal. He did not want to give anything away to anyone who might have been watching the ship dock. His thoughts then turn to the map Keisuke had shown them. He was looking for a specific path to get around to a vantage point on the meeting.
"As soon as Tsiro strikes, I want you to get over to the girl and put up a scroll barrier," Keisuke explains to Kiku in a low voice as they walk along. "I may have slightly understated the size of gang we're dealing with here to see how Tsiro handles it. It'll likely be raining kunai and blood by the end of this one." So Kiku isn't going to be so useless in this mission after all… And Keisuke may care, but he's still a deceptive drill sergeant!
As they make their way up the mountain trails through climates that change as they ascend, he keeps his eyes mostly on the path ahead, though he does glance around every so often to try to see if any of their targets are around… And some of them, indeed, are watching them, but they can't take them out just, as they can't alert them to what's going on beforehand.
Kiku looks at Keisuke. "…A scroll barrier? But…I don't know how to put up a scroll barrier…", she says. The woman kinda gives Keisuke this look of what the?! Kiku shakes her head a little bit. "Besides, I'm not fast enough for anything like that.", she says. The woman takes a deep breath. She keeps her ace in the whole in her back pocket for now, but she fears she'll have to use it.
Tsiro, still henged as a peasant boy, followed behind the two until he came upon his trail. He had been hoping the distance he kept between them would associate him with someone travelling and not a tail of sorts. Once on the second path, Tsiro moved along the rocky path until he came towards the steep side of the mountain. "Here… this looks like it should give me a decent vantage point."
The boy then uses chakra in his feet to walk up the side of the wall until he comes to the top. He then moves behind the first rock he spots and scans the area for the meeting point, the girl and other bandits.
"Barrier Seal, whatever the bloody thing is you use to try to block when I hit you," Keisuke replies, lifting an eyebrow at Kiku. "You'll have enough time." As he and Kiku come to the bridge, a group of about five mercenaries is in view on the bridge. Three stand about five feet in front, the other two behind them with the little girl between them, bound with ropes, standing about in the middle of the bridge. "…. There," Keisuke says, eyes narrowing as they approach. "You have our money?" the middle mercenary of the front three calls out as they approachg, drawing a gesture to the briefcase Kiku is holding.
Kiku walks, but she tries to slip something into the case after slowing down a little bit. Then when they get to the bridge, she holds up the briefcase so that the bandits can see it, but so that it hits her henge chest. "Release my daughter, please!", she yells in typical OMG MOMMY'S HERE fashion. The girl starts to rush towards the bridge, bouncing the case with her henge chest. Hopefully Suke didn't see what she did…
As Tsiro scans the area, he finds the intel on the mission was quite a bit off. There were more bandits than he had expected. Now was not the time to decide if Keisuke had known this or if he was in the dark. Despite this, Tsiro leaned towards the first option. He then watches as Kiku begins to bounce her way towards the bandits holding the kidnapped daughter. He was also aware that all of the bandits were probably now looking towards her chest.
"Ok, not a problem.." The boy began building some needles into his mouth. He was preparing to take out the targets as he went. He then pulls out a few vials of water from his pocket as he plans another trick.
Blinking at Kiku as she seems to be placing a lot of emphasis on fake breasts today, Keisuke tilts his head slightly. As she runs, he pretends to be running after her, attempting to slow her down. He nonchalantly waves his hand as he goes to put it down, intending to wave for Tsiro to take out his assigned targets first, the men holding the girl. They can't take the rest of them out until they're down, or this could turn into a disaster.
Kiku is waiting for her chance. Hopefully she has all the peoples attention. For now, she's going to let the kid take the shot, but she's already starting to gather chakra, in her arms, but she also has some saved for another purpose.
Tsiro saw the sign. Within moments the boy has has spit out two needles. One at the back of each guard's neck. These were aimed directly at the center to hit a vertebrae and disable them on impact. He then places his hands together in a technique. "Hidden mist jutsu." the boy whispers as the water slowly moves out of the vials to become a mist. Tsiro was well aware this would not hinder Keisuke in the least. Kiku as well should be alright, but it may buy him some time to kill more bandits.
The moment the bone needles strike, the heavyset middle-aged man is surrounded by a puff of smoke. As the smoke spreads out, a pair of Camelia Swords fly out from it and move to stab into the hearts of two of the three men at the front. "On your guard!" the giant calls out as races out of the smoke and points his hands up, sending several shards of bone into the air, making them grow out to become rather large bone shields as the bandits begin to rain kunai down at the team and the girl.
Its a strain, but Kiku throws a seal barrier over at the girl. She ignores her own defenses as she opens the case as her true form comes out. Inside the case…the word fear is written. Her seal barrier is weakend a bit as the last man between her and the girl sudden finds himself face to face with his own fears. Kiku throws the case away as she rushes the man as he falls to his knees. She pulls out the bone dagger, and stabs the man in the temple as she keeps running, letting go of the knife. Of course, she takes a number fo Kunais, since she couldn't defend herself….
Guessing that his hidden mist was kind of useless compared to the smoke, Tsiro decided not to focus on the group, but to focus on the forces outside the immediate area that were attacking inwards. His eyes began to trace each kunai back towards the bandit who through it. Soon they would find a bone sliver being shot at them. His eyes then scanned back towards Keisuke and Kiku. He was more worried that they had ensured the girl's safety.
As the dagger goes into the man's skull, the last of the men near the little girl is gone. While Tsiro takes on some of the men, others start to leap down onto the bridge. The bone shields start to deflect incoming strikes and kunai from the men as Keisuke glances around at them. "Kiku, hold position and protect the girl," he calls out as he starts to bring the shields into a circular barricade form around them to hold the bandits back. A sly grin crosses his lips as he turns his head back toward Kiku and whispers, "Watch this."
"I would love to…but…", she says. Her seal barrier is still up, but her eyes….are very very dim. Her chakra is all over the place, as a few others on teh bridge go down to their knees as Kiku looks at them. Ummm, it seems Kiku is doing something while remotely controlling a barrier, and using seals on her weapons….OK…Somebody's been taking lessons behind everyone's back…
Another bone sliver flies through the air to make contact with a bandit's throat. Not where Tsiro had aimed it but he'd take it. Once the surrounding area was clear or all the men had jumped down onto the bridge, Tsiro began to spit bone needles at the men on the bridge. Sure, Keisuke did not need th help, but Tsiro wanted to ensure everyone was dead. After he is certain the rest of the bandits will die, he glances around once more. Simply to be positive there was not one more lurker waiting for Kiku to drop her guard.
While bandits start to fall from behind the barricade, Keisuke gives a nod to Tsiro and shifts his hands into a seal. The plates of bone sprout several large bone spikes and shoot them out, impaling many of the men upon them and killing them. One of the shields flies back grows to into a massive shield covering the girl entirely since KIku is out of commission. This leave the opening for Tsiro to finish the rest off.
Once absolutely sure that the bandits were cleared from the outside area, Tsiro dashes out of his spot and takes off running down the side of the mountain. He jumps to the bridge and begins to sprout bones from his elbows and his knees. The boy then smashes into the remaining men, impaling them upon his bones. Once the carnage is done he looks to Keisuke to be sure the mission is over. "We done here?" he asks. "By the way, there were a few more than expected…"
After sending spikes out to finish what may be left of the men along with Tsiro, Keisuke waves a hand to allow all the bone formations he made to fade away. As the boy comes back, he gives a nod, saying, "We're done, and, yes, there were more than I initially gave you notice of. I wanted to see how you reacted when circumstances were far greater than initially expected. You did well. I'll be giving my report to the new Mizukage when we get back on the results of your test. First things first. Let's get this girl back to her family."
Fade to black.
