Reinforcements [Mission]

[kata2]

High above the lands of Tsuchi no Kuni flew a bird, though this was no regular avian but instead had a specific destination in mind. Soaring through the skies it passed the threshold of Iwagakure and zipped towards the messenger bird recon station. From its markings those who had been tasked with sending out, receiving, and keeping track of the various birds knew right away that this was urgent and quickly unraveled the blood stained piece of parchment from the birds leg before unraveling it and reading the contents. "This is bad, we must move quickly." One of the task force called out to the others before running off to find the nearest high ranking shinobi.

In a matter of minutes the message had made it to the hands of a prized Jounin who was on the chain of command for mission emergencies. The look on his face was one of concern and thought, his mind racing through the various options at his disposal. If they were to rescue the stranded team then they would need reinforcements who were not only powerful, but fast enough to reach them in time. The names and skills of the multitude of the ninja in Iwa ran through his head before settling on two options, they were perfect for such an event.

"Send word and details to Masaru Taichi and Tsubasa Masumi and have them depart immediately!" The older man called out in a scruffy voice before a pair of shinobi belted off to follow through on the orders. The clock was ticking...

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Taichi had been in his apartment having come back from his morning training session mere hours ago and was settling into what he referred to as a relaxation mode, which was more meditation than anything else. Being around the throngs of people in Iwa on a daily basis was enough to drive even a calm man insane, let alone one who snapped at the mere mention of his height, or lack there of. Then came a knock on his door, rather heavy and rapid as if almost trying to break it down. "You bang one more time and I'm cutting that hand off!" The Jounin shouted as he neared the door; whoever was on the opposite side taking heed to his words.

When he opened the door there was a nervous looking, out of breath Chunin with a scroll in his left hand. "Urgent message, Taichi-san." The boy said while handing him the scroll before running off. In one fluid motion the Jounin pulled open the scroll and scanned the contents.

SPOILER: Click to show

Urgent Notice: A team of Iwagakure shinobi have been ambushed in the Wasato region and have requested immediate reinforcements. Injuries have been reported and the number of opponents is estimated to be around fifteen, though there is a possibility of more. Rendezvous at the Gates with Tsubasa Masumi and depart at once.

[/blockquote][/spoiler]

Tch, typical, people could never hold their own when the time came for it. He gathered only what was necessary, not even enough to warrant bringing a bag along and headed for the gates. The Wasato region was a few hours due west of the village but there was hardly time to lolly gag. Taichi thought back to the scroll and who his partner would be: Masumi. She had not only been promoted to Jounin but also had gotten married, though that last bit was something that the man thought would never happen. Whatever, there was little time for frivolous thoughts. It only took a few minutes to arrive at the gates and though there was no sign of the woman yet, he had worked with her enough to know that she was a stickler for time and would arrive shortly.[/blockquote][/justify]

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[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] launder all my sins away and just like that mistakes are made you know tonight the world dies words • 431 | tags • taichi | notes • 431/4500 Life as a glorified office assistant grew in monotony each and every day. Masumi could not honestly say she enjoyed her 'promotion' any more than she enjoyed being married to the Sandaime Tsuchikage - that is to say, she found it quite dreadful indeed. It felt like a waste of her innate talent, of her abilities performing missions; she had a nearly spotless record, better than most, and she felt she was put to much better use out in the field, where there was no chance she would strangle her husband. Sorting through papers and accompanying the ivory-haired man on his rounds through the village were complete and utter wastes of her time. But what could she do? Unfortunately, her position was not likely to change anytime in the foreseeable future. Not even she could convince her husband to assign her anywhere else. In fact, she was delivering another stack of papers to Chinatsu's desk when an alarmed and highly nervous chunin nearly ran into her, barely skidding to a halt before the collision would have occurred. Masumi gave him a derisive glance and sighed. "This had better be important." she murmured, snatching the note out of the teen's hand and smoothing the crumpled paper. Violent eyes scanned the contents, hastily scrawled in a barely legible hand. Urgent Notice: A team of Iwagakure shinobi have been ambushed in the Wasato region and have requested immediate reinforcements. Injuries have been reported and the number of opponents is estimated to be around fifteen, though there is a possibility of more. Rendezvous at the Gates with Masaru Taichi and depart at once. She dropped the stack of papers she held into a passing secretary's arms, told the woman to deliver the papers to her husband's office posthaste, and headed out of the Kage building as fast as she could. It was a refreshing change, to be sent out on a mission where combat was not only expected, but a certainty. And her partner was none other than the Short Fuse himself, Masaru Taichi - a man she had much experience working with, though she did not think much of the man himself. Whether it was coincidence that they had both been chosen, or whoever was currently in charge of urgent missions knew of their history as a team, she found the occurrence to be quite fortuitous. Better than working with someone else, at the least. She arrived at the village gates mere moments after the blond, and offered him a polite nod. "Let us not waste time on words and go." made by akemi

[kata2]

Taichi had but moments to lazily scan the area around him before the figure of Masumi popped into his field of vision. She hadn't changed all that much on the outside since the last time they had worked together though her personal life had taken on a much unexpected turn to the social. While the man didn't leave much time for small talk in his daily life it'd be the least he could do to get her back for that short quip a couple missions ago. Had he been keeping a grudge, albeit small, against the woman since that time? Yes, and though normally such things mattered little it would bring a stinging satisfaction to drop the stone cold woman down a few pegs.

Her words were short and to the point, a small nod offered in agreement from the Jounin as he set out, his legs taking him past the gates and into the open area of Tsuchi no kuni. Running such a distance would not be difficult, though a tad time consuming, but if either of them saw fit to add chakra into the equation to speed up their movements then so be it. Without so much as a hint Taichi greatly increased his pace, he was damn near sprinting at this point but knew that Masumi would follow suit. She was smart to know that time was of the essence, especially in a situation such as this. If they were to keep up the pace then it'd only be a few hours until they arrived, though pinpointing the exact location of the trapped squad was another matter entirely. Walking around blindly would waste valuable time that no one had, so if there was any hitch in this plan then that was surely it.

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"Ay kids, come on out and I'll let ya see yer sensei. I promise" A gruff voice barked out into the rocky openness, which was followed by a multitude of snickers and chuckles. The bandits, now in full force, were spread out amongst the area in search of the trio of Genin. They wielded various weapons and looked like the type to not care if their kill was man, woman, or child. Ruthless. A couple of them had been placed on look out as they did take notice of the leader of the squad sending out a bird before he met the business end of a blunt weapon, ending his time here on this plane of existence. Individually, and probably collectively for that matter, they were all fairly dumb but had power in numbers.

"M-Maybe we can pick off a few of them and run back to the village?" A scared voice called out. "They'd catch us before we get even get half way back, besides you're in no condition to be running. I'm sure sensei is doing his best and we'll be back in Iwa in no time." Another voice replied. The Genin were holed up behind a rather odd looking rock formation that shielded them from view on most angles and there they were waiting for any sign that the situation had turned for the better. All three were crouched to further hide themselves, though one's leg was shaking due to a fairly severe gash. Though Sito and Ryuzu held a false optimism that their sensei was going to come back from them, the silent Nido had witnessed the grizzly end but chose not to inform his teammates less what little morale they had left be completely crushed.

Their position was decent considering how green they were, but given the numbers of the bandits it was only a matter of time until they would be spotted and dealt with accordingly. Time was of the essence.

Words: 1,259/4,500

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] launder all my sins away and just like that mistakes are made you know tonight the world dies words • 412 | tags • taichi | notes • 843/4500 It seemed as if he had not changed at all in the time between now and the last mission they had been on together - which had been quite a while ago, now that she thought about it, due to her current position. Perhaps not a year, but still, for a pair that had taken on missions together almost constantly for a few years, that was a substantial amount of time. And to be frank, she found it slightly astonishing that he didn't seem to have changed, be it in regards to appearance, personality, or skill, while she had become quite different from the chunin that Taichi had first met on a mission to retrieve some stones called the kingdom hearts. She had grown in skill - albeit her skills weren't of the usual sort - become the leader of her clan, earned a promotion to jonin and then the position as Chinatsu's right hand (glorified secretary). Masumi kept up with the blond jonin easily, and matched his pace as he continued to speed up. He certainly hadn't gotten any faster over the years, and well, she wasn't known as Iwagakure's Mirage for no reason. And so she increased her pace and blew right past him, partly because time was of the essence but mostly because she knew it would irritate him. And while he wasn't exactly the most pleasant person to be around while he was angry - or at any time, really; he was merely tolerable at best - she knew that it would spur him on, and he'd try harder to match her pace and thus allow them to reach their destination sooner. Not by a drastic amount of time, of course, but even a few minutes could make a difference on a mission such as this. She would keep her opinion of squads that couldn't handle a few opponents to herself. Perhaps fifteen men seemed like a lot, but unless they were fifteen chunin or jonin level shinobi, even genin should be able to incapacitate a few of them. A squad of four should not have that much issue with mere bandits. But then, she supposed not all shinobi were as capable as she was, or (though she would never say this out loud) as capable as Taichi was. Still, this was a time of war. If the village's shinobi couldn't handle bandits, then how could they expect to face other shinobi? made by akemi

[kata2]

Had the man been able to pass off the blatant exercise in testing one's patience as simply wanting to arrive at the destination sooner then perhaps Taichi would have been spared the rising feeling of anger from within, alas he wasn't quite clever enough to subside his temper in such ways. All that came from the blatant show of superior speed was a few twitches of the eye, but little else. If the situation not been so severe then the man would have said something, a lot of something in fact, but he would save it for the return back to Iwa. Tsuchikage's wife or not no one got away with showing him up.

Was it odd that a person who specialized in the physical movements of the body didn't have great speed? Perhaps, though that wasn't to say his speed was lackluster as he could out speed a great portion of shinobi in Iwa, and probably the other villages as well. What made Taichi's situation different, however, was that he also had to dedicate himself to mastering the kekkei genkai that he had been born with, which oddly enough took considerable skill in ninjutsu. So while his notoriety in the field of taijutsu was well documented, there was more to the spiky haired man than met the eye. Hell, he could have easily become the leader of the Blast Corps. had he felt like it but thought that would keep him away from the field too much. So in the end he would live not being the fastest man alive with the trade off being that a single strike would very well end a person's life.

With his temper slightly a boil but under control for the most part Taichi would simply increase his pace to keep up with Masumi, to an extent at least. The Jounin wasn't step for step but close enough to avoid any snide remarks of him being left in her dust or something of the sort. The duo's increased pace would have them arrive at the edge of the district in a couple hours, and while the region wasn't particularly large the intel had positioned the stranded team somewhere near the middle.

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Unbeknownst to the two Iwa shinobi who were rapidly approaching the bandit group had set up a couple sentries to watch out for this very predicament: reinforcements. Ever since the leader had been able to send that damned bird out it was a given that the village would send out someone in due time, and their hunch had been correct. A pair of scraggly men stood on top of a large boulder that looked out over the horizon, their eyes straining for any sight of life in the bleak landscape. One of the bandits eyes shot to the right as he noticed a pair of objects moving in with haste. "Sound the alarm, we got company." He spoke to the other man who rustled in his pocket for a whistle before letting out a loud, shrill sound that could be heard for many meters around.

Would that single whistle reach all the way to the interior of the region? Not a chance, but it had done its job of reaching the ears of the men who were stationed at the next look out point some couple kilometers away. Similar to the first men, they too let used a whistle to inform those that were stationed behind them. The chain was four sentry points deep, each point distanced roughly two kilometers from each other. No more than two people had been stationed at each point as to not draw too many people away from the search for the three Genin.

As for the first two sentries, they quickly readied a pair of swords each and readied themselves as much as possible for the incoming assault. They knew well that their chances of winning were slim but their only purpose was to slow down the reinforcements so the kids could be found and properly dealt with.

Words: 1,941/4,500

[Tsubasa Masumi]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] launder all my sins away and just like that mistakes are made you know tonight the world dies words • 474 | tags • taichi | notes • 1317/4500 Masumi cast a glance back at the muscular man, smirking, and saw him twitch. He was as easy to antagonize as ever, it seemed. Perhaps she should recommend an excellent anger management course to him after the mission was over. Or perhaps that would just make him angrier. Either way, the results would surely be amusing to see. Even if he rounded on her and tried to take out his anger on the woman, she would still be amused - no doubt he would easily fall prey to one of her juinjutsu, which would be effortless for her to apply to him. He would really have no idea what he was getting himself into - for his own sake, he should keep his anger confined to words, or he would not like the consequences. Truly she did not understand why he was so easily roused to anger. What was the point of getting worked up over simple words or even deliberate taunts? It would not be so amusing to poke fun at him if he did not explode with irrational anger. Although she supposed he wouldn't understand the notion of letting the taunts and jibes fly right over his head and ignore those who spoke them. It would be more productive than flying off the handle whenever someone so much as accidentally made a short joke. He would always be irrational, in direct contrast to Masumi. Noting that he was keeping pace rather well - better than she had expected, in fact - she was tempted to increase her pace even further, in an actual attempt to leave him in the dust, but she would not take foolish actions on a mission such as this. Actually, she never gave in to the desire to take foolish actions, no matter what the result would be. More people should take after her rationality, she thought; perhaps then fewer people would get stuck in situations like the one they were heading towards. Alas, it would never be. After a few hours of running, they were nearing the location where the team in need of rescue was hiding - if they hadn't been found and killed already. Being that they were injured and the bandits had probably spent the past few hours hunting for them, it would not surprise her if at least one casualty had been sustained. And in her mind, it wasn't all that much of a tragedy, though she would never voice this opinion. Why let it be known that she held a measure of disdain for every Iwagakure shinobi, including her husband and her clan? She would be a fool to risk the secure position she held now, where only her husband was suspicious of her motives. "Are you ready to fight?" Likely it was a redundant question, but it was one she would ask regardless. made by akemi

[Tatsushiro Hideki]

→ Within the dark caves that the bandits called home, a peculiar man leaned against one of the back walls with a sword resting on his shoulder, eyes closed and head slumped forward; a casual observer would note that he was either resting or dead. The man was Hideki Tatsushiro, a Ronin with a massive bounty on his head for butchering his land's corrupt Daimyo like the pig he was. Currently he was meditating, reminiscing, and otherwise relaxing. He had joined with the bandits when they told him a tale of how they had been simple farmers and merchants, trying to get on in life until Iwagakure's ninja disenfranchised them in one way or another, leaving them all homeless and without a penny to their name. Whether this story was true or not was largely irrelevant- these people sought him out for help, and he would oblige them. Despite being wanted for immediate execution from the rest of the Samurai, he still followed their code of conduct. It would be incredibly unbecoming of a Samurai to turn down someone in need- whether they be good, evil, enemy, or friend. It was expected that the Samurai in question would use their own discretion when accepting requests, but Hideki took them blindly. He didn't feel that it was his place to interrogate those who sought aid before offering help, although this policy had gotten him into more trouble than he'd like to admit.

No sooner than had his thoughts turned back to his homeland was he roused from his meditation by one of the men that he was working for. It was difficult to see in the dim light, but he seemed to be a man of great stature; standing at a very respectable 6'4". His chest was thick and developed, making him almost a giant of a man. He wore a white bandanna, sported a heavy coat of stubble on his chin, and had a deep scar crossing his left eye in an X shape, with the eye itself having been long since closed because of the injury. His voice was as gravely as his appearance would have implied, his tone weighted with authority despite only being a Lieutenant.

"Ninja have been sighted on the South side, and there's a good chance that our patrol has already been attacked by them. If you're really planning on helping us, now would be the time to do it."

In response, the Ronin merely picked up a small saucer that was sitting at his side and brought it up to his mouth, swallowing a small mouthful of water before setting the dish back on the floor and standing straight, sliding his sheathed sword back into his belt. When he was finally ready, he stepped forward, calmly walking past the Lieutenant while pulling up his scarf so that it would cover his face up to the bridge of his nose.

"I'm on my way."

[Dialogue Color]: Hideki NPC
[Dialogue Text]: QUICKSAND
[Dialogue Template]: "Words"
[Word Count]: [488/3000]
[Techniques Used]:

[Chakra Reserves]:

[Inventory]:

[kata2]

It was quite the sight to see how people could stand out against the bleak background of the Earth Country, even if they weren't particularly interesting looking themselves. The woman's words were simple and to the point, the Jounins eyes focusing on the armed duo who were coming into view. So they were the first line of defense, eh? Unless these bandits were truly imbeciles and only left a couple of dopes on guard. Had there been an entire team of shinobi sent on this mission then they would have been taken out in an instant.. similar to what was about to happen now.

The pair's speed was above average, even having been running for a couple hours, and Taichi had every intention on utilizing said speed to aid in the destruction of the poor fools who dared take up arms against him. His mindset had become such for a few reasons, though mostly due to the amount of chakra it took when utilizing his special techniques which made their uses scarce. The second reason was more mission oriented as such a loud sound would alert any other nearby bandits, though unbeknownst to the man the signal had already been given.

"Rookies first." The man replied, hinting at Masumi's still very new promotion to Jounin. It wasn't often that Taichi let someone take the lead on such a situation, but he wanted to see just the woman had acquired in terms of skills since their last encounter.

[/justify]