Starring:
Hiei, Misaki, Sosuke, Hiroyasu
Date: May 25, 2013
Summary:
Team Ogo + 1, Team Ogo are tasked by the Hokage to investigate a village that the Damiyo has declared a TFM outpost, Inviting Sosuke as their fourth they get to bottom of the rumors.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Team Ogosokamaru Plus 1: Gathering Intel"
Land of Fire
The Hokage has tasked the Kumo team to go to a certain village within the land of fire where the Daimyo's forces will be marching upon because it is believed the TFM is holed up there. However, there is a good chance that this is not the case and the Daimyo's army could be razing a village full of innocent people instead. The job of the team, now including Sosuke from the Leaf, is to determine if there are indeed LFM soldiers in this village. This is a pure Intel mission under the leadership of Hiroyasu (since he was the one the Hokage was talking to at the time).
As the time to leave drew near, Hiei is standing at the front gate of Konoha, already geared up with a backpack on and his traveling cloak. Having just arrived, he doesn't if the others have beat him here already or not, having come straight from the Toshiba Forest. He looks up at the sky and pulls his cloak tighter to his body as the weather seems to be cooling off significantly. The leaves on the trees were changing color and beginning to fall. Hiei tightens his forehead protector around his head and for the hundredth time, checks his ninja tools to make sure they're all in working order.
Sosuke can see Hiei from further down the path by the gate. He has a backpack and his scythe adorned to him. The young Gansao glances around in an attempt to spot either Misaki or Hiroyasu. His thoughts about this mission at this point were rather indifferent. The time for departure was drawing near so Sosuke waves to get Hiei's attention. Intel gathering was all that need be done and though Sosuke had his concerns he was still confident that this team would be able to pull something this relatively simple off. "The others are on the way correct?" He asks Hiei once he's met up with the young man.
Hiroyasu wanders idly down the street towards the gate, his traveling cloak flapping in the light breeze. When he pulls up the gate, he sees Sosuke and Hiei waiting, "Good morning, Everyone have everything they need? It's not a far walk, maybe a days walk if we keep a decent pace." He looks around "Niisan not here yet?" he asks before fiddling with his cloak for a moment.
Misaki was walking towards the gate, wearing a travel cloak of her own over her usual genin dress. Which also includes a thick jacket during these colder days. Her kumo-tinted cloak slowly hovering behind her. She was wearing her multi-tool gauntlets, and seems to be pretty lightly packing otherwise. She waves and approached a minute after Hiro. "Hey guys." she muses, nodding at Sosuke. "Hiro could I talk to you really quickly?" She's already dragging him aside, true to her personality. "I want to do good this mission." She whispers, kinda cute. "No mistakes…" She nods. "So please, could you help me do that? Just, call my name when I'm about to do something stupid to snap me out of it.."
She points to her stomach, at the seal Hiro saw before. No one else did. "I don't always… Have full control." She winces a bit at admitting that. She hasn't told anyone this yet, so while it might seem like a trivial gesture, the step is kinda huge for her. Regardless, it's said and she's moving back to the group now, giving Hiei a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
Hiei turns when Sosuke joins him and greets him with a fist-bump. "If they're not here lurking already then they'll be along soon. Hiro and Misaki are punctual if nothing else." No sooner had he stated this, then they would appear. He states to Hiro. "A days walk, you say?" He looks around. "We're all here. Ready to go when you are Hiro." When Misaki plants a kiss on his cheek, he flashes a smile at her before stating. "Hey, there stranger. Been awhile." He is oblivious to the conversation between Hiro and Misaki, and perhaps that's for the best. He wouldn't have understood it anyways.
Sosuke returns the bump to Hiei and nods now waiting with him for the other two to show up. He didn't wait long. Before he knew it Hiro and then Misaki had shown up as if they'd already been there. "Good morning." Sosuke returns the greeting to Hiro. "All set and prepared to move out. I trust everyone else is as well?" Misaki was acting a bit strange from Sosuke perspective even but it was a good sort of strange. As she points to herself Sosuke is even more puzzled but he understands what she's trying to say. "Not the hothead they made you out to be after all." Sosuke mentions before looking to Hiroyasu "I'm confident in this team. I think we're ready."
Hiroyasu nods to Misaki "Alright, I will try." before rejoining the group "If everyone is ready, we can head out. I figure we will almost reach it by night if we take the normal roads. We can make it quicker but the shortcuts are less than traveled or.. safe areas" before looking amongst them. "So how do you guys want to play it, Fast and Loose or High and tight?"
"I'll let you decide." Misaki says on time to make it rhyme on Hiro's words. Grinning while keeping her arm around Hiei. It's been too long indeed. That and she figured she needed to send a clear message since she's been teasing him using Sosuke for a while now, poor Sosuke.. being used. So now it's time to rectify that. She wasn't - that - cruel. "You know how me and thunderbolt here think." Misaki says at Hiro while pointing at Hiei. "I think for the stealthy approach we kind of need that head of yours. So I'll make sure it stays on.." She chuckles. "Or at least partially."
Hiei casually places an arm around Misaki's shoulders. "I don't see why we'd purposely need to add time to the trip. For all we know the Daimyo's forces are very close and I'd like to avoid being there at the same time they are. So I think we should take a shortcut. While showing up at nightfall may mask our presence, it'll also be harder to determine if they are TFM or not." Hiei had stopped being so sensitive when Misaki teased him about both Sosuke and Atsuro. He was beginning to become confident in how he looked and carried himself…that and Atsuro agreed that it was pretty messed up and he had no interest in a young girl like Misaki.
"The short cut. The sooner we can arrive the better the chance we have. We'll just need to use caution." Sosuke says agreeing with Hiei. "In the event that we do run into trouble I should be able to hide us so that we can continue on to our target destination unhindered." Sosuke adds with a bit of confidence, very unlike him but perhaps he has good reason to be so confident. "So I guess it's fast and loose then?" He looks towards the forest now "Let's get going. I recommend Hiroyasu take point. I'll bring up the rear leaving Misaki and Hiei at either our leftmost or rightmost position."
Hiroyasu shrugs "I figured you all would choose that, so I prepared accordingly. We should be able to cut the time in half, barring major delay. It should be lunchtime when we arrive." he nods at the formation suggestion "That should work, Alright lets go." he says mobilizing the group and starting down the road. "Any questions, concerns, or plans?" he asks while he walks.
Misaki was surprised. Hiroyasu who would accept another doing tactics. Who are you and what did you do with onii-san. She takes her position in the formation though, just shutting up for now. Not even responding to Hiroyasu. She was trusting him, she had to after all.
As the group moves on their way, deciding to take an indirect route that would shave significant time on their trip, after a few miles they are ambushed by some villagers in the brush. Sosuke, Misaki, Hiei, and Hiroyasu would suddenly find themselves under fire by spears thrown by none other than the TFM. Four villagers would come out from cover, with new home-made spears. "Aha! You little data are dead!" One of them would say, he's wearing an eye patch and seems to be the leader of the small group.
As Hiei moves long in formation, he hears something whistling through the air and ducks on instinct as a wooden spear sticks into the tree that he was walking by. He immediately goes into a fighting stance, eyes searching for the source of the attack, and when the villagers reveal themselves he grunts. "Not you idiots again…"
The ambush was not expected and being in the rear of the formation Sosuke was the last to see the attack. Still he was a bit slow in reaction time regardless. He suffered a wound to his waist, on the left. While it wasn't fatal it was definitely not a shallow wound. Sosuke removes the spear and ignores the pain in an attempt to locate the enemy. When they reveal themselves Sosuke notes the apparent leader. "An ambush. Only four villagers." He says before glancing to his injury. Sosuke shakes his head "Careless." he says before forming a few handseals. He then looks to Hiroyasu "What do you wish to do about them?"
Hiroyasu leading the group is in a position to see and hear it but before he can say anything the attack was on. The whistle of the spears, he goes to replace himself and attempt a subterfuge but he can't manage at such a range is gored pretty well by the spear as it buries into his thigh. He quivers in pain for a moment before trying to regain composure "Exercise, your own judgment. But we shouldn't leave them to just attack anyone who comes this way." His trembling hand reaches into the seal pouch and he throws two seals at two of the TFM "Capture Barrier!" he says bringing his hands together, spear still sticking out of his leg.
Misaki was calmly walking along the group, she perks up when she suddenly hears a spear coming her way. She only sidesteps it at the last second, the spear jabbing into a nearby tree. "Phew." Misaki says. Popping out her nails, though instead of charging in straight she takes a kunai, throwing it at the leader of the group, knowing he'll likely block it. She used the moment he needed to focus on blocking the kunai to disappear into the treeline. Coming back out behind the leader of the group… cut off the head, and the body will fall. She charges out of the trees, normally she would go 'hiyaa' but now she's particularly ninja about things, her friends are hit and in danger after all! Both her claws popping out while she tries to cut the man's head off in one clean attack.
It appeared the TFM villagers were well trained, unlike the ones that tried to take Konoha. The two that Hiroyasu targeted managed to dodge out of the way of his capture seal, almost like they actually knew what it was he was trying to do. When Misaki makes her attacks, they both hit and then the body simply *poofs* into blocks of wood and falls to the side. There is dark chuckling that comes from the tree above them as Eye-Patch walks out onto a branch and golf-claps. "Not bad, children. He looks at Misaki, Hiei, and then Hiroyasu. "Looks like Kumo hasn't slacked off in their training since I left there. Unfortunately, since you've seen my face, I have to kill you now." He looks over at Sosuke. "And you, leaf ninja. We're going to kill you, too."
Hiei watches as Misaki's attacks hit. He was about to congratulate her when he sees that it was substitution jutsu at it's best. He even frowns when the guy steps out and makes his speech, and it turns out he's a former Kumo nin. Hiei draws his sword. It was duty to kill those who are traitors to the Land of Lightning. "Should have kept your mouth shut. Now you're dead." He leaps up to attack, his sword flashing in the sunlight as he does.
Meanwhile, the TFM villagers launch an all out attack against Misaki, Hiroyasu, and Sosuke with their wooden spears. They seem to be decently trained, but it's doubtful that they are better than the young ninja once they get serious.
Sosuke nods to Hiroyasu and retrieves his scythe. It seems as though these villagers were well trained. Under assault again the young man barely manages to evade the villager's speared assault. His wound made evading far more tasking than it should've been though. Taijutsu would only get him injured. Sosuke begins flashing through handseals. "The leader could be useful, I suggest we try and take him alive." Sosuke says. The others however were just nuisances. So seeing as Misaki was the closest to the leader he'd leave him to here after aiding. A genjutsu would be cast on the man to stun him and give Misaki an opening. That was all Sosuke could do for now to help her as he had a foe right in front of him that needed to be dealt with. He needed to end this quickly so taking his scythe in hand he unleashes a two quick slicing blows upon the villager.
Hiroyasu raises a seal against the attack, it spirals out a barrier of chakra which deflects the attack, he flicks the seal to the side as it bursts into ash. He hurls a seal which bursts into a blue hue at his nearest attacker, before following it up with another seal which flies silently "Capture Barrier" He brings his hands together into the prayer steeple and then substitutes a poor clone in his place while he attempts to hide and deal with his pressing medical matter.
Misaki was seriously annoyed by this guy already. Stupid clone replacement thing… She looks up. Though then her focus changes while she's being attacked by simple taijutsu. "That's not going to cut it." She murmurs, catching the man's palm with her hand in the form of a block before then squeezing, trying to crush his fingers and break his hand, before she lets go, rushing a second guy and aiming to scratch him up with her right hand, aiming her other arm at the other TFM supporter, firing two metal pins at him from her gauntlet. "I got this, you guys get reorganized." Misaki says, turning and focusing on the enemies, determined to keep them off Hiro while he preps medical attention.
Eye-Patch side-steps Hiei's sword strike and counter attacked by attempting to take Hiei's head off with a clothesline or lariat type maneuver. Luckily, Hiei manages to duck just in time for the attack to go over his head. Perhaps Eye-Patch's aim was a bit off because he had to deal with Sosuke's genjutsu attempt. He manages to beat it, but it still left him a little unfocused afterwards.
Meanwhile, the man with the scythe manages to completely cut down his opponent as the villager that Sosuke was fighting now lies at his feet in two separate pieces. Misaki finds herself in combat with two of the TFM villagers as they manage to parry and dodge her string of attacks, and then retaliate with attacks of their own with the wooden spears they seem to be pretty good with. Hiroyasu's sneak attack with the chakra hardened seal strikes home, directly into the back of the villager facing away from him when he put his attention on Misaki. As far as they're concerned, it came from the clone that he put up to deal with his injuries.
In the meantime, Hiei takes a two-handed grip on his sword and moves in to attack Eye-Patch again. "I'll keep him busy until you guys deal with the others. Are you serious about taking this guy in?"
Sosuke drops to a knee after he's defeated his opponent. It put a good amount of stress on his wound. He sets his scythe down and looks to see how everyone else was fairing. Hiroyasu and Misaki seem capable enough to finish off the remaining villagers. Sosuke then turns his attention to Hiei. "Yes. There may be more ambushes or worse ahead. This guy could be in the loop and thus houses information which is always the most valuable thing in combat." Sosuke states with a grunt as he comes to a stand. Any more of this would worsen his condition. "Hiro and Misaki can finish the remaining villagers. I'll help you take this man alive." Sosuke says before forming handseals. His last genjutsu was a failed attempt so he decided to pick a more discreet method of support of Hiei. Should his genjutsu be successful the Leader's perception of Hiei's attacks would be skewed to a high enough margin that his defense would suffer. Sosuke continued this until Hiei had subdued the man.
Hiroyasu takes the moment he has from his elaborate rouse, he pulls the spear head which was lodged in his thigh out and the blood start to tickle outwards in a quick manner. He winces holding out a hand which bursts into green chakra and he holds it over the wound letting it do it's thing as seal the wound properly so that he can bandage it. He hated to leave them but his wound needed immediately treating.
Misaki looked at Hiei nearly getting his head chopped off, which caused her dodge to be late and thus she is hit by a spear on her shoulder. She knew it would heal, dodging the second attack. "Okay, now you have done it!" She says, bending low through her legs before she uses all the speed she can muster, trying to pass straight by those two TFM scumbags and slides their stomachs open in an impromptu and involuntary Seppeku. If that's not enough, she repeats the move back again, hitting one of the two once again should they still show signs of alive-ness.
When Misaki got serious, she was much like a force of nature. Her high speed attack left the TFM villagers baffled and after her second pass, in conjunction with the villager that Hiroyasu had already hurt, they simply fall to the ground dead. It was all thanks to Sosuke's genjutsu that Hiei was able to connect with his chakra infused attack. Eye-Patch couldn't even tell from which direction that the attack came from, and he falls down to his knees as his senses become distorted. Hiei says quickly. "Misaki, tie him up and escort him back to the village. Knock him out if you have to." He hurries over to Sosuke and offers a hand to help him up to his feet. He still holds his sword in his left hand while looking around to see if Hiro was alright or not.
Sosuke sighs in relief as Hiei brings the leader to his knees. He gathers his scythe and waits for Hiei to arrive. The young man rests easy now until Hiei helps him up. "That should've got a lot more smoothly. But alas good work." he says. Hiroyasu was the medic so Sosuke figured they'd be regrouping with him before deciding their next action. "Something to report." Sosuke states.
Hiroyasu comes out from behind the tree, "Alright, I can deal with your wounds." He takes a moment to look Sosuke over before finding the worst of the wounds, "This might sting." Before holding his hand over the wound, the green chakra glow as the wound is being treated inside and out. "I'll bandage it up, afterwards so it won't reopen." He looks over his shoulder as Misaki is taking the prisoner away "I had heard that they had some shinobi equivalent fighters never imagined they would be this organized. I wonder if they were an advanced scout or just a band of trouble makers" while he continues to pump chakra into Sosuke to assist in the healing. "We should bury the bodies, it's the decent thing to do." finishing up with the heal, he wraps it in a bandage and ties it off with a clean knot. "It should be 100% in a day or so." he adds.
Hiei lets Sosuke know he can lean on him while Hiro works on his wound. He comments, "Normally, Hiro, I'd agree with you. But this little skirmish has cost us time. Once you finish healing our friend here, we need to double time it to that village. Maybe there we'll get some answers as to why that group was out here." He frowns. "He talked about Kumo like he knew it well. I even caught some techniques that are only taught there." He cuts his eyes towards Hiro. "I want to be there when they interrogate him."
Sosuke can stand on his own as Hiro works on his wound since it was being closed. "Hiei's right. We've wasted too much time with this. We have to hurry." Sosuke nods to Hiroyasu "It's fine. It's just difficult to move with it. They were well trained. We should be more careful. I wouldn't put it past them to have more ambushes ahead." Sosuke states. "We'll have to be a bit more serious."
Hiroyasu says "It's always a waste of time. But we should at least hide the bodies, as to not alert anyone. If they were an advanced scout then a follow up or relief squad will be coming. I wasn't being sentimental, I was being practical." before clapping his hands together for a moment "I should research a Seal or Earth jutsu to make this process instant" he says looking around for a decent place to stow a body or two. "Also study their faces and dress, they can be assumed for further subterfuge." he says tossing a body into a large bush.
Hiei replies. "Right, right. I didn't think of that." He lends Hiro a hand and drags two bodies deep into the bush. He studies one of their faces so that he can use the Henge technique if he needed to later. Once they are all hidden, he looks between the two of them. "If there's nothing else, we should probably get going." He looks to Hiro for confirmation, since he was still acting as team leader.
Once the shinobi arrive at the village, they notice that it's small, with a wall made out of wood. Scaling a nearby tree Hiroyasu would be able to tell that the village was full of women and children. And the only men around were too old to be doing any kind of fighting. It's good odds that the group they ran into earlier was using the TFM to cover their bandit activities, one of them being an actual wandering shinobi. It's not long before the Daimyo's forces arrive and being that they can find no 'traitors' to punish, the soldiers gorge themselves on what little food the village has, but they don't begin executing or killing people. It seems that the civil war would continue to rage on with the Leaf shinobi stuck in the middle.
