Starring:
Date: August 13, 2014
Summary:
Things escalate quickly on a runaway train.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Fakes on a Train"
Mountain Side
It had been a while since Nobunaga was joined on a mission by one of his students. Only Isura would be with him this dark and quiet evening as Zankuro was occupied with…well Zankuro things. The setting of this mission would place Nobunaga and Isura on a cargo passenger train hybrid coming from the Land of Snow. It is midnight and dead quiet save for the roar of the engine and the trucking of the tracks as the train speeds along. Nobunaga and Isura were tasked with the overseeing the safety of the train, its passengers, and it's precious cargo. Nobunaga decides that they both will patrol simultaneously starting at opposite ends.
Before they started their patrol Nobunaga had asked Isura what he thought about Yamanaka Yasuki. Nobunaga was considering adding him to the team as the third but he wanted to over it with the genin of his team first. There are 12 cars total. The first 5 cars, not including the conductor's car, are passenger. The remaining are cargo and the engine of course. Nobunaga is at the cargo end while Isura would be at the passenger end. So far all seems well. But that could all change at the blink of an eye. So it would be wise to stay alert.
Scratching his head at the question he frowned, "Yamanaka Yasuki? He's a pretty decent ninja due to the social interaction but in a spar I'm not sure if he could hold his own. More or less he might be a good fit he seem level headed more so then me and maybe even more so then Zankuro." After that he was given his orders he would smile as he poked Ikari in the stomach "Come on runt you're with me." Is stated as he crosses his arms and starts to head towards his end. He would look down at her and smile softly "You nervous?" is asked as he cracked his arm before he crossed them over his chest.
Ikari trots along beside of Isura on the way, and she looks up at Isura when her tummy was poked. She grins a little at Isura and nods, picking up the pace a little bit. She shakes her head, "Nope! Not even a little bit…ok maybe a little, but it'll be fun. It'll be great seeing Nobunaga-sama again though." She looks around as they walk, taking in the scenery. She would have to get all of the sight-seeing urges out've her system before the real work began. That way she wouldn't be getting distracted while she was helping with something important…granted, she might not help too awful much even if she did pay attention, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. Once they approach Nobunaga, Ikari lifts her hand to wave happily over at him. "Hello Nobunaga-sama!"
"That's precisely why I want him. He'll be a good addition. Rounding this team out and covering our weaknesses. Or embarrassingly apparent weaknesses." he sighs before parting ways with Isura. "Nice to get your opinion about it though." he says to the Uchiha. "He'd better not let anything happen to Ikari." Nobunaga muses to himself. Ikari's presence on this mission unnerved him slightly. He entrusted her to Isura to show how much he trusted his pupil. Hard headed or not Isura never let a friend down. Nobunaga would be counting on that. He enters the engine car while on patrol. Everything seemed in order as he walked the room. 'SQUEAK' is heard after Nobunaga took a step towards the engine. He blinks and presses his foot to the floor bringing about another 'squeak'. Upon closer inspection he notices a seem in the flooring. He's able to force that section of flooring up. It was an opening wide enough for a person to slip through. He could see the tracks. Now Nobunaga hears a beeping noise. "No, no, please no."
On his way back to meet up with Isura and Ikari Nobunaga tries to keep a nonchalant demeanor about himself. When he spots the two his face brightens. "Hey guys, anything to report?" he'd ask. After their report Nobunaga would motion Isura over towards him. "Ikari-chan wait over there and keep a look out for anything strange ok? I have to chat with Isura-san for a sec." Nobunaga would take Isura by the shoulder and move back a ways. "Ok so…um there's a bomb on the engine. It looks like chakra tech." he explains briefly to Isura. "I'm guessing that it's remote controlled since I didn't see anything resembling a timer." Nobunaga glances around. "We gotta find that remote without drawing attention to ourselves. So no one but me, you, and the culprit should know about the bomb got it? Not even Ikari-chan." Nobunaga sighs. "The remote is in the culprit's possession most likely." Nobunaga nods "So what we're going to do is-" suddenly the train shakes violently as if something hit it from above. The shaking almost knocks the train off the tracks. "Crap. I'll go take a look. You find that remote." Nobunaga instructs Isura. Nobunaga vanishes to go see what's going on outside the train. Meanwhile Isura would be left to deal with the situation at hand. The panicking passengers as well as the fact that they are now on a runaway train. "I can't stop the train!" shouts the conductor.
"I agree for the most put however I feel me and Zankuro should break him in first you know to show the new guys the ropes." Isura cross his arms over his chest until he heard the news of course then he quickly frowned and puffed up his cheeks "It was going fine until this turn of events…should have guess this caboose was going to go troublesome." He draped his head before picking it back up to hear what he had to do. "Ah that's annoying…I guess I'll go scope around…" Nodding his head he would shift back and pick Ikari back up as they moved from cart to cart he would scan it for clues. While at the same time trying to make sure Ikari didn't catch on to him and what he was doing. "So how's the academy going for ya? Having a blast are you learning cool jutsu?" Is asked as he searched. He would even kneel down to her level "meet any handsome boys?" He winked and giggled as he waited for her to answer all the while searching for the remote.
Ikari gets a peek out of the windows of the cart every chance she gets, and when Nobunaga asks her to wait away from him and Isura she bobs her head and hurries off at that faster pace waddle of hers. She'd scan around the room while humming a soft tune to herself, it was interesting to see the different sorts of people on the train. Some seemed to be foreigners from villages that were quite a journey away from Konohagakure, further than Ikari's ever been at least. When Isura comes back to inspect the carts she follows after him, though she isn't quite sure what they were supposed to be looking for…maybe contraband? Not knowing what sort of contraband would make it a little more difficult to pick out, but that didn't discourage Ikari! Though she looks through whatever the passengers will let her, she isn't distracted enough to ignore Isura's questions, "Learnin' at the academy is a lot of fun. There's some people that aren't that much older than me there…Right now I'm mostly workin' on getting bigger better, like when you seen me tryin' t'smash those crates with a fist…Tryin' t'eat more too, so I can have more chakra t'use…" She peers at Isura before sticking her tongue out and shaking her head, "Boys are dumb…all the ones in the academy just worry about who can beat up who the best and fastest…they make everything a race. They even try t'say we kunoichi can't do anything as good as they can…made one change his mind after I sat on him until he took back what he said."
Ikari grimaces a little when the train starts to shake, but she's able to focus some more of her weight down to her legs and feet so she can have an easier time remaining where she is. She looks to the passengers repeatedly waves her hands up and down, "Stay calm okay? Everythings fine, that conductor probably doesn' know what he's talkin' about!"
Nobunaga ventures outside to see that something had left a huge indentation in the surface of the car. Nobunaga inspects the indentation. The train was rounding the the mountain side. If it were to derail there would be no hope for survival. Nobunaga looks up to see something in the darkness approaching from above. "What in the world?" His eyes widen at a bolder falling towards the train. Nobunaga readies his scarf and leaps up to cleave the bolder in two. He succeeds and split the boulder into two smaller chucks of earth. They hit the train but with significantly less force. Still the train shook from the impacts. Nobunaga sighs in relief. "Of all things." he turns to head back inside when he happens to look up once more. More boulders.
Meanwhile on the train the passengers were losing their mind after the conductor told them the train was out of his control. Ikari's words fall on deaf ears. "Do you hear this girl? I think she's the one that doesn't know what she's talking about?" "What are we going to do?" "We're dead! Did you feel that? The trains going to get knocked off the tracks!" and it only escalates from there. Now a young lady heads over near Ikari. She is blonde and youthful looking but seems to me more mature than any of the others. "Now this girl does have a point. We need to calm down at least." she says. She's joined by a very tall man dressed elegantly just as the young girl is. "Let's all just-" lights begin to flicker on and off. Isura's keen eyes might find something strange about the tall man at the young lady's side. He took a defensive stance as the lights flickered. This stance resembles taijutsu. The lights cut out and then suddenly a blood curdling scream is heard. The train rocks even harder. When the lights return the tall man was eviscerated down the middle and bleeding on the floor. The young lady at his side was covered in his blood and crying. There's a note on the body of the now deceased man. After the shock has set in everyone starts to become even more unruly and unnerved.
Isura would be digging in his ear for the most part allowing them to panic for now until he heard enough. "The next person that says my fellow leaf shinobi don't know what the engine she's talking about will be punched dead in the mouth. Now as I was about to say-" He was cut off by the lady then the man took a stance, that causd Isura eyes to flare bright red in color taking in every detail of the man. Then the light flickered out as it did this he'd notice two chakra's clashing and one sped away as he sighed he would walk up and grab the note. "Ikari remember what I told you before…I mean it." His eyes still red he would shift about back towards the people and speak "Stay calm I will handle this. I have a fellow shinobi elite here that is handling the problem of the rocking train I know this because I have the radio contact with him now." At that moment he would peer out to see boulders "If you all remain calm that will make our jobs easier." Isura would be trying to display responsibility or something to that effect. "Ikari stay with the blonde women protect her and the other people in this cart. Don't worry kid I'll protect ya." Smirking he would start to read the blood soaked letter, for now Isura eyes would be relaxed as he took this time to read the letter carefully.
"Yeah see, this lady says so too, and she's older than me! And this man too." Ikari points up at the lady and the man by her side, who both were trying to give her more credibility. When the lights start to flicker she looks up at them and grumbles some, "Dumb lights…they should just use lantern and oil…those don't go out…well…they're easier to turn back one" She winces and reaches up to cover her ears instinctively when the shriek echos through the train's corridor. It is a momentary relief when the lights come back on, but it only lasts up until Ikari's eyes lay on the bleeding man. She stares and reaches up to cover her mouth while her skin creeps to a paler shade. She looks at Isura then back at the body, who she'd carefully walk towards. She'd reach down to try and feel for a pulse, even though she doesn't know what she's doing and it's probably obvious that he isn't going to be making it. Whenever she's given instructions, she comes out of her stunned state a little, enough to get by the blonde woman's side and slip into a more appropriate taijutsu stance. "Don't worry lady, you got an Akimichi by your side, we're sturdy."
NOTE CONTENTS:The train has been hijacked and will be approaching the station in approximately 15 minutes at this speed. The train is getting faster you should notice. It will crash into the station or be derailed at this rate. Everyone aboard is a hostage. Our demands are the cargo and one specific passenger. We request that this passenger make their way ALONE to the 6th cart on the train. After which cars 12 through 6 will disconnect letting cars 1-5 (passenger cars) go free. Failure to comply will result in the death off all.'
Cleaving more boulders into pieces Nobunaga fights this unnatural onslaught leaving everything that's going on aboard the train to Isura. "What's going on? This…isn't normal." Nobunaga then feels the train speed up. He can see the station in the distance. "Why hasn't the conductor pulled the breaks?" Nobunaga's eyes widen as he comes to a frightening realization. "It's been hijacked. But then…why the bomb? Surely they want something if they're hijacking the train. Maybe it's not a bomb…how'd they hijack this entire train anyway?" He groans. With more questions than answers Nobunaga wants to get back inside but if he does no one will be able to keep the train safe from the boulders. He has no choice but to leave it all to Isura and Ikari. He can hear screams from within the train. "Sounds like everything isn't going so well."
Inside the train the young lady is too hysteric to say anything. Ikari's comfort and protection helps bring her back to her senses. "Wait…you're shinobi?" she looks between Isura and Ikari. A bit of fear takes hold of her expression as she looks between the two Leaf Shinobi. She swallows once and shakes her head "He….he was too." she points to the dead body. "From the Land of Snow. He was protecting me." she whimpers. The man's ability before makes more sense now. "Whoever killed him had to be very skilled." She begins looking around the car. There are a total of ten individuals including Ikari and Isura. "I wonder if they're still here?" she asks before breaking into a helpless sob.
Isura would remove the device from the dead man's pocket as he did this he recalled what Nobu said before he went outside. He noticed everyone's chakra network is calm but the conductor's thus he has something to do with it. Isura smirks and presents the device to him and in a calm voice spoke softly only so that the two of them could hear. "So what the conductor is this? Is this your clever way of trying to steal whatever on this train? Perhaps we can talk in the next car." Isura waited for a moment before speaking again this time his tone would be a lot stern then before "or maybe you'll like me to tell everyone on this car my discovering and who knows what they might do to you? Which I'm saying is either tell me everyone involved and hand over the remote or else." Isura eyes burned red with both anger and total readiness with whatever it was the man might do next. (Please test me today, wish a ninja would test me today.)
Ikari looks up at the woman sympathetically and reaches up to try and pat her arm comfortingly. The woman was probably right, they're probably still here. Someone had to kill the body guard after all, he couldn't very well do this to himself. She looks between Isura and the conductor when he gets pointed out, then brings her hands up to idly pop her knuckles. This was going to be a very tricky situation, and it was important to be handling things carefully. She definitely understood Isura's reaction though, there was a killer in this cart with them that took the time to plan this out with others, the conductor possibly in on it no less. Ikari wouldn't act much more diplomatic than him, so for now she stays by the woman's side and speaks quietly with her, "Why'd you need protecting lady?…Are you from th'Land of Snow too? If you ain't…where'd ya meet him? The guard I mean…"
Nobunaga starts to get winded. "Come on Isura what are you doing?" he says as he tries to cut a boulder in half. He's unable to muster up the strength and the boulder hits the train hard. The entire thing shakes and comes so close to derailing that Nobunaga thought they were done for. "Damn it. This is earth manipulation. Has to be. Which means some shinboi is behind this. Keeping me busy." Nobunaga looks back to the engine and thinks for a moment. "What if…it's not a bomb?" they were gaining speed and the station was mere minutes away. "If the conductor can't stop the train then there is no use for the bomb…assuming their motive is-" Nobunaga's attention returns upward. Even more boulders are headed his way.
Back on the train Isura was on to something. When he approached the conductor he'd notice his chakra would waver. "What are you talking about? I was over here and I am just a conductor! Search me you'll find no weapon. How could I kill a man like that? A shinobi none the less?" the conductor chuckles. Mean while he eyes the device Isura retrieved. He seems wary of it. The young lady Ikari is talking to gives the Akimichi an alarmed look. "I am an esteemed member of the Land of Snow." she answers with a smile. She quickly tries to shift attention away from herself. "Listen the train is going to arrive at the station soon. I should head to the 6th cart like 'they' said in the letter." She stands seemingly having found her courage. "It's the only way. Quick give me the device so I can head back before it's too late." she implores Isura.
Thinking fast Isura eyes was able to see through the lies, he would smirk as he flash through some seals. "Sorry Ikari this is going to sting a little but you'll live I swear." Isura would release a wave of pure heat outward onto the cart front here he did what was natural that was knocking the conductor and the woman out. Once he did that he would tie them up as he did so he would be speaking to Ikari "Stay calm, your not going to die…just breathe, your eyes burn a little but it's okay Isura-san is here." Smirking he would blush slightly before standing up, "Since they're currently knocked out I'm going to go to the sixth cart as I do that you search them for anything I'll be back shortly hold the fort down." Isura was getting a little heated before he released a huge sigh as he fanatically made his way to the sixth cart once there he used his eye to scan for chakra before bursting in his rage boiling all he could think about was if someone pops out of here I'm totally crushing them with all my might.
Ikari would blink at the woman's reaction to her questions and her request for the device. How'd she know 'they' were behind this? Isura never really read off that piece of paper he got, so why'd she assume it was her they wanted back there? Why would she want a device if she didn't know what it could do? It didn't make any sense, unless she was in on it. A fake kidnapping, it did seem like a perfect crime to attempt. No one would suspect a victim, they are usually the ones in danger. Before she has time to confront the woman openly about her suspicions, Isura sounds off a brief warning. Ack! What could she do? Maybe if she got far away enough from Isura, the heat wouldn't hurt as much. Immediately she focuses on a seal and suddenly her legs swell and spring her up into the air. Before she can make any real distance though, she bonks the top of her head on the trains ceiling and falls a couple feet away. Well that's great, not only were her eyes burning but now she had a headache too. She tries to blink enough tears away from her eyes to look up and pay attention to Isura as he speaks to her, "Hold…fort down…got it."
Nobunaga manages to slice through a large boulder keeping it from touching the train. A sigh of relief escapes his lips as he takes a breather. "No more…" he notices. He then looks ahead. They are almost at the station and they haven't slowed down a bit. Nobunaga figures now's a good time to get back inside. So he does. He enters the conductor's cart. He tries to apply the brakes but they wouldn't deploy. "Figures." he says with a grimace. Nobunaga thinks back and thinks hard. "It's not a bomb…it's how they're hijacking the train. That device must be overriding the brakes and the speed controls." He nods "Which means they must have a way to control it." he works his way back to the passenger carts. "We don't have much time."
Isura's sear attack caught the girl off guard and appears to do the same to the conductor. When Isura ties them up it seems he had cracked the case. But soon the conductor breaks free. He was pretending to have been hit by the attack. "Screw it. At this rate we're all going to die." his fingers whip out and from them chakra strings latch on to every passenger in the train, except Ikari. Isura was in the 6th cart so he would be spared. Once hit with the strings everyone went silent and zoned out it seemed. The conductor had freed the young lady as well. "Get the device from that shinobi and tell him not to pull any funny business. Or I'll kill the passengers…and his little shinobi friend too. Just like that pestering snow shinobi." he looks to Ikari with a sinister smile. Seeing as Isura just blinded her…well doesn't seem like there's much she can do. "Hey you there with the freak eyes. Get back in here." She calls out to Isura.
Isura rage has hit a boiling point as he was called back into the cart he would see everything going on inside of it, he would be using the clone technique as it waltz right into the cart with his hands up and his face in a defeated frown; as for the real Isura would be sizing up the man from outside the cart once he felt like he had the angle he liked he would take in a huge breath before releasing a fire bullet barrage out onto him and the woman hit or miss he would follow up once more towards the man with a sear before spin back and attack with his clan special skill the fireball. If anyone didn't notice Isura was pissed however he didn't have time to care about the two idiots instead he would shift and head towards the front of the train once there he dipped into the horse stance and allow his chakra to reach its peak before releasing one last fireball out towards the device. Isura was out of options and thus he just did what he knew best and that's pure destruction hopefully his actions would allow Ikari a chance to do something and Nobu a chance to come back either way he had to do what he could.
Ikari grimaces a little bit and for the time being can only watch as the conductor attaches the strings to the passengers. When he looked at her she growls to herself, there wasn't any way she was letting him or that woman get away. Ikari needed to wait for the right moment, thankfully the blasts of fire and heat coming from the direction Isura went, Ikari knew this was that moment and she couldn't linger. She pushes herself up and runs on all fours, until her momentum allows her to run on her two feet. She was heading for the front of the train and nothing was gonna stop her. Once she reaches the front car where all the controls are, she doesn't even take the time to notice Nobunaga before she hugs onto the brake lever and tries to tug it back desperately in an attempt to get the train to stop. Eventually Nobunaga's prescence registers and she starts trying to explain in between her panting, "It's a fake…the conductor and that lady…the conductor's doin' weird stuff in there…I think he killed th'man in there…"
Nobunaga passes by Ikari curious as to what's been going on. She clearly was in a hurry though. "It wont work. The break is disabled. We have to evacuate the passengers." He says to her. He arrives in the cart that everything is going on in. Nobunaga looks to Isura then the passengers then to the conductor and blonde haired woman. Seeing Isura was about to destroy the device Nobunaga shouts. "No wait ISURA!" he bursts forward with chakra rushing in past the conductor and the young lady. The conductor used one of the passenger puppets to shield himself from Isura's attacks effectively killing the passenger. The young woman gets hit with a fireball and is knocked towards the side of the car. Nobunaga takes the fire ball but also the device from Isura. He fiddles with it frantically and suddenly the train shakes then the sound of something unhinging fills the air. At the exact moment the break gives way to Ikari's tugging. The brakes are then applied.
"Shoot. Let's get out of here." the conductor says whipping his fingers and directing the human hostages/puppets towards Nobunaga and Isura. The woman and the conductor then make their escape. The train begins to slow down at an alarming rate. It was close. But it looks like they'll make it. Nobunaga shields Isura from the passengers getting struck by a few of them. They go limp but they are not dead. Save for the one that took Isura's attack. Nobunaga didn't have time to be furious he was just happy that everyone survived. "Is….is everyone alright?" he says panting. He points to Isura. "We're going to have a talk when this heart attack passes over."
