Starring:
Uyeda, Aika
Date: July 4, 2013
Summary:
Aika was hired for a mission guarding a shipment coming in to Fuuma through the train. Uyeda was hired to ruin it.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Salad by the Firelight"
By the tracks en route to Fuuma
Uyeda crouches a small distance away from the train tracks. "Lettuce winter, lettuce snow, lettuce money, and lettuce… Just… lettuce." He was sitting here out in the cold of the morning, henged as a pile of snow because he had a job to do. There was a shipment of fresh produce and water coming in — truly fresh — from his client's competitor. According to the man, his competitor is getting that food and water from lands that were stolen from him. Something about framing and blackmail. But Uyeda didn't much care. As far as he was concerned, everything meant for Fuuma or leaving Fuuma was either corrupt or would be dealt with by corrupt hands. All he needed to know was that his client wanted that shipment destroyed.
And that meant sitting out here in the snow. It was easiest to hit the shipment not long before it came into the city itself. If there were any guards — and his client coughed and said there may be — then their guard should be at their lowest right before they make their objective. The man shifted, turning his green-flecked grey eyes to the distance. He arched a brow. Not long after four in the morning and the train was coming into view and approaching swiftly. Earlier than he'd been told to expect. Which was half what he expected.
Aika, having never been on a train before, sits on the roof of one of the cars toward the front. She doesn't have any weapons out but she does seem to be dangling her feet over the edge near the rocks and such that scream by. "This is really cool! I've never seen one of these Iron Dragons before Oodo-sama…" She says, turning her head to peer at the little squirrel perched precariously on her shoulder. "…RIght. Train. Whatever. It reminds me of a big Iron Dragon, yeah? Like Onee-chan was talking about during her last visit!"
Sure, Aika had been hired to help guard this train, but it had been a very quiet ride and while her guard wasn't down or anything- she was often like this around new contraptions -she also knew it was near the end. If anyone was going to attack this train and the person who hired her- another Ninja who just didn't want to do the job at the time, and really wanted to sleep -it would be around now. Making it look like she wasn't paying much attention was the best tactic then. She was cold, since she had left her cloak in her car, but not overly so. "This is fun! I love trains." The squirrel squeaks its appreciate before running down her arm and then into her traincar. "See you later Oodo-sama!"
Uyeda prepared himself as the train grew nearer, gathering his chakra for immediate usage. "Well," he murmured. "At least I'll get to get warmed up when I find that shipment. Fourth train car…" When the steel carrier grows close enough, the first thing he notices is not when he needs to head forward to time his jump right, but that there was a woman sitting on the train. On -top- of the train. And on the one right in front of where he needed to hop on.
"Right then…" He wastes no more time, the both of him dashing towards the train. The two Uyedas waste no time, starting forward at a path that'd allow for them to hop onto the fourth cart as soon as it crossed their paths.
Aika seems blissfully unaware that someone is approaching, watching the trees and the sky go by at an incredibly pace as she reclines back on the roof of the car. "Well, hmmm… I wonder why Oodo-sama ran off." She looks at her surroundings again- though with most things now being upside down it did all look a wee bit strange and different. Getting a bit dizzy the girl sits up and rubs her forehead. "Man… that was a bad decision."
Uyeda made his swift run and leapt onto the car with no problem, his landing taking him onto the side of the thing. The clone that'd come with him vanished and he fought the wind, quickly bringing himself to the door. But he couldn't help but be a little curious about the woman sitting atop the train car himself. It was a little hard to tell from the distance and speed, but he had a hunch she'd end up attractive. He was almost sure of it, thinking back to the glimpse he'd had as she whipped past. For the sake of the mission, he decided, he would say hello to the woman. So he did.
Or rather a clone of him, did. It climbed up the cart in front of the one the man himself was on — the same on Aik was on — and started approaching her. If she noticed it, there'd be a grin and a wave. And if not, the man's voice would ring out, loud to be heard over the wind with a "Hey there! What brings you out on such a cold morning?"
Meanwhile, Uyeda flashed through a few handseals, feet clinging to the surface of the car through treewalking. Soon enough, the door was gone, and in it's place was yet another clone. This one made of metal. The metal of the door to be precise. "Thank you good sir," he said to himself as he let him past and inside. "Of course, good sir. Getting the door is simple courtesy." was replied before the clone followed behind.
Aika stands up and stretches, keeping very her balance very precise as she looks around. When the clone steps up onto the cart with her she blinks, confused. Tilting her head to the side she runs a hand through her hair. "Oh hey! I don't know you, so I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be here… but my names Aika and I'm helping guard that cart over th-" Looking back, its a moment before she notices the door frame is particularly gone and then she looks back at the clone. Her eyes narrow.
"I don't know you, but you have ten seconds to tell me just who you are and what you're doing… or I will be forced to react to your precense in a manner that would ruin both of our days." She takes a few steps into the center of the roof and squares off with the clone, focusing her energies for a moment as she prepares to defend herself.
Uyeda rubs the back of his head, his other hand raising in a hold off kind of motion, an easy grin on his face. "Woah, hey. There's really no need for that. You said your name was Aika, right? It's pretty. But my name is Uyeda and I'm here to see if you might accompany me on a date sometime." His instincts were right, as they often were on such things. She was attractive. "Do you have much to do after you deliver your shipment?"
It'd be right about now that wooden crates are beginning to be tossed out of the car holding Aika's cargo. Uyeda begins making handseals as his clone holds one of the crates in a grip that had the wood scorching. "Ready?" says one. "Let's do this," says the other. "Pull!" The crate was tossed out of the door. Another Uyeda appeared on top of it for just a moment, just a blip of him sitting there, giving a grinning thumbs up before exploding.
"Haha! Perfect. Pull up another one," says the man to himself.
Aika's eyes un-narrow for a moment. "Well, maybe once this jobs over and we're not on opposing sides… sure I don't see why not… but for now." Her fingers move deftly and a scroll falls to her feet, open. A black recurve bow appears in her right hand, and an arrow appears in the left. "I need you to stop doing what you- HEY!" She looks just in time to see Uyeda's clone explode and one of the boxes get tossed off the train. She looks to the Uyeda in front of her and looses a very quick shot. "Look friend, you don't want to do this and neither do I but since there's an army of you looks like I gotta play it a little rough."
She turns in place after loosing that first arrow and dashes along the roof top, leaping over the gap between cars and pulling back another arrow midflight. Her index finger touches the arrow's fletching for a moment before she looses it at another 'Uyeda'. Looking around she shakes her head, "Just how many of you are there?"
"No, I completely understand," says the Uyeda clone, grinning at the young woman in front of him. He looks to be about to say something more when the arrow gets shot towards him — that escalated quickly — and all he has time to say is "Harsh" just before the weapon tears through him, leaving him to explode into a puff of smoke as he gets pushed back.
The real Uyeda clicks his tongue at that, saying, "Either he got slapped, or the girly's actual tro — Okay, she's trouble." His tone changed swiftly as he saw the second arrow quickly streaking towards him, what looks to be electricity running along it's front half. There's a small burst of smoke just before the arrow strikes, and the weapon pushes through it. It clears swiftly, revealing that it had managed to embed itself deeply and violently. The force of the impact and the electricity proved fatal to the crate of apples it had hit, sending much of the produce rolling out of the car.
"Alright. Let's get this done." The sound of wood snapping resounds as Uyeda begins smashing the crates within the area, pulp starting to fly around. His metal clone leans against the wall of the cart, watching, the metal beginning to heat up under it's shoulder.
Aika shakes her head and watches as she actually missed her target. "Oh croutonit." She jumps onto her previous perch and fires a quick shot at the clone damaging the car and then traces a bead on what she supsects to be her actual target. The arrow is drawn back and she places her finger on the fletching of the arrow again in order to empower it with her chakra. "Hey stupid!" She calls out, trying to draw the attention of her target and proove that it's him. Whichever being looks back at her prodding, she'll release the arrow at. "Chew on this!"
The metal clone looks towards Aika as the arrow whirs into the car, striking it. "Ah, dressing!" it says, the henge that made it look like Uyeda falling away at the contact, leaving it a human shaped lump of lightly glowing metal. "What did you do to her?" grinned the real one, pausing just long enough to look to his clone. At the shout out, though, he looked over to the woman with another arrow nocked. The man whistles and gestures with a finger. The metal clone just barely leaps into the path of the shocking arrow, elecricity coursing through it as it hit the ground, falling apart.
The man looked up to Aika. "I really hope this doesn't make you rethink our engagement," calls Uyeda as he starts making handseals. "I'll treat!" Handseals made, he raises a hand to his mouth, spitting out small balls of flame. They burst in small explosions, some of the flames and concussions leaving the car to hit Aika. Half of it was purely focused on the wooden crates, though, and fire caught and began to spread.
Aika is taken completely by surprise as she attempts to roll out of the way and is caught in not one but TWO separate explosions. Shaking it off, she rolls to her feet and pats out a singe mark on her thigh. "… No. But it's making me rethink our relationship." She states very plainly as she draws and looses a trio of arrows in a very lazy manner, trying her best to look like she's not really aiming at all. "Y'know… you are super lucky my names not on this particular job." She states with a smirk.
From the heat and fire gathering up in the cart, her purpose with missing would become clear very momentarily. "The guy who hired me kinda deserves it, yeah? For being lazy and such… guy's probably /still/ sleeping." She shrugs, just as the first tag would go up! The others would follow quickly after that. "So… where are you from?"
Uyeda looked a tad confused as Aika began shooting arrows into the compartment but was clearly attempting to simply miss now. Warily, he straightened up, easing his guard some, though not doing away with it. Making it apparent she tried to stop him, even if it wasn't quite a success. "C'mon. Who doesn't like a spicy relationship?" He couldn't help the horrible, shameful pun on the flames.
His gaze shifted to the flames spreading through the shipment as the woman talked. He should probably start leaving now. Just because he made the flames doesn't mean he was immune to them. "That guy sounds like—" He was cut off by the sound of the first explosion from the tag on Aika's arrow, the force of the surprising thing rocking him, scorching him, the hood of his cloak catching. "Oh, that's not alright," is said as he starts for the door, making hand seals.
He finished the seals but held off on the actual jutsu, waiting until he heard the first burt of the next explosion — he hadn't payed close attention to where the arrows had went. And when the boom came, a clone appeared in between him and it, a reflex more than anything, taking the brunt of the force and leaving him safe enough to leap out of the door and out of the final blast radius. A moment to breathe… then he looked to Aika.
"You blew up your own shipment to try to get to me. I'm pretty sure that's against the rules."
Aika shrugs, "You already ruined the cargo… I was paid in advance by some moron who didn't want to do the job in the first place so." She winks and then takes aim again. "This should teach him a lesson, yeah? I mean; I couldn't just hire someone else to do all /my/ work for me growing up so why should he be able to?" She draws back another arrow and touches her index finger to the fletching, charging it with her chakra once more as she takes better aim. This time the tip begins to emit small bits of jagged light, curling and arcing back into the bow itself. "You're a pretty good fighter… I'm clearly outmatched. But you'll find me to be a tenacious opponent good sir."
As she released the arrow she'd wink again, because wether or not it missed it would at least make for a good surprise. "So, does this encounter count as a date or what? Pretty romantic you ask me. Little bit of salad by the firelight." She offers him a wink as, wherever the arrow landed, it would explode very shortly afterward.
Uyeda stands up straight, catching his breath from nearly being blown to bits by the archer's odd idea of romanticism. He seems relaxed, though the light of the flames at his back only serves to leave most of his front covered in darkness. "Whatever gets the job done, I say," he replies to the hiring of help, starting to make handseals at the drawing of another arrow. The man gave a little salute as the arrow was let loose, a nod to her tenaciousness. Between him and the arrow formed a clone, and it leapt from the train, exploding off to the side, bits of metal flying.
Uyeda nodded to the side where the clone had leapt saying, "That clone was willing to give his life for you. For us. If that's not romantic, then I don't know what is." A few more handseals are made as he shifts, leaning against the wall of the train beside the door. Another clone of the man appears behind Aika. "Don't touch me," he warns. "I 'explode' pretty easy. But don't worry. If I do and you fall forward, I'll make sure to catch yo—" the clone explodes.
As the clone appears behind her Aika seems incredibly calm, and she even seems to allow it to fall into her before it explodes. All the while that smile never leaves her face. "Y'know… I do have a few other tricks up my sleeve." She says very plainly as the clone explodes. Nothing is left over when the dust settles, and for a moment it even looks as if the wanderer has disappeared from view for a moment. The clone technique she used was far more effective then she believed; the seals coming to her very quickly before she used it just a split second before the clone exploded. Now it was a matter of using trickery to her benefit- moving fast to break line of sight and hopefully diving out of view.
Uyeda's face splits into a grin as the smoke clears and he finds the woman gone but for the lingering smoke of a destroyed clone. "Haha. Seriously, how do I find a woman like this?" He flickers through a few handseals, already fully aware of wher ethe woman had gone. Not because he'd seen her but because he'd sensed her, her chakra.
Another clone would appear running along the side of the train car, just beside Aika herself, the sound of it's steps against the metal raising plaintive hisses from the cold metal. "Hold up a sec," is said to her. "How can I reach you after we get to Fuuma? I'm going to need some way to invite you to our second date. It'll be so much less fun doing it myself. Tried it before. Not exactly a fan of it."
Aika grins and looks over at the clone; "I'll be visiting the Land of Fire after this. Meet me there, ok?" She then winks and puts an arrow through the head of the clone before leaping up and doing a backflip. Once over her target she looses another arrow- this one streaking through the air with electricity arcing off of it in all directions. "Thankfully that other guy didn't get my name!" She states very plainly as she lands on the other car, and continues running through. "See you around Uyeda-sempai. Land of Fire. Remember that." And with that, she would run along the length of the train and then jump off when it's safe.
The metal clone took an arrow to the face, rubbing it's head and giving a vaguely annoyed "Ow" as the henge on it was disrupted, becoming a simple metal sculpture. It runs up the train car, movement swift, before leaping in front of the arrow with arcing electricity, the impact making it fall into a bunch of metal shards. But it neutralized the threat of the arrow too, at least. All that left Uyeda to defend himself against was disappointment and a little frustration, watching the archer dash off. "Right, well! It might… Take me a while!" he called out to the girl as she leapt off.
"Land of Fire? Really?" The clone crafter shakes his head and just turns to the sight of Fuuma being much closer than it'd been previously. Soon enough, this train would be making it's way into the station, people would discover the fire within it, and… he would probably be better off if he wasn't around when it happened. "Ah well. Maybe she'll still be around…" He turned and leapt from the train top, deciding that it was probably a good idea to stop talking to himself for now. Much better to collect his funds.
