Starring:
Date: January 19, 2015
Summary:
A mission to find out who is kidnapping kids off of the street is set in motion. Things don't go entirely as expected and it leaves more questions to be answered and people to be found.
"Youth Kidnapped Army - Kidnapping the Kidnappers"
Un-named Town in the Land of Wind
A mission! Word had gone out to a few various people that seemed right for the mission and they all were to meet up outside of the village entrance with instructions to bring gear for the day and what they might need for a possible fight. The message didn't contain many other details other than it was expected to be a D rank mission and they would have the joy of dealing with one of the Academy students as well.
And said Academy student is one of the first to be where he was told after having already talked to the school and administration about what it was he was expected to do in this little mission. Jiro's there with a backpack and looks ready to travel except things are a little weird. The clothing he's wearing is a little raggedy and has some small holes and his face is dirtied up like he'd been back on the streets for weeks. An administrative type is waiting with the kid for the others to arrive so she can explain the mission and for now just stands nearby with her hands clasped behind her back.
Arika grumbles a bit, as she's also in this mission. She looks similar to Jiro, her clothes looking torn up and patched one too many times. And her own face is smudged with dirt. "How come we gotta be all like this, Jiro-kun?" she huffs, grumbly about the fact that she has to be all scuffed up.
A sigh could be heard from, nothingness. "Miira Rikuto, Genin responding to the request.." was said softly somewhere above and to the right of Jiro. A hand was placed onto Arika's head before the air quakes faintly as the young Miira came into sight. Rikuto wasn't dressed poorly, his cloak was faded somewhat with the sun's rays but his face was clean, just as his gloves that could be seen.
Glancing down to Arika, and then to Jiro, he arches his brow faintly at what they were wearing. "Are you two.. really ready for an outing even with me here with you? We might need to take you two to be looked over.. and changed to say the least." Closing his eyes, the young Miira shakes his head softly before looking to the Chuunin that was there.
Appearing at the scene of the cri-err mission, Kaidan steps up and nods to the school official before blinking as he looks from Arika to Jiro and then back again, "Lil' Britches and Short Stack, what the heck happened to you two?" He hmms as he looks at each and then looks to Rikuto with a questioning look before he looks back to the pair, "You two ok? You sure do seem awfully messy for a mission unless that is part of it." He nods his head before looking up to the woman with Jiro, "Kaidan." He nods to her.
"Gotta look like yer livin' on the streets." Jiro tells Arika with a grin at her grumbling. He's more than used to it all and finds it amusing that Arika is so upset with it. Just like the little punk he is. When Rikuto appears the boy scrunches his face at the older boy and shakes his head, looking about to respond when Kaidan appears and says that name. Again! Jiro glares at the man but before he can speak the woman interrupts.
"Good it appears you are all here. I've been assigned to instruct you on the mission at hand before releasing this boy to you," she puts a hand on Jiro's shoulder at the words before stepping a little aside and bowing slightly to the others in greeting. "There's a town two hours east of us that has been having a problem with kidnappings. It seems children between the ages of six and twelve have been taken off of the streets and not seen again. So far it has only been happening to those few who make their living on the street but the town elders are worried that it may expand to more children. We have sent in other shinobi using a Henge no jutsu but they are never approached by anyone suspicious. We believe they may have some way to tell if the person is a shinobi or not." The woman uses a finger to push her glasses back up as he looks over the four of them, finally motioning to Arika and Jiro, "These two will be pretending to be street children to try and lure out the person or persons that are involved and you two," she motions to the older two, "will be charged with capturing them. The request is to bring back at least one kidnapper alive for interrogation to try and locate the children who are already missing. If you run into more you may do with them as necessary." She pauses as she looks them all over again as she clasps her hands behind her back. "Are there any questions?"
Arika perks up a bit at Rikuto's arrival, immediately scrambling onto his back if that's okay. She offers a cheerful wave to Kaidan when the puppeteer arrives as well, but there's no time for verbal greetings. The woman in barge f the debriefing has already started to talk! She listens to the instructions, nodding a bit. She had heard most of it before, but it was time to commit it to memory! The girl hmms a bit at the request for questions. "Can me and Jiro-kun attack, or are we just supposed to be bait?" she wonders, not sure of that particular detail.
Turning his attention to the woman, Rikuto closes his eyes and nods his head lightly a few times before looking at the pair, barely managing to keep Arika on the ground rather than trying to climb him like a post. "Ari-chan. As soon as you feel danger or find the other children, flex your chakra. I'll be able to find you then. Don't try to fight though, not without us being there. Understand?"
Lifting his eyes to the woman again he nods once. "I understand. I'll be able to keep an eye on this one.." with that, Arika earns a pat on her head, "..though Jiro-san will be a little bit harder to follow. The only question is, did you want only one or did you want several captured ma'am?" Turning his attention after asking his question, he focused on looking over Kaidan, dipping his head lightly to him.
A nod to Rikuto in response and then he points at the woman, "She said we could do what we want with them." He nods his head and then Kaidan turns his gaze to Jiro and hten Arika before frowning, "I don't like using you two as bait but you two better be on your toes." He then looks to the woman leading this, "No questions from me but I do hope you don't expect me to return a child kidnapper back in one piece." He clears his throat and then gestures, "I say we get going soon though, don't want to keep our quarries waiting and I imagine this is going to be a very boring time till we find them."
"That will be at the discretion of the situation and your team leader," at which time the woman points to Kaidan since he's, you know, the only Chuunin in the group. "You are allowed to defend yourselves. You will be able to assist as long as Kaidan-san does not instruct you otherwise." Her gaze flicks to Rikuto at his question, hearing out the entirety of it before she responds. "We need at least one alive. More would be preferable for greater information and so they can go to trial for the crimes they have likely committed, but we understand that circumstances don't always warrant the capture of each individual and if there is loss of life that won't be disregarded as negative." She 'ahums' loudly at Kaidan, "Please return one in a condition to speak Kaidan-san. That is part of the mission." She looks everyone over to make sure there are no more questions, then nods. "Very well, you are all set. Go."
Jiro just listened in silence to the lot of it since his part to play wasn't all that big. Of course knowing him he'd probably try and get more involved then he should but hey! That's where the fun is, right? Once they're dismissed the boy looks at the others, shrugs his pack higher on his back, then turns to start going in the direction of the town.
Arika nods to the woman and dashes off. She's not using any chakra, so she's a bit slower than usual. Actually, she's about as fast as a normal 'fast' kid would be. "Jiro-kun! Let's go find something interesting!" she calls back behind her, apparently excited for the mission. Of course, she's pretty terrified about /actually/ getting captured. a The incident that happened a few months ago still sometimes haunted her, though it tended to switch off between the waking Nightmare and the one adventure…
Nodding again Rikuto tells Kaidan, "Then one's enough. If you cut them too deeply, I could solder the wound closed." Turning back to the woman, he tilts his head to the side slightly when she began to walk to the man suddenly until she leaves. With the woman gone, Rikuto turns away from the group and makes his way over to his transport of choice, a miniature sand stiff built for one or two people.
As he began to set everything up, he looks over his shoulder he speaks up, "I'll stay away from you two and try to pick another roost away from Kaidan-san but I'll be watching, don't worry about that. Getting a bit better with my sensitivity, so I should feel you through walls pretty well compared to before. Both of you know to duck if you start seeing fire and explosions right?" The last comment was said teasingly.
A nod of his head and then Kaidan chuckles before he follows the lot of them out of to the skiff that will take tehm to the village and then he looks at Rikuto before pointing at him, "You sense them, you send up a burst of fire I can see." He nods, "I'm going to stay up high and on the outskirts. I can move fast enough when need be but I'm very obvious." He nods his head, "I don't hide well." He then llooks at the skiff as he prepares to steer it, "Don't want them scared off before we even get our bait in place." With that, he is ready to go.
Jiro looks back at Rikuto and Kaidan as they go, scrunching up his face again as he listens to what they say. "'course I know ta duck fire." The boy says like that's the stupidest thing he heard. Apparently he doesn't get that it's meant to be a joke.
It does only take roughly two hours to arrive at the town they were sent to and once they get close Jiro reaches back into his backpack to pull out a small scroll that he offers to Kaidan with only a little bit of a nasty look. It was a mission after all so he's supposed to play nice right? "This's a map'a the town an' they marked where Arika-chan an' me should each go." Of course he'd shown it to Arika already so really it was for the benefit of the two older folk. That done the boy turns back to look at the town and assumes a slouched and run down look like he hadn't eaten in days and was just /dragging/. Of course since part of his life had been those very circumstances until recently it's not too hard to pull it off.
The town itself is fairly well alive with activity as it seems it's a busy day for their market which is, of course, the general area the two kids will be. Villagers travel from merchant to merchant buying wares, checking on new items and fabrics, seeing what kind of food was brought to the market today, a lot of general things with nothing really seeming too suspicious off the bat.
Looking downtrodden Jiro slips into a small alley just off of the market, staying somewhat close to the mouth so he can be seen and can kind of see himself but hopefully still far enough in to be good bait. Arika's spot would be very similar but on the other side of the market to help expand the area.
Arika was mostly speeding to the village up until the point where she can see the gates. Then she slows down and simply walks to the entrance. Her postures slips into one similar to Jiro's, the two having practiced a whole bunch with the girl since she wasn't used to such a life. The girl makes her way to her spot, leaning against the wall as if trying to hide while peering at some of the vendors as if extremely hungry. She actually is hungry, the run to the village making her dustier than she was before. She does try to reach out with her senses, but her perceptive abilities are not great.
With the others making the march, the young Miira spun the winds around him letting him sail across the dunes towards the small city. Like Arika, Rikuto pauses a half a mile from the city before lowering the sail and placing a seal into the middle of the craft, burying it a moment later. Closing his eyes, he walks towards the village, but soon jumps up, moving to the roof tops before pausing. 'Hmm' Turning his head a faint pulse of chakra ripples from his position as he begins to get a feel for where everyone was moving until he notices and focuses onto the roof tops above Arika, 'That was quick.. they're desperate.' Rikuto doesn't move to warn the girl or get closer to her but observes from around a courner
Watching from the sidelines, so to speak, Kaidan hadn't truly entered the village. He had climbed up to the top of a building as soon as they arrived and then made his way to the highest point he could get to squat there and watch. Most people didn't really look up, especially in a town so burdened with depression. When he is up there, though, he squints as he spots a man moving along quietly. He hmms as he watches before he starts off toward the side, jumping from rooftop to rooftop as he can to try to quietly follow the progress of the man down below from afar.
The kidnapper closer to Arika closes in on the young girl with surprising speed. It would almost seem he has some training in using his chakra for speed and also to move across the rooftops as he does. Once he reaches the spot above Arika he drops down without preamble and makes a snatch to try and snag the girl from behind while attempting to put a hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming.
The man that was moving towards Jiro's location picks up speed and even glances over his shoulder, though he doesn't look up. It seems he might have a suspicion he's being followed. But even that doesn't stop him from doing whatever it was he came here to do. He steps quickly to Jiro's hiding spot and ducks into the same alley as the boy as he reaches out to try and grab him and take him along.
Jiro lets out a yelp of surprise before his mouth is covered by the man who grabs him, then is lifted off his feet at the kidnapper jumps onto a nearby rooftop and takes off at top speed while he holds Jiro under an arm. The boy attempts to wiggle his way free but so far it's not much use and his hands are locked to his side leaving him unable to grab a weapon.
Arika starts when she hears someone land behind her, but she can't get away from the man fast enough. The girl ends up getting captured before she can even draw a breath, kicking her legs a few times to try and wriggle out of his grip. She can't seem to break free, though… The girl has a moment of panic, and the emotion surges through her to flash back to the dark cramped sack that she had once been captured in, resulting in a nice flare of her chakra for Rikuto to track.
Turning his head to the side, Rikuto soon is staring at a wall with his eyes closed rather intently, the truth was he was watching Arika not only get picked up and is taken away. A light smile begins to cross his lips as he could feel the girl's chakra swell but noticed she was careful not to actually use it. The young Miira kept his distance, watching them depart before starting to move, trying to keep a fair distance between them, and normally at least a building or two.
Watching the taken down take place, Kaidan watches as Jiro is snatched and taken off with. With a great deal of speed, he starts off after the pair. Kaidan's body takes him along the edge of buildings and around the side of buildings as he watches the escaper running off with his prey. The man who has preyed on children doesn't realize that he is now Kaidan's prey as he watches the man run off hoping to be led to the other kids.
The two kidnappers each take their child and uses the rooftops to move quickly across the small town. They are both heading in a similar direction and it quickly becomes obvious that they are both actually moving to the same location while keeping a very tight hold on their captives. After only a minute or so they reach their destination - one of the last buildings on the edge of the town where there awaits a woman with her arms crossed. "You're late," she says with anger in her tone as she looks from the men to the two kids. "These are more street rats. I thought you said we had them all already and," the woman narrows her eyes at Arika and points, "that one has a strong chakra."
"They were just there," the one holding Jiro says with a shrug as he still holds the boy tightly to his side. "So we snatched 'em both." They have yet to notice the two that have followed. Even the woman who is too busy being annoyed with the men even though she appears to be a sensory type doesn't check the area. Apparently they don't expect any trouble to be coming.
Jiro is still quite stuck and he's even given up struggling for the moment as he just /glares/ at the woman and seethes. He doesn't like this situation of being unable to really move or do anything and he looks over to Arika to see how she's holding up. The other two better be close by or else they're going to have to figure out something else fast.
Arika seems to be in PANIC mode, mostly just thrashing around to try and break the grip on her. Her eyes are squeezed shut, so she can only hear voices, but even those aren't being paid much mind as she starts to fade away. If she were to open her eyes, the pure blue-green color would be shadowed over a lot. Even if she ends up dropped thanks to her thrashing, she would simply curl up into a ball and stay there, clearly not much of a threat. Sensor Nin would notice that her chakra was in a flux, the girl likely not controlling it at all.
Humming contently, Rikuto continues to move after the air but then suddenly stops and weaves his finger together in a long chain of seals. Exhaling softly, his figure begins to smoke before bursting into embers, losing all shape and disappearing into the breeze. With the Genjutsu woven, he begins to move slowly closer, trusting his senses more than his eyes, trying to look around, not after the pair of children but to feel if he could get a feel for any others around the building they were taken.
As they meet with someone at the door, unlike Rikuto, Kaidan doesn't wait. He races forward suddenly and out of his hands comes a pair of kunai like blades. Each one slides out of his palm and he attempts to drive them into the sides of both men who have kidnapped both Arika and Jiro before staring menacingly at the woman they are speaking to. Even as he twists the blades as he pulls them free. He then looks to the left and hten the right before looking to the woman, "Where are the kids? I am not a patient man and these two are now poisoned so they don't have time for patience either." He leans in closer and states, "Arika and Jiro, go inside and the find the kids. If they aren't in there, call out to me so I know whether this woman is useful to me or not."
The two kidnappers and what appears to be their leader don't notice Rikuto as he uses his genjutsu and slips on by. The building has two more adults inside but there is no sign of any other children though there are wagon tracks leading outside a larger door that look to be perhaps only a few hours old. The two inside are preparing another cart with a pair of horses as they currently fail to notice what is going on outside.
The two men had absolutely no chance. There was no warning and Kaidan moved far too quickly and deadly…ly. They first drop their charges before they themselves drop to the ground as the poison begins affecting their system, not to mention the actual wounds that they received.
The sensor nin immediately jumps away from Kaidan showing some surprise but she quickly recovers and makes a few handseals before launching a flurry of fire bullets at the puppet shinobi. Her movements are quick and her lack of hesitation only goes to show she is skilled at what she does.
Jiro picks himself up off the ground quickly and goes to Arika to check on her, not about to leave her behind no matter what Kaidan might tell him to do. "Ari-chan, c'mon let's go." He says, trying to pull the girl to her feet while watching the sensor nin warily. Her attacks aren't aimed at them but with something that has a spread such as the fire bullets it's always possible one might stray, whether or not it would be intentional. For now they seem safe at least.
Arika seems a bit wrapped up in her world at the moment. The loosened grip on her means she's free and out of the bag, right? When Jiro approaches, the girl automatically lashes out at him without much thought (obviously), and a gust of wind would knock him (likely). The girl's eyes start to clear, then, as she realizes that she's okay and she just attacked her friend. "J-Jiro-kun!" she squeaks, going to help him up after a bit of scrambling. Kaidan and Rikuto's actions are all but ignored for the time being as she starts to get her bearings.
When Kaidan suddenly charges in, Rikuto begins to wince and shift his position and slips into the building before pausing. Breathing in, he holds his breath and makes a few seals. The image that the three remaining, the leader and the two inside the building saw was a image of Kaidan, smoking with fresh flames laughing with amusement before thrusting a short blade into their throat and ripping it out violently only to sink it into their chest.. again.. and again.. muttering about 'I think you'd make a pretty puppet, nice and soft.'
And even though Kaidan doesn't know what Rikuto is doing, he makes it all the more scary as he simply bats away the attacks by the woman with his right hand. It's as if he were simply knocking away an annoying fly as he approaches and then states in a dark manner, "Ya know, I don't angry about much but people who hurt kids…that's a pretty big deal for me lady." He raises up his hand and three blades slide out of his arm as he approaches her, "And it only takes one person to tell me where those kids are. If you can't, one of your cohorts might value his life more." He is at thi spoint, not paying attention to Jiro or Akira as he has turned his full dark focus on the woman.
The sensor nins life is made just that much scarier when the subject of the genjutsu is also literally right there. Before it fully takes hold she does manage to spit out, "I won't tell you anything fool." But then her knees gave out from beneath her as the full effect of the genjutsu took hold and she dropped down to her knees, then fell over on her side, unable to move.
The two on the inside are just as screwed as they both turn to look at the Kaidan that isn't there and before they can do anything they are 'attacked'. They each fall to the ground as well with a 'thunk' as frightened wide eyes stare out at nothingness. Two lay dying from poison, the three others are neatly kempt in the genjutsu although the chances of them actually talking at the moment is little to none unless it's released. But then they /were/ supposed to take them back for interrogation so maybe that's not exactly a bad thing. Hey look there's even a cart all readied!
Jiro certainly didn't expect any kind of attack to come from Arika and the kid gets knocked back, wincing a bit as his head clunks the ground a bit. It takes him a second to collect himself enough to look up at Arika but when he does he just grins at her though the boy doesn't say anything. He does take the hand up though before he finally looks around to see how he can help. Oh…uh…Jiro's eyes widen at the speed and efficiency the other two took down the kidnappers. He's kind of speechless.
Arika looks relieved when she sees Jiro is okay. The girl then takes a moment to look around to see if she can help at all, but… Kaidan and Rikuto are amazingly good at taking down the enemy. She blinks a few times at seeing all the downed men. ~Tch. Useless…~ grumbles that voice, to which she frowns and mutters 'shut up'. "So it's over..?" she says hesitantly. "Do we know where all the kids are and stuff? I guess if we managed to catch everyone…" she says, blue-green eyes losing their shadowed look. She smiles a bit, trying to dispel her earlier fears that had come back to haunt her.
"You did good Ari-chan. I could feel you from a ways away, you and Jiro-san okay down there?" Opening his eyes, Rikuto begins to look around before dropping to the ground. It His movements were limited, seeming to try and maintain his focus on the last seal he had yet to release, though watches as Kaidan shake the woman from his genjutsu just to begin to threaten her again.
"Kaidan-san, noone else is in here. I was checking around before you entered, this wasn't the end point, just a relay point." After a moment, the young Miira turns to face the man, looking him over carefully, looking for something. "Do you have anything to bind them? This genjutsu won't hold for more than.. three minutes if I keep focused like this."
"Of course." Kaidan nods and then brings out a rope and nods his head as he offers over a piece to Rikuto and then he himself starts to bind the woman, "They might not be here but this woman knows where they are." He nods his head as he starts to tie the woman up, "They might not be here but they are somewhere and one of these three tools knows where the craftsman is." He then continues to bind her up and offers over another rope to the two kids so they can tie up the last one, "Lets get them back so we can start work on them."
Jiro nods a little to Rikuto. "Yea', we're fine," he says with a smile at Arika before he reaches out to pat her already messed up 'street kid' hair. Jiro looks a little disappointed that the other kids aren't here though. That part hits a little too close to home for the kid and he looks sad and even a little angry at the thought. Finally though he takes one of the offered lengths of rope and, after a look back to make sure Arika was still okay, went to tie up one of the other men, making the knots as tight as he could humanly do, and then redoing the knots over them again. He didn't want them getting out no way. In fact he kind of hopes he can help smack them around a little but that's not going to happen. But just helping to get them and now taking them back was good, because he did help out and, hopefully, they'd find the other kids before too much more time passed.
Arika makes a face at Jiro and gives herself a small shake, waiting for Rikuto and Kaidan to tie up the people before climbing onto Rikuto's back and snuggling the boy. She seems a bit more relaxed once on his back (if allowed), arms and legs wrapped around him tightly. "Back home, then?" she requests hopefully, not really wanting to stick around the kidnappers any longer. She had thought she had gotten over the one incident, but apparently not.
Taking the cord, Rikuto dips his head before binding the man left to him. While he was easily able to lock them within an illusion, he was far from able to lift and carry even one, taking some time to drag one of them over to a cart before hefting him, one at a time, into the bed of the wagon. "Geeze.. Too heavy. Jiro-san, stay away from the blades of Kaidan.. actually.."
Moving over to the two dead men that were caught off guard, the young Miira extends a hand in front of himself and over the first poisoned man before breathing slowly. Withdrawing his hand, he begins to make a long series of seals. Soon a spear of pale red, fading into orange and even white tones appears in front of Rikuto only to thrust downwards, rapidly destroying the body by cooking it many times hotter than a natural flame could. He would repeat this then with the second body. "No traces of us should be left for them to know what happened, or your poisons."
Dusting his hands together, the lance disappears as the chakra feeding it was severed. The young Miira hops into the bed of the wagon, sitting in the back so Kaidan could hopefully guide them out with any remaining pack animals along with their captives.. only to get climbed on within a moment. "..Ari-chan.. Am I a lookout post or something?" While he sounded like he was grumbling, a smirk was on his lips while trying to stay up right.
