Starring:
Date: October 29, 2014
Summary:
After the succesfull raid on the Stonefist clan Bandits, a few stragglers had fled acrossed the border to Kumogakure, hoping to secure escape from the nation to a safer climate. Michiko and Sachiko respond to their occupation of a small fishing village.
"The Stragglers"
A small fishing village on the southern coast of the Land of Lightning
The remains of the Stonefist Bandits have scattered. A small group have crossed the Land of Lightning borders, and ran over a small fishing village on it's southern coast. Despite the weaklings that made up their number, they seem to have gathered around another rather effective leader, and they were more than capable of dealing with a small village with no real protection. Luckily it seems that they havn't harmed anyone more than just roughing people up until they can secure an exit strategy from the country. Hills surround the village, making intel gathering much simpler.
Michiko finds herself cleaning up after the Stonefist bandits, which were mostly a nuisance if she recalled correctly. The girl idly wonders who is joining her on the mission as she makes her way to the assigned meeting place, which was a bit away from the village these Stonefist bandits had taken over. As she waits, she focuses some of her chakra in preparation. Sadly, she doesn't have a book on her at the moment…
Sachiko had heard about the group making trouble in the south and had volunteered to help take care of them. It would seem Michiko was the other other one to go, which didn't bother the redhead in the least. In fact, she was happy to have the girl as her partner. "These idiots don't know who they're dealing with," she remarks as she approaches, grinning slightly.
Michiko smiles to Sachiko when she sees the Iga approach. "Sachiko-san, it's good to see you. I assume we're going after the bandits together?" The answer is fairly obvious, but she might as well ask. "I faced them once before. They didn't seem very strong, and a lot of them fled when the leader was defeated." She pauses, glancing to the village nearby. "What do you think we should do? Just charge in? Or should we try to be more subtle?"
The woman nods her head, chuckling a bit. "I'm here to get rid of them with you," she says. Sachiko hums thoughtfully. "Well… how about I take a peek into the village, see how they're set up first." With that suggested, she takes off her blindfold and focuses chakra into her eyes — probably not what Michiko was expecting her to do. Her attention turns to the village, the woman carefully peeking her head just over one of the hills so she can see it. Utilizing her implanted Hawk Eyes, she can see much farther than the average person.
The village was quiet. Several bandits with their meager armaments had taken up posts around the village on watch, but for the most part everyone seemed to be quiet. No villagers on the streets, although, Sachiko would likely see several paniced people huddling just inside houses. So far everything seemed to be as previous intel had suggested. There seemed to be several guards around one house in particular, though.
Michiko blinks as Sachiko scopes out the village, waiting for the results of her look. "Anything of interest?" she wonders after a little bit. While she can sense a few things through the earth, it's extremely inaccurate from a distance with so many people. She manages to sense a cluster of people, though, which was odd to her… "Do you think it's possible to sneak into the village?" she then asks, hoping this might be the case. Easy in, easy out sort of thing…
The woman shifts back a bit and settles her gaze on Michiko, her eyes zooming out, so to speak. "There are a few guards keeping a lookout… Some of them have taken up guarding a specific house. Not sure why, exactly — can't see through walls with these, alas." Maybe she should ask Shuuren about that… Shaking her head, Sachiko takes a deep breath. "There isn't much going on, so we'd be at something of a disadvantage trying to sneak in, but you said you faced them before and they aren't very strong so… it's entirely possible we could sneak in without too much difficulty."
Michiko hmms and nods. "I see… Well…" She considers the options. "Attacking as we are now might not be the best idea either… We should go see what's up at the house, I think." She nods a bit. "I can get there underground, I think, fairly easily. And then see what's going on near the house. And I think you might be able to join me, though it'll be a bit more difficult to make the space big enough for us both…"
Sachiko listens to her suggestion and hums before shaking her head. "I don't want to slow you down. You can go ahead. For that matter… I can do one of two things: I can henge into something that they would be less likely to attack — perhaps a child that they'd just as soon stick in a house and I can then use Static Cloud if they're close enough to each other — or I can just attack from here… Take out some guards, distract them…"
Michiko nods a bit. "Okay. Sachiko-san, you can provide some sort of distraction or take a few out from close range. I'll see if I can figure out what's going on at the one house they're all hovering around. If things start taking a turn for the worse, just go as all-out on them as you can. Don't let any of them escape." Whether this means kill or capture is a tad ambiguous… Michiko makes a handseal and sinks into the ground, the Iwata traveling through the earth hopefully undetected to her destination.
The Iga nods her head and immediately turns, focusing her attention on the most attentive-looking guards. Sachiko takes a moment to focus her chakra before she forms hand seals and launches a few orbs of lightning at three of the bandits. This particular technique would cause fatigue as well as doing damage, thus weakening them in multiple ways.
The Bandits seem to notice Michiko's travel only in the barest sense. Then 3 of them are unlucky enough to get hit, and drop like a sack of bricks.
Michiko's travel is completely uninterrupted for the time being, letting her get close to, or even inside the guarded house. On Sachiko's end however, a few guards would start making their way over to investigate the flashes. Otherwise, none of them seem to have been alerted by her already overt display. Yeah, these guys were mostly oblivious.
Michiko eventually makes her way to the spot that is below the activity-center. A small hole is made in the earth for both breathing and seeing through, the Iwata intent on trying to see what exactly is going on in the house. She has her hands ready to cause a distraction elsewhere if she does end up getting spotted.
Sachiko was fully aware that she'd draw the attention of the bandits. That was partially the point. So, she drew their attention and even set off three more Raikouhira techniques. This might give her away, it might not… but she's prepared to henge if need be.
As Michiko got close, she'd start to hear two voices, quite audibly arguing with each other.
"… then the boss got caught! What was I supposed to do?!"
"Stay, and follow orders."
"Come on! We had to run! and you still have plenty of guys! You shouldn't have any problems!"
"But alas… if I let you leave, then what's to stop them from leaving? Sorry my friend…"
*Shing* "AAAAH!"
As Michiko peeked into the room, one man would already be slumped against a wall, clutching a stab to the chest, as the second man walked towards the door, wiping off a Katana.
Sachiko drops 3 more Bandits, and as a small crowd starts to gather, it's pretty obvious that these guys are pushovers of the lightest order, she shouldn't have too many problems at all, even with 12 more Bandits closing in, she would have more than enough range and open space to deal with them.
Michiko's eyes widen slightly at the scene, the girl quickly forming handseals to prevent the man with the katana from walking any further. A hand of earth erupts from the ground, attempting to catch the man and keep him encased in an earth coffin that formed shortly after the hand. Whether or not this attack works, Michiko comes out of her hiding spot. "So, does this mean you're the leader of this group?"
Sachiko continues to set off orbs of lightning to strike the incoming bandits, allowing Michiko all the time she needs to deal with the other guy. This was far easier than she actually thought it would be. Not that she figured bandits would give too much of an issue, but this was… wow.
The man seems to quite easily side step the technique once it starts forming under his feet. "No actually. I'm not the leader. He took this group and ran off on his own, and I can't take credit for that." He says, glancing back to Michiko, and raises a brow.
The man clutching the stab wound started looking a bit woozy.
"If you get him basic medical attention, you could still take him alive, and likely his subordinates. But if you'd rather chase me down, be my guest, tiny one." he says, waving dismissively as he opens the door.
Michiko peers at the man, frowning slightly at his words. "Hmm… I feel like I'll see you again…" she mutters. The girl decides to let the man escape, entirely uncertain if he could be considered friend or foe, and focuses more on the injured person behind her. It's only a bit of basic first aid, but it should be enough that he doesn't die as quickly as he would. A quick dash back to Kumogakure and medical help would be on the way, right? >.>
Sachiko continued to pick off the idiots that came looking for her, letting them all drop one-by-one before she'd stand up and look toward the villager. A raised brow is given to the man Michiko has let go, but she makes no effort to attack him. She trusts the Iwata to make the right choice here. Still, she does make her way to where Michiko is in order to question what happened and help with getting aid.
With the man falling unconcious, and the Bandits subdued, the remaining tasks were all simple by comparison. The village doctor tended to the man, keeping him from death, and with a quick message back to Kumogakure, enough support was sent to transport the bandits to Kumo proper that there were no straglers left. Another succesful mission!
And next time! The mystery of the mysterious man! Tune in! Same bat time! Same Bat Channel!
