Starring:
Date: July 28, 2010
Summary:
Rika is assigned to deliver a parcel holding classified intel to Konoha.
"INTEL COURIER"
Unknown location
The sun shine was warm over the Land of Fire this afternoon, and the leaves were lit by rays shining through. Hyuuga Ryuk, during his secret ninja training in the forest, was interrupted by signs of people nearby. He wanted to find out who they were and if they posed a threat to the village of Konoha, or to anyone else. It was not so much his curiosity but his duty and the fact that he had the ability to that led him to begin trailing them. To save chakra and keep a distance, he didn't use his Byakugan, instead tracked them the original way, which wasn't so hard when there was many in a group.
Rika is on her way, for once not even infiltrating, which makes the whole situation a hell of a lot easier in the long run. Though sometimes it is nice to have a bit of fun… or to just plain show off the whole Sunagakure awesomeness. Hey, she's 17, and a Jounin, there's a bit of that there! So with that in mind she gets an impish grin on her face before starting to try and fade away. Time to turn the situation around.
Ryuk continues forward, checking for signs of people, tracking them, hoping to close in on them. All signs of Rika go unnoticed to him, with her mirage jutsu, and overall capabilities with stealth she is able trick Ryuk into believing he is still alone.
Scene cuts to another location: Red eyes appear suddenly "We have found them." A frail voice whispers directions and another person gives the orders "Let's go!"
Suddenly, Rika appears behind Ryuk. "Konoha, Konoha." She says, her goggles down and her grin more than a little impish. "Are you going to be able to take the message back safely? Even here?" She is standing on top of a branch, looking down, and arms folded in front of herself. "You really should try to be more careful about sneaking around, it can be dangerous."
Ryuk's brow twitches when he notices someone behind him, turning his head to look at Rika with a straight face. He notices she is a sand shinobi, thinking this might be the person he was tracking, in any case they were good. A bow of the head towards Rika and Ryuk responds "Yes." He states in a soft tone of voice. Giving it a half-second of thought "…though, one should not sneak up on Ninjas in a foreign land." He says in the same tone. "Greetings." He says respectively with a humble bow.
"When you're getting stalked already, it is prudent." Rika responds with a nonchalant wave of her hand. She disappears from the branch then, but appears on the ground after that to return the bow. "Then it seems you are here for it?" She inquires, not explaining what. "Do you have the passcode?" Is she making it up? Or is there really one? That may just be the test here…
Ryuk shakes his head, he didn't know what she was talking about. This girl was about the same age as him yet he didn't know why she was there, for a mission or something else? "I'm sorry, what is your name?" He asks Rika, and introduces himself in a straight tone "I am Hyuuga Ryuk."
The red-eyed person speaks "That is the girl with the documents, but there is someone else there." The other person has a bald head and blue eyes "We can take them, our numbers are superior to theirs, hahaha!" he responds as they continue closing the gap.
"Nagahara Rika." The girl responds. Seems the no codeword thing was the whole point! Wheels within wheels! Most people might have tried to say something… She seems about ready to say something else before suddenly tensing, quiet for a moment, "Did you have teammates?" She asks, looking to the Hyuuga.
They had made each other's acquantance, and Rika didn't seem hostile at all, not surprising coming from someone out of Suna, but Ryuk noticed her reaction and says "I am not with a team, in fact I was on someone's trail." Getting the impression they might be close by he decides to take a better look "Byakugan!" is said under his breath and veins form around the eyes as Ryuk activates the kekkei genkai "There are a lot of them." He says when he sees the chakra signatures of over a dozen people, though it's not long before the pursuers appear.
Masked ninjas in brown suits and no markings flicker into view surrounding them on the treetops. It seemed they had become the pursued. Ryuk stands loose in the juuken style, prepared for what would happen next. A few ninjas attack each Ryuk and Rika with knives at critical moments that any inexperienced shinobi would have a hard time fending off.
Rika just… seems to stand there, or perhaps try to dance away, but the knife ends up slicing her arm. Though after that hits… the next two end up hitting a clone. And she's standing up in the trees with a wicked grin on her face. "Oh, excellent, you're not with him." She says, almost as though the failed dodge was a means to get her underestimated. "I'd guess you've never faced a Nagahara Ghost before. But now… Well, good to know this mission ended up interesting." Suddenly she forms a series of seals and the wind around her picks up, slicing out at the attackers… even as another one is (Hopefully) starting to be trapped in a Genjutsu.
With skilled footwork, and expert maneuvering in the juuken style, Ryuk was able to evade the attacks from the ninjas and retaliate with some of his own strikes, hitting a couple times and gaining some space. It seemed to him they were in a tight situation, and noticing Rika with a grin, he remembered that he thought she was good, and hoped that with team work they could get out of this alive. Then he saw the wind jutsu, which flies around hitting all the targets. Ryuk nods, she was good, but the targets proceed to poof! They had been tricked! A bald man appears standing on a branch, large and muscular without a shirt, wearing only ninja gear, a club, and a backpack something that might look like a puppet. Four brown clothed ninjas stand beside him. "What is your purpose for attacking us?" Asks Ryuk.
"WE have come for the girl! Hand over the parcel!"
"Oh, excellent." Rika says, then looks down to Ryuk. "Jump up here, Konoha." She says. "I've realized I don't feel like games today." In other words? She isn't going to hand it over. And it seems like she isn't playing games either. Nor does she take much time. Suddenly her hands go through a series of seals, "Ninpo: Heatburst." And suddenly near the enemies there is an oppressive heat that explodes out with a roar, sucking the air from their lungs like from a backdraft, and in doing so rendering them unable to move for a time as they catch their breath from their lungs… at least that's the hope!
The ninjas jump down to surround Ryuk and their numbers increase fourfold before he has a chance to jump up to a branch. 'Clones? Shadow Clones? It can't be!' thinks Ryuk because he could actually see their chakra networks, and he has to fight them. Some of them poof, yet some of them hit him, and he has to concentrate using chakra to evade and try to hit the real ones.
The big guy jumps to evade Rika's jutsu but has to cough and kneel for a second. "Hibiki! Are you ok?" he says in a concerned tone with a deep voice. Another voice replies coughing weakly, and mutters "I…I think so." The bald guy turns towards Rika "You will not be having so much fun when I crush you at the head of this club!" Jumping across the trees with a large overhead swing "Watch her for me, Hibiki…"
Rika really isn't seeming terribly worried yet, if anything she seems annoyed even as that club tries to smack her over the head and causes a poof. "Really? These things?" She asks, "What are you, manic?" She taunts. The wind around her seems to have increased many times now. "Screw it, this is over." She ends up saying, "Ryuk, this one will be bigger. Watch out." The thing is, with multiple opponents, you need to go big and try to mess them up for good… if any of them are still stunned? Well, they're probably screwed, as for the rest? Well… Rika's seals finish the forming and she chants, "Ninpo: Hellburst!" And at that point? It is indeed like Hell has burst into being around Rika, a massive, roiling explosion of wind and flame, sucking the very energy from her foes… and creating a pretty massive swathe of destruction to boot. So much for the clones!
Ryuk hears Rika's warning and tries to prepare himself, noticing the heat rise, he wasn't sure what to expect, until it hit him. HOT, he breaks out in a sweat and takes cover. The ninjas disperse yet they cannot bear the pain and are finished. "Nori!!!" yells Hibiki in pain, before he passes out. Nori the bald headed guy's skin starts to melt, but he won't seem to give in, reaching for Rika's neck to choke her.
The man's hand… well, it looks like it might grasp Rika's throat, but she doesn't even move! Instead, standing there and grinning evilly even as his hand… goes right through her image! It's like she's there, but not! "I told you, you face a Nagagara Ghost." She mocks, "And while it offends my sensibilities to have to do this again, I do want a prisoner." And once more, the leader will feel the oppressive presence of heat, just the burst again, the one trying to cripple him into inaction.
Sitting near a tree, Ryuk found some dust that he inspects but doesn't know what it's about. Coming out of hiding, he watches the exchange between Rika and Nori, and Nori's hand that was going for Rika clutches his heart. Gasping for breath, he cannot go any longer. "Hibiki, I'm sorry. I have failed you." Ryuk jumps up to the branch and looks over the large Nori. Opening his pack he finds Hibiki. Hibiki looked old and frail with a small figure, a man with red eyes. "Seems that this one was a sensor ninja. Interesting…" he opens his palm to reveal the dust to rika, it seems he used this dust for a technique. Come to think of it, the clones were made up with dust, and it also blocked him from seeing Hibiki with his Byakugan. Strange, but if it wasn't for Rika he wouldn't have stood a chance, never had he come up against someone with a jutsu that could beat the Byakugan like that. "Rika-san, they were after you. It must be an important mission." Says Ryuk.
Rika is at least very winded, but not entirely in bad shape otherwise. "There were a lot. But nothing too bad. One or two less would have made me treat it a bit less bombastically though. But when outnumbered? You do what you can, overwhelming force… and if that happens to be things that might attract other attention? Well, you might get allies." She says, then pats her side. "Seems you won't be delivering this on your own yet. Though I'd still like to know who hired them." She starts only then to consider if they might have been in her bingo book too.
Ryuk listens to Rika whom he respected their skill level, and says "I do not know these ninja, neither do I know who they are working for. If we bring them in we may find answers." Still at chuunin rank he didn't have access to intel such as the likes of jounin. Nori and Hibiki were known in some circles to be criminals that dabbled in areas which made money, and may very well have been listed in certain villages bingo books, but who they were working for if anybody was still a mystery. Ryuk knew they were a strong pair from what he saw, a sensor to help the pure taijutsuist, it made for a deadly duo but they could not stand up to Rika's jutsu. "You are very skilled Rika-san, your clan's abilities are nothing I've ever seen before. The sand…Holds much to be discovered."
"We rarely leave the desert, even before the wars." Rika says as she begins to try and bind the two, presuming they even live yet. She wasn't kidding about prisoners! "Probably easiest to turn them in at your village, though I may take them back otherwise, the Sand will want all intel they provide, as this was a mission of mutual importance." Even if she doesn't know the contents. Hers is not to ask why, hers is but to do or die!
Ryuk nods to Rika "Very well, then I shall take you to meet with the Hokage." He had not known about the desert dwellers, in all his years as a ninja, but it seems you learn something new every day. It was an interesting battle, 'Rika-san' he thought, amazed at how one-sided she was able to keep it. The prisoners were tied up, sending a jolt of chakra into Nori to wake him up, Ryuk says "Let's go." And leads them off towards Konoha.
