Starring:
Date: June 20, 2014
Summary:
A familiar troublemaker reappears with a new scheme.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Song of Sixpence"
An urban city in the Land of Fire
It's time once again for the harvest festival! Last time Noab was here in <insert name of random large city in the Land of Fire>, he and his subordinates had to deal with a bizarre organized food-snatching by the town's rats. c.c Turns out they were led by a large, intelligent rat who called himself Gonff, probably a rogue from some summon clan. Despite the fact that the flute which the Prince of Rat-Thieves apparently used to control his more bestial cousins was captured, the city took a couple years to recover the nerve to hold their festival again after that incident. Who even knew there were that many rats living under the burg? c.c;
Konoha was called in to oversee security, and Noab wound up leading the mission again, although with different subordinates this time. In addition to the usual precautions against ordinary human thieves, Noab is having the team pay special attention to any place near the town square that might shelter rats. He lays down detection seals by all the storm drains and such, set to trigger only on extremely close proximity, but with a high degree of sensitivity so that even the miniscule chakra of a dumb rat will set it off. After placing his final seal, Noab calls out to his team. "Area secured. What's your status?"
Takeo doesn't honestly know what he's gotten himself into. He has some general idea that it involves rats, possibly including a summoned one, and something about a magical flute. It all sounds a little far-fetched to the young man, despite his having a chakra turtle sealed within himself. When they reach the site they're to watch over, Takeo does his part by going on patrol, stalking along with a deliberate swagger. Although much that was Inuzuka is gone from him, that hunter's instinct is evidently still there.
If nothing else, the Jinchuuriki has an advantage in that water is plentiful from the sewers and otherwise, but there's little else he can do to help prepare the issue. "I don't see anything yet," Takeo calls out to Noab. "This would be a lot easier if I still had my old nose!"
+ This was Sayuri's first time to one of the large cities within the Land of Fire. She was trying to hide her excitement, though with each new passing sight she had to let out a small giggle, though as they approached the Town Square she became a lot more serious. With reading of the previous mission debrief, she was aware of the situation at hand. She reminded herself that she was here for security. Following her orders she moved to her designated spot and she began her search for anything that could be sheltering rats.
Truth be told as her violet eyes moved across the area, her skin shivered slightly and her hairs stood on end, rats. Shaking her head she continued to move, her slender fingers moving to pick up things and check underneath as she moved through the surrounding streets and alleys by the town square. As she hears her Captain for this mission ask for a status report, she responds, "Sayuri Up. All Clear." she says firmly.
Noab nods. "Acknowledged. Stay vigilant. If anything happens, I'm ready to seal up the sewer entrances with earth. That oughta slow down any rats trying to make off with anything." :P
For a while, the festival goes without any apparent problems. One of Noab's tags is occasionally set off by some manner of sewer denizen poking its head out into the open, including a few rats, but having a few of those running around is normal. Of course the response to the unlucky rodents isn't so normal. >/ Still, there's no sudden invasion of rats so far.
Eventually there comes a pie contest, one of the festival's highlights. The judges for the contest, a few city officials and their wives, sit down at a long table, dressed in their finest for the occasion. Noab's stomach gurgles as large, steaming pies are placed before the judges, and he forces himself to focus his attention on the storm drains. -.U;
Halfway through the contest, as a server is cutting into a particularly gargantuan pie, he is startled by a sharp cawing from within the pastry. o.O; Suddenly the crust explodes outward in a flurry of black feathers and beaks. The judges shriek and yelp as they're covered in a dark eruption. DX Moments later the birds take off, and sharp eyes may note glints of gold and gems in their talons and beaks. The town officials and their wives have been picked clean of all their jewelry! D8
A high-pitched sniggering rings out from a nearby rooftop, and furry silhouette dances on the edge. "Sing a song a' sixpence, pocket fulla rye, four an' twenny blackboids baked inta a pie!" >D The Prince of Rat-Thieves then scurries off. Noab grimaces. "Blast it, he used our expectations against us! After those birds!" >.U
If there's a place Takeo wouldn't have expected the threat to come from, it's the pies. Good thing he didn't give into the urge to just butt in and take a big chomp out of the delicious pastry. How they managed to get into the pies, much less steal all the jewelry of the local elite, escapes him entirely. Ah, but then there's a voice, and its shape and sound makes him think of only one thing: the summoned rat must have a new flute under his command. As a flute player, Takeo can only be offended by this mark upon his noble hobby!
Making a quick hand seal, Takeo draws water up from a nearby sewer drain and hurls it at the rooftop in the form of a spear. Unfortunately for him, silhouettes of tiny creatures are quite difficult to pin down. He growls through his bared fangs and gives the leader up in favor of following the Captain's orders. The Chuunin leaps up to a roof and runs with all the speed he can muster after the birds, leaping from one building to the next.
+ Sayuri was watching the festival, well half way watching it she was doing her best to keep her attention on the task at hand, security. Though there was so many people, Sayuri had never been around so many people before. All the activities and everyone was a bit overwhelming for her at first. Though she slowly grew more and more accustomed to being around these people. Her violet eyes watched as she saw the pie activity start. A small giggle escaping her lips as she considered how well her pie would have done, but then birds explode from one.
Standing there now a little confused at first, as Noab's voice echos out she manages to get her wits about her. Moving behind Takeo she also leaps up to the roof and runs behind him, though she is not nearly as fast. They moved to follow the birds, though Sayuri could see the Rat Prince, she wasn't sure if he was close enough but she gave it a quick shot anyway, her hands start for form a few quick seals as a Erie Song starts to echo through the air around her as she attempted to infuse some of her chakra into his, causing him to become dizzy if successful.
The blackbirds all seem to be heading in the same general direction, which should make things easier. Still, even ninja might have a little difficulty keeping up with birds on the wing. Gonff is running on a tangent to their flight path, probably because there's no straight route for a non-flying creature to get to wherever they're going. Of course, his route is about to get even less straight. "Haha, chumps! Dis oughta teach yas ta neva count out da Prince of Rat — whoa, what da?! Gya, dat ain't fair!" >.<; Gonff slips while descending a drain pipe, bouncing off a couple architectural jut-outs on his way down to a landing in a trash heap. XP The birds fly on heedless of what's happening to the rat.
Oh, and what's Noab doing? He stayed at the town square, of course. The festival still needs somebody on security, especially in the aftermath of a panic-inducing scene like that. :P
As much as a failure it was to let the festival go badly, Takeo's ever so slightly thrilled by the consequences. This is the first time he's been on a mission since he became Jinchuuriki, and even to be chasing a flock of thieving birds is better than nothing. Suddenly, the Chuunin finds himself in the position of having divided opponents, with the rat having dropped down while his bird minions continue along the way. With a low growl rumbling up from his throat, Takeo shouts, "I'm keeping with the birds!"
Keep with them he does, or he puts in his best effort. Perhaps Isobu lends him some stamina he might not otherwise have. Either way, Takeo made a remarkable accomplishment by sticking to orders despite having been baited into what would've been a fight on any other occasion.
+ Sayuri was doing her best to keep pace with Takeo, which wasn't very good. She wasn't the fastest or the perhaps best for pursuits or well combat, she knew her role was more of a supportive one then anything else. Then Takeo yells he is staying with the birds, which put Sayuri on the Rat Prince guy. As he slipped on the drain pipe she did her best reach him before he had a chance to run off. Finally landing on the ground not that far from him.
With a small nod and a pant she pointed at him, "Surrender now… and…" she says rather meekly, "Or…" she says her eyes narrowing, "or I will make you!" she exclaims with a small bark. Now she slipped back a bit, focusing more chakra into her system, ready to attack if needed.
Gonff grunts and rights himself amidst the trash. Garbage is no great impediment to him, rats are used to scavenging through it, after all. :P "Quit talkin' tough, goilie. Yous ain't gots da guts ta hoit nobody, I kin tell. Anyhow, why ya's botherin' me? Ya got proof I got anyt'in' ta do wid what happened ova dea?" >) Gonff folds his arms smugly. "Why, I'm da victim hea da way I sees it. I oughta sue yas fer makin' me take a dive offa dat roof. I t'ink I gots whiplash." :P
Meanwhile, the blackbirds congregate on a tree on the outskirts of town. In a messy crowd, they all push to deposit their trinkets in a large nest. Then, they either hang around on the branches nearby and preen, or fly off to attend to other business like bug-hunting. Looks like the plan was a fairly simple one, train a bunch of birds to grab shiny things and bring them 'home', then see to it that they're unleashed on some particularly valuable shinies.
Takeo gets a good look at the tree's location and then promptly reverses course. Naturally, he won't be leaving the ringleader of this mess for the Genin to face when the birds are just dumb tools whose job has been done. After leaping quickly from one roof to the next, he drops down on the opposite side of the Rat Prince, his fingertips splayed as if to put his natural claws on display. "Sorry, Your Highness, but today's just not going your way," he says. "Sue all you want. You can explain it while you're telling them all about how you rigged those pies. Could've taken some rich guy's eye out with a flock of birds."
Tilting his neck from one side to the other until it pops, Takeo demands, "How're you controlling 'em? Get yourself another magic flute? It'll go better on you if you just give it up now."
+ Sayuri looks at Gnoff, well she was hoping he would simply surrender, but that never happens as planned. Her violet eyes narroed on Gnoff, she was going to take on a Akinori type roll on how he handled things at this point. Her hands moved and quickly formed a few seals, as her voice echoed out again with the same song of the siren as before. Now trying to force a bit of her Chakra into Gnoff's chakra system, to cause him to become dizzy again, hoping this would work. Before a few quick seals are made again and she takes a deep breath and suddenly shoots out a large comet in his direction.
Gonff grimaces and clasps his paws together when Sayuri brings out her genjutsu again. "Not dis time, goilie!" >.< Yup, looks like this rat knows a bit of ninjutsu himself. After cancelling out the genjutsu, he replaces himself with a bag of trash, then splits off down the alleyway as the heap bursts into flame from Sayuri's fire attack. "Ha, now yous is an arsonist on top of everyt'in'! Hope yous kin explain to da bigwigs why yas set deir town on fire!" >D Then Takeo shows up at the other end of the alley. >.<; "Cheez, yous mugs is persistent!" Gonff flings a smoke pellet at Takeo, then makes a mad dash through the resulting cloud, attempting to escape right between Takeo's feet.
Takeo does not, despite his inner instincts, want to kill the strange little ratlord. It can do ninjutsu; that's pretty cool. Still, he does have a duty to capture it before it can get past him. That's a little difficult to pull off when one's in a cloud of smoke, so why not make two of himself and put a little surprise on the other side of that camouflage?
The nice thing about towns is that there's always water close by. In this case, a rain barrel will do. Takeo makes hand signs and draws the water forth, forming a clone of himself on the other side of Gonff's smoke screen. It'll be standing there, waiting for him, as will the real Takeo on the other side once the haze passes. "You're startin' to pence me off, rat. Don't think I won't make a new sash outta you," says the Chuunin, speaking through his teeth. "Try to pull something else and it won't get any easier."
+ Sayuri face curls up as she watches both of her attacks fail, looking a bit annoyed if not frustrated. She doesn't respond to the mocks that the Rat Lord King Guy says, instead her hands quickly move to start forming seals again. This time her song shifts slightly, using her Lullaby Genjutsu, the eerie soft song echoing through the alley as Takeo moves to intercept. The song carrying the chakra, once she thinks she has attempted to push enough she says, "Give it up, we have you surrounded." she says with a nod to Takeo.
Gonff comes out the other side of the smoke cloud — and runs into clone!Takeo's leg. x.x "Ow! What da — gyaaa, can't a guy get a break around hea!?" DX Then Sayuri's genjutsu hits, and Gonff reacts too late to counteract it. He blinks owlishly at his own paws as they fumble the seals. "Nnngh…I wanna lawyer," Gonff mumbles, then collapses. -.-
The townsfolk are grateful to the Konoha nin for minimizing the damage once again, although they feel grumpy at the same time that it happened in the first place. The jewelry is recovered, with a little bickering between some of the greedier ladies about which bits belong to who. The townsfolk also have trouble for a few months afterward with compulsively thieving blackbirds, though at least they know where to look for their stolen trinkets.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
