Starring:
Yuuka, Yasushi, Onimitsu, Meruin
Date:April 23rd, 2010
Summary:
Kumogakure's forces invade one of Kirigakure's outpost's in the Land of Waves. The defenders fight fiercely, but the Land of Lightning holds victory this day.
"The Waves of War"
Land of Waves: Kirigakure Outpost
Kumogakure does not play.
The coast line was filled to the brim with Kirigakure shinobi, though the primary commanders of this battle were perched atop the fortification. They were attacking Kirigakure's front as a show of power, and they were doing so with a vast fleet of ships. The Water Daimyo had decided it was best to keep the main fleets of the Land of water close to home, thus there was little more than patrols hit and running the Kumogakurean fleet. Most of this was ignored. When Kumo did decide to retaliate against the small, agile vessels, there was little left to show of Kirigakure's water bound resistance. Alot of the leaders that were stationed at the fort were starting to panic as the ominous waves of ships cruised towards the shores, however, Yasushi remained rather silent. At his side was Kaguya Yuuka, whom he had his large hand atop the head of, and near by where those he had pulled from the fodder lines to actually be of use beyond the landing of the enemy. What an honor… to be chosen live a few moments longer.
Kumogakure does not play.
Yasushi would finally begin to speak, though the words were towards the cowards behind him. "Stop shaking so much, i can't hear the enemy laugh at us." Yasushi would say with a bit of venom in his tone. "If you wish to continue to worry about your families and friends and pentions, i'll be sure to allow you to secure your future by standing right out on the water and waiting for them with open, pleading arms. If you wish to do your damn jobs, then step up and prepare the shinobi for the coming battle." Yasushi's eyes remained calmly looking at the black waves that came to wash them away. "For many of you, this will be your first real war. For most of you this will be larger than the clan skirmishes of the past. And to all of you, you just may not make it to see another day. If you want to live… learn to kill. Give them /NO/ mercy. CRUSH THEIR SKULLS BENEATH YOUR HEELS. BEAT THEM WITH THE STUBS THEY LEAVE OF YOUR SHATTERED BODY! GNAW THEIR INNARDS WITH YOUR LAST BREATH AS THEY CRAWL FROM OUR FEROCITY BACK FROM WHENCE THEY CAME!!! … If you cannot do this… kiss your pansy ass good bye."
With the large head on top of her snow white head, the apparently mute Kaguya turns her head slightly to glance up at Yasushi. Her vivid teal eyes blink with something akin to child-like innocence, though none of her surroundings seem to bother her, even as the general yells even louder to the masses gathered. Watching him, Yuuka glances back to the people, taking a short step back as his fingers shift slightly on top of her silver white head, her gaze shifting past the soldiers at the ocean beyond them.
Meruin may be seen occasionally, body movements rapid and almost rushed, though the aura around him suggests that he manages to withhold some measure of efficiency, at the very least. There he was at the beach where the Kumogakurans would first land, spiders leaking from his frame in the form of a writhing mass of darkness that soon seemed to sink into the ground. His hands glistened with thin strands of spider silk and he periodically crouched down to plant them. He stood and strode towards the fortress, now coming onto firmer ground — He stopped, turning to Yasushi as the general began to bellow his deadly advice. It was then that he looked out to the sea and noticed how close the fleet had gotten… Hard to notice when you're too preoccupied. He would try not to make that mistake again. Immediately afterwards, he set back to work, the going slower now that the earth was hard enough that he'd need to dig with his hands. He was throwing rocks aside often, as the spider's acid was not strong enough to eat through it. He made a note to change that another time.
Yasushi would unsheath his smaller blade from it's scabbard as the troops were rallied and prepared to die, even if being prepared to die allowed them to live. He would then hand it to Yuuka as he'd say to her, "Return it to me when you are finished, it will protect you until then." The boats were closing in fast, but not quite there yet as he'd flicker from sight and appear about 15 feet out along the water ahead of the rest. "Draw your swords." he would state more than command and the entire front line would respond as he crossed his arms. "Listen to the waves. They are angry that such filth rides along them as if they own the very sea. Show them the lessons we know down to our very bones. /NOTHING/ owns the Waves!." Yasushi would say with vigor, perhaps even setting the theme of the conflict being that the Land of Waves was also in mind. "SUITON AT THE READY!" Many jutsuist would suddenly create their seals and multiple orbs of water would begin to lift into the air. Yasushi would leap high in to the air himself after having collected his chakra and with a dizzyingly varied array of rotations, he would loose perhaps hundrerds of senbon all in to these orbs of water. Landing easily, he would wait as the water orbs began to explode, though the water didn't come down in a showering, they all seemed to more expand like a massive net that moved to engulf the front line ships. Yasushi would make a hand seal himself and suddenly the hydro net would glow brightly before a massive, interlaced lightning trap would crack explosively and sizzle along each and every water link in the former net. Multiple ships would go down, and many would already be dead. "Who's hungry for some stew!" Yasushi would say as the kiri nin would begin to cheer at the small victory. However, more ships pushed past the wreckage as if nothing had truly happened.
The young Kaguya woman blinks her bright blue green eyes up at Yasushi as he hands her the unsheathed dagger, holding it in her slender fingers as they flex on the grip. Her innocent expression firms some. Though her mind may be more innocent and scarred than most, she is no fool. And it was not unheard of for the Kaguya to do this to their clanmates; place a weapon into the hand of one yet to experience war. It is in their blood, after all, the beastial and savagery, their lust of war and death. It was part of them. Yuuka lowers the dagger to her side as she lifts her gaze, watching Yasushi in the air extinguishing the jutsu. Upon his landing, the hydro net grows massive, sparking with electricity as they envelope several fleets. The corner of her lips tugs with a smirk, her appreciation for such a simple execution of death of those who are foolish enough to think they are anything of a match.
Meruin felt something stir in him at the sight of the carnage created by Yasushi's attack, straightforward, effective, and a tad inventive. It managed something Yasushi's words had not quite been able to do; it quickened his heartrate and brought blood close to mind. His hands clenched into fists as his arm tensed, a burst of chakra suddenly coursing through his body. Fear and confusion lit his face with an abruptness, and soon all emotion was replaced by a calm and cool expression as though all that happened around him was of no consequence. As though he would simply do what he was here to do and that would be all. Now under proper, if tenuous reign, he put up finishing touches on some of his traps. The Kumo nin would soon be land born. There were fewer traps than he'd have liked to have, but they would do something…
Swfitly, he shook his hands out, the web glistening on them retracting back into his pores before he ran up the hill closer to the battlements. First thing, he wanted to oversee his traps and that meant looking over the tumult. The threads of silk coming from the pores of his hands and arms received a testing tug before he nodded.
Yoshimitsu is left complete speechless throughout Yasushi's words of "encouragement" to his fellow ninjas. And even moreso when the literal first wave from their forces causes mass destruction through the oncoming forces. "….This is foolish." He mutters after finally finding his voice. A quick check is given over his new replacement armor before he puts his hand on handle of his sword in nervous apprehension. He spares only a brief glance to those around him before letting his gaze linger on a certain familiar okumo whose name escapes him. 'Too young, yet ready and willing to kill…*sigh*' He thinks before saying aloud, "This will not end well."
You paged Yasushi with 'Meruin has set up sort of… pitfall traps. Like the burrowing spider. Basically, he'll tug on a certain string attached to him and communicate with the spiders in the corresponding trap. The top of the earth while rise and afterwards, the Kumo person will either fall in or get webbed and sucked in to be killed by the spiders within. These will kinda constantly be in effect so long as they aren't dismantled. Somehow. When the Kumo forces attack with enough people however, Meruin will not be needed, as they can either simply stay open and take in more, or they can open by sensing the vibrations. Ish kay?'
Not long after Kirigakure's first real retaliatory strike, the sky would begin to fill with various assortments of ammunition from arrows to bolts to even javelins and the odd kunai, shuriken, and senbon. The line behind Yasushi shifted into a defensive carapace of water techniques linked together, though some of the heavier projectiles punched through and killed some of the shinobi. Yasushi however remained out on the waters as it rained deadly metal upon his form, clanging and shattering against his body. "It /rains/ harder than this in Kirigakure. Stand your ground!" With a chorus of "Ho!" blasting behind him, the Shirayuki within the lines would utilize their abilities with the heavy abundance of water to create a jagged, heavily spiked fortified wall out of the long wall of water. Dozen's of Shinobi would take their palces atop the wall and begin to conjure up their fire, returning water needles, ninja tools, and various other elemental and conventional weapons. Yasushi would also reach below his position and begin to pull at a very heavy, thick looking chain. He had a good grip, and he seemed to tug most of it up with practiced strokes of powerful movement, but it seemed what ever it was eventually got snagged and he was now struggling with it. A few brave souls would leap to help him out, some of them dying in the hail of projectiles, but a few would make it to try and assist him on the next tug.
Yuuka snaps her teal blue eyes up at the sky, narrowing intently as the weapons falling from the sky shimmer for the briefest moment before hailing onto the ribbon of soldiers. Wincing some, the Kaguya woman lifts her dagger as she attempts to use it, slashing away at the raining shuriken and kunai, metal clanging on metal as she blocks herself. From being seriously injured at least.
It looked as though many of the projectiles fell a tad short from the Okumo boy, as he was up and slightly back behind most of the forces that were outside of the fortress. That didn't stop him from having a bit of a hard time of avioiding what came at him, but he seemed to manage it, avoiding anything that was more than negligable.
Even as the ebb and flow of battle picks up a notch, Yoshimitsu's is left almost useless at this distance save from drawing his blade quickly and knocking away a few incoming shots. A few for himself and a few others from those who left themselves unguarded. Afterwards, he would turn his gaze back to the churning seas and pray that they do not make land fall. Otherwise, they'll have a taste of a portion of kiri's true might.
Grunting a bit as he nodded at the few that came to help him, Yasushi would grit his teeth before heaving the last bit of the chain from the salty and brimey water as a strange, hollow grinding noise would be heard nearly bellowing from the sea. Various special aquatic teams of Kiri shinobi would hel pthe "pay load" along under the surface of the water. Unfortunately for the Kumogakurean fleet, they were not prepared for submersable combat. A crude but quite effective from of manipulated depth charged, altered so that their balast would allow them to fly up when prepared from the water like rockets would be let loose against the incoming forces. Multiple ships would be torn i nhalf by the sheer force of the ordinance, but as they popped out of the water, they would also explode and send shrapnel everywhere, killing hundrerds, perhaps even thousands of soldiers.
The fleet would appear to be largely in splinters and the few that seemed to survive were trying to find drift wood just to hang on to. It looked like this battle may already be over. That is until the dreadnaughts would sweep in and push aside the front line ships. Yasushi would narrow his gaze at the very large capitol ships as well as the ships of the line that remained. "It seems they brought their own fodder… this is not a shinobi battle… we are fighting an army." He would state before flickering from his position to the ice wall. "Prepare… our counter measures are used up. The real battle begins now." As if to singal the seriousness of the situation, Yasushi would finally draw his sword and hold it out to his side. "Don't expect it to be easy! We are only a hand full by comparison. We are outnumbered atleast 10 to 1 at this point, and that is after destroying more 60% of their fleet. They will land soon, be ready for melee combat!" Yasushi would order. "Battlements, Loose the artillary as they come in, lessen their initial feet on the grou…" Yasushi would begin to bark as canons would be fired from the dreadnaughts and begi nto burst through the fort walls like paper. "GET DOWN FROM THERE!" he would yell at those who were still on the walls.
Yuuka snaps her snow white head up at Yasushi as he shouts out to the solders, her fiery teal eyes snapping again to the ocean's front as solders run all around her, most jumping off of the iced fort walls as they are blown out canons. Ice explodes and shatters into the air, raining ice quickly as shouts and hollers are roared with directions. Shielding herself with an arm, the Kaguya makes a face with some annoyance before her eyes follow the flow of the soldiers, watching where they were leading off to as she takes off to join them. Her hand tightens on the hilt of her exposed blade.
'And such is the commencement…' thinks Meruin as he watches the soldiers stream towards where some would find viscious joy, others a prideful death, and all would find blood with which to play. He simply stood where he was and waited, as that was the nature of things. It was tedious work for the trap layer, but it was work he was trained for. At the very least, he could ruminate over Yasushi's previous traps and admire them in his mind's eye.
Behind his mask, yoshimitsu eyes go wide as saucer in surprise not from the undersea traps being sprung ,but from the dreadnaught pushing through the wreckage of its fallen. "Do they not care for those still out there?" He whispers to himself ,and yet the answer already pops into his head before he can follow it up. "Heroics are for fantasy, survival is for war", He says while readying himself and building up as much power as possible.
Not much remained of the fortifications walls as the ships would drop anchor only a few dozen yards off shore. Grappling style ropes are fired out towards the beach, and a mechanism pulls back to make the rope taught as a rope bridge style ramp to the service catches tentative hold on to the sands of the beach. With the long range support of Kirigakure's forces down, Yasushi doesn't bother to order the counter attack on the land bridges. "I hope that your preparations work, Meruin…" Yasushi would state, but he didn't seem to have room for worrying over it's success or not. He would survive regardless of the land gambit working or not. The lead ship would fire one last shot, likely one that they had to prepare as the dreadnaughts only seemed able to fire one canon volley at a time. The very large, boulder as it was sailed through the air to strike at Yasushi and part of the last remaining piece of the crumbling fort. His blade would flick out still within his hand and the blade would seem to halt as Yasushi held out against the force of the canon "ball." After a few moment of extremely loud grinding, his blade would cleave the large rock in twine and Yasushi would receive a reassuring "Ho! Ho! Hooo!" from the remaining kirigakure forces. He was a swordsman of the mist, regardless of how grim it may look, he cannot falter even if the ground beneath him shatters. And that it did. He would leap from what was left of their walls and stand at the front of the lines. "Walls don't fight back fools!"
Moving with the wave of soldiers, Yuuka narrows her eyes in a flash of blue green as the submerged enemy start appearing in the tens, their numbers growing quickly. The roar of war thunders around her as they rush forward to meet the enemy. Yuuka is among them, shouting at the top of her lungs as she speeds forward, dagger in hand as she rushes towards her first unlucky opponent.
"Good…" Meruin said to himself, eyes flickering across the battlefield as he watched the oncoming wave of offending enemies stream from the dreadnaughts. If he seemed a tad paler than usual, who wouldn't be after seeing the giant boulder thrown at Yasushi. Even he had barely been able to toss the thing aside. 'Focus,' he idly reminded himself.
And then the Kumo ninja had just reached the first of his traps. All along his body, small twitchings could be noticed — Very subtle tensing of a muscle here or there. Attached to them would be a single line of strong spider silk, leading down to the ground and stretching out onto the battlefield. His muscle control did not fail him, as he managed to send messages to the traps that he wanted to. Out where all would soon be chaos, the ground lifted a bit and web shot out, dragging Kumo invaders kicking and struggling inside where their screams could be easily muffled. Spider's feeding could be so painful. All across the battlefield this happened and with a great many people. Every step an invade took could easily be their last, and perhaps now they knew it…
Eventually, though, the lines to his traps were broken by the tread of soldiers, and he had no more control over them. He snapped the last few that remained attached to him and stood straight, gathering himself. He would be of much more use on the battlefield, so that's where he went, moving with the speed of a chuunin. The spiders at the beach would continue their work, dragging others below, but now if they could get past that point, there would be no more interference from those pit spider traps. Soon he'd arrive at the fight…
Yoshimitsu is the last to fall in behind the toops not out of cowardice ,but becuase of his main talent mainly being in the art of healing. Unfortunatly due to heavy amounts of almost random long shots from the occasional kunai or shuriken, the armored genin is forced to change tatics. At the risk and cost of losing control, he charges chakra to his feet before let it explode out and force him to become the silver typhoon once more!
In the process protecting him further while pushing ahead to catch up to the main body.
The traps have assuredly done their job… but there are simply far too many of them. Even if the Kumo shinobi hadn't of used earth jutsu to make the terrai neasy to traverse, the shear nubmer of people could have simply laid a road of stepping stones. Kumogakure was well over prepared for this sort of siege. Unfortunately, they also forced the Kirigakure shinobi to fight in open warfare. Tricks and tactics aside, there were far fewer shinobi, and unless the strategies worked, they simply had to many enemies to fight face to face. Shinobi worked for the shadows. This … was the power of an army. High level jutsu can destroy a village, but that also means allies. Jutsu like that, or anything else are still best utilized in a favorable position, and this certainly was not it. Yasushi would narrow his eyes as he'd have his arm with a vicious strike of his hand like a wide arching shop as several shuriken fell before him. "…Retreat… fall back to the main land!" Yasushi would command as he'd growl and flash forward easily with his blade and body as one of the few shinobi in the mass of men popped out of the sands to try and catch them by surprise. Clearing his blade of blood, Yasushi would shake his head. "I said… RETREAT!" he didn't seem to be happy about theo rder, but this was not a smart battle to continue. Kumogakure had it's foot hold on the Land of Waves and there was nothing more they could do.
Meruin was awash in the mind-numbing qualities of harsh and endless battle. The silk from his clothing would unravel and fling a multitude of shuriken from underneath with accuracy to the invading forces. A solider abruptly loomed before the seven year old and he didn't hesitate a second, lashing out with a swift multitude of slashes, using his diminutive size to slip away and do the same to others. Poison was always an asset. Webbing bled fomr his pores and was whipped about, the caustic venom on them burning the opponents it touched as he contiued his dangerous dance.
He found himself in the center of a small pocket of idleness, empty of any bodies but his and the dead. He looked all about with swift movements for another opponent and after not finding one, managed to take a breath and look about himself again. He was in the right spot. He nodded, "Do it…" Spiders burst from the ground from the traps he'd created — But then Yasushi's order was heard. Orders were the one thing that Meruin found infallible and he immediately reigned the spiders in, running towards the fort and dashing between any blows truck at him all the while.
"Sever, duck, spin, kick, parry.." Is chanted as Yoshimitsu comes out of his silver tornado and methodically cuts a swath thourgh his enemy. While some of the higher ranks if not opposing genin's manage to take advantage in the breaks of his armor, he barely falters for a second. After all, the moment of hesitation is alwasy the moment where the tides could turn.
The call for treat albiet a welcome call for his body in need of a break hits his pride heavy. Nonetheless, before he is fighter he is a shoulder first ,and thus he lets the next kunai to hit be the one to add in his disappearance back to the fortress. Today was a grim day to be a samurai ninja/one time bandit.
