Starring:
Hige, Mayu, Rockpath (as Masa)
Date: March 20, 2015
Summary:
Mayu's first mission is to help clean out some very weak bandits. Hige lets her test out her plan and break her fighting teeth.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Mayu Goes Into the Woods"
Forest Path - Outside Konohagakure
It's a beautiful Konoha morning. The sun is shining, the grass is green, and all the trees sway in a gentle loving breeze. Not too much to complain about, all in all. Well, at least weather wise. Business wise it's a whole other story. There has been some nasty business of bandits on one of the main roads in the Land of Fire. While they aren't any kind of big threat from the sounds of things it's still a problem that needs to be taken care of and the Daimyo has ordered Konohagakure to take care of it! Sounds perfect to break in a recent graduate, right? So messages went out to a handful of people to meet up at the gates.
One of those peoples is Hige, and of course that means that Konsho is also included. The Inuzuka duo are just relaxing against one of the extra large gates, Konsho lying down near it while Hige leans against it with his arms crossed. A large yawn escapes the boy as he waits, the tiredness of not having slept much the previous night catching up with him but such is the way that training and missions sometimes happen. The pair are simply waiting to see who else shows up since they hadn't been informed in the missive, only that there would be four total (including Konsho).
"Did you remember to pack your shuriken dear?"
"Yes Mother."
"And your lunch?"
"Yes Mother."
"How about your ninja wire, I know you haven't used it much yet, but you never know—"
"Yes Mother."
"Alright sweetie off you go, have a good first mission!"
Mayu's embarrassment is matched only by the guilt she feels at being so embarrassed that her mother cares about her to such an extent. It could be worse, she could have abusive parents! Or lazy ones! Ones who just don't care! But no, Takako and Rokuro have both come together to see their daughter on her way this morning. The two Uchiha are wearing their Police Force uniforms, and see the girl - with a backpack presumably containing all those aforementioned items and more - right to the gate. "Have a good day at work too, Mother, Father. If we capture any alive perhaps I'll be able to write up a report for you or something."
That gets a chuckle from her father, "You just listen to your team lead, honey. I'm sure you'll be just fine."
After which, the girl shuffles over to join Hige, slouching as though her posture might be able to hide her excessive height and the shame brought on her by clingy and protective parents. "Hey." She says, "At least I'll know someone on this trip… from what you were saying, bandits shouldn't be too much hassle for a guy like you, right?"
Not that she's worried or anything, of course not.
Kanabe Masakunio wanders over to the gates, seeming to be in a rather good mood. The man stretches a bit, invigorated for the mission. "Hige, how goes?" he asks cheerily, raising his hand in a sort of wave. "And … Huh, new blood? I don't recognize you. Though I do recognize you two Uchiha. So you must be one yourself, then… Kanabe Masakunio, by the way. But call me Masa." He bows lightly. "So, then, what're we gonna do today?"
"Hey Mayu." Hige says when the girl nears, unable to keep the huge grin from his face as he looks back over to her parents. "That your folks?" He asks before giving them a wave in greeting. Anything to cause embarrassment, right? "Seems nice." With that out of the way he nods a bit to the question, "Yeah, hopefully it won't be too bad. Sometimes bandits can surprise you but more often than not there's not much to worry about. Most of them don't even know what chakra is, so at least there's that." He gives the slouched shinobi a glance over before he gives his head a little shake. "Stand up straight. Be proud." He gives a fang-toothed grin at his words. "First mission right? You got this. If you need help I'll be a few miles behind you." Yep, jerk.
When Masa arrives Hige offers a small nod in greeting. "Hey Masa." He offers. "Guess you get to supervise huh? Apparently I'm to lead with supervision. Not that I expect much to happen, but…" Hige gives a little shrug. "Anyways, bandits, about an hour away if we run. Nothing too exciting. Doesn't say they have to be kept alive either so we'll see if they want to give up or not. Questions?"
Mayu looks largely like she wants the ground to swallow her up, as her parents wave cheerfully back to Hige, and give a respectful nod to Masakunio. "That's the Inuzuka fellow, isn't it?" Takako asks her husband, "He seems like a nice young man." Rokuro then begins to tug his wife away, "Come along, dear, that's enough for today."
Poor Mayu groans faintly, and rubs at her eyes, "Yes, yes, I'm Uchiha Mayu." She says, "And those, people, are my parents." Siiigh. She does straighten up when she's told to, but that just makes her feel even more self-conscious!
"Can we try to intimidate them before we start killing people?" She asks, "If they're just ignorant civilians, then they should back down after a bit of fire, and then we can bring them back to interrogate or face justice. Not, that I'm going to hold back if they try to shank me with their pitchforks or whatever, but it'd be nice not to just straight to 'and there were no survivors' in the report, you know?"
And just like with all best laid plans, things happen! Masa is suddenly called away for something far more important than Genin-sitting on a simple mission and Hige just watches him go with a small shake of his head. "Well, guess it's just you and me Mayu." He says, looking back to the Uchiha and giving her a comforting (hopefully) grin. Of course those fangs peeking out might not make it seem all that comforting, but it's not the end of the worldright? Hige gives another wave to Mayu's parents as they leave before he winks at the girl, "Such nice parents you have." He teases, then motions for them to get under way before he and Konsho take to the trees to start moving. Because tree tops are awesome and apparently really fast to travel in.
"We can try and warn them, but we can't let them get away either. So if they try and run and won't give up we're going to have to find some way to stop them." Hige explains as they go, keeping his senses open as they travel as is kind of a normal habit at this point. Have to always watch for trouble.
Mayu isn't really put off much by appearances these days; she knew an Inuzuka in her class, and there was an Akimichi too, and that guy was really generous despite being a huge blubberball. It isn't like Hige can turn off the fangs, after all. "Yeah, they're great." Mayu says, rolling her eyes and shaking her head as she does, "They haven't quite figured out that I'm actually a ninja now, you know? I don't think they'll start to get it until I learn the Great Fireball Technique and… that, is a long way off."
Adolescent woes aside, the girl does her best to keep up with Hige. She hasn't had a whole lot of experience jumping through trees, but she's not terrible at it either. Once she's actually in amongst the foliage, her mind turns back towards the mission, and she nods her head seriously. "Alright, I understand. If we get lucky and get the drop on them, I've got an idea… but it'll kind of depend on how many of them there are, and where…" Her mind is already running with ideas, though. This is exciting! And if she can approach it like a puzzle rather than a deadly struggle in which she might very well be stabbed or killed, she might be able to have fun with it!
"You'll get there, don't worry. Until then enjoy your time with them." Hige says, the last part coming out a little soft as they move through those tree tops. He keeps the speed a little slower to make sure he doesn't out pace or tire out Mayu on the journey. A clawed finger goes up to scratch the side of Hige's nose as he listens to Mayu in her thinking and he nods slowly. "Well, just make sure you don't do anything too crazy okay?"
The trip itself is uneventful and when the trio finally arrives at the portion of road said to be frequented by the bandits Hige motions for them to drop out of the trees before doing so himself, hands slipping into pockets as he lands and looks around curiously. "Well, we're here. Keep your eyes open and we'll juststart patrolling."
Mayu nods her head, "I'll run anything past you first, if there's time." She says, "Otherwise, I'll try and follow your lead." She's pretty comfortable with the notion that Hige is in charge here; he's the more experienced ninja… and he's got his dog with him! When it comes to tracking people down, you don't get much better than that, do you?
She stays close to the boy, her left hand having produced a kunai from somewhere about her person, and her eyes staying sharp as she readies herself for trouble. "I guess we should try and keep it down though, just in case." She murmurs, not that she expects stupid bandit villagers to be able to see the tree right in front of their face, let alone a ninja… but it'd be embarrassing if they did!
Hige nods his agreement at keeping it down before he starts slipping through the trees next to the path, his movements completely silent as are those of his ninken. They haven't gone very far before Hige puts his back against a large tree trunk and motions for Mayu to hide as well. Up ahead are half a dozen bandits lying in wait for someone to come down the road that would be worth attacking. Mayu would notice, with some looking, that another half dozen are on the other side of the road as well, 'hiding'. Most of them appear to have knives and daggers though a few have swords and one even has an axe in hand.
"Alright Mayu. What's your idea?" Hige asks quietly, eyes shifting away from the bandits back towards the younger girl. That's all he says and he appears to be waiting on her to come up with the plan. No pressure or anything.
Mayu shrugs off her backpack, and rummages around in it carefully. Six people would be worrying if she was on her own - but with Hige and Konsho backing her up, it was really just two against one - and what sort of ninja would she be if she didn't think she could handle two bandits? Still, best to be careful, and Hige is actually… interested in her idea! Which is pretty exciting, really.
"Okay." She says, producing the ninja wire and a flask of oil from her backpack. "I was thinking, if we can soak this wire, and make a big circle around them… you can approach and ask them to surrender. When they don't, because they are idiots, I can set fire to the line with my technique, and they'll be trapped in a big circle of flame! It won't last long, but if you shout at them to drop their weapons at the same time, they might just panic and do it. The difficult bit will be laying the wire without them spotting us…"
Hige listens to the idea and nods a little, but then points across the road to the other bandits lying in wait on the other side. "And what about them?" He asks quietly, looking back to Maya to see what her response is to that. It's never quite so simple. Have to watch out for those sneaky bandits hanging out on the other side after all. And they can't let any escape to cause more trouble. The Inuzuka doesn't move for now as he waits to see what Mayu might have in mind.
"Oh, hm." Mayu looks back to the other bandits. She'd missed them! Darn. Twelve on three were less favorable odds, that's for sure. The girl purses her lips as she considers the problem. "Well, that does change things a bit." She concedes, furrowing her brow as she tries to think how to modify the plan.
"Okay." She says, after a few seconds. "I think there's two ways we can try it. I have a LOT of wire, so we could try and fence off the whole area, then you approach the ones on the road and I approach their backup… or, I can try and distract the group on the road, and you take out their backup as quietly as possible. If I take off my headband, I can try and pose as a … I don't know, some stupid villager profession, and keep them talking for a minute or two. They probably won't just try to murder me outright… will they?"
Hige shrugs lightly at the question, "I don't know. Bandits are bandits. Some will just try to threaten you to give them your stuff, others will kill you and take it. I'm pretty sure these ones haven't killed anyone yet since there's nothing in the report but it's still a risk." He seems totally ready to just…go along with her plan. "As for surrounding the area with your wire and then lighting it up, I'd be too afraid the trees would catch on fire. And then we have a different problem." He points out. He looks back towards the bandits and just considers them a moment before looking back at Mayu. "Do you want to try your plan?" Whether or not it's one he would normally do he doesn't say. Apparently he's letting the newbie get a feel for things.
Mayu scratches at the back of her head, "Oh yeah, trees get set on fire too, don't they… and they just dealt with one wildfire…" She hrmns, looking contemplative, but eventually, she just nods her head. "I can't think of any other good way to make sure we get them all. Uh, when you're done with the backup, maybe bring the biggest one over to show you've dealt with them?"
Tucking her kunai back inside her clothing, she carefully removes her forehead protector, and then slides that inside a pocket of the backpack. "Okay, I think… I think I can do this." She pauses for a second, and adds, "You WOULD tell me if this is a stupid idea, right?"
Hige gives one of those fang-toothed smiles…a little /too/ innocent of one…before he responds. "I would tell you if you were going to die. Which you won't." He promises. Apparently that's all he's willing to say though. He leaves it at that before he hops up into the treetops with Konsho and vanishes to the other side of the road, leaving Mayu to dwell on her thoughts all by her little lonesome until whatever point she's ready to brave the unknown banditry…
"Great. That's reassuring." Mayu sighs, and rubs her temples. She's only had the damned forehead protector a few days, and yet she already feels like she's unarmored without it. Removing her breastplate and gauntlets takes a little bit longer, but soon enough she's left just in her black garments which… well, they might look a little bit odd, but villagers wear weird stuff these days all the time.
Stepping out onto the road, she shoulders her backpack (now clanking even more thanks to all the armor in it) and starts to whistle. That's what traveling people do, right? Whistle? The tune is fairly jaunty, but she is not a natural musician. Some birds take flight in terror from her attempt at lighthearted musical accompaniment.
Birds take flight and Hige cringes a bit mentally from his hiding spot.
The whistling definitely catches the attention of the bandits but they wait until Mayu has gone a little distance before they pop out to surprise her! Three filter onto the road in front while the other three block her escape route, all with weapons out and at the ready. "Well hello there little girl." One of the few swordsman says with a sinister smile. "What're you doing out here all by yourself? Don't you know it's dangerous? Lots of bandits around these parts after all." Snickers emanate from around Mayu at the mans words as the other bandits seem to find it quite comical what he's saying. They might be a little looney. "You should leave your pack there and scurry on back home. We'll make sure the bandits don't get it for you."
Mayu comes up short when the bandits appear in front of her. The girl eyes the weapons, and then… does her best to lie. Smiling brightly from ear to ear, she nods her head in agreement - her part is just to buy time, right? So she had better play the role as best she can.
"Oh, I know, there's lots of bad people around." She says, "I'm… taking supplies to my grandmother. She lives all out on her own, and with all the bandits, we haven't been able to see her in a very long time!"
Thankfully, Mayu is a better liar than she is a musician, and she looks over her shoulder at the three men cutting off her escape route. "It is very nice of you to offer to help me, but I should be okay. You'd have to be a real monster to hurt a helpless girl on her way to her sick grandmother, wouldn't you?"
"Oh really? And where does your grandmother live little girl?" The leader asks while the men again snicker around him. "And really you shouldn't be hurrying along so fast. There's plenty to see around here. So just go ahead and leave your pack and go exploring a bit. We'll watch after it for you." More snickering before one of the men behind Mayu steps forward to reach out for the pack, expecting her to just hand it over apparently.
Whatever it is Hige is doingwell, he must still be doing it because he hasn't appeared yet. Surely he's okay though, right?
"Oh, she lives… east…" Mayu says, her voice vaguer, haltering a bit as she tries to keep up with the situation.
It is tough to appear helpless when her instinct is to fight back, but she doesn't want to blow her cover - not yet anyway, and besides, she was in a terrible tactical situation right now. The girl is sharp, though. As the bandit behind her reaches for her back, Mayu turns to the side, and steps backwards in a half-stumbling step. To a trained eye, they'd now realize that Mayu's back (and thus, the pack) are against a tree at the side of the road, and she can see all six men.
They might think they've got her pinned; she feels much more comfortable in this situation. "I'm sorry, but Mother was very clear. It is important I hold onto my supplies and I don't let anyone take them from me. I know you are all trying to help, but I'm fine. You should worry more about yourselves."
"Oh, but we must insist." The man with the sword says as he steps forward and points his sword out towards Mayu with a sneer. "Unless you want us to spill your pretty little life's blood all over this disgusting road. Hand it over, now." The other men all start to close in as well, their weapons coming up as they try and scare the girl into handing over the goods. As for Hige? He's still no where to be found. Surely he's okay, right?
Mayu has to believe Hige is okay; whatever six bandits could do to him… she has to believe he'd at LEAST be able to make enough noise to alert her before he died. Then again, staring down the point of the sword, she can't be totally certain of that, and all manner of dark futures are spreading out before her.
"Well, alright, I suppose if you're going to put it like that…"
Very, very slowly the girl shrugs off her backpack, and then places it on the ground in front of her. Both hands raise up in front of her, "I really would suggest that you put down your weapons and apologize, though. You'll regret being so rude…"
And she takes a deep breath, playing for time, yes, but also getting herself ready.
One of the bandits quickly snags the pack and starts digging through it for stuff. And things. When he finds the hitai-ate however he pauses, then pulls it out to show the others. "Uh, ain't this what them ninja's wear?" He asks a little slowly.
"Yeah, that's there headband thingy. Why does she have that?"
"She's not a ninja, she's too scared of us, see? Besides look at her, she's freakishly tall and lanky, not a ninja, definitely." They seem to be perfectly fine ignoring Mayu now as they have their little discussion.
Mayu had intended to let rip with her fireball the moment someone went for the bag.
The fact that they choose to point out her height means that things will go even less well for them from here on out.
The girl's brow twitches, and she brings her hand to her mouth. The Lesser Fireball Technique may be the lesser technique of its big brother, but the fact is, she can still breathe a burst of rolling orange flames from her lips, out at the aggravating opponents.
The two men who had spoken up criticizing her are the first targets, with a third aiming to splash over the front of the man who did most of the talking. Three blooming bursts of fist-sized flame spat out all at once, Mayu makes her move, and after the three jets of fire have left her lift, THEN she reiterates the point she made a few seconds ago.
"I told you you'd regret being rude, now drop your weapons!!"
Deciduous Fireballs Batman! The bandits shriek in surprise in pain as they get hit by fireballs and they quickly stop, drop and roll to put out any remaining flames. While their cohorts are doing the roll the other three decide it's to put down this possible ninja. "Quick, get 'er!" "Cut off her legs! Bring 'er down ta size!" Three men all lunge at Mayu though their attacks aren't very coordinated. Still they manage to kind of flail and slash towards her with their daggers. And hey! Her backpack is on the ground again since the guy that was holding it is trying to deal with some fire.
There's a puff of smoke as the three men close on her, and when it clears, Mayu… isn't there any more. She does have a pair of small cuts across her mid-section, where the blades have slashed through her soft cotton clothing and drawn blood. They aren't deep wounds, but they are annoying, and the girl brings one hand to her side, jaw clenched.
"Oh yeah, Mayu, take OFF your armor before talking to the psychopaths, that's a great plan…" She mutters to herself, and then draws two kunai from about her person, twirling them as she glares at the men she's left in the smoke.
"Okay. You've barked me off now. Drop, your weapons, and I'll do what I can to make sure you don't get executed for your crimes. Keep this up and you'll be burned, then stabbed, then hanged, and maybe burned a bit more afterwards. How do you want to play this, dangerous guys?"
The answer comes in the form of some shouting as the men charge at Mayu again. Two of them run into each other and trip to the ground because, apparently, they are pretty stupid. That leaves the others to go do after the girl though and this includes the three that had been burned before. They kind of flail around some more as they attack, their skill certainly lacking.
And still no Hige, not even a Konsho. Then again the other bandits haven't come out either.
Miyu steels herself as the enemies come in for her. It is the first time she's been in a real fight, and what surprises her more than anything else is how smoothly the transition comes from training to live combat. She steps easily around the first attacker, and when the second man practically trips on his way to slash her, she jumps into the air, and stabs her kunai down hard into his shoulder.
Rolling when she hits the ground, a second sword buries itself where she had just been, and the last man to try and carve into her seems to catch her at the end of the roll… only for her to again burst into a cloud of white smoke.
From the branch of the tree she had been pinned against before, three shuriken whirl out to try and catch the sword-hands of the flailing bandits. Miyu doesn't even sound winded - that had been an intense few seconds, but, her training has paid off. Maybe she CAN do this! She's sure of it!
"Yeah, okay, I'm starting to see why you guys tried to pick on a little kid. Are you ready to give up yet?"
Now where the heck is Hige? If these guys managed to coordinate seriously, things could still turn ugly… even if she's doing a good job of keeping them off balance so far.
The bandits attack and seem confused when, first, she manages to avoid them. And then they're attacked in return and they turn from super sure of themselves to frightened little sissies. The attack that goes through the clone only serves to have the man's weapon stuck neatly into a tree and he tries to yank it out with all of his strength, to no avail. Some of the men start running, and Hige finally appears. The two that run are quickly knocked out, one by the boy and the other by the pup, the former simply chopping the man in the back of the neck while the latter barrels into the other and makes him hit a tree. Two more give up but the swordsman and another dude with a dagger aren't going down without a fight. "Kids! I'm going to kill you stupid kids!" The swordsman says angrily before attacking Mayu with a pair of quick slashes. The man with the dagger looks between Hige and Mayu, seems to decide on the easier target, and follows after the sword dude to slash at her himself. Hige just…leans against a tree, arms folding over his chest, observing. And Konsho is taking a moment to relieve himself against a tree.
As the two men slash at her, Mayu takes a deep breath and leaps from her tree branch, completing a graceful flip over the top of the swords. When she lands, the girl twists on her heel, and her hand is raised again.
Once more, she breathes out three long bursts of coiling flames. The first two have a definite ball shape to them, the last… is a little more hazy, the chakra held less compact, as she aims to set both men ablaze - the man who was stupid enough to talk about killing kids targeted wth two fireballs rather than the one the more cowardly man gets.
"Ah, thanks for your help, Hige-san." She calls, "It is hard to keep an eye on all of them at once…"
Hige just waves a hand at the thanks, "No worries." He says mildly as he continues to observe. As she breathes the fireballs the two men are knocked down and eventually out, to which Hige gives some applause. "Very nicely done Mayu. I'm impressed." He says with a smile before going about and quickly tying up the bandits that had given up, then the unconscious ones. "You took care of yourself very well, especially for your first mission. And while the plan wasn't one I would've made it worked well enough."
Mayu looks around for the downed man who claimed that she was freakishly tall, and smiles to the boy, "Thanks, that's very kind of you. I… think next time, I'll have to make sure to find a cover that lets me keep my armor though…"
And then she just starts kicking the downed bandit! Not, hard enough to be life threatening, but there'll definitely be more bruises than necessary, "NOW WHO WAS IT YOU WERE SAYING COULDN'T BE A NINJA BECAUSE SHE WAS ABSURDLY TALL LIKE A REDWOOD TREE, HUH!?"
… Well, she might have SOME growing up still left to do, it seems ..
Hige winces a bit as Mayu starts kicking the bandit but he doesn't stop her. Hey, he's been there. In fact he tends to kill the ones that leaf him off, so a little kicking is okay. "Okay," he says after a few seconds, "Let's get back and have them send someone to pick these guys up." And with that, their mission is complete!
