Starring:
Date: Feburary 9th, 2010
Summary:
Tsun and Owatsumi decide to entertain themselves only to stumble upon an odd, yet dangerous man.
"Team 0 Episode 1: Jack of Eyes"
Somewhere off the Land of Waves shore
The Land of Waves, originally known for simply being the port that handled a lot of oversea trade. Now it has become a hotspot for Kiri-Konoha aggression, what with Kirigakure currently trying to establish control over the island. Since Mitsuo was directly involved with the situation, so were those on his team… sort of. Whatever the case, Tsun was tired of the place, it had nothing of interest and she couldn't truly do anything interesting because there was a series of stronger ninja hovering about. Our story begins during a foggy afternoon in a shady alleyway, where most of the islands illegal transactions would go down. Of course, one would expect something interesting to go down in such an area yet, you'd only get the occasional dark character slipping through before disappearing into the fog. No fights, no crack heads to laugh at… nothing! What fun could Tsun possibly have here?
Well, the afore mentioned Tsun would be found sitting on a barrel, presumably filled with oil. Owatsumi most likely in the general area as she decided that it be best they go adventuring and make something out of this dull island, without getting caught up in possible Jounin level battles. Though, this whole search for entertainment obviously wasn't going well and she gets an annoyed look on her face as she mutters, "Stupid."
She would fling a rock at the barrel across from her causing a dull metallic sound to hum through the air. "How can he just go running off doing stuff without giving us anything fun?" With a little 'hmph' she'd cross her arms and pout, idly kicking her legs back and forth over the edge of the barrel as she plots on something to do, her eyes darting around for something to break or people to mess with. "I'll figure out something." With that she hops off the barrel and starts wandering off, expecting Owatsumi to follow.
Owatsumi perks up at the metallic 'tang!', his attention drawn away from the fleet parti-colored dragonflies doing battle over his head, each one a mount for a tiny samurai armed with a long naginata and a brightly colored streamer. These dissolve immediately into colorful smoke as the boy sits up, his head passing right through the illusions as he fixes his laconic gaze on his restive teammate. "Probably he's out impaling prisoners," the young boy remarks absently, "you know he's fond of doing that around lunch time." He smirks, and produces from the folds of his robes a small set of pan pipes, which he begins to play rather poorly, one or two notes at a time. When he's not creating music from his dreams, he's really not much of a musician.
As the girl kicks off her perch and sets off to do… whatever it is she is set on doing, the lavender boy frowns for a moment, looking thoroughly put-out, and straightens up from the lavish armchair he was reclining on. As soon as he is standing, the armchair's form shifts and changes, melting away to reveal Kuda and Rappa, the jinchuuriki's parents, puppets, and ever willing props, dressed in their brightly colored serving robes. Without direction they uncurl themselves from the contorted pose which forms the base for Owatsumi's many thrones, and fall in behind him.
"Are we going to visit the Jack of Eyes?" Owatsumi asks cheerfully, trotting up to Tsun and falling into step beside her. Once he's found a comfortable stride, he resumes playing his pan pipes, making high trilling squeaks and slightly lower more resonant toots without much sense of rhyme or rhythm.
Tsun cringes the second time he decides to play the pipes, her eyes shifting to give him a sideways glare before taking a few gentle diagonal steps to make some space in between herself and the other Genin. Her hand reaches up to gently rub her ear as she gets the image of the Mizukage running through a field of ninja, casually slashing away. The image causing her to sigh, though soon after smirk. "Ah-hah! Maybe we can do some real combat, I really want to crush something so does this thing in my head… Alright bro let's go." Her plan was… not well thought out, though she'd already start running, veeeeery slowly for a ninja, which isn't really surprising given all the weight on her back at all times.
Tsun wouldn't really check to see if Owatsumi was keeping up, he'd get there eventually so she'd continue to rush to her destination, eventually pulling up to a currently empty dock that had a few sad looking row boats hanging around. "Junk! All of it, I swear for going back and forth over the water all the time they really do lack style." Quickly pulling out a kunai, she'd cut the rope holding one of the better looking row boats to the dock and hop into it.
"Woah…" Quickly grabbing onto the edges of the boat, she'd hold tight until it was steady and then push off of the dock. "Hurry up or I'll leave you behind!" Unless he was right behind her the whole time, given her low awareness it would be surprising, that and she was so caught up in making him struggle to keep up she assumed that she did manage to leave him behind.
Owatsumi continues on at his rather leisured pace, making sure to keep his teammate at least somewhat in sight, though evidently he's more interested in his crappy pan piping than his following, since more than one intersection causes him to pause and shoot an irritated look behind him at his mother, who dutifully directs him left, right or straight. Eventually, though, he does make it to the dock, cheerfully ambling along and piping his bad music.
"Be careful you don't leave yourself behind, Tsun-chan," the little boy advises gravely, as he hurries to clamber into the boat, just managing to hop in from the dock as it pulls away. His parents follow with a good deal more grace, hopping into the vessel and quickly taking up positions to man the oars or what have you, essentially leaving the two genin free to just mill about as they please.
"All hands on deck!" declares Owatsumi decisively, standing at the upper level railing of what is now a rather large split-level pirate ship. Now bedecked in crimson and gold, the genin fusses with his feathered tricorn hat and watches as a whole band of seagull-feathered-sailors materialize before him on the lower deck, saluting smartly to the two Jinchuuriki officers.
"Alright, you squabs!" Owatsumi barks down at the imaginary crew, "hoist the mizzen masts! Drop the anchors! Draw the lines and cut the sails! We're shoving off!" He draws a sword (where did he get a sword?) and thrusts it into the air triumphantly, and the entire crew cheers as one. Lowering the weapon, he turns to his right and said, "Alright navigator Tsun-chan, the helm is yours. Take us off!"
"Don't leave wha? Alright work your ma-" Tsun would get silenced for as soon as she opens her eyes from blinking, the ship is something else completely. "Erm. Right excellent! Now we need to find our first target! We'll be the most feared pirates in this general area!" She grins and starts walking along the boat, not bothered at all by Owatsumi's sudden boat or sword. "Alright. I'm thinking we should head this way!" Tsun would point out in the northern direction, proppering up her foot on the edge of the boat before resting on her propped up knee.
Her right hand would raise up to casually tuck her hair behind her ear, a bit annoyed by the wind slapping it around in her face and she scans the foggy seas for something worthwhile… though nothing could really be spotted, all they were working with was intuition really at the moment. So she'd look to her first mate. "Owatsumi~ What do you want to do with the first person we find? Should we recruit them to our crew or start blasting them right away?! I know they're close, I can feel it!" Grinning, the red liquid within her see-through container starting to shift around in an unnatural way, apparently moving on its own.
The grand old ship heaves a pedantic groan as a southerly wind picks up, bringing her around in line with Tsun's 'course'. The Lord Seagull, Prince of the Eastern Horizon - as the ship is called - begins to pick up speed as it comes about, spurred on by the sweet smelling breeze which rushes past like an excited child. Sails billow and the crew of gull-feathered sailors strike up a sea shanty in the round, filling the deck with resonant notes far finer than the awful flute playing Owatsumi was conjuring earlier. The boy smiles, pleased at the scene, and gently drums his hands on the burnished railing, in time with the tune.
"Recruit him?" Owatsumi asks, tilting his head to the side so his scarlet locks spill over his right shoulder. "The Jack of Eyes won't come easily, Tsun-chan," he advises his partner, eyebrows coming together in a furrow, "I think if you want to recruit him you're going to have to trick him. Don't worry though, I know his weakness! You see, although they call him the Jack of Eyes, he really only has one. Take it and he'll be rendered powerless, or at least in your power. From there, you can strike a bargain with him!"
Tsun gives a confused blink, when he explains the secret of the Jack of Eyes. "Um… right, obviously! That was my plan all along anyways… if we decided to recruit him!" Tsun turns about once more, pacing back and forth across the ship. Wooden groans squealing out from underneath her feet, "So then, this Jack of Eyes. Do you think his eye holds magical power by any chance? Maybe if we take it, we'll somehow get more powerful! Or maybe Horn head-sensei will reward us by letting us do some cool mission!" Tsun rubs her hands together. "Or I can just use it to take over the wo-!" Tsun's eyes widen as water suddenly rises up behind of her, droplets of water splattering about her.
"Eh?" Quickly resuming her calm state, Tsun's head would slowly turn to give a quick look over on what the protective water managed to catch within it. Eventually realizing it was a thick, golden sand colored halberd. It definately looked like something that shouldn't be able to penetrate anything. "Wh…What the heck is this?" The girl turns about, reaching out to take hold of the halberd, more interested in the weapon than whoever threw it. She had some sort of… calling towards it. Though as her hand wraps about the shaft, the halberd would simply start to slip through her fingers and fall to the ground in the form of sand before dragging itself away off the side of the vessel.
Traveling down the side of the ship and then hovering just above the ocean water's surface, cutting through the mist to simply form back into a halberd within the hand of a man that was masked by the mist. Nothing would be said, the man would simply let his little dinghy boat make its way towards the large pirate ship in awkward silence.
"He has something that you need," Owatsumi replies simply, his gaze suddenly going distant and thoughtful like, as if he were being possessed by some sort of trance. His reverie is interrupted by the sudden and unexpected appearance of the halberd in Tsun's armor, something he was not really expecting. He blinks, looking about the deck first, as if expecting to see one of his seagull sailors innocently whistling or something. When this proves inconclusive, he runs to the edge of the ship and leans over the rail, peering out into the murky mist and the black, black sea.
"It's him!" Owatsumi proclaims triumphantly, hopping a little bit excitedly, "The Warden of the North Wind, Jack of Eyes!" Dashing from the railing, Owatsumi draws his sword and hoists it into the air, calling, "Ready the cannons on the port side! Prepare to fire!"
The crew comes alive, transforming the deck by stowing ropes and tackle and lugging out the massive and strange looking 'cannons'. If one were to imagine a cannon crossed with some manner of brass instrument, say a trumpet or a tuba, that is what these might look like - great golden instrument-cannons on ivory wheels. While the crew busies themselves setting up the weapons, Owatsumi turns to the girl beside him and lifts an eyebrow. "How do you want to handle this, Tsun-chan? Shall we return fire?"
As Owatsumi shouts out commands, Tsun would step closer to the edge of the ship with a straight face. "Oooooh. So this is what you've been nagging me about…" Tsun would then look to Owatsumi, "Blow him to the skies! Just make sure we get that nice little weapon he's got there. I think I can put it to good use." Tsun, shifts her attenton back onto the man who was slowly drifting into a clearer view. The girl's hands curled up into tense fists as she was getting prepared for the worst, all sorts of terrible images running through her mind as to what this man could be… then again it could be Owatsumi screwing with her and putting literal images in front of her, she couldn't tell really. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" With the sound of a million horns, note shaped projectile after note shaped projectile would go firing off in the distance, causing water to splash everywhere about the man and his boat, making it quite difficult to tell if they actually managed to take it down.
The water would simply settle back into the ocean once more, leaving nothing but, the mist and an untouched dinghy. "WRAAAA HAHAHAHAAA!" A shrill high pitched voice would echo all about them until a dull thud was heard behind of Tsun. Quickly turning about, her eyes would settle on a lanky man, wearing tight flambouyantly colored clothes… it was a surprise they couldn't seem him through the mist to be honest. The man was rockin a fro with a cowboy hat somehow shoved down over his carrot topped head. Tassels… pointy toed boots with elevated heels, terrible looking oversized Star Shaped glasses. This man was anything but intimidating in the normal sense. "Oh what an interesting little ship you have here, I don't understand what was shot at me though that doesn't matter. You see this weapon?" He points to the halberd, "It wants you. I know it wants you dead! I know why too because girl, your aura is fabulouuuuus~ So come on toots let's get going, I don't want to give you a spankin."
He lowers his shades specifically to wink at he, followed by an obnoxiously white smile.
*Cling* Tsun's eye would twitch.
For now it seems he's paying no mind to the possible dangers on the ship, he's simply as interested in Tsun as she was in his weapon.
"Yes! Let the grand symphony of destruction begin!" Owatsumi exclaims with utter delight, waving his sword dramatically in the air. On cue with his orders, the canons begin to fire, the concussive note-shaped projectiles hurtling through the air like DDR notes or something. Each blast of cannon fire is a deep, brassy bellow, a long 'BWAAAAAA!' that can be felt at the very base of the spine and in the backs of the teeth. Together they form a song, a mass of concussive boom and bellows that compliments the sea shanty the sailors have never stopped singing. In fact, even the waves seem to be crashing in time with the song, and the huge explosions of water caused by the notes sound like symbol crashes. It all reaches a violent crescendo just before-
Before the Jack of Eyes interrupts everything by landing on the deck of the Prince of the Eastern Horizon. His horrible high-pitched laugh completely interrupts the sea shanty, and the entire focus of the illusion shifts, as if a spotlight were now shining down on him. A second spotlight appears on Tsun as the Warden of the North Wind addresses her, shifting the focus once again.
Owatsumi leaps back several paces as the villain appears center stage, leveling his sword in the man's direction. "Alright you squabs, attack!" he bellows, and in response the gull-feather sailors begin to squawk loudly and jump up and down on the deck. One by one, they shed their pirate clothes and become free-wheeling seagulls, spinning angry circles over the man's head. While Tsun presumably occupies the majority of the man's attention, the seagulls dive and peck, attempting to provide some cover for the ninja girl. "Go Tsun-chan!" Owatsumi spurs her on, "The eye! The eye!"
'Wait… was that a wink or a blink?' A random thought that crosses Tsun's mind, she didn't really focus enough to know if he was indeed missing an eye at the time to really know but anyways…
The drama! The spotlights shining down on them only makes the moment more intense as Tsun starts to slowly raise her hand into the air. "How dare you…." Water would start to rise up behind her, a massive wave of water lurking behind her. "How dare you be more fabulous than me?!" All thoughts of simply going for the eye were forgotton as she flings her hand forwards, the water flying over head and attempting to crush Jack of eyes. It would slam into the boat with a thunderous crash, causing it to rock wildly as the water spills over the sides of the boat. Tsun would draw her hand back, causing some of the water to pull back and rise into the air to chase after the fabulous man who managed to leap over the crashing wave.
With a grabbing motion, her water would follow suit, attempting to crush down on the man's limbs with a high level of force only to miss over and over as he twirls around in the sky, cutting away at the seagulls. "Reeeow girl, looks like you got some claw." He would fall from the sky, thrusting out the halberd, the weapon stretching out and snaking its way towards Tsun in a wild fashion as if trying to confuse her defense. Though little did he know, it had nothing to do with the girl's reactions as it simply hits a thick wall of 'Liquid Ice' again.
"Hrm this is aint good, no it aint." Jack looks towards Owatsumi, then to Tsun, then over his shoulder. "I'll catch ya'll later. Well, at least you, you little jungle cat." He makes a little pawing motion with his hand and makes the little 'reeow' sound once more to Tsun's disgust before he jumps off the side of the ship, attempting to maker his escape for some reason.
"Coward! Knave! Fiend!" Owatsumi shrieks in outrage as the Jack of Eyes attempts to retreat. Such an unfitting end to a grand spectacle! "You haven't even fought from the top of the mast yet! Or defeated the kraken! Or walked the plank!!!" Owatsumi's outraged cries are echoed by the sea itself, which hurls tremendous waves at the Gull King, causing her to rock even more violently. Water climbs up over the rails and spills across the deck as the little jinchuuriki fumes, rushing to the rails to watch the particolored foe make his escape.
Throwing his hands up in exasperation, the boy wails, "That eye! That EYE! Did you see the power he wielded Tsun-chan? You must have it! You must take what is his and make it yours!" He fumes, turning back to watch the man sprinting across the water, presumably demonstrating a level of chakra control that far outstrips either of the two green genin.
Spreading her arms out to steady herself, Tsun would stumble a few steps to the side before slipping on some water, only to be caught by the same puddle and lowered to the ground. "No, Nee-san." Tsun gives a dismissive wave to Owatsumi's yelling, the noise much more tame compared to his terrible pipe playing. "I think I know why he's running, they finally caught up to us." The girl watches Jack run for a bit before stomping her foot down in a bit of a fit. "Stupid, dumb, idiot face!" …creative insults. Though she would attempt one last time to get what was hers and she starts launching out her hands, grabbing at the air as the ocean water would rise and attempt to grab at the man multiple times until he was simply out of Tsun's chakra range. "How the heck is he running on water anyways. Ugh, the eye, the weapon. Ugh!" Despite her level headed idea of simply letting the man go coming out only a mere fifteen seconds ago, the realism of not being able to get what she wanted ,hit her hard now.
"We need to follow him! We need to-"
A voice suddenly picks up from the other end of the boat to finish Tsun's sentence, "Come with us. What have you been told about running far off on your own? Do you know what could happen if you were taken?!" Yabusa, the head of the squad in charge of making sure Kirigakure's precious weapons of war weren't taken away. Also referred to as 'Captain Buzzkill' by Tsun. "Turn the boat around Owatsumi-kun; Mizukage-sama requires your attention." He'd give the two a stern look, attempting to look like he was in control of the situation.
Just as it always seems to do, Yabusa's presence brings about an immediate and crashing end to Owatsumi's illusory world, and just like that the two genin are standing once again on a rickety old (stolen) schooner, barely big enough for the four people crammed into it. Each of Owatsumi's parents man an oar, and the two genin are simply standing in the middle of the boat. The physics of how they could successfully manage a fight with a third ninja on the tiny boat remains, as it always seems to in these cases, an utter mystery.
As his world shatters and then crumbles, the boy screeches in outrage, turning to stare hot knives at the one responsible. "Yabusa-san! You are by far the most insufferable and irritating person I have ever had the displeasure of meeting!" he declares in the most heated of tones. To this, the battlemaster simply smirks and puts a hand over his chest. "I am honored to hear it, Owatsumi-kun," he replies, "and let me assure you it is a mutual feeling."
This seems to satisfy the jinchuuriki, who simply nods and turns his back on his keeper. "Fine, fine. Very well. So be it. Alright. Tell Mitsuo-sama we will be home shortly. You two!" he points at his vacant eyed parents, "what good are you!? You heard the stupid one! Start rowing! Take us home! Bring this warship about!" Warship? That's right, warship. No longer was it the Gull King, but a massive dirigible called the Iron Moonbeam. Owatsumi, decked out in steely grey and silver to match the ship, folds his hands behind his back and peers out the main observation window. "Full steam ahead! We make for the Crashing Castle!"
