Starring:
Date: May 23, 2013
Summary:
Naota and Nori take out the TFM catapult, then protect the wall from arrows and attackers, only to discover tunnels under the wall. One opens and unleashes TFM villagers behind the wall. Hiei and Naota deal with those TFM villagers while Nori and other defending shinobi close the other two tunnels and sweep the attacking villagers away.
"Struggle With No Reward - The Seige! TFM Attacks"
Just off Konohagakure's main gate
The village is under attack. The elderly and the children have fled to safety deep within the village, while all shinobi and even some villagers are doing their part to protect their homes. The smell of smoke is heavy in the air, almost choking. Ash falls like rain, and the sky is hazey. Buildings close to the wall, for which there are luckily a few to begin with, are smoldering, but otherwise not on fire at the moment. Occasionally, a boulder dipped in oil and on fire comes flying through the air, but the shinobi are using various skills to negate the damage.
For the moment, the attack is more like a seige. They are at a stand-still. The shinobi of Konohagakure do not want to take part in this battle, but yet they will defend themselves. The True Fire Movement, or TFM, wants the village burned to the ground, but they can't make any headway in their goal. Now strategies start.
Nori looks to see who else is at his particular post, or close-by. He says to the man in charge, "We should really try to do something about that catapult no?"
The city was under siege. It was an interesting prospect to be sure, the fact that people would try to take down the ninja. Why? There was a symbiotic relationship and it wasn't bad.. it wasn't evil.. what could they be thinking? Naota wasn't sure about all of it, but he did have enough with the attacks. Heading for the wall, he'd just happen to step up next to Nori who asked the man about the catapults. Musing, Naota would stare out across the small army that was attacking them, with the catapults throwing those rocks and a small nod was given. "We need to tend to it. I think we can do it. If you're with me.. A bird to drop a tag on it.. no.. three tags.. I can remove the catapult from here."
Nori looks over to Naota and smiles, "That's the fighting spirit. I mean, it might be considered an act of war, but…look where we are. How much of a payload are we talking about here? I can probably snag a small enough bird with my mind-body-switch if you can get the tags ready." The villagers below are still banging at the walls and trying to set them on fire, but it seems that the trees making up the walls are alive and rather well fed for the villagers are hard-pressed to get the walls to go up in flames. It doesn't help that the shinobi are doing their best to soak the walls in water and cake mud along them for protection…or that the villager's torches keep going out.
Nori herms, "I wonder if it would be less conspicuous if I just grabbed one of the villagers below instead of a bird? Then, we can have them place several tags around the catapult and ensure it won't be rebuilt any time soon…" Nori shrugs before asking, "What else can we do to stop the people below?"
"Them? Hmm.. this.." Naota would pull out some tags from one of his pockets, flinging them out in a wide field, a half dozen or so. As they'd flutter down to about head height, he'd form a hand seal and all of them erupted in electrical sparks, bands within the seals suddenly snaking out to latch on to people while that electricity would attempt to disable them. Naota carries his own version of tazers it seems. A small nod given as the civilians of the TFM got to deal with that, he'd turn to Nori, pulling out three seals and carefully layering them the way he needed them. "This. This is all I need carried. If a person does it, they'll be noticed and you may get them killed.. but a bird dropping these, like this arrangement, will have the catapult scattered in a wide area. Just try to get it as close to the middle of the catapult as you can.. I can do the rest from here."
Nori watches as the electricity moves down the tags and starts making people back away from the walls. Nori chuckles, "That certainly works." The people down below that got shocked are pulled away to safety, while the others grumble under their breath. The portion of the wall with those tags, for now, is left alone. The villagers move down the line to another area of the wall.
Nori herms, "I wish I had some sort of summons in this situation. I'm going to have to go find a bird deeper within the village hopefully." He scans the woods outside the walls, but with the TFM below, no wildlife can be seen. "Mmm-kay, I'll be right back. Or, well, if a bird lands on your shoulder, it is me." With that, he makes a run for it into the village proper. A little time passes, but after awhile, a tiny sparrow comes into view and lands on Naota's shoulder. It takes the explosive tags, heads out to the catapult, and drops them. Admist the chaos, who expects a bird to do any damage…so it all goes smoothly. When the bird is clear, Nori releases it…and sure enough, the young Yamanaka is back standing by Naota's side soon enough. "Do it if you haven't already," he says with a smirk.
Naota would give the seals to Nori-bird with a nod when it showed up. Watching the bird deliver the seals, he'd smile and wait. Once Nori showed up again, so Naota knew there was no issue, he'd focus himself. The seals in the order done was that way for a very specific reason. The first one was indeed an explosive seal, suddenly setting the whole catapult on fire as it'd explode under it. With that first one causing the initial chaos, the other two would go off, two earthen spikes that were lined up witin the order of seals to spike through the middle of the catapult and to launch the two flaming pieces scattering away, also to potentially catch other catapults that may be near it. Yes, with one strike, Naota aimed to destroy one and disable others, to reduce the damage from the siege as much as possible.
And the tactic works. It works so well, that not only does it reduce the catapult to a pile of tinder, but it also ignites the oil supply being used to coat the boulders. Fire is everywhere. You'd think such a maneuver would cause the people seiging Konohagakure to stop and think twice, instead, they start to hoot and holler. There is something in the fire that makes them focus, gain strength, and come back with more ferocity. They are here to burn Konohagakure to the ground after all.
Nori smiles as the joint effort attack worked, "Well done Naota-san." He bows and then looks up at the noises being made over the flames. The next thing he knows, arrows are being dipped into the oily flames and shot towards the wall (and them) with bows. Time to hide.
Naota gives a small nod towards Nori. He'd adjust his glasses as the people started hooting and hollaring. "Oh dear. It seems to have inspired them." Shaking his head, he'd pull three more seals, throwing one in front of where Nori and he was at, the other two out to both sides. As the flaming arrows went up, so too did the seal barriers, the domes combining into one barrier that was along a long portion of the wall. While sure, if it had been a catapult boulder, Naota wouldn't of been able to support that stretch of barrier, with it just being arrows, they would probably tink off of the barrier harmlessly. Naota shakes his head slowly. "They need to leave us alone." He'd pull another bundle of seals, tossing it over the wall. The first one was an earth barrier, the wall jutting out away from the village wall to lean against a few trees. From there, more seals went off, earthen spikes striking out into the ground in a wide circle area among the people, not really aiming for any one person it seems though. No.. instead, the final seals would go off, those lightning sparks flashing between the earthen spikes, to try shocking even more of the people to get them to scatter.
Nori isn't exactly suited for seige duty like Naota is. He's not only a support ninja, but his defenses are meant for being on the ground. As the arrows come flying through the air, he pauses momentarily, only to have the seal barrier walls flash in front of his face and stop the arrows from hitting him. He blinks and looks over to Naota, "Eh, thanks. That would have been bad."
The earthen walls and spikes down below gives Nori an idea, "Why don't we make a mote? I can push the earth (barrier) walls outwards a little at a time and the other water-types can fill it with water. It not only will keep water supplies up for the water-types, but also keep the walls wet, the villagers away from them, and they would have to climb the outer earthen wall to get to the moat in the first place. Granted, it doesn't help with the arrows, but…I'm just trying to think of what we can do here short of going out and engaging, which I don't want to do." He's really not suited for it.
Arrow after arrow comes flying at the barrier and wall, testing it. Others help put out any that stick into the wall, while others use wind manipulation to blow the arrows off course. When the TFM realizes that this new tactic has failed, they come to their senses and pause for a minute more.
Naota frowns at the army as they'd back off for a few minutes. "You're right. That's a good idea. Alright.. you push.. I don't have water yet.. but I do have wind." Naota would dip into those seals again, flipping more out to get attached to the back of the earth barrier he made before. A small nod was given as the seals were in place, it was another half dozen seals in that line that if any tried firing arrows, would find sudden updrafts of wind knocking the arrows every which way. "We need to put out the fire I think.. how far can you push the barrier?" Naota would look to Nori with a smile, he was obvious very serious about this, and yet, his strength of defenses was proving very useful.
Nori nods, "I bet the other water manipulators will help us fill it." The arrows do start up again, but this time they are fired in a more orderly manner. The winds from Naota's tags manage to scatter them as Nori herms, "I guess I can push it…like this," and Nori basically takes the earth right next to the wall and rolls it upwards and back. It really is more of a combination of an earth barrier and chakra shaping that barrier to work as intended. The effort makes about a ten foot wall, which leaves a ten foot hole behind that barrier. Nori nods, "If I'm just doing this, I can probably get from here to the main gate done in a fairly short order."
Nori moves to make the next wall and, just like opening up a sardine can's top, the wall peel's back the top of an underground tunnel. A whole bunch of villagers with shovels and pick-axes look up and blink in the light. Their torches flicker and Nori stares down at them. "Um, Naota-san…you should do something about that," and Nori points.
Naota nods, watching the wind seals help keep it back as the water manipulators start filling in the moat. As the next section was opened and revealed the.. villagers, he'd blink and adjust his glasses. "Ah, oh my yes. I think that will not do at all. You are correct there." Focusing, he'd pull out one seal, throwing it towards where the edge of the water for the first segment was splashing against. The earthen spike pulled the earth away, making the spike of course. Which meant that suddenly the water could flow into that tunnel and flow it did, washing about those whom were trying to attack from underground as well as back along the tunnel to clean it out completely. "A suddenly good choice made even more so by your efforts, Nori-san, good work." He'd nod to his partner in this defense, adding further wind seals to expand the wall of air keeping the archery at bay.
The water fills the tunnels and sends the villagers in it for a wild ride back to where they started from (which incidentally is past the catapults). Nori shakes his head, "That's just crazy. I'm suddenly wondering just how many of those tunnels they're making?" He had to ask right? No sooner are the words spoken, then one tunnel opens way to a swarm of people flowing out from it behind the wall. At least they had managed to stop one of the tunnels. Nori quickly scans with his chakra senses and and notes, "There's one more about to open up…over there. Either that, or we've got another bad infestation of badgers and moles." Nori makes another handseal and opens up the top of the third tunnel. The first was dealt with already, the second is emptying its contents behind the wall of villagers, and the third is revealed. Nori looks to Naota, "Which should we deal with first?"
Naota looks between them, frowning as two show they're trouble immediately. A small nod was given as he'd sort through the potentials. "I'll deal with the inside wall set. Get the moat expanded, the water over to the new tunnel." He'd point to where it should be easy to expand it, as the water manipulators continue their work. Meanwhile, Naota would pull out more seals, throwing them out at the tunnel that made it inside. That sparking set of lightning seals would once again attempt to tangle up those within the area, latching on and shocking from the metal bands that come out of the seals. Meanwhile, another seal lands by the edge of that tunnel's opening and would have the ground suddenly strike outward, sealing off the tunnel top with an earth barrier planted flat. While they might get through it soon enough, after fighting off the lightning. "Nori-san, please open that extra tunnel to add it to the water line." That should take care of that too.
The TFM is attacking the village. They were catapulting flaming rocks over the wall, but a little collaboration between the Rankoro and Yamanaka ended that in a fiery tempest. Unfortunately, the flames just fired up the TFM even more. They started sending flaming arrows over the wall and at the wall. Naota has managed, with the help of the other shinobi at the wall, to deflect the arrows and keep everyone safe. Nori devised a plan to create a moat by pushing away earth from the wall and filling it (with the other shinobi's help) with water. In the process, he uncovered a tunnel being dug underneath the wall by the TFM. That tunnel was cleared out using a wave of water by Naota's oversight.
Only one problem. As soon as Nori questioned if there were other tunnels, one opened up behind the wall spilling out villagers with torches and yari and pitchforks. Nori scanned and found one more tunnel being dug, which he is now trying to get the moat to in order to allow the water manipulators to fill it and push them back to their starting point. Nori is working away at that. Naota, and most likely Hiei if he comes to their aid, will be dealing with those people that got into the village. Naota's managed to seal off the tunnel, for now, but there are about twenty villagers in the open. Naota's shocks latch onto some, but others use their wooden shields to protect them from the shock.
Hiei responds to the call. Apparently the wall has been breached by the TFM and the Kumo ninja knew that some of his buddies were there, and there was no way he was gonna leave them to fend for themselves. He was having some Ramen when he heard about it and he's currently moving through the village at high speed, mostly moving along the rooftops to avoid collisions with the villagers themselves. When he's within range, he sends a mental message to Nori. ~I'm here, Nori-san.~
When he arrives on the scene, he spots the group of villagers as well as Naota. He leaps the last bit of the way there and lands in a crouch near to Naota himself. "Reinforcements are here, Naota-san. What do you say we kick these guys out of the village, eh?" He immediately moves into a fighting stance, but didn't draw his sword.
Ahh.. a ranging rook! Perfect! Naota would posatively beam towards Hiei with a nod. He'd focus, the earth barrier seal that had been covering the tunnel suddenly pulling back slightly, Naota would throw out two seals, the wind updrafts from them extremely unbalancing as he'd try to keep the people with the weapons contained. The sudden and very fierce wind bursts may put out more than a few torches too. "Absolutely, push them back into the tunnel. They're already weary of lightning due to my seals, so try to reserve that for last step if viable. We'll get another water user here and flush them out that way." Naota would nod then look over to Nori. "how's the flooding coming on the other tunnel? We need to make sure it's cleaned out."
Unfortunately, Nori's telepathy doesn't entirely work like that. He's not constantly picking up signals sent to him. He has to develop the link, and then it works. That, and Nori is far too involved in trying to get the new moat wall down to the other tunnel before it too can breach the village wall to notice that Hiei has arrived. He doesn't even have his chakra senses on full because he is pushing himself and his stamina to the max. For all the times Hiei saw him get tired, Hiei would probably note now that Nori was faking. The boy has a fair amount of stamina. As Naota calls to him, only then does Nori note Hiei, "Almost there, oh hey Hiei-san." And back to work he goes.
As for Naota re-opening the tunnel, the people who had been trapped within it suddenly blink and move to rush out one by one. The wind burst do indeed make a few of the torches flicker out, but it also gives others more oxygen and burn stronger. Wind in the Naruto verse is weak against fire it seems. So, with about 5 down, and 15 to go to begin with, now that the barrier has opened, there are now 5 more outside.
Hiei hmms. He was going to rain lightning on the these guys, but when Naota informs him that they're already prepared for something like that, he just nods. "Got it. Taijutsu it is." And then he's moving into the group, making himself a target by delivering swift kicks and punches to anyone that happens to get into his path. "Never thought these guys would actually attack the village…"
Naota would use the distraction and focus of Hiei attacking in taijutsu to help with fighting this group. As the wind didn't put out the fire quite as well as he had hoped, it was time for a different tact. Focusing himself, Naota would empty one of his pockets of seals. The handful of paper would then get thrown into the air, fluttering about towards the combat. Naota would throw down two more seals, the sudden burst of air causing those seals to fly into the group itself. That's when the chaos would start, sparks flying as once a seal was attached it'd go off, zapping the target and maybe one beside the target, the others would be earth spikes, forming a cage of earthen spikes around where they were at, walls forming inside those spikes to block off potential exits. This was all to start herding the villagers back into that tunnel. Indeed, the back side of the tunnel's opening was reinforced even more. Making for a perfect funnel. Naota would flag down one of the water users and point at the funnel. "Hiei-san, get out now!" He'd call out for his friend to hop away as the water user would do the proper seals to blast water into that earthen funnel to push everyone back into the tunnel and out of the village.
Hiei's attacks are swift and manage to cobble several of the guys to their knees. They are folding like a stack of cards. Those with shields and yari manage to form together, but not everyone is equally trained. Some points in the shield wall are weaker than others. The barrage of attacks from Naota though pushes them back. It was actually to Naota's advantage that Hiei had herded them together because then his tags could herd the whole group in the direction of his chosing. The earth spikes and electrical shock tags manage to push the group to the opening of the tunnel.
Nori meanwhile has the moat connected to the second tunnel and the water manipulators do their part to flush out the tunnel. There's one minor problem. The tunnel was almost complete, and so it bursts open and water begins spilling out into the area where Hiei and Naota and the rest of the TFM villagers are. The water is only about ankle deep, but it is enough to sweep people to their feet if they aren't watchful. Nori shouts down, "Sorry. Someone seal that end before we flood ourselves. Water users, help keep that spill contained." Instead of keeping the spill contained though, the water manipulators use the new source of water as a weapon and sweep it, along with anyone trapped inside, towards the first tunnel. Hopefully Hiei can get out of the way or water-walk. *Gulp*
Hiei kicks a guy in the head when he hears Naota tell him to get out of the way. However, before he can do that the water begins to rise and swirl around his feet. Being that he's only learned the basics of water walking, it doesn't come naturally to him yet, he still needs intense concentration to pull it off. However, where Hiroyasu is the tactican of his team, Hiei is adept at adapting himself in the heat of battle. When the villagers begin to fall from the water, Hiei jumps onto their back and uses the fallen villagers to run across until he gets close enough to the end to leap off into dry land. "Man, I wish Hiro was here.." He mutters as he backpedals, trying to stay out of the way of the water users.
Naota starts to redirect the water users to adding that water to the funnel.. when they do it on their own. A good firm nod given in appreciation, Naota pulls another seal out. His pockets are getting thin, but it looks like this issue has about resolved itself. "Turning off the water in the village.. now.." That seal thrown hard, as soon as it'd contact the ground, the barrier would snap across, sealing off the third tunnel where the water had been coming from. With that done, Naota's attention would turn to the funnel, waiting til they were good and pushed away before collapsing down the earthen funnel outside of the tunnel and sealing it off with a wave to the water users to let them know to hold off. "We need to open it up outside the wall. Watch for more coming in.. but I think we may be ok now." Here's hoping he wasn't putting his foot in his mouth. "Hiei-san, they should be nice and wet outside, care to electrify the moat so we dissuade further attempts on the wall?"
Well, that is certainly one way to water walk, though it probably wouldn't get you into the Chuunin Exams. Hiei does his part and manages to steer clear of getting swept into the tunnel himself. Naota on the other hand seals both tunnels without killing anyone or leaving any of the villagers within the village. That is teamwork right there. Nori's moat idea is now being directed across the wall. The more proficient earth users are making it deeper even, to make it even more difficult to dig underneath the wall. Nori calls out, "We need to get sensors stationed every few clicks…but for now that is all of the tunnels I can detect within my range. Good job everyone." Nori slumps down after saying that and states, "And now I need to rest. I've used up all of my chakra and am just about fully fatigued." If Hiei and Naota look, he's done quite a large section of the wall to create the moat. Nori looks pooped. The young Yamanaka looks to Hiei, "You got here just in time. And Naota-san, remind me to bring you along on missions. You're useful to have around." He chuckles.
