Starring:
Date: March 9th, 2010
Summary:
Those dastardly fiends! They've taken over…the weapons factory? Why would anybody do that? c.c
"Weapon Factory Rescue"
Outside Kumogakure
Criminals, by and large, are a predictable lot. They're motivated by greed, or lust for power, or some other basic human needs drive blown out of proportion. They act to satisfy these urges, usually through the rapid accumulation of money, and this tendency creates patterns in their behavior that experienced analysts can deduce with uncanny accuracy. Every so often, though, criminal activity appears which doesn't follow any of the typical trends.
Take, for example, the invasion and lockdown of a mass-production weapons factory. The blades produced therein have a certain amount of value, but not enough to make them worth the risk. The heavy equipment can't really be stolen very easily. There aren't any special blueprints or other secrets kept on the premises. The workers might collectively fetch a fair ransom, but only after a tedious and unreliable collection process. Besides, the perpetrators in this case haven't made any demands. After the initial pandemonium of the invasion, the factory stands quiet except for the uninterrupted churning of machinery, nobody coming out or going in.
The first ninja available at the scene are Saito Jon, Kinmu Chichi, Yamayuki Amani, and Shirokiri Rise. They happened to be running some training maneuvers near the scene, and were quickly summoned to deal with the situation. Jon peers at the faint purple glow in the windows and doorways of the factory. "Some sort of barrier," he murmurs. "Somebody in there really doesn't want visitors." Jon glances at the genin under his command. "Any ideas, you two?"
Chichi has never been on a mission. Ever. The Jounin who train her are always the same. Always the same people who treat her so cruelly and coldly. Always the same lessons that never seem to get through her thick skull. But a new Jounin has decided to train her for once. And it's not about her supposed 'untapped potential' either!? Maybe the Saito are just a Clan of niceguys — like Senshi-san (Sentouki)! She has high hopes now that she has made two whole friends here in Kumogakure (after only 16 years!), and imagines that this Saito Jon will be a third friend of hers. If not… Well… It wouldn't be anything new.
But when they are called to deal with a factory seizing, she is really thrilled! She is so excited and she just can't hide it! She doesn't even seem to realize the seriousness of the situation, though she certainly wants to make a good impression! So she pays rapt attention to Jon as he explains the situation. Sort of. "A barrier, huh! The best thing to do when something is blocking your way is to punch right through it! Or climb over it! Sometimes you can go around it too! But going under it might not be a good idea because it probably ways a lot in the first place and you'd get dirty crawling around on the ground! So we should… Uhh… Do that thing I said the first thing?"
She suddenly feels self-conscious about giving out ideas to a Jounin. Surely he will call her stupid or laugh in her face now!
Jon nods thoughtfully. "Underneath's not such a bad idea, actually. People usually don't expect that. But, I don't know of any quick, effective way to get under that factory and up through the floor, offhand. Around probably won't work, over doesn't have much more chance…so, yeah, punching through seems like about the only realistic option." Jon draws his rod. "But, it's very likely that they'll be ready to attack anyone who does that. So, we're going to have to be very alert and careful. You give that barrier your best shot, then I'll jump in to deal with anything they send our way. After that, stick close to me and do whatever I say very quickly, okay? We'll have to play this by ear once we're inside." Jon moves to stand by the doorway, then nods to Chichi. "Whenever you're ready."
After telling her parents about this mission, only then were they able to agree with giving Amani her spear back. It was fairly simple, but it worked for her. It was created by her after all. Fastforwarding…
This had to be the first time she's been in something like this, but she felt like it was similar to hunting which she could relate to. Hiding and all that, so she waited, spear gripped in her hand and ready to go forward, a little nervous, but eager with anticipation. Not knowing what she would be facing made it all the more exciting.
After making one last delivery for her 'eccentric' father/sensei Rise ends up dragged into another troubling matter. Unlike her companion, rise refrained from bringing any weapon besides the one supplied for this little interlude and her father's tanto still sheathed at her side. A toothy grin of anticipation mars her features as she remains crouched within the shadows awaiting orders. 'I wish they would hurry up already! My legs are starting get antsy as well' is thought as the her control slowly starts to teeter over the edge.
Chichi nods energetically at what Jon says. "Right, Saito-sama!" She then charges right at the purplish barrier in the nearest doorway. No attempts at stealth are made. She doesn't intentionally make noise, mind, but she's just running in a straight line. When she gets close enough, she swings a fist and tries to punch the barrier to smithereens! She has the urge to yell out, "Ox-Style: Punch!" but refrains from doing so. She knows there's a couple students waiting nearby too, and doesn't want to draw down the entire factory on them.
The breaking of an energy barrier is a peculiar thing. It's not a solid per se, so it doesn't exactly crack or crumble. Probably the easiest thing to compare it to would be the popping of a soap bubble. A very /strong/ soap bubble, but once there's a little hole in it, it spreads out and pulls the whole thing in on itself until it suddenly disperses. Jon darts in the door and looks around quickly, trying to assess the situation. He doesn't have long to do so before a hail of sharp metal comes at him. Of course, this /is/ a weapons factory, the culprits won't have any shortage of ammunition. >.<; Jon spins his rod in front of himself to deflect the cutlery.
Meanwhile, here's the low-down for the rest of you: several thugs are standing here and there about the factory floor, tossing the weapons at Jon. Some of them appear to have a bit of ninja training, but none of them seem particularly good. Off in a corner, the factory workers sit huddled with a couple of the bad guys guarding them. "Chichi-san, see if you can free the hostages!" Jon shouts. "The rest of you, pick your shots and return fire!"
"Hai!" Amani chimed as she came running out from hiding and into the entrance of the factory, still marveling at the fact that Chichi just punched a hole into a barrier. It didn't seem like it too much effort for it to fall. Either she was really strong or that barrier was really weak. Oh well, time to take action! On Jon's orders, she tried to find a suitable target and it felt so invigorating. So much so, that she pointed her spear at one guy and began her charge forward, first swinging it around like a baseball bat only to wrap it back around behind her and stab at the guy with it.
Rise eyes widen in amazement at chichi's power before muttering a "Che" when the hail of metals is launched at Jon and chichi. "So much for the element of surprise, eh, Ama….*blinks*…She really is a bladeophile", She mutters before charging into the fray herself. She draws from her temporary weapons pouch two shuriken and throws it at the farthest bad guy legs and shoulders while nimbly dodging out of the way of the return fire. However when she yells "Leaf Whirlwind" and goes for a sweeping kick her target simply blinks at her before stepping back out of range. 'Curse these short legs!'
Chichi is proud that her super duper barely-above-Genin-average strength is enough to shatter the barrier! But when they are suddenly under attack, she has to change her priorities from being proud to being freaked out. "Huh!?" she lets out in confusion. "Why are they attacking!? You're a Jounin, Saito-sama! You can totally beat them with one finger! Show them what's what!" she cheers Jon on instead of actually doing anything useful, like, say, returning fire. When something sharp and metal slashes open the front of her shirt and exposing some skin (thankfully she is actually wearing something under that shirt today), however, she realizes that it's not just Jon being attacked. "Aaaaaahhhhh!"
Chichi runs flailing towards the enemies, and might somehow manage to avoid being hit by anything by virtue of zig-zagging. She then does her best to punch anything that gets in melee range. She's not really aiming, just trying to pound the daylights out of anything that moves.
Jon grits his teeth. He /meant/ for the kids to attack at range, so he could defend them. >.<; Well, at least most of the aggression seems to be concentrated on him at the moment. Shoot, he must have a morning's production worth of shuriken and kunai scattered at his feet now. Still, the enemies are starting to take notice of the small fry. A couple of the thugs hiding amongst the conveyor belts start aiming their throws at Amani and Rise. The mooks guarding the hostages look half-pleased to see the clumsy-looking, rip-shirted kunoichi charging at them, but they soon find that Chichi's flailing is quite a handful. One of them curses and ducks to avoid the attack, while the other attempts to grab Chichi's arms. Meanwhile, Jon suddenly thinks of something. None of these guys look like they have the talent or were in a good position to put up that barrier, so who-*CHINK, SSSSSSSSSBOOM!* Jon flickers away from his spot just in time to avoid an explosive tag kunai that came down from the factory ceiling. A somewhat more competent-looking shinobi stares calculatingly down from his upside-down perch on the roof.
Amani couldn't stay behind with this weapon and throwing it wasn't going to happen unless there were less people. The idea of someone else touching her weapon, yeah, touching it, wouldn't have went well. She didn't think about how the others had their own weapons to use, just hers was exclusive and that everybody wanted it! They probably didn't, though. Factory and all.
As she began to come down on her target, she'd be thrown off by the sharp objects whizzing by her and nearly cause her to flip out. Animals didn't throw sharp objects back at home, but these weren't animals…sort of. But she saw them as some. This was gonna be a little more difficult than she was expecting. So, she misses her target in attempts to try and avoid the weapons that were thrown her way, but she does get a bit of an unintentional tackle since her weight was still being thrown forward. A few caught her, but made a couple of flesh wounds, both having scratched against her back in some form.
After receiving a knee to the face by the same one she missed Rise is sent flying a few feet before hitting the ground. The continued momentum does help her roll back to her feet before falling back on her butt from the explosion. "Alright, what kind of idiot-whoah!" She yells as a sharp object is planted just between her legs. A few others continue to rain down on her ,but she rolls back into a hand stand and spin with her legs out fast enough to deflect most of the blades. The rest manage to hit her arms and collapse onto her self. "Just a little more", she manages to pant out before changing tactics and moving closer to team up with Amani.
Chichi finally gets ahold of herself at about the same time the second goon gets ahold of her arms. Oddly, despite being shorter than the goon, and being a mere >girl< on top of that, she seems to have enough strength that she manages to lift the bad guy off the ground, by virtue of pulling/leaning forward, so that the enemy behind her is consequently relocated onto her back. Then she reverses the situation further by shifting her shoulders upwards and trying to pin the man's arms to her sides with her elbows. If he gets free then he can put his feet back on the floor, but otherwise Chichi charges at the first guy, the one who was avoiding her crazy attacks, and tries to double-headbutt him! Once with her own head, right in the stomach, the other with his buddy's head, right in the face!
Her head is hard and unyielding (sort of like Goku's!), but the second bad guy's head probably wouldn't feel too good after being used as a weapon like that.
Encouraged by their partial success in wounding Amani and Rise, and figuring that height and weight would give them an advantage against little girls, a couple of the goons decide to attack the students up-close. They charge in and attempt to tackle the girls, stabbing at them with kunai. Meanwhile, Chichi's pain delivery service turns out to be quite effective. Two for the price of one! :D The goons are left sprawling on the ground, groaning and at least momentarily out of the fight. A few of the hostages see that they have an opportunity to escape and start getting up, but the process for the group as a whole is a little slow and disorganized.
Jon steals glances up at that ninja hanging from the roof in between deflecting more missiles. He's planning something, this whole scenario seems very deliberate. Jon dodges back and forth to avoid the hail of metal, tucking his rod under his arm and doing a few handseals. Before he can finish what he's preparing, though, the roof ninja acts. Taking another explosive tag kunai in each hand, he tosses them in two different directions. One goes toward the group of hostages, and the other toward the largest machine in the factory…which has a boiler big enough to kill everybody inside and quite possibly blast shards of window into people outside. x.x "Chichi-san, get rid of that thing fast!" Jon yells flickering after the tag that was tossed at the machine.
Amani, was still recovering from her tackle as she and the guy tumbled to the ground. She'd try to pace herself in rising up from the guy before he had an attempt to grab at her, but rising was bad as more guys were coming in with kunai to attack. She doesn't understand all of this. It's as bad as fighting Garcia on Streets of Rage with his stupid knives. Always catching you off guard. Side screen punk.
Rolling away from one stab she ran into another and made her pain evident by shouting. This was just as bad as that puma she fought before except it felt much more worse with the kunai going /into/ you instead of being narrowly scratched by claws. Although, this wouldn't compare to the danger that they could be facing if those explosive tags weren't taken care of. The girl didn't go on this mission with the intention to die here too. Maybe there was still a chance though as she wasn't quite done yet. She may be hurting from the kunai stab, but she has something that can stab just as bad. She wouldn't be able to attack the guy behind her, but she would try to put some distance between him, this time, watching out for who was around before she rolled on the ground and upon recovery, thrust her spear at the nearest goon in attempts to stab him in the gut.
Rise attempt to catch with Amani only leads to her misfortune when one of the thugs grabs her from behind ;and lifts her with her arms pinned to her sides. She screams both from having her wounds pressed on and in anger for being caught so easily. Her father's chastising voice plays in her head as she struggles to break ,but is only able to do no more headbutt his chest and let out a barely suppressed scream.
"Let me go! Or else I…I" "You'll what! Bite me!? Hahahahaha-oooowwwieee!", The thug screams as rise's shark like teeth slices straight through his skin. If he let's go from the pain, rise would fall to the ground and back up a few steps away before launching into a headbutt aimed at thug jr. then race back to catch up to Amani. If not, then the thug would continue to suffer from the bite instead.
Chichi dumps the guy on her back to the ground, and then looks around, spotting the prisoners. She rushes to try to get the workers moving who aren't moving on their own. "Move, move, move! Go, go, go! Dance, dance, dance… Safety dance! Wait, ignore that last one!" Then she hears Jon yell and turns to look at him instead of the kunai bomb coming her way. "Huh? Get rid of what, Saito-sama?" She reaches one hand up to scratch at her head while she glances around for something to get rid of. The kunai bomb slashes across the palm of her hand, making her yelp and jerk her hand away. Still, that was enough to alter its trajectory, and after flipping in the air a few times, she grabs it with both hands.
Chichi stares at it, not comprehending what it is at first. Then she puts two and two together… And gets FIVE. 'Oh, this must be a weapon that Saito-sama was throwing to me! Haa! I'll use it on that one jerk hanging up near the ceiling!' she thinks. Then she turns and hurls the kunai bomb at the ninja sticking to the ceiling. This might be total genius… Or total stupidity.
The thugs soon find out the foolishness of underestimating Kumogakure ninja, even if they are little girls. Amani's victim doesn't see her attack coming and doesn't realize the reach her spear give her; he finds himself staring dumbly down at the blade in his gut before collapsing from shock. Rise's opponent is too busy gripping his bleeding arm and shouting enraged threats to think about defending himself, and anyhow he wasn't expecting the girl to come back at him after squealing to being let go. One more down for the count. x.x
Jon manages to catch the kunai bomb just as the tag starts fizzling. No time to throw it out of range-Jon flickers across the room again with the bomb held tightly in hand. It explodes in the midst of the factory floor, sending shuriken, kunai, and other unfinished blades flying every which way. It also knocks down several of the enemy, luckily. Jon himself is caught in the edge of the blast, having dropped the kunai a split second before the tag exploded. He thuds to a stop against a large wooden crate. >.<;
Up above, the enemy ninja watches Jon's actions with great interest. A little /too/ much interest, even, as he half-forgets to detonate the other tag. Oopsie. Oh well, easily mended. The ninja sends out the chakra signal to start the other tag, and hears the distant sizzle of-wait, it's not so distant? The ninja turns to look just as the kunai returns to sender. Ohcrud. @.@; *KABOOOM* The ninja is sent hurtling downward, and his fall is broken by a rack of spears. Stood with their blades pointed upward. Ick.
Apparently that ninja was the leader, because the rest break into a disorganized panic and try to run away. Mop-up time!
Amani yanks her spear back out of the goon's gut as he goes down and utilizes it to help her stand up. The pain from being being stabbed with a kunai was distracting as well as made it difficult for her to use her body to full capacity. Even though the pain was centralized, it was still affecting other places. After pulling herself up, she goes back down now that shuriken and all sorts of sharp objects were flying around in the air. How fantastic.
Well, at least she wasn't stabbed again. Just it was going to be a little harder to stand up, but she could manage. So, she begins to pull herself back up again, making sure to keep her spear stable on the ground so it could support her weight. Once up, she heard another bomb go off and she in turn ducked, though she saw its target go falling down into… Yeah, that was a bad way to go out. :S And…oh, everybody is running. She couldn't run too much, but she could nick a few people here and there with her spear, maybe even get lucky. Stab wounds were no fun.
After successful, incapacitating the one who grabbed her rise looks around hungrily for more. And like a feral beast rise immediately latches onto the back next thug to try and flee and bite into his neck then shake her head to rip the flesh free. Even after the last explosion from inside the building goes off just before the hostages flee past her she remains steadfast in tearing him apart until either her blood lust settles or someone stops her. Her father's voice picks up again and says internally 'Lighten up kid. It's only a dummy'. But in response she rips free a bit of his neck flesh before peering around confused. "Hm…where'd everybody go?", she wonders aloud as the man passes out while muttering "Chibi-bakemono…"
Chichi is a bit startled at the effect 'Saito-sama's weapon' has on the bad guy. She has never killed anyone before. And even if it wasn't a direct kill, she still feels responsible… But there's bad guys getting away, so she shoves down the fear and disgust for now, and just tries to round them up as quickly and non-violently as possible.
Jon picks himself up and takes stock of the situation. Bad guys in disarray, enemy leader somehow defeated, in a /very/ permanent manner, hostages safely leaving the building…and some kid snapping photographs like crazy. When did he get in here and why doesn't he know better than to walk into a battlefield? -.-; Well, no matter. While the genin and students take down some of the stragglers, Jon faces the group of thugs that are clustering at the back door to get out. A few handseals later, they all stop and cry out in shock, then grab the air in front of them as if trying to shake loose iron bars. Just a little illusionary taste of what they'll soon be experiencing in reality.
Soon enough, the local authorities come in to help make arrests, treat injuries, and clean up. The incident of the captured weapons factory is over, but the purpose of the whole thing remains unclear. The thugs were all hired to do as told without being informed what their true objective was, and with the death of their leader, nobody remains who can provide any clues. The next day, however, an interesting effect of the incident appears…
