Starring:
Date: August 1, 2012
Summary:
Odo and Akechi are escorting a Merchant and his daughter to the Land of Rice to finish off on a trade deal, A rival merchant however has hired Kirigakure's finest, Aoitsuki and Kitaru on a mission to intervene and put the merchant out of his misery.
"Merchant Intervention"
10 Miles from the Land of Rice
It had already been a long journey, and once the merchant Odo and Akechi were escorting was inside the walls of the quasi-city, their mission was over. It was only ten miles left of the trip, and Odo was in the back, he had suggested Akechi be in front or in the middle, so they could watch the entire caravan all at once. Odo was listening to the rambling of the Merchant's daughter who was talking about nothing but shoes she was going to get when they got to the city and what kind of dresses she wanted to get and how her daddy payed for all of her stuff so she wasn't worried about meeting a rich man to marry but she didn't want a poor man either because then he might try to just go after her dowry then leave her with shoes that don't mean anything anymore and-
Odo sweatdropped, wondering how long she would talk before turning blue, passing out, or finally taking a breath. I'm never having kids. The sun was just rising on their second day of travel, and the rays of the morning sun were beaming over the mountains in the distance and glimmering on the rice paddies on either side of the open road.
Akechi was in a very high spirits today as he took the front and didn't have to hear the child, as he walked the older gentleman the young Uzumaki would have his hands firmly pressed against a scroll. As he wondered he would break into a laugh as he thought about Odo and how he was feeling. Resting his hand on the back of his head he would speak out loud "Yo Odo-san how are things on your end?" the tone in which he would be taken might be caught to Odo as being a smartass but to everyone else who didn't know him all that well might've just thought he wanted to know for the sake of the mission. Yawning he would shift in stance and motion his hand into his pocket only after placing the scroll into his front pouch. The sun would be reflecting nicely off his eyes as his carefree smiled matched his emitting of a calm aura.
With it being a bright sunny morning it seemed like nothing out of the ordinary was afoot, though after the long walk and ten miles outside of the village a figure obscurd the pathway, adorned in all black, wind whipping around her body as she crossed her arms along one another, she peered intently at the caravan, her mission was quite simple, destroy the caravan and slay anyone that might get in her way, and she was going to do just that," With long golden hair and a thick black kimono, she seemed to be an odd passer byer, she raised her hand simply, to the group as the neared closer. " I need this caravan to go away," Aoitsuki commanded once they had gotten closer, intent of perhaps making this a peaceful process first…
Odo thought of beating the snot out of Akechi once this mission was over. As comforting as that thought was, the figure blocking the path caught his attention first. The girl who never shut up got a finger from Odo, "Hold that thought," he said and she got all grumpy and stuck her head out the window and started screaming, "This is why I could never marry a ninja, they are always running off so rudely and-" she continued shouting from behind them until she caught sight of the figure, and dissappeared into the wagon to shivver and cry, "ok, maybe ninja aren't so bad, they protect us.." Cry-whimper.
Odo landed next to Akechi on the road, looking at the figure and speaking easily, "Please move, we are heading to Fuuma Basin and we have no intention of turning around." Odo was on edge. He knew there might be a force trying to stop them, word of another merchant hiring an assailant was common dealings in a torrential business world.
Akechi would giggle to himself until the figure caught his attention he would narrow his gaze, as Odo made his way beside him, for now he would allow Odo to control the conversation as he picked apart anything and everything the figure had to offer him. He would start to for plan of action as he waited moving his left and right hand to his back pockets close to his pouch. Akechi carefree pressure would be gone and replaced with a need to protect one as he looked at her he words would cause a slight chill "such a sweet voice perhaps you should remove yourself, I wouldn't want to hurt such a delicate flower." Akechi would smile softly as he rested on his heels.
"You two seem to be pretty confident in your abilities, unfortunately I'm not moving and if you are un willing to get out of the way…" She sighed softly, and finally placed her hands together, finally chakra began to emit through her body, a large torrent of it at that as the ground about her gusted lightly with her presence. "One more time, please leave this caravan to us," Aoi ordered soundly, fitting up on her kimono, she knew that despite it may seem like she was the only one here, there was another, slipped off to the side, hopefully him joining would make things a little easier.
Having waited to see if they would actually respond like requested, Kitaru had purposely kept his chakra level low, while within that blind, masking his presence. When it came down to Aoi having to charge her chakra, he did the same, that dark cloak of his filling the area with a flickering dark purple hue as the malice that marked his particular cloak hung heavy in the air. If they looked around further for him, they'd probably find him, but Kitaru was staying out of sight for now.
Akechi would shrug his shoulders as he spoke "confidence is all a man has, and tell your friend he can't hide from me either." Taking this time Akech would start to build his chakra as well for the upcoming attacks. He would start to take a rather relaxed stance as he focus on the dark cloak before tossing it aside to focus on the woman ahead of him, no words needed to be said to one another at Odo took the advancement and went after Aoitsuki, for now Akechi would stay back and watch waiting for his chance to start so attacks of his own only after getting feel for the enemy.
As Odo struck at Aoitsuki she simply raised a hand, catching the blade along the side of his arm as it first embedded deeply, though there was no sign of blood instead her face began to crack, and the next attack was followed with a powerful barrier of wind, moving the attack in the opposite direction, eventually the clone shatters, and she herself is revealed to be a few feet further back, "You attacked first," Aoi suddenly speaks up, and with a few set of hand seals, water formed at her feet, followed by the a crysalization of needles, they formed all around, spiking towards both Odo and Akechi, while a deep foggy mist began to surge soon after to shield her presence… " We will make this quick…"
Shaking his head slightly, they were able to spot him, ah well, he never was really good at the stealth thing. Either way, Kitaru went through those hand seals quickly from where he was at. Focusing that chakra into the illusion, both Odo and Akechi would see a massive mirror, easily 3 feet in height raise up before them. As the wind and needles attacked, their reflection was caught within the depth of that mirror, a small point within the vast world. The attack drew their mental focus into that mirror, as if pulling their soul into another world where it would be attacked by the dark malice that was hinted at in the regular world. The mirror quickly went dark, that blackness shredding their very soul, before they'd snap back to their body, the attack itself only a moment's worth of time, but it drew something of their very essance into it.
Two needles catch Odo in the shoulder as he slips to the side, and the mist covers teh area and Odo loses sight of Aoitsuki quickly. While in the mist, he saw the mirror rise from the ground before him, and he reaches over to grab the needles from his arm and yanks them out quickly, shooting pain through his arm enough to cause the mirror from his perception shatter, and he tosses the ice shards off to the side, and backs up to the caravan, looking from one side to the other, "Akechi, they use Genjutsu, be aware of that, and get back over here to regroup! Focus on the Genjutsu user first and foremost! Evade attacks from the Ice user! Go!"
Odo's chakra would surge up in a transformation, forcing him to a higher level of his taijutsu.
Akechi would dodge the first attack using his sealing ninjutsu seal barrier, Akechi mouth would be fixing to speak just when the hidden mist jutsu hit. He quickly lost track of the two nin within the mist. Smirking Akechi used his quick thinking skills to take note of everyone place on the battle field before hand as he pulled out two scroll he would released a barrage of Senbon toward the direction. The scrolls would be held in wide for to cover the area directly in front of him, thinking that none of them took to the sky of course.
The mist surprising still loomed in the air, and as the senbon came raining into the mist Aoitsuki was quick on her feet, sliping through the barrage just barely as she began to focus more chakra throughout her body, the tension in the air was high, and she need any close calls, her body began to manifest, the temperature within the mist itself instantly dropping as her hair went from golden to snow white, her skin more pale, and a gusting aura moving around the mist they stood within, it was chilling surprisingly as spring approached… "Ha…" Aoi sighed quietly, tracing her eyes to keep up with everyone else, her next attack would prove to be quite deadly…
Caught off guard by the sebon that came arching out of the mist, he'd shake his head, getting tagged by the needles instead of stopping them with that seal barrier. Focusing himself, eyes narrowed as he'd run through those seals hidden by the mist. That purple glow about him increasing the area that it covered, swirling into the mist to make the whole area a chilled purple hue. First Odo, then Akechi would have mirrors that came up out of the ground around them, capturing them within a cylinder of mirrors that temporarly voided the mist within them. The first mirror each victim looked at would attempt to capture their focus, that reflection demanding of their brain to go still, as still as the mirror reflection itself. Kitaru was hoping to cause both nin to have to endure whatever it was that Aoi was setting up, as it was going to be big.
Aoitsuki's little 'ha' gave Odo an edge as he listened closely around him after dodging the mass of senbon coming from Akechi's scroll technique. That mirror rising in front of him again, he jams his thumb into his shoulder wound once more, causing it to shatter once again in front of him and fade away. Remembering the direction from which Aoitsuki's voice came, and he dashed at her through the mist, finally making out her outline and striking at her with a snap of sound form his sword's speed two times, one at her torso, and the second at her thigh, possibly immobilizing her or slowing her down so she couldn't run away into the mist!
Akechi could hit hit attack slam into someone but wasn't sure what it was, as he stood there his body would be snapped into a mirror and trapped inside of it, as he stood there he would be like a deer in the head lights frozen soild to the world.
Odo's quick snap slash sliced across her chest, however the second strike was met with the same raking sound from before, obvious enough he just hit an Ice Clone, however suddenly the ice clone attempts to stab him once in the shoulder with an impaling hand and soon begins to erode and spiral, turning into a jagged spiral of ice twisting like a drill and attempting to slice and cut right into Odo's stomach, if all connected well the Ice Wave would be meld over Odo's gradually, locking his body up in the embrace of cold frost ice… Aoi herself was still within the mist, though clearly visible at this point due to her antics…
Kitaru watched Odo and Aoitsuki in the mist, eyes narrowed as he'd stare after them a moment. That grab of the genjutsu on Akechi temporarly put him out of business, at least for now. Focusing, several spheres were drawn from one of his pockets, the multitude thrown towards where Akechi was stuck at. As the spheres rolled to a stop, the explosive tags on them were revealed, that triple cascade of explosions aiming to get Akechi and as he was near the caravan, potentially start their target on fire as well.
As the Ice Clone from Aoitsuki fades into the drill-like thing coming at his midsection, Odo moved quickly out of the way, and spots where she is a bit further back, and goes right for her with a much louder slash of his weapon at her thigh, aiming mainly to incapacitate if it struck true, and at least do enough damage to slow her down some more. "Let us through!"
Finally Odo wasn't going to be able to eat through her defenses, the blade slammed into her body, only to frost over and explode into chunks, the Real aoitsuki was still within the mist which actually finally began to alleviate itself, the explosion from afar marked that the Caravan had been struck finally, and with one shinobi down there was only one more to go. " I don't think so…" Aoitsuki replied, the binding wave of Ice is formed within her radius, circling about her into tornadoing towards Odo's flesh, lashing out towards him with her clone once again, to stab right into his stomach.
With not feeling nor seeing any response from Akechi after the explosions, his attention turned to Odo and Aoi. The flames from the explosions starting to spread across the caravan, he would whip through those seals to have a set of two, then four spheres form over Odo's head. Within each sphere was a mirror that caught Odo's reflection perfectly within them. The reflections would then warp, twisting out of the spheres to reach out for Odo, first two, then four reflections would latch on to the taijutsuist, trying to slow him down as every motion he made was reflected perfectly within the mirrors above, draining that stamina as he'd have to fight against his own strength, multiplied by four.
The attacks from Aoitsuki were dodged easily enough, and the mirror technique from Kitaru he tried to siphon off with focusing on his pain again, grabbing his shoulder again. It wasn't enough as he had to mentally and physically feel like he had to push his reflection out of the way. He was now getting exhausted. Odo looked at the caravan behind himself, the flames engulfing Akechi, and the civilians starting to panic. He looked around for a moment wondering what to do. He quickly decided that getting these people and his comrade to safety was the imperative, so he made several handseals, and the water from the surrounding paddy fields rose up into huge columns of water, getting between himself and the two Kirigakure nin as Odo made one final attempt to grab his comrade from the flames, and rush everyone else back over the mountain before the spouts subsided.
Aoi was protecting the both of them, and while suddenly the massive array of water began to impede them, suddenly in a master of moments it began to frost over, a giant wall of ice formed, while a torrent of wind forced away the water giving them a clear shot of Odo and the caravan. " Kitaru-san! The merchant is the top priority! No one else!" Aoi exclaims, though she herself was already begining to feel her chakra begining to diminish, she focused more chakra for what was to come, tailing right after Odo and the group…
Taking off through the opening that Aoi was able to make through Odo's attempt to draw on the water, he'd focus himself. A nod was given and once again, that set of mirrors would erupt about Odo, blocking his view and being throughly distracting. While they settled into place, the mirrors on Odo's periferal vision would warp the reflection, reaching out of the mirror's surface to latch on to him again, trying to slow him down, distract him, drain him. Meanwhile, the mirror in front of Odo would once again try to impress apon him the need to stop. To go still. That illusion was hammering at his brain to make everything still as was reflected within the mirror's surface itself.
As the mirrors approached in front of him and above, Odo tightly closes his eyes and grits his teeth, with a small part of his tongue and cheek stuck between his teeth, causing himself enough pain to keep himself out of the genjutsu. Realizing that they are gaining on him, he pushes himself harder than before, launching the two carts with the civilians and his teammate Akechi within to go careening back up the road, much too far away hopefully for them to logically be able to go after the carts at this point…
At least Odo hoped..
Now, he turns around, his slight white aura fading from losing his transformation, and he draws his sword once again, now looking at the genjutsu user and seeing him as the biggest threat at the moment, as he could dodge ninjutsu for longer than he could keep hurting himself to get out of those darn genjutsu. So, now to aim for Kitaru's clavacle, hopefully rendering his ability to make hand signs and create the genjutsu useless from this point on with a thunderous crack that resonates over the rice paddies and to the mountains in the distance like a thunderbolt just struck in the middle of the battlefield.
Instantly Aoitsuki went into action as he began to toss away the cart, she formed up a massive wall of towering ice, pulling up to the peaks though missing the cart to smash into the wall of Ice, Odo's quick movements wasn't something she was able to keep up with, she attemped to help Kitaru but instead just yells out to him. " Look out!" She exclaims and suddenly her chakra began to emit, once again attempting her combo technique of a whirling spiraling ice wave, catching him off his guard while another Aoi comes from behind, latching to stab into his shoulder with her elbow.
Nothing.
Kitaru has yet to face some one that fast that sudden as the strike that just got him. The dodge he did even as Odo was drawing was no where near fast enough to stop the strike from slash from shoulder to hip, easily causing a serious wound to his chest as he'd get spun away, rolling on the ground before he'd recover enough to stop the skid. Coughing, he'd grab his chest, the belt with those mirror spheres in them sliced and the spheres scattered across the ground. Slowly getting up onto his knees, he'd stare at Odo for a moment. As Kitaru slowly got to his feet, he'd once again go through those seals. Even if they couldn't get the cart, they could get Odo. It seems his capability to do seals wasn't quiet stopped as he went through those movements, the orbs forming in the air over Odo once again, that reflection caught in each as Kitaru would attempt to pin the man down for Aoitsuki. Meanwhile, Kitaru's own image to Odo would go clear, almost see through, until that reflection of the world without was all that could be seen of Kit. Another second, the last half of a breath exhaled and he faded away from sight.
Odo was breathing heavily and sweat dripped down his forehead as he stood there, staring at the two of them after he just struk at the genjutsu using Kiri nin. Aoitsuki's attacks Odo evaded, since there was some slight predictability of it, and then as the mirrors came back again, Odo just ground his teeth again over his tongue and cheek. Man that hurts a LOT. Odo spits some blood out as he looks around for where Kitaru dissapeared to without any such luck. Now Aoitsuki was his main target. "One down, one to go…" He raises his weapon up, going at her quickly, with a slash towards her neck, reaching around behind the small of his back to grab his tanto, bringing that up towards her stomach in a feint maneuver to catch her off guard, both attacks going to distract her and right towards some weak spots on the human body. Odo was slower now without his transformation active.
With a rise of her hand and a pair of hand seals the mighty Ice wall broke away between Odo and herself, and even as his strikes finally hit home, it oly stabbed into her flesh exploding her into a clone of Ice. the Real Aoitsuki was a few feet away, they both seemed to be in good condition, however Kitaru was cut down… " You desevere this victory," Aoitsuki soon states, rising up to a stand, she was panting, heavily actually, never beening drained this much in a traditional fight, yet he was able to handle the both of them quite skillfully, she focuses a little bit of chakra for good measure but for now takes a step back. " What is your name?"
Having moved from where he had been attacked at, Kitaru would fade into sight off to the side. A slow shake of his head given, he had one more thing to attempt against this beast of a taijutsuist. The chakra unleashed, that original mirror that he had used at the start of the fight returned. Once more a massive mirror formed before Odo, trying to drag him into that reflected world, the darkness from that dark cloak's malice attempting to shred his very soul, pulling hard on him for a long moment, before he'd snap back to reality. It was a last ditch move, Kitaru falling to a knee after the attack was unleashed as he'd lean up against a tree. Either he'd succeed, or the man could kill him, but he didn't give up until the end.
Odo listened to Aoitsuki and bowed his head just a little in respect of two glorious fighters coming to a close of their fight, "Reizei Ogosokamaru. Hopefully one day-" he suddenly fell to a knee, stabbing the tip of his sword in the ground to try and steady himself, but it barely worked for now, his entire body shaking as he one more time tried to awaken himself from a genjutsu with a finger in his shoulder wound. One eye closed, he forced out his final words to Aoitsuki, continuing his previous statement, "Hopefully one day we fight as allies.. the things we could accomplish.." and with that, he fell to the ground in a heap, his right eye still open, looking up at Aoitsuki and Kitaru, closing slowly as he faded from conciousness in the middle of the land of Rice Paddies.
‘
Aoitsuki didn’t reply to him, instead she simply watched as he collapsed on the ground, obviously it must have been Kitaru's doing, she peered back at him, still wanting heavily. "Are you okay? We are going to deliver the merchants goods and silence him once we get into the village… That way this mission isn't a total lost," she states, she sighs heavily and shakes her head, still apparently worn out from all the fighting….
