Starring:
Kioko, Sei, Hayase, Kiji, Naoya
Date: August 27, 2014
Summary:
Delivery of a gift to the Daimyo of the Land of Water from a famous artist in the Land of Whirlpools for his daughter's wedding being halted by pirates hoping to make a mint selling it on the black market. Kiri steps in.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Sinking Ships and Insect Swarms"
Ships between the Land of Water and the Land of Whirlpools
Yay, it's almost lunch time! Except the Daimyo of the Land of Water sent a message to Kirigakure requesting assistance for a cargo ship that was on its way to the dock near his palace. Apparently the ship contains a few rather expensive pieces of art that are to be given to the Daimyo's daughter and her soon-to-be husband as wedding presents. Out in the sea between the Land of Fire and Land of Water, four rather obviously pirate ships have encircled a cargo ship with a hull outfitted with seals to withstand cannon fire and other attacks. Unfortunately, that doesn't prevent them from crossing ships via swinging over. On board the ship, there's a rather interesting scene going on. While more and more of the pirates are coming on board, a single woman appears to be decently holding her own to at least keep herself from being overpowered until help arrives. Some men are already laying on the ground covered in honey and bite marks, twitching on the ground and some even screaming in pain. There are also quite a number of bees and wasps flying around attacking as well, some even forming shields to keep the numbers from catching up to her too fast. "It's one girl! Stop staring at her chest and get rid of her!" an angry voice rings out from a ship nearby as the men continue to try to surround the woman an attack, though they're a bit more wary as the insects don't appear to just have the venom you'd expect out of them in nature, and they appear to move in perfect sync with this young woman, whoever she is. Though she's a bit bruised up with a bit of honey dripping down her lips, she's at least surviving until help arrives… which will hopefully be soon!
Sei stood on the very front of the ship, beyond the railing to the leading mast of the front sail. Tree walking kept him in place as the front half of the ship was coated in spiders, waiting. Ready. That chakra was already surging through his form, powered between him and the spiders as the chakra glittered among his brood. Eyes narrowed as he'd study the area ahead of him. Within one of the less used areas a small harp was set up already, Sei's communication in place as his voice, that genjutsu, touched just the shinobi with him. "We are getting close. Request they pull up beside one of the pirate ships. Two of us will disembark there, then move on to the next ship to engage it as the other two. Kiji-san is with me. Naoya-san, take Hayase on initial ship engagement. Any questions?" Sei glanced back at the others with a curious look. It seemed fairly straight forward.
The reinforcements are here, and Hayase follows at a quick speed to catch up with their stranded teammate. Although when she arrives, she sees that the Kamizuru more than held her own. Hayase winces. She hates stings from normal bees, never mind killer shinobi bees. She doesn't feel any pity for the men who've fallen victim to Kioko's jutsu or her chest. When Sei orders them to deploy, the Genin gives a slight nod. "Aye, aye," she says with a smile. As if she's at a party, rather than a combat mission. Since he does ask if there are any questions, she poses one, "Is there any need to capture some of these pirates?"
Kiji was charging herself up silently behind Sei as his spiders gathered around him. Her eyes were already encircled in orange but the centers were a calm,slightly muted blue. For the moment anyway. She wore a sleeveless silk top with her clan's symbol on the back and a white tsubaki on the front over her heart and matching black pants,the Shimizu on the hip. Her hair was in it's usual long thick braid down her back. Sei's orders simply got a nod from her. He was Chuunin now, which put him in charge of this mission. It was odd for her to think of him as a chuunin… She had always treated him like he was a higher rank but now he /was/ and it made things feel.. strange. Not that this was the best time to think about it….
Clinching his right hand, Naoya raises his hand and taps it against his chest and closes his eyes briefly as he focuses again. Opening his eyes, he looks out and across towards the other that were on the ship and nods lightly. "None," was all the young teen said before leaving from the railing of the ship and making his way further back into the ship towards the navigator, relaying for the ship to be brought up broadside with the other vessel.
"Hayase-san? You ever take the lessons to heart? Need to know if you can scale the ship's walls if we get tossed." Naoya began to make his return though his left arm at this point was beginning to wiggle under the fabric by the time he was at the railing again.
On board the ship, the increasing numbers appear to be starting to catch up with Kioko. A few more hits now and then strike her, even some weapon slashes from those that aren't taking her as a joke. A hard kick to the chest from one of the more shinobi level fighters on board finally sends her flying, skidding back toward the door. A cough escapes her lips, the woman grumbling a bit about this job being a LOT higher mission than it was supposed to be. Still, there's no room for surrender. She seems to chew for a moment then take in a huge breath before spewing a stream of honey through the pirates in front of her make a thick barrier on the door that laces all the hinges and opening points then starts to crystallize in a large area on and around the door. Of course, this only mandibles off the pirates, the stronger one that struck her walking over and picking her up by the collar of her kimono top. As he starts shouting demands for her to open the door back up, the insects all around start to get more active, even fanning out to other ships to start attacking. While this might seem like an act of arrogance to most, it serves to keep the attention on her and the bees… and away from the impending death coming their way in the form of Kirigakure!
Sei glances towards Hayase. He doesn't let the gen go, but it's obvious she's the main focus. "Killing is faster. If they surrender then take them. We are Kiri. We do not give mercy."
Sei frowned. He'd glance at the others, then look to the captain, flagging for them to pull up along one of the pirate ships, allowing Hayase and Naoya to start attacking the pirates directly. As soon as the two were able to launch, Sei motioned and pointed towards the ship that Kioko was having issues on. Getting them close enough for the other two shinobi, Sei and Kiji to launch in their own attack. Sei would motion for the captain and his crew to help with another of the pirate ships, not allowing any resources to be wasted. Sei spread out that chakra further, increasing the capability of his brood as a mass of spiders lept or ran on top of the water for the ship. The pirates would get broadsided by that mass of spiders, assaulting with bites and silk to mess them up as Sei would stalk onto the deck. The other bug person had lasted long enough. Kiri was here to help.
Hayase can't help but stare at Sei. Not because of his orders though. She still hasn't gotten used to his mode of communication. She gives a nod, and rubs her hands together as their ship converges on an enemy vessel. Once they're close enough Hayase vaults off the side of the ship, and lands squarely on the other deck in a crouch. She'd come up to strike the nearest pirate in the chin, driving him upwards. The next pirate to come at her would get a fist in the gut.
Kiji could make out the mass of bees on the target ship as they pulled alongside. Her first thought was to maybe gather a few before they headed back to their own ship. She made a note to try, but turned her focus on the battle at hand. Sei's words to Hayase got a color shift from her eyes finally from blue to pale gold. Her right hand fisted and slid down her left forearm, slicing a long cut there from which came her blood, her main weapon. She leapt the distance between ships, nearly slipping but catching herself with chakra in her feet before she fell. That would have been bad. She had spotted the man holding a battered Kioko by the collar and shouting and lofted both her hands, separating her gathered blood into two masses and forming large senbon in the crimson mass. Her eyes narrowed but she didn't have to stray far from Sei to send those needles at the man. Halfway to him they split apart so there were actually four groupings of blood each comming from a different direction, but all aimed for the man's throat…
By the time the pirates are able to notice anything coming their way, it's a bit too late. The pirate holding Kioko up looks about to do something sinister until he hears screams from the other side of the deck and whips his head back to see spiders and needles of blood mangling his men. "Wha the-" His eyes get a bit wide before he looks back to Kioko with a stern grimance, knowing they've been had. Bringing a fist back, he takes a hard swing at the Kamizuru, only for her to slip out of his grasp, which in turn rips a bit of cloth off the collar of her top. She then literally lunges at him and sinks what appear to be a pair of new fangs into his neck, causing his body to seize up and a scream of pain to ring out from his body. Meanwhile the pirates do not sparemuch time trying to fight back, immediatelly charging the incoming shinobi on both ships with knives and swords drawn.
Sei didn't move.
As was often the case with plenty of battles with Sei, the attackers were rendered ineffective. Simply by the sheer fact that his brood moved faster. He didn't move as he didn't have to move. Even those who saught to try and get to Kiji would find the way blocked. That webbing insidious in how it would deflect, stop them from getting through. With swords it'd be thought that it'd not be that hard to simply cut through the web. However the web seemed a living thing, the chakra blend with the spiders making it so that it would restore itself almost faster than they could do it. Sei watched the man that was downed but may not be out by Kioko. Shaking his head, a group of spiders would scurry up that mast, gathering there to launch over heads, aimed right for the chest of the man. As they landed, they'd imemdiately rip and tear into his chest, spiders akin to digging into stone and through it finding cloth and flesh much easier to pierce, once opening a rather gaping wound, those charged eggs would be left within the man's chest, the thousands of spiders hatching shortly after the main spiders left to consume as much flesh as possible, spreading that deadly poison. All of them were that brilliant purple that denoted Sei's deadly poison as they'd eat, poison and die within the gaping hole. Sei would presume the man dead and look to the others with that look that almost said, 'who's next?'
Hayase's preemptive attack meets with some success. Too bad the same can't be said for her defensive capabilities. She's knocked back, landing hard on her back. Hayase looks around, looking for her support. But it's only a quick glance before she'd turn back to aim a lunging punch right at the nearest pirate's face, and send a sharp elbow cracking into the nose of the second one. "This may be too…no, it's fine," Hayase mutters to herself. She can't turn and run now. And look, there's Naoya! Whew.
Kiji glanced toward the pirates aiming to stab her and blinked, her eyes almost almost shading purple as a wall came up between them. Webbing protecting her. She didn't take the time to react or flush or anything else she would usually do, no the second the webbing caught the pirate's shivs she was already running up the other side of it, easily matching the chakra in her feet to Sei's chakra in the webbing. She leapt up and over the barrier, blood comming to bear as she flung three sets of needles at her attacker's, looking to enter the veins in thier necks before exploding into large crystalline formations, the point of course was to cause severe bleeding and thus thier own bodies would end up killing them. Her eyes were now golden, but shading into grey as she began to take lives.
Naoya, having some how over jumped his landing splashed into the sea on the other side of the attacked vessel. The young teen would press his hands flat against the hull of the ship, quickly attaching himself to it and pulling himself up and out of the water. It would belong before he managed to crawl up along the side of the ship and up onto the deck and quickly assessed what was happening on board.
Turning his attention to focus onto Hayase just in time to watch her get stuck and sent stumbling a step. Raising his right arm upwards briefly, the young teen whips his arm forward, hurling a pair of shurikens towards one of the other pirate's lower ribs as he moves to close the distance with them.
As Sei's attack comes down at the man, Kioko has to leap back, casting a glance up at the Okumo then looking back down at the pirate. "… Damn," she says, seeming impressed then grinning slightly as that's something pretty similar to a jutsu she has planned for the future. Another pirate then charges her, though she's a bit more prepared and leaps out of the way onto a top section of the deck to take a breather. "Glad you guys could make it," she calls out to the Kiri nin as the battle rages on. While more competent pirates seem to be coming into battle, their numbers are at least thinning some. In the cases of Sei and Kiji, the tactic shifts a bit and some of the stronger pirates begin flinging throwing knife after throwing knife at them while the two on the other ship have luck but just seem to have one pirate replace the last one they struck down each time.
Sei didn't move.
Of course sometimes that's a bad thing. Those who are better, stronger, were throwing them. Sei attempted that stronger barrier, the webbing thicker but the knife got through, catching his shoulder in it's passing. Sei's eyes narrowed, barrels grabbed as the chakra flow between the brood and Sei reached that balanced point and those extra things were pulled up to deflect the rest of the shots, having a cannon, barrels, crates, other things about all wrapped up into that silk webbing that denied them access. Sei's attention shifted to the new threat. A low snarl on his lips, although silent as his harp was gone with the boat that carried them. From all around, a true nightmare that may scar those who weren't use to it, spiders came from *everywhere* around those who attacked him and Kiji, the brood darkening the area as the men were assaulted in turn, attacked, poisoned and bit, webbing left as the spiders moved to leave them dealing with that silk clinging just as much as they dealt with the spiders biting.
Hayase's battle narrows down to the three pirates before her. There's little time for anything else, though she does keep an eye out for any sneak attacks. As the pirates slash at her from every side, Hayase weaves and ducks between the blows rather than trying to get some distance. She's using their mindfulness of one another to limit their movements. In the brief pause afterwards, Hayase aims to headbutt the most recent pirate, right against the face. The next closest one gets a stiff, brutal punch right at his jaw and then a second to his nose. "They keep coming, eh?" Hayase says to her partner, with a strange lightheartedness.
Kiji blinked again as the webbing came up to stop the knives that flew in her direction. She noted one of the blades that struck Sei and set her jaw. She would deal with that later. Instead she focused and sent more blood needles at those that were trying to pin them down. Ranged attack for ranged attack. She kept an eye out around her for any suprise attacks.
With a sudden sidestep, Naoya manages to lean out of the way when the first pirate slashes at his stomach. The next two sudden movements didn't manage to carry the young Okumo out of danger completely, as the first slash grazes against his forearm arm while cuts briefly close to his shoulder. Rather than retreating, the steps closer forward the closer of the pair.
Opening his both of his hands, he lets a pair of spiders crawl onto his palm and spin around it in rapid fashion, coating his knuckles and palms with silk. With an open palm, Naoya thrusts upwards towards the pirate's throat, following throw with a second strike towards his lower left ribs. The assault would end with a third strike, not at the first pirate, but at the second one that cut into his arm a moment before.
Sei and Kiji are doing quite an amazing job at utterly annihilating the pirates on board the ship… so much in fact that the pirates on the remaining ships that are not currently locked in combat appear to be giving up on getting the prize and are turning their cannons toward the cargo ship! However, what they don't count on is a pretty good size jetstream of honey flying at their cannons and filling them up as they're lit. A moment later, the sounds of screams of pain and fear and wood cracking ring out as the cannons start firing back and tearing holes in the ships. Thus has a bit of a dual effect, as injuries are numerous, but now the load of pirates coming onto the center ship is even more. In particularly, the captain that was screaming at the men earlier is coming right at Kioko with a blade aimed for her chest cavity while a flurry of blades fly at Sei and Kiji while the remaining pirates on the ship with Hayase and Naoya, who for some reason are intent on fighting the men instead of sinking the ship, continue coming.
Sei gritted his teeth, that balanced chakra between him and the brood evolving to that point that they merged together. Mentally acting purely as one rather than being one mind in the hive. Sei-brood watched the things coming in, the walls being changed to seek to stop them, although two managed to get in towards Kiji, he wasn't going to be able to help that. She would have to deal with it as it came in. Sei-brood's attention went towards the captain then, watching him sweep in from the other boat, Sei-brood had part of the spiders swarm the other boat, leaping down to the water's surface to find that wall of the other boat and start ripping it apart. Chakra infusing the spiders and the silk they used to create gaping holes just below the waterline. Meanwhile, other spiders would scurry up into the rigging of the ship and a section of the mast was broken off, a massive hunk of wood, coated in silk to be directed and with a loud CRACK, it snapped and came flying in towards the captain, Barbosa, to slam into him and send him sprawling with the mast on top. Those spiders in the webbing about it would strike then, wrapping him further in webbing, binding him down under that pin and stopping him from being able to do much of anything.
Kiji saw two of the blades still comming for her and tried to use a blood clone to avoid them but despite her attempt, the blades sank into her flesh. She made a face and pulled the blades free, tossing them aside. They wouldn't really help her in attacking anyway. The knives plunked into the water and she set her jaw. She didn't have anything special to throw at the captain but she could distract him, hopefully aiding ASei in his delivery of… whatever that was he'd thrown….
Naoya jumps backwards when the trio close in around him once again but not before his arm was cut into once again, though the second strike was evaded with little difficulty. Looking to his side, he eyes how close he was to the ship's railing, the distracted glance costs him as another slash slide cuts into the skin along his side. The young teen continues to fall back after each strike until he seems to fall over backwards over the railing, splashing into the sea.
Just before tumbling into the water, the young Okumo takes in a sudden, deep breath. Once Naoya was under the water's surface, he curls his legs inward and reorientates himself upside down before stretching out so that his feet touch the bow. With a some concentration, he stabilizes himself and kneels down, drawing him close to the ship. Not wasting time, Naoya proceeds to strike the underside of the pirate's vessel, trying to not only cause fist sized breaches but to then reposition to sink bowed planks to create large gashes to flood the ships lower levels.
With the actions of Nao, the final remaining pirate ship begins to sink. Of course, that only leaves the pirate to believe that now they have to take this ship as their own! Thus the onslaught would continue. A trio of pirates come at Kioko from her perch on the upper deck as she watches Sei smash the captain to pieces, which even makes some of the men want to abandon this mission-if they had anyhere to go! Two of them manage to stab her on the arm and the side, though she steps out of the way of the final slash. Then they start to look a bit freaked out as the young woman's eyes turn completely black, muscles tensing up and nails growing elongated. Venom begins to drip from around her nails as she'd start to slash at their throats, intending quick kills. Frankly she's getting exhausted from fighting these guys off from the time the message went out to the Daimyo through the time it took the message to get to Kiri then to the team then for them to get here and finally now!
Sei got hit. He didn't like that.. oh no.. not at all. Gritting his teeth at the pain, that mix of Sei-brood gathered itself and with a surge outward, Sei took down as many as he could. How? Simple, a flowing blackness spread from him, purple glittering in the sea air as they'd launch at the surrounding people, leaping outward from the webbing, pinning the people down with webbing as the spiders tore holes into chest. Inside those holes, the eggs were deposited to rip further into the people. Sei was no longer bothering to be subtle.. no longer letting people try to surrender.. He simply took down ten people in that first wave and that glare leveled on the rest? Said if they didn't surrender.. they'd be next.
Kiji winced as she saw Sei take the knives meant for her. She watched him get as close to annoyed as she'd seen him for quite some time. Well that wasn't good. Moving to step closer to him she gathered her own strength. She would have to heal him later but wwhile he was attacking like that? She focused on her own wounds, allowing herself to heal as she waited. She understood Sei's ultimatum.. so she voiced it. "Surrender or die!"
Crawling along the hull of the main transport ship is Naoya, pressed against the side and using both his hands and feet to scale up more discreetly. The young teen looks around for a moment after he makes it up to the side of the railing, inspecting the slew of bodies on deck, using the webbing as a line to track which direction Sei was, Kiji was likely close to that direction as well. Lowering a hand to his hips, his hands slip into a pouch and withdraws a fresh set of shurikens, planning to strike at the remaining forces on deck before pushing to meet with the others. "I really.. really need to learn how to shape a wave."
While a big number of the remaining pirates are struck down by Sei, the rest literally turn and jump overboard, apparently preferring to take their chances of a watery death to getting eaten alive from the inside out by spiders. With that the threat is clear as the remaining pirates swim away. Kioko lets out a loud 'whew' as she steps back down onto the deck and plops down. She forms a handseal, causing the honey over the door to the inside cabin to crack and fall away as her bees fly around and lift debris from the pirate ships off this one, including the mast. "Heh… D-Rank at most, yeah," she says with with a chuckle as she settles against the cabin, glancing as the captain comes out and surveys the ship before ordering his men to get to work. Once it's safe to move, they'd take the Kirigakure shinobi back to their ship and sail on toward the Land of Water.
