Building an Airship [ 13% Complete ]

[Uziuke]

(( Will be posting here off and on, so enter and leave as you please! Bring your creativity as well! Just send me a pm, or nudge me on discord if you want to rp. Or simply drop a post! It's an open topic.
Note: Completion level will rise as the project nears a finish. ))

Uziuke looked to the sand of the desert during the night. It was beautiful. Shining like diamonds under the night's sky, it was almost as though the stars had a reflection in the area of Sand beneath. Such a scene was inspirational, enough to motivate the boy to push forward at what he was trying to accomplish. As he grew up in Mist, he had thoughts of traveling, but never did he think he'd end up being a mercenary amongst the shinobi nations. It did, however, come at a steep price. The loss of his home. To this day he was amazed that he was able to cope with such a traffic event. He kept his head held high, and only wondered about the rest of the Mist natives and how they were doing. Going back to the village crossed his mind every now and again, but once there, what was he going to do? What was his purpose behind this goal that he made for himself? Sometimes he didn't know how to answer the question, but his heart always told him "Keep going". There was a lot riding of of such simple words. The breeze that blew over have Uzi the feel of the sands during the night. Cold, yet, homely.

"How am I supposed to do this?" Uziuke asked himself. What kept him going at this point, was the love for his home village. With returning home remaining on his heart, the first step would be to build some sort of traveling machine, but what would it be? Uzi licked his thumb and raised his hand as the wind blew in again. They were calm, yet could move a tumbleweed along with the breeze. Watching a couple of them move over the sands with the breeze brought something to Uziuke's mind. "Wind power... Sails, tumbleweeds." He was going somewhere with this. "A sailboat?" No it didn't make any sense. A sailboat would never float app the sands. If this was a sea of water, things would be much better. Uzi sighed, now sitting Indian style in the sands as he kept his heart on the idea. How was he supposed to travel? He really haven't seen anything as far as traveling before when making his way through the shinobi nations. A boat was only good in to of water, but what would move across the water, and the sands.

Uzi fell backwards into the sands, looking up to the sky as he let out a heavy sigh. He opened his eyes and looked to the stars. A few clouds were in the sky that night. He watched as they made their way, floating across the sky. "Man, it would pay off to be a cloud right now. I could just float wherever I wanted, and I could get anywhere I pleased. No worries, just me and the sky... Floating... Floating in the sky!" Uziuke say up, his face now do of excitement. "Floating in the sky! I'm just a shinobi, floating in the sky! Floating on... A sailboat in the sky! Yeah!" Uzi stood up, clenching his fists as he began to tell out to the sky, his echo could probably be heard from a mile away. He repeated the saying a few times, estatic to start on his new project. "A huge airship, floating in the sky! I gotta start collecting materials!"

It would be an airship? Hmm... Maybe some type of blimp, floating in the sky. He figured he needed some of the rarest materials in order to build such a thing. Maybe he would use real diamonds, reminding him of the sands of the of the diamond ocean under the night's sky.

"Now where do I start my search for materials?"

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[Shingetsu Sora]

"We're going to need one heck of a tarp to cover all of this." Looking at the basic schematics that had been handed to him, Sora shook his head and handed them back to the assistant that had handed them to him. "Yeah, that's going to need to be one heck of a tarp. That or we end up building an equally big building just to house the thing." Shrugging, the assistant, a green academy student who was just looking for experience for a class of some sort, looked to Sora for more answers. Sighing and hold out his hand, he requested the schematics back and upon finding the name of the creator of the drawing, again handed the schematics back and began to scribble down a quick note via the clipboard that he was walking around the site with. So far, the project had drawn in a lot of eager people who where hoping to make something of themselves and some mark of history. Sora's job was to make sure that the dreamers actually dreamed their way through their work shifts without in some cases, literally blowing themselves up. Sora probably wasn't making too many friends but he like everyone around, had a job to do.

"Look, take this back to the builder team and let them know that unless we want to draw everything to us, friend or foe, that we need to figure out a way to actually protect the project site itself and preferably before something big tries to actually eat said large project. It's either that or somebody with a whole lot more money than me is going to have to shell out a lot of said money to buy protection for the place." Ripping off the note, folding it and handing it to the student, Sora ushered them off to deliver his message to the team that was assigned the figuring out part. Sora had signed on to help the project along because he too was looking to occupy his days with more adventures than simply punching his way to the top and certainly being a part of history would help. In the meantime though, his role on the logistics side still afforded him the opportunity to use both his brain and his brawn, provided that by brawn, he meant that he was going to do what it took to keep the project running both on time and safely. A whole lot of good could come to the land by making sure that the project was completed, but there was little doubt in the young mans mind that there would be a number of trials to befall them as all great projects suffered. Really, it would be the determination of those at the helm, to keep the morale high, and the pay even higher. Smirking to himself, the fledging Ancient walked off to find out who all was joining his team for the day.

OOC #1: Entering the early project site and proposing a "Hanger" for protecting the work and the workers.
OOC #2: Topic Entered and Left.

 

[Uziuke]

"So you think this is going to work?" Uziuke looked to the Sunaku, a true native of the sands. The boy was worried that things wouldn't work out right, but he was assured that everything would turn out just fine. "Ok, if you say it's going to work, I'll believe it." Uzi wasn't a vet when it came to these sort of things, but he was ready to put the plan into motion.

Uzi watched as sand began to be raised. The boy was a bit surprised. No handseals, no chakra aura, he didn't see anything of the norm. The sands beneath their feet just shifted into formation. Uzi pointed to the sands, "So is that it?" "One sec." The Sunaku pointed to the sand as it began to swirl around, creating a small mini twister of some sort. "Ok, now." Uzi gave a nod. The boy calmed himself, he began to clear his mind. He'd only called on Susanoo a few times before. This time would be simple, he only needed Susanoo's hands. A red chakra began to form around the boy as fingers began to form on either side of him. Two hands now manifested, each about the size of a tree that's seen the earth for quite a few years. A ribcage encased the boy, acting as a shield of some sort. As the sands continued to spin, Uzi used Susanoo's hands to pick up the cement that was on site. He threw the cement into the swirling sands, watching as the sands eat the cement up, mixing the components to build the walls of the construction site.

The plan was to build a place where the workers could stay on site, a place that would house the construction of the airship and hangar. The walls would also be a defense from the monsters that lurked the Diamond Ocean. He knew there would be attacks on the site, so they would keep things as concrete as he could. Of course there were a few on guard duty, so if things got to bad, a war could be called to defend the site.

"Hey, this place is going to need a name!" The Sunaku yelled over the intense weather. Uzi began through a few hand seals. After completion, a small drizzle began in the area. The sand and cement, now a 30foot tornado spinning in place, began to mix into a hard substance. He watched as the Sunaku raised a hand, hard stones began to sift beneath the sands, raising into the tornado, completing the mix for a concrete substance. The concrete was what they needed to build strong walls. Many of the workers looked on in amazement. Such a feat was rarely seen, especially of two of the great clans of the shinobi nations. "Uhh, I'll let someone else decide on the name. What matters now is keeping everyone safe. If we can build this thing before the month is up, I'd consider staying out here full time." The Sunaku nodded.

The materials began to harden into a solid. The drizzle began to stop as the ingredients continued to mix. After a few hours, the crew managed to build a corner wall of the structure. The blueprint seemed simple enough to follow. "We're already looking good guys. At this pace, we'll be done in no time." Of course no time was a figure of speech. He knew it would take about a month for the wall to fully dry, but he liked the way things were going so far.

"You can start putting up the wood if you want. A high tower to where we could keep lookout of our surroundings would be nice." Uzi nodded, he knew everything would work out. These blueprints weren't his idea, but he liked the plans nevertheless. It would take some work, but the crew could get it done.

Uzi looked over to the Senju. "Hey, you wouldn't be able to grow apple trees and watermelon vines would you?" The Senju gave a smile and closed his eyes. A bead of sweat fell from his forehead "I can call forth wood, but growing those types of trees would take seeds. Luckily, I know a gardener that could lend us a few seeds. I'm sure we'll have enough harvest for everyone." The Senju gave a nervous laugh, looking to Uziuke while knowing he was clueless on the subject. "Ok, well let's go meet this Gardner. We have to keep the people fed around here. They aren't doing all this hard work for nothing."

Uzi and the Senju began off. He looked back to the construction site that was in progress. Once it was up, the crew could start working on the airship. In the back of his mind, he thought about the monsters that lurked the area. He knew was excited about what was going on, but he knew danger lurked as well. He'd try to keep everyone on their toes while out there. Using jutsu, and all the hard work that was available was perfect training for the upcoming shinobi that he saw around. He was quite proud of them. He held the blueprint of the airship's hangar, looking it over. He and the Senju began to converse about it as they made their way back to the village, pointing the pictures from time to time, adding their own ideas. "That's going to be one giant hangar."

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[Shingetsu Sora]

"It looks like an ant hill." "Ehhh, more like a termite mound." "I don't know, it's definitely a bit more...sensical than th-." "Exactly, like a termite mound!" "I don't know what termites you've been watching lately but those mounds are hardly ever sensical." "Are you sure? They're super sturdy!" "I'm leaning more towards an ant hill myself, plus the acronym sounds better." "What?" "Yeah, A, N, T, for airship, navy, team, or A.N.T., to which each one of us would be an A.N.T. and collectively, A.N.T.s, or airship, navy, team, shinobi!" "That seems a bit forced, don't you think?" "Well, Mr. Termite, you try making an acronym with your idea!" "Transportation, engineering, ready, machine...uhh.." "Exactly! Score a point for the A.N.T.s and their impenetrable A.N.T. Hill!" It was at the time that the small group dedicated to logistics was interrupted by one of their managers. In walked Sora and with his handy clipboard, he was poised to give out orders as had been directed towards him. Though he wasn't in the business of being a task master, he was quite proficient at getting just the right amount of work out of his team in order to justify them getting all the freedom that was afforded for a department that usually was consulted with less than most project managers would have liked to have admitted.

"Anko, I really hope that you managed to secure us that plot of land for a local greenhouse!" Perking up, one of the young women quickly fumbled through a stack of papers to produce the requested file. "And, Sato, please, please, please, tell me that those hanger construction folks provided us a list of how many workers they were adding to our numbers. You know that they sometimes they're just as bad as the airship engineers with doing any calculations without a hardhat being involved!" Shaking his head, Sora had to stop and smirk. His team was hard working but they also were a group of mostly teenagers who sometimes forgot that socializing wasn't exactly a noted job function. "On it, Sora!" Though he was their peer, Sora made sure to always carry himself as the leader that he had been entrusted to be.

He'd give pep talks when they were warranted and he was quick to course correct if things were going down the wrong path, which in most cases was simply a miscalculated headcount. "Hey Miko, I'm actually going to need to pull you off of the Water Project and onto the Energy one. Call me a bit overly cautious but I really think that we're going to need to account for chakra burnout in a way that Oda-sama isn't taking into account. The Susanoo Unit is really keeping the project ahead of schedule but at a certain point it's impossible to eat enough calories or get enough sleep in the day to account for the strain of using their abilities ad nauseum. I think that we need to start running the numbers on just how long each of them can work per day to get the most of of them and so that we can get through this thing without anybody dying." Giving a curt nod and kicking her chair away from the group that she'd been consulting with, the blue haired Miko gave a smile and saluted. "Aye, aye, Captain!" With her short stature and squeaky voice, the seriousness of the moment was lost and the whole room burst into laughter at her A.N.T.s nickname confirming, pirate style affirmation.

[ Topic Entered | Left ]

 

[Shingetsu Sora]

Soon after the project had started to take off, figuratively in this case, it became clear to Sora that something or someone was amiss. If it wasn't the occasional misplaced document or the supposedly undelivered parcel, it was the fact that sometimes there truly seemed to be conflicting information in the reports as if someone was purposefully trying to interfere with the project going forward. Sora attempted to pay it no mind and work through, and he even told his team to do the same. The more and more that he and they tried to however, the more and more things didn't seem to always add up. With the sheer number of people involved with the project, the culprit could have literally been anybody and so Sora and his most trusted inner team decided to go into a full lockdown when it came to the inner workings of the logistical team in its entirety. While they wouldn't purposefully withhold information when needed, it was abundantly clear that they would have to start putting secret coded messages in place. Serving as innocuous watermarks, they would purposefully insert the occasional typo or grammatical error on purpose in order to sniff out who was actually reading their documents and their true purpose in doing so. For those that were truly on the up and up, they would ignore them as simple mistakes and look for the easily understood meaning, but for the inner circle, they could track such things to make sure that each document that they produced was actually coming from a trusted source.

[ Topic Entered | Left ]

 

[Uziuke]

Uziuke looked over the specs for the walls of the defense for the airship. The crew was still a ways off, but there was progress made on a daily basis. The news of some internal mole pestered a few members, some even assigned themselves on guard duty just to keep watch over the work. "Ahh, things will work out in the end." The nonchalant response of Uziuke, assuring everyone that a mole wouldn't ruin what was going on. Of course, that was based off of the fact that he just knew they would overcome whatever tried to stop them. Meh, at least he knew how to cast out doubt from the people.

It was nearing midnight. The stars in the sky winked down on the diamond sands below. In the moonlight, the half constructed fort seemed to shine, the sands twinkling back up at the sky. A breeze flowed through the area, sweeping away some sand in the winds. It was a quiet night, there wasn't much to complain about. "It would be so much better if there were a bed here that I could retire to after this shift." Uzi sighed, taking a bite out of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He held a book in his hand, The Holy Bible, was it's title. He was really interested in this story about this Moses guy, but that was a conversation for another time.

Uzi looked up from his studies as he noticed some type of vibration coming from under the sands. "Aww, come on. We were looking for a spy, not monsters at this time of night." Uzi immediately stood up, placing the book in his shroud for safe keeping. He placed his ANBU Mask over his face, a bear animal as his face covering. Uzi radioed in to the frequency set for the sand fort. "This is papa bear, there's a disturbance coming from under the sands. Possible worms, everyone stay on their toes. If I have any abled bodied men with me that could help fight, your presence is needed. I repeat, sand wor-" A violent vibration from under the sands erupted once more.

Spoiler

Enhanced Sand Worm

3 present at the moment
Currently moving under the sands

- Basic Strike
- Bite [ Can cause bleeding / shred through opponent if they are that unlucky
- Can cast powerful Genjutsu to invade your memories and lure you in for an attack
- Has a monsterous shrieking cry that can knock one off balance
- Creates sand tunnels underground that can make the ground collapse under one's feet

(( Anyone can participate. Being creative is what wins wars... or something like that. ))

 

[Shingetsu Sora]

Lost in his own thoughts, Sora wasn't keen on working late but here he was shuffling through some report double checking the numbers and sipping from a very near empty mug of coffee. Like his team he should have taken the night to recoup because there was going to be an audit tomorrow, or rather, today by the looks of what time it was. Everything was good to go and thus far the infamous spy hadn't struck again but ever the watchful manager, Sora wasn't trying to leave anything to chance when his name and good reputation were on the line. Sensing the vibrations long before he recognized them as trouble, his mind immediately went to the idea that somebody had dropped something very large in relation to the airship being built but then his mind quickly realized that he was in the middle of a desert and that there was no way that something that they were building could be large enough to shake the entire ground if it was coming from above. As quickly as his mind could run through all of the scenarios that were likely to be the cause of the ground rumbling, it was only when the tent that he was in started to sway and his radio began to erupt with frantic calls that he realized that this was far from an an accident causing a ruckus, unfortunately for all tied to the project, they had accidently awoken a terror of the sands! Quickly scrambling to grab his gear, he ran out of his tent and headlong into trouble.

 

[Uziuke]

Sand Worm #1 | It seemed the trio of sand worms knew the area quite well. They either used the vibrations to sense what was going on above ground, or were just really lucky at choosing when to attack. The first Sand Worm sprouted up from the ground, going airborne. It was at that point that if nobody knew what was going on, they would obviously notice what was causing the trouble now. A crowd pointed up to the worm and started shrieking, yelling, and immediately warning others to evacuate the area. Those that could fight stayed, but they had to come up with a plan quickly, otherwise there would be damages to the site.

Sand Worm #2 | managed to find it's way to Sora's area. The vibrations continued, many in the area were alerted. Some interested in what was going on with the people that were yelling and shrieking nearby. The worm came above ground, moving towards Sora now. It's movement was so fast that a gust of wind push some back, and a wave of sand covered a few others that weren't quick enough to escape it's tread of terror. It opened it's mouth and released a gut quenching screech. The pitch of the shriek was enough to shatter ear drums, but it's most prominent feature was placing one under a genjutsu, as it successfully did Sora. Sora would relive the most fondest memory of a Christmas. He would notice vibrations and yells of terror that were out of place, occasially hearing someone saying "Wake Up!" here and there. Hopefully he'd break out of the Genjutsu soon, as the worm continued towards him. Before being able to attack, an ally shinobi was able to place a barrier of chakra between Sora and the sand worm. A solid wall of blue chakra would stretch up beyond the sands. The shinobi couldn't hold it forever, but it would give Sora another second to break out of the Genjutsu and either escape or attack the sand worm. Otherwise, it would try to make Sora it's next breakfast meal.

Sand Worm #3 | Uzi regained his footing, looking back to the sand fort that was still under construction. "Man, if I don't stop whater this thing is, we're going to receive some serious damages to this place." He knew production would be prolonged if that were the case. Of course the unit had all the time in the world to work on this airship, but Uzi didn't want to keep everyone working on a project that seemed it would never be completed. As he poured chakra into his eyes, they began to spin rapidly. He awakened his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, knowing that he'd have to stop this threat as soon as possible. Acting immediately, the ANBU began to move away from the Sand Fort, moving through a few hand seals. Upon completion, a wall of fire erupted from the ground, standing just before the walls of the sand fort. It would protect the fort against the worms physical attack, though he knew if it burrowed underground, it could possibly bypass the barrier. Knowing this, Uzi did his best to draw the worm's attention. He continued sprinting away from the fort, awaiting the next vibrations that the sand worm caused. He was successful in drawing the worm to him, as the worm moved behind Uziuke, he could feel the vibrations once more heading his way.

The masked shinobi jumped, turning around and rushed through a few hand seals. At that exact moment the sand worm began to move atop the ground, revealing itself as it opened it's mouth, preparing to tear a limb from the shinobi. Uzi completed the hand seals, causing the earth around the worm to begin to rise, suddenly bits of sand and earth began to float into the air, causing the worm to rise along with all the debris. It began to wiggle, trying to regain control of it's movement, but it was to no avail. Uzi sent caught the flow of the earth, and manipulated it to move at an high speed further away from the sand fort, causing of wave of debris, and sand worm, to go flying across the sands. Watching intently as the worm went flying, black flames appeared seemingly from no where, burning violently atop the sands. They flames were so hot, that the sand almost seemed to glisten as they slowly turned into a clear solid, known as glass. The worm and debris flew through the flames, burning the worm as it hit the ground. Uzi sighed, as he let down his guard. He closed his eyes, giving himself a break from it all. 'That should be it.'

Sora's Condition: Okay 100% Health | Trapped within a Genjutsu, reliving the best Christmas that he could remember.
Uziuke's Condition: Okay 98% Health | Believing that his fight is over with, he let down his guard.

(( I'm using a random number generator for this fight to keep it somewhat interesting. Let me know if you have any questions. Sorry this took so long, I'll try not to let that happen again. ^^;; ))

 

[Shingetsu Sora]

Running out of the tent, Sora took the first turn that he saw and found himself looking straight ahead at the scariest sight that he had ever witnessed in person. Opening its maw to produce an eardrum shattering screech which blew Sora back, over and threw a series of unreinforced tents. While airborne, his mind started to fog as his reality began to flicker before him and by the time that he landed in the soft embrace of the sand, a dream was already upon him.

Christmas, a time that for many was one of happiness and mirth, but for Sora was typically just another day of the year or if anything, a day away from his studies. For Suigetsu however, a being who had lived for centuries longer than Sora could ever imagine, it was a day where some of his most fondest memories were had. Once again forced to take a back seat to the memories of the Ancient, Sora found himself in a dark room looking on at memories that were projected onto a wall before him. Seeing the alien faces of various Water Court beings in their semi humanoid states, Sora felt a sense of belonging because he had in technical sense been there but he also felt a sense of alienation because he couldn't quite fully relate. Still learning to get used to the duality of being two mentally separate entities within one body, Sora found himself almost longing to know more as he willed himself to try and remember but like a television presenting a picture with no sound, all he could remember was indistinguishable white noise.

"They were the best of times and the worst of times..." Sauntering from seemingly nowhere, Suigetsu appeared before Sora dressed in a set of ceremonial looking robes. "You know, even with what they did to me, I've never quite forgotten how good things were before the betrayal. It almost makes me want to go back, to forgive them, but..." He trailed off as he walked closer to the wall and put a hand on it as his head dropped and he shook it as if trying to erase a bad memory. A first shocked that Suigetsu had appeared, Sora shrugged his shoulders as he'd come to expect this sort of thing to happen from time to time. Ever since Suigetsu's awakening their dreams would blend and Sora would find himself exploring the deep recesses of his Ancient memory. This was one such time, a time where he very much should have been processing his own memories and instead he found himself looking on at memories that were older than even what he could usually grasp.

In the moment of silence, Sora started to sit down on the ground and wait out the evening when the entire cavern shook and a plume of sand drifted up from the floor itself. Questioning it, Sora shook his head. "That's...different. Just where exactly did I fall asleep? It must have been one heck of a par-" Cutting the teenager off, Suigetsu spoke matter of factly. "You actually didn't fall asleep, I'm pretty sure that you're stuck in genjutsu." Alarmed, Sora rushed to the Ancient and grabbed him by the sleeve of his robe. "A what?" "A genjutsu from a sandworm to be technical but all the same, you've been out for practically an entire minute." Eyes growing wide, Sora slapped his forehead in anguish and began to yell. "And you didn't think that that was important enough to let me know? That it wasn't more important than going back down memory lane?"

Sighing, Suigetsu raised an eyebrow. "Well, if you must know, I was searching for a memory on how to get out of this current predicament alive." Crossing his arms, Sora calmed down just enough to let the man go and to cross his arms as he stepped back in defiance. He'd long sense recognized that in the shared mindscape that they often met in, that minutes and hours could pass in what consciously were seconds and fractions thereof. "Aren't you old enough to have killed more than one sandworm in your day though? It should be a learned skill by now." Shaking his head, Suigetsu pointed back at the still playing memory being projected on the wall. "Water Court, remember? We long abandoned the land and guess what, no sandworms in the ocean." "But there's sand at the bottom of the ocean..." "Like I said, no sandworms to bother us. Now seaworms...theoretical...I think..."

Confused, Sora interrupted once again. "You think?" Blanching, Suigetsu shrugged, "My memory still isn't what it used to be and the oceans are vast. There's plenty of things out there that would make even a sandworm slither away in fear, our mother being one of them but life finds a way and if there's sandworms then there's like to be seaworms and airworms." Snorting, Sora spoke up. "I'm pretty sure that an airworm is just a dragon by any other name." "I guess, but in the meantime, I think that we'll have to do this the fisherman's way." Dropping his arms and giving a confused look, Sora started to question just what Suigetsu was talking about when he distinctively heard another voice that grew louder by the syllable. "Wake Up!" Then the cavern was bathed in a white light and he woke up.

Staring at the sky, Sora instinctively wanted to move to wipe sand from his face, he found that his arms did not work at his command. Thinking that perhaps he'd broken his bones from the sandworms attack, words escaped from his mouth that he knew were not his. "Don't worry young Sora, I'll be sure to bring it back in mint condition." Having never thought that Suigetsu could take over, the sensation of watching his body move against his will was alarming on an entirely new level to Sora but deep down he knew that it was always a possibility that it could happen. "Just...don't get us killed, okay?" "Aye, aye, captain!" To the onlooker, Sora looked to be talking to himself, but as Suigetsu took the helm, the shinobi's shield began to crack and as soon as it began to shatter, Suigetsu flashed instantly to their side and reinforced the defensive measure with barely a sweat broken. "Thanks for helping me out back there. Say, what's your name?" An odd question for sure, but Sora watched on in awe as Suigetsu began to work.


OOC: Suigetsu has taken over Sora's body and used Synchronized Multipresence - Flexible Style (Physical) to quickly come to the aid of the ally shinobi and reinforce their barrier with chakra. For the sake of RP (I know it wouldn't work like this in a PvP sense) Sora is "Nara" and Suigetsu is "Seikon".

Spoiler

It is said that Seikon clan members are omnipresent; that they are everywhere at once when they choose to be. This is only partly true, as the Seikon have the ability to overcharge themselves with their reality bending energies, releasing it in such a way that seems to distort the reality around them. This creates multiple "clones" of themselves, afterimages created by their energy that appear and fade at random moments nearby around them.

Rank 1/2/3: The user's first attack each round is automatically considered a Sneak Attack.

Chakra Style: At Rank 1 of this style, the user no longer suffers the -2 Dodge penalty for using Body Switch. At Rank 2, they gain +1 Dodge for the duration of the round instead. At Rank 3, they gain an additional Activated Auto-dodge per round. (Does not stack with similar effects.)

Physical Style: Wait Reaction has its cooldown time reduced by 5 seconds at Rank 1 of this style, 7 seconds at Rank 2, and 10 seconds at Rank 3.

Special Action: While this Style is active, the user may use Body Switch without additional items or clones. They Body Switch with "After-Images" instead. All Body Switch rules still apply.

Cost: .5 AP to enter, .5 AP to drop out

Notes:
- This is a Flexible Style, meaning the user chooses whether it is a Physical Style or a Chakra Style upon entering it, which it will remain for the rest of that battle (even if deactivated and reactivated). The effects and CP cost increase depend on which type is selected.
- While active as a Chakra Style, the user pays +5% CP costs. While active as a Physical Style, the user pays +15% CP costs.
- While in use as a Chakra Style, effects apply to modifications of Body Switch such as Quicksilver Step and Wait Reaction as well.
- Like any other fighting style, this can be turned on or off at the user’s discretion or lack thereof.

and
Wait Reaction - Dependent Special Move

Spoiler

Manipulating the threads of reality is such an easy feat for a Seikon that they can do so with barely a second thought--such as casually attaching a devastating blow to the tail end of their dodge.

Rank 1: The user may combo an Activated Auto-dodge with an attack. The attack gains +1 Accuracy.
Rank 2: The user may combo an Activated Auto-dodge with an attack. The attack gains +2 Accuracy and may not be auto-dodged.
Rank 3: The user may combo an Activated Auto-dodge with an attack. The attack gains +3 Accuracy and may not be auto-dodged.

Cost: Cost of the Activated Auto-dodge being used + 20% CP

Notes:
- Attacks made with Wait Reaction take precedence over comboed attacks the user auto-dodged the first part of, and always occur before the rest of that combo.
- Requires a twenty second cooldown between uses.

OOC#2: Can I get a roll for Gender/BL/Kinjutsu of the ally shinobi for my next post?

 

[Uziuke]

Sand Worm 1: 100% Health
Sand Fort: 93% Health

Sand Worm 1 | Gaining a stronghold within the fort, the sand worm began to terrorize those that were still around trying to ward it off. It landed atop the sands making the ground shake as it gained it’s footing. A few ally shinobi stumbled and wavered trying to keep balance. It let out a loud cry, the vibrations from the sound could be heard for miles around. Surely it would catch the attention of a few from Sora’s and Uzi’s districts. This shriek began to weaken the wall nearby within the fort.

The worm seemed like it didn’t want to stay in the area, feeling threatened and contained by the people around, it began to tackle at the wall nearby. The wall began to become weaker, and even began to crack as the worm continued to tackle it. A shinobi nearby threw a kunai with an exploding note at the worm’s tail, and upon explosion, the worm shrieked aloud once more. It immediately burrowed underground, and began to zigzag this way and that. A few of the people had trouble keeping their footing, maybe they could find a way to lead it out of the fort, and keep it gone once and for all?

Sand Worm 2: 95% Health
Sora: 100% Health
Ally Seikon 100% Health

Sand Worm 2 | A loud shriek could be heard from another vicinity within the fort. For those that recognized the shriek, it was the yell of another sand worm nearby. The allies were able to hold the attacks for now, but if that sand worm wasn’t dealt with quickly enough, it would tear down the fort in no time. Meanwhile, though it did gain a bit of reinforcing from Sora’s aid, the barrier that held the sand worm back wouldn’t hold for too much longer. “The name’s Hisao, the shinobi answered. I noticed the attack and came as quickly as I could to help out, but it doesn’t look like this thing will back down. We’ll either have to take it out, or find a way to make it run off. I’m sure that other shriek came from another sand worm nearby.” (( Has the appearance of Salem from Fire Emblem if you care for his looks. ))

Another shriek came from the sand worm that the pair was fighting. It shattered the reinforced shield altogether this time, but this time it came with a price. The Seikon ally moved his hands forward, causing the shards from the shattered chakra shield to pierce through the sand worm’s skin. It began to struggle, flailing about as it took a bit of damage. Hisao noticed an opening while the worm was flailing, and decided to unleash a Kinjutsu that he’d been holding back. After a few hand seals, a counted number of 5 corpse’s raising from the sands, surrounding the sand worm. He knew he had only one shot at pulling off this technique. Each lifeless corpse seemed to be filled with energy as a dark purple aura surrounded their being. They each held their hands out, either palm facing the sand worm. As it continued to flail about, each zombie began to mutter something, and instantly, the sand worm stopped it’s movement. It seemed to be bound by a technique the zombies cast.

Hisao looked towards Sora, “If you have any attack that could do some damage to this worm, and possibly cast some fear into it to make it leave the area, now would be the perfect time to do it. I can hold him in place for a while longer, so make it count.”

Sand Worm 3: 77% Health
Uziuke: 98% Health

Sand Worm 3 | Uzi covered his ears as he heard a loud shriek coming from the fort area. He turned around, gazing at the fort as he realized what was going on. “Another attack! I have to hur-“ Uzi couldn’t finish his sentence and was tackled to the ground. A few flames burned, but it wasn’t enough to harm the Uchiha. He rolled across the sands from the tackle, stopping himself by putting a knee in the sands taking a slide backwards. He looked up to see quite the horror. The sand worm was burning in black flames, skin a bit mangled and burned from the Amatseru attack from earlier. ‘I thought this was over.’

The sand worm began to rise up, shrieking in pain as the flames continued to burn it. It was obvious it was shrouded in rage. It’s shriek died down as it brought itself low back to the ground, facing Uzi. It opened it’s mouth wide, exposing it’s many teeth within it’s mouth. Another loud shriek pierced Uzi’s eardrums, almost knocking him off balance. He could feel himself begin to slip away from reality.

[ Genjutsu ]

Everything became enshrouded in white as Uzi knelt to the ground and closed his eyes. As he opened them once more, he noticed snow all around him. He stood outside a market place that was taped off and marked for close. The windows were shattered in. It looked like someone broke into the market and made off with some supplies. “This place seems… oddly familiar.” Uzi was a bit shaken by the scene, but not because of the terror of what happened, but because of the dejavu feeling that resonated within him. It was obvious that something wasn’t right, and what made that more apparent was the fact that he now sounded like a little boy. “Wait, is that me talking?” Testing out his voice, he began to sing a song that he remembered from his youth. “Like a diamond in the sky…”

Something was off, but what was it? His eyes began to spin as he activated his sharingan once more. The scene began to waver into a dreamlike frame, everything looked cloudy now. It was then that he noticed the scene. “This is where I took my Chunin Exams. Right before the-“ The era of the snow storm. The storm that closed the village down due to it frosting over. The terror brought tears to the boy’s eyes as he began to get the sniffles. He held his tears back as his eyes began to water over.

He began to feel vibrations in the ground, however, this time he didn’t stumble or waver. He slowly turned around, looking down the street of the many shops that littered the area. There was the burning sand worm, coming straight at him at full speed. The sand worm couldn’t hold full control over the genjutsu as it was still suffering from the flames that it endured. Uzi could feel the rage that built up within him. ‘But why here?’ His eyes began to spin rapidly as he took the feelings that emerged when he realized that he was within a Genjutsu. He took that energy, and with his eyes, gave the worm a hypnotic suggestion. The dream that he was in began to light up, a bright white light encasing the entire scene just as the worm was within reach of Uzi. He was going to try to reverse the Genjutsu, and encase the sand worm in one that was just as devastating.

OOC: You have a chance to make the Sand Worm Flee. Will be determined by a random roll each attempt. You can attack the Sand Worm until it drops to 0% HP, and can either kill it from there or take it for studying. Anything else you want to implement, just let it flow or notify me and we’ll take things from there. Keep the ideas coming, and let’s keep this topic rolling! ~

 

[Shingetsu Sora]

"Thank you Hisao-san!" Respectfully nodding towards the brave defender, Suigetsu's eyes widened in awe as he rolled to the side to avoid another attack from the sandworm. While he was expecting the fiery haired, strapping young lad to be one to produce a wall of flame or lightning, instead, Hisao quickly turned the shattered barrier into a formidable wall of cutting shards. Muttering under his breath, Suigetsu surmised that it was best to not continue to judge a book by its cover as he recovered. Watching the young man work, Suigetsu raised an eyebrow and nodded in appreciation as he got up and ran back to his newfound ally's side. Continuing to work his craft, a number of dark and ghastly looking hands erupted from the sand and out crawled shockingly unnerving creatures. Grabbing hold of the sandworm and holding it in place. Suigetsu wasn't sure how the hands were able to do it but he had seen similar techniques before in his lifetime.

“If you have any attack that could do some damage to this worm, and possibly cast some fear into it to make it leave the area, now would be the perfect time to do it. I can hold him in place for a while longer, so make it count.” While surely Hisao meant for Suigetsu to produce his own dazzling display of power, Suigetsu grinned from ear to ear as he placed a hand on the red heads covered shoulder and nodded. "I thought that you'd never ask." Cliché and quite cheeky, Suigetsu's hand began to faintly glow with power as he attempted to quickly sift through Hisao's genetic pool for something that he could use as a weapon. Adept in the more uncanny scientific arts himself, in the blink of an eye he was deep diving through strands of genetic material as he made a quick but discreet chakra connection to his would be savior.

Mentally projecting himself inside the very chakra that he wielded for such a feat, he found himself falling down a deep dark abyss in a world that seemed to house only an eclipsing moon an a large ocean expanse. Bracing himself for impact, he threw out his hands to attempt to slow his descent in the mindscape and while it worked to some degree, even his strong mental control over his own technique couldn't stop him from hitting the water with barely a splash and quickly being sucked down below the slow rolling waves. Though he didn't have to struggle to breathe, as he was dragged down into the watery abyss, he looked up to see the eclipsing moon finally move into place as the light of the star in the sky was replaced with an inescapable darkness. Continuing to fall, though he knew that the moment was passing in mere fractions of fractions of a second, he equally felt himself drowning in the mindscape that was all too familiar to what he knew to be similar to his own.

The darkened skies, the beautifully dark sea and the unimaginable pull towards the watery deep...this place, this person, this Hisao was unknowing but certainly unmistakably of Water Ancient lineage. Whether a hybrid or full blooded, the fact that there was no potent storm keeping Suigetsu out could only mean that Hisao had not unlocked his true nature. Even in his barely awakened state, Sora could put up the most rudimentary mind barriers. Unfortunately for Hisao, like so many he was lost and left to fend for himself, probably abandoned by cursed parents and adopted by some unsuspecting family. Suigetsu wanted to free such ones from the shackles of obscurity, to give them the same freedoms that he himself sought to have. To give them the choice to choose was what he wanted for all of his kin but today was not the day Hisao's salvation. Like a skilled surgeon, Suigetsu would take what he needed for now but he would keep tabs on this Hisao. For all the Ancient knew, he would be a most excellent tool in the future.

Fortune had smiled on Suigetsu this day because a happenstance occurrence had yielded a rich reward. Slowing his descent into the darkness, he spread his arms and legs wide as he opened his mouth and let out a scream. Seeming to control the dark waters around him, a whirlpool began to form around him, emanating from his own screaming voice. He beckoned the waters to do his bidding and as he righted himself, his descent became an ascent as he began to rise from below the depths and to rise steadily upwards towards the open falsely night sky. Water dripping off of his body as he rose, the crashing sound of the whirlpool beneath him gave a monstrous roar as the whole of the sea seemed to be agitated. Suigetsu was ready to free himself from this place as he hovered barely a meter above the water but right before he took off, the slow moving moon moved from its perfect perch to allow a glimmer of light to peak through. It was then that Suigetsu caught sight of himself which caused him to gasp. He did not appear as the himself that he remembered, but as a hybrid of something between himself and Sora.

Forcefully ejecting himself out of the mindscape, he gasped loudly as he took in air as if he truly had been underwater. Shaking his head and letting go of Hisao's shoulder he quickly caught his bearings and stretched out his right hand before himself as he a thin stream of light began to appear just within his grasp. As the light began to take form, it began to incorporate a hybrid look between light and darkness, something almost like dark glass but also like a clear mirror. Stepping from beside Hisao to right in front of him, Suigetsu looked back at the man and muttered an offhand remark. "When this is all over, you'll have to tell me where you come from. I'm very much interested in your technique." Turning back around to face the trapped sandworm, Suigetsu tightened his grip around the now perfectly formed weapon as he looked on at the eerily glowing trident that he had formed. If there had been any question as to if Hisao was in some way connected to the Water Court, the answer was clear now. A trident fit for a king of the all the seas, Suigetsu swung the weapon too and fro before his foe before yelling, "For now, we hunt!" and rushing the sandworm headlong. Having been held in place by Hisao's familiars, the sandworm was as much a sitting duck as ever and the many pointed trident was as sharp if not sharper than even it's usually impenetrable hide.

OOC: Since Suigetsu is a Seikon: Cobalt and Hisao is a Seikon as well, I treated the RNG roll as signifying that Hisao was a Seikon: Mercury and thus having Water Court Ancient lineage (again, I totally understand that systematically things don't exactly line up like that but we're rolling for a good story, not sound mechanics, lol). I've no plans to overly define him but since we got an interesting occurrence, I'm making a story out of it.

Spoiler

Suigetsu used Mystical Replication to copy Hisao's Sunder Reality and create a trident using Sora's/Suigetsu's Chakra Saber weapon.

Chimera

Chimera Many shinobi, during the course of their lifetimes, can be said to have mastered their own bloodline or core ability. Fewer can be said to have had the opportunity to do it with more than one; of those, only the Chimera manage it simultaneously, with their own natural bodies. There are...

ninpocho.com

Seikon

Seikon A unique clan that has the odd, yet powerful ability to control and bend reality to their liking. Members of the Seikon clan are deadly opponents that seem to have abilities that simply seem to surpass all natural limits, their inhuman techniques warping reality in such away at the most...

ninpocho.com

Name: Chakra Saber: Blue
Type: Bludgeoning
Accuracy Mod: +2
Damage Mod: -10%
Augments: Chakra Drain | Recovery | Special Composition: Shadow

Suigetsu is using Momento Mori - M on the Sandworm that is being held down by Hisao's creation.

 

[Uziuke]

Sand Worm 1: 89%
Sand Fort: 93%

Sand Worm 1 | The Sand Worm continued to tunnel this way and that underground, searching for an exit. It indeed stumbled unto a fight that it wanted no part in. The allies took this time to create a plan. They would lead the Sand Worm out of the fort by planting a line of explosions set to detonate when the worm passed each note. As the allies planted a stream of note atop the sands, they tracked the worms movements through the vibrations that rattled above ground. Upon moving pass the first note, the explosion was set off, causing the worm to continued in the direction that it moved. This strategy was enough to move the worm out of the vicinity, and released it from the Sand Fort prison. With that, the allies gained a sense of excitement, but only a few stayed back and rejoiced.

A few others of the allies began to move to the scene where Sora and Hisao were fighting yet another Sand Worm foe.

Sand Worm 2: 63%
Sora: 100%
Hisao: 100%

Sand Worm 2 | As Sora placed his hand on Hisao, he remained confident in Sora’s abilties. He didn’t know exactly what his Sunan comrade was planning, but he trusted in him fully, and didn’t doubt his plan of action. He continued to use to zombies to hold the bind on the Sand Worm, keeping it from moving at all. It was only a matter of seconds, and Sora was holding on to a trident. It was obvious that he somehow managed to infiltrate his mind, but there was nothing to hide.

He looked on as he watched Sora began to swing his trident weapon. The Sand Worm, still bound from the Dark Sage’s technique, only awaited what was coming to it. A dazzling display of water works surrounds the trident, as dark energy moved through the weapon. The attacked connected to the worm’s head. Stars seemed to appear above it’s head as it became dizzy, but what really moved the environment, was the feeling of dread that came from the blow. The Sand Worm began to cower, and even the zombies that came from Hisao’s technique were moved aback. They each disappeared underground from where they came, feeling the dark aura hover over them.

A few of the ally’s that were around watching the battle tried their best to stand their ground. Such a feeling cast terror into them, but they didn’t run from the sights. They continued to hope that Sora and Hisao was enough to stop the enemy. The feeling of anger now left the Sand Worm as it dug hurriedly underground. It began to send vibrations above as he scattered towards the north, leaving the fort as it continued to flee the scene. It knew it was no match for the duo. If Sora would have chose another technique, the Sand Worm would have stayed, but that feeling of doom was what made the Worm leave out of fear. There was nothing more it could do after feeling such dread.

With that the battle was over. A smirk appeared on Hisao’s face as he released his focus of the battle. “Nice attack! I bet a blow like that will make that worm think twice about coming back this way.” A cheered Hisao indeed. Many of the allies that were around began to cheer and rush in to congratulate the two on their victory, creating a large victory circle. If the two could stand it, they would be lifted by the crowd, going hip hip hooray! As they thrust the two into the air and caught them, repeating the process several times. “Hey, I never got your name.” Hisao concluded, realizing he didn’t get much info from his battle partner. Indeed they would have a talk, maybe over a meal after such a battle?

Sand Worm 3: 72%
Uziuke: 84%

Sand Worm 3 | Uzi stood silently, now back in his adult form as he looked towards the Sand Worm. The skies were now a crimson red hue, there wasn’t a star in sight. The moon was gone as well. The two were surrounded by an environment of darkness, encased in a solid black scene. The Sand Worm and Uziuke were outlined in white, defining their figures. What stood out were the red flames engulfing the Sand Worm. The Genjutsu the Sand Worm was in was one of the more fear Genjutsu of the shinobi land. It was tough to break out of due to the pain that it suffered from the illusion. The Worm was bound by Uzi’s Body Bind Technique, a technique known by ANBU. This kept the worm paralyzed in place. The entire time it eyed Uzi, who increased the temperature of the flames as each second moved along. Torment of the Physical Plane was deadly enough to show the opponent it’s worst fears, and in this case, the worm didn’t want to suffer from the flames that seemed that they would never go out. It let out loud shrieks of pain as it struggled to move, but it worked to no avail.

Uziuke felt compassion on the Sand Worm. He still looked at it as an enemy, but he didn’t like watching things be tortured. It’d take a lot more to make Uzi’s heart turn cold towards this enemy. After a minute, the Sand Worm was released from the Genjutsu, now realizing that the pain came from it’s imagination. A bit angered, though relieved that it was released from it’s burning inferno, it charged towards Uziuke. The shrouded Mist native only stood with both his hands at his sides. He stared at the worm from behind his ANBU mask, not worried about the worm’s next attack. The worm opened it’s mouth, showing it’s teeth. It gave Uzi a cut on his right thigh. It was only a small cut, but the wound was more of a “I’m not soft, but I won’t bother you again” kind of lick. It then departed the scene, leaving the Sand Fort. It knew that if it continued to battle the boy, it’d lose due to it’s burns. It needed to rest to regain it’s strength, and for the flames to stop burning. Something that would be impossible during battle with the hardened shinobi.

(( And with that, the Battle is over! Each subsequent battle will increase in difficulty, but no worries, it'll be a while before the next battle comes up. Stay on guard, and congrats! Also, send me a message if anything is out of place, or there's some other error. ))

 

[Shingetsu Sora]

“Nice attack! I bet a blow like that will make that worm think twice about coming back this way.” Nodding in agreement, the controlled yet still crazed look on Suigetsu's face was unmistakable to any who had ever battled such a magnificent creature before. The rush and thrill of the battle was unmistakable and despite holding back from such barbaric forms of power, Suigetsu found that he had rather liked the taste of victory. Licking his lips with an almost sick glee, a small part of himself was disappointed when the sandworm actually seemed to feel dread and rushed off, leaving behind a large displaced dune of sand behind. Suigetsu wasn't one to want to be feared but the respect that fear often accompanied was worth its weight in proverbial gold. Still breathing heavy, Suigetsu was scooped up and onto the shoulders of the onlookers that had managed to catch the tail end of the encounter and despite the unsettling feeling that others had gotten physically a little too close for comfort, Suigetsu opted to fight his normal instincts and instead go with the flow.

Letting the created weapon dissipate into nothingness, he too lifted his arms in joyful abandon and cheered on like the rest. For an Ancient such as himself, it was strangely normal in a way that he expected Sora to appreciate far more than he ever could. “Hey, I never got your name.” Brought back to reality by the reminder of his own apparent rudeness, Suigetsu without hesitating began to reply, "Su-" before catching himself and self correcting. "Su-Sora!" A careless slip and he would have stated a name that wouldn't have lined up with any official records. Though it was more than likely that over the commotion that Hisao hadn't caught the momentary slip up, it was very clear to Suigetsu that it was probably best that he put Sora back in charge of things before his own normal ways of acting shown through as especially different from Sora's. It was only after the crowd finally allowed them to stand on their own two feet that the two would actually get more time to talk about the event of the day. "So Hisao, what department are you working in, I haven't seen you around here before." As he prepared to give back control to Sora, he did at least want to make some sort of connection with this Hisao character. By Suigetsu's estimation, they were close enough kin that keeping tabs on him would probably further his own goals at some point.

 

[Uziuke]

"Hmm..." Hisao thought he heard something else for a moment, but he let it slip his mind as Sora introduced himself. "Well it's nice to meet you Sora. It's good to know that there are others that will stick around when the heat turns up in the kitchen." It wasn't a literal statement, but he kept his hopes up. He knew there would be more attacks down the road, as the Diamond Ocean wasn't exactly the safest place to dwell.

"I'm preparing for the construction of the hangar, which may be delayed again due to this attack." Hisao sighed, big projects did take time, and this particular project was huge. It'd take a while to complete, but in the end, he knew It'd all be worth it. "I'm sure we'll be working on it soon however. The walls will be done within the next couple of months. It's going to be great to finally start working on the ship. I'm raring to be aboard the vessel already." Hisao liked the thought of actually being aboard the ship, but there was a process for these sort of things. He was ok with preparing for the work on the hangar.

"You know, you're kind of young to be out here now that I think about it. It's great to see the younger workers putting in work. You guys deserve some kind of pay raise. More so, some of you even have time to stick around for the fights. I hope you grow and learn a few things while out here. If need be, you can always ask me for help if you need anything." He put emphasis on the word anything. Taking care of the youth was something every older shinobi should have had on their list.

Hisao wanted to comment on Sora's natural ability to handle the trident weapon, but he figured it was a conversation they'd have at a later date. He did want to bump into Sora again while working out here, maybe next time while not under such pressure? 'This Sora kid handled that weapon like a pro. He's definitely got potential.'

 

[Shingetsu Sora]

Throwing a hand behind his head and laughing, Suigetsu laughed at the irony of being called young. Even by most Ancient's view, he was in fact quite ancient himself. Of course, those who weren't aware of who or what he was could only go by the average looking teenager that they saw before them. Something that he'd have to increasingly keep in mind the more that he and Sora blended together in their shared existence. If he continued to act too wise beyond his years then people would ask questions and those sort of questions usually led to answers, answers that could stop his plans. "Yeah, just doing my part you know. I want to be a part of something bigger than myself and this..." he stopped as he made a wide waving motion with his hands. "Seemed like a good place to start." Instinctively going to put his hands into his pockets, he stopped short and instead stroked his chin as he eyed Hisao and thought about what the man had said about working on the walls and had an idea.

While he wasn't certain if it could work, he remembered how things were when he was still a respected member of the Water Court. In those days, as he had said to Sora, they did have to deal with all sorts of sea creatures. Some were peaceful and some, not so much, but what usually helped with keeping the most wretched of them away was to use sound waves to create the illusion of an even bigger creature of the deep. "You know, spur of the moment thought here and all, but are we building in any contingencies to make sure that we don't have another attack? Admittedly, I'm no expert on sandworms but from what I can imagine, we were probably making enough of a ruckus aboveground to draw them to us from belowground. What if we just... I don't know, put some sort of sand pounding or equally sound dampening mechanism into the walls or watchtowers to mask the sound of all the work that we're doing up here?" Shaking his head, Suigetsu feigned ignorance as if he was simply a kid having an enlightened moment. "If nothing else, it might keep all but the biggest sandworms away which is more than what we seem to have now. But don't take my word for it! I just work in Logistics, I'm no architect or zoologist." From there, he'd leave things in Hisao's hands. He wasn't aware of how far up the chain of command that Hisao was but all it usually took for these sorts of things was for somebody to put in a good word or two.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Later on that evening, when things more or less were returning back to what they were before, Suigetsu would take another opportunity to take over while Sora was sleeping and he'd log on to the available terminal that they had on site. Having to work quickly, Suigetsu lamented how sloppy he had been to scribble notes on official documents. He was so busy trying to crack the cypher that even Sora was starting to get suspicious. Unfortunately for the naïve boy, this was a problem that Suigetsu wasn't ready to discuss with his other half just yet. Continuing to peck away at the keyboard, at one point, Suigetsu stopped trying to decipher the code and instead leaned back in the chair and just stared at the screen. He felt that he was so close and yet it seemed that he was so far away from what he was looking for. The characters simply weren't making sense with anything that he had ever come across or could remember coming across.

Of all the combinations that he tried, nothing had gotten him past the initial screen that he was stuck at. A login and a password, simple things really, but the characters were clearly a mix of standard, Runic and at least one other language or code of some sort. Sighing and shaking his head, he looked at the time and realized that he had better quickly shut things down and get back to his quarters before Sora stirred. On a whim, and rather quite haphazardly, Suigetsu flippantly keyed in a few characters substituting two of the yet deciphered characters based on an ancient script used only by the most pompous of Ancients long ago. They looked close enough to the ancient script and if nothing else, they would produce another error message, but much to Suigetsu's surprise, there was a soft pinging sound and the screen danced with activity as he finally found his way in.

OOC: Suigetsu has suggested a "sand pounder" like device for avoiding further sandworm attacks. Something akin to a reverse https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Thumper .
OOC #2: Suigetsu has cracked the cypher for Project Garden Gate disk and has begun to exam its contents.

 

[Sand Council]

Encryption Success... loading.... loading... loading...

SUCCESSS:

Spoiler: 1. Garden Gate

Spoiler: 2. Gate Keepers

Spoiler: 3. Wagon Ride

Spoiler: 4. Pesticide

Spoiler: 5. Violet Sickness

Spoiler: 6. Fruits of Paradise

Spoiler: File in Trashcan

OOC: While all points are plot points, only some may be salvaged... but it depends on what you do with this knowledge on if it opens up any side quests/mission events/or large-scale events... but you have for sure been awards with all the blueprints for flying machinery that you could ever ask for...but the file doesn't cover the success rate of their designs. Adventurer beware

 

[Shingetsu Sora]

Hearing nothing but the stirring of the evening wind outside and mostly just the sound of his own breathing and the whirring of the terminal, Suigetsu was once again awake while Sora slept on. Unlike previous times however, the Ancient wasn't spinning his proverbial wheels trying to crack some code, this time he was actually looking at a treasure trove of information. What was Project Garden Gate? Who was Project Garden Gate? The questions were as numerous as the answers that now lay before him. Having broken through the encryption, the screen now presented him with answers that were both in standard but it was also clear that the disk had been corrupted, probably in an effort to hastily protect it from utter destruction when Sora and his allies had unceremoniously crashed the parade that was the operation. There were a number of things that intrigued Suigetsu, such as Pesticide and what it could be. Sure, there were answers but the answers provided were incomplete and simply opened the door to more questions. A man of science, Suigetsu longed to explore more and more of the contents of the disk but the more that he found, the more that he ended up with corrupted walls of text, neverminding the file that was left in the trashcan.

Greatly piquing his interest, he found even the small morsels of information that he was able to glean, wildly fascinating to consider. For far too long some of what was implied by these corrupted files would have been considered heretical by man and Ancient alike and yet, here were snippets of knowledge worth their weight in gold. Every click and every scrolling effort led he through dizzying mazes of text that referred to documents that he'd probably never find. Wanting to view it as a coincidence but also seeing it as a cruel joke, the only file that seemed to provide all that he needed and then some was the file about Wagon Ride. Aerial modes of transportation? It almost seemed too good to be true. Here, Sora had seemingly stumbled upon the project as a means to beef up his resume and yet Suigetsu had every reason to believe that this project was actually being funded by the very organization that so many shinobi had just done their best to thwart. Something wasn't adding up and if Suigetsu thought long and hard about it, nothing added up. Was this all just an elaborate ruse by this...Project Garden Gate, group to circumvent the efforts of Sunagakure to keep them in check, or was this just a coincidental leap in technology by the shinobi.

All throughout history, multiple unrelated groups of people had made similarly timed advancements socially, medically and technologically but this one was especially on the nose. Faced with a morale dilemma, Suigetsu realized that while he could use some of these drawings to more than double the speed of the airship project but he also quite realistically had a concern that he was playing right into an invisible enemy's hands. If he provided these schematics and eventually the airships were used against Suna then he'd feel personally responsible. On the other hand, he could equally become the spark that ignited the flame of enlightenment. Like all greats, he was on the precipice of...something. Whether it was change or defeat, only time would tell, but something was going to happen one way or the other. A man of the sea, Suigetsu was none the wiser about just what would work and so he simply copied multiple drawings as best as he could and prepared to send them anonymously. Somewhere deep inside, he recognized a change in himself that he hadn't noticed before. A growing spark of something new, or more accurately, a growing sign that he and Sora were starting to rub off on each other. He shouldn't have cared as much as he did but for some reason he was. In a true sense, he was feeling himself become more human and less Ancient. Shaking his head at the thought, he quieted those deep inner thoughts and despite the risk, he once again set off into the night.

OOC: Suigetsu is using the information gleaned from the Project Gard Gate disk to anonymously provide three schematic plans for airships in an attempt to provide a greater leap in technological advancement concerning the project. I'm requesting rolls for chance of success.

 

[Uziuke]

Throwing a hand behind his head and laughing, Suigetsu laughed at the irony of being called young. Even by most Ancient's view, he was in fact quite ancient himself. Of course, those who weren't aware of who or what he was could only go by the average looking teenager that they saw before them. Something that he'd have to increasingly keep in mind the more that he and Sora blended together in their shared existence. If he continued to act too wise beyond his years then people would ask questions and those sort of questions usually led to answers, answers that could stop his plans. "Yeah, just doing my part you know. I want to be a part of something bigger than myself and this..." he stopped as he made a wide waving motion with his hands. "Seemed like a good place to start." Instinctively going to put his hands into his pockets, he stopped short and instead stroked his chin as he eyed Hisao and thought about what the man had said about working on the walls and had an idea.

While he wasn't certain if it could work, he remembered how things were when he was still a respected member of the Water Court. In those days, as he had said to Sora, they did have to deal with all sorts of sea creatures. Some were peaceful and some, not so much, but what usually helped with keeping the most wretched of them away was to use sound waves to create the illusion of an even bigger creature of the deep. "You know, spur of the moment thought here and all, but are we building in any contingencies to make sure that we don't have another attack? Admittedly, I'm no expert on sandworms but from what I can imagine, we were probably making enough of a ruckus aboveground to draw them to us from belowground. What if we just... I don't know, put some sort of sand pounding or equally sound dampening mechanism into the walls or watchtowers to mask the sound of all the work that we're doing up here?" Shaking his head, Suigetsu feigned ignorance as if he was simply a kid having an enlightened moment. "If nothing else, it might keep all but the biggest sandworms away which is more than what we seem to have now. But don't take my word for it! I just work in Logistics, I'm no architect or zoologist." From there, he'd leave things in Hisao's hands. He wasn't aware of how far up the chain of command that Hisao was but all it usually took for these sorts of things was for somebody to put in a good word or two.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"You know, that sounds like a great idea. I'd deliver that information to that Uziuke guy myself, but..." Hisao trailed off, knowing that Uzi wasn't one that liked attention. Of course that Uchiha guy was one of the one's that started up the idea, and was around during the beginning of construction, but he remembered he said something along the lines of not wanting to be an attention grabber. Which was believable considering he was one of the shadows of the village. Hisao began rubbing his chin, before looking back to Sora. "I'll make sure you meet up with him and you could deliver the message yourself. He's a slick looking fellow with white hair and red eyes, but just happy-go-lucky as the next guy... if that makes any sense at all. What's that saying they say? Tough on the outside, but soft on the inside? He's something like that, but I'll put you in word and make sure he speaks to you. Heck, you can probably even ask him about joining the shadows if that's you're sort of thing." Hisao sort of shrugged it off.

"But it was nice meeting you, "young man"." The sage said the last part while practicing his air quoting skills. Hisao still couldn't get over how Sora handled that weapon earlier. He knew the invention Sora mentioned would help the site, but attacks would come and go regardless. Knowing that people such as Sora was around gave this mission heart though. A heart that wouldn't die down, and would be backed by a few solid people. That's what it took to get an Airship off the ground. "I'll go looking for him now. Hopefully he wasn't asleep or hiding somewhere." Hisao chuckled at the thought. "But next time we meet, we'll have a word or two on a few things. Like that weapon you found while fighting that Sand Worm. I'm sure you have a few of your own stories to tell." Hisao said the last bit as he began to walk off, determined to get him to meet that Uziuke fellow. He knew Uzi could help Sora with the shinobi biz, and hoped to see him doing better in the near, or, somewhat distant future.

 

[Shingetsu Sora]

While he waited for word of the anonymous schematics to reach him through the usual rumblings and grumblings, Suigetsu spent his nights...or rather, Sora's nights, continuing to learn as much as he could about Project Garden Gate. With only so many resources available to him and certainly considering the fact that he couldn't just ask anyone for help, he poured over the parts that he could and speculated on the rest. Project Pesticide especially garnered his interest but there was one name that he kept seeing that tickled the edges of his memory, Primus. Who was this, Primus person exactly, and just what sort of power did they wield that they could command this much attention all while remaining a secret. Secrets were hard to keep between two people, much less the sort of effort that had been witnessed by Sora. As he'd ponder, Suigetsu would try as hard as he could to dredge up some sort of memory of why the name was so familiar but none would surface. Indeed, the harder that he tried, the more that his head would hurt and so, in the end, he'd give up and instead sneak over to the where the actual airship construction was taking place. Tucked away in the shadows, he could try and figure out just what sort of plans were being referenced and if his were one of them. While the entire project was still recovering from the attack of the sandworms, security was lax enough that he most likely wouldn't get caught snooping.

OOC: Needed a post for training, lol.

 

[Uziuke]

It was a few weeks past since the Sand Worms had attacked. Reconstruction on the Fortress to the Airship was a go. Repairs were almost complete, and there was word that construction on the Hangar for the Airship was in the works. It sounded as though actually construction on the airship would begin soon, and it was something Uzi looked forward to. He was already going on about the contents of the Airship with one of the captains of the project. "Yea, we're going to have beds below deck. This way we can set up a sleep rotation system. We'll have sails, so you know we need a sturdy mast for each one. You know, we'll be traveling by air and by sea. Oi! You know we're also going to have a storage area, also..." As Uzi spoke the project employee continued to write each thing down, promising a blueprint of the Airship before they actually started on construction. Knowing the Hangar was already in the works was nice. Uzi's unit would be finished with the fort defense walls in a matter of months. Afterwards he'd be able to focus on growing crops, building beds, getting to the root of the actual work of building a place for the workers that wanted to stick around could stay. He knew everyone didn't have a family to attend to, and this project was something that most couldn't stay away from, including himself. Aside from his gate duties, he stayed on the project site reading that Bible book and keeping to his construction activities.

He was also expecting someone. Hisao, one of the guys constructing the Airship Hangar mentioned that a kid helped defeat one of the sand worms that came into the fort. He was glad that a few able bodied shinobi were around to defend against attacks. He was excited to meet this guy that was mentioned, so he'd stick around for a while. The guards on gate duty could hold to the gates for a while without his supervision. Of course he'd cut them no slack when he came back, but he knew how to have fun while on the job. Maybe that was why that liked his presence. He usually let them run duty themselves, only butting in when they got carried about. It was actually quite hilarious to watch when they got into a heated argument with one another of small topics such as "Which is better, rock, paper, scissors, or arm wrestling." Uzi made sure to keep them from beating one another down, but all in all, they usually had a good time. So many games of Rock, paper, scissors.

Uzi continued on as he awaited this young hero that happened to be on site. He wanted to thank him personally for being there and defending the fort, something that he didn't necessarily have to do.