The Lightning Country Saga: Act 2, Scene 5
Rooftop Atrium, Torre Celeste
Kumogakure, Kaminari no Kuni
…2300 hours
The day had come. The Raikage of Kumogakure stood impassively before the greatest threat his village had ever faced: Hayata Makoro, his own uncle. Around the two, a circle of heavily-armed and armored henchmen, who monitored the shinobi’s every move with fingers tensed on the triggers of their bolters.
With that, Makoro now produced a piece of chalk, drawing a large circle on the floor of the tower, emblazoned with strange runic sigils. Immediately afterwards, he performed a complex series of handseals, and the circle erupted in light, raising a shimmering gate from the floor. Through this gate now stepped two more henchmen who hoisted Shiranai upright by his underarms. The portal now closed, and the chalk circle underneath dissolved into nothingness.
It did not take a medical shinobi education to see that Shiranai was in poor condition. The formerly healthy-appearing mednin was covered in bruises and abrasions, and whatever unblemished skin there was appeared to be a sickly, pale gray. Anemia; Stage two hypovolemic shock; Hypothermia requiring internal rewarming measures… went through the sennin’s mind as he started his assessment. Both of his wrists had been mangled and bore nasty-appearing open wounds, likely from the crucifixion torture he had endured. Even with extensive reconstructive surgery, it was unlikely that Shiranai would ever be able to command even rudimentary handseals again.
“Quiet and let me heal you,” said Kushin, beginning his jutsu. Besides, you’re alive and that’s all you’ll need to be. Makoro had planned well, he realized. Shiranai’s torture had not merely been an empty show of malice – it had been calculated to deflect any allies present when Shin made the deal. Even a medical sennin could not both save Shiranai from death and attempt to fight Makoro. Now it’s up to you, Rin and Masao, he thought as he cut himself, his own blood leaping from his body and into the Prince’s exposed vein. Small amounts of blood dripped to the floor, and using the grooves in the stonework to ready itself for what Kushin had planned.
Makoro turned to Shin, smirking.
“Now, nephew, your wrists. Even I have to take precautions when the Raikage is involved,” said the missing, slapping a pair of manacles onto Shin. They would prevent easy handseal use.
“I keep my promises, uncle. I will not attempt to fight you,” said Shin. “But I want you to answer my questions.”
“Very well, ask.”
“It is obvious that your overall goal all this time has been to exact vengeance by harming me personally. Initially, I felt that you were only after the village by delivering vengeance for what they did to our family. However, your recent actions have shown otherwise. I grew up without any knowledge of you, and none of my actions or decisions would have ever logically resulted in harm to you or your interests. Therefore, I conclude that it is not actually me who is your true target, but someone else in our family. Is that correct?” asked Shin, calmly, to which Makoro sighed in response.
“Once again, the Hayata Family shows its powers of deduction. You are correct that you are not the one I seek vengeance against, nor do I have any specific hatred of the village. You, Shin, are merely a proxy for your father, and my brother, Takama. Unfortunately, my brother is long dead, so you will have to satisfy me,” said Makoro.
“What did my father do to you, that you would spend the last thirty years planning revenge, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and no doubt untold sums of money and resources?” asked Shin.
“Because, boy, he stole Misa from me, and then if that wasn’t enough, killed her!” Makoro snarled, anger warping his features for the first time.
“By Misa, you mean my mother,” said Shin, closing his eyes.
“Yes. Your mother – the woman I loved more than anything and anybody in the world, including this village,” said Makoro, glaring icily at Shin. Momentarily, he softened his expression, realizing something. “Ah, but you knew none of this if you knew nothing about me. Out of fairness, and because you are also a Hayata, I will explain.
“We are a very old family of Kumogakure. We have always been scientists and researchers first, and shinobi second. The thing that has always marked us has been our insatiable search for knowledge. Takama and I never saw eye to eye growing up. He was the elder son, and the prodigy of the family. By the time he was a mednin in training, he had already published revolutionary treatises on chakra and human advancement that are the required reading of shinobi students today. In comparison, I was merely the second son, and my interests always subordinate to his. My works were always of lesser importance and impact, and received far less funding. Believe it or not, I didn’t mind. That was my lot in life and I accepted it, much like every student in the Academy accepts that their lot in life is to die for you one day.
“But when we found Misa, I knew that the harmony between us was ended. You see, she was truly unique among shinobi – not because of her looks or anything that shallow, but because her chakra signature had the potential to be the greatest source of new knowledge on human evolution that has ever been discovered on this planet. Takama and I both studied her, initially with scientific detachment, but somewhere along the line our obsession with her transformed into romantic desire and what had begun as a joint research venture became a fight for her affection. I was no longer willing to play second-best to that man. And I tried my hardest. But in the end, Takama won her heart.
"I was willing to accept the loss, as I had done all throughout my life. But then he fucked up. He went overboard, grew intoxicated on research and she loved him too much to tell him to stop. One of his experiments went wrong – it started an irreversible cascade of molecular changes within her body that slowly drained her of her chakra and her life energy, leaving her to waste away slowly. Does that sound familiar to what you grew up with, nephew? Thank your father for that," sneered the missing.
How is this possible? Was this why father shielded him from me to prevent me from learning the truth, Shin thought showing his countenance downcast. It was obvious that the Hayata clan were poor patrons of love but to go through all of this was near insanity.
“We were growing desperate as she started to suffer. The Kage would not allow us to leave to search for a cure. So I again subordinated my future to Takama’s, and I went missing. I spent five years covering up all evidence of my ever having existed, just so that Misa would not have to suffer the public shame of being related to a nukenin. I visited nearly all of the shinobi villages in the world, some of whom threw me in jail or tried to kill me rather than allowing me access to their libraries. But I persisted, all for her sake.
“In the end, though, it was all for nothing. Because I made the mistake of trusting Takama to take care of her. And what did the bastard do? Die and let her follow him. I was in Bear Country when I heard the news. And suddenly, I had no purpose anymore. I had thrown away everything only to end in failure. But I could do one last thing before I died. I could get back at that bastard of a brother who had stolen everything from me. I could erase it all. End the miserable legacy of the Hayata Clan forever and prevent anyone else like Misa from falling prey to our fucking mad science obsession. So you and I are going to fly off to somewhere they’ll never find us and make sure that we’re the last Hayata ever. Now, let’s go.”
Suddenly, a burst of static in Makoro’s earpiece broke him out of his grim reverie.
“Makoro-sama, there’s a disturbance,” sounded a staticy voice that sounded like it was coming from the bottom floor.
“What sort of disturbance?” growled Makoro into his headset as he gave Shin a rough shove forward toward the rooftop exit.
“A civilian delivery van approaching the cordon. It’s refusing to stop.”
“Then stop it, you idiot!”
“As you command!”
Meanwhile
Inside a ratty ice cream truck stopped a few dozen meters from the entrance to the Torre Celeste and surrounded by dozens of angry mercenaries with weapons drawn, a group of shinobi huddled together.
“STEP OUT OF THE VEHICLE!” sounded muffled voices outside.
“OPEN FIRE!” now shouted the muffled voice from outside, followed immediately by the sharp cracking of bolter fire and a cacophony of metallic pings and thumping sounds as the projectiles crashed into the sides of the “Mr. Freezy” truck that he had stolen from the stores of confiscated property once belonging to Nara Ryuujin. The inner layer of scrap-metal armor plating bolted to the walls buckled under the onslaught, and a few bolts managed to punch through, making everyone instinctively duck.
“Heh, looks like they know we’re here,” said Masao, drawing back the charging handle on the heavy belt-fed “Pecheneg” machine-bolter dredged up from his own private armory. The ST-15 he usually carried was slung across his back, ready for use in a pinch.
“I’ve accessed the security feeds. Makoro’s still on the top floor in the atrium. Isaki’s managed to throw up a barrier around Shiranai and is holding off attacks,” said Rin again.
“This is it, then. Makoro doesn’t leave here alive. Everyone get ready,” said Masao, now pulling the blast visor of his helmet down over his face, as did the others. He nodded at Mochizuki Tama. “This is for Senna,” he said, as he rose from his seat, kicked the doors of the van open and leapt out, opening fire...
Welcome to the final mission of the Lightning Country Saga! The Raikage's life lies in the balance, and Makoro must not survive. Will you defy authority and death to serve your country?
Tactical Situation:
Masao, Tama, Gin, Moro, and Koutamon are located nearby their armored ice cream truck, "Mr. Freezy", roughly forty meters from the front entrance of the Torre Celeste, and face a wave of dozens of Makoro's elite henchmen, all of whom command considerable firepower consisting of bolters, melee weapons, aRbalest Propelled Grenades, and even level C-B destructive jutsu wielded by the missing nin among the group. To compensate for the numbers difference, Kumo armor master Yasu Ren has provided each member of the team with a customized suit of chakra-powered heavy armor that can take "one hell of a beating" in exchange for a slight decrease in movement speed. Using this advantage to even out the disparity in firepower and numbers, or perish. An added complication is that non-shinobi civilian staff are still inside the Torre. Killing of civilians will not be tolerated!
Kushin and Shin are located on the top floor atrium of the Torre, and in addition to Makoro, have the added presence of a few dozen of Makoro's henchmen present as well. Right now, it is unclear to Makoro or his henchmen what is going on, although they will find out in a few minutes for sure. Shiranai is in critical condition and requires full medical attention lest he perish. Shin is currently bound and unable to use handseals. Makoro is an S-ranked Uchiha and is thus not as susceptible to eye-related doujutsu as one might hope.
Just as a note to all of you, this will be reimbursed OOCly as an A-rank mission. The minimum word count to achieve this is 2400 according to the site rules. If you do not make this, you will be reimbursed at a lower rank. Keep this in mind as I intend this to be a relatively fast-paced mission with fewer rounds than you might expectNote to Shin and Kushin - due to the extensive involvement you two had with writing the first section of the intro, each of you get half of the total word count of 1600 (800 each) to start.
