Starring:
Date: October 21, 2014
Summary:
A small, yet effective group of bandits have been making small raids around the borders of Konoha and Kumo, assuming that while everyone is distracted by the Silence, that the defenses will be weakened. A joint team of Ninja from both villages responds.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"The Stonefist Raid"
A small valley inside the Land of Hot Water, between the lands of Lightning and Fire
After a few more scouting reports, the stonefist bandits had been located. Currently hiding out in the Land of Hot Water, just outside of the land of lightning's borders. After getting permission from the Daimyo, a small squad of 4 shinobi from Kumogakure and Konohagakure had been dispatched to deal with their Leader.
The Stonefist Camp was nestled in a long Valley, with steep sheer walls. The entire area was a sparse forest, riddled with hotsprings, creating very much a muggy jungle environment. How the squad approached, and what time would be up to them.
Kenta's been working so hard at the hospital that he's almost eager for a chance to go on a potentially dangerous mission. It's at least a break in the monotony of seeing patient after patient. He does feel a faint sense of guilt that he feels this way, which he doesn't let anyone else know, but he comforts himself with the fact that the task he's on now is actually also very important. He's never actually worked with Kumo-nin either, so it'll be a good experience.
The appointed spot is easy enough to find and Kenta waits patiently for the rest of the team to assemble when he gets there. His preference is to take out the leader of the bandit group, since it's been suggested that he's the only thing binding the group together. As a medic-nin, Kenta has to stay out of range of the worst attacks and serve as support, so he stays in the back of the shinobi team and keeps his eyes open for anything that comes their way.
Michiko has been sent on a joint mission of Kumo-Konoha ninja. She's pretty happy to be back in action, even if the mission is probably relatively easy. Something to warm up to in preparation for larger battles that are likely to come. Naruko is with her, and she strikes up conversation with the Uzumaki for a bit, commenting on what she thinks might be the plan and wondering who they'll be teamed up with.
Upon reaching the appointed meeting spot, she looks around to spot Kenta, the girl offering a small wave. "Kenta-san, yes? I remember seeing you last time I visited Konoha. I'm Iwata Michiko, Chuunin of Kumogakure." She pauses, considering for a second before saying, "Naruko-san here mentioned you were a medic-nin, actually. Would you be willing to teach me?" She has her own reasons for wanting to learn… "Anyway, do we have any sort of plan at the moment?"
"Kenta-kun!" Naruko squealed, mostly in a silent raspy tone as to not alert anyone that may have been prowling around. She grinned from behind Michiko and naturally approached him, waving her hand in greeting. "Kenta-kun here is the best medic in the village. He is very modest though which makes him even better… I suppose we have a mission to worry about though," Naruko speaks and suddenly silences herself, running a finger through her long locks of golden hair. " I'm really excited. Finally something a little more simplier than the crazy silence people…."
Soren had been hanging back, until Naruko and Michiko revealed themselves. Now that they were there, he slinked forward from the shadows. "Good everyone's here." he says, nodding towards Kenta, and then slidding up and kneeling behind the trio. "So then, Kenta, what's the plan?" he asks, raising a brow.
Kenta bows at the two Kumo shinobi when they show up. "Konichiwa, Michiko-san and Naruko-san. I remember both of you from your visits to Konoha." He offers both of them a somber smile when he straightens up. "Ummm… I'm not the best medic in Konoha. That's really Taiki-sama…" He rubs at the back of his head and his cheek turns slightly pink. "I'm not adverse to teaching medical ninjutsu to a shinobi from an allied nature. Unfortunately, that'll have to wait until our task is over." He starts a little when Soren appears. He hadn't expected this addition to the team. "Soren-san! It's nice to see you again and to finally get to work together with you."
The medic-nin glances out of the hiding spot towards the direction of the bandit camp. "I was going over our options when I waited. There are enough bandits that it could be dangerous to try to take them all out one by one. It seems easier to try to take out the leader first, since he's the strongest one. We should hit them fast and hard. I hope that one of you knows lightning style. It sounds like the leader is some kind of earth user that can change parts of his body to stone or maybe encase them in stone." Kenta grimaces. "Stonefist bandits… sounds fitting." He sucks in a deep breath and nods. Assuming everyone agrees to the plan, he follows at the back once the others start moving.
Michiko smiles a bit. "Indeed, we'll take care of that later. For now, mission." She gives a nod. Then sees Soren and smiles to him as well. "Soren-san, it's nice to see you. I look forward to working with you." Then she listens to the plan, giving a few nods. She hmms lightly, considering. "So far as I know, neither Naruko-san nor myself know lightning style jutsu. However, we're fire users. Maybe if we were very accurate with our attacks? She suggests lightly. At least fire wasn't weak to earth…
"Fire sounds like it would work. You can leave it to Michiko-chan and myelf to take care of that," Naruko replies back, a faint grin loomed about her lips as she considered things further. Soren's presence was abit of suprise as they had just met. " Don't worry Kenta-kun, we will protect you and hopefully won't have to even use any medical ninjutsu," Perhaps Naruko was just a little too cocky at this point. "This should be easy pweasy after all we have been through,"
Soren nods. "So then. If I understand the plan, Naruko-san and Michiko-san will be our front line. I'll hang back and protect Kenta-san, who's running Support. And we'll be making our way straight to their leader and attempting to take him out." he says nodding. "Sounds like we have a plan."
The valley had several Tents scattered around it's length, but only one of which was larger than the rest. Large enough to hold a small harem, the tent stood in exactly the center of the valley, with the stonefist flag rising from it's peak. Guess which one is his? But alas, there are enough tents surrounding it, that getting there could be a pain, and with how many bandits were in the camp, there might still be a number of them in the tent anyway!
"I don't use jutsu of any particular affinity right now, but I have some chakra and poison based abilities. Hopefully, that'll bypass some of the leader's defenses. I'll pitch in if I'm not too busy keeping everyone fighting fit," Kenta says with a nod at Michiko. His faint smile turns wry at the sound of Naruko's confident words. He won't complain at all if things went that well.
Kenta gets a little more worried when he realizes just how many subordinates that this bandit leader must have. If things go wrong, they'll be mobbed even before they manage to reach the leader. The medic-nin takes a small pill from out of the pouches hanging at his waist and quickly pops it into his mouth. The strong wax coating will keep it from dissolving quickly without using chakra, but he's going to have to use it within the next hour to avoid the side effects. He probably won't have to wait that long anyway. Kenta nods and sticks close to Soren.
Michiko smiles at Naruko's confidence. She's pretty confident as well, and she scopes out the camp curiously from afar. Well, at least the target is easy to pick out… "Hmm… Do you think we could walk along the cliff face and attack from above?" she wonders, voice barely over a whisper. She's not sure if it would work very well. "I could also try and sink all the tents into a giant whirlpool…"
"I can just run on in there if need be… We can ran down an mass of fire upon them and catch them off guard…. That will send them scattering out of their homes all confused and what not….at that point maybe we can figure out where the leader is…" Naruko suggested, though she did keep a look out for anything that might catch her attention. She was trying to take notice of any house that might seem more….chief like.
Soren simply shook his head. "That would leave us with all of them, right in the middle of their camp, with all of them not out, aware that somethings off, and ready to bear down on us. Even if it draws him out, that could still be quite dangerous." he says, pointing at the tent in the center. "I think that's where we should start. See if he's there, if nothing else, we can try to get some info there." As that was the only tent any different from the rest. Then he looked to likely the most experienced person here. "What do you think Kenta?"
"I would prefer to use Henge to disguise ourselves, but that's going to be very difficult without knowing how any of the bandits in the camp look. It's a big camp, but everyone probably knows each other. It'll be very suspicious for some strangers to show up, even if they don't look like shinobi." Kenta frowns as he tries to think things through. He nods his head towards Soren. "I think that stealth is the best thing to go for this time. Confusion is a very good tactic, but we don't have quite enough people to make that work in our favor. Let's try to use the cliffs to our advantage as Michiko-san suggested and shorten the distance to the big tent as much as possible. Then, we rush that tent with all the speed with have and try to avoid coming in contact with anyone else. Use the shadows of the tents to our advantage and avoid casting shadows of our own with the sunlight. And if an alarm goes out before we manage to get to the tent… we'll introduce the confusion tactic at that point. Michiko-san and Naruko-san will burn and sink what they can to delay pursuers. But we continue towards the leader unless it looks like it'll be impossible." Kenta glances at each person on the team. "Be careful, everyone. There's a high chance of miscalculation, so we need to be on our toes. Let's go!"
Michiko nods a bit to Soren at his assessment. "I see… So we could maybe disguise ourselves and check if the boss is in the tent. If he is, take him out?" Then Kenta speaks, which clarifies the plan. "Ah, so just sneaking around." She gives a bit of a nod and starts to focus her chakra in preparation for the wall-walking. "So then… Shall we go? Naruko-san, keep a distance away from me. That way it'll be harder to spot us and we'll have a larger range when we attack," she instructs.
"We actually may have more people than you think," Naruko hinted to Kenta with a sly grin, eventually she nods off to Michiko and begins to start up her own walk, spreading out gradually. "Sure, I will keep the distance, stay out of sight…Eyes on the big tent ahead," Naruko confirms, brushing the dust from her clothes in preperation for an inevitable show down. "This is my chance to prove myself further… I can't and won't let anyone down…"
Soren nodded. "Allright then. Away we go?" he glanced back at Kenta, as he rose to his feet, making his along the path behind Michiko and Naruko, keeping a ways back to cover Kenta, his chakra starting to bear down around him as he focused.
The Camp didn't seem to be -too- active so far, but there were patrols. So Naruko and Michiko would have to be pretty stealthy to get passed them all.
There was a massive Ring from the center of the camp. Almost like someone hit a gong, or something similair.
Naruko and Michiko would be the first to notice… but alot of the bandits suddenly seemed to be heading towards the center of the camp. Something must have been up. But as of now, they didn't seem to be noticed! With the sheer expanse of the valley however, it would still take them atleast a good 5 minutes to get close to that camp.
And yet as they progressed, Naruko and Michiko would hear the faintest rumbling underground… and it was moving… moving straight for Soren and Kenta.
Kenta's alert for trouble as he stays close by Soren on the way to the camp. His eyes and ears are alert for trouble, but it could be that he's not even watching out for the right things. He's also not the best at being stealthy without something to back him up, such as a screen of mist, so a lot of his attention has already been diverted to that aspect of his movements. As a result, he doesn't notice the way that the ground has started to rumble faintly at the edge of hearing.
Michiko nods and makes her way up the wall, keeping close to the side. All that time she spent walking alongside walls as she read is paying off in this moment, so hopefully she can stay sneaky enough that she isn't spotted from down below. Occasionally she'll look back to check on Naruko or back down to the camp to see if she notices anything or anyone that stands out as the leader, but mostly she's silent and just creeping along.
Then she sees something suspicious. Rather… She senses someone… Heading towards her allies! She glances to Soren and tries to motion that there's something going towards them via the underground. She even tosses a Kunai at Soren to alert him.
Naruko didn't have any nifty earth sensing techniques, but she did have a keen sense of smell, sight and hearing. Perhaps more than anyone else here at the moment. Her ears picked up some sort of senstation happening under ground, and it wasn't long until she could feel the ground shake beneath her feet. Michiko's gesture wasn't enough for Naruko though, she cupped her hands over her lips and… "Soren-san! Watch out, something is coming right at you!" If they were discovered they were discovered… Perhaps they would need to switch to plan B after all.
Soren raises a brow. "Wait wha-AAAH!"
Before he's halfway through his qiery, Soren's legs are grabbed, and he's dragged down into the dirt up to his neck, and suddenly the earth hardened around him. "Heh… you guys almost got the drop on us…" the man sais as he slides out of the dirt infront of Soren, staring down Kenta. The man was massive. Easily 6'2", 300 lbs of solid muscle, and skin made of solid stone. Bald, and wild eyed, he stared down Kenta. "Too bad, you put up one pebble of a flair." he says, as he kicks Soren's head a bit, grinning down Kenta, as he cracked his knuckles.
Kenta's head snaps up when he notices Naruko and Michiko's warnings. He couldn't see anything at all, which is disturbing, but he trusts the senses of his team mates. He starts to perform a series of hand seals and doesn't make it in time. "Ugh!" The young medic-nin exclaims as Soren's yanked down into the earth up to the neck and an -enormous- man springs out of the ground in front of him.
Kenta blinks at the bandit leader for a second. "Umm… actually, we just wanted to lure you out," he fibs after a quick assessment of the situation. No need to appear too nervous. Suddenly, Kenta's thrusts his palm out at the bandit leader. "HA!" A blast of nerve scrambling medical chakra ripples towards the bandit. Kenta's already moving a split second later, jumping several steps backwards while tossing a tag at a spot slightly over the bandit's head. The reason why he doesn't aim directly at the bandit's face becomes clear when he makes a hand seal and a small cloud of poisonous gas puffs out in a billowing globe. Lower and it might hit Soren on the ground.
Michiko curses as Soren is caught by the bandit, her hands already moving to form the seals as she dashes back to Soren. She doesn't even bother to try and be stealthy since the leader knows their position, launching a large bullet of flame right at the man who suddenly appeared. "Naruko-san, it feels like Soren-san is pretty stuck in the ground. We might have to fight without him for a bit, so keep on your toes!" She also casts a glance behind her to check on the bandit camp, worried of a swarm that could possibly result in a loss.
Once the bandit leader revealed himself things got a little easier, though Naruko couldn't help but to feel slightly disappointed in herself. Soren was taken down surprisingly very quickly, and Kenta…their own medic was forced into combat. "Soren-san! Kenta-kun! Don't worry we have your back…or your forward…or whatever!" Naruko exclaims while nodding in return to Michiko, suddenly multiple clones of fire began to form about her, launching themselves forward into the poison smoke and attemptign to catch the bandit leader in a slew of fists of kicks…after which they would explode of course. "We just need to take him out before help arrives!"
The Bandits are indeed a worry… but just as they come into view, they stop, just on the edge, and simply start cheering.
"Come on boss! Tear em up! YEAAH!"
"STONE-FIST!"
"STONE-FIST!"
"STONE-FIST!"
The man grins as Kenta closes to palm him. He simply brandishes his chest, and the attack seems to fizzle against his flesh. "Hah! That tickl-AAACK! *COUGHCOUGHHACK*" And yet, in the midst of the attack, he was not ready for a sudden burst of poisonous smoke. And the sudden flame assault from behind sent him tumbling off to the sides, before he braced, slamming a fist into the fireclones, dispelling them. He growled, before stomping the ground, several bullets of earth scattering in the direction of Michiko and BNaruko, then rearing a fist back, and aiming to plant it solidly into Kenta's chest.
Kenta's eyes widen when the bandit leader comes for him instead of Naruko or Michiko. He doesn't have enough time to dodge, so the medic-nin stands his ground and rapidly form hand seals. Just as the bandit's slams a fist towards him, Kenta stomps hard on the ground. Seal characters spread out under his feet and a barrier of blazing chakra ripple out to stop punch midstrike. The blow is strong enough that faint cracks actually forms in the barrier. Kenta's leaping backwards and to the side again to keep the distance as soon as the barrier's dismissed.
"Looks like his jutsu works best against impact damage and anything that regular armor can block," he calls out to his team mates. It's just a speculation, but poison gas and fire had at least some success getting through the bandit's defenses. Kenta glances sideways at the gathering crowd, but they don't seem to be attacking, so he focuses his attention back on the leader while still keeping the subordinates at the corner of his vision. While the medic-nin moves around, he's also rapidly molding chakra inside his body to dissolve the little pill that he swallowed earlier. His feet suddenly skid to a stop on the ground and he snakes his head forward. A wave of white mist laced with sleeping gas explodes from his mouth in a long stream to engulf the bandit leader.
Michiko is running a bit too fast towards Soren, so she can't form a defense strong enough in time to defend against the earthen bullets, and she gets pelted with them. It hurts, but she grits her teeth and continues on, moving closer to the target. Once she's close enough, she sends a bit of chakra through the earth, causing it to explode near the bandit leader's feet and hopefully blind him. With him hopefully blinded, she attacks with two bolts of fire that are quick, though a bit weak.
A quick analysis of the situation makes her wonder what on earth those goons are doing. Do they really only exist to support their leader? That's a bit lame… "Got it, Kenta-san!" she calls out. If that speculation was true, then maybe she was in luck. She wasn't very good with taijutsu…
Naruko also wasn't able to dodge the intial assault, perhaps it was due to all the dust and smoke in the air… Nevertheless the same clones that Naruko had originally used seemed to resurge, four would go down by six would take their place. And even Naruko joined into the mix, hopeful that the poison would be a little less threatening after a series of chain explosions went off… of each fire clone catching the leader is a mass of blinding light. " Don't worry Kenta-kun! We can end this quickly I know it!" With the amount of fire jutsu both Naruko and Michiko began pulling off she was sure they would get him…Naruko also knew just how to cripple the bandit's defenses completely.
The many attacks suddenly riddle the man, and despite his growls, and his hardening skin, the attacks were dealing damage! He roared, blasted from now 3 sides! Eventually, he dropped to a knee, gasping for breath as poison riddled his system, and multiple attacks had chipped away at his flesh turned stone. The Bandits around fell to a hush, as the man spoke. "I yield…" he stammered out, obviously quite battered from the second round of attacks.
It's at this exact moment… that the bandits realize just exactly how deep they're in… and… immidiately start to scatter.
Kenta winces when he sees the earthen bullets hit both Naruko and Michiko. They fact that they can still move with such speed means that the injuries aren't crippling, but his trained eyes tell him that the impact damage was probably at least modest. Seeing his teammates retaliate with their own strong barrage of jutsu brings a grim smile to Kenta's lips. "We have him! Bind him tight, so that we can bring him back to Konoha for a trial! I hope the nearest village has a big wagon!" the young medic exclaims once their target concedes defeat.
Kenta's eyes dart towards the leader's fleeing subordinates. It's possible that they're going to lay low and maybe stop living a life of crime, but it's also possible that they'll just reform some other time. He makes a snap decision to try to stop at least a few more of them before the entire group gets away. Kenta slips a hand into a pouch to take out another small pill. He swallows it and immediate starts forming a familiar set of hand seals. At their completion, Kenta leans forward and blows -hard-. This time, the wave of sleep inducing mist that's expelled from his mouth billows out in a wide encompassing cloud instead of a steady stream, as he tries to blanket the bandits that still haven't gotten out of range yet.
Michiko lands near Kenta, standing up and dusting herself off a bit as she eyes the leader. "Well, that was easier than I thought…" she murmurs, making a few handseals while the man is down. A spinning whirlpool begins to form beneath some of the further bandits to trap them. "Well, hopefully that got most of them…" she comments. The man before her she helps tie up, and she also uses her earth jutsu to spring Soren free from the ground. "It was a pleasure working with you two. Kenta-San. Soren-San. I look forward to seeing you again."
Their team actually was quite formidable well aside from Soren who got caught fairly easily. She actually was quite impressed with Kenta, it was her first time seeing a medic fight on their own. Did he really even need their help? A burst of fire which began to flicker along Naruko's finger tips disspitated as quick as it came, especially once the big guy was captured and binded for the time being. "Alright, I will stick with the big one if you all want to continue catching the stragglers…" Naruk thene grins at both Michiko, and Kenta. "Good work you two…it looks like thiis was a litter easier after all…You too Soren-san! That first attack looked painful!"
