Starring:
Hiei, Hiroyasu, Michiko, Rise, Fulgur (emitter)
Date: February 23, 2014
Summary:
The Kumo nin are tasked to go save the Lumberjack Guild from an attack on their camp by an agent of the Ox King.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Revenge of the Ox King - The Lumberjack Guild"
Lowlands - Land of Lightning
It's a lazy spring afternoon in Kumogakure. The birds are singing..the academy students have just gotten out of class, and it's after lunch, which means that a lot of people in the administration building are getting that lethargic feeling that comes with a little boredom on top of a good meal. That is until a guard carrying a beaten and bloody individual bursts into Hiroyasu's office. "Hiroyasu-san. This man collapsed on the steps of the building and he says that he has a message for you." The man breathes hard..after a second he looks at Hiroyasu. "My name is Kanko. I'm a member of the lumber guild. About an hour ago our camp site in the lowlands was attacked by someone claiming the glory of the Ox King." His hands shake as he continues. "They're destroying our property, and our treaty states that Kumogakure would protect us. Please, we need that protection right now!"
- Hiroyasu was in the middle of something important.. his lunch, when the guard breaks in with a bloody man.. "Alright. Yes.. Hmm.. Okay.. Right away" was the condensed version of the conversation from his side of it. "And next time, just call me out into the lobby.. has the hospital been informed. Go ahead and take him there now.." He looks at his bloody floor and sighs "Call in services too.. clean this up.." he tosses his ruined lunch into the trash and moves out in the hall. "Intelligence, who is available? uh-huh.. Alright contact them. I want a full squad, mixed rank is fine." another one-sided conversation to one of the department heads who sit in the office adjacent to the Raikage's office. "Send out missives.. usual protocol.. Front gate, ASAP. Pack for extended travel and possible overnight engagement.. Do it.." he says with a flick of his wrist moving back to grab his cloak. "I'll go and brief them. And will provide intel support.." he adds before going down to the front gate.. and ~being the first one to arrive~. -
Michiko was at the training grounds practicing some Kunai throwing as well as a few other Taijutsu tricks. She doesn't feel like she's getting the hang of it at all, though, and decided to break. It's while she's sitting that she notices the messenger hawk. She jumps, reading the message quickly while she dashes to get her supplies. Finally she arrives at the gates, looking all geared up with a simple, if not full-looking, pack slung across her back and her cloak already donned.
Hiei was sitting in his office at the Kumo academy when the hawk arrives. He takes the note from it's leg and reads it quickly. He grabs his sword harness from the hook on the wall and straps it on. Hiei wastes no time as his body blurs from sight. Once he makes it to the front gate, he slides to a stop before turning to a guard. "Bring Snake Eyes around, please." The guard salutes and goes to do just that as Hiei looks at Hiroyasu. "Yotsuki Hiei reporting in." Whatever he would need for an overnight trip would be placed on the horse's saddle.
It didn't exactly take much for Rise to get into gear on a regular day, but the moment she recieved a missive regarding an attack from the Ox King the girl took off in an instance from her home window, disturbing the messenger hawk in the process. As a result she would show up with only the clothes on her back and a few of her more mundane supplies secreted about her person. In short, she wasn't entirely fit for combat, let alone travel by normal standards. Seeing the horses and the like stationed at the front gate along with the team, Rise's final approach becomes tenative. "Shirokiri Rise, Also… reporting for duty." She speaks up once she gets in close enough.
- Hiroyasu nods to Michiko, Hiei, and Rise as they arrive, "Good, Making this short. The lumber guild is under attack. By someone claiming it for the glory of the Ox King. We are to leave immediately and stop the assault.. if they have already took up residence they must be removed.. I have standing orders to allow any willing Shinobi to be sent as backup as available.. I'll be going along as your Intelligence Operative. Field command is ceded to whoever Hiei decides should he not wish it." he says as they bring around his horse, Jinx. "We will leave and questions can be asked along the way.. it will be several hours to the locale deep in the woods of the lowlands." he adds getting up on his horse and settling into the saddle. -
Michiko gives a nod, quickly absorbing the new information. She tightens the forehead protector around her neck, like she seems to do when getting pumped up for a mission or battle. "Do we know how many enemies there might be?" she asks, obviously ready to get started with this mission.
Rise clasps behind her to hide the slight trembling to them as Hiroyasu debriefs everyone. When nothing more comes of it beyond that, a mental sigh of relief is then released. With that one concern addressed, Rise set her sights on examine the others before turning her attention to the horse that was supposed to be hers. Already she can see the creature begin to shy away from her. "Mind if I just go by foot?" She tacks on without breaking her attention away from the skittish horse.
Hiei smirks faintly as Snake Eyes' reigns are handed over to him. The black warhorse snorts faintly as Hiei mounts up. "Let's see how the probationary Genin does with the burden of command. Rise, you're in charge. We'll follow your orders." He nods at the female shinobi. "That's your choice. Let's not waste any time. We ride!" And with that, he spurs his horse in the direction of the lumber camp in the lowlands.
- Hiroyasu shrugs, "Its a preference thing. So are carts, and those are also available but rarely do people take them out either." looking to Hiei and letting his horse follow the Yotsuki's without much needing for prodding. "Well no, all I got was a half-dead bloody corpse on my desk who managed to get out what had happened.. he wasn't very clear on numbers. Of course by the time we get there any information would be stale anyways.." talking to Michiko in answer to her question. -
Michiko nods again and takes off after the two Chuunin and fellow genin. "Ahhh… That doesn't sound pleasant, Hiro-san. I hope there aren't too many injured…" She frowns a bit, but tries to erase any dark images that come to mind. "Do your best, Rise-san," she says when the girl is appointed command.
The edgy horse is led away as Hiroyasu spoke, eliciting a facepalm out of Rise. "Wait, what?!" By the time those words leave her mouth the Yotsuki is well outside the front gate. A gutteral growl makes its way to the surface before Rise took off after the the others. As soon as she catches up with the others Rise opens her mouth to reprimand Hiei, only to be caught off guard by Michiko. "Ain't like I can afford not to," She replies candidly. "Hiro, mind.. *frowns* take, point. And hiei, stick close to the rookie here." She yells over the thunder of hoofbeats before settling in for the long trip ahead.
Hiei glances over his shoulder at Rise and inclines his head. "As you command." His job was to stick close to Michiko. He could handle that. After several hours they finally make it to the lumber guild camp. There is a river flowing through it and two large buildings on either side of the river. One of the buildings is configured to process the wood and the other building seems to be some sort of lodging, or rather, what's left of it. There are small fires everywhere and the building is mostly busted. Off in the distance, through the trees, moaning and groaning can be heard. It's likely that whoever did this is still here, and probably still putting the hurt on the lumberjacks.
- Hiroyasu looks over and down as Rise speaks, "Sure thing, commander" he replies moves to take up the forward position leading the group by a half minute or so. "I know, girl.. You don't being in the front" he mumbles stroking the mane of his horse. But as he passes by Michiko, "Combat rarely is, someone always pays a price.. and its rarely us to pay it first..". As they approach he does what his job usually is and gathers situational information about the battlefield. Dropping back to inform them "3 civilian injured.. 1 Possible Threat - Possible Level C Chakra reserves" he says before waiting for orders from the field commander. -
Michiko isn't quite sure how she feels about having Hiei being assigned to help her out. She decides that it's best to be grateful, especially after hearing the information Hiro shares. She looks around the area, cautious of any attacks that may spring from nowhere and on the lookout for anything even more unusual than what she sees now. "An unfortunate truth, Hiro-san," she murmurs in reply when he gets back.
Even with Hiei complying to her impromptu orders, Rise kept to the tail end of the group for the sake of keeping an eye on all. Also, it did help that her senses were a tad keener than what she expected out of those whose life were spent mostly dealing with more civilized territories. Their arrival without a hitch bodes well for the group, but since having been thrust into position of commander for the mission, Rise cannot help but rub at her collarbone.
"Any way for ya to give me an exact bead on the threat?" She asks as she made her way forward to survey the area for any traps or enemies in waiting. The potential was slim at best, but if any of these ox followers could hide from a sensor nins perceptions somehow, things could quickly turn ugly. Until satisfied that there were no traps, Rise would not give the go ahead to move on. At least, not without some relunctance on her part if Hiro does have a lock on the threat.
"Hiei, I'm gonna re-assign the rookie to HIro for the time being. I want you to check out the buildings, aight?" She says, masking her uncertainty behind a smile. Afterwards she turned to Hiroyasu and assign both him and Michi to see about the injuried. If anyone asks what her part to play would be, Rise simply shook her head in answer and ask only that they moved on to their assigned tasks.
This place was now under the control of Yanagimoto Takenao although 'under control' is a loose description of what's taking place here. He's caused a lot of damage around here and used much of the equipment to cause problems. Blocking processes, starting fires…a lot of fires, and ultimately breaking things. It was one thing to attack the place, but it was another to damage it and hurt it. He wasn't done with his efforts. He'd put the beatdown on a number of lumberjacks already and was still working on some stragglers that were wandering around. Grabbing one, he lifted the man by his arms and slammed him into the ground.
Hiei shifts his gaze in the direction that he heard the screams come from, but Rise tells him to go check buildings, so that's what he does….albeit reluctantly. Well, if he had to check them might as well do it as quickly as possible. He performs a handseal. "Release: Rapid Movement." A faint blue glow surrounds his lower body briefly before Hiei literally disappears in a gust of wind. Moving at high speed, he searches both buildings and is gone perhaps a full two minutes before he blurs to a stop in the same place he left. "Nothing in there but a bunch of busted equipment, and some tools. Definite signs of a struggle." He pauses. "May I make a suggestion?" He points towards where the screams were. "I thought I heard people in that direction."
- Hiroyasu raises his eyebrow, "Of course commander.. The target is" and he explains their position as relative to their current position. "Currently unaware of our arrival.." well that was to remain to be seen before looking at Michiko with a raise of his eyebrows. "Alright, we are ancillary support it seems.. so lets seek out the injured.. I already know where they are.. so I need you to keep an eye out for me. Once providing medical-jutsu, I can't just stop or bad things..very bad things.." as he leads the genin to where he detected the first weak civilian. "It's alright Kumogakure support has arrived. Be still" he says checking the extent of the injuries. -
Michiko nods at hearing her orders, replying with a "Yes, Rise-san." She follows after Hiro to the first patient, drawing a Kunai from the pouch on her leg. The scene and hearing faint cries people in pain makes her tense slightly, her guard very much up. "Got it, Hiro-san."
She mentally curses twice over. Once for over thinking, and a second time for prioritizing the teams safety over the mission. How did she missed the screams? "Then we'll engage. Take point 'nd try to force him in the river if ya can." She says quickly, leaving Hiei to follow or make his own demands. After the first error made right off the back, she couldn't blame him. However, she would not indulge him for more than a brief moment before giving him the proverbial boot to follow her orders. In the meantime, Rise would check on the support team one last time before taking off down the river. Her job — much to her own personal chagrin — was to direct the scattered and fleeing loggers to the support team, and act as their more direct shield against their assaulter should Hiei be unable to keep his attention.
Hiei nods to Rise and then takes off towards the disturbance. He leans forwards, his hands draped behind him as he picks up speed. Having disabled his nintaijutsu technique until he actually needs it, he reaches the peak of his natural speed before flinging his arm out to the side. He does not slow down at all, attempting to impact the shinobi at full tilt.
- Hiroyasu picks up the injured person after they are determined to be safe to be moved.. and given afew bandages. "Lets move them out of the area, there is clearing on the other side of the river.. from the last time we were here.." using his fleet of foot and a little waterwalking carries the person to the safe clearing on the otherside away from the fires.. before going back for the other two.. well 1 apparently one of them. "Well one has died of his wounds.. we have 1 to evac" he says moving to the last one to prep them for extraction. -
Michiko stays behind to guard the two injured while Hiro moves the first. She doubts she could carry the injured safely across the river right now, so she sticks to watching Hiro's back for when he crosses the river a second time. "It looks like Hiei-san is all fired up," she notes, watching him charge towards the enemy.
Rise yanked, lured, and focused what loggers she could towards the support group, but in spying three of them downed about the area, Rise would try to rope the most sound minded of those still able to move to pass along a message to Hiroyasu if at all possible, as well as a quick run down of any medics. She dared not hope or ask for more than those with enough experience to help take command of their own loggers and do what they can about their own injuries. As for the message itself, Rise kept it to the point: The one known as Hiro was needed and… would have to leave Michiko in charge of keeping an eye on the loggers with the express instruction of signalling for help if more of Ox king's forces showed up. It was a lot to pressure to place on only one, but Rise simply couldn't see any other options. At worst another of the Ox-king's men would show up, and at best…
Rise shook her head and proceeded to double check the ground, searching and hoping for the possibility of moving them, only to find one of them dead already. "Sharibetsu.." She glances at the fight briefly to measure if she needed to intercede. Then it was back to doing what she could about the downed loggers.
Takenao takes the lariat right into the body and it sends him off his feet and into a flip before he connects with the ground. He appeared to be knocked out, but it turns out he was okay. Mildly disoriented as he didn't see that attack coming. He rubbed at his midsection near where he was stricken and then searched out the culprit of the attack. "Eh, guess I deserved that one…" he muttered to himself. "That hurt, you know. Not that it hurt much, but it was enough. Since you've so boldly stumbled in here, I'm going to show you why that was a bad idea." He immediately rushed forward after Hiei with the intent of scooping him from the ground and slamming him into it. He sort of liked that move.
- Hiroyasu moves the other person across the river, and decided a quick earthen bridge was needed, and with a quick and effortless bit of jutsu, a small bridge of earth and stone is across the river for those who are escaping the fire across the river. "I'm sorry, but I will not leave you here Michiko. You know how to act, so follow me and await orders.. An order is an order, but the battlefield doesn't particularly care about them, so you must know when to take a chance and face the consequences if your wrong.. understand?" he asks as he runs along to join the fight currently in progress. Preparing himself along the way.."Prepare yourself to defend yourself and those around you" he says. -
Hiei backpedals to dodge out of the way, but the attack slams into him anyways. He is driven into the ground back-first and he is hit so hard that the ground takes on the shape of his body. The Yotsuki chuckles as he stands up. "Really? Well, this is the part where I ask you to surrender and come with us peacefully. But that's probably not going to happen.." He performs a handseal as lightning focuses on his first two fingers. "Lightning Release: Lightning Arc!" He points it at the shinobi as a bolt of zig-zagging lightning flies out from his fingers.
Michiko nods and follows after Hiro, gathering her chakra in preparation for battle. "I understand," she says in verbal affirmation, keeping up with the Reizei.
Err… Katayama…
Staunch the bleeding, keep them conscious, keep an eye out for their adversary, and then rinse and repeat. For her part, Rise kept her emotions buried deep beneath the surface, but it is a battle she was quickly losing. The longer she lingered around potentially future corpses, the harder it became to push out the images of the man she pratically helped murder. A man she might've called friend.
Her hands are a bloody by the time she hears the other two arrive. She turns around ready to direct only Hiroyasu to those that needed attention. The look of relief on her face lasts for only a moment before being hidden behind a stoic mask. There was no time for reprimands. Nor did she have the stomach for it at the moment. Instead, she directed the rage bubbling beneath the surface on the instigator for the whole mess in the form of a flying knee to the skull as she passed by overhead from his blindspot, then kicked off her target to put some distance between them.
He should be faster than lightning, but this technique proved to be more than his chakra resources would allow him for the moment and he wasn't able to slip out of the way of the lightning attack that struck him. Takenao hissed and shouted as it rushed through him, leaving his muscles to spasm out as he recovered. This guy was no joke, he should really stop playing around. As he prepared to attack, a knee connected to his head. So…there's two now. Yep, two. Okay…
"I should've known that," he muttered to himself once more. He wasn't exactly bright, but he wasn't incredibly stupid either. There's two. Maybe there's more around here that he doesn't know about. "Gotta gather up my strength," he continues to mutter while looking about to see where the others could be.
Hiei began forming handseals again. "Rise, don't let him recover." He says calmly before he extends a hand and a cone shaped lightning field spreads from the palm of his hand. He immediately goes into another set of handseals. "Lightning Release: Lightning Strike!" He glances over at Rise. "I have a bad feeling. I recommend we hit this guy with everything we've got. We should call in Hiroyasu and Michiko."
- Hiroyasu is directed to those who need help and that number has raised since his last survey.. "Michiko watch my back.." in reality he was really watching both of their backs but they needed experience in situations like this, else what kind of shinobi were they training. As he applies a very very light touch in the way of medicine moving to get people either able to move themselves or prepare as many as he can for transport to the safe camp setup. "If you have choose been defending yourself and defending me.. choose yourself.. understood?" he mutters over his shoulder as he dresses a quick bandage around a shoulder and sending a lumberjack on his way to the camp across the river. -
Michiko looks a bit hesitant before nodding again. "I understand, Hiro-san." She keeps a trained eye on her surroundings, staying aware of the battle that Hiei and Rise are in (loud sounds of battle and some lightning strikes really draw one's attention!) and watching for any strays trying to attack her and Hiro.
She gives Hiei only a brief nod before flashing through a short series of hand seals at the same time as Hiei, delaying only long enough to make certian her own technique wouldn't interfere before casting the jutsu. As improbable as it may sound, the lingering feeling of Hiei's bolt would seem to double as seconds slipped by, weighing the bruiser down to the point he might just take a knee. "Michiko only if yer feel'n so inclined Hiei-san, but Hiro-san stays where he is for now." She says quickly before rushing forward to deliver the main course: A powerful spin kick to the neck.
Hiei opens his mouth to dispute Rise's command, but catches himself. Instead he nods. "Very well. Then I will finish this battle quickly." He forms another set of handseals. "Release: Lightning Aura!" There is an explosion of blue chakra around his body that seems to be infused with lightning. Reaching back over his shoudler, he draws his katana. He runs a finger over the blade and it glows neon blue. He then vanishes as he moves at high speed to attack the shinobi. He slashes towards his shoulder before spinning in place and sending an open palmed strike towards his gut.
Takenao still didn't know where the others were, but he knew they had names now. Four people, yep. 1, 2, 3, 4. Lightning branches? He twirled around and dipped out of the way of them double lightning bolts across the field, but even still, he found himself in direct connection with the lightning once more. He hated that lightning so much. It was so frustrating! It stung and made his muscles feel strange!
"Why do you keep doing that?!" He shouted at Hiei about his attacks. He would've said more to him, but he had Rise to deal with who…wait, why does he all of the sudden feel so heavy? He punched at the air and sure enough, his punch felt much less like a punch than before. He struggled to move, but found his way through the heaviness to whip his arm out at Rise to stop her advances.
- Hiroyasu can hear the conversation.. if but barely over the explosions of lightning "Michiko.. tell me what is going on.." he says giving her a task to execute while doing nothing more than standing there and looking menancing.. as menancing as she can look. "Alright your good to go, join the rest across the river in the safe zone.." he says to the last person that he can safely move without a body-bag or surgeron on hand. He turns around to watch the fight now, with a hand resting on his hip. -
"It looks like Hiei-san and Rise-san are fighting the enemy. They seem to be winning, but it's difficult to tell from here," Michiko reports. "A lot of their attacks are going through." She does try to hear what they're saying, but with all the lightning and booms and fighting noises, it's a bit difficult to piece together.
"He—" Is about all that Rise manages before being forced to rely on instinct. Takenao's punch is met with another punch in clash of power so great that the air pushed out from the clash sends dust and dirt flying away. Hoping to catch the man by suprise with the act, Rise leaped thoughtlessly for a kick, only to turn to re-direct her focus towards deflecting the second blow.
As soon as she land Rise's takes advantage of Hiei's engagement of the enemy to try and study the situation. Gritted her teeth behind closed lips for an instance, Rise motions for the support to engage as well before hunkering down and digging deep for that inner strenght. Upon opening the first gate Rise wrecks the ground in her wake, tripping Takenao before taking him by the neck to try and bear hug the life out of him!
Takenao did a pretty good job of evading the attacks against him with the exception of Rise who continued to be a pest as far as he was concerned. Both her and Hiei were pests, but their levels of importance alternated a number of times over the course of this battle. Finally feeling his frustration reach its apex, he focused all of his energies within his body to give him the boost he'd need to take care of these guys. He was growing tired, but that didn't mean he couldn't try to do as much damage as possible to them in the meantime.
Hiei looks over at Rise and then looks over at Hiroyasu. "Hiro!" He takes the first two fingers of his left hand and taps them against the center of his chest. It was a hand signal they used when they were teammates. They really didn't need words to communicate. Hiei then takes a two handed grip on his sword and then swings at Takenao hard, flipping the blade at the last minute to hit with the backside of it.
- Hiroyasu glances over to Hiei when he is called out, the signal is understood and he forms several seals before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. When he opens his eyes, they have been consumed by midnight colored ink which swirls into a pair of bright white seals which replace his pupils and irises and swirls as he glances about. "Michiko.. You need to be careful and protect yourself. This has gotten out of hand, and the amount of chakra being thrown around is more than you have in your entire being.. so be on your toes.." he hands her a few seals, "If you are in trouble hold these out.. I can activate them as long as you don't get too far away.." he says handing the seal before moving into a pincer formation throwing a seal at the man to coincide with Hiei's attack. -
Michiko takes the seals and nods a few times. "Alright…" She moves to the edge of the battlefield, trying to keep hidden. From there she watches quietly, tucking the seals into her pouch while keeping one in the open in case of an emergency.
Her instincts screamed at her to let go to the point she follows through. It… was a mistake. She clamps down, fighting back a growl long enough to center herself again. Eyes that drifted to a close as she focused, snaps to attention upon hearing Hiro's name called. Being the outsider that she is, Rise can only trust her gut when it comes to what she infered from the signal and would rush to the far side with the intent to added that last bit of pressure on Takenao. She leaps the last meter and spins, adding momentum to the elbow strike capable of shattering boulders.
It's almost as if he'd have wished to have been cut by the actual blade. Takenao took the strike from the blade despite his best efforts to dodge. He even copied one of the pest's moves! Yet, it wasn't enough. So much for that. The subsequent knockout seal had him dizzied and weakened from the amount of stamina and chakra he lost in that instance. It just about sucked him dry and his energy was nearly gone, but before he was taken out, he returned Rise's skil with one of his own, thrusting his arms out and unleashing a burst of his chakra to take her out with. He knew he was going down and didn't like it very much, but them's the brakes.
Hiei had hopped away from Takenao so that Hiro had a clear target. Once the chakra tag does it's job, Hiei is running back towards the downed shinobi. After he uses the last of his energy to counter Rise's attack, Hiei removes ninja wire from a pouch in his belt and moves to tie him up. "Kamen Rai Da will want to question him on the whereabouts of Ox King. I suggest we take him back, Rise-san." He looks over at Hiro. "You remembered. How are the lumberjacks? Do we need to call in some medi-nin to come tend to them?"
- Hiroyasu flips backwards after hurling his seal which was perfectly timed afterall.. internal highfive.. "suppress, Subdue, and Subvert. " he taps his chest in response. "And of course I do.. we were only team-members for many years.. why would I forget our non-verbal signals.." as he pulls from his seal pouch throwing out a strange seal which throws out beams of crimson which attempt to lock into a cage around the individual and drain any remaining fight left in them. -
'Maple!'
A single word screeched into her head as Rise immediatly dug in to the ground and try to alter her course with a powerful leap to the side. Regretably, the most she can manage to roll with the force of Takenako's counter attack. Her flight turns into a game of trying to twist and turn and just the right moments to minimize the damage further. A tree is all that stops her from hitting the river.
Dazed, Rise can do little more than struggle feeble to try and dig her way out of it.
Hiroyasu's crimson lockdown technique makes sure that the large shinobi wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Hiei returns to the village with Michiko and comes back with the medi-nin corps to treat the lumberjacks. Kamen Rai Da takes the troublesome shinobi into custody for questioning…and there's a good chance he'll be shipped out to the new prison in the lowlands within a few days. The lumberjacks that Hiro managed to stabilize all live and within weeks they are back at work. As far as the Kumo nin are concerned, this mission is completed. All that's left is for Rise to submit her report to the Raikage's office.
