Starring:
Taiki, Shuuren, Amani, Usagi, Ogosokamaru, Hiei, Nariko, Yuzuna, Hiroyasu
Date: January 13, 2014
Summary:
Taiki, and his team investigate the orb
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"The Silk Conflict - Meet the Enemy"
Underground bunker of Kumo Hospital
Taiki took some time to request copies of the group's work to date, including all theories of what this chakra parasite is and how to eventually stop it. Included was the decision that going to the source was probably the best bet, which led to the recovery of the orb and its subsequent enshrinment in a hermetically sealed part of Kumo's hospital. Once he had given copies to Ogosokamaru to disseminate to those of his village that would be here, Taiki spent some time preparing for the research phase of dealing with this orb. To that point Taiki's guards and Shinobu are all outside the sealed off area, with Taiki's more medically minded ninken Nozomi working alongside of him, primarily by being a witness to everything that is going on. The agreed upon time has finally come, and Taiki is currently looking at the room where the orb is housed through a thick window while he waits for the others to show.
Ogosokamaru would as well be getting to the hospital, with a few others, to be there while Taiki did his assessment of the Orb, as well as Kumogakure's own individuals that were already there. Taiki was let into the underground facility where the entrance was in the hospital. It would take an individual outside the village limits, but the rock around it, near impermeable if you didn't know what it was and how exactly to do it. Seals as well, and this was a new part of the facility where the Orb was held. Ogosokamaru and contingent would arrive there, and Ogo stops, greeting Taiki with a nod, as one of the guards opens the door to the room where Kumogakure scientists were already poring over notes and documents and metadata.
"I'm sure you enjoyed the walk here." It was cool underground. But well lit down here with torches and other lighting impliments.
"Aaah, tthis part of the hospital. The part that Amani thinks she needs to look into and have a room designed in…or cleared out. She just needs a place to call her own when she's working here. A retreat. Yeah, that sounds about right. This place isn't disturbed much at all and would be perfe—Focus! Focus, focus. She's still got a job to do and so, she's been summoned here to help out Taiki. Right. "Hello," she offered in greeting upon arrival.
- Hiroyasu under careful instruction has summoned several people to provide various functions within their abilities and skillsets. "Yo Hiei, you are to provide protection and a watchful eye.. Nariko is your backup.." he pauses for a second "Nariko, you are also the diplomatic liaison" he moves with Ogosokamaru down the corridor "Amani! your early.. but welcome we may need your medical knowledge.." before bowing to the Konohagakurian.. "Good day" before looking to the others. -
Following Hiro down the hallway of the hospital, hands clasped behind her back, was the young Yotsuki heroine known as Nariko. She had been making herself useful as of late being the diplomatic liaison and nodded when Hiro told her her duties. At least she wasn't just diplomatic liaison. Upon entering the room, she would bow and smile. "Greetings Ogo-Sensei, Taiki." She smiles and waves to Amani. "Hey Amani."
Once he was certain his queen had fully recovered physically from the ordeal of her kidnapping, Shuuren agreed to come for the research on the Orb himself rather than sending a clone. Taka is heavily guarded after her "mysterious" rescue, but apparently the Daimyo is certain the shinobi who took her won't be returning. Though he seems a bit lighter in mood and is wearing his normal suit again, Shuuren still looks rather rebooted as he walks down the hallway toward the rendezvous point, hands clasped behind his back as he walks. "Greetings," he says as he approaches, offering a nod to each person gathered thus far.
While Taiki might have brought his own guards, Hiei was ordered by the Raikage to be here to make sure nobody put their hands on anything they weren't supposed to. Geared up, he's following along behind the line of people with Ogo. He wasn't a scientist..or a medical shinobi, in fact he found the whole thing about as interesting as watching fleas crawl around on a goat's butt. But he was told to be here, and so he is. Then again, he did help find the orb in the first place, and he was one of the shinobi responsible for the corpse of the kunoichi with the Leaf Village forehead protector. He nods to Hiro with a shrug. "Alright."
Yuzuna wasn't one of those that had been summoned by Hiei, though she was at the hospital. With a small word of thanks to the best mednin in the Land of Lightning. With the exception of Shuuren that is. She was on her way out and comes to a pause when the Raikage and his entourage begin entering.
Taiki's guards are not touching anything, per Taiki's orders. In fact, the only thing they are doing is relying on the other Inuzuka's ninken and Shinobu to ensure that people coming in smell right, as they realize this isn't their home town and to do anything counter to Kumo's security would reflect really badly on Taiki and Konohagakure as a whole. So they will indeed take their cues from whoever is currently head of Kumo's security, and are in fact very polite about it.
Taiki nods and greets everyone who greets him, speaking in his normal formal speech pattern with his normal hoarse voice. Amani and Shuuren get the latest information he was given by the scientists inside, which probably isn't much of anything other than confirming to actually touch the orb would destroy it. Thus, when everyone is gathered and the final decisions of who is going into the room with the thing is made, Taiki will lead the team in and start unrolling scrolls on the floor, pouring chakra into some of them to release various equipment. Nozomi does the same on the other side, greatly speeding up the process. Taiki then starts scribbling seal runes on the floor around the orb, apparently to analyze the thing without touching it. He does, however ask, "Anyone else have another idea before I activate this array?"
Ogosokamaru returns the greeting to Nariko with a nod. Shuuren's arrival gets an extended hand for a handshake. "Shuuren. Good to see you again, though I wish it was under better circumstances, as has become our norm."
The group with him that included Hiro, Hiei, Nariko and Amani entered the room. Ogo had taken a few moments to go and collect Yuzuna, bringing her with them. He'd become a little more.. protective of her in the last couple months.
The Raikage looks at one of the scientists, who goes to helping Taiki, but whom steps back when the runes start being drawn on the floor.
Ogosokamaru himself would stand near Hiei, looking at Taiki, then to Hiro, Nariko, then Amani, and Yuzuna at his side. Then back to Taiki. He waits to see if anyone had any ideas to suggest.
"Shoot… I was really aiming to be late…" Amani remarked blandly in jest. "Hello, Nariko," she lifted a stiff hand to wave. She offered nods to everyone else to spare herself the energy of needing to greet everyone. She figured they'd get it. "Alright, suppose it's time to get started here. I'm ready. Is everyone else ready? I'm sure you're ready. You're all such great people." She grinned. "We'll do just fine here…" She looked around. "Yep."
Huh? (Type "help" for help.)
- Hiroyasu nods to Hiei and looks at both Nariko and Hiei "I'll buy you some ramen later Hiei, and sake for you Nariko.." he adds to sweeten the pot. "I think I'll defer my sealing and medical specializes.. someone needs to take notes apparently." he says pulling out a pen and some paper. "Alright lets begin" he adds his eyes peeking over the end of the scroll. -
Nariko crosses her arms on her chest. She stands with her legs spread a part to hold her up. She smirked at Amani and just looked on as the people inspected it. "Be careful Amani." IS all she says. She looked from Ogo to Hiro, smiling to him. "Oh good. I look forward to that. Except, he needs some too." She gives Hiei a wink and then looks back to the people examining the stuff.
Yuzuna blinks her pale eyes once with a flicker of mild surprise, but she doesn't object when Ogosokamaru actually pulls her to him. A protective arm around her, more so than usual. Even while he works he's been having that tendency, and it doesn't seem to matter how often she's reassured him.
As he looks over the information, Shuuren would also assess the chakra signature of the Orb along with that of those in the room. "We are leaders of the world, Raikage," he says with a glance up to Ogo, smirking a bti darkly. "If our meetings aren't a little dull, they probably have to do with something disastrous." He then looks to Taiki, not offering any input thus far as he merely goes over information before him and what he senses.
Hiei nods to Hiroyasu. "A lot of ramen. You brainiac types are best suited for this type of work. I'm still glitched off that I didn't get to beat anybody up for it." Comments the overly aggressive Yotsuki. He points at Taiki's guards. "I'll be hanging out with those guys if anyone needs me..though I doubt anyone will be needing me."
Having achieved a high level of mastery in the sealing arts, and being intimately familiar with the design in question, it doesn't take Taiki long to finish drawing the needed sigils. Once the scientists are clear he speeds through a long series of hand signs before slamming his hand down on the floor. "Fuinjutsu: Chakra Diagnosis" The seals instantly light up in a bright blue pattern that seems to form some kind of blue curtain around the orb. Taiki then nods as he looks back and explains to Amani and Shuuren, "This is a non-mobile version of my chakra network tags. Unlike those tags, it has two settings, one passive, which its operating at now, and one active. The passive doesn't focus any chakra into it, instead it collects data from any chakra traces coming out of it. Right now, it is definitely broadcasting something, but its receiving far more than its broadcasting. I'm trying to decipher more about its code now… but this isn't meant to capture transmissions of this type."
Ogo would watch closely as the stuff is done. Even though Konoha and Kumo are allies, and on very good terms, the Raikage cannot help but be a little on edge as things start happening and the runes and seals get energized.
Back of his mind, looking at his own scientists, >I wonder when we can use it as a weapon to help protect our borders and our allies borders. Oo, maybe if it can make things explode!< Ogo's hand moves to the small of Yuzuna's back, sliding up and down her back in a little supportive rub. "How was your appointment?" He asks her quietly, then looking to Hiei who's moving outside to hang with the other security from Taiki's end.
From there, Ogo grins just a little mischeviously, and would gently offer for Yuzuna to come with him over to where Hiei was going. "So, Hiei, you think they can handle a sword at all?" Inspecting the security guards that are there with Taiki.
Amani observed as Taiki ran through the seals and activated his jutsu over the orb. She keeps a distance, still, as she doesn't like the idea of these parasites and certainly no orb that may be associated with them. "So, it's like some sort of radio device or something?" She wondered. "But when you say receiving, is it receiving our chakra or signals from a particular kind of chakra? You mention code, so I assume it takes a certain trace of chakra in order for this thing to work properly…" She folded her arms. "Are we to assume there's more of these kinds of orbs around, then? Each with different sets of what they're supposed to do?"
- Hiroyasu nods to Hiei "Yes I read your mission report, apparently doors are sinister objects of great intellectual curiosity. I alerted the R&D Department immediately.. they invented a device called a knob.. I had them installed on all doors.. Intellectual pandemonium has been adverted" he sneers looking at the Yotsuki over the top of his scroll. As he shorthand's, the methods used.. the seals in detail, and the nature of the chakra as constantly sampled by his highly attune ninja senses.. "uh huh.." scribble scribble.. "interesting.." scribble scribble.. "Yamayuki Amani makes startling conjecture about possibilities.. aloud" he says narrating his task.. -
Nariko looks to Yuzuna and slides over to her. "Hey, Yuzuna. You look stunning. Tell me, how do you get that glow?" She looks over to Hiei and rolls her eyes. Always hanging with rockheads."
Hiei rolls a shoulder towards Ogosokamaru. "No idea. They carry them. I assume they know how to use them. Now..whether they use them /well/ is something I can't answer, Sensei." He flashes Yuzuna a smile and then moves towards the Inuzuka guards. He looks between them, then walks back in over to Nariko. He leans forwards. "See. I told you they weren't bigger than me." He takes his finger and pokes her in the forehead before moving back over towards the guards. "Hey, guys. Are there any hot girls in the Inuzuka clan?" He asks as his voice fades back into the background. Apparently he's taking a page from Ogo and ordering himself a Konoha girl..
Yuzuna blinks her pale eyes once as she looks up towards Ogo, feeling the support of his hand gently at the curve of her back. She tries to give him a gentle look. "It went well enough. No changes or complications." she murmurs softly, reassuring him. Her gaze is pulled towards Nariko and a flicker of amusement shines in her eyes. "You would be surprised." she replies, purposefully mysterious as always.
The guards turn and looks as a Hiei approaches, and the Inuzuka guard speaks up. "Yeah sure… but most people are a bit put off by the tendency to sprout fur and wicked looking claws on occasion. Not to mention our women really do bite…" The other guard snickers a little while Shinobu just shakes his head at the Inuzuka's remark.
Following along and watching as Taiki begins, Shuuren observes silently for a bit. "Impressive innovation," Shuuren comments as he feels the interaction out. "If there isn't a second one already, one might assume whoever made it has the ability to make another given time, else they'd be fighting harder for this one if it's their big game plan. If we give them time to make a second one before we figure this one out, they could accelerate the process potentially."
Taiki looks back toward Amani and then shrugs. "The transmissions are definitely sequential, and we already know that the parasite was transmitting to that hut, maybe it was transmitting to this? I don't know, but I don't think I can find out much more without actually channeling chakra into it. Luckily, this jutsu should give me enough lag time to cut off the chakra flow should it actually be responsible for making and disseminating the parasite. What do you two think, should I try it, or do you have any ideas before we go any further?"
<Weather> The skies are clear; a sea of crisp, pale blue, with not a single cloud in sight. The air is pleasantly warm for the time of year.
Ogo smiles at Yuzuna, and nods a little bit, saying lowly, "Alright. So.. everything's good?" His eyes glance down for a moment, but if someone were to be watching him, where he was looking was indiscernable.
To Hiei, Ogo grins, "Yes, ok, that's my question. Using swords /correctly/. Or at least up to par. You can run correctly, but if you do it so slowly you never reach your destination, it's worthless." Moment of Zen, brought to you by Ogo, older than he looks(tm).
To Nariko, Ogosokamaru stifles a laugh when she asks, and Yuzuna responds. "You really want to know?" Flat tone, like saying really underneath that, you don't want to know, but you probably already do.
- Hiroyasu continues to take serious notes, filling up a scroll with detailed schematics, and descriptions of the chakra or lack there-of. "Konohagakure Medic in a shocking turn of events, answers questions with questions.. more on this later." he narrates as he moves as far away from Hiei as possible.. cause it was about to start rain beakers or something.. "Shuuren-sama mumbles something about something which sounds scientific.. great progress seems afoot.." he announces.. all the while slowly ducking behind a counter. -
Nariko looks at Hiei and shakes her head. "Yeah, thats what she told me." She coughs when they say something about biting. "Don't encourage him. Hiei, stop it." She reaches out to grab his ear. "Get over here." She looks to Yuzuna and smiles. "Yes! Whats the surprise?" She gets a tiny bit giddy when the word surprise is mentioned.
"It is an intriguing innovation. Could be useful in other forms of communication if that's the case, though it may be a bit tedious, in my opinion. I'm sure there are better ways it can be handled but that aside," Amani began as she looked the orb over. "If these parasites travel through signal or in relation to it, then why don't we make a protective field around the orb and possibly use a means by which the decoded messages can be displayed. For example, using a scroll as a medium to display characters. That'll keep us from touching anything and I'm not looking forward to have this parasite in my system. I'm not even comfortable enough standing within its vicinity."
Hiei replies to Ogo. "Sensei you'd be surprised the amount of people who /think/ they know how to run. Uh..hold that thought." His attention is drawn as he looks pleasantly surprised when he's told that Inuzuka women bite. "Really? That's awesome. You know, that is not a deal breaker..owowowowow.." He winces when nariko grabs his ear and yanks him away from the guards. "Nariko, stop it. I'm trying to get married off so Grandpa will leave me alone.."
Yuzuna instinctively reaches out to take his free hand, looking him in the eye. "Yes, we're fine. Try not to worry so much, okay? You worrying will only make me worry, and we can't have that." Her tone is almost gentle, but for now she leaves it at that as she looks back to Nariko, Ogo's reply earning him a flat look as the Raikage's wife uses an elbow to elbow his side pointedly.
Watching and pondering as Taiki explains, Shuuren emits a low 'hmm'. "There really isn't much more we can find out without going into invasive procedure," he says before looking around at the room. "We should be sure we are well-fortified here. If this thing happens to kill us, we don't want it killing the rest of them and the village with us. That might look bad on Konoha if one of their medics accidentally nukes Kumogakure." Looking back to the Orb, he says, "I'll keep an eye on it with my deep sensor abilities as you go along. If somethings volatile starts to escape, I should be able to detect it."
- Hiroyasu nods several times while recording the exploits of this mighty tale "Yamayuki Amani.. in can what can only be the suggestion of the century.. postulates an actual theory to test, Scientists everywhere revise their models of science.. questions are out.. testable theories are in.." then glaring sideways as Nariko decides to go for the more sutble approach of ripping hiei's ear off versus hurling something at him.. so he moves out from behind the counter to continue to observe the process. In response to the question of protection Hiro layers several seal walls in case he has to seal off the lab to save himself… err everyone else.. that thought causes a nervous peek over his scroll to see if anyone saw that before clearing his throat.. "Security for -all- inhabitants is raised through the use of multiple layers of Fuinjutsu barriers.." he adds. -
Taiki grins widely at Amani's suggestions. "Well, shielding I have plenty of, it just takes a slight modification…" He then starts drawing some seals on a blank scroll he pulls out before rolling it out around the orb. He then runs through another series of hand-seals before slamming his hands down on the floor again. "Fuinjutsu: Seal Encampment Wall…" With the scroll in place and transmitting his jutsu, another bright blue field forms on the outside of the first, this one seemingly pointed inward. "There… that should do the protection and projection medium…"
Taiki nods at Shuuren's caution, his face going grim. "We should have warning at least, and a chance to stop it with all the precautions we've set up." Once Shuuren was ready, Taiki turned the first part of the seal array. This has an immediate result as some kind of projection forms over the orb, showing a listing of choices in a lettering style that is hard to understand. "That's odd… nothing coming out yet, but what is that?"
Ogo looks at Yuzuna, "Okay, okay~," to her chiding about saying 'we' are okay. He looks at the array that comes up from the Orb. Wierd. The elbow to his side distracts him, and he clears his throat. "Quite." Quite what? WHatever, Yuzuna's elbow made the Raikage rethink his life decisions. Or at least the one of making that little joke.
"I'll make it plain, I don't like what we're getting into. These parasites have been an unknown since I've entered this issue and they still appear to be an unknown now. Those odds are stacked against us more so than in our favor," Amani explained while watching the barrier around the orb go up. "…" She grumped. "I can't understand what this thing is trying to communicate. Whoever created it should die a horrible death. Many deaths," she states.
"This is just a coded message, something I deal with quite a bit in my patient charts," Shuuren comments as he looks the orb over. "We just need to find out what the key is, and we'll know what the message is… Hiro, would you mind making an exact copy of this so we can try to decode it later?" With that, he closes his eyes, feeling the chakra signature of the Orb out carefully so as to keep a studious eye on it.
- Hiroyasu peeks over the top of his scroll, what was everyone staring at.. a jumble of things "Coded message, Something we all deal with.. unless other nations do not employ ciphers for all official documents.." he glances at Shuuren with a nod, closing his eyes before opening to reveal the false-eye gijifugan.. before copying the message down to the finest detail using the enhanced visual acutity and clearness of thought to transcribe it. "Message has been copied per your request." he adds. -
"Thank you," Shuuren says with a glance to Hiroyasu before his eyes dart back to the Orb. "Taiki-san, Hiro-san, on your guard. Something is coming out of this orb. Be prepared to contain it once it gets out since we don't want to damage the orb."
While Shuuren is feeling this, Taiki is influencing his own fields slightly in order to see what those modifications do. Suddenly the orb comes alive, projecting onto the exterior orb shield scenes of different places, different people, in hidden villages all over the elemental countries. Including one scene that plays longer of Taiki performing chakra network surgery… from the patients perspective! Taiki blinks at that and for one second looses his cool. "What the mainframe?"
As he gets himself under control at the very end of that sentence, he hears Shuuren's warning and nods. "Well, the parasite definitely transmits to this orb." He then looks over to Shuuren and asks, "How is whatever it is getting in there, or coming out?" He turns his attention to the Orb itself and concentrates, trying to find the answers even as seals on his hands and writs, along with seals on Noxomi's paws flare in blue.
"Well yes, I get that. I just can't make heads or tails of this coded message right now," Amani states regarding whatever this orb is trying to say. "Something coming out of the orb. I suppose I should prepare myself. Darn thing focing me to utilize chakra I don't want to use," she grumbled further after this. She prepares for the worst because this is the worst case scenario. What she sees causes her to look between Taiki and Shuuren. "I get the feeling that using chakra is really not a good thing to do around this. If it's receiving or transmitting…whatever the case is. If it's capable of both couldn't it just as easily trace us and bring about infections if we're not careful?" She questioned, not using her eyes just yet.
- Hiroyasu clears his throat "I imagine if chakra was a bad thing, you would not want to have two giant Jounin level medics manipulating its subtle signal in close promixity.. with a Raikage of equal level within earshot..the sheer level of resting chakra in this room exceeds most independent nations standing armies.. I don't think any minuscule amount that you or I can add would be anything but a drop in an already overflowing bucket. But I'm going to evacuate all non-personnel to a safe distance and erect and maintain a barrier as a secondary defense.." he says turning to do as he said "Alright unless you have medical skills, or advanced ninjutsu.." making sure that Yuzuna gets outs above all others.. -
"So this is how this works, huh?" Shuuren states, eyes narrowing. "Now imagine this being inside a Council member of a Daimyo or Kage. All of our most vital and dangerous secrets displayed this easily for our enemies. Disturbing…" He then blinks a few more times, clenching his fists as he goes over the information he's picking apart. "Apparently this thing is going to be duplicated more than once… And it's going to let whoever's using it transport their armies here in something like summoning from their main location. They could be all over our lands in a matter of days."
Well, Amani's concerns are entirely too late for those remaining behind as a black smoke starts pouring out of the orb. Much like the proverbial genie in a bottle, the smoke moves slightly away from the orb and touches down, forming into a cloaked figure. For those that have seen the reports from the merchants, its one of the puppets that were responsible for transmitting the parasite. It draws its hood back to reveal an older-man, kind of a human corpse puppet. Its red eyes seem to peer at its surroundings before fixing Taiki with a gaze that would be melevolance if its expressions weren't fixed. "You're too late," a voice seems to echo from it, "Soon the Shinobi lands shall be conquered. And you will bow to the Sultan of Sapphires!" The puppet wastes no time and starts charging for Taiki, its target now very clear.
Taiki frowns and starts to fall back, working on some hand seals even as Nozomi starts nipping at the canteens on her medical vest, trying to get them open. Taiki barely dodges the first atttack, showing this man is at least high-chuunin/low Jounin level.
Usagi was in the back for the time being, as she didn't have quite the chakra manipulation that the two working the orb did, but 'this' situation she was more than capable of acting in. A few handsigns later, her shadow leaps out to try and snag the puppet/corpse, simply to get it to stop. A shadow imitation would do the trick if it wasn't too bright.
"This was exactly the kind of thing I was trying to get at, but no, we wanted to investigate and look deeper. I didn't think this thing was safe, no matter what the skill," Amani pointed out as the smoke exited the orb. Who could prepare for that? No one. That's who. She grumbled to herself, some of which may have been bad words. "You! You stuff it!" She shouted to the Sultan of Sapphires. Not that it would listen to her. It clearly began to attack Taiki.
Now, she's having a dilemma. She wants to help Taiki, but at this point, she's not sure she wants to place herself at odds with this thing. She doesn't want to use chakra at all, but it appears that in order to spare this village and other nations from this menace. She'll have to do just that. She doesn't have her bow on her since this is a medical setting, so she resorts to utilizing her sound on its own, attempting to stun the being at a harsh frequency.
"Sultan of Sapphires, huh?" Shuuren asks rhetorically as he observes the puppet coming in. He doesn't appear surprised or even a bit afraid of the malevolent being, actually smirking a bit. "So a fool bent on conquering our world, is it? If he has this kind of power, perhaps he'll make a suitable sacrifice. I'm betting you are good and laced with the chakra of whoever's casting this jutsu, aren't you, even linked back?" Eyes narrowing, he prepares for combat, pondering how to best get a clone outside this barrier to try to trace a chakra trail.
The puppet seems to be momentarily effected by both Amani's sound blast and Usagi's shadow imitation, but seemingly fights them off in short order. Still, the attacks have had some success in that the puppet's attacks against Taiki are slower, and off-balance slighty. Still, the puppet seems to be trying to punch through Taiki, followed by a kick.
Taiki smirks slightly as Amani's and Usagi's attacks get through. "I kept asking if anyone had any better ideas, and no one said anything," he answers Amani's virtual 'I told you so's.' Still, he's on the move, rather effortlessly avoiding the puppet's blows even as he finishes his preparations. At the same time Nozomi has her canteens open as she calls for the water inside of them. Just slightly off one another Taiki and Nozomi both fire a barrage of needles, Taiki's lightning and Nozomi's water, raining a storm of elemental needles down on the puppet. He seems to be trying to guage the effectiveness of his current opponent while seemingly unconcerned that he himself is the main target.
"I was making remarks about caution. More caution. And extra caution. I think those count," Amani grumped while trying to figure out other ways to deal with this puppet of sorts. "Anyway," she remarked as she decided to step back and focus as well as activate her eyes to deal with this threat. "So, I'll add those to what I said earlier," she smirled. "We should always be prepared for moments like these!" She chimed.
Bingo! Usagi's shadow latches onto the puppet's, and she takes a slow breath as she tries to hold it long enough for the next attack to get off. She furrows her brow as she does let it slip after Taiki's attacks goes in. She takes a slow breath as she flips a sign, her shadow actually leaping off the ground to try and stab the puppet from multiple angles. She looks at said puppet in the meantime, searching for something to give them a clue as to its animation.
"If we can capture this thing without killing it, that would be most ideal," Shuuren comments as he watches the other shinobi capture the puppet. He ponders a bit over what tools he has that he can use here. Anything medical probably wouldn't have the desired effect. He briefly considers raising his abilities as a sensor further to try to trace this all the way back to the caster, but that plan would likely be spotted fairly early and the puppet cut off. "Maybe we can figure out a way to block too many of them from coming if we can study it enough… Or at least a way to find these orbs more easily and dispose of them safely."
This puppet is nimble, normally more than a match for most ordinary ninja. But it is faced with several high-level ninja, at least two of whom are very much used to working together, and the results speak for themselves. Despite trying to dodge, Taiki's lightning needles strike home rather viciously considering the rank of the attack, though it does manage to dodge the following spray of water needles. This, however, puts the puppet directly in line for a devastating attack which anchors it in place. It can't seem to move, though its attention remains on Taiki, its chosen target. Chakra flares around it, letting all know it won't be held this way for long…
Taiki glances over toward Shuuren and asks, "Just how do we do that, other than cutting off the chakra flows to it. And I'm not a Hyuuga who can do that, though…" he pauses as he fishes out some tags he quickly applies to his chakram. "This might help in that…" With that he throws the chakram, which proceeds to make Xena-esque ricochets as it bounces off the puppet, the walls, the puppet, furniture, and the puppet before flying back to Taiki who catches it. Three tags suddenly appear on the puppet, each one glowing blue as their effects become clear… Chakra leech tags.
"Capturing a puppet. How grand," Amani remarked. "If you have chakra scalpel, you should be able to disable it in some form," Amani states. "Or…that," she winced at the chakram Taiki wielded. Such strange weapons people have. She watched as it flew around the room and towards the puppet. It would seem that the chakram held a bit of a surprise on it. Clever. "How much can we damage this thing before it falls into disrepair? Any ideas?" She wondered as she gathered her chakra and activated her nejigan.
"Not entirely sure how long I can hold him" Usagi gives a warning as she's staring at the puppet, hands mildly shaking in an attempt to hold him as long as possible. She takes a slow breath, trying to hold him further as she finally moves to change it back into a bind. She wasn't sure how long it'd hold, but she was going to try and keep it pinned.
"Well, I have plenty of medical disabling jutsu, but I don't think that'll help much against this thing," Shuuren says with a glance to Taiki as the battle ensues. "Though I suppose disabling its limbs may not necessarily kill it since it's not technically alive. Otherwise, the caster can simply keep pumping it fully of chakra and probably use it to destroy the orb before we get any further readings… So long as we don't make any explosions or such things that would damage the provided sample past study." With a flicker, the Daimyo would appear behind the puppet, going to strike at where its Achilles tendons should be with chakra-glowing hands, Chakra Scalpels intended to disable it from moving around further and try to keep it contained within Usagi's shadow.
The onslaught of attacks take its toll as Taiki's shots all connect before the puppet can shrug off the final effects of Usagi's shadow sewing, causing massive damage and completely draining it of chakra. It desperately tries to dodge Shuuren's chakra scalpel without chakra, but the scalpel bites deep, causing the puppet to disappear in a cloud of black smoke. Just as the group realizes they over-did it and killed the puppet, things get wierd. The smoke rushes forward, clearing once again to form a slightly older-looking puppet than the original, fully healed and carrying a sword, which it promptly attempts to slice Taiki open with, snapping the sword once toward his chest, followed by a combination of three more strikes, clearly aimed at eliminating what it sees as the greatest threat to its plans.
Taiki, up to this point, had been fighting a distance game against this puppet for a multitude of reasons. At first he's honestly both happy and disappointed to see the puppet disappear, but that turns to bewildered horror as it reforms and presses its attack on him! "What the virus?" he says, startled into profanity even as he leaps backward, utilizing one of his clan's basic dodging techniques to do so. Still he doesn't get far enough as the new puppet continues the attack, giving Taiki just barely enough time to form pads of lightning and skate away from those three slashes on them. "Well, getting rid of its chakra isn't going to work, so let's try the old fashioned way!" Nozomi barks and launches herself into a water-augmented tsuga, carefully keeping the whips away from the sphere as she does so, obviously aiming for the puppet while Taiki follows it up with a lightning version of his own. They really need to work on combining skillsets more!
"Perfect," Amani stated as she readied a some shuriken and focused sound into them. She'd throw them forward to the puppet with the intent of severing connections between its limbs. She didn't want to be particularly close to the puppet for obvious reasons, so she'd definitely be keeping her distance from it and these shuriken are one fo the ways she can accomplish that. "Old fashioned is Kumo's favorite," she smirked.
Usagi blinks as the puppet comes apart and then reforms into a smaller one, blinking and shaking her head as she switches tactics. She glanced around the room to see what sort of things could be used, before she sighs softly. "This is not my best engagement area…" Is muttered as she pulls two kunai out and charges forward, lacing the two with chakra before attempting to slash at the puppet, high and low.
This one seems a bit more nimble than the previous puppet as it puts on some rather amazing dodging skills to dodge various attacks coming at it, utilizing chakra at first, then just physical defenses. It then snaps its blade out incredibly fast toward Taiki, hopefully optimizing on its speed to break through the Clan Head's defenses and cut him.
A contest of speed it is then. Taiki quickly runs through a couple of hand seals before slamming a hand down on the ground, calling out, "Fuinjutsu: Seal Encampment Wall." A series of blue glowing seals form around him, coalescing into a blue chakra barrier around him. The blade meets the barrier, but barely manages to get through to slice a shallow cut on him. Taiki and Nozomi then fly backward, to land with Nozomi on top of him as he runs through a series of hand seals before calling out, "Man-Beast transformation: Beast human clone!" A puff of smoke later and there are two Taiki's there, one on top of the other, both looking decidedly more feral than he even had into that point. They both leap into action, spinning and colliding with the puppet with a standard gatsuga before one peals off and hits the puppet with another water tsuga. Time to up the ante.
"Hmph. So it wants to play this sort of game. Simple enough…" She focused chakra to her hands. She's going to have to deal with this puppet from a more physical standpoint. She's upset that she doesn't have her bow on her. She didn't intend for this to pop up, but it inspires her to carry her weapon everywhere now. She can't have herself shorted like this again.
Usagi grumbles softly as the puppet starts evading…well….everything. So she backs up a step and says. "Fine. We play hard ball" She kneels as suddenly shadows shoot out in spikes from her along the ground, connecting with any and all shadows in the vicinity as she gathers chakra into her form. She has a hand sign up, but she's not taking any action…at least not yet.
So far the puppet is out and out evading (both) Taiki's attacks, but the chakra scalpel manages to get through. There's no real taunting out of the puppet, as it simply sees one objective: eliminate the threat to its master's plans. As such, to most of the room it simply blinks out of existence, reappearing right next to Taiki to attempt to slice him in half.
Taiki, however, was able to sense the puppet's approach by smell and managed to leap away at the last minute. But the other Taiki rushes forward to distract the puppet, allowing the one attacked to rush forward with claws of lightning that are at least four inches long. This Taiki attempts to swipe at the puppet's main section with the claws that Usagi would recognize as his higher form of lightning claws, the ones that would slow this puppet down, should it land.
This puppet was not going to roll all over them. It might be fast, but that isn't going to be the defining means of this match up. Amani had every intent of disabling this puppet and keep it from causing anymore problems. The Sultan of Sapphires will hold no position in Kumo or the world for that matter. With this in mind, she initiates another attack against the puppet.
It's about that time that the shadows in the room all basically erupt towards the puppet, looking to stab, bind, and hold the thing much like her previous one did. The major difference though is that it's from everywhere at once now, trying to lock it down hard.
And once more the use of stun techniques threaten to overwhelm the puppet. So once again the puppet transforms, this time to a really old man who decides to take a page from the books of the people around him as he runs through a few hand seals and then exhales a massive fireball right at Taiki!
Taiki just skates out of the way and then turns around, his lightning claws now a mere two inches longer than normal as he swings them forward to claw at the puppet twice in quick succession, capitalizing on the puppet's weakness even as it reals from the stunning attacks.
Amani decided to sit back this time. "You got this, right Taiki?" She inquired. "I have to sit back a notch and recover," she stated as she jumped back and placed distance between herself and the puppet. She had to rucuperate her energy so that she could continue the fight.
Usagi keeps the jutsu active, the puppet stuck where it is as she furrows her brow in concentration. "do what you're going to do fast. It's hard fighting against someone trying, especially the stronger they are" This time though, her hands aren't trembling…yet.
The claws do their work as they rake across the puppet's body, effectively tearing it to shreds. Just before it falls apart, however, the puppet has one final warning. "Your days are numbered, Inuzuka Taiki! We know who you are, and you will fail. Soon the Shinobi lands will be under the rule of the Sultan of Sapphires, and you will be ash!" That said, the puppet falls apart, leaving chunks of charred flesh on the floor. The air fills with a acrid odor as the orb falls quiet, going back into standby mode.
Taiki looks down at the destroyed puppet and shakes his head. "Not in my lifetime," he says as he sighs. He then turns to Usagi and chuckles for a moment before shaking his head. "Well, add one more group that wants me dead." Taiki seems to not even be a little concerned about the death threat as he shrugs it off. "Let's say we make sure everything is okay here then go get some food. That little bit of exercise has left me more than a little hungry." The non-speaking Taiki poofs and resumes the shape of Nozomi as Taiki's feral features draw back and reveal the same face as before. "That, and I could use a drink."
"I think…I think we did it, but…there's one problem. We still don't know how to get to this person. Who is the Sultan of Sapphires?" Amani asked. "Taking over the shinobi nations is very ambitious. Or burning them, rather. Even if he has these parasites as surveillance measures, I still think it'd be difficult to overwhelm the powers. He'd still have to raise some form of a formal army, right?" She asked of him shortly after the odor fades from the room. "Why are you so important to them?" She wondered.
Usagi sighs softly and shakes her head. "Taiki, how many of these idiots am I going to have to take care of?" She gives him a cross look, then sighs and releases the jutsu, and the shadows. She stands up slowly and nods to Amani, then hrms softly. "He may already have them, if this parasite can control the host. Keep that in mind" She glances to the others. "Probably because Taiki is getting close to undoing the parasite"
Taiki shrugs and then chuckles. "We don't know much about the enemy's strengths, but we know a great deal more than before. More we'll have to find out later." He then gives Usagi a 'what can you do?' shrug before shaking his head. "One more group wants me dead. Been there, done that, still doing it. I guess that's what you get for being a professional pain in the code to would-be world conquerors everywhere. You know…" he says, sighing as he looks back to Amani. "Once upon a time this would have really upset me knowing there were people that wanted me, specifically dead. Now… they'll have to wait in line. In the meantime I'll keep doing what I do best, and be a thorn in their side." He then checks himself out and says, "I'm clean, so I'm going to go find some food and them some rest. Shall we convene in a few days to compare notes?" Once affirmations are given, he heads out.
