BattleCraft 2 (Exam)

[Takahashi Aki]

It was that time of year again. The aspiring youth wanted to become the legends of tomorrow. Right. Just how many of these little ones figure they were gonna make it in the real world? Probably all of them. All of these little green thumbs weren't ready for the real world yet. Most of them were still probably sucking their thumbs. Masashi Mako did not hold the youth of today with high regards. She had seen too many young bucks strutting about. Youth was not innovation. Youth was a lack of experience. The old veteran stood against a wall wearing her traditional military garb with a lit cigarette hanging out from her mouth. Yes. Yes indeed. There were a few of 'em today who wanted to climb the ranks. Not if she had anything to do about it! The veteran snorted. Most of these kids would probably fail here today, if not today then sometime later. Dying in a trench either drowning in their own blood, or with their throat cut out and choking on their own blood. Mako had seen it before.

The veteran finished her cigarette and stepped forward to inspect the troops. She paced back and forth. "Alright gruntlings. You've gotten this far, I suspect that shows some sort of spirit. Today we're going to see if you're good enough to be in my army. I've got this sorry sack of gruntlings to work with. None of you look promising, so surprise me. Show me you're worth your salt. Show me you're got some balls. I hope to Mother Suna you've got something between your ears aside from your eyes."<i></i> She stated. As per usual she was her rough and gruff self, which was already evidenced by her eye patch, and lack of arm. She took another drag from her cigarette. "We're gonna put see if you gruntlings can work with the big leagues. Adapt yourselves accordingly and survive the long hard road. Roll call, step forward and give Ole Mako your name and something worthwhile so I can remember you by when you're six feet under."<i></i>

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Riyota stood in line with the others who were taking the exam. They all seemed ready...more ready than he was at least. He had completely forgotten that the exam was today, which was evident by the sleep around his eyes and the random tufts of his hair that were sticking out in awkward spots. He looked left and right down the line to see if anyone was going to announce themselves first. When that didn't happen, he shut his eyes, took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"My name is Kuromairu Riyota, I have no special features, but you should only need about three feet to bury me." Riyota wasn't even joking, he gave that remark with every essence of seriousness. The Woman was intimidating, that was for sure, but Riyota refused to back down. He knew that he may not survive the exam, but he wasn't going to let anything besides death stop him from continuing. Riyota looked left and right again, the shuffled back in line. I really shouldn't have gone first. he thought to himself.

 

[Hansame]

Noroi waited in line nervously along with the other Genin hopefuls, all looking better and more prepared then he was. He had remembered the date, and made sure to wake up early, but everyone else looked so focused and serious. Noroi on the other hand, was a trembling nervous wreck. After what had happened during the last exam, Noroi had some of the worst sunburns and his back was covered with scratches and cuts from the weather. He had prepared himself more, buying some quality kunais and shuriken instead of stealing the rusty old ones. He was already internally terrified of the lady in front of him, and he felt as if she was glaring at his soul. He stood at attention, looking up as confidently as he could, but it was clear how nervous he was. with his head upwards looking at the lady, Noroi's scar on his neck was clearly visible. The scar was a deep wound with little signs of healing showing, and occasionally it reopened, however the scar was closed as of now. Noroi didn't have a lot of money, barely enough to get by, and even then Noroi found his clothes by going through trash cans, so he really didn't have enough money to go see a healer.

When the intimidating lady spoke, nori's internal trembling increased, and his heartbeat was speeding up by the second. He watched the first boy go and present his name, then when he was done, Noroi saw that no one else go up after a few moments, so noroi stepped foreward

'M-My name is Ningyo Noroi, and I-i'm just average all together, b-but I'm good at adapting Ma'am" he said nervously before quickly going back in the line

 

[Takahashi Aki]

(I'm going to add some npc students for this)

Mako surveyed Riyota. Her eye narrowed at him, "Three feet? You expect to be a heavyweight when you get older?"<i></i> She reached into her coat pockets and pulled out a flask. She held it awkwardly and screwed off the top, and then drank from it. She screwed the top back on and approached the next student, she listened to Nonori speak. The woman let out a harsh sounding 'HA'. "Adapt and you may just well survive. You just need to adapt quickly enough."<i></i> She motioned to her missing arm. "The cost of adapting too slowly. A lifetime of war gives you little reprieve."<i></i>

"Hyuuga Suri." spoke a red headed child. "My eyes are most unique. Not everyone has them." She proclaimed. The child was given a harsh glare from Mako. The child stepped back into line and looked slightly embarrassed. The little girl wore a black jumpsuit and her hair was tied up neatly, unlike Mako's hair who didn't bother to tidy her long shoulder length locks of purple hair. The tone of Mako's hair matched that of her grandson, Sousuke.

"Okay lads, and lass. We're going to do a support mission today. We've got men and women out there brawling and kicking the arse of some slap-tits bandits."<i></i> Mako shook her head. "Given the fact it's taken them this long to dispatch the jackaninnies, I suspect out foe is stronger than expected. We're gonna go to the front lines, and help them out. Grab your gear, grab water, grab bandages, grab anything you think you'll need to survive out there."<i></i>

What Mako to offer the children wasn't really much. Three bags, 6 bottles of water, two first aid kits, matches, a bottle of whisky (which was probably meant for her), and rolls of bandages. It would be up to the ground to determine exactly who carried what, or if they wanted to leave someone to do the heavy lifting. Amongst the supplies there were also some weapons, a pair of glaives, an axe, and a crossbow. Each of the items had a little tag on them which would need to be examined later.

Suri would be the first to approach the gear. The red head chewed her lip. "So... what do you guys wanna pick up? We think about not tiring ourselves along the way, and I don't think we can carry all of this gear..."<i></i>

 

[Hansame]

Noroi was already nervous, but he flinched when the initiator let out the "Ha!", which caused his nerves to skyrocket up to the point that his legs began to shake. His body posture was still straight, but he was shaking so much one would think that a small earthquake was going on under him. Noroi was tempted to look at the girl because of her comment about the eyes, and through the corner of his eyes, he took a small peek to take his mind off the life or death exam coming up

Slightly more calm then before, at least his legs weren't buckling anymore, and his breath was only half as shaky as it was beforehand. He brushed off his backside absentmindedly while paying close attention to what Mako, the initiator's instructions for the assessment. 'B-bandits....oh dear....' He fretted before being turned over to the group with the equipment presented to them

The red headed hyuuga brought up a good point. Even if all of the trio combined to carry things, they wouldn't be able to carry all of the equipment

"U-um...why don't w-we c-carry the m-medicine and the water f-for supplies a-and I g-guess we c-c-could if we w-wanted to, we could c-carry a w-weapon" he suggested quietly

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Riyota had never met the other two students before, but he had a feeling they would get along well. The other boy had even less confidence than Riyota, which led Riyota towards feeling more confident, after all, if they brought to nervous wrecks along it could turn into a disaster. "Suri and Noroi, right?"[/colour] Riyota confirmed, messing up names on the first meeting was never a good start. He grinned slightly to try and help Noroi feel a bit less nervous. He studied the equipment they had been provided. "Hmm...this is a lot for three people to carry. I guess we've kinda got two options...well, we got tons of options...but I'm going to narrow it down because it's easier. We can either all carry a weapon for defense and less supplies, or we give one person a weapon and the other two many more supplies." Riyota knew there were many more solutions, but he had never been good and focusing on multiple things at once.

He thought to his curse seals, currently hidden under his sand-stained, white robes. These could make me strong enough to carry more...but is it worth the risk? the boy didn't know what would happen to him if he let the curse seals run rampant on his body. He eyed all the equipment again, but quickly noted how stressed his peers seemed. He smirked slightly and asked them "Wanna see something reaaaaaallly gross?" before waiting for a response, he lifted his eye patch to reveal the fleshy gap where his right eye had once resided. Hoping that would throw them off enough to lighten the mood a bit. But, honestly I'm sure either of you have a better idea." He smiled, flipping his eye patch back down again.

MFT: 292

 

[Kazumi]

Attending this examination seemed a poor idea to Tsubaki when her teacher had proposed the idea. She was older than all her peers, and her above average height did make her appear older than she was and she was performing quite well in the academic side of her training, but none of that meant that she had the skills to pass the exam. Surely student spent more than a year at the academy before they were tossed out into the desert to fend for themselves, as one of the stories she had heard put the trial. How she was convinced into attending eluded this morning as she make her preparations for whatever the shinobi officials would throw at her.

She was quite prepared, though she did not bring any equipment, and she had even the foresiggt to arrive to the academy early to begin the examinations. These preparations would have been more effective, however, if she had understood them more clearly. It was far to logical to hold examinations at the school! No, of course they were held up on the surface... why would anyone guess otherwise? So, despite her best efforts, she arrived almost too late at the scene. Thankfully for her, she arrived in time to hear the last few bits that the one armed, purple haired veteran barked out to, whom she assumed, were the other participants.

Stopping a few feet away from the crowed, sweating and out of breath, Tsubaki bent over in an attempt to catch her breath. As she peered up, her hands still resting her weight on her knees, she noticed she recognised only one of the individuals by name. Riyota was in the middle of doing his best to break the ice in the worst manner possible, although to his fortune he was facing away from her at the time, and so the late arrival was spared the disturbing visage.

As she caught her breath enough to stand up to her full height, she let out a nearly silent breath as she stepped past the trio and over towards the war veteran. She reached into a small pouch on her belt and procured a folded note that read, in an order of magnitude too many words, a long winded excuse by one of the teachers for the girl's late arrival. How one managed to fit so many words on one page that almost had nothing to do with the point of the message was mind boggling, and the girl likely wouldn't have nearly missed her chance if she had simply left without the thing.

 

[Takahashi Aki]

Suri listened Noroi as he expressed his thoughts about what to carry. The red head blinked at him. The stuttering was making things difficult to understand. It took her a moment to understand him. "Are you for real?"<i></i> She asked him, her expression soured slightly. "I guess if you're scared then ... I guess I should have reason too. I mean we are going to participate in an exam, and this lady is going to judge us if we're worthy to become genin."<i></i> Riyota then when and clarified her name. She turned her head to look at her other comrade. "Yup. Hyuuga Suri!"<i></i> She beamed brightly. The child blinked when she was asked if she wanted something to see something gross. She opened up her mouth, but wouldn't get a chance to respond as Riyota showed what was under his patch. "Eeeewwww!!"<i></i> She cried as she covered her eyes for the moment. Upon realizing what she had just done, she quickly pulled her hands away and place them behind her back.

The child looked at the weapons, and then made a decision. She handed one weapon to Riyota, in particular it was the glaives. She then handed Noroi the crossbow. "I fight with my hands."<i></i> She packed the water up, and then handed the bandages to Tsubaki. The child blinked. "Wait. You weren't here a moment ago! Who are you? Doesn't matter you take these."<i></i>

Mako looked over the note Tsubaki had provided her with. The veteran shook her head. She gave the mute a very hard and most unforgiving look. "Being late will only lead to the death of your comrades. It will not be accepted in the future."<i></i> The veteran rubbed her nose. "Alright. We're going to the Scar now. First up on the list to support an old friend of mine Houjin. You'll know him when you see him. He'll be probably fighting more people than you can count, but he isn't a Suna-nin. He's a brawler."<i></i> The veteran would motion them to follow her to the section known as the Scar.

The heat of the area known as the Scar was increasing ever so slightly. It seemed to stretch on and on. As the group of students led by the examiner made their way through the land, there were several corpses. Some freshly decaying, other rotting, in the most extreme case there was a bleached skeleton with a sword rammed into its head. There were blots of blood in the sand. A battle had occured here, but it seemed to have been going on for some time. "I'm going to scout ahead now you kids stay alive, and more importantly go find Houjin... but hey that won't be hard."<i></i> The veteran with a few hand seals disappeared from sight. If the students focused their gaze they would see a unmarked trio of men battling against something in the distance. A loud roar could be heard and such ferocity came from this roar that it would cause the students to lose their footing for a moment.

(Just a heads up, after Friday I am going out of town for the holidays, so... ... my next post unless we get something done by Friday will most likely be the 28th?)

 

[Hansame]

Noroi trembled when the "Are you for real?" came up. "i-i'm s-sorry….it h-happens e-even wh-when I'm not scared…b-but i can t-try to s-stop!." he squeaked, though admitting how scared he was really. The next part of what the girl said gave him some peace of mind, him knowing that they were all in this together, as a team. He straightened up when his other comrade, Riyota called out to him, and nodded his head. When asked if they wanted to see something gross, unlike his comrade Suri, Noroi nodded his head eagerly, wanting to see what was so bad. When the fleshy remains of where his eye would have been was revealed to the dup, Noroi's eyes widened out of hand surprise broke out into a smile, half expecting something gross under the patch. What else would the boy wear it for, vanity? Noroi started to giggle quietly, not making fun of anyone, but about how light hearted Riyota had made the otherwise serious situation. In response to Riyota's scar being shown, Noroi lifted up his chin and tugged down at the neck of his shirt, revealing his own scar; a straight, deep, gash, going right across his windpipe. The scar was an old one, about a few years old, but it was still there and gory as ever.

Receiving the crossbow and looking it over carefully, trying to figure out how to work the weapon while looking at the several bolts that came with the crossbow. He was about to practice aiming the bow before noticing the new figure that had appeared next to them, causing a jump in surprise. Taking another breath to calm his nerves, he waved to the newcomer before looking back at The Initiator, who had to give her next set of instructions, then disappear

Looking around for a sign of the combat, Noroi's eyes squinted towards a speck in the distance, where just barely, Noroi could see some figures, a trio, fighting intensely. He pointed his finger towards the distance, before losing his footing due to the roar heard out in the distance. Getting back up once more and looking embarrassed, he Turned to the group, now fully equipped for the mission.

" s-so sh-should w-we head over o-or d-do you g-guys want to p-plan th-this o-out f-f-f-f-first?" he asked

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Riyota admired the other boys' scar. "Cool, you have got to tell me where you got that from sometime!" He laughed, glad he had lightened the mood a little. As Suri noticed somebody else arriving. Riyota slowly turned around and smirked as he saw Tsubaki walking up to them. "So the super serious studious student is late for the exam." he chuckled "How's it going Tsubaki?" he asked the girl. Before taking the two glaives which Suri had passed to him. He began to spin one of them around his arm. "I could be in the circus with this." he laughed as he began to balance on one foot. Spinning the other Glaive around his arm.

"It's not like we can really plan, we've got pretty much no info." He looked to Noroi, then to Suri, then to Tsubaki. "We're going in blind almost, so we'll improvise. You can't plan to improvise." He placed his other foot back on the ground. "So my only question is, what are we waiting for?" he asked the group, as he grabbed some supplies and set off towards the battlefield.

 

[Kazumi]

To be fair, the look and remark was entirely expected, and she had spent part of the trip mentally preparing to either be barred from the exam entirely, or to spend a good chunk of time being repremanded for her delay in some manner. The sudden appearance of bandages in her hand caught her off guard enough to almost completely distract her from the kunais that the insturctor's gaze attempted to jab into her, and it took the kunoichi a few moments to begin understanding what was going on.

As best as she could gather, they were to follow the instructor off to some location where combat had been taking place, and there she stood will few extra supplies and a few coils of bandage stuffed in her hands. Frankly, she was far more suited to wielding these than she was a crossbow or whatever weapon was handed to the only individual here she had ever recalled seeing. To him, she gave him a thumbs up as best she could with her hand wrapped around the cloth and a confident, even if it was only bravado, smile before she would follow after the group as it made its way onwards.

The worst part of the matter, in her eyes, was that she couldn't communicate with the team. This came up time and time again at the academy, but now with the prospect of actually getting onto a dangerous battlefield with that limitation... it felt a lot less annoying and a lot more hindering. Keeping pace as she attempted to stuff the bandages into her sole back hip pouch, she made sure to give at least a smile and a nod to the other two, hoping she would not appear impolite.

Finally, their instructor barked out her final set of orders and vanished without a trace. She began to wonder to herself the point of disappearing like that in front of allies, but that thought was cut off as her train of though derailed and nearly crashed off the side of a hill. She managed to keep on her feet as she clenched the bandage tighter in her left hand, looking around afterwards for the source of the sound. Surely they were not going to be handling large beasts of the desert, right?

Tsubaki turned and listened to both Noroi and then Riyota in turn as they spoke, no one offering up any semblance of a battle plan. A few possibilities popped into her head, but her inability, or stubborn reluctance, to speak them kept her from doing more than nod affirmatively to them both before she looked over towards the other aspiring kunoichi. She could only hope that everyone else was capable of dealing with whatever came, to make up for their complete lack of planning nad discipline. As the group began to make their way towards the sound, Tsubaki would diligently bring up the read, keeping a keen eye out for anyone who was wounded that didn't want to hurt and/or kill them.

 

[Takahashi Aki]

Suri pouted at the lack of initiative. It seemed like Noroi was going to be the backseat driver of this. His stumbling over words did not seem to get better. She did wonder if he was like this even when he was by himself or with his family. At the very least he wasn't scared or Riyota's scar which may have improved what she thought of him, a little bit at least. "If you're going to join the circus better do so with one of those dancing bears. Better yet ride the bear like a horse into battle!"<i></i> The Hyuuga red head spoke up. Soon enough it seemed like Riyota was off to the races. The young glaive wielder would find himself skirting down a dune hill and kicking up quite a bit of sand. Suri grabbed Tsubaki by the wrist and led her down the dune, and she motioned for him to follower her. "Try not to stumble with your words when screaming on the way dooooowwwn!"<i></i> Suri roared as she too went down hill with Tsubaki. "Yeee--haaa!"<i></i>

The children continued on the path. What they saw in the distance from before was coming clear. They would find three men with axes battling a much larger, much older, and much more battle hardened man. There were three bodies on the floor presumably dead which was perhaps due to the giant fighting three men. The giant wore little armor. His chest was sliced open, and he was bleeding. His enemies while worse for wear still seemed to have plenty of fight in them. They wore no recognizable sigils while the giant had the sigil of a bear on a medallion which hung from his neck. Was the giant the man who Mako wanted the group of four to meet up with? Were the three men attacking him Suna nin? One of the three men attacking the giant rolled underneath his legs and hamstrung him. The group of four would need to intervene. "Aaaaah!"<i></i> Suri let out a cry as she jumped up on the back of one of the three thugs attacking the giant. The other two men quickly turned their blades and began swinging in her direction. It seemed that Suri had picked a side for the others to follow whether they liked it or not.

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Riding a bear, man that would be awesome...If I could remember what bears looked like. he thought to himself, getting a little confused. As he saw the two Kunoichi take off excitedly down the hill, he shrugged and decided that finding a bear could wait for later. He giggled quietly to himself as he went sliding down the hill behind them. Before his feet even reached level ground again he looked up to see Suri attacking a combatant standing in a trio of three...looking incredibly dwarfed by a giant man. "Um...I mean I'm all for just doing stuff but...Shouldn't we have first figured out, uh...anything?" the boy shouted to either of the two that would listen, confused. Hoping Noroi would show up soon to be the stammering voice of reason, because Riyota sure wasn't going to.

The boy looked to Tsubaki and shrugged "Even if she's attacked the wrong guys I doubt they're gonna be too friendly after this. I'll try to figure out if the big dude is the guy we're meant to find." He said to her, dashing round the fighters to an area where he could (hopefully) safely commune with the huge man. "Um...excuse me sir?" he called out to the man only to be ignored. "Sir?" he shouted slightly louder only to be ignored again. It didn't take long before Riyota's curse addled frustration got the better at him and he cried out "HEY JACKASS ARE YOU HOUJIN OR NOT?!" at the top of his lungs. The giant would turn an eye to the young boy and supposedly would either answer the boy...or kill him.

 

[Kazumi]

Tsubaki was not prepared for this, though not for what one might think. Mentally she was ready to brave the deserts, to remain calm in the heat of stress, and to use what she learned in the academy to succeed. What she was not ready for was a pair of suicidal teammates, one who leapt in headfirst to try and gain the ire of an angry trio while the other did his best to gain the giant’s. She could only stand there and pray for a moment as she watched it all unfold. Based on what the woman had said, she surmised that the beast of a man must be who they were looking for, but if that wasn’t the case… it was nice knowing Riyota.

Regaining her balance as she recovered from nearly falling flat on her face as she was dragged down the hill, she watched as the scene began to unfold. She was the one with the bandages, and judging from the wounds the large man was taking, if he was their target, he would need them very soon. For Tsubaki, however, there was a more impending issue, the pair of angry individuals swinging their aces towards her new-found friend. Stuffing the bandages under her arm, Tsubaki quickly went through the hand signs for one of the simpler techniques, not trusting herself with anything more complex at the moment. Once completed she held the final seal as she closed her eyes and focused on the man who was closest to Suri as she worked to trick his mind into dropping his weapon. She hoped it would buy the girl enough time to do whatever it was she planned, if she actually thought any of that through.

[spoilername="Using Technique"]Genjutsu E-Rank: Hot Weapon - Rank 1[/spoilername]

 

[Takahashi Aki]

{Noro hasn't posted in ... well, several days so let's proceed along}

Suri was scratching and biting the bandit who she clung to for dear life. This was probably not the most effective way of fighting, but it was working at least. They had gotten off of the giant who was not being attacked anymore, but he was being assaulted by Riyota who was using his words. The giant man growled at him. "I AM NOT AN DONKEY OF JACKS. I AM NOT HOUJIN, I AM HOUJIN THE FOE HAMMER!!" He roared at the boy as he fought to catch his breath. The giant managed to get back on his feet, slightly he crawled. He reached for his weapon and used it as a crutch. The giant raised his hammer and slammed the ground causing everyone to lose their footing, more importantly the three who were now scrambling to get Suri off of the back of the three who were formerly assaulting the newly revealed Huojin the Foe Hammer.

While the small quake was within range of affecting Tsubaki, it wasn't enough to cause her to fully lose her balance. The student did get to get off her genjutsu. One of her foes did dropped their weapons as he was now blowing his hand due to the conceived pain. The other bandit did manage to remove Suri from the back of his ally. Suri was kicking and screaming. She was trying very hard to punch the enemy who had hold of her in the face. Unfortunately her range was far too short. The bandit subjected to Suri's first attack with caution picked up his ally's fallen weapon and was coming to grips with the fact that the weapon was indeed not burning. "We've been tricked! Get the long haired little devil!" He screamed as the unarmed foe who was still blowing his hand threw a series of punches at Tsukibaki with his free hand. Although the bandit was not as well trained as the children, he did indeed have a nasty left hook!

 

[Kazumi]

Barely managing to keep her footing as she finished the technique, Tsubaki’s right foot slid off to her side as she finished her concentration. While her goal of distracting the trio from the suicidal Suri had worked, she had apparently kicked the hornet’s nest. This time it wasn’t mere hornets that were looking to sting her, it was a muscular man who could probably snap her arm in half with his bare fist. Stumbling backwards away from the angry man as he attempted to beat the shinobi trickery right out of the student. Loose sand gave way from her feet as she slid backwards, avoiding a strong blow to the side of her jaw as she collapsed butt first into the hot sand behind her.

Seeing that she had given away her limited shinobi training moments before, the man was likely keeping a careful eye on her hands for more signs of ninja trickery. What she did next was likely a rather stupid move, but she had no actual weapons on her person at the moment and with an angry bandit bearing down on her she resorted to a much more mundane style of dirty fighting. Waiting as long as she could for him to approach and give her the right opening, she pushed one foot down hard on the ground as she kicked the other up as hard as he could towards the attacker’s crotch. It wasn’t as effective as a ball of fire or a blade and it certainly wasn’t honorable, but since when did shinobi fight honorably?

 

[Miroku Riyota]

"Uhhh...ok, y'know what...close enough." Riyota said to himself, swiftly turning his head to notice Tsubaki getting herself in a bit of trouble. However when she delivered the move he witnessed. He couldn't help but cringe himself as he almost felt it from where he stood. Recovering from the horror he just witnessed, he realised in the rush nobody had given Tsubaki a weapon. Sliding one of his circular glaives down his arm, he tossed it shuriken-like to a spot near his comrade, trying his best to at least clip the enemy in front of her with it. After which he called out to Suri "I need your help! I hope you're good with bandages because I'm certainly not!
" He turned to Houjin. "Ok, so we're here to help...pretty much to make sure you stay in the fight long enough to keep doing your thing. So please don't kick up a fuss when we attempt to give you medical aid. Thanks." the boy gave a cheeky smile before leaping off the small hill he was standing on to assist his comrade in her fight.

 

[Takahashi Aki]

Tsubaki was facing down the bandit. The young girl decided to take a slightly a more direct method of dealing with her foes. The oldest and probably best methods of taking care of an enemy who was of the male gender. She waited, and wait for an opening just the right opening for the right moment for a well placed kick to where the sun doesn't shine. The moment to deliver the kick came when Riyota threw the glaive at the bandit. The weapon landed in the back of the foe, and that was the opening needed for the most power kick in the world occur. Thankfully her enemy did not wear protection there and such was evident as he screamed very loudly and at a pitch he should probably not be capable of doing. The man fell to his side and grabbed his crotch he was most likely indeed cursing in a foreign language. It was perhaps a good thing considering the alternate was to leave Tsubaki with bruises. It would indeed be quite well to assume that their foe was not going to be getting up after this.

Riyota had called out to Suri, but the Hyuuga was still fighting. She was still kicking and flailing as she was being held by one of the bandits, and the other one was punching her soundly. The Hyuuga squealed and managed to kick her attacker in the chest. "Help me!"<i></i> She cried out as she was against punched in the face. Luckily Riyota would indeed go to help her as he leapt at the man attacking Suri. The bandit growled as Riyota barreled into him knocking him over. He managed to get up and then he grabbed Riyota and tossed him. The bandit went to grab his weapon and was going to chop Riyota. Something shadowed over Riyota as time stood still for a moment. It would take Riyota a moment to realize what had happened as the bandit was knocked over and a sickening crack could be heard. Huojin had thrown his hammer, and it connected all-too well putting an end to the bandit's life. Suri was still being held. If Riyota were to look up he would see his comrade being held now at knife point. The bandit holding her was shaking. While they had been fighting Huoujin earlier, it would seem that they had spent most of their fighting spirit during the first half. Riyota and Tsubaki would need to pool their resources to save their friend.

 

[Kazumi]

Tsubaki couldn't understand the pain that a man experienced as man had their family jewels unceremoniously crushed into a fine paste and at this moment in time she found it hard to care, even with the pained squeaky scream assaulting her ears as the man fell. Beyond the cursing man she caw a terrifying sight, a glint of light reflecting off the keen edge of a knife pressed to her new companion's throat. Her first instinct was to quickly stand up, grab the weapon that Riyota had thrown her way and charge the man to force him to release her. Calm minds prevailed as she knew that it would only put her friend in even more danger, after all it only took a slight hand movement to slide the edge into her throat and no amount of bandages would likely save her.

The Yamanaka slowly pushed herself up off her butt, mentally squelching the curses, threats and pain that the man a few feet infront of her continued to assault her with. She couldn't rush in, and she hoped that Riyota wouldn't do the same, but from what she had seen so far, that was a likely possibility. She had to do something, now. Segmenting her mind, she walled off the thoughts of hunger from having missed breakfast, the discomfort from her fall and the overbearing worry from her threatened teammate. She thought back to her mentor who constantly drilled into her the value of keeping a clear mind in times of crisis, something that the last remaining bandit lacked if the quivering of his hand was any indication.

She had never done this before, at least not in the waking realm, but her intructor had demonstrated it to her and she believed she understood the principles. Tsubaki brought her hands together to form a single seal as she took a quick centering breath, hoping the bandit was too distracted with his prey, Riyota and the giant to pay much attention to her movements. She released her hands and formed an elongated oval with her hands by touching her thumbs together as she also connected the index and middle fingers of each hand. Looking through the interior of the oval she focused on the back of the bandit holding Suri hostage. If this missed, there as a chance that the girl could die... she simply couldn't miss. Mouthing something she focused and within an instant she expelled her consciousness in an invisible projectile towards the bandit.

Her arms and body slumped over, an empty shell that was effectively unconscious as it slid over onto the sandy ground. There would be one of two outcomes, either she would succeed and inject herself into the mentality of the bandit. If she managed that far, she would try to wrest control of the man's body, hoping to force him to at least drop the knife. If she managed to gain contril of it completely, she would force him to take a step away from her with his empty hands raised. Though, if she failed... she would have to pray that once she returned back to her own body, she would still be part of a three man squad.
[spoilername="Technique"]Mind Body Switch - Rank 3[/spoilername]

 

[Miroku Riyota]

Man...sand tastes gross. Riyota thought, pulling his head out of the ground and trying his best to spit out the coarse substance before hearing the screaming of one of his allies. The young student quickly looked around, his tongue hanging out like a distracted puppy who had just been cleaning it's sensitive areas. His eyes widening as he took in the peril one of his allies was in. His first instinct was to run in and attempt to save her. Until his gaze fell on his other teammate, who seemed to be attempting some sort of Jutsu to rescue their comrade. He could almost feel her telling him not to do anything brash. So the boy slowly regained his composure. dammit Tsubaki, you'd better have a plan. he thought to himself smirking. As he opened his eyes he retrieved his weapon and swiftly got into position to guard his teammate if any reinforcements came.

[Apologies for short post, but let's keep this moving!]