Starring:
Date: October 17, 2013
Summary:
A team of Leaf nin are sent into the wilderness to rescue an agent of Konoha.
"Exfiltrating the Infiltrator"
Land of Fire
The Humubaru estuary is a beautiful and pristine natural site on the coast of the Land of Fire where a major river meets the ocean. With unique plant and animal life, it's truly a sight to see! But this is a rare opportunity, because it's also thick with thieves. Indeed, with lots of nooks to hide out and the abundant fish, wildlife and plants, it's quite easy for a gang of bandits to make their base here, hunting, gathering, and stealing to get along.
The bandits have become so troublesome that Konoha sent an agent to infiltrate the group. But now the agent, codenamed Ragunaru, has missed his monthly report, and the administration is concerned. So they've sent out a team to find out what's happened to him and — if necessary — see to his safety. The team is lead by Atsuro and Taizen, who have experience working in traversing coastal and wetland areas, with Daisuke (who should be able to totally blow away even this persistent group of bandits, if necessary), and Rio and Tsheyka, to give that extra boost of scouting ability they might need here.
Up until a short while ago, Atsuro's had the team simply water-walking across the estuary, but now they're closer and simply standing out on the water won't do. So they've been sneaking through vegetated areas on land or wading through the water for the past few minutes. At last, they reach a clump of bushes and Atsuro kneels down. He turns to face the team, then gestures behind himself before he starts rolling his pant legs down again. "No more wading," he promises. Indeed, behind him, a ways in the distance, is what looks like a little fort, made of logs and branches and whatever's available in the area. "Lots of ways to approach," he says, "But we can't start smashing things until we know what's going on with Ragunaru. How do we wanna do this?"
Peering at the fort in the distance, she hmms and then grins down at the coonhound pup that is only just starting to gain size. She pats TSheyka and grins, "TSheyka can get in closer by sneaking via her size. I will move in from afar and get eyes on a guard." She hmms and then shrugs, "I mean, honestly, our tactics are really more designed to distract and then defeat." She looks at Atsuro, "We can do that, of course, just saying it isn't our normal thing to do these sorts of things." She then hmms, "Of course, distract is really something that might help you two." She chuckles, "TSheyka getting their attention outward while I rain some bolts into them." She shrugs, "Then you two do what you need to do."
While Atsuro may be getting dirty with the swamp water and vegetation, Daisuke was hovering a foot over all the dirt on his nimbus, Chuckling along the way as his team mates go squish squish through the vegetation, he keeps his socks nice and dry. As Atsuro positions the team and talks strategy, Daisuke looks over to the wooden fort. "Well the easiest thing to do would be to get a look at the typical clothing the thieves are wearing, I don't imagine thieves to be too organized with uniforms, etc, and use Henge. We do need to find this guy, and there is a chance he went rogue." he says as he looks over and listens to Rio. "That could work but we might not get eyes on him if he is anything more than a captive or dead. Either way is fine with me, though. So, leader, it's up to you!" he says to Atsuro.
Atsuro nods a little as Rio explains her plan. "A diversion could be useful," he agrees, "We'd just need some way to make sure you can get away and come find us again… or at least not get captured. Daisuke?" He looks over to Daisuke and nods as Daisuke gives his ideas too. Atsuro thinks for a moment, then seems to have come up with something. "Alright," he says, "Well, I guess we know why they made me the brains of this operation. I've taken your two half-ideas and combined them into a single whole idea." Ouch. "We look for an entrance, and it'll probably have some guards. Rio and Tsheyka get the guards all riled up by shooting them and all that. And Daisuke, Tai, and I can sneak up on them and knock them out nice and quiet while they're chasing after her. Then we can get a good look at them and either use henge or take their clothes." He pauses, "Hopefully their clothes don't fit any of us." He's always preferred real disguises over henge, but he's not too keen on catching whatever clothing-borne diseases smelly bandits might have. "Sound good?"
If it does sound good, he leads them around the fort, and eventually, they spot an entrance, with a couple of guards. "Alright," Atsuro whispers, "Let's move."
A grin, "TSheyka and I have always been talented at causing trouble." She then frowns and hmms, "Idea." She states and then idly reaches up and starts shifting her headband to hide its symbol and then nods to Atsuro as she pushes it down so her mouth is revealed, "I do this right and I'm just some annoying kid." She nods, "Not a shinobi." She grins and then idly pulls up a few stones here and there, "They see a shinobi they throw up warnings…they see an annoying kid and her dog, and if they are dumb enough, they might just give chase." She then starts slipping up forward to try to sneak into position, especially TSheyka.
Daisuke lets the half-idea comment go as he really wasn't sent on missions to strategize and he had no pride issues there. As the plan falls into place, Daisuke nods his head, stepping onto the grassy earth and letting his Nimbus crumble into dust. "I'm going for henge either way, though if you want to wear month old scraps of cloth worn by some smelly thief, by all means." Daisuke comments before they go. Once in position Daisuke performs one of his signature hand seals, sinking into the earth to await Rio's distraction. It seems to work as they spot Rio, Daisuke already moving through the earth towards the larger-set guard that is a bit behind the pack. He would reach out to try to grab the guards ankle, pull it into the earth as he rises from it, and incapacitate him in a matter of seconds.
Rio's attempt at sneaking isn't entirely successful. But with her little disguise earlier, this actually works out to an advantage. One guard nudges the other and whispers something. Then the two start walking towards Rio and Tsheyka, figuring they might be able to capture and ransom her, or something to that effect. With Daisuke's super-stealthy approach, the larger guard doesn't even see him coming. Embarrassingly for Atsuro, his attempt doesn't work quite so well. Taizen stays slightly behind the group, ensuring no attacks from the rear, while Atsuro goes after the other guard. He gets pretty close, but thanks to his earlier time in the water, a wrong step causes a surprisingly loud *SQUISH*. Thankfully, there's only one guard by now, and by the time he's turned around, Atsuro has already made a fist and coldcocked him. "That was close," Atsuro mutters, shaking his hand in the air for a moment.
They've got plenty of time to get their disguises ready. And as Daisuke suggests, Atsuro doesn't go for the crusty bandit clothes, opting to simply henge into something similar (and get rid of those Inuzuka tattoos). "Okay," he says, "We walk in, nice and casual, and see if we can find someone who looks like they might know what's up… and is also kinda dumb. Well, just look for someone by themselves, who wouldn't be weirded out by three people and two dogs walking up to them. Eating or something, I dunno." If they're good with that, Atsuro leads them in, taking the now unguarded gate.
The bandit camp is a little shanty town, with a number of people hanging out by a big fire, with others walking (maybe patrolling?) around the camp, throwing knives at targets, and occupying themselves with other such things. Now, to find someone useful in all this. Or maybe Ragunaru himself?
Looking at the others Rio blinks and then points, "Two guards…three of us…and two dogs." She then looks at Atsuro as he speaks before looking over toward Daisuke before looking back at TSheyka. She then hmms, "Well, I guess I can try to henge." She nods, "As a big smelly man." She looks down and then looks up before thinking, "Wouldn't it be better if you two walked in with me in tow or…" But then they are already starting in and she just does her best henge and lets TSheyka slip on in and run around a little close to the ground…after all it is a puppy. Puppies aren't always so easy to spot and tend not to be seen as a threat.
GAME: Save complete.
Daisuke dusts his hands off as the big guy falls, figuring his arms are about the same size, though much better sculpted. Using the time to get a good henge going, Daisuke ties and gags the guards, hanging them up in a tree tied to the trunk out of the way of any path. He wasn't sure if there were any patrols still out there and it wouldn't do them well to get spotted while inside the belly of the beast. "I'm sure there are a few smelly thief daughters and wives around if you have an issue with the body type. The clothes and appearance are the most important part of selling the costume. " he says, the last part to Rio. "All ready to go, he walks over to the group and prepares a nice, casual walk for himself. "I just hope people don't come up to us thinking they know us or anything. That's always the worst. I don't have much bandit or thief lingo in my vocabulary except for taunting and the screaming that follows theirs taunts."
As they enter the shanty town, Daisuke keeps his senses alert to see if he notices anyone like Naru's description.
The team walks through the shanty town, eyes and ears open for anything that might be useful. Rio doesn't hear or come across anything directly useful, but as she walks by a small crowd of bandits, she can hear a snippet of conversation. "Blah blah blah… snake pit… blah blah blah." Daisuke has much better luck, though. Someone has dropped a small note on the ground. It says:
Aera,
Took the the traitor to the cage.
Snake-in-the-Eye
Isn't that interesting? There's just the matter of finding out more about this 'cage,' eh?
Looking around, in h er disguise, Rio doesn't get much of it and then looks at Daisuke before hsrugging and keeping moving with the group. She does notice Daisuke getting a note though and so for her part, she just starts to peer around more. She then hmms and gestures TSheyka to spread out a little from them and do puppy thing swhile looking…after all, agian, it's a puppy. Puppies aren't that scary or cared about.
Daisuke picks up the note and reads it, figuring Naru had been found out recently, or at least he hoped. He passes the note to Atsuro to read and show Rio as well as they continue to walk, beginning to follow the flow of people hoping there was some 'cage' event going on soon or something. Senses still alert for clues to the location, he walks in silence.
Atsuro takes the note from Daisuke and reads it. "A cage, eh?" he says, once he's finished reading the note. "Nice find," he says, handing the note back to Daisuke. "I bet I know who the 'traitor' is." He stops and thinks for a moment. "I think I saw something like a cage, a little ways back. It was kinda near that big fire…" He pauses, "Worrying."
But when he leads them to where he saw the cage, it doesn't look as if it's going to go in the fire. It's a simple steel cage, suspended slightly in the air with a sort of crane system. There's a large crowd of bandits here, watching the cage. "Looks like we arrived just in time," Atsuro murmurs. Indeed, in the cage is a scraggly-looking older man — from photos the team was shown in the briefing, he looks to be Ragunaru. Whatever fate awaits him, he's not (yet) showing fear, but the team needs to rescue him, of course. There's a creaking noise, and the crane starts to move the cage, closer and closer to a large hole.
Atsuro knows they need to act quickly. "Daisuke," he whispers, "Let us get into position, then break out the big guns — we need a huge distraction. Rio, get over to the crane. Hopefully when Daisuke attacks, the guy controlling it will let go and you can try to stop it. If not, I'll try and break into the cage and get him out of there. Let's move."
And Rio simply nods before slipping off and starting to make her way around toward the crane mechanism. She looks really concerned at the situation and instead of going herself, she moves off into a position where she has a good shot on the crane mechanism, aiming her bolts for th e crank even as TSheyka will do what she does best and attempt to get into position. After all, TSheyka is the muscle.
Daisuke passes the note to Rio in case she had any other information about the cage as Atsuro remembers a cage a ways back. Turning with the rest of the team, Daisuke makes his way back to where Atsuro had spotted the cage, along with a gathering and a large fire. 'This kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.' Daisuke thinks to himself, giving ATsuro a concerned look for not being able to notice and point this out earlier. Either way, he was given his job and he wasn't going to disappoint, for that was his role on any team that went out in the field. "Make sure to cover those sensitive ears of yours." he says to the twosome before heading for the action.
Daisuke moves into the group of bandits and thieves, able to navigate and slip through in order to get a better look and better position. When in position and sure Atsuro and Rio had taken his advice, he clears his throat before channeling some of his unique chakra into it. Lifting his head up to the sky, he opens his mouth and an earth-shattering roar fills the area immediately, causing even the ground to shudder and crack, a lesson for those thieves who were too close to the hole.
Atsuro frowns at Daisuke and attempts to communicate through gestures. Ping-pong, everywhere, cheesecake. Nope, he's not getting his message across. In any case, his attack is quite effective. The earth shakes, bandits are thrown off their feet, and some hissing comes from down in the hole. Hissing? Atsuro's pretty close himself, so it's lucky that he's more sure-footed. Thanks to the roaring, the cage is swinging around by itself, its operator also caught up in the excitement, but a lucky bolt fired into the mechanism keeps it nicely jammed. Nice work, Rio!
Atsuro and Taizen are in a good position and make for the cage. Atsuro pulls out a sword and slices at the bars, while Taizen grabs it and holds it steady in his strong doggie-jaws. Unfortunately, you can't do that sort of thing under these circumstances without someone noticing. "Hey!" yells someone, "It's a jailbreak!" The bandits split up. They aren't well coordinated, but there's enough of them (reinforced by other bandits running in from other parts of the camp) that they can throw decent numbers at both Atsuro and Daisuke.
With her initial job complete, Rio grins and then chuckles as she returns to her normal looks and looks toward Atsuro and Daisuke, "One of you get the guy!" She grins and looks around, "We'll do what we do best!" And with that she begins to fire off bolts in various directions as TSheyka follows her movements, nipping at ankles while Rio fires off pinning bolts this way and that. The result? Probably a couple of tripped up bandits who are going to have to pull bolts free before they can even get up again. Rio is, meanwhile, moving toward the way they came in even as she tries to keep bandits moving.
Rio was a ranged fighter, Daisuke seemed pleased by that, mostly because it meant he could let loose a bit into the crowd of incoming bandits without some taijutsu fighter in the mix that he had to worry about. He looks back at Rio and her dog, noticing them heading for the exit before turning back around. "Now then." he says as he begins to mould his chakra inside his stomach, his chakra rising only slightly before he exhales a powerful toxic haze laden with microscopic pieces of glass and toxic chemicals hidden within the deadly white haze. Distraction, check. He looks over to where atsuro and the captive to find out if it is fall back or go time.
That's more or less what Atsuro had planned on doing. Ragunaru is in a daze from being swung around in the cage, so Atsuro just grabs him and slings him over his shoulder. Between Rio, Tsheyka, and Daisuke, the bandits can't do a whole lot about Atsuro escaping with their prisoner. They're aware of it, but all they've got to show for it is a cage hanging over a pit of snakes. Atsuro and Taizen hurry towards the entrance, Taizen keeping any bandit who breaks away to pursue them at bay. They're mostly to the gate now, and Atsuro is signalling (thankfully, much more fluently than his attempt at explaining himself to Daisuke) for them to break off.
And that's it for Rio and TSheyka, to be honest. They only needed to cause havok. After all, they get the guy out and they win! Winning is winning! Winning! Rio is excited as she rushes away and peers back with an "OooooOOOOOooo" As she watches the Haze and then smiles at TSheyka as they simply make their way out. They would only fire off another volley if they had to.
As Daisuke gets the signal he leaves the wheezing thieves affected by his haze to their own devices and sinks into the earth again, pulling out from the camp with no one the wiser. Moving through the earth, Daisuke catches up with the crew and pops back out of the earth, much preferring a good ride in the air since he knew the swampy waters were ahead of them. "So… mission complete?" he asks, uncertain because he had left the people and place alive and in moderate condition still.
And they're out! Although some of the bandits are missing-nin, the group simply isn't in position to pursue. Daisuke and his attacks have just left the whole place in chaos. They try, of course, but once the team has gathered up, Atsuro has them running — and he knows how to move through this area. It's not long before they've lost the enemy. "Mission complete," Atsuro confirms for Daisuke, after he and Taizen sniff the air and are satisfied that no enemies are nearby. He glances up at the form on his shoulder, Ragunaru, their target. "Nice work, everyone," he says, "Let's go home."
