Starring:
Yuuto, Katama
Date: March 18, 2014
Summary:
Yuuto and Katama are sent to clear a group of bandits out of a village.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Taking Out The Trash"
A town in the Land of Wind
Off their ordered hiatus from missions, Yuuto and Katama have been sent to a small trade town that recently sent a distress message to Sunagakure for help. Apparently a group of bandits were passing through and decided that this town would be best suited becoming their own and have shut it off from the trade that kept the town running and are basically doing anything they like inside their new 'kingdom'. The mission given to these two is simple. Kill the bandits and restore peace. Thus, adorned in his armor, Yuuto travels alongside his student through the desert toward this town. "Well, at least we didn't get assigned to anything boring. I half-expected us to get assigned trash duty or something after that conversation."
Katama was wearing her medium armor so she could move as best possible, the heavy set bogged her downa nd was best used in conjunction with ranged weapons. But she'd repainted this set so resemble the tan, sand blasted vests that were common in Sunagakure's shinobi wardrobes. She would not stick out this way..as much anyway. She had spent the 2 weeks simply reading her bookson strategy and learning to cook again, something more strenuous than 2 Minute Noodles…. Now she walked beside Yuuto with a look of some excitement. It wsa always fun to kick around some 'bad guys' after all. She would shift her swords as they approached the targeted area… "That's because you over did it. Stealth and you don't seem to mix, Shishou…"
"Hey, I'm good at stealth, just not the particular kind he wanted," Yuuto says, shrugging his shoulders. "I can do it with Genjutsu or by moving underground or things like that. I just didn't do the type he wanted the way he wanted." With a shrug of his shoulders, he looks ahead, eyes narrowing slightly as he spots the form of the town coming into sight. Beneath his mask, his eyes would take on the crimson color of Sharingan as he starts to count chakra signatures and plan. He reaches to his back, grabbing a scroll and unrolling it to release a small swarm of black ants made of ink that burrow into the sand and begin to make their way ahead of the pair into the town for some quick recon.
Katama held up a hand and pulled a mas of fabric from her bag. She'd thought of a few more 'stealthy' ways for her this past few weeks as well. "give me a small creature that can hide under this." She swung the cloak over her shoulders, obscuring her armor and since it was 'formed' int he same shape as her body, she just appeared to be slightly heavier than she really was. "I can go in like a traveler and you can follow me underground."
With a nod, Yuuto quickly draws up a black cat that hops off the page into Katama's bag. "There are quite a number of them. We'll have to be careful or have a serious edge…. Really, if we can get a lot of them to come out, I can practice a new mass Genjutsu I've been working on to bring them to their knees." That done, he'd vanish into the ground and begin moving toward the town that his ants have been inspecting.
Katama grins as the cat enters her bag. This way he could keep an eye on what was around her as well as what he was doing. She walked int he same basic direction as Yuuto, keeping to herself and walking like she'd been on the road a long, long time. She even had a bit of dirt on her cheek. She walked up to one man apparently selling water and bought a small jug. She drank half of it before she would speak as though parched. "I heard there was a new boss in town… Where can I go to pay my respects?"
As Katama approaches, the guards at gate just blink at her and point toward the center of town. "Just go there… Someone'll meet you," he says simply. Another man standing nearby would take off toward the tavern, likely to inform someone of the arrival. Meanwhile, Yuuto stops just before the fountain in the center of the village, waiting for Katama to move and/or make a move if things happen to go south.
Katama nods her head and walks that direction as though nothing were amiss. She was focused on her surroundings, though, prepared if anyone tried to attack her… She had left her bag slightly open to allow the cat inside to do as it pleased and though she could not see Yuuto, she knew he would be nearby, ready to protect her. She stopped in the middle of the street and looked around her, curious if anyone's following her or gathering as she would expect bandits to behave.
After several moments, a fairly large bandit comes out of the tavern accompanied by the man who went inside moments before. "I hear you want to pay some respects?" he asks as he looks down at her, lifting an eyebrow slightly. "Well, here I am, so what is it you're wanting to say?" Meanwhile, Yuuto waits underground, watching for any actions as the bandits all around the village appear to be watching the exchange.
Katama smiled and performed a flashy formal western bow, her gauntleted hands waving behind her. When she stood back up she looked at the man with an excited expression on her face. "Well aren't you a big boy…." She pulled back her cloak, exposing her armor and one of her swords, the fabric falling over her back. "Perhaps I wish to join you. wouldn't that be entertaining?"
The bandit seems to grow a bit more wary as Katama reveals her armor and weapon. "You seem awfully prepared for someone who wants to join a group of bandits," he says, quirking an eyebrow. "Are you just wanting to make some money off us, or are you bored?" This part of the exchange seems to attract more of the bandits, some starting to come out of the buildings or wherever they may be to observe.
Katama laughed. She was gathering quite a crowd it seemed. Good. She would keep gathering attention until or unless Yuuto saw fit to attack. "Well, both I suppose. Do you doubt my ability? Because it seems to me only a fool would enter the desert unprepared. Or do you prefer your men to /be/ unprepared?" She glanced around, choosing a man that looked average among the group, not wanting to bite off too much more than she could chew. "Maybe you'd like to try me out."
"I suppose you have a point there," the bandit says, pondering still. When the offer is made, the other bandit blinks then shrugs and grabs a sword from his belt. No harm sparring a potential new group member. He steps forward and steps into stance, saying, "Ready when you are."
Katama smiled as the man grabbed a sword and came out to meet her. she drew only the sword she'd exposed. Her crimson eyes were bright as though she was having great fun and perhaps she was. She fell into a simple stance and went at he guy with simple strikes, not wishing to show her true strength just yet… Her black blade flashed as she swung it at his chest and legs, testing the man's ability and strength.
Yuuto watches patiently underground as Katama starts to spar the bandit, curious as to how long she'll play this game. It does seem to be attracting more attention, though, as more bandits curiously step out or stop to watch the spar with this new person. The bandit tries to sidestep the first strike, but he's a bit too slow and ends up being struck across the chest and pouring a bit of blood, though it does seem to help him dodge. His return strike is a bit clumsy as he charges, followed by a bit more precise strike at her stomach.
Katama's footwork was simple but strong and took her out of the way of both strikes. Or it would have but she allowed the blade to knick her armor at her stomach. She smirked at the man she was sparring, letting him know in no uncertain terms she'd done it on purpose. She followed that up with a punch to the face before she spun around, trying to take out the man's legs with her sword, possibly putting him in danger of cut tendons behind his knees. She appeared to just be strikeing blindly from the outside, but she was aiming for the man's non-vital areas while still trying to incapacitate him.
Katama's attitude seems to throw the bandit off even more, which allows her to land a solid punch to his face. He buckles when the tendons of his knees are cut, crying out in pain. The man who spoke as leader's eyes narrow at this. Seems she took that a little far for his liking as suddenly a large fist is aimed at the back of her head by a lunging bandit.
Katama moved out of the way of the bandit aiming for the back of her head and spun backwards, aiming the back of her blade at the back of his neck. Her eyes were bright with excitement. She could not fight her Shishou but she wasn't useless at least. Her smile widened and she laughed. "I am a demon of the sands! Come!" She was approaching that level of excitement that she had exhibited when yuuto nearly crushed her with that giant boulder and as a result, she ended up revealing a bit more than she meant to, her cloak dropping to the ground and exposing the hitai-ate bound on her shoulder.
SMACK! The big man is struck on the back of the neck and sent to the ground by the blunt side of Katama's blade, down for the moment. It's now, however, that she DEFINITELY has the attention of all the bandits. An entire mass of them begins to charge her. It seems she might be a bit over her head until Yuuto in his demonic armor pops up behind her, looking around at the charging bandits. With a simple command, he would force the entirety of them to their knees around himself and Katama almost like bowing in worship in their Genjutsu-fabricated dread. "Fear."
Katama looked like she was having great fun and as they began to charge her she prepared to brawl (much to her ancestor's chagrin). She glanced back when Yuuto popped up behind her. "Oh, hello!" She said cheerfully and laughed as the bandits were taken down to the ground with his command. Her grin became quite accurately demonic. "We're supposed to wipe them out right?" She drew her second blade, looking around herat all the necks she would be aiming for…. "Oh.. should we keep any alive?" Whether for interrogation or giving to Ayumu she did not specify…
"They're bandits, nothing really that harmful or useful to the village. We're more concerned with making a statement and keeping their kind out of this place," Yuuto responds simply as he looks around at the bandits. "Just get rid of them." It's then that his Sharingan spots something out of the corner of his eye coming for his head, which he is quick to sink into the ground to avoid as it whizzes about a foot from the back of Katama's head to stab into a building. Popping back up, Yuuto looks up as he sees an even larger man than before standing on top of the tavern with a group of women and children bound next to him being guarded by two of his lackeys. "So the real boss finally makes an appearance," Yuuto says, seeming a bit amused for some reason.
"Leave now, or I'll have my men kill all of them!" the large man's voice booms out as one of the men grabs a knife from his belt and holds it to the throat of one of the woman, slicing her skin just a bit to prove the point that they are serious.
Katama blinked when Yuuto slid into the ground, tensing as the arrow flew past behind her and relieved when her Shishou returned. "Got it…" She was about to start the wholesale slaughter when the man appeared on top of the building, threatening women and children, holding one at knife point. She glared at him, crouching as in preparation for strike. She hesitated, though, not wanting to let him harm the woman, seeing no way around it… She looked around her before she sheathed sank both of her swords into the ground. She kept them well within Yuuto's range, however, assuming he would be able to get them back to her. She spread her arms and stepped forward. She glanced back at Yuuto before looking at the man and glowering at the blood he'd drawn. "Don't you think you'd much more prefer a useful hostage? or are you just a coward hiding behind civilians?"
As Katama's pride or maybe her tactics start to get in the way a bit, Yuuto takes a step in front of her, placing an arm in her way. "Pick up your blades," he instructs. "We're going, so don't hurt them," he calls up to the newly revealed leader of the bandits before turning and patting Katama on the shoulder as if to instruct her to follow orders. Of course, she would likely get the idea that he has more than this planned by the way he's acting. The bandits let out a cheer of victory as they're released and the shinobi would begin to walk away…
Katama scowled openly as Yuuto stopped her with his arm. Her eyes showed she caught his tone and that he had something up his sleeve, but she kept the facade of a huffy student as she grabbed her two swords and followed Yuuto. She sent a dangerous glare at the bandits as they cheered. She wasn't sure what Yuuto had in mind but she was curious, it seemed out of character for him to even pretend to give up, though it struck her that the bandits were much more stupid to believe the shinobi would abandon a mission….
After a bit, the bandits seems to have gone back about their business, their hostages taken down into the tavern, the children set free and the women used as props for their drinking celebrations. The people of the village seem to be mumbling amongst themselves about their hope that they'd have received a better rescue.
Meanwhile, after they've passed over some dunes and are out of sight, Yuuto says, "Alright. We're going down. I'm pretty sure I know the correct distance to the cavern, so just be prepared to take out as many of the bandits as you can at a moment's notice." With that, he'd grab her hand and vanish down into the sand with her to begin rushing back toward the village where the partying is going on.
Katama grinned at him as she realized his plan. Sh enodded and lifted her hand for him to take. She had known he had something planned, but she was surprised it was so straight forward. No matter. She went along easily, though she did wonder what had happened to the guy she'd hamstringed…. She also made a mental note… "I want to cut his throat for what he did to that woman."
"Go for it," Yuuto says with a slight smirk beneath his mask. "You remember which one of the lackeys it was?" After a few moments, they've made it to their destination. Gazing around with his Sharingan, he spots his target and pops up, bursting straight through the floor of the tavern and sending bits of wood flying everywhere as he draws his sword and holds it to the throat of the giant bandit boss where he sits. "Now that I have your attention," Yuuto's eccentric voice rings out as he looks around at the bandits who're already back on edge and drawing their weapons to charge. "… Fear."
Katama leapt forward, drawing both blades andlooked around. She waited for Yuuto's Fear to settle in before she zeroed in on the man she was looking for. He had had a rat tattoo on his shoulder, she remembered. She made sure to make eyecontact before she moved in for the kill, slashing his throat with her blade. Then she descended into a maddened rush, moving like the demon she'd claimed to be, blades whipping through the air as she spun.
With a spray of blood, the intended target's throat is cleaved open, followed by the falling of bandit after bandit around Katama. Meanwhile, a bandit charges Yuuto, only to receive a kick to the face and be sent back into the wall. A pair of knives flying his way, however, gets their intended reaction as he has to swing his blade to deflect them, which is quickly followed up by the boss standing to ram the top of his head into Yuuto's jaw and send him stumbling back.
Katama cut two more low end bandits' throats before she turned, just in time to see the boss, somehow free of Yuuto's blade, headbutt Yuuto. She gasped as Yuuto stumbled backwards, and she had no idea if the strike actually had done damage or if the smaller man had just been moved by the sheer force of the attack. It did not matter to her. But it distracted her enough to keep her from avoiding a strike aimed at the seam of her armor at the shoulder. She inhaled sharply then growled, her attention on the badits in front of her. She was able to avoid the other two attacks before she kicked out at them. Rage filled her eyes and the bandits that had tried to stab her let out fearful shouts and scrambled away from the bloodied woman as she pulled the dagger from her shoulder and turned back to her original target. She let out a battle cry at the top of her lungs and charged the Boss, showing a higher level of swordsmanship than she'd displayed yet, her strikes aimed and her weight behind them. She flipped her left sword into a regular grip and slashed across at the throat level then followed that by a slash with the right blade still held in the reverse grip. She turned then, spinning to try and give herself more leverage, aiming to stab the man in the gut….
With a few swift sidesteps, Yuuto manages to dodge blades coming at him from bandits. Meanwhile, the bandit boss leaps right over Katama and drives a foot directly at Yuuto's face, who managed to duck under it, wind racing around his blade as he thrusts it up into the large man's back. Rather mercilessly, he spins around, slicing more of the man's guts as he removes it while swinging it to cut decapitate the man in front of all his thugs. Not caring for respect for the man being dead due to his actions, the Genin would reach and pick up the head as he turns to look at the rest of the remaining bandits. "… Run." Of course, that doesn't mean they're actually going to receive any mercy.
Katama BLINKED as the large man leapt /over/ her and her attacks. She winced as she saw only half of the action in front of her before Yuuto took his head. A bandit, unaware of his boss's predicament came at Katama with a blade. She tried to block it with her sword, only to have the blade score into her wrist. Two more knives came her way but she simply avoided them. She stood up carefully, eyes locked on Yuuto's mask, eyes still quite wild. When he held the head up and told the bandits to run she turned and grinned, ignoring the order and starting to wade into the ones in the back of the mob, cuting tendons and aiming for the backs of thier necks, at the spine so undefended there…
Yuuto smirks as the bandits start to flee, many being cut off by Katama's strikes. With their boss down, they may as well just be flies being swatted. Setting the head down on a table, Yuuto grabs the scroll from his back and opens it, forming a hand seal to release dozens of large creatures and snakes that begin to run through and out of the tavern to attempt to pin and bind any and every bandit that they can find. Meanwhile, Yuuto picks the head up again, walking out the door with it and literally tossing it up and kicking it through the air onto the fountain so that all the men can now see and begin to flee a very likely destruction.
Katama turned as Yuuto kicked the head up onto the fountain and walked to his side, allowing some more of the bandits to flee than would have made it if she'd continued to attack. She ws concerned about Yuuto though. "Are you alright?" She asked, eyeing the blood on his mask and clothes.
"I'm perfectly fine," Yuuto says, canting his head slightly at Katama's question. "I believe the roaches have been scattered. We'll stay for a while to be sure none return then we'll be on our way." Looking at the fountain, he chuckles a bit, saying, "I'll probably need to remove that so it doesn't scar the women and children here for life."
Katama nods, glancing at he head idly. She saw no reason to move it except that it might contaminate the fountain. But she hadn't been raised normally either. She sat down and winced, a hand going to rub at a pain in her shoulder and coming back with blood. Ah yes, she'd been stabbed a few times. Oh well. She pulled her bag from her back and started to go through the contents, she stuck both hands in the bag and fiddled with something before she brought her hand to her mouth and swallowed something. She appeared alright at first, just nicked a few times where her armor did not cover, but her face was slowly beginning to pale.
Yuuto ponders a bit as he watches the last of the bandits flee over the horizon. When Katama starts to get pale, he blinks and looks over at her. "… Let's go find you somewhere to rest for a minute. Do you feel like you've been poisoned? I'm sure someone in the village has at least some medicine we could use for antidotal purposes." With that, he'd place a hand on her back, somewhat testing her stance and somewhat being prepared to catch her if she happens to collapse.
The hand at her back made her slightly unsteady for a moment. Katama looked at Yuuto curiously. "Poisoned? I don't think so I meaan I don't know…" She took stock of her injuries again, seriously judging the actual wounds with the pain she was experiencing. They didn't match up. Her shoulder burned like fire, though the wound was shallow. "Rubbish." She obeyed, having moved as yuuto suggested and was now sitting in a chair in the bar where they'd cleared the bandits from. "Sorry…"
But that wasn't the end of their troubles. A woman rushed in, searching for the two who had helped clear the bandits. "They're coming back! Get rid of them!" Katama stood again, looking at Yuuto and obviously ready to fight again despite the possible poisoned wound.
"Grungy dump," Yuuto grumbles, sighing as he is suddenly distracted from trying to tend to Katama. When the woman stands up, he cuts a glance at her, holding a hand up. "Sit. Someone should be arriving with your medicine soon. Too much activity before being cured will make that poison rush through your system and kill you." With that, he turns to walk out the door, securing his scroll and drawing his blade again as he steps out. "If you're this anxious to die, come get me!" he calls out as he rolls the scroll out on the ground in front of him.
Katama blinked at the order to stand down. She knew she'd used much less energy and almost no chakra when compared with Yuuto… But he was right, they didnt know what poison had been used and fighting would only make it spread faster. She herself had already been moving too much and had exacerbated the spread of the toxin. She sat down with a look of irritation on her face and the woman that had rushed to tell them the bandits were back, stayed to help Katama.
Meanwhile, Yuuto would find his opponents were 3. One of which was obviously in charge of the small group. He stepped forward, a metal whip uncurling from his hip while his two companions apread out to either side, trying to flank Yuuto. The man with the whip glared. "That." He pointed to the head ont he fountain. "Was my brother, you shinobi garbage!" It was the cue to attack. Both flunkies launched themselves at Yuuto with swords drawn.
Yuuto seems rather unbothered by the crack of the whip, only chuckling a bit. "Oh, I'm so sorry. It's almost like you gave the same compassion you expect to every person whose family you slaughtered in your selfish campaigns. I'll ease your suffering, though… You can meet him again right now." When the flunkies charge, he doesn't even bother to try dodging. Just as the men slice him, he splatters into a puddle of ink as a pair of black lions and snakes leap from the scrolls to pin and bind them. Atop the fountain, Yuuto holds the head of the slain bandit boss up as if reciting Shakespeare. "To die or not to die, that is the question… It seems you've already made your choice coming back here."
The two flunkies were taken down quickly by the ink vice, which only made the other bandit glare. He raised his whip, pulling a second off his other hip. First he tried to bind his target iwth the first whip, then he struck out twice with the second, trying to cut and injure the man.
Though he attempts to dive down, one of Yuuto's legs is caught by the whip, allowing the other to create a pair of bleeding lashes across his back. Though he groans out in pain a bit, it doesn't seem to cull his attitude. "Thanks. I've been trying all day to reach that itch," his eccentric voice rings out as he begins to gather chakra, preparing to give this guy a trashing.
The bandit laughed as his strategy worked, binding his target before attacking with his second metal whip. He grinned as the whip marks the man's back with a satisfying thump. "I'm gonna beat you into a bloody pulp!" He withdrew his whips and tried to take advantage of Yuuto's temporary position, simply striking out at him again and again.
Slash! Another whip strike lands, yet the next is met with a puddle of ink. It might seem Yuuto is done playing games as he appears directly in front of this man with a blade pointed at his throat. "… Fear," he commands sternly but simply, intending to force this man to his knees to prepare for a vicious follow-up slash, figuring, despite his level, most bandits have hardly ever heard of Genjutsu, much less are prepared for it.
The bandit gaffawed as his first strike slashed Yuuto again. it took him a moment to properly comprehend that his next strike had hit a clone, though and he was utterly unprepared for a genjutsu. He stumbled to his knee, managing to remain somewhat upright, his eyes wide as he stared up at Yuuto. "WELL?!" He bellowed, trying to get enough control over his body to raise the whip again.
"Like I said, you get to meet him again now," Yuuto says, seeming to have no mercy or sympathy for this man as he swings his sword back, wind racing around it to push it harder as he goes to thrust it directly into the man's forehead. "Freakin' scum," he grumbles as he tries to kill this man in a single shot.
The bandit let out a sound somewhere between a grunt and a cry and the blade entered his forehead, stopping him cold. Then he went down in a heap, much to the cheers of the locals. Any further bandit activity would be met with the threat of Yuuto returning… Meanwhile Katama wasn't giving her 'nurses' any leniency. "I'll be fine. I should be out there!"
With the man down, Yuuto wipes the blood off his blade on the fresh corpse's clothing. "This place is going to need a lot bigger graveyard if any of these idiots try to come back," he says with a shake of his head as he sheaths his blade then grabs his scroll and sheaths it again as well. He peers toward the tavern then, wondering just how much trouble Katama is giving the people inside.
