Starring:
Date: September 13, 2011
Summary:
No summary given.
"Nightmare at the Docks"
Fire Ferry Docks [Land of Fire]
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Welcome to the docks of the Land of Fire. The welcome here is met with several fisherman and merchants packing up their boats to travel to distant countries for trade. Other merchants seem to be arriving from random directions carrying their cargo. Several times a noble and large ship is also seen harbored here. One specific Ferry lies here, this provides transport to the Land of Water.
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The debrief of this mission came across as something plain and simple. A guard detail, where extra security was needed for the unloading of goods of a shipping boat. Tosai, as leader of the mission, was very clear in the details, which were only explained upon arrival to Land of Fire's Ferry Dock. "Okay guys… We are here as a presence. Apparently the company's good are of a grave enough concern that we are needed. I expect no one to be able to enter this docking, or the boat itself, unless they are personal, meaning the crew of the ship, or the caravan who should be arriving soon." The boat had not arrived, yet, nor had the caravan for which had been hired to deliver good to the Land of Fire's capital city. The sun had barely risen, and the dock was still quiet, and almost empty if not for a scarce few fishing boats and, the wide open sea.
"Once the ship gets here, I will be the main guard upon it. In fact, I am going to Water Walk out to meet the cargo ship now. While I am doing that, you two should go about securing the dock, making sure that if the caravan does arrive, they won't encounter any problems." Tosai looked to Nao, saying, "I put you in charge, as an instruction to Berii-chan." A smile went Berii along with a wink, saying, "Try not to take too much initiative, and follow Nao's lead. I don't expect you guys to have any trouble, but, stay on guard. Any questions?"
Nao nods as she takes in Tosai's orders. She glances to Berii then back along the docks. "Got it. Search the docks, make sure nothing bad is here, and wait for the boat to get in." Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? She walks down the dock, being a tad wary and examining any boxes or anything that might be on the dock already, not wanting to be surprised by foes in barrels or foes hiding in crates or the like. Or worse, imagine a trap of explosives set here for some remote detonation? Well, Nao can think of such things and so she starts to examine the area for anything out of the ordinary right away. "Come on Berii-san, let's see if we can find anything. If we do we can show Tosai-Sama that we know what we're doing, maybe get on another mission or two." She says as she tries to encourage as she works through the task herself.
Idly standing by, Berii spent most of her time spinning a kunai around her finger. The kunai with red cloth tied around the loophole, though it didn't seem to put much difficulty in spinning the knife around. The girl was indeed listening but, she didn't truly have much input at all and now that she was told not to take too much initiative she felt the need to be quiet even more. With a frown she shakes her head, not having any questions. Berii just turns about and follows Nao down the pathway, agreeing with her, "Right."
As the two seemed to have no questions, Tosai looked at them both, an analyzing and staring eye taking the two in. Nao, got a slight smile, though Tosai's eyes seemed to squint slightly at her. Meanwhile, Berii got a look of worry, along with a sweatdrop. Tosai soon let out a sigh, before saying, "Be careful, and cautious, and I shall see you two in about 30 minutes of time." With that, Tosai turned, and ran, jumping off of the peer, and running on to the water, only to take off running northward. His speed for someone of such large size was incredibly fast, causing him to disappear over the horizon only after a few minutes.
That left Nao, and Berii on a one square mile pier, during a time where no one was hardly around. It was only a half hour before the pier was open for business and public traffic still, and thus easier to manuever. The search for explosives, and traps, even hiding foes yielded nothing. Only visible things around were boats as far as the eyes can see, and in the course of the half hour, nothing at all would seem out of the ordinary for a dock like this for quite a while. It was only until the two Genin, if they had stuck, were to reach the dock's main bridge, that a small red ball bounced there way. After a moment or two, one child, about Berii's age would come running toward the two Genin, crying, and shouting,
"Help!! Help!!"
Nao goes on gaurd, despite the appearance of the girl it could be a shinobi using henge, or even a genin from another village, after all Berii is such an age, still it is hard for Nao to not show concern. She was getting bored with her walk on the docks and searches there so she tugs free a kunai as the girl rushed forward, "Hold on, girl, what… do you need help with? What's going on? Calm down and tell us what's happened?" She says, trying to calm the girl but having the comforting maner of a strange beast that hardly ever dealt with kids. Which is to say she simply lacks much in the way of a friendly maner, especially when she's on alert. Her eyes look around, looking for trouble then look back to the girl, studying her for possible danger or signs of harm.
Berii didn't entirely know Nao, so it kind of put her in an awkward feeling place. "So…" Continuing to spin the kunai around, her eyes sweep the area for anything of interest, not for anything directly pertaining to the mission exactly just for something a bit more amusing to the brain than the odd silence. Uchiha opens her mouth to speak just as her stomach growls, the spinning of the kunai stops and she reaches down to hold her talking tummy, realizing she hadn't fed it at all. "Hnn, fowgot to eat." Now would not be the time to think back on her mistakes as someone was screaming help and a nice red ball comes bouncing her way… oh how red it was it was almost mesmeriz- Quickly shaking her head, Berii looks up from the ball and to the girl who had been calling out for help, then to Nao. Berii quietly imitates what the older girl is doing , looking around for… who knows what!
When the girl got closer, still only about ten feet away, she'd shout, "Their attacking!! Help me!! Help me!!" Here small steps seemed to knock hard upon the wooden bridge, even though her feet were bare. Her clothing was a pink kimono, old seeming and with many patches, and her face seemed made of porcelain, white and flawless. Just as the girl gets closer, she finally arrives, locking to Berii, and shouting, "My ball!! Get it for me, pwease!!", before saying, "My daddy is in trouble. I think someone is hurting him!!" The weird part about her voice, was that it seemed to not flow well with her mouth at all. Even now, her lips moved slighly out of synch. As she shouted, something caused her head to turn, a look of fright coming on her tiny face. "My ball!!", was shouted, just as the ball was about to roll of the bridge.
Things aren't adding up to Nao, and she backs up from the girl, "Freeze, stop where you are. Berii, something's not right." She says as she moves into a defensive position, trying to be sure this isn't just a distraction. Why would the girl care about the ball if they are attacking her, or her daddy? That doesn't make sense to Nao, and so she backs up a tad, hoping the girl will stop as ordered. If the girl keeps charging, Nao may take further action, not wanting to get too close to the strange girl. "This just isn't right." She repeats as she holds her Kunai firmly, while her eyes glance around again, making sure there are no other threats if possible.
Berii's somewhat bewildered appearance would shift into focus as she starts to pick up on the things that seemed out of place. The Academy taught them how to actually henge but, not realy how to tell if someone was in a henge. Her eyes lock back onto the girl as the ball is now disregarded as all her senses start clicking in, none of them saying a single good thing and with Nao agreeing, Berii's hot headed ways would cause her to prepare going on the offensive. Her hands come together with a clap as she runs through the hand seals for a fire jutsu.
Nostrils begin to flair and her chakra begins to focus but, no further action is taken in hopes that the girl stops, Berii frozen now. What if she were wrong? She'd just light some random person on fire but… both Nao and her own senses were saying this was anything but, a good encounter so why couldn't she do it? Visibly tense, Berii just sits on the final seal for a moment longer.
The small child began to look just as bewildered as Berii, tilting her head as the two Genin seemed to become more and more wary. "Aren't you not going to come? My daddy… he's.. in trouble…" Meanwhile as she stood there, looking between the two girls in hope that they would come, the small ball that was left loose seemed to slowly roll away. When Berii raised her hand seals, ready to attack at any second, the small girl's head fell, crestfallen. "…Even you… I guess I was wrong in thinking I had a friend. Thats okay…" Soon, after the girl's lips stopped moving, a deeper voice, obviously would be heard, saying..
"She has a brother."
Suddenly from above, a small boy, dressed in a blue Kimono, could be seen hopping into the air at extremely high speeds. His mouth clicked and clacked woodenly, before opening and ejecting kunai from them, one for each of the girls. And remember that red ball? Well, that small girl was quite attached to it.. literally. As the sound of wooden chattering came from her body, the wire would tighten and be reeled in, bringing the ball with it. The moment the ball came between Nao and Berii, it would fizz and spark, before being dropped. Upon it glowed an explosive tag.
Nao tries to dodge the attacks but she's just not prepared. She thought she was but… she's is hit fairly hard. She winces as she's knocked to the side. "Puppet user?" She blurts out, as she tries to fight back before things get too out of hand. She manages to keep to her feet as she missed the ball, but avoided the worst of it. She eyes the girl, "Go, Berii! Fight!" And with that Nao throws a kunai at the girl, following it with a wide hand sweep as she tries to follow the kunai with a blast of cutting wind, not hesitating at this point to fight back.
Berii was looking like quite a fool at the moment even as it was clear that this girl was no longer a friendly fire target she couldn't get her body to budge in the slightest, she had been so heavily locked up that she was permanently shut down it would seem. It didn't help that she was in quite a confusing situation to boot, never encountering a puppet user in her life, she was beginning to think there was somehow a living being made out of wood. It would take a kunai deeply grazing her thigh to properly begin to react. With a bit of a whimper, she'd come back to the real world and her first instinct would be to escape. From what? She had no idea to be honest but, when the explosion goes off all that would remain of Berii would be soggy chunks of wet log as she appears a few steps to the side.
Things were slowly starting to make sense as Nao shouts out for her to fight. "What is that?!" Berii calls out as her hands disappear within her sleeves. She'd adjust her step and turn towards the 'brother' a few flails of her arms unleashing wave after wave of shuriken at him while Nao deals with the girl.
The flow of wind that backed the kunai's attack propelled it towards faster speeds, its sights now set upon a target unknown. As the female puppet seemed to strafe left to intercept, its speed proved to slow, and soon, a small spurt of blood would come just from just outside the bridge's rail. The blood spurt from a tear in fabric. That same fabric belonged to a blanket which had once been a rock well before hand. From his disguise, the enemy in this attack jumped backward to a more defensive position. He could be made out now as a man of large build, with a thick neck and a face lacking any sort of expression or even eyebrows. His face was flat, lacking a nose, and his clothing consisted of a monk's vestige's, black robes over white. A straw hat at tilted upon his head, and his hands were pushed in front of him. Fingers twitched, timed with the slight movement of both puppets on the field.
Berii's first shuriken seemed to be just as successful, passing up the male puppet only to cut across the man's shoulder. The other was lost in a large plume of smoke which filled the area, courtesy of the male puppet. He seemed tough though he winced, saying, "Pitiful girls… You know not the gravity of this situation!!" With a twitch of his fingers, the female and male puppets grabbed each other in an embrace, before turning there heads toward the two girls. Opening there mouths simultaneously, one puppet let out an invisible gas in a stream, and the other a simple spark. The result… a flamethrower style attack whic could give both Genin some trouble.
Nao blinks as she tries to keep track of the two puppets. What is going on here? She has little to no experience with puppet users. So this really is hard for her to figure out. She heard about them of course but still. She is thinking as the flamethrower thing comes her way and she manages to make some seals and deflect the attack with a burst of wind. "Berii, how do we fight puppets?" She calls out, clearly being a bit at a loss as she tries to figure out what to do. She looks around then, not really knowing what to do until Berii helps out with some instructions she resorts to attacking the puppet that targetted her with the flames. But first, she plays defense as she focuses some chakra.
(reposes for Berii)
Despite Berii's uncool demeanor, she did actually take the Academy courses and she managed to pull herself back together as things start to make sense especially when a living being reveals itself to be the on in control. "Neh, puppets?" Berii shrugs and scans both the puppets, looking for reflections in the light to reveal possible wire or something of the sort though he appeared to be controlling the puppets through sheer willpower.
"Stwange…" The Uchiha looks over to battle partner. "Aye! I'm gonna need yo' wind ninjutsu!" Berii's eyes shift to the man in control, the plan was about to be executed but, it is interrupted by the puppets. No longer intimidated by the element of surprise she smacks her hands together and casually strings seals together just as she's engulfed in the flames. When the fire cleared all that remained was a flaming wooden box Berii replaced herself with to get closer to the puppeteer.
Berii's hands reach into her sleeves unleashing two kunai on the man as she continues to rush in after him. Her right hand sliding into her left sleeve, fingers running across seals written within the sleeve causing smoke to billow out. "Guide it around the puppets!" Guide what? As the child runs clear of the smoke it would be revealed she had a rather large fuuma shuriken in her hand and with a flick of her wrist it unfold into it's full four bladed form.
The run is abruptly stopped as she pivots on her left foot, using spin the increase the force when she finally unleashes the large blade. "Now!" Would this work? Who knows but, if it did the puppets couldn't do any harm if it's puppeteer was down!
His fire did not catch either one of the two Genin. The obvious truth of him missing, did not deter the man any from strategy. A further need to eliminate the two Genin one by one was to follow. As Nao paused, the man they battle made her his prey, and with a hard pull of his chakra strings, compartments in each of the two puppets chest opened wide, exposing a meriad of kunai knives, and the like, ready to launch in the sky. However, taking eyes off of one ninja proved dangerous, as Berii began employing her own strategy. Both kunai she three first were dead hits, cutting the man first, before the smoke from her sleeve soon confused his vision. "Son of a—… Damn runts.", was said only moments before Berii plunged pass his defenses, and heaving the large Demon Shuriken.
Upon hit, it slashed the man across his chest, sending a large spurt of blood in the air! "Gah!", was shouted by the man as he skidded back, now seeming badly hurt. However, no matter how much he patted, the puppetteer was not through. He still had few more attack. "Red Secret no. Two: Wire Hell", was said beforem both mouths of the puppets unleashed a wall of wire to enclose the two within. Follow that technique would be "Red Secret Technique no. Five: Metal Laced Rain." After this was said, a missle shower of blunted and sharpened weapons came flying through the air, and down into the fray, trying to cause the kids quite the damage.
Nao starts to spin as the attacks come in as she waves her fan around her, creating a swirling barrier of air to block and divert the attacks as they head towards her. This appears to work, the blunted and sharpened weapons all being diverted from hitting Nao. Lucky for her! She continues to spin as the attacks pass and then with a quick snap and stop sends the spinning breeze back, this time not at a puppet but at the puppet master himself, now that Nao has figured out who the main guy is. She tries to use her second snap of the fan to help Berii with any projectiles she might send towards the puppetter, if possible. Either way her attacks are aimed towards him, slicing the air.
The girl was now close enough for her planned technique to strike the man. With the combination of Nao's wind her Great Fireball should exceed it's normal capabilities but, the key would be to survive until the two could attack together. Instead of preparing the fire seals, she instead performs the seals for replacement technique to prepare for the next attack though, there was one thing she missed. The child would trip suddenly, missing a wire beneath her feet and then fall into MORE wire.
Quick thinking would lead to her pulling out a kunai and she begins cutting the wires away to free herself but, quick… wasn't quick enough. Just as she managed to free herself she would get assaulted by a wave of unknown objects.
Unknown mostly because one would nail her in the head and knock her out while the rest of it pelted her all about her body. The girl would be run ragged, shreds of clothing and blood falling to the ground. Berii herself, would stand for a moment with shut eyes, possibly about to recover from the attack.
The kunai in hand hangs loose and eventually falls down, clinking on the ground below right before the remaining wire gives way and lets gravity do the work of bringing Berii down, apparently unconscious.
When the dust had cleared and the damage had been done, it seemed that one girl had been downed, and now was left Nao. The large man who had commanded such fiendish puppetry stood still around. A tired smile on his face, he suddenly looked at Nao, licking his lips and saying "You are mine!!", before cackling into the air. As this was said, the puppets ran into one another, before suddenly combining, becoming a much taller, and two head amalgamation of both. From there, a final attack seemed to gather as dozens of tags seemed to pour from the large combined puppets mouth. The tags began to form into a two fist, moving to attach themselve to the puppet. Nao's attacks came at this point, only to be stopped by one tag-made hand, being swallowed in its massive paper palm. The other fist was then readied, thrown behind the creation as the man controlling it all cackled, shouting "This is the end, little girl!!!"
Just when it all could go worst for Nao, a sound was heard in the distance. A steam horn blew loudly enough to stop the puppeteer mid attack. Looking out saying, "Hehe… it has arrived. Time to make quick work of you!", before continuing his final attack. The punch came in hot, seeming to crush Nao. However, someone else would come in a flash before the younger woman, standing before her and stopping the man's attack whole. It was Tosai, arms out stretched with a large fist being shoved into his body. The Akimichi before Nao would say, "NOT TODAY!!", before pushing the fist back and toppling the large puppet with his own strength. As the puppet fell backward, the puppeteer shouted back, "I always get the last laugh.", wiggling his pink. Another two compartments opened, this time on the comebined puppets arms, allowing acid to spew acid on Nao, trying once more to attack her. Tosai would once again block the attack, but this time, it would seem he sacrificed himself. The Akimichi would began to melt!
Well, first Berii goes down, then she's about to be attacked massively only to have Tosai show up to save the day… and he starts to melt? This is a bad day for Nao, worse for her teammates apparently however. Seeing Tosai block the acid, she decides to try to knock the puppet man down while he's distracted. Really, running away wouldn't work and Berii is down. Nao moves over to stand over Berii effectively, to try to prevent any further attacks from hitting her as she gathers her winds.
With several quick snaps of the metal fan, she sends slicing winds at the puppetter, trying to catch him off guard and hurt him enough that he goes down or at least retreats. She does her best to protect Berii in the process, having no idea how to try to help the melting Tosai.
It was safe to say, Berii was no longer any use to the Konohagakure team at the moment. Possibly to anyone ever again. The girl seems to make no response to anything going around as the battle's focus shifts to the remaining of Genin and a new challenger.
<Ooooooo, Berii-chan! You ruined your new clothes. Shame shame shame! It's too stylish, it's so perfect for you! I'll just have to fix you right up darling~!> Berii broods as her father dances around her, needle and thread armed in both hands. With Sharingan activated he begins to work in a flash of speed, repairing her clothing in an instant!
Well, that's what Berii's subconscious was telling her was happening. Apparently she was still alive, just off in a dream world where she may just be worse off if anything.
As the attacks by Nao were launched, they were easily deflected by the puppet's large hands made of tags. "Haha! There is nothing to save you now, girl!! Looks like your boyfriend got caught by my acid!! Abandon all hope!!" Just as the words were ended, the rest of the melting Tosai suddenly crumbled into dust!! The puppeteer's eye widened before suddenly, his words would say, "An Earth clone?" Just at that moment, a large shadow would cover the man, a form bigger than his standing behind him. This form was Tosai, who at this moment had been enlarging his hands into the sizes of small cars. With a small, the hands were brought together, clapping the man inbetween with powerful and unforgiving force.
The echo was incredibly loud, mimicing that of a sonic boom. The air that was moved by raw force was powerful enough to move waves. And Tosai's strength, was bone shattering, enough so where the puppeteer was made limp, his unconscious form folding into self as it fell to the ground. Tosai's face showed signs of no remorse, or forgiveness to this action. It was only once he had saw his team hurt and exhausted that emotion and urgency made show. Berii's small form was snatched and nestled into a single arm, smelling salt being available to bring back to consciousness. "Nao… I am so sorry I arrived so late. Apparently intelligence's prediction was way off. We suspected an attack on the sea… not here.", was said with a softer voice, as the man sought to check on the smaller girl of the two.
Nao was standing over Berii to protect her so is right there when Tosai lifts her, "I tried to keep her safe, but…" She gives a helpless shrug, "We need to get her to a medic or something. I can carry her if you know where one is? Or… or is it safe? Can we all go?" She asks, hopefully, eager to get out of here, now that the puppeteer is down. She does look around though to make sure no other surprises are on their way.
Although the smelling salts were the only thing that could drag Berii out of this horrid dreamworld of her parents sticking her in new costumes now. Terrifying it all was and suddenly…
Berii is brought back to the real world, one eye opening slightly as the child looks about dazed and confused. Her brain was not functioning correctly at the moment to properly take in what had happened. Her body was also badly battered and bloody so the flimsy ninja would just continue to be dead weight in his arms.
The one open eye would shift to the left then right, stopping on both the Jounin and Genin before she offers a slight smile, aware enough that they were safe before succumbing to the pain that seemed to be everywhere at once and passing out once again.
Looking to Berii as she seemed to be slightly alert, Tosai sighed in relief, returning a smile to the girl. "It's going to be fine Nao-san. We have a few roughed up sailors in need of some aid to, due to some hassled they had, so I have a mednin team in route." His own pouch was reached into already bandaging the places he could on Berii, and stopping some of the bleeding. "Its best to just wait, and not move Berii-san. Besides, until the transport caravans come in, I can't move anywhere. On the other hand, you will be on assignment in making sure Berii-chan arrives with the medical team safe and sound." Nao would get a look from Tosai that was almost beyond that of a friend. "If you had gotten hurt any more from this… I don't know what I would have done, Nao-chan."
