Starring:
Date: January 19, 2014
Summary:
Shinobi from a variety of villages come together to protect the flow of rice to the world.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Helmet of Despair"
A small village outside of Fuuma Alley
Having travelled across the desert, Chitose looks surprisingly well for someone who had to make such a journey to a land made up primarily of rice paddies. The call had gone out to try to send shinobi when able to this land of rice paddies as an artifact had been stolen from Fuuma Alley and the last word of said artifact is here in the Land of Rice. The return of the artifact would garner pay but more important than that, the land of rice paddies supplies rice to all the land, not just to Fuuma Alley. This strategic position is important to everyone and such an artifact as this could cause chaos in this area. As she approaches the small village in the land of Rice Paddies that they were to meet in, Chitose notices something odd moving along the nearby tree line that leads toward the Land of Fire. As she awaits others who were supposed to meet her here, she can't help but feel as if many eyes were watching her from that treeline.
The larger shinobi villages weren't the only ones interested in making sure the artifact didn't wind up in the wrong hands. Unfortunately with Kusagakure having their hands full with another problem as is, Rise and Akane were outsourced for the mission. A pretty good thing too for the duo because Rise would've certainly found some other excuse to go investigating, pro bono.
"C'mon Akane-chan, pick up the pace." Rise would goad during the final stretch before the meeting place. When the duo do actually arrive, it is from behind Chitose from whence they drop in. Both were fully decked out in whatever they thought they needed for the mission… though in rise case, there wasn't much of a change from the norm.
"Guess'n your the one we'll be co-oping this, neh?" Rise asks after a moment or two spent sizing up the Suna nin. And after hearing a reply (or waiting long enough to know there won't be one), Rise set her sights past Chitose with a look of wonder. Did the festivities start already…?
Akane had had a few days to rest and had regained some use of her eyes so the walking waasn't as rough as it had been and of course Rise was there to help if she needed it. Rise's goading gets a chuckle fromt he crimson haired girl and she moves a little faster. Akane wore her hair in a weave as usual, six hairsticks holding it together, her usual jacket over her leather bustier and pats bedecked in throwing daggers, kunai and two short swords..
She manages to see Chitose as Rise speaks to the dark haired teen, offering a nod in her direction in greeting. When Rise looks past Chitose with that expression of wonder Akane chuckles, assuming she's looking at the non-stop pit of action that was Fuuma Alley. "That's always that way, Cho-chan, even when I was a kid, the place never slept."
A look at the trees one more time before looking at the two arrivals, Chitose glances at Rise, "Two…" She hmms before shrugging and then looking to Akane next, "I am the one you will be working with." Chitose nods her head and then looks towad Fuuma for a moment, "No, she isn't speaking of Fuuma." Chitose responds and then looks back at the trees, "She is speaking of something far more…close at hand."
It is indeed true, it seems the trees are beginning to gain a few shinobi here and there, peering out at the village and at the new arrivals. Darkness surrounds most of these shinobi. It isn't like normal, where they are hiding in darkness. It is as if the darkness were surrounding them, hugging them and holding them. Beyond them, something else moves along. Someone or something in large, dark armor.
"Mm," Rise emits in response to Akane without letting her gaze waver. She recalled as much along with a few annoying things about Fumma Alley. But like Chitose would later clarify, Rise had only eyes for what she felt was off about a different area. "… Nara?" She asks of noone in particularily as she stepped up closer to get a better look at the shadow enshrouded people along the tree lines. She didn't believe her own words for a second since having fought a nara before, but still, what she saw wasn't making any other sense; especially once the armor one began to become more appearant.
"Oh ho! Neh, Akamm, Aya-chan and" Her gaze flickers over to Chitose. "Sandy-san, Eitha of you two got any bright plans?" She asks, though that gleam in her eyes hinted at her already having made up her mind on one.
Akane blinks as Chitose answers for Rise that there was something else going on. Akane looked around her at the forest, focusing with a look of determination before she catches a flicker of shadow that made no sense in the light around it. Ah now she understands. They were being surrounded by the shadows. Akane's hands twitch as she waits, prepared if a fight broke out, but much prefering if they could cut off the head so to speak. What she'd heard about this artifact was not good. In the hands of an idiot it could get far worse…
It takes a moment for her to narrow her sight enough to see more shadows.. the armor on the one and she sighs. "We need to find the one controlling them if the information was correct…." Not much of a plan but….
Late late late…. Chitose got way ahead before Yuuto would have gotten the chance to tell her he'd be working with her on this mission too. Maybe it's better that he has the element of surprise! Although it may not be especially useful to have such a surprise on both the enemy AND his teammates.
Moving underground through the land hurriedly toward where he was to meet his team, the Genin is quick to find where they have gone to hide by reading their chakra signatures through his special eyes hidden by the black glass of his mask. He hadn't quite expected to be teaming up with the girl he had to capture just a few days ago and her friend, but at least they'll be somewhat familiar with each other. Rather than risk drawing attention to them, though, he lets his presence be known a different way as a single black rose of ink would silently come up from the ground and attempt to land itself in Akane's hand, a replica of the one he gave her the other day. He hopes she'll recognize this and notify the other two of his presence silently, though he's not EXACTLY sure how that'll work out. Maybe she remembers that he's from the same village as Chitose…
Looking at the other two, Chitose frowns, "My name is Chitose." She then nods at Akane, "It's a solid plan if thought out. There are several or them and I'm no good at stealth." She nods her head, "I can be a target, draw them to me and be fought. I'd prefer if I didn't have to go alone but I don't mind either way." She then looks at the forest, "Are either of you good at stealth?" She hmms and then rolls her shoulders, "We haven't much time…"
It's all too true. The one in armor makes himself known. Stepping out to t he front of the trees in armor that seems to cross the line somewhere between shinobi and Samurai. The armor has the classic samurai helmet and shoulder pads but the lower part is far more sleek, looking like leather with breaks in it to allow for movement. The whole of the armor appears to be made up of shadow and the warriors moving around this character appear to be made up of shadow as well in their own way. A low reverberating chuckle can be heard across the area as the man stands there…and the artifact is easy to see. Given the artifact is the helmet.
Rise frowns a little but doesn't comment in regards to Akane. She simply set her sights back on the approaching horde and starts taking in as much as their numbers, sizes, and potential as she could as quickly as possible while Chitose laid down the plan. Immediatly after, she takes a deep cleansing breath. In that breath the scent of ink is as well. Nose twitching every now and then, Rise starts to search for the source, only to be reminded of more pressing issues thanks to the sound of clinking metal in the distance.
"Mm.. I'm pretty much in the same bout, Chi-san. So if'n ya don't mind a bit of company…" She says slyly with a wink. Then turns to Akane and starts to say something, hesitates, then shakes her head before turning to step up to the 'frontline' of the group. She trusted Akane to find her own window of opportunity during the scuffle. Albiet, she had her doubts that poison would work on their adversaries as well…
"Ya ready, Chi-san?"
Akane was standing there, waiting for Rise or Chitose to come up with a better plan when a black ink rose floats up and lands in the palm of her hand. Blinking she looks down at it, recognising it immediately. That man… What did he want now? She took the fact that he'd chosen this way of revealing himself to tell them he was no threat, but she wasn't going to let her guard down just yet.
Chitose's suggestion of a decoy gets a glance from Akane then a shake of the head. "I'm a med-nin, not too good at stealth right now…" She would be referring to her eyes but Chitose probably wouldnt catch onto that specifically. But she holds up the ink rose. "We have company. an ink user from Sunagakure." She never had learned Yuuto's name. It wasn't hard to notice that Rise was concerned about her but she had a few tricks up her sleeve the girl hadn't seen just yet. Akane watched Rise step forward and moved so that she could clearly see the two and could focus on the armored shadows easier.
Well, this should be interesting. A bunch of shady guys, one of them rather huge, who've stolen some kind of artifact that's probably powerful in some way. Maybe the best thing would be to let these guys fight some other 'shadow creatures' of Yuuto's own creation. If nothing else, it should be entertaining to try to take these guys down… A slight grin touches Yuuto's lips underneath his mask as Akane notifies the others of his mask, though he's halfway sure Chitose is going to spoil his fun and tell Akane his name. Maybe not, though. He waits still for the others to move on the troop, apparently choosing to follow their lead and choose his own route to catch the enemy off guard.
Upon hearing Akane, Chitose indeed throse down the spoiler, hard. She grumbles, "Yuuto." She then sh akes her head, "Yuuto, I know you can hear me. Catch this guy off guard with this one." She points at Akane, "We'll keep them distracted." SHe nods to herself and Rise, "We need that helmet off his head and htis is all over." She then races forward, "Lets go then!" She is already rushing out to the side, to an open area near the rice paddies. A field where equipment, carts and otherwise is usually kept so that the rise can be stored and then moved. She throws a kunai right at the big guy to get his attention, "Come on!" She call sout.
The big guy obliges very happily and points. Well, happy is hard to tell. There's just a helmet, a mask and glaring eyes. However, his pointing finger directs the horde of shadows to race off toward Chitose (and possibly Rise, too) even as they run out there. The shadows are not powerful at all in their own right but there isn't just one of them. There's probably close to a hundred and the majority of them are baring down on the pair even as Chitose very literaly whips one of her arms out to ten feet long and rakes down two of the shadows in one whipping shot.
"Eh?" Rise glances back over her shoulder. From the looks of things, even after Akane went on to explain Rise still didn't quite get how the ink user was impo—"That guy from before.." She murmurs, remembering, if only vaguely, the same ink like smell from Akane's mount. THe same type of mount the masked man was riding as well before disappearing. Just like that, the army of shadow ninja were thrown into the proverbial backseat in favor of a frantic search for the ink user.
Then Chitose speaks up and gives her a name go by. It wasn't much more to go on at the moment, but if she could just — "What? Right now!?" She barks, but at that point Chitose has already dashed off to intercept the shadow ninja. With teeth gritted and eyes alight with indignation, Rise gives up one pursuit for the sake of catching up with Akane.
She had a kunai at the ready at first, but Chitose sort took the fun out of attacking the head honcho first. So instead, one of those shadow shinobi got a taste of it via a stab up through the chin before Rise is forced to duck beneath Chitose arm whips. "Tch! Didn't even botha giving me a warning." Rise muttered to herself. Then turned to the surrounding shadow shinobi, grinned, and made a come on motion with her hand.
Akane heard the name Yuuto and files it away, hearing Chitose's 'orders' she nods to Rise that she'll cooperate with that plan for now. She notes also the fact that though the other shadowy shapes were a threat, it was the armored one that needed targeting. If he was human with a magical artifact, her poisons might have worked on him provided she could cut the guy, but with all that armor she's left with her other abilities. She draws a kunai from her pouch and ignites it with lightning, charging forward as though she's a second wave of attack behind Chitose. She flings the kunai at the man's chest, knowing that if the armor was metal she'd conduct the lightning through it, possibly suprising him. While poisons required entrance to the body, lightning required contact with a conductive surface.
Leave it to Chitose to pair Yuuto up with the girl he had to rough up and capture just a few days ago after spoiling the secret of his name! Yuuto chuckles a bit from his point under the ground, an earthen thumbs up rising from the ground in front of Chitose just barely before vanishing. He waits a moment for Akane to throw her initial attacks before he'd rise up just enough to grab her and pull her underground with him. "Hang on to me. We're going to be moving quickly," he says in a low tone before they'd start to move through the ground to try to come up behind the thing with the helmet on, his eyes taking on the full glow of Sharingan beneath his mask. "Pull off a good enough follow-up attack when I blast him, and I think we can get it off him pretty easy."
Hardly a moment passes from those instructions before a massive ball of fire comes up from the ground behind the giant. Seeming to burst through the flames attacking it, the armored Suna shinobi is pushed forward by a wind that drives his blade directly at one of its legs in attempt to rob it of its vertical base so the follow up attack can be as effective as possible. "Good morning!" his voice rings out in a rather eccentric tone. "I'm with the Fuuma Rights Association! It seems you've overused your right to live. I'll be confiscating all life from you promptly to resolve this issue."
As the shadows flow in on the girls like a wave of shinobi. They are attacking with claws, swords and kunai thrown as they attack with standard shinobi moves. The girls will find themselves h ard pressed. Sliding out of the way of one attack, another slides her arm and the shadows cut her badly. She growls and then takes a breath before unleashing a nasty blast of pure ink upon one of the enemies before another blast of ink has her disappearing behind the cloud. She follows up this disappearing act by appearing in the center of a group of shadows and spinning around with a massive whip of her arm that causes them all to burst apart into nothing but shadow. She then notices the fire and calls out, "There's a Controleld Fool in there!" She calls out, "Try not to kill him!"
It may be too late as the kunai of Akane contacts the man and causes him to shudder from the electricity before he stumbles a step right into a burst of fire that pushes him forward. It seems this might be over fairly fast but then the figure leaps up and over the attack of Yuuto only to come back down toward him with both feet. It seems the figure is aiming for a vicious kick right into Yuuto's back even as he points outward and two shadow figures appear on either side of Yuuto, attempting to race in from either side to run him through.
There are no fancy, sparkly, or fiery jutsu at Rise's command. There is only the rhythm. A beat she quickly lost herself to even as the shadows put pressure on the distraction team through share numbers, weapons, and the bare basics of a shinobi. The fact that none of them uses the more advance techniques or even try to blow them up with some great burning ball of death is not missed. If anything, She becomes even more invigorated!
After leaning back and narrowly avoiding a swipe from one of the shadows claws, Rise springs high and lands in a crouch amidst some few meters away. The shadows swarm in. "Leaf—" She springs towards the far right one, spinning around in transit for a powerful back spin to its chest. "Strong Whirlwind!!" Too late do those nearby it realize just how the kick got its name before being swept up by the wind left in the wake of her kick.
She lands in a crouch, and then sweeps herself up, straightening out into a more defendable position. "Alright, which one of you are-…" The rest of her words die on her breath upon hearing the roar of flames in her blindspot. She risks a glance back, but with all the shadows that still remained, Rise can't quite see how the battle is going against the head honcho.
"Che." She curses before making her way towards the source. Even if it meant roughening through an unstoppable tide of shadows to do so.
Akane got her attack off just before she lets out a startled yelp as she's yanked into the ground with Yuuto. Her suprise lasts only a moment, however and she obeys quickly, holding tightly as ordered and she gathers her chakra around her, drawing a second kunai from her belt as she is carried through the ground by Yuuto. The fire attack did not suprise her, though she filed that information away as well, suspicion pililng within her mind. Yes she'd known those moves well before. And then they pop up and just as she's about to throw another lightning attack at the helmeted man she catches hazy movement on either side of them and simply reacts.
She throws her electrified kunai at the left attacker and throws out her right hand with a shout, using the back side of her first lightning attack to throw pure radiation off it and through her right hand into the second attacker. "Raiton: Kuroraikou!" The dark lightning isn't visible, just hazy to an onlooker. Rise might note a cold expression on her face as she acts decicively, her green eyes remain hard, she's behind Yuuto so the attack aimed for his back will have to go through her first and she's got both her arms out wide, a shield if the man is cold enough to use it… Vaguely she hears Rise's cry and she's instantly concerned, turning her head in that general direction.
"Oh, look, he brought friends," Yuuto's eccentric-sounding voice rings out as the creature kicks at him along with the ones on each side. The deflection by Akane gains a slight grin as he reaches to his back to grab a scroll, hurriedly opening it to release a massive black dragon with a cyclops eye along dozens of snakes, the dragon attempting to tackle the figure before it can strike Akane for the snakes to try to bind it down. "If this works, knock his helmet off quickly."
There are many enemies in the path of both Rise and Chitose as they both show the shadows that they are up against something far above their prowess. NOne the less, the shadows are relentless and piling in on top of the pair as they try to make their way to the head honcho. It is all they can do to stop the pair though as Chitose smacks another group away with a vicious whip before blasting a few more with ink. She glances at Rise and then forward, "Lets not get distracted! Trust them to do their part!"
As for their part…yeah, the figure in the helmet doesn't seem to care one wit that it is about to smash into Akane…however quick thinking by Yuuto has a dragon thing rushing up to wrap around him and pull him to a bound stop though this binding does not stop the two sword wielding shadows that attempt to run Yuuto through from either side.
Ninety-nine-hundred shadow shinobi in the way~ Ninety-nine-hundred shadow shinobi! Backhand one away and side-step a swipe, Ninety-eight-hundred shadows in the way~
Counting them down in song in her head did little to make the process more manageable in mind; especially when the shadows refused to line themselves up properly for their smackdowns OR count for her! The nerve of these puppet, no, scarecrow shinobi! Still, Rise kept on punching, elbowing, and man-handle any adversaries that got too close to no avail. "Eh?!" She emits just as one of the shadows actually forced her to draw her combat knife to block its sword. A last minute defense, but one she is hard pressed to hold for long. "Crownit… Fine!" She pressing on and kicking out at its chest grants Rise momentarily breathing room. "… Fine.." She grumbles. "But if they so much as—" The shadows press in again, forcing her to act first, talk later.
Akane nodded at the order to knock the helmet off and as soon as the dragon and snakes have the shadow armored guy down Akane sees her way clear to move. However, two more shadow nin come at Yuuto from both sides, trying to skewer him again and she turns suddenly, kicking out with her foot at the backs of Yuuto's knees, trying to send him to the ground on his knees which should get him out of the path of the swords for now, though she's not exactly gentle about it. Then she finishes her turn and grabs the helmet in both hands yanking it off the man's head with a tug. She stumbles backward a few paces and freezes, eyes glazing slightly, helmet held in both hands.
Just as he is about to be struck, Yuuto winds up kicked over onto his back by Akane in time to allow the swords to pass him by. The wind then picks up around him, picking him back up and pushing him as he draws a pair of kunai to shove into the back of each of the shadow warriors' necks. He then grabs his sword again, moving to stand guard against any approaching shadow creatures to give Akane enough time to remove the big one's helmet. "Can we string this idiot up by his toes in the forest when we're done to teach him a lesson?" he asks, only somewhat sounding like that question is a joke.
"Oy, lady!" The man states as the helmet is removed and the scrawny man now strong up by a ink dragon has a pair of large framed glasses and he is wheezing even as all the shadows simply vanish, "That helmet…oy! It had my mind!" He coughs a little and then, "Do I gotta be up here, this is definitely giving me quite the wedgie!" He declares and even as he does, the helmet begins to work its mind control on Akane as a voice whispers in her mind 'Put me on…do it before they take me from you'.
Meanwhile, Rise and Chitose are left standing with no opponents even as the helmet is removed. Chitose rushes toward the group, "We did it, no?" She calls and peers at Akane, "We gotta get that thing in a bag or something."
And one more uppercut to the chi—nothing but air? Indeed, Rise struck nothing but that due to the helmets removal; leaving her confused for a moment or so. When the realization finally does hit her, Chitose already has a lead on her. Not that it matter much. Rise is on the younger girl's heels in seconds, yelling as soon as she realized what the helmet seemed to be doing to Akane. She doesn't waste words commanding her to drop the helmet or anything like that, only to re-affirm Akane's willpower by yelling out her name. Her -real- name.
If that doesn't work by the time the red-haired wanderer is close at hand, well, it is time for plan B. What is it pretell? Only to take Akane by the shoulders if possible, line her up in front of her, then give her that few seconds to decide on her own if she's gonna try and put the mask on or listen to unspoken reason. Failing that, Rise headbutts her, hard. Taking a headbutt from the pintsize terror will be like getting hit upside the head with a metal pipe… lightly. Sort of. >.>
Akane hears the voice, so seductive, the call of power. Her hands shift and she raises the helmet slowly, looking at it curiously, holding it close to her face. Her fingers bruush over the surface then go rigid as she struggles, knowing this is a trap, sensing danger and fighting the impulse to put the helmet on, to take the power and wield it /properly/. The helmet finds her biggest weakness at that moment and allows her to see perfectly around her, a kind of illusion really as her eyes have not healed. She looks at Rise with an expression of awe, making eye contact with Rise as she takes her by the shoulders… but that's exactly when her mind does kick in and she drops the helmet as if it burned her, lucky for her as she did not need any more head trauma… "I.. r…Cho-chan… Sorry." She shakes her head as her vision goes back to being just as damaged as it had been. She looks toward Yuuto then. "Sorry. I wasn't sure they would stop in time." Meaning why she'd kicked him down.
Yuuto watches curiously as the girl takes hold of the helmet, wondering what exactly she'll do. When she finally drops it, he lets out a sigh of relief before bending down to pick it up and dust it off a bit. "I hear voices all the time, so this thing's got no effect on me," he says reassuringly, though it may not be SO reassuring to know that their teammate may belong in an asylum. "Let's get this thing back where it belongs before it causes any more damage, shall we?" he asks as he would turn to walk toward Fuuma. "I think my helmet looks a lot cooler than you anyway," he says, actually talking to the artifact as he walks along. "You lack a certain finesse an artist needs to operate."
