Starring:
Shuuren, Sousa, Daisuke, Hiei, Hiroyasu, Rise, Takeshi
Date: May 31, 2014
Summary:
With the opening of a pair of scrolls, the final battle against the being known as the Crawler begins in the Land of Tea.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Overwhelming Darkness - Fall of the Shadow"
Tea Village
"Tick tock goes the clock. And what now shall we play? Tick tock goes the clock. Now light has gone away. Tick tock goes the clock. All the years they fly. Tick tock. And all too soon you and I must die. Tick tock goes the clock. We laughed at fate and mourned her. Tick tock goes the clock 'till Crawler kills the doctor… Tick tock goes the clock. The dark comes for you all. Tick tock goes the lock 'till all life shall fall."
With battles going on all around Tea Country, the war plans Shuuren presented to the countries have gone into full effect. Inside the Tea Village, the masses of monsters seem to be stirring. It seems the time has finally come for the Daimyo to take action. With a brief break in the barrier surrounding the palace, Shuuren grabs a flag pole on the side of the window and swings himself up on top of the roof. Rather than his traditional suit, he wears a white longcoat that stretches down to his feet and battle attire, looking a bit more like a shinobi than a Daimyo, the Tea Country symbol displayed proudly on his back. In his free hand, he holds an enormous scroll, looking to perhaps even be larger than the famed Scroll of Sealing. It looks like this attack will be a big one, whatever he has planned.
"Well, well," the dark voice of the Crawler rings out. "The tainted king finally leaves his throne room… Do you see? Do you see what you have allowed? They will all become shadows now… All that you love will become shadow. All that you see will become death."
Just as dozens upon dozens of Hitokage from shadows to the enormous statues turn to face Shuuren, dark chakra surging through them in preparation to attack, he simply rolls out the scroll across the roof. It extends and extends and extends to the point one might wonder if there scroll itself has some sort of scroll function in it for length. When it seems to finally be getting toward the end, the Daimyo smirks up at the monsters. "Are you really that foolish, Crawler?," he asks as he moves through hand seals. "In the time I kept you sealed away, the villages grew in power. I may have merely been postponing the inevitable, but that amount of time was more than enough." With that, he slams his hand down on the scroll. A giant puff of smoke rings out enough to cover a good portion of the ruined village, a spike of chakra so enormous that even a non-sensor would get a feel of it beaconing out. When the smoke fades, hundreds of men in Tea Soldier battle armor appear on the rooftops of the palace and the buildings surrounding. They come in all forms, their bodies appearing to be at what one might consider the maximum capacity of muscle one could fit into a form like that and be useful for its purpose. Similar to the Hitokage, their eyes glow white, yet they don't have the same chakra signature as them, more like they are functioning as more durable Shadow Clones. With this massive jutsu, it's obvious now why Shuuren had to wait so long to attack. This battle will require an incredible amount of chakra, enough that one might question how long even he might be able to hang in it. "It's time then…. Let's do this." With that, the 'clones' would begin pouring off the rooftops to charge the Hitokage, the dual sets of monsters striking at each other with pure destructive intent while the Daimyo watches from the rooftop of his palace…. waiting for the Crawler to finally make his appearance.
And yet that is not all that's going on… Shuuren chuckles a bit as he reaches into his coat, withdrawing another fairly large scroll. While the undead soldiers fight the Hitokage, the Daimyo rolls out this scroll and runs through a set of handseals to slam his hand on this scroll. This one, however, rather than just summoning his horrific clones, summons a group much more powerful, one that was prepared through communication for a battle that would be Hell on Earth.
Sousa had been amused by Meruin's missive to the other Kage, calling on them to unite against the threat stemming from the Land of Tea. He's the one who told Sousa that any friendly dealings with Konohagakure would likely be grounds for the dissolution of the alliance between Kirigakure and Sunagakure, after all. ;) Well, he did couch his language in terms that weren't utterly absolute, as intelligent men typically do. Now here they are faced with a situation that makes such considerations…less than vital.
Sousa arrives when Shuuren activates his second summoning scroll. He's garbed much the same as he usually is, as his monk-like attire is already suitable for combat, though he carries a bit more armament than typical and has a few armor plates here and there. "Shodai Kazekage, Kokoroe Sousa, reporting for action," Sousa remarks.
Daisuke wasn't entirely sure that a missive from the Mizukage was to be trusted, what with the unstable, and frankly hostile nature the new Mizukage had towards the Leaf. A call to unite was almost laughable coming from the pen of the same man, but the fact remained that there was something afoot in the land of Tea that needed dealing with. He had no issues with Sunagakure, they actually had some deals and trades going under the wire, so the Hokage kept the scroll by for when needed.
As the scroll is used, Daisuke arrives on the scene, garbed in his usual ninja attire with his Hokage's robe worn like an overcoat. He takes a quick look around, spotting the Kazekage next to him. "Kazekage." he says formally with a nod, "I see we are the only two to heed the call of the 5, why do I not find this surprising?"
The Mizukage wasn't trusted. Period. However what he wanted out of the Raikage made sense, so Kumo had dispatched a small fighting that included Yotsuki Hiei. Having arrived via a scroll summoning, Hiei steps forwards and takens a moment to get a handle on what they'd be dealing with. He looks around to see who'd be fightning next to and a voice inside of him states that if these guys were bothered to come here, then the situation must be dire. "Hokage. Fancy meeting you here. Shuuren-sama.." Greeting those that he knows and only offering a nod to those that he doesn't, the Jounin wastes no time in getting himself read. "No need for the warm-up this time." After preparing his body for battle, he focuses and forms a handseal. "Release: Lightning Dynamic." Lightning encircles his body and his muscles expand to twice their normal size. Hiei moves into a crouch, ready to move should he have to. Despite the situation, the Yotsuki felt a surge of excitement to be facing an enemy this strong.
- ~Sizzle~ ~Booomph!~ a curl of smoke reveals the significantly dressed down Hiroyasu, simple koromo, a pair of sandals with a medkit nestled in the swell of his back. Hiroyasu glances around he has had no idea that all this mess about the wet-kage was.. "Medical Services Available" he says before giving Hiei a hoof-bump. "You ready for this Yotsuk-san?" he says rubbing the back of his head with a sigh, closing his eyes for a moment only to open them revealing the false eyes giving the battlefield a once over with the new flood of details as the details of the battle fly at him. "You don't even want to know" he says looking at the Yotsuki. -
The medics did what they could, but even then, the demands of war meant knowing being sent into the meat grinder again with only a patch job in between battles. Much of her head is enclosed in bandages, and the same went for much of the rest of her body as well. Still, she could move well enough to fight, and her mind seemed intact enough for the Raikage to send her packing alongside Hiroyasu and Hiei. Next thing she knows, Rise is staring out across a foreign landscape wondering a simple 'Alright. What am I punching next?', and dressed in her chou disguise since it was all that remained of her wardrobe at this point with muscles aching beneath it all as the gates came unhinged…
Meanwhile, the assembled forces of Kirigakure have arrived in the land of tea. Well, forces is the wrong word. It really is. A force..No, we can't call it a force. A person has arrived. Is he a person anymore? While everyone else is spry and jumping here and there, running up to stand in line to fight in the coming battle, there is one lone figure that is just outside the village, with a cane, taking slow laborous steps to get to the battlelines. Actually, he might be half dead, but each step is filled with the ichor of old man, creaking and cracking of bones, a little sweat, the tap of a cane, the mumbling of a man about his calves. Old man. That's right great people of the land of tea and other associated villages, the Kirigakure enforcement has arrived with a grand tally of: 1 old man.
Several hours later, or something, he ends up on those battlelines, heaving and puffing, out of breath and sweating, wiping his forehead with a cloth and staring around, "Where the Greninja is the sake?" Groaning and tapping his way up to the battlelines he fishes around in his fanny pack, a pack attached to his cane, to find a bottle of sake. "This is what I need." Uncorking the bottle, he turns it down and drains half of it before breathing a sigh of relief. "Yeah, whatever, Kirigakure is here. Mii kids. and their world ending emergencies. Back in my day, you fought your world ending monstrosities by yourself and you enjoyed it, because the alternative was personal training with dad."
As the group of warriors begin to arrive, it would seem the Hitokage will spare no time in drawing them into the fray. "The kings of this world gather to battle… but darkness has already taken root in this world. We are comings for your kingdoms, for all those you wish to protect, all those you wish to control. None shall be spared form the darkness," the Crawler's voice carries through the village, attempting to capture the combatants in a Genjutsu and already begin to wear down on the shinobi before they can even get out of the gate well enough. Meanwhile, hordes of the monsters fight back. The statues that aren't preoccupied or being struck by the horde of undead soldiers begin raining orbs of fiery dark chakra down upon the rooftop and surrounding areas to try to get an early start on obliteration.
As the others arrive, Shuuren glances around at them. "… You all have my thanks for coming," he says before looking out at the Hitokage. "Foolish monster," he says as he brings his hands into a seal to purge the Genjutsu from his system. "… Today is your reckoning." With that, he'd gracefully and swiftly take a step back to avoid the incoming fireball. Right now, he seems to be moving his own body defensively while using the clones to fight back at the monsters. Even damaged, the clones do not vanish or become disabled. They seem to fight their best through whatever injuries they have, even if limbs are removed, simply ignoring them as if nothing happened and fighting on. It seems the monsters are getting a taste of their own medicine and will have to fully disable one of these bodies to keep it from fighting back.
Go time already. Not that it's a big surprise. Sousa rejects the genjutsu from his system, possibly more energetically than he really needed to, but it often pays to play things defensively against an unknown opponent, and these Crawler beings are about as alien as it gets. Noting the incoming fire, Sousa does a few more handseals while shouting, "Wall Summoning!" (Sousa's not big on calling out techniques for its own sake, but when fighting alongside allies, it helps to communicate as much as possible.) *POOF* There, nice sturdy wall that can protect him and anyone else who cares to duck behind it. Whilst awaiting the wave of fire to pass over, Sousa starts pouring lightning chakra into the air. It builds up into an electrical potential until the sky can no longer hold it, then thunders down into the masses of darkness.
"Well, it looks like all the villages are represented, at least." Daisuke says as everyone arrives, welcoming the Kumo nins, casting a pitying glance to poor old Takeshi who he hasn't seen since the Suna Exams. "Now then, let's see what we can do to put an end to all this nonsense." he says as the voice of the Crawler rings out. "Darkness? Please, my friend, Darkness is what I thrive within." he remarks as he places his hands together, the air around the Hokage getting sickening as his body suddenly erupts in flaming orange demonic chakra, neatly outlining his whole body, clothing included.
From within his mind comes an interruption that he was being manipulated by a foreign chakra, After giving thanks, he places his hands together and purges all traces of the technique. A nearby statue rains down dark fire ontop of Daisuke, with which his chakra cloak extends a chakra arm to block and disperse. Using that same chakra arm, Daisuke reaches out to try to wrap up the statue in a complete bind of demonic chakra before another chakra arm breaks off from the first to attempt to spear straight through the body of the statue.
Takeshi doesn't even bother running towards it like everyone else, he just ignores all of this and begins his slow laborous journey towards one of the monsters as those around him get beaten down slowly and the souls of the smashed run past. "Well, at least there's a show." When the genjutsu and fireball come, Old Man Takeshi don't give a Villager. He just keeps on walking as his strength is sapped up into the ether and when the fireball explodes in his face, he walks out the other end with a slight soot stain on his clothes. Old man don't have no problems.
He'll get there, eventually, and when he does, you gonna be sorry.
Hiei returns the fist-bump from Hiroyasu. "Not really. But we're here now and Sensei expects us to do our best." And then the hated genjutsu forces him to bend over at the waist. He withdraws a kunai and slams it into his thigh, but the feeling doesn't go away. When the dark chakra begins to fill the area, he pushes himself upright. "Hiro, Rise, incoming. Move!" Like something out of a kung-fu movie, Hiei slides his foot forwards and then makes subtle shifts of his body, managing to dodge the fiery chakra just barely. He reaches behind him and draws his swords then slams the hilts and twists. There is a metallic *shink* as they lock together. Now wielding his sword staff, Hiei points upwards. "The roof." He then leaps high into the air as his form blurs slightly as he attacks at high speed. The blades of his staff are infused with lightning before he attacks one of the statues with a flurry of lightning infused strikes.
She couldn't afford to waste too much energy, and yet, that is just what the living darkness that made up their adversaries desired. First by digging into her mind, threatening to break that tender strand holding it together at this point. Being shouted at and all the other noise did little to help her drive off the voice. Nor did biting into lips practically tougher than the rest her body by this point in her life. Still, she holds on enough focus not to stagger or fall, but shift her body to the side just enough to avoid the orbs, then retreat outright. Has she given in to cowardice? "GrraaaAAAAHH!!!" She cries out as she rips up SOusa's wall and puts it to better use as one of the statue's new hood ornament. That is presuming the wall doesn't shatter or bounce of the Pac-Man things after she chucks it at'em like a freesbie!
- Hiroyasu sweatdrops at the answer given to him by the Yotsuki before looking over at Rise.. "You look like Goat pellets, couldn't those hospital monkeys couldn't do a better job than that.. Doctors are better than medics.. blah blah blah.." he starts mumbling to himself before giving a simple nod to the Yotsuki "No he expects better than our best." about then the usual genjutsu about darkness or whatever it was echoes in his head that were all too familiar at this point.. Trying to silence the moaning and groaning in his head he pushes the chakra through himself the internal battle going fiercely but as he is about to purge it, it shatters his concentration and he fails… "I hate that" he says as the fireball come hurling at him, he feels a momentary feeling of laziness and lays down on the roof with the fireball sailing way past him with as little effort as possible. "Makes me sleepy.." he says rubbing the back of his head before charging off with Yotsuki to help him attack one of the statues attempting to hit it with a little time trickery to give him a better position to hit a vortex of chakra eating seal at its feet. -
With attacks of all kind raining and the sheer numbers provided by the 'clones', the Hitokage for once are as much on the defensive side as they are the offensive. Some of the monsters are struck down, others properly shielding themselves and powering through the attacks from the shinobi. Still, their numbers are far too great within this village for them to diminish quickly, even with the force before them. Those on the ground are faced with being charged by the bird-like statues with razor sharp claws aimed to slash and and tear at them. Meanwhile, unoccupied giant statues continue to rain fireballs, which Rise has so gracefully removed the cover from to allow them to come through, this time the orbs exploding outwardly to cover the entire rooftop.
Though it ALMOST seems the roof will be a bit more safe for only a moment due to Sousa's summon of the wall, Rise removes that hope. With a blink Shuuren shakes his head before leaping to kick off the higher portion of the roof and gracefully go above the range of the incoming dark chakra fireballs. Sticking to his game plan, he continues to send the undead soldiers at that statues, focusing a bit more on the giant states firing the flame bullets to try to get some of them out of the way.
Sousa blinks as the wall is plucked from behind him and tossed away. o.o "I can only summon so many of those before it becomes tiresome," Sousa remarks. "Using them as missiles against footsoldiers strikes me as a poor use of resources." :P Whoops, and speaking of, more fire incoming. Since it's coming more from overhead this time, Sousa summons a corner wall leaned on its edges, forming a sort of tent to protect his summoned experimental animals, Beta the bear and Gamma the myna (Did we mention they're present? Yeah, Sousa summoned them amidst all the other summon poofing he did earlier. <.< >.>). There isn't room underneath for him to completely avoid the oncoming heat, though, so he zaps away to the edge of the roof and flips over it, sticking to the wall a short distance down. "Perhaps we had best counter the enemy's ranged capabilities," Sousa murmurs, performing seals. He projects a massive, wide-spread genjutsu downward toward the statues, carrying the effects of powerful hallucinogenics. What's that like for a statue to experience? c.ca Who knows, maybe they get stoned. *wah-wah-waaaaaaahhh…* n.n;
Daisuke watches as Sousa erects a wall from the rooftop, quite the sturdy wall as well. As the fire rains down on those who chose to stay above the ground, Daisuke's chakra arms again have to deal with the great balls of fire, stopping them from reaching the roof by literally catching them and dispersing them. "Those statues seem to have taken a liking to us." he comments as the fire rains down all around, moreso than the first set. "Good idea, Kazekage, Let's see if I can't do anything about that."
With an outstretched chakra arm, Daisuke begins to focus his chakra, both from his cloak and his own from within. The air around begins to tug as it is sucked up without the swirling mass growing above his chakra palm, red chakra mixing with blue, creating a giant mass of complete darkness that suddenly shrinks and compresses to the size of a basketball, the sheer weight of the technique cracking the tiles on the roof underneath Daisuke's feet. Using the long range and speed of his chakra extremities, he encloses his chakra fist around the ball, shielding it as he shoots it forward, arcing high over the battlefield below before dropping down directly on the long ranged statues, the explosion of the unstable mass of chakra large enough to cause the ground to shake and smoke to pour outwards all over the village.
As the bird like statues fly in, Hiei attempted to move, but they proved faster than him and blood sprays into the air as they manage to slash Hiei across his chest. He staggers backwards, but uses his movement to go into a series of backflips and twists to avoid their next attack. He growls low in his throat and kneels down, slamming his fist on the ground, his forearm is wreathed in flames. "Fire Style: Faaalcon.." He waits until one of the birds comes near him before he leaps into the air, fully extending his body while shooting his flaming fist forwards. "Punch!" He drops back onto the ground before his body blurs, taking him near his battle buddy Hiro. He glances over. "Why does it feel like I should have stayed in bed when my fiancee asked me to this morning?" He spins the sword staff around his body and then tucks it behind him as he waits for their next attack.
An orb would've been easy enough, even if at the cost of a close shave, but the choice was taken out of her hand. The statues were determined to captilize on her 'mistake' in remove the first wall, even though she did seem to manage put a dent in one of those statues, giving it a nice little smear along its mouth (beak?). With a feral growl, Rise leaps high spinning, avoiding the initial blast. Unfortunately, she made herself vulnerable by doing so, and could only twist in mid-air to only be roasted in passing instead of carried back to the roof. She lands on some roof top, loses her footing, and then ends up playing pinball until she hits the ground. Rise is down for all but a few seconds. After that the girl is back on her feet, dashing and snatching up whatever looks heavy enough to blundgeon the first thing of darkness she sees. Incidently, she ends up rushing past Hiro and Hiei, but pays neither of the Kumo nin any mind.
Takeshi continues forward towards the monsters slowly as they start attacking him. He doesn't even stop moving as the blades break in half against his flesh, "Now listen here. Back in my Palutena day, You know what we did? We beat each other up and liked it." And then, after checking to make sure no one is looking, he looses the cane and goes to twon on two golems of dark energy before slamming two fists into their ugly mugs, powerful chakra explosions happening like a shotgun. Then he's back on the cane. "My feet hurt."
- Chasing behind the Yotsuki, the Medic is accosted by the same manner of attack.. Giant bird faced statue which rend at him with a deadly accuracy.. His first attempt to get out of the way went as you could expect from something like this, moving out of the way only to not get far enough of harm and get clipped by the claw.. spinning from the force of the blow he attempts to lean out of the way of the second strike only to be caught dead-center in the chest and sent hurling into some rubble.. Hiroyasu "You think if I just became a spirit they would notice me gone.." he coughs unravelling some bandages which he brings up two fingers and starts chanting the seals on the bandages glow brightly and wrap around his core before turning a sickly green as his wounds are sealed, his bones mended and muscles reconnected.. well as best as one can do in the middle of a battlefield with a only a minute or two of time to execute it before having to get out of the way of the next. -
Though Sousa's Genjutsu doesn't full break through whatever sort of hivemind these Hitokage have going on with their master, it apparently does serve enough purpose that it keeps them from being able to focus on getting out of the way of what's coming. With the impact of the orb from Daisuke, a massive explosion flows out through the village, destroying both building and beast and leveling pretty much everything it touches. Coupling this with the rest of the attacks, the shinobi manage to send a huge amount of the monsters collapsing into piles of stone. As the smoke fades, the Tea Village now looks something akin to a wasteland…. yet there is not yet any relief from the darkness hanging over the land.
In fact… the darkness only grows. With Tailed Beast like surge of dark chakra, an enormous mass appears behind the palace, opposite from where the rest of the monsters were. "Ahahahahah!… You bring the light, but it betrays you. It knows you are unworthy of its toxic gleam… I am shadow and death… Who will rule over your dead kingdoms when the darkness embraces you?" As an enormously powerful Genjutsu flows out over the area, the Crawler itself comes into full form behind the palace. It brings each of its hands to its sides, creating a pair of enormous balls of dark chakra that it flings toward the center of the village with intent to wipe it out along with everything and everyone in it.
Just as it almost seems they're going to get a break, Shuuren's eyes narrow as he feels the massive spike of chakra behind them. "…. Here he comes!" he calls out as he spins to face the Crawler, bringing his hands into a seal to force the Genjutsu out of his head. His eyes widen as he feels the massive attack coming, but it's too late to stop it. All he can do is move behind the roof to avoid the incoming massive explosion, which he does as he lunges directly at the Crawler with both his hands surrounded by vicious glowing chakra blades aimed directly at its throat. Seems he's wasting no time trying to inflict as much damage as possible on this beast. "About time you showed up, Crawler. It's time you died along with the rest of your kind."
Sousa hears the Crawler (as well as feels the malevolent chakra) coming from the other side of the palace. Well now, seems as though the primary target has been located. Sousa dashes around the side of the building just below the roof, fending off the genjutsu as he runs along the wall (and maybe intercepting a bit of it that was intended for someone else). When the explosion erupts, Sousa instinctively covers himself in an electrical shield, dispersing the blast force around himself. Finally Sousa spots the monster's arm as he rounds the building. He pulls a kunai from his sleeve and wings it…past Crawler's arm? But then the kunai jolts to a stop as the ninja wire trailing behind it reaches the end of its length. The wire falls over the crawler's arm and the kunai loops back to Sousa, who catches it and swiftly ties the other end around the handle. Then he levitates the metallic blade between his hands and causes it to spin rapidly. A current begins to flow through the ninja wire at the same time that it circulates rapidly, hopefully cutting into the Crawler's flesh (or equivalent thereof).
Daisuke notices the surge of chakra, fully expecting a Tailed Beast to reveal themselves, perhaps Shukaku in his delightful insanity could pull this off. "Kazekage, friends, fellow Shinobi. I need time to prepare something to deal with his. After this time, I urge you all to band together to create the strongest shelter you can." shouts the Hokage as his chakra cloak begins to grow and grow before the full towering form of Son Goku, the Monkey Sage of the Cerulean Caves and the Four Tailed Bijuu, is revealed. Beneath his diadem he wears as a crown, his golden eyes pierce through the darkness, breaking the hold the Crawler has on his host with an enormous roar and surge of chakra, the ball of dark energy singing the thick red fur on his arm.
Son leaps awawy into the village of the palace they were in prior, though at this size it was but a mere hop. He doesn't say a word, which was unusual for him most times, opening his giant maw as air begins to suck into it. Daisuke rides above the King's diadem, observing all but focusing on the form of the Crawler. Chakra begins to build within the air that is being sucked in in a similar manor to what Daisuke had done earlier, except this chakra was growing and growing in front of Son's mouth, the ball already the size of the palace.
Crawling out of the rubble from Daisuke's beast bomb, Hiro immediately looks around for both the old man and Hiroyasu. He looks for Rise as well and then hears the Crawler again. He turns to face it and blinks. "So that's what he looks like. Man is he ugly. Is everyone okay?" He feels the onset of the genjutsu, but Takeshi appears and touches his shoulder, snapping him out of it before it ever begins to take hold. Realizing that he had to put everything he had into his next attack, Hiei vanishes when the fireball came for him. Moving at speeds beyond those of a normal shinobi, he continues moving towards the Crawler itself. Appearing for a moment as he sends himself skywards, his body vanishes again as it seems to the casual observer that his image is everywhere, but nowhere all at once. Multiple versions of Hiei attack the Crawler from different directions, his swords flashing as Hiei shows why he is one of the Land of Lightning's best swordsmen.
She lost sight of it all. One moment she was leaping at one of the mini-bird shadling things, and then in the next, the world gets turned topsy turvy. Of course even then she doesn't stop trying to attack any of the shadlings that happened to be blown her direction, even though doing so meant becoming that much more disoriented by the end of things. She's up though before long with a mean headache and body begging her to just lie down.
"What… the Mega Man… was that?" She says, waving away the smoke and dust as she made her way where she THINKS everyone else is. She doesn't get all that far before the crawler's voice descends again. Rather she openly admitted or not, the darknesses was finally begining to get to her. How many times has she gone up against this thing, only to come out of the fight barely capable of standing IF as much? And for what purpose? For Kumo? For her loved ones? To cling to life just long enough to satisfy some impossible dream?! Or was it simply because it wasn't in her nature to just lie down and take it? She chewed her lip and closed her eye to search for these answers. The moment could not have been any worse. The wave of chakra passing through the village (city?) envelops her before she can even think to muster up a proper defense against in, locking her in place. After that, everything goes dark for her…
Takeshi is tired of these fireballs on this mfing battlefield. He is not amused mr. crawler, not amused. When the hurl of fire and psychic energy floods the city he doesn't turn away from it, he embraces it, because he's Kaguya and so much more. The fire bullet slams through his body and out the other side, a gush of blood heralding the opening of a clean wound to his lung, but that soon stops as bones grow to cover it up. The old man's eyes don't even seem to herald the change as he turns to Hiroyasu and goes, "HERE COMES THE TRAM, CHOO CHOO ASSHOLES!"
In true grandpa fasion, sensing the approaching fear in Hiroyasu of the attacks, old man Takeshi takes up his mantle like a baws, sliding in next to Hiroyasu before tossing him aside like a butterball turkey, a forced switch locations. "CHOO CHOO!" The next fireball bulelt does the old man in, but boy is this a story to tell your youngsters. As the heart inside the old man is ripped out and the kaguya regrows over it, Takeshi raises his hands towards the skies, "I'm coming home!"
And then it becomes apparent why Hiroyasu had to move. Inside the sound of a tick can be heard before Takeshi goes out like a true OG, in a hail of chakra and fire, lightning arcs surrounding him and arcing off the buildings. The hidden seal inside his body completely obliterating it to stop research by other Villages.
This is the end of a sixty year story, the story of the real Original Gangster from Kirigakure.
- Kicking out of the rubble after just healing himself, he is staring down a mighty fireball.. coming right at him.. "Goat Pellets" he curses before attempting to look for a quick defense.. that is until coming charging by him is what could only be explained as father time wrapped in a fireball chasing a hottie nurse down the hallway, Grandpa Time grabbing him by the collar and hurling him off in a random but safe direction "Aiyeeeee!" he shouts before turning in a ball of black sooted silk his feet landing against the side of a dilapidated building.. "WHAT are you doing?! Are you Senile old man!" in the heat of the battle, things like titles are usually forgotten it didn't even occur to him who he was shouting at.. The impacts against the old man are gut wrenching in their brutality but also in their ineffectiveness, maybe this guy actually did eat Iron and spit kunai.. wait were all old shinobi telling the truth about the absurd things.. they claim to do.. Then the explosion which leaves utterly nothing but specks of dust which are committed to the wind, like his soul which is committed to the here-after.. "May you find the rest you deserved~" he says bringing his hands up in a prayer steeple bowing his head "To those who will never know, and the words which shall never be said.. never let it be said that you didn't go out like we all hope too.. On our feet and in a blaze of glory!" he says before leaping off the building making a quick work through the maze of buildings to find Rise and wrapping a bandage around her midsection and the chanting starts as he attempts to return her back to working order and get her to safety before whatever that nasty giant chakra attack that is being prepared is unleashed. -
Though the Crawler manages to use its Genjutsu to throw Sousa's attack off track, it is not so lucky against Shuuren and Hiei. The invisible blade tears through its chest harshly, followed by the series of strike from Hiei, to send it reeling. This in turn keeps it focused on these two enough that it allows the others a moment to recharge or whatever they need to do, at least the ones still conscious or alive. "Ahahahaha! Do you see what you've allowed? They will all become shadows! Let the darkness take you in as it has him," its taunting voice rings out as its enormous talons swipe at Shuuren and Hiei with intent to rend them asunder.
As the enormous talons come down at him, Shuuren rolls under them then launches himself up at the monster's throat. He swings his arms out to sway his coat aside, shouting out, "You've taken your last life, bastard!" When his coats swings, it reveals an extra pair of arms extending from an opening in his shirt that assist in slamming into pressure points on either side at the base of its neck with intent to knock the monster unconscious as best possible to make it completely defenseless to the next round of attacks.
Sousa drops his kunai and ninja wire — they're quite common tools that are easily replaced, after all, and right now the priority is getting out of the impending blast zone. :P "It certainly does enjoy spouting its stock phrases," Sousa muses as he retreats to join the others. "I wonder if it's truly sentient, or just some form of automaton." e.e
Once he reaches a position where it can reasonably be expected that a physical defense will do some measure of good, Sousa turns around and summons yet another wall. Oh, and he also summons his critters back behind it. e.e They're not so easy to replace. "Take cover!"
When the Crawler swipes his claw at Hiei attempts to move at high speed to dodge it, but it rakes across his abdomen, blood spewing forth from new wounds. However, Hiei doesn't have time to deal with it. Knowing what's coming from the Hokage, he blinks from sight, running at hyper speed towards the others. Moving back to where Hiroyasu and Rise are, he takes cover from Daisuke's pending attack. He yells. "He's all yours, Daisuke! Let him have it!" For the moment, he is unaware of the old man's fate, and later on he would mourn his passing as a fellow shinobi. But right now, all he does is get behind shelter so that Daisuke's attack doesn't kill him. Being a member of Kamen he is trained specifically to handle Bijuu, so he is aware the magnitude of which is about to happen. He presses his free hand against his wound for a moment. He steps out, holding his hand out palm side up as lightning pools in his palm. Raising above his hand, the ball flattens itself into a saw blade shape before beginning to spin at a high speed. "For forcing my Aunt and Uncle to leave and then lose their home, I curse you to live forever in oblivion. Nariko, this is for you! Lightning Release: Lightning Disc!" He then sends the attack before taking cover again.
"What is your purpose?"
"To fight!"
"No."
She could not brace herself fast enough for the pain she knew would follow the statement. Everything burned, from her veins to her skin, an agony beyond which only death could cure. The only reason she remains standing is because she knew that the pain could get worse. She's seen the effects from the outside when her brothers and sister refused to listen to Mama's command to rise, and felt it on more than one occasion. When it finally stops, her tiny frame continues to tremble long after. Again. The question is posed by the unseen speaker. And again. She fails to give a satisfactory answer…
More images flash before her eyes. Disjointed moments in time as far as she could tell. Memories that should not — could not have been real, and yet, felt real. Regardless of what she sees or feels, all but one memory are those that rack her mind and 'body' with pain. It is that one memory out of all that she tries desperately to hold on. A feeling of being wrapped up in strong arms that promised to protect her from everything, and the scent of a flower she could not place her tongue on for the life of her…
The next time her eyes part, they open for real this time. She licks her lips, blinks slowly before her eyes lock on to the image of some bald guy hovering over her. "Hoii-kun?… You came back…" She murmurs as she tries to place a hand on his cheek. Then, her vision really begins to focus. "…. Move." It is not a request, but a command spoken from someone that was bound to kill the person that disobeyed. Scarcely a second after the demand leaves her lips, Rise forces herself to stand, sways for a moment, and then only grudgingly accepts any help to the wall after that point to give her mind time enough to gather what the heck is happening. That, and her body that extra few moments to continue regenerating.
- Looking down on momentarily passed out Rise, pinning the bandage around her torso. "No wonder they can't ever fix you up.." he mutters with a shake of his head. "Doctors don't know how to deal with shinobi stupid" before she says something to him.. "That's not the first time you've called me that.." when she commands him to do something his instincts had already told him to do awhile, he says "Genin" he says pointing at her "Chuunin.. anyways Amani would never let me hear the end of it.." he says putting an arm under hers and helping her to safety whether she liked it or not.. they could fist fight about it later if they survived.. it wouldn't be the first fight he had for doing his job. As the wall begins to the raise he lets the kumo shinobi go do as she pleased.. Hiroyasu is in a flurry slapping seals from his pouch hurling them against the wall.. waiting for a moment before bringing his fingers upward "Kaiii!" he shouts as the walls engage and swirl outward in a heavy aura of blue in front of the wall, two of them to soften the blow and let whatever got through deal with the tacticle stone defense. -
Unable to move out of the way of the four-sided attack from the Daimyo, the Crawler is sent reeling back into barely being consciousness enough to see what's coming…. First a disc of lightning tears through its side to send it to its knees bleeding some sort of black chakra-laden goo from the piercing. As the massive ball of chakra rockets toward it, it barely has time to look up before a nuclear level blast plows through the entire area upon striking it. A mushroom clouds rises up and expands out, destroying everything that was left of the Tea Village, including that palace that the barrier around finally gave in on. The entire land rocks with the power of the blast, the monster's body taking extreme damage and bleeding that black goo from all over now. "… It… doesn't… matter… if… you… win… today… Darkness is… inside… you…. No one… ever… escapes it," it growls out as it lunges forward with that last of its strength, hand glowing with dark chakrra as is tries to cram a mass of dark chakra down Shuuren's throat with a powerful strike.
Unable to move out of the way of the four-sided attack from the Daimyo, the Crawler is sent reeling back into barely being consciousness enough to see what's coming…. First a disc of lightning tears through its side to send it to its knees bleeding some sort of black chakra-laden goo from the piercing. As the massive ball of chakra rockets toward it, it barely has time to look up before a nuclear level blast plows through the entire area upon striking it. A mushroom clouds rises up and expands out, destroying everything that was left of the Tea Village, including that palace that the barrier around finally gave in on. The entire land rocks with the power of the blast, the monster's body taking extreme damage and bleeding that black goo from all over now. "… It… doesn't… matter… if… you… win… today… Darkness is… inside… you…. No one… ever… escapes it…"
As Daisuke vanishes into the ground after leveling the Crawler heavily, Shuuren would fall from the sky where the shockwave of the attack sent him after he leapt as high as he could to keep from getting blasted to oblivion. Looking down at the ruins of what was once the Tea Village, he seems to be rather disturbed. One can feel more malice coming from him than has ever emanated from the Daimyo even in his days as a Jounin of Kumogakure. Even with the battle almost won, something has disturbed him beyond measure to the point the extra arms he grew earlier begin to glow along with his normal hands in the form of quadrupled Chakra Dissection Blades that he strikes over and over at the hideous beast with in an uninhibited rage.
Sousa crouches behind his wall as the blast goes out. >.< As powerful as he is compared to the average shinobi, he's very much aware of his own limitations and capabilities. Organize and lead a village of ninja with an emphasis on intelligence work? Sure. Mind-break an army of mooks? Not too big of a problem. Inflict kilotons of damage on a giant monster? Hmmm, not alone or directly. e.ea But he's managed to be a useful contributer to the general setup thereof, yes?
After the blast is done, Sousa peeks over the wall. me.em Well well, the enemy is still standing…if barely. Well, here's something Sousa can still do. Finding a backdraft, Sousa releases lightning chakra into the wind toward the remains of the Crawler. Soon a lightning bolt snaps down from above.
After the nuclear level blast. Hiei takes the time to make sure that he's all there and not in the afterlife. Pushing himself up to his feet after an attack like that, he peeks around the wall and then takes his sword staff and begins spinning it over his head. Lightning is infused into the weapon before he shoves it forwards, a large lightning bolt lances off the tip towards what's left of the Crawler. "No darkness here poser. Die." He twists his swords again, separating them before he smoothly sheathes them. He sighs a little as a feeling of accomplishment washes over him.
It takes awhile for Hiroyasu's words to truly sink in, but when it does Rise can stop crying and laughing. Yep. She's gone off the deep end. But at least Hiroyasu wouldn't have to worry about — oh wait, he was still within ear shot. Granted, after hearing the chakra nuke go off in the background and all that resulting debris whip about over and around the wall, worrying about one girl laughing would be — SHOULD be the least of his concerns.
After everything seems to settle down, Rise gathers her wits about her to call over Hiroyasu. Her plan is simple, insane, but simple. Hiro probably doesn't agree with it in the least bit, but a glare and a bit of desperation behind her voice hopefully convinces him to follow through. If so, moments after the bolt launched by Sousa comes crashing down, Rise is launched sky high from a pillar of stone. "Rise's Super Ultimate Catastrophic Hope Breaking Darkness Shattering Battering Ram of Unlimited — *Deep breathe* Atomic Missile Drop Kick!!!" He yells as she descends, ending on the last word just seconds before her feet makes contact with the darkness. Or the earht. Whichever it is.
- Holding his fingers extended in the prayer steeple as Hiroyasu attempts to keep the barrier standing but really its a wonder that both weren't blown out immediately but in the intense wave of dust, dirt and debris eventually shattering the barriers of chakra and embedding all sort of deadly object into the hard stone protective wall.. When Rise calls over to him after dealing with whatever was going on in her head.. Post traumatic stress seemed to be a understatement with this one.. Making the seals as he slumps his shoulder letting her fling off into the air going headlong into the battle.. It was at these times, he considered seeing if she had any Yotsuki lineage.. Then slapping back another Seal on the wall prepares for any fallout from the destruction of a force capable of animating thousands with its dark presence.. -
"It's not whether you escape your darkness, shadow beast, it's how you control it that gives you strength." says the Hokage as he is revealed as the dust clears, standing on a pile of debris, wind flapping through his Hokage's robe, his body normal size again and his cloak of chakra dispersed as he believes the fight to be over. He looks around at the flattened wasteland, the survivors of the battle, losing one to the fall and lucky they did not lose more. He walks over to the group, giving a nod of approval to each with a smile as he passes by and walks up to Shuuren. He stands there, giving Shuuren a long look in silence before he speaks, "I apologize for the state of your Land, and I am sure workers from the Land of Fire will be eager for the rebuilding jobs, but we should probably put together a meeting at your earliest convenience, yes?" Now that the whole thing was over, it was time for the fall out from the Crawler's reign over the land of Tea and the leak into other villages, but Daisuke figured he would give him some more time.
As blast after blast rains down on the beat, its final cries ring out as it is scorched, slashed, and otherwise blasted to bits. Dark chakra flares up around its body before it finally dissipates and vanishes from the area. Finally, the feeling of darkness that seemed to choke this land starts to vanish with this monster. Its voice is at last silenced, the Hitokage vanishing from this world with it to leave only their trail of destruction as a remnant of them.
With the Crawler dispatched, Shuuren immediately turns toward the wreckage of the palace. A dark glare is cut toward Daisuke before the Daimyo actually starts to run past him. "… If you killed my wife with your uncontrolled blast, our issues may lie a lot deeper than just rebuilding what was lost," he says as he prepares those dissection blades again to start to carve into the rubble to clear it out of his way as he rushes through it toward where he hopes Wakako would have been, but has been unable to really tell due to the massive amounts of chakra flowing through this area. The darkness would be gone…. except for what may lie in this Daimyo if he's lost the last piece of family he had in this world…. something he hopes with all his might has not happened as he frantically carves his way through the rubble to try to find her.
