Starring:
Naru, Hotaru, Nori
Date: January 23, 2013
Summary:
While waiting for Ataru to seize the artifact from the temple, suddenly the village comes under attack by an unknown alliance.
"Unholy Alliances - The Siege of Sora Otera"
Land of Rivers: Sora Otera
For the duo of genin and Narusegawa herself, the trip to the Land of Rivers wasn't at all a bad one, especially once they reached the village of Sora Otera. Their mission as a group was to acquire an ancient artifact deep within the deeps of one of a prestigious and sacred temple, however Ataru, who was also in their group, was tasked with doing it legitimately, following the monks deep into the temple. With Ataru taking care of that portion of the mission all the other three could do was wait.
For now Naru had settled them at a campsite right outside of town, prepared for the most part by Ataru though they still needed some resources such as food and perhaps some food for the night if they didn't go into town themselves in order to buy it. For the most part the mission was so the genin could get use to traveling, as well as testing out their abilities and developing them for the future missions to come. She huffed quietly settled next to the camp fire, dusk was already begining to settle over the lands drenched with the dew of spring.
Nori was happy to travel. Hailing from Kadomai, the young Yamanaka has gotten to do a decent amount of travelling already. Travelling to and from the village of Konohagakure is one thing, but he's also made it out to Kusagakure and the Fort there a few times. This was the first time he had been to the Land of Rivers though, so his eyes wandered wildly. New sights were always fun!
When it came time to wait, he busied himself picking berries. He would have gone fishing but it was best to stay close to camp. With Spring on hand, fruit and berries were in abundance. Food-wise, Nori had learned what to eat and what not to eat from his farm-life. Once it grew dark, he sat next to Naru too and asked, "So, Narusegawa-sama, how exactly do you…see? I mean, I know you can pick some stuff up, but is it with your eyes or your other senses or what?"
Travelling was one thing but to the Land of Rivers? Hotaru didn't like the sound of it right at the start. She was willing to do as ordered, however and came along. Though she looked less enthusiastic about this trip than she would under most circumstances. Once they were in the area, she wasn't feeling as bad given the land wasn't truly covered in rivers. It was just to represent that there were a lot of them. She seemed perhaps a little less tense once t hey set up camp.
As they settle in, she sits across the fire from the pair, peering at them and then looking at Nori as he speaks up, "I bet she can see through her chakra." She nods, "Kinda the same way I see my friends and my friends see others." She nods, "Am I right?"
Despite Naru appearing to be a little bit out of it, she still remained alert keeping a close /eye/ on things especially in reference to the genin along with her. As Nori motioned over in her direction and spoke out she smiled and poked a finger into her cheek, Hotaru more or less beat her to answering the question but she did care to elaborate a bit further. " You are partial right, Aburame-san. I'm able to see chakra but I require you both in order to determine my position. I use a form of prediction which allows me to map out the area sub consciously. I'm still not able to see things such as trees and buildings however as long as people are around me I can judge accordingly… Luckily for me I have you two around, if I was here on my own I would be lost," She answers up with a slight grin, finally rising to a stand while brushing off her flak jacket. " I hope this journey hasn't taken too much of a toll on the both of you.. I feel that Ataru-san will be joining us shortly, as long as his part of the mission goes well…"
Nori knows about Hotaru's concerns about the rivers, so he would always have hismelf between the rivers and Hotaru when they were walking alongside or past them. Once she tells him that she sees through her chakra, he ahs…"Through your chakra?" He hadn't thought about how that could work before. Naru's further explanation causes him to hmm and scratch at his chin. "So, you, wait, what?" He chuckles and goes back to thinking about it again, "Based on how we move through the environment, you can sort of make a map of what we avoid? That's kind of like sonaring your way around then? Cool." He chuckles and then shakes his head, "I love travelling, so no toll at all." Truth be told, he had stamina, but not muscle strength. His legs were aching, but the lure of the new land helped push that ache to the back of his mind.
For Hotaru, she shrugs and smiles, "Traveling is fun." She nods, "I'm not worried." She was about average as far as genin go in strength and stamina. She wasn't a loser, to say the least. Able to keep up and relatively fast for a genin. She smiles as she puts her feet out in front of her, "Seeing like that seems to be a lot in the same way I percieve the world t hrough my kikaichu." She nods her head with a grin, "I think I like it." She nods, "Will you get your sight back?"
"No offense to you, Aburame-san but I absolutely dislike this affliction despite my good nature about it. It definitely is a learning experience for me but I do miss actually being able to "see" things… Looking at your insides all the time isn't entirely appealing," Naru commented. " I wouldn't call it sonar… Perhaps mapping out the area was a bit of a play on words. The sharingan is known for predicting movement, so rather I'm able to judge your reflexes in order to determine where I should go my self. If you edge your body in a different direction I know that I must do the same in order to help myself not get smacked in the face by a branch," Naru then nodded to Hotaru, " I may get my sight back eventually… My insight builds back each day but my eye's are highly sensitive to light," Naru explained while peering over the both of them.
"It sounds like you have a great connection with those critters crawling over you… I can see them too," Naru then paused adruptly, a calamorous explosion smoke stacked into the air deeper into the village exhorting Naru to blink her eye's in disbelief turning her ears in that direction. "Am I imagining things…?" Naru questioned, hoping for some guidance as she couldn't see the smoke stack lingering above… Something told her that something was going on though… did Ataru fall into a trap?
Nori has many strengths, physicality just isn't one of them. Hotaru's comments about perceiving the world through her Kikaichu make him blink. "I didn't realize that you could map out the world with you Kikaichu too. I just thought they relayed you the information. That's, that's actually kind of cool too." He thinks about that for a bit and then looks to hear Naru's answer. "I see," Nori finally says after listening. He'll have to think about it at a later time though, because the explosion detonates. Nori looks between Naru and Hotaru, "Eh, something just exploded and smoke is billowing into the air from the village. Should we check it out or stay here?"
"I didn't mean any offense." She kicks her feet up, looking at her toes a moment, "Just thought it was cool, is all." She then hops up as she hears the explosion, staring in that direction, "I think staying here would be kinda silly." She nods, "What if someone is hurt?" She then looks to Nori carefully, "And it is that they relay information to me…and that I can see with them in a way." She shrugs, "I know their movements. It's kinda instinctual." She grins, "They move, I know they move…it's fun." She grins and then looks to Naru, "Want me to lead th e way?" She seems…well, very eager.
If the explosion was true Naru had a feeling perhaps Ataru had found what he was looking for an accidentally set something off, or he was trying to take the artifact by force, which wasn't a good idea considerin the operation. A light frown filled the senior Uchiha's lips, a firm nod was gestured in Hotaru's direction. " We can will proceed but be very careful, we don't have any sort of back up out this far. Naru informed taking a slight step back. Nori-san you can handle the rear and I will stay in the middle, sound good?" It was more of a rhetorical question if anything but soon they found themselves following Hotaru's lead, right into the depths of Sora Otera which wasn't too far away from their camp.
The scene before them was absolutely terrible, men in black robes cloaked and wielding sharpened steel blades began to pillage and ransack the entire village, while it appeared to be many, there was only about 15 or 20 of them and not necessarily a army. They moved about, cornering civilians, planting explosive tags against buildings and more or less causing a ruckus. " What… in the world?" Naru cursed quietly under her breath as she pulled herself back, her fingers reached back pulling her katana from it's sheath, glistening it with lightning chakra as she began to focus her chakra, the potency becoming thicker than normal about her. " Ready yourselves… we will need to stick together if we are going to get through this…."
Nori shrugs, "Well, if Ataru-san is headed here, he might be in trouble and expecting us to be here to help him." Then again, if Ataru-san is in trouble, there really won't be much Nori can do about it. Nori has seen Ataru's strength.
Nori considers the idea of having to fight and frowns, "Um…Narusegawa-sama, are there any targets out there that stand out in particular? I can probably take that one over and use the target to dispense the others. I'm not much for fighting just yet…sorry." He sighs, but gets ready anyway. He takes a moment to focus some chakra.
Looking at the group, she stares around at them before saying, "I think we have trouble." She nods and several more kikaichu then normal are already crawling over her person. She focuses chakra as well, peering back at Naru, "Are you able to determine friend from foe?" She hmms and then looks forward even as kikaichu start to buzz about her, "Cause we got lots of foes."
Narusegawa didn't have any time to get around to giving out any orders. As soon as they were revealed one of the cloaked figured pointed a finger in their direction. "Those are the Konoha shinobi! Kill them first!" One of the men screamed and soon enough the Konoha shinobi found themselves shadowed by cloaked figures, a duo of them breaking their stance in coming in towards them. Their blades whipped against the air, each honning in on the shinobi's direction, one trained for each of them attempting to literally cleave them through. Finally Narusegawa took a single step back and rolled out of the way, "Focus on the one's closet to us, we will stick together in order to make sure we don't get split up!" Naru orderd, she didn't know much about their combat tactics just yet, but they would adapt… For now Naru countered back with a double swing of her own blade, attempting slice away at the mans tendon and bring him into a kneeling position and finally sweeping him off his feet with a single motion.
Nori might not be great at combat, but he knows the basics at least. As the blade whips towards them, Nori quickly turns into two Nori's. The blade manages to hit the fake Nori, causing it to burst into smoke. He grunts at having to partake in combat before he was ready to do it properly, but he does as he is told. The first thing he does is lock in on his attacker, perform the typical Mind-Body-Switch seal…but instead of dropping unconcious, he remains standing there. Whether or not the target suddenly stops, Nori would charge forward with a punch to the man's face.
Ducking to the side a little, Hotaru looks at the others a brief moment, "I will stay together as best I can." She nods, "Just yell if you need me to send a few of my friends your way." She nods and smiles as she watches the man wiff with his dagger before she raises her hands. Her friends swarm over him, and attempting to use that as a distraction she suddenly steps forward into a jump and grins as she spins a kick toward the guy's head, "Leaf Whirlwind!" She declares with a giggle her second foot rounding around toward the man right after.
They were making lead way with smacking down the warriors, Naru's blade managed to sink into one of the men's flesh, sending him flat on his back. Nori's attack managed to stun a single fighter, and the roll of his fist was taken head on, cracking into his teeth and sending the man also flat on his back incapticated, who said Nori wasn't good at physical things? Hotaru was the least lucky of the group, as the bugs aimed towards one of the other invaders he spun around from the mist of bugs only to be swept up into an attack, the whirl wind sent him sounding back away from her clattering back into a barrel. Still there were many others honning in on them, they would need to act quickly in order to bring them down. " Keep it up, we are doing great!" Naru called out, following the movements of chakra while brining her jutsu to bare, with a single hand seal she began to harness her chakra, focusing on the moist air and damp terrain around she summoned a barrage of needle after needles, sending them like thorns throughout the battle field to catch them all off guard, "Don't hold back, we need to finish them all off as soon as possible…" The gloves were off… Luckily for them though these guys didn't appear to be shinobi. They stil came in clumps, attempting to slash each of them yet again…
Nori didn't even have time to celebrate his first incapacitation in a fight. He was being stabbed at. The knife manages to meet the…drum-roll…body of the person he had just incapacitated instead of Nori. That's right, the Yamanaka used a replacement technique to replace himself with that of the fallen attacker. Now, instead of an incapacitated target, he was a stabbed target too. Nori meanwhile took a step back and again tried to stun his target's mind. The trick had worked once, so he would try it again. When death is on the line, you do what works. The boy still would continue the attack with a hard kick to the groin. He hadn't learned much from his siblings, but he learned enough.
A wince as she is cut and she shakes her head, "Jerk!" She raises up h er arms and a huge swarm of kikaichu come at the man who cut her from both sides even as she steps to the side spins a simple kick into the man's gut. She then looks back at the others, "We need to end this." She nods, "There are a lot of them." She then sends out a few kikaichu as they scatter, letting them perhaps look around the area for her, just in case.
Their combination was working, and some how the trio managed to swiftly mop up most of the invaders. With the flesh literally sapped by the swarm, the annoying mind blocking along with punches to the face, this situation quickly began to demoralize the enemies. Suddenly they were forced into a retreat, scrambling for their weapons and ducking into cover. "Retreat back to positions!" A man shouted, he too fliping over his heels to leave the village. Narusegawa panted lightly, offering the duo of genin a thumbs up. "It looks like we pushed them off for now… But we need to check up on Ataru-san… Let's head towards the entrance of the temple. I need the two of you to guard it while I catch up with him, can you two do this?" She asks curiously arching her eyebrow as she gestured for them to follow along with her. Why in the world was the village attacked?
The boy watches as the attackers retreat. When she requests that they head back to the temple and guard the entrance, he nods. "Sure thing Narusegawa-sama." With that he would tag along.
