Starring:
Itami, Maikeru, Mika, Sora, Keiji, Konsatsu
Date: January 1, 2012
Summary:
Sunagakure's final operation against San Sara-Duruta.
Poster's note: Profanity filtered in obvious places.
"The Final Day"
San Sara-Duruta [Land of Wind]
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San Sara-Duruta, or 'Three Plate-Delta' is a town situated in the middle of the Desert of Knives. It appears at first glance to be rather run-down and not fancy at all. Upon further inspection, this appearance is confirmed to actually be the case. The buildings are generally low, made of sandstone or adobe, and undecorated. However, near the center of the town, and especially along the 'main streets', there are plenty of merchants, shops, and people trying their hardest to get the money of any passers-by. The means of doing so range from the sales of food and water, to weapons and armor, various forms of illegal merchandise, drugs, strip bars, live sex-shows, gambling, secret information, sales of slaves, and even places where one can test out illegal ninja weapons on LIVE TARGETS.
Almost anything illegal can be acquired in San Sara-Duruta, provided one knows the right people and has the money to spend. But being a place that caters to criminals and even downright evil individuals, NO ONE is safe here. Today's high-roller can be tommorow's slave or corpse.
High walls surround the town, and mercenaries of various kinds are often seen guarding the place — just incase Sunagakure decides to stop in for a visit.
To the west, the Desert of Knives's western reaches extend into the distance. To the south-west, the southern portion of the Desert of Knives lies in wait, serving as a 'border' between the bandit-ruled sands and the less-populated deserts patrolled by shinobi.
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Contents:
Sora
Mika
Itami
Maikeru
Konsatsu
This was the final day that San Sara-Durata would exist in this desert. No longer would its taint continue to spread and flourish, stealing away the lives of innocents to be corrupted and left with no hope of a better life. This night, under the darkness of a new moon, an army proceeds forward like shadows crawling across the sands, wishing death on all who dwell in the Desert of Knives.
The caravan was silent, groups separated so as not to create to much noise in one whole gathering. San Sara surely doesn't know the demise that awaits them and as always, the night reeks of their activities, the bars, harems, open murders and other questionable things that occur on their streets. Blissfully unaware is exactly what this group needs in order to make sure this operation goes smoothly and so far, the scales are tipped in their favor.
Inside a wagon, Itami was speaking with the leaders of her seal teams, gathering last thoughts on the mission as a whole. The conversation had its moments of depth, but the content did not change the objective of the mission. Tonight, they were to save lives and leave a message that places like San Sara and all who dwell within do not belong in these parts.
At the head of the caravan, adorned in his usual black business-like attire, Maikeru appears in a flicker silently in front of the village walls, about ten feet away from the gate. He stretches both hands forward with a kunai knife in each, sending elongated forms of both to grab the two mercenaries standing guard by the throat as the knives plunge into their throats to silence them permanently as he brings them to him to drop their bodies out of view.
That done, the Rogue Jounin turns and waves for the caravan to prepare and come forward. As he does, eight shinobi rise up from the sand, two on each corner of the wall, two on each side.
Inside the wagon Keiji simply sits and waits. He closes his eyes and goes over the mission in his head. There were different scenarios. Best case, worst case and most of the foreseeable problems inbetween. He glances towards the others in his wagon. He was not really anxious. Finally as the wagon begins to move again he opens his eyes.
Konsatsu was possibly inside one of the wagons as well? Perhaps sitting across from his brother. Currently he had his hood up to hide his features within, while he stared out at Keiji watching the other closely to see how he could emulate the other in any way. The ride seemed long, but with each stop and go motion, he could feel they were almost there. He reached from behind his back and withdrew his clan's weapons, holding them tight in each hand. He still wasn't sure what was going on with everything, but with a simple task of being told to kill all who try to escape, he was sure he could at least accomplish that.
On the other side of the city, two lone figures await the signal. Both women. One of them stands up. "Its almost time.", she says. The figure stretches out, and a tail comes out. Fangs pop out of her mouth. Ears get longer, as her nose shrinks. Mika looks back towards Sora, her companion for this mission. Both women have spent their time going over the plan, and the routes. Mika had enough time after seeing how Sora fight to adjust the routes on both their levels of skill and mobility.
"Alright, everything is in place. We both go after only the targets, and forget everything else. We only got 3 minutes to cross the city and make the rescues. We'll meet back at the Wagon on the other side of town. They'll be moving when we get there, so we'll need to jump onto them before the blast reaches us. Once they start, they can't stop.", she warns Sora.
Mika offers her hand. "Good luck, and have a good hunt in there. See you in the wagon. I got the Eastern side.", the woman says.
Sora stays beside Mika. Her huge falcon Megami is perched on her shoulder, leaning against her head. Despite the imminent fate of the slavers and murderers before them, she doesn't look happy. In fact, she seems unusually sobered. This wasn't a mission she went into with any job. She doesn't even try to be sociable, or talk with anyone. Instead she occassionally mutters something to her falcon as if Megami can understand, which in fact she can. "In and out," she says. "This'll be over soon." She sighs and tilts her head back to look at the stars. Then, she raises her arm and Megami would launch off, flapping and spiralling high until she's out of sight. Eventually she would nod to Mika. "I have the other side," Sora says, and then smiles. "Don't worry, we won't need luck."
Itami begins to exit the wagon she was situated in, nodding to the seal team leaders to give them the indication to start. Before long, they flickered away and each took up a spot around the wall as they set about preparing themselves to summon those which were tagged with the special seal of each team.
Taking a few moments for herself, she pulls out a flask and drinks the contents inside before placing it away, giving her a bit of a kick to get herself going. Exiting the wagon, she jumped up to its top before taking up a spot on the wall to observe the goings on of the mission. So far, so good…
Inside the village, the people are still carrying on with their ways, unaware of what awaits them. What mercenaries are around have failed to notice where their extra memebers went, too distracted with other things like 'special guests' who have come to pleasure them. They don't receive visitors of the sort from Sunagakure often, so they've become laxed in their duties. Others who aren't being pleasured have drowned themselves in sake or stronger drinks, laughing and being merry without a care in the world. It's time for things to get started.
As the caravan approaches, Maikeru looks up into the sky. The moment he sees Megami taking off into the sky, he raises his hand in a fist, which each of the shinobi who rose from the sand do as well to signal each other before beginning to move through hand seals at a blinding rate. A moment later, walls of earth rise up under Maikeru and the team of Ninjutsuists, rising at least thirty feet into the sky to completely block off any exit from the village by anyone but shinobi. As it rises, four more Ninjutsuists appear on top of the wall. As they move through seals, a fierce gust begins to blow through the village, pushing anyone near the walls back.
Looking down over the village now, Maikeru brings his hands up into a seal. An aura of blood red chakra surrounds him and begins to glow as all the seals on his arm disappear. His skin turns red as he takes on the form of a red demon with black tribal markings on its skin. As his power begins to rage through him, bits of sand begin to rise all around the area around him, a dark aura seeming to begin to veil the entire village.
The signal had been given and now it was time for the Shippodoku to do what they do best… kill people with stealth… No not exactly. Keiji focuses his chakra as he slips from the wagon. He was sure Konsatsu would be right behind him. Then he closes his eyes and his body begins to change. He even grows a spiffy scorpion tail. The boy glances towards his brother with his dark pupils. "No one crosses the line.. unless slave or friendly. Go as far as to kill their pets if you must." He then turns his eyes inwards on the city. This was by far the biggest mission he had been on despite the assignment.
Konsatsu indeed followed after his brother, only moments later doing the same by focusing his chakra and hopping out of the wagon. He watched Keiji transform, but waited to do so himself and instead nodded in response, "I will not let you down, brother." Then when his brother turned, he transformed as well, his own tail extending out of his backside. He then quickly sunk into the ground before he was noticed and made his ways to the inside of the walls.
Mika digs her feet into the sand and takes off. She takes a deep breath as the timer begins. Nearly a month of special training to prepare her for what basically amounts to these next three minutes. She focuses her ki, and uses it to push the very limites of her speed, certain that Sora would be pushing herself just as much. As Mika gets to the village, she hops up to the roof tops, where her Agility will be much more useful, and she starts to speed along to her first target. She's hoping that everything goes as planned, but expects it won't.
Sora signals up towards the sky and Megami would drop lower to fly above her. She takes the coat she was wearing and flips it inside out, to reveal a darker and more muted color. Then she'd speeding over the ground, her feet lightly and silent against the ground. Somehow she seems to be communicating with Megami because if there's a compromised alley she sharply switches paths, avoiding them all, moving forward the entire time towards her targets. Despite her practiced movements, she murmurs grimly again, "In and out."
The walls that surround the village bring to alert those that were supposed to be guarding it. They didn't know exactly what was going on, but they knew it wasn't something that benefitted them. So, they made a call to sound off the alarms about the village, ringing bells and other such things that served as a means of notification of something important. The mercenaries and guards around the area began to ready themselves to attack, drawing their weapons and in the rare cases of shinobi, preparing to unleash their elements against those that sat upon the walls. Some start with their best, attempting to pick off the ones responsible for creating the walls that surrounded them while others made an organized effort to destroy the earth and enable their escape. Static could be heard as lightning crackled around a couple shinobi until it was fired off at the wall blocking the entrance to the village.
Itami, seeing that it's time to get going, jumped into the air and focused her chakra, soon to take her reptilian form and blaze through the streets, literally. The seal teams on the outside continue their work of attempting to summon the innocent from within the town. Naturally, there are some who have heard the alarms and are now taking to the streets to try to get away, making themselves easy targets for Mika and Sora to pick up. Others who have the seals take note that they begin to glow different colors, each representative of the team tasked to whisk them away. In short time, a faint glow fills different parts of the village, contrasting against the dark aura as they're summoned out of the village and into the designated circles that await their arrival outside the village walls.
Maikeru's eyes never leave the village as his power continues to rage around him. He is not going to try to babysit any of them. Instead, he is counting on Megami to inform him when everyone is out. He begins moving through seals again, focusing as much chakra as he can. Around the village, thousands of blood red orbs begin to form, growing larger and more powerful by the moment as they are fueled with more and more chakra. Their numbers continue to grow, forming what appears to be the bottom part of a dome of red stars around the perimeter of the village. Hell's gates have begun to creak open.
Keiji was surprised to see his brother's transformation. For a moment he felt as thought he had slacked off. Quickly though, he dismissed the thought from his mind. It was time to focus on that at hand. As mercenaries began to come out and aim weapons towards the wall, Keiji made his move. He would dash between them, using his natural speed to slice at limbs and weapons. He was not trying to kill them, but to ensure the teams on the walls were protected.
Moving through the ground, Konsatsu made his way into the village and stalked about the perimeter of the wall. It wasn't long once the alarms were sounded, several of the mercenaries and others came trying to escape. Instantly he moved to the nearest, sprung from the ground beneath and began to slice and stab at the individual. Then he moved on to the next, his hood falling off his head as he did so revealing his black eyes with their murderous intent. He never stopped, striking and dodging from any that attacked. c.c
Once the Seals become active, it makes Mika and Sora's job a lot easier as the two would know what to do at that point. Mika picks up a pair of the seal carriers, and brings them up to a roof top. She pulls out a piece of paper that Maikeru has charged for her. She puts it on both people, and off they go as the seals react and send them to safety. Mika mutters a few times about the disadvantage of Ki…Oh well, Time's wasting, and she doesn't want to get blown up. Gripe later, rescue now!
Mika continues to run from spot to spot, saving those, and there's a few times where somebody takes a shot at her, or a jutsu is used. Mika dodges the attacks with her natural speed and grace as she moves quickly on without stopping to fight. She slaps the seals on anyone carrying a seal, sending them to safety as she works towards the other side.
Sora is moving about in full stealth, using the shadows and buildings to her advantage. She alarms the people she's rescuing just as much as she does the hostiles. But she's adept at explaining the situation rapidly and getting them to safety. Or just slapping seals on them anyway when they take too long to grasp the situation. She sends occasional glances skyward, where Megami is visible but completely silent. A shadow in a shadowy night. Sora isn't quite as lucky, as she'd encounter one or two enemies and have to dispatch them as quietly as possible. But the seals are sure making her job easier. "Dead useful," she says, as she continues on.
Itami engages enemies, not ones that come for her, but rather the other way around. She goes for them and with all intents, wishes to rip them apart. It's clear that her blood is flowing and anger has welled up inside her only to be unleashed in the form of tail smashes and claws rending flesh. None of these that supported this village were to be left alive.
Mercenaries from all backgrounds continue to gather at the gate to try and take out the wall so that they can escape the place, but with scorpions raging around and a pissed off lizard, they're having a bit of a hard time working on what they're attempting to do. That's exactly what the plan was, though its not without its complications from the other side. Whatever water is available has now been gathered by water manipulating shinobi, pulled straight from the pipes or kegs that rest inside of storehouses to use and sweep the streets clean of those that are attacking San Sara. With the combination of their efforts, a wave of water rises into the air and proceeds to wash through the streets quickly, sweeping up mercenaries and attackers alike, including innocents who may be caught up in their attempts to escape. The water doesn't take long to catch up with Mika and Sora and makes swift movements to head them off to impede their progress in saving lives. Konsatsu, Keiji, and Itami also have to worry about the wave who is coming straight for them, drawing with it the very enemies that they were fighting off.
Those that were trying to work on the walls tried to escape to higher ground and continue their work at a distance. Though, they are now subject to direct attacks from shinobi that were atop the walls, striking out with their various elements, fire, wind, earth, all of it flares up at separate parts of the village, easily making the area look like a warzone.
Itami, too caught up with trying to fight against evey merc she comes in contact with responds to the water with a bit of a reaction more so than skillful perception. She made a seal and raised a barrier of earth to guard against the initial impact, though it may not be as successful as she needs it to be.
As mercenaries try to target the Ninjutsuists, the winds easily push back their attacks like nothing but leaves. To aid Itami and the Shippodoku brothers, the wind Ninjutsuists begin pushing harder against the mercenaries with the wind jutsu, beginning to form an enormous tornado that pulls them toward the giant wall of water as it comes their way.
The 'demon' at the heart of the Ninjutsuists never even flinches, his malicious technique continuing to grow more and more powerful as he prepares to level the entire village. The orbs continue to grow in number, the power radiating from them beginning to shake the ground. At the center of the village, a single orb begins to form, this one appearing to be a spherical vortex of some sort. It grows larger with each moment that passes, preparing to take in the power that will end this place once and for all.
Keiji appeared behind one of the mercenary hitting the street. He placed both pincered fingers into his neck before he heard the sound. "Awe struck…" is all he can manage to say as the water crashed into him, sending him back into a small hut. As the boy crashed through the second wall of the hut, he managed to make it to his feet and started walking on the water. Now he was trying to out run the current from smashing into the wall. "Why did that paper turn to dust… " he asks himself referring to the chakra test.
Not even having time to reach another mercenary, Konsatsu saw the wave of water coming his way and not really sure what to do he tried to jump up and out of the way before it could hit him, but not being quick enough it smashed into him, hitting him against a wall with enough force to momentarily knock him out. It wasn't long, just enough to go unconscious and come out of it. He started to flail about in the water, before regaining his calm and swimming to the nearest building that was low enough for him to climb on top.
Something's wrong. Mika can't put her finger on it. Just that something is coming towards her. She looks around a few more seconds, trying to figure out what it got quiet where she is. Wait….Whats that noise coming towards her. The girl doesn't bother to look back, but quickly starts to scale a building nearby. Hopefully that may be enough to get her out of the water's way, which it is! Mika got out of the way just fast enough that only her tail gets wet. She pets her tail, and sniffles! It got wet!!! Ok, right now, thats not very important! Now, Mika sees the center orb. She pauses long enough to pull out a special seal, and slaps it on the ground. It shoots up signal that tells where she's at in the village, and alerts Sora that their part of the mission is done, and to get the hell out of dodge. Head to the wagons, and only stop for those whose seals are red for High prioritys on the way back to Wagons. Thank god there's not a lot of them. Hopefully when Mika gets to the wagons before Maikeru does this BOOM thing with her still in the city. Killing your catgirl does kinda put a damper on a relationship…
The falcon sees the water before she does, and Sora has plenty of time to rush and try to get two of the straggling victims. She tries to ignore the roar of nearing water as she helps them to safety. She has just enough time to jump and avoid the wave of water when it finally comes, on the side of a building. Once it settles down a little she drops onto the surface. Though she winces as her cloth shoes quickly soak up. "Really gotta get standard shinobi shoes," she notes. She starts to go around, searching for any stray innocents.
It's then that she notices the signal that they're done. But she has to help anyone before she leaves, she has to… "Oww!" Sora winces as Megami swoops down and starts pecking at her annoyingly. "Stupid… roast you… oww… buzzard… fine, we're going. Oww! I said we're going." She manages to help out on the way back however, though with Megami hovering threateningly above her, as she makes her eventual way towards the wagons.
The battle against the seige on San Sara-Durata continued, but for the most part, the effort to fight off the forces comprised of the rescuers has been failing. People drowned in the water while others were flailing around in the water, attempting to escape to buildings that were higher than the levels of the water at the moment. Shinobi and mercenaries who were particularly skilled used their knowledge of the buildings to their advantage to try and lead attacks against the enemy shinobi sitting atop the walls, some of which were successfully killed and dropped into the water below to be taken out with the rest of this village.
For the most part, the innocents have been saved, but there's always the chance that there were some that didn't quite make it, but if they didn't perhaps their deaths in the water would be more peaceful than the ensuing destruction in the form of a large orb hanging amidst the village. From outside, those that were saved watched from the outside, only able to see the village lighting up in all sorts of colors from jutsu flying about, listening to the sounds of weapons clashing among the rooftops while people fought. They knew what to expect, but naturally, they were frightened of what power was being displayed to get rid of this village once and for all.
Itami, swimming up to the surface of the water found a place to latch onto and position herself atop the water to make an escape. She scanned the area, gesturing to the ninja to make their way out and follow Megami's lead as the hawk took off and away from the area. A full on retreat was called, some leaving battles unfinished in their efforts to escape. Making quick work to get out, she ran across the water, flickering when necessary to close the distance between her and freedom.
A deep, doubled growl rings out as Maikeru continues to prepare his attack. The power contained in the walls surrounding the village grows by the second as he pours more and more chakra into the technique to be sure nothing within the walls survives. "Mika! Sora! Move, damn it!" the doubled voice roars out as he holds the Cataclysm back as long as he can to keep from killing his comrades.
Finally, beams of blood red chakra fire from each orb on the perimeter into the swirling orb in the center. Any building, person, animal, or object in the path of one of the thousands of beams is pierced straight through as the power of the orbs is carried into the center orb. As the power comes into vortex orb, it grows larger and larger, expanding until it has outgrown some of the buildings before finally releasing an explosion that flies out in every direction, peeling up earth and buildings as the path of destruction is made complete. The most important function of the earth ninjutsuists comes now as they reinforce the walls as much as they can to contain the explosion. The ground rocks with force as Maikeru's Cataclysm brings an end to San Sara in what is basically a mini-nuke.
The signal was given. Keiji saw it in the sky. "Looks like its time to go." He states. As he runs along the water, he trips an enemy shinobi with his scorpion's tail. He then runs places his fingers together in some hand seals before diving forward and grabbing two bandits climbing upwards along the wall by the legs. As the boy's body began to enter the wall, the bandits could hear his voice. "Close your eyes and the dream shall begin soon." Within a moment, both bandits would be pulled into the wall as Keiji was using the headhunter technique. It did not matter if they drowned in the rising water or they were charred to a crisp in the explosion.
The eldest of the two Shippodoku on the mission exits through the other side of the wall. He makes his way to the caravans and scans for Konsatsu.
It was clearly time to escape and with Konsatsu not being able to walk on the water, he instead began to jump from roof to roof making sure to get away as fast as he could. Once getting to the wall he jumped to the top, then down to the ground and making his way to the wagon next to his brother. He reverted from his transformation, put his clan's weapons behind his back and attached it onto his belt before turning to face the village. He couldn't see what was happening behind the wall, but the glow that made it high above and the ground shaking beneath him was enough to know what happened.
Clearly, its no time to play around. Mika runs as fast her her little paws can take her at this point. She hops from roof top to roof top until she gets to the wagons. She hops in, waiting for Sora to pull her in as they take off to get out of the explosion!
Megami seems to sense she's a signal and rises to become more visible to her allies. However, as Maikeru prepares the attack Sora waves at her. "Up! Up!" she says, forget about stealth and silence. Now's not the time to tiptoe along, it's time to get out of there quickly as possible. Sora's speed increases to break neck speed as if slowing down would blow her to bits; which it would. She reaches Mika in the wagons moments after she did. "Wacha doing, let's go go go," she urges. She risks a glance skyward to see that Megami is safe.
The water begins to boil, steam rising into the air along with everything else as it's swallowed by an orb the size of the village. Itami cleared the wall and made it to the wagons to watch the spectacle that was the destruction of this village. She never thought it'd happen, but in this moment, seeing it and all those that made it happen being wiped out in the destruction created a twisted joy inside of her, so much so that faint smirk touches her lips.
The innocents stand by and watch in awe of what is happening, the earth rumbling beneath their feet, the reinforcement of the earthen walls to contain the explosion and the sinister glow from the orb covering the immediate area as San Sara-Durata's final chapter draws to a close. Some lives were lost, innocent and enemy alike, but it was all for the greater good, right?
Standing and watching for a few moments as the technique he just set off brings about a complete genocide of the vile place that is… was San-Sara Duruta. He doesn't watch very long, though. As the wagon rides away, the Rogue Jounin flickers to appear inside it sitting by Mika. He glances to Itami, an eyebrow lifted faintly at the expression on her face. "Like I said, only a few minutes," he says with a chuckle as he settles back in his seat a bit to relax. And so San Sara has fallen…
