Starring:
Tsuneo, Tsuchi, Akiko, Yuuma, Ayumu, Sousa, Rikuto, Itami
Date: August 30, 2014
Summary:
The Silence rear their heads again, this time invading Sunagakure. A collection of Sand shinobi work together to drive the invaders away.
"The Silence - Stairway to Suna"
Near Sunagakure's Entrance
Akiko and Tsuchi are jogging around, by the way. They seem to be chatting about things to do with water for some reason, the conversation maybe strange to bystanders. "Oh, I see. So I probably should learn some water walking…" She considers for a bit. "Maybe you could teach me the skill sometime, Sasaki-san?" she asks hopefully. Running around trying to find a mentor is a bit difficult sometimes…
Village Center Area [Sunagakure]
(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@
The very center hub of Sunagakure, the Village Center is a bustling area. Crowds gather in huge groups, all across the very wide square. It is completely protected by the large buildings surrounding it on all sides, and the four desert winds do not seem to intrude into this area.
People can be found doing all manner of things, from hocking wares, to trading for certain fabrics and materials, selling their products, or any other activity from sleeping quietly, to getting into explosive arguments with people. Fights are not unknown here, so there is regularily guards overseeing the circle. The entire circle itself is built to face the largest structure in all of Sunagakure. It is a massive domed building, easily 5 stories high, that seems to be constructed out of seamless and flawless sand. No stones, no mud, just pure sand, caked hard and formed into a building. This is the Kazekage Administration Dome, the head of bureaucracy for the mighty city of Sunagakure.
Their are entrances in all directions into the square, except the south, which is where the Administration dome is located. People are always flowing into the circle from all directions, and leaving as well. Even during the night, it is a sure bet that a large crowd will be in the circle, talking about all manner of subjects.
(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@
From what would seem like a normal afternoon in Suna, at last there appears to be some fruition to the threats that were made against the hidden villages. Some extra time had been given off-handedly, though, if the villages thought that was a sign of mercy, they are quite wrong. Through what would seem like normal skies with birds flying overhead, something is flying… or rather it looks like it's just kind of been thrown… really far… something odd… something… human shaped? No, it IS a human! Wearing an Iwagakure Jounin Vest no less! But he doesn't look like he's getting ready to attack. Instead his body smacks into a building to the thunderous ovation of shattering bones before going for a long skid down the street through a sea of confused villagers.
Then the more ominous. An enormous walled staircase of stone rises hurriedly outside the village gates, towering over them in an instant to create a pathway directly into the village bypassing the gate defenses. Without a moment's hesitation, figures in black begin to pour into Sunagakure by the dozen, reminiscent of the taking over of the Chuunin Exams in Kumogakure. The Silence is here.
Standing on one side of the exit of the portal into the village, Yuuma looks down with a relaxed smirk as his men stride one after another into the village. "All that talk. Maybe for their sakes they can at least back it up a little," he says, lifting a bottle of sake to his lips to take a sip as he watches the city below plunge into chaos.
Standing on the other side of his brother, Tsuneo looks over the scene as the men clad in black rush forward into the village to engage and cause general chaos. He looks behind them at the guards from the gate attempting to gain access to their staircase and smiles. "It looks like they are trying to retaliate." he says as he disappears from his brother's side and appears at the top of the grand staircase of water. Through numerous handseals, he opens his mouth and begins to spit out water straight below where he once stood, rising into the air as a grand fountain of water begins to take form. Releasing the water, Tsuneo directs the torrid flow down the staircase to flush the guards and anyone unlucky enough to be around the gates at that time. Tsuneo laughs as he sees numerous Sunagakure ninja getting hit by the water flow, that look of surprise on their faces at so much water in the desert was the sweetest dessert.
Appearing beside his brother again, Tsuneo takes the sight of Sunagakure in. After all, this was never here back before their sleep. "You know, brother. Once we get what we came for, we should leave them a little message." he says, rubbing his hands in glee.
"Yes, indeed. I would love to do that." She chuckles and nods at Akiko, "It would be a good lesson and a strong thing for you to…well…" Tsuchi stops her run and holds up a hand to both Akiko and to Sora as she stops. The rushing Ferret comes skidding to a halt next to Tsuchi and looks up as the body of the Iwagakure nin hits the wall of a building. She then looks up as men begin to invade and she shakes her head, "Akiko, prepare yourself." She nods her head and then immediately taps her hand against Sora's shoulder, "I don't know for sure what this is…but no holding back." SHe nods to him before she rushes up the side of a building to start getting into range of these men, focusing her chakra and licking her lips, "Akiko!" She yells, "Get a message out! All hands to the gate!"
Akiko skids to a halt, head turning to watch the Iwagakure nin hit a wall. She blinks, startled by the sudden appearance, and even jumps slightly when the body thuds against the surface of stone. "Got it, Sasaki-san…" she mutters, whistling for Kotone go up further into the sky and hopefully see if she can see anything. Kotone does see the two figures of the Silence, letting Akiko know via their own language of gestures. Akiko winces a bit at Tsuchi's voice and nods at the orders, whistling again for Kotone to come down so the two can get to letting other shinobi know. She quickly scribbles a note to the administration and sends Kotone that way, then she starts running around to try and get innocent people away from the area.
The Spire Tower. One of the highest points in Sunagakure, as well as the place Ayumu chose to rest for a moment and take a gander at what disturbed his grandmother enough to order an end to his training session. For a brief instance, the Iga almost lost his grip alongside the length of the tower once his sensory array finally registered the disturbances. Despite knowing what was expected of him, Ayumu hesitates to make any move. And although the mind wins the debate, the heart fights him as he made his across the village. The struggle only ends with a compromise being made in the form of a shadow clone being dispatched to hunt down Ei & Miyu.
"You could have sent me in its place." Ayumu cracks a ghost of a smile, happy and disappointed that Shun chose to join him enroute. Beyond that, he doesn't offer a rebuttal; only focus builds up his chakra reserves for the fight promised ahead. It wouldn't be long before their roof top journey terminates on a building overlooking the street the invaders were flooding…
Tsuneo nods his head as he looks out on the battles starting in the streets before the gate, men in black clashing with Sunagakure ninja and civilians caught in the mix. "We should probably conduct our plan before the men undoubtably get overrun by the shinobi. We will have to go on another hiring spree after this, brother." he says with a laugh, clearly not caring much for the pawns they were sacrificing below that fought for the belief the brothers had instilled in them. "Shall we?"
One merc gets a cut in on Tsuchi as she zips about the battlefield in different blasts of wind. She simply leaps up above them though, zipping up hgih as she and Sora both go through a hand full of hand seals before breathing out down on to the enemy below. A massive burst of wind rushes downward in a huge arc toward the mercenaries, a powerful blast that will likely crack the Earth beneath it and smash apart anything in its path before she lands on the side of a building and looks for the main villains of this little farce.
Akiko didn't expect to run into anyone! She tries to avoid the blades slashing at her, but they end up cutting into her anyway. The girl winces, but grits her teeth so she doesn't cry out. Instead, she draws her bow and a few arrows, taking several shots at the man in front of her. Sure, it's a bit closer range than she'd like, but why not try? Kotone, in the meantime, is preoccupied with making her way to the admin dome. She even passes by Ayumu and friend on the way! With luck, reinforcements will arrive soon…
"Sight their leaders?" Ayumu asks. "I believe we have a more pressing issue at hand." Shun replies as she step forward to meet the first mercs to reach them, parrying their aside their weapon strikes. These weren't mind-controlled dummies however. Even as some fail, the rest are quick to try to advantage of an opening in her guard. A barrier of wind followed and Ayumu's pony tail(!?!) rebuffs their efforts as the afformentioned Iga sweeps forward. "Absola, Shun-senpai~" The nonsensical words might throw the mercs off for a second, but Shun seemed to understand them well enough to fire a series of condensed bullets of air seemingly blindly. Their target, however, was none other than the observes to the fight and presumed orchestrators.
Though some of the mercenaries manage to avoid Tsuchi's attacks, others are send crashing to the ground by the pressure of the meanwhile, the same going for Akiko in her arrow firing. Just as some are taken down, though, more take their places in coming after them. A seemingly never-ending onslaught. Meanwhile Ayumu and Shun are in for something of a surprise. In a rather nonchalant manner, Yuuma's hand not holding a bottle of sake would raise, the seal pattern lightning up to emit a barrier of light that sucks spheres of wind into it and absorbs them directly into the pattern. A moment later, he would bring the bottle down and spew a flurry of the same wind bullets right back at the pair of Iga in return!
Tsuneo eyes the air attack heading towards the brothers curiously. "It seems that some of them are getting a little brave." he says as he raises his gloved hand, removes the glove, and holds his hand up towards the technique, the upper diamond inscribed on his hand activating to literally suck in and absorb the attack. "Never liked Wind, much." he says as he opens his mouth just like his brother and returns the attack alongside his brother. "I think we should get moving towards the vault, brother." he says as more men rush in to take the place of the fallen. "We don't have much time."
Even as she zips about with Sora, avoiding the blades of the enemy, she shakes her head and licks her lips before she whips back and looks to Sora, "Rain on them while I raise them up to meet it!" He nods and zips high, going through gestures with one hand while forming something with his other.
"You got it!" He claims even as the little ferret seems to start to create various ninjutsu tools out of nothing in his paws…then it becomes clear they aren't made of nothing. The crackling sparks coming off them is like electricity.
Even as he does so, Tsuchi goes through her own gestures, jumping up a little and doing a spinning kick toward not just the trio that are attacking them but another small group rushing further in. As she kicks out, the wind rushes away from her blasting forward before slamming toward the ground suddenly as if a curve ball. The blast smashes the ground, nearly flattening and skating along it like a whip that seeks to take out the ankles of the bad villains.
Leaping from his perch, Sora flips through the air and sends a hail of ninja tools made of pure lightning toward these enemy shinobi, attempting to rip them to shreds as they are kicked up by the wind.
Akiko meeps faintly as she suddenly has more swords people coming in at her. It'll be fine, so long as she keeps her distance. Right? Maybe? Possibly?? She does her best, certainly, jumping back much like a gymnast to try and avoid the first strike. Sadly, it hits, and it's very painful… The girl winces, jumping back to avoid a second slash, but she finds herself basically running into a third attack. She winces again, this time a faint hiss of breath escaping her from pain. She draws a couple more arrows, one of them heavier than the others, and launches then at various opponents.
It never fails, you're in the middle of an important experiment and there's an attack on the village. e.e Well, no, that's an exaggeration of course, it's really the converse — whenever there's an attack on the village you're in the middle of an important experiment. Which of course goes to show how often you have important experiments. Or maybe even that the enemy orchestrates their attacks to occur during such times. Rude, right? :P
At any rate, Sousa does grudgingly abandon his research upon becoming aware of the assault. Does he head for the command center? No, there are plenty of competent commanders slated for emergency response already. Sousa goes rather to a high spot where he can assess the situation more fully. Hmm, an earthen rampart, a flooded passage, lots of random fighting going on…ah, and the unique techniques of the leaders of the assault. Matches the description of that used by the Silence group that appeared in the exams. Interesting, their threat was to expose the secrets of the great ninja villages, yet here they are engaging in a direct assault. e.ea They can't have enough troops for this to be effective, what are they really up to? Well, unfortunately there isn't sufficient time to do a detailed analysis. Sousa summons his trusty augmenting creatures, Beta and Gamma, and begins preparing an attack against the most important target.
Walking towards the center of the village, Rikuto was trying to stay close to the walls of each building he passes. Brown eyes were wide as he could hear the clash of blades and conflict but he couldn't be sure how far the battle stretched. Patting his palms together, his fingers soon adopted into a seal as he began to focus. "Just who would be attacking in the open, the zombie gang?"
"Ayumu."
The tone of her voice as she spoke the name conveyed everything he needed to know regarding what happened. What happens in the next instance… Ayumu has no idea. Adrenaline, perhaps? Or simply evolution. Regardless of the cause, his hopes turned into power as he turned about, flooding his nerves, brain, and sensory nodes with chakra to try and increase his reaction time by that little bit more.
As the world slowed down to nary a stand still, Ayumu began to forget about, well, everything! There were so many things, so many experiences, everything, the world was so bright, and…
'So much blood..'
The thought provides just the focus he needed to press forward, pressing Shun just far enough for gravity and her natural reflexes to carry her on the best path for survival. He presses on still, racing past skirmishes, tapping or pressing or pushing objects needed to give allies that little bit of an edge, or so his senses now told him until he reached the best destination for an assault on the duo again with hair shaped like the talons of a dragons. Talons that would seal them to them in place if dragging them from their perch wasn't an option.
"Fair enough," Yuuma says with a glance over at Tsuneo. Meanwile he'd raise his hand again, a gate of light coming up at the talons of hair and literally sucking the chakra out of them to make them benign. "Tsuneo, move," he says, taking a long drag of the bottle of sake to finish it off before tossing it down at the crowd to shatter either on the ground or against some poor fool's head as the gate of chakra opens up more, intending to forcefully rip a mass of chakra out of the attacking Iga's body as he leaps down from the pathway.
Meanwhile the mercenaries and shinobi seem to be in something of a stalemate. Enough survive that those replacing those that fall have plenty of time to do so. The battle continues to be heavily an uphill one, relying on sheer numbers of mediocre fighters to handle their job in this village until the plan is carried out.
Tsuneo is able to notice the hair coming towards him in time to lay down a tag on the ground, summoning an invisible wall of seals that flow from his hand touching the tag. filling the air between the hair and him with black symbols. As the hair hits, the brunt of the attack is absorbed, the hair missing its mark and not able to pierce the jutsu. "Right, brother." he says as he sees Yuuma 'deal' with the impudent one attacking them.
Tsuneo is able to notice the hair coming towards him in time to lay down a tag on the ground, summoning an invisible wall of seals that flow from his hand touching the tag. filling the air between the hair and him with black symbols. As the hair hits, the brunt of the attack is absorbed, the hair missing its mark and not able to pierce the jutsu. "Right, brother." he says as he sees Yuuma 'deal' with the impudent one attacking them.
Two more hits from the mercenaries and while Tsuchi's health isn't at all devestated by the cuts, she is hurting and draining her own reserves. She looks over at the mercenaries that have attacked her before glancing over toward the enemies who now seem to have new targets. Ayumu engaging them both directly. She then licks her lips as people die in the streets and focuses more of her power into her chakra before taking another breath and looking to Sora, "These guys seem to have no end, eh?" She then chuckles before preparing to engage in the next stage of battle as her reserves are refilled.
Akiko is finally joined by Kotone, the bird having given the messages to the higher ups and returning once that was over and done with. The falcon helps direct Akiko's movements with her keen eyes, though the girl still fails to completely avoid one of the attacks. Better than her last round, though! She manages to get some distance between the mercenaries/pirates/whatever and, still in the air, is able to launch an arrow at one enemy. Once she lands on a bit of higher ground, the Hayato tries to shoot two more enemies, aiming for someplace deadly like the heart or throat or eyes.
Ayumu's mind continued to race from one thought to the next. The attack failed, but more data regarding their foes was garned. Unfortunately, that data was cold comfort. Not to mention he had to survive whatever it was seemed to be pouring out from the gate out of the gate, for the taste of it was horrible! He dived down into the thick of the enemy merceries, hoping to use them as a shield if need be should the energy somehow be homing. From there, it was all a matter of change tactics. With the duo split and his attacks thus far proving ineffectual, Ayumu resigned himself to quietly following the 'drunkard' in hopes of divining their purpose at least.
Sousa stands atop one of the largest buildings in the vicinity, waving his hands gently in the air as though conducting an orchestra. An occasionally spark from his fingers shows he's doing something with lightning chakra. Of course, with any performance, there's bound to be a few hecklers in the audience, and occasionally one of them is bold enough to throw something. Sousa sees the wind blade coming and does some quick mental calculations. He only needs a second longer to finish this technique, he'll chance it —
*CRUNCH!!!*
That was the sound of the wall Sousa summoned behind blasted to smithereens the instant it appeared. Phew, precisely in time. -.-; With his work accomplished for the moment, Sousa glances up at the rumbling sky as it heralds its wrath.
*KRACKOOOOOOOM!!!*
Nope, Sousa wasn't targeting the leaders of the Silence. Pfft, what is this, some kids' manga where the bad guys' entire army combined is only a fraction as dangerous as their top dogs? :P Sousa's lightning bolt is aimed to obliterate that earthen staircase which the enemy is using as a point of entry. No more staircase, no more influx of enemy troops, or at least it should be significantly hindered. Plus it'll probably fry a good number of them that are still on it.
With a light nod, Rikuto dips his head faintly, and exhales , calming himself. Slipping from his hiding spot partially, his brown eyes wash over the scene within the center plaza. Looking up for a moment towards the sky, when he notices Kotone flying around, using her to find Akiko. "One.. two.. three.. four.." A grumble escapes him as he gives up counting to himself of the numbers around the girl, instead his finger rapidly twist into a chain of seals. Rikuto would exhale slowly at first before it becomes more narrowed, when his breath narrows a stream of flames escapes from his lips. Two of the mercenaries that were around Akiko would quickly find a cone of wind swept flames trying to wrap around them.
As the blade hits the wall Tsuneo 'tch's, seems this guy had some skill. He pauses only to go through numerous hand seals, attempting the throw the battlefield into disarray. He doesn't take notice of Ayumu's attempt to stalk Yuuma, but then again that wasn't his goal, and they were running out of time. Time for some stormy weather to throw a hitch in the battle. A gust of wind begins to pick up along the streets of Sunagakure, kicking up sand into the air. It begins to twist and twirl as it rises in the air, combining into a massive air assault that pelts the buildings, people, and targets Sousa with a massive tornado.
"Have some fun, brother. I will be back." says the younger brother, laughing joyously as he leaps up and blows a hole in the wall of the Administrative Dome, revealing the true purpose of the attack to Sousa. With that, he leaps inside, the sound of explosions and fighting able to be heard as he makes his way to the 'vault' of Suna secrets.
With Tsuchi slowed down for the moment, the mercenaries are able to attack a bit more in full force. Though Akiko is somewhat successful in her striking, the numbers are still great, thus the onslaught would continue. Sousa, however, has quite a bright idea in demolishing the way in for the rest of the troops. Oddly enough, however, Yuuma doesn't seem intent on responding to that attack… even to the point Ayumu is now frankly just ignored as the Silence leader plummets from the top of the wall, only to hold up his hand for the seal to glow and cause his entire body to vanish. This may seem like something of a relief for those in the battle if he's left the front…. except where he's headed if not stopped will make things quite a bit worse than even the remaining mercenaries that were headed in would be able to make it.
Staggering back from the damage from thsoe blades, Tsuchi licks her lips and shake sher head, "JUst too many." She then takes a breath before shaking her head and then nodding to Sora, "Lets finish this area off completely!" She nods her head and then she grins, "You take 5 and I take five?" And they are already starting to go through handseals together, producing more and more lightning tools before both jump apart, run up a nearby wall and unleash another flood of those damaging, draining tools. As she unleashes the death, she shakes her head and then looks over at the carnage before looking around, "WHere the hell did their leaders go?"
Akiko blinks a few times as Rikuto's burning winds surround some of the enemies nearby. She looks around, shooting him a brief grateful smile, and then has to focus on dodging those slashing attacks aimed at her. Ouch! One of them gets her, and she's a bit worse for wear at this point. Trying to keep some distance, she sends off a few more arrows at her opponents, completely ignoring the two head honcho guys on those earth pillars.
Out of everything worth grabbing his attention, it is the wetness beneath his nose that takes priority. The coppery taste confirms what his suspicion. 'Almost out of time.' Ayumu thought just before the winds began to pick up, a prelude to catastrophe. By adhereing himself to the ground and adjusting his course as needed, the Iga avoids being swept along like a leaf on the wind… unlike some misfortunate folk. There would be no intentional assistance on his part this time around to put the odds in their favor. His morality having been shut down for efficency.
The storm may have played havoc with his sensory array, but not nearly enough to keep Ayumu off Yuuma's trail. Along the way he gathers what chakra he can in anticipation for another confrontation. One he did not expect to win…
There, that's a bit better. Enemy attack line cut off, those within the village should be outnumbered and outclassed fairly soon as village-wide response closes in on the fighting. Now then, next priority…yes, now it's time to deal with the enemy leaders. One of which is playing more wind tricks. e.e; Sousa summons another wall to defend himself and his critters from the vortex.
Once it's subsided, Sousa looks out again. There's that troublemaker vaulting off for the administration dome…but where'd the other one go? As troubling as it is to have a strong fighter heading for the nerve center of the village, Sousa deems it more important to figure out the strike they're trying to hide. :P He quickly tosses out detection seal tags in all the likely directions from where Yuuma was until a moment ago, and is rewarded with a ping from one of them. Ah, he's headed for…the prison? Interesting choice. Sousa forms some handseals and creates a squad of lightning clones which leap after the invisible Yuuma and surround him by systematically cutting off escape routes.
Rikuto squints for a moment, seeing something out of the corner of his eyes but then shakes his head quickly, dismissing it. The teen didn't move away from the trio nor directing their attention against him but forms two seals. In almost an instant, a gale of wind wraps around the teen though the first blade manages to pierce the winds before much force would grow. "Back off!" After the third blow, the sphere seems to unravel, threatening to ensnare the three that had surrounded the young Miira. The danger hidden in the wind wasn't it's force this time, not a flame but the very heat it carried.
While the shinobi on the ground force appear to still be playing some tit for tat with the mercenaries, the numbers are now unable to grow back as quickly, making their efforts seem to have a lot more effect. Still, the numbers are great enough that the fight is still a while from over. Meanwhile Yuuma continues on toward the prison, smirking a bit in amusement at this simple effort as he extends his hand forward to open that gate of light from the seal again to literally just absorb all the clones. Looking back at the Kage, the leader of the Silence shows a rather devious smirk, and it'd soon become clear why as an enormous wave of blue fire leaves his hand to head directly at the Kage, intending on burning him and everything in its path.
Another cut and it is Sora's turn to wince, the ferret also shuddering as they both stand together, bleeding now. She winces and then looks at the others here, "Gotta clear these idiots out." Running up as high as she can along a wall, zipping away from her attackers, she looks for another large group and together, the pair attempts another large flurry over a smaller area this time, making hand gestures, they both begin to create throwing stars made of pure lightning and start throwing them out in large cones, "You will regret coming here!"
Akiko and Kotone both attack whoever it is closest to them. They weave a little to confuse the enemy and dodge all the attacks aimed at them, their moves coordinated almost perfectly. The girl sends a one-two punch, then, hoping mostly that all her attacks hit. Kotone works on a different attacker, using her sharp talons to claw at an assailant's eyes. "Stupid Silence… Why can't you just go down?" the girl grumbles. She's starting to tire out, her strikes getting weaker as the battle goes on.
The prison, though a long shot, seemed the only worthwhile objective in the direction Yuuma was going. But could he really gamble on the 'wild' prediction alone? 'Doesn't matter..'He thought as he sprung from the heights of a nearby building, the leap timed to coincide with Yuuma's counterattack upon the Kazekage. A more loyal shinobi might've leaped in the path of the attack instead… but not Ayumu; especially not in the state he was.
This had to end. Now. A doesn't chance releasing the pair of kunai that slipped into his hands from his sleeves until the last possible moment. Both were launched towards the back of Yuuma's neck. And should they fail there was always the close quarters option. Specifically, a well-timed succession of sweeping strike of fists from high to low.
One of the disadvantages of being high up is, you make an obvious target. e.e On the other hand, you don't have to worry too much about your allies getting hit by anything directed at you. Sousa sees the blue fire coming at him and narrows his eyes thoughtfully. Does this pattern mean what he think it means?
There is a sudden crackle of lightning where Sousa was as the unnatural flame sweeps by. A couple of other brief snaps are heard in a zig-zag pattern, then Sousa reappears near Yuuma, blocking his path toward the prison. Sousa forms handseals while watching Ayumu's attempt on the enemy. "Keep that up, Ayumu-san. Taijutsu only." Sousa places his palm to the ground, and a twitchy-eyed rhesus monkey appears. "Alpha, playtime," Sousa remarks, to the screeching delight of the monkey. >8D
A gale surrounds Rikuto once again but it wasn't as strong as before. From two different angles mercenaries manage to lunge and thrust their blades deeply into the teen, the remaining one was buffer backwards off balance, but only barely. With quick steps, the teen quickly tries to make distance between them, his hands seeming to slow down after the assault. "Just stand still and burn.." When his hands pause, flames spew from the teen's lips, igniting two funnels of flames threatening to wrap around the pair that managed to draw blood.
She had been trying to prepare for this, but no one can truly ever prepare for all possible outcomes. Itami didn't expect for these people to slip in under her notice. Yet, with knowledge of their actions spreading from the center, she makes her way towards the fighting in order to contribute in some form. Her frustration was mounted against The Silence and she showed it by flying in and landing atop a building. She didn't maintain her draconic form for long as she favored being lighter at this point. She decided to join Sousa in his efforts to take care of these fiends, notably, the one he's after. "I'm a little late!" She called. "But I'm here to play my part. I'd been waiting…" She remarked as she flickered from view and withdrew her blade to strike.
While the Sunagakure shinobi fighting the larger majority of the Silence continue to slowly work on the numbers that are fighting quite decently against them for a group of mercenaries, there does appear to be some glimmer of hope thanks to the closing of the path. Meanwhile the idea of only using Taijutsu against Yuuma doesn't seem to be working out too well, even with the addition of Itami, as a wall of chakra appears with the pointing of his hand and he is only drawing closer to the prison. In fact, their proximity is a bit of a help to him as he points his hand back, opening that gate of light again to forcefully yank chakra from the Iga as well as Itami.
Easily dodging the first two attacks against her, Tsuchi barely dodges the last one and gasps in and out, heavily breathing and nearing to the point of exhaustion. The woman has a practical well of stamina and chakra but she's reaching the breaking point. Sora rushes to her side and they both look at the numerous mercs before she nods to Sora, "Sorry, buddy. This is starting to reach an end." She nods her head and then licks her lips before looking toward them and she gives him a paw/fist bump before they race forward, focusing on more single targets, trying to rip apart who they can as they pass. Sora headbutting one even as Tsuchi kicks another, spin flipping over Sora to send her leg crashing into another, "Gotta bring them all down!"
Akiko just avoids all the attacks aimed at her, weaving again in and out of the slashes. It's, perhaps, thanks to Kotone's help that the girl is able to avoid all these attacks. Again the two combine to attack one of their enemies, Akiko using an arrow and punch while Kotone just claws at the person's eyes. Akiko looks almost ready to pass out, though.
It is only for a moment, but a moment was all it took for Ayumu to act upon impulse. His body, however, proves too slow and strained to react, and afterwards… it is too late. The most Ayumu manages is to place himself at the fringes of Yuuma's attack before being ultimately overcome by it. The feeling… words failed him, and so to did his ability to maintain the Enkindler's state.
He doesn't even realize Shun is at his side, or the fact she launched a pair of shuriken at Yuuma in retribution on Ayumu's behalf. He only knows that — feels as if every square inch of his insides were burned out…
Sousa nods thoughtfully to himself. So, he can still use his absorption ability offensively, not too surprising…but at least that puts an extra step between each attack that uses that energy. Sousa holds up a kunai, and Alpha leaps sideways, rebounding off a nearby wall. Sousa throws the kunai…past Yuuma's head, and Alpha catches it and flings it at Yuuma's back. Sousa then darts in and reaches out to grapple Yuuma's arm into a lock, while Alpha leaps at Yuuma for a kick to the face. Sometimes the basics, well-performed, can be more useful than the more powerful techniques shinobi work so long to achieve.
A glare sets in the youth's eyes as one of the pair manages to slip away save for a few singes though the other was bathed in flames. Rikuto began to breath more in evenly and heavy before trying to recover his composure when the assaults never seem to relent. Bringing his hands together again, the teen forms a single seal, in respond a trio of clones surround him and attempt to body block the assaults of the new attackers. While the clones distracted their targets, only the third clone held its target's attention. Rikuto, with a some what desperate attempt to evade the group following him, tries to use the smoke cloud of his own slain clones to hide his trail as he retreats towards a building away from the village's center.
It's not that she missed…no, it's more so she was countered in some form. All Itami knew is that she had all the energy sucked out of her before she could do anything significant in the form of harm. She fell to the ground, sufficiently drained, but not exactly down for the count. That was a great deal of chakra taken out, but nothing she couldn't quite recuperate. She decided to do just that. She gathered herself and dedicated some chakra to her cause so that she could do better. "Anyone that's too drained to continue on should not continue fighting. After what I just felt, I wouldn't advise anyone to continue fighting and risk further damage to themselves for this," she replied as she took back her initia form to face off against Yuuma.
Though the shinobi are starting to wear down, some of the mercenaries are as well. Still, there are enough to continue the assault from what remains. One even spots Rikuto while the other two don't, leaping to dropkick the boy before he can get away. Meanwhile Yuuma continues to hold up quite well against the mob attacking him, throwing up a flurry of barriers with a movement of his hand to block the attacks as he continues to dash toward the prison. "You kids aren't bad," he says with a chuckle, which seems a bit odd coming from one who looks to be maybe in his early twenties. He just referred to them all, including the Kazekage and Itami, as kids. Not too much time to think about that, however, as he points his hand back at them, firing off another powerful blue explosion at the four attacking him from the energy he took from Itami and Ayumu.
Slipping through the attacks of progressively weaker and more worn down mercenaries, Tsuchi and Sora continue their assault. Even as Tsuchi goes spinning in against two of them with a pair of wind powered kicks, Sora creates a few handseals and fires off a trio of stars at the group even as Tsuchi lands and takes a deep breath, "Looks like they are wearing down!" She calls out to her fellow Shinobi, "Bring them down and lets be done with this!"
Akiko is able to dodge the final attacks, but only barely. She definitely used the last of her strength with those amazing dodges. Kotone stays back to cover Akiko while the girl escapes, the bird easily winging her way to follow after her friend. She looks frustrated that she can't continue to fight, but her body can't take any more or else she might die…
Shun bites her tongue before the curse could escape her lips, and harder still as the man tried made fun of them. Not that there was much time for banter, for Yuuma made certain of that by unleashing a giant destructive wave of blue fire. The grime covered girl quickly threw Ayumu over her shoulder and dashed away, searching for cover from the attack. She barely dips around one of the sturdier buildings in time to avoid the worse.
Tired as she was from the jaunt on top of everything else, Shun pushed out every thought that didn't involve helping Ayumu stabilize first..
Sousa anticipates the flamey attack coming and is already going through seals to summon another wall. It appears in plenty of time to protect Sousa and Alpha. "Memo to self, stock up on scrap walls again," Sousa murmurs. e.e Alpha hoots and vaults over the wall as soon as the fire is passed, racing after Yuuma. Sousa isn't far behind, and they converge on their target for a team-combo of augmented thrusts. "You know for an organization that claims to wish for honest exposition, you're quite mysterious about your goals," Sousa remarks.
Glancing over his shoulders, a faint sigh of relief escapes him when several of the mercenaries charge in the wrong direction, save for one. Rikuto manages to create one last clone but it was quickly avoided, leaving the mercenary's heels to thrust into the back of his right shoulder knocking him to the ground. The teen begins to make another set of seals but tenses up once again as he gets to his feet.
"You couldn't have honestly expected them to stick by their creed, could you?" Itami inquired to Sousa as her scales took off the brunt of the attack by allowing the flames to wash over her. She emerged from the flames shaking off any remaining embers as she readies her claws to rend Yuuma's flesh. "They don't have any real goals, their only goal is to cause trouble which has been successful thus far. No different from any other organization that has come from the past and what will come in the future." She punctuated her statement by flying directly towards Yuuma in an effort to tear him appart.
Suddenly, from the direction of the Sunagakure Administration Dome comes that roaring blue fiery chakra that they had been dodging all along, except from a different source this time. Tsuneo wasn't having as much fun as he could with this Wind chakra, after carving up and leaving a message on the walls of the Dome that said 'One Week', and so, from the lower diamond on his hand, he had expelled it along with anything else he had absorbed during the attack.
"Having fun, brother?" came the voice of Tsuneo, flickering into view next to his brother where he could often be found when not causing death and destruction. "I've left them a little present. Shall we take our leave? We have what we came for." he says as he looks at the Suna ninja who had dared take on his brother, missing Sousa's witty comment upon his arrival by mere moments. "We will give you another week long extension, and by now you can guess what will happen if you don't comply. Hide behind your uplifting speeches all you want, but we aren't playing around. Your people may know that you must do some gritty things sometimes for the sake of this concept of 'hidden village', but opinions change when it is something that might hit close to each and every one of them." he says, his eyes falling on Sousa for now as he looked important. He waits for his brother to take a step towards retreat.
"Mysterious?" Yuuma calls back to Sousa, seeming a bit amused by that. "We're pretty frank. People just don't believe us because it sounds too radical and insane too them… And besides what good general doesn't employ tactics on the battlefield?" When the blue flame finally fires off from the dome, Yuuma grins slightly then looks over to where his brother appears. "Getting a bit slow aren't you, brother? Have the centuries aged you more than me?" He then looks at Itami, chuckling a bit. "Naive child…. I suggest you heed our warning. Our purpose is quite clear, but you don't honestly expect us to be foolish in how we employ it to the point you easily send us aside, do you? Take into account that this was taking it easy on you and make your decision by the week's end. If you don't, next time we'll actually fight you." With that he'd flicker from sight, expecting his brother and any remaining mercenaries to do the same… Well, if they're able. Not like there's any useful information to be tortured out of these grunts.
Even as Sora grabs divetackles another merc down, landing on his chest and then starting to slap him silly back and forth with a paw, Tsuchi looks up as she notes the end of things. SHe spots the trio that were fighting the main people, looking at them before looking then to the mess on the streets. She immediately rushes to the highest spot she can reach and starts calling out, "Those still fighting the last of the enemies, finish them quickly, everyone else! Focus on getting the injured, hurt or otherwise to the hospital." SHe points, "We need to start moving people we can save! If anyone is complaining of back or neck injuries leave them to medical ninjas! Do not move them!" She then looks around, "Any civilians who can move, if there are no mercenaries in your area, help with the moving of the injured!" She then unleashes a flurry of lightning shaped tools into a mercenary who was trying to jump at her as she shouted and then spinkicks him away before turning back, "Remember! These men and women who are injured today may be saving your life tomorrow! Lets help all we can!"
Alpha sees the blue fire incoming and gives a panicked screech. Sousa hooks an arm around the monkey's midriff and they disappear with another snapping of electricity. After reappearing a short distance away, Sousa regards the two brothers gaugingly. It's been largely a stalemate against one of them, the two together could likely be pretty dangerous without enough high-level allies involved…but it looks like they're retreating for now. Sousa sighs through his nose after they're gone. "Well, it seems they were willing to sacrifice a good many subordinates in a suicide assault just to cover their elite strike…and those subordinates apparently went along with it. Let's hope we can glean some useful information from their survivors." e.e
Rikuto wasn't in any condition to chase after the remaining mercenaries that were around him, so he waited. Looking to the side, he glances up at the wall of the building and forms a few seals before jumping, repelling himself with an odd use of a gale of wind and onto a low roof. The teen's landing wasn't pretty but it got the job done after he manages to stand again. Moving to the corner of the roof, he sits down along a low wall and breaths in deeply. Brown eyes focus onto straggling mercenaries that were retreating and exhales sharply, breathing out clutches of senbon shaped flames. The teen didn't seem to aim at the more protected vital organ but focused onto knees and ankles to cripple them.
"Don't count this out as a fight!" Itami shouted at Yuuma. "I don't care who or what you are. You're no different than any other that I've come in contact with and like those others, you'll fall all the same. You just heed my warning. Your plans will fail and you'll be another piece of history to be ignored." She wanted to place efforts into another assault, but all of it came to a stand still when she met with a more powerful form of the attack she defended only moments earlier. This time, her scales weren't enough to hold it back and the flames managed to penetrate and burn deeply enough that she was left with some terrible scarring. Her roar was supposed to help to soothe the pain, but the constant recognition of the burning only made it worse.
When the flames did die down after having engulfed her, she was back to her former self with some of her clothing charred, carrying the injuries she had from her dragon state. She wasn't any stranger to this sort of thing, but being familiar with it doesn't mean that you get used to it. She fell into a kneel and soon afterward she was down on the ground. The damage she took was overtaking her. With people still around and largely in danger, she attempted to force herself up, but it was a bit difficult to do so. Ultimately, she'd remain on the ground, unable to do anything except wait until the pain subsided enough for her to move.
