To Kill Three Hundred <Private>

[Toraono Michino]

Topic Entered with Ryuu Tama & Uzumoreru Toushin​

“I really don’t think this is a good idea Tama,” the assassin complained as he was forced to follow the scientist who held a deadly silence the entire ten minutes it had taken him to get here; the entire time that Uzu had been trying to dissuade Tama.

The scientist was pissed. The poor student he had just met today was stolen from his care after going through a traumatic event that involved killing another person for the first time in her early career. The guilt of the assassins taking off with Amy was tearing the blonde up as he felt this was all his fault. The assassins had been a problem of his lately since Kitanai had stopped being his bodyguard for whatever reason. The only reason he hadn’t killed the assassin following him to Amy’s shop was because it had been very apparent a moment ago that the two were connected somehow.
Tama walked over towards the shop then took a turn to go down to where the house was attached and raised his foot towards the door.

“Oh please no don’t do tha-” the assassin tried to protest but fell short when the sound of solid wood crashing in drowned out his pleas. Suddenly Toushin felt the scientist’s strong grip on his chest and immediately reacted by stabbing him in that arm that gripped him out of instinct. A deep cold fear rushed down his spin as he watched the wound on the man’s arm quickly heal right back up. The black eyes looked up and caught the terrifying look Tama was giving him before the man who was a coward not even three months ago lifted and threw the assassin into the middle of the room.

By the fire of the living room the blacksmith’s father sat watching everything unfold with a deadly calm.
“Father of Amy, you have been betrayed. The Uzumoreru Clan has taken your daughter hostage, I assume, to start a war with Sunagakure by betraying the treaty with your clan. Ideas?”

Tama was just that kind of guy. Wasn’t a big fan of pussyfootin’ around, ya know?

 

[Chiyo]

The salt and pepper haired man sat in an armchair in the small den off then entry to the Suchiru household, a book in his hand as he stared at the two men who had kicked their way into his home. Setting his book down on the table he stood and took a few slow steps toward the pair as the blonde spoke. It took a few moments before this information sank in and the man's ice blue eyes looked from the face of the blonde scientist to the familiar assassin. Laying his eyes on one of the Uzumoreru, he scowled, the seemingly frail elder man taking a quick step toward his daughter's instructor where he took hold of his collar with a surprisingly strong grip and lifted him a few inches off the ground before speaking.

“I'm assuming by your being here to deliver this information that you weren't a part of this...however, should I find out otherwise, you know what I can do.” After the old man finished speaking, he set the assassin down on the ground and took a step back again, his demeanor surprisingly calm for a man that had just learned his young daughter had been kidnapped by a family of assassins.

Taking a deep breath, the Grand Master blacksmith ran a mottled hand through his hair, trying to calm his anger so that he could focus on what needed to be done. “Give me a moment, I'll need to alert the rest of the clan. Contrary to popular belief we're more than just a bunch of merchants.” With that, he turned and headed up the stairs and into his study.

-------

The redhead was now curled up in the center of the dark room, the remains of the chair she had been bound to shattered in the corner from the moment of defiance she had gone through just an hour before. Both emerald green eyes were now swollen shut and the flesh around them was tinted purple. Her clothes were more ripped than they were whole, and much of her petite body was covered in bruises and cuts. Her small frame shuddered a little against the cold stone floor as she heard footsteps coming down the hallway.

One large man entered the room, shrouded in black just as all of them were, and walked over to where she shivered on the floor. A low growl rumbled in her chest as she listened for his movements, unable to open her eyes to see. She heard the soft swishing sound of fabric rubbing together and the slight popping of joints as he knelt down beside her to touch her long red hair which was now tangled and crusted with blood. "Get away from me!" She shouted, her voice hoarse and scratchy from all the screaming she had already done. Using the small amount of energy she still had in her battered little body, she pushed herself away from him, backing into the corner to grab hold of one of the splintered bits of wood that had once been a chair.

 

[Toraono Michino]

“But of course,<i></i>” Tama replied to the Suchiru Clan Head and watched the older gentleman go up the stairs of his house to most likely fetch things and send off a message.

The room grew suddenly quiet as the blond stood there with his arms crossed and his face tightened into a furious glare that he focused on the assassin on the floor. Unashamed now that the gears were in motion, Uzu gathered himself up from the floor keeping the man’s threat deep in his mind.
Of course he knew what he could do and it was more than just best him honorable combat. The man held personal knowledge of the Uzumoreru Clan that if leaked would put Toushin up on the ANBU’s hit list pretty damn fast. After all he had conquered one-fourth of the market by taking out certain people and implanting pawns for the past four years and the Suchiru had helped him on this quest though they hadn’t wanted to originally.

The Market was cut-throat though, and the promise to own the largest weapon supply for Suna was a hard offer to turn down.

This was all for naught now as the only daughter of the clan, who was supposed to be under his care, was now kidnapped by the very clan he hailed from.
“This will never work, by the way,” Uzu said as he pulled down his mask and reached into his black robes to pull out a hand-rolled cigarette and lit it with the fire of the heater, “You will be facing down three-hundred fully trained Uzumoreru assassins, minimum, plus the Council that holds my younger brother. The White Phantom he is called. He can clear an entire room full of soldiers in a matter of seconds, what hope do you and this attack really hope to have.”
“For one, you underestimate the bonds of family. I promise that by the end of this night you will be the only Uzumoreru left alive. Two, this isn’t an attack; this is a cleansing of something that Suna has no need for anymore. Three,<i></i>” Tama’s form disappeared and reformed directly in front of Uzu to cut his tobacco stick in half with his finger in a flash, “Your brother isn’t the only one who is fast enough to kill a room full of men. I have been training since my last bout with your kind, training under Kuro the Demon Beast and Mikaboshi the current head of ANBU. On top of that I’ve used every last bit of my genius to bring my body to its full potential for battle meaning that no matter the injury I can simply regenerate and continue battling until I run out of energy. We’re not just a Genin and an old swordsman going back to retrieve a kidnapped child…<i></i>

“We’re an entire clan being lead by a super genius wreaking vengeance. ‘Hope’ doesn’t even figure in anymore.<i></i>”

 

[Chiyo]

“Right then,” The old man said as he returned to the entry of his home now dressed in full battle gear – similar to the preferred armor of his daughter in that it was styled after the classic samurai armor, but where Amy liked to keep her armor light and easy to move in, Kitaeru took more care in his strength rather than his agility. Along with his heavy armor, he wore a huge claymore across his broad back – crafted by his own calloused hands many years before. Nodding to the two men, but stepping forward to extend a gauntlet covered hand to the blonde scientist, having heard the speech he had made moments before.

“I'm glad you're up to lead us...it's been many years since my brothers and I have fought, and our children are mostly boys, but we've been preparing for this for a long time.” With that having been said and the fact that the Suchiru clan had been training to deal with the Uzumoreru clan for quite some time now out in the open, the old man turned to look at Toushin with a stern expression on his lined face. “I have nothing but respect for you, Toushin, I hope you know that, but the rest of your family has been angering me for long enough.”

Just then, what sounded like a major thunder storm halted the conversation and Kitaeru looked up at the ceiling. “Now, that will be my brothers, cousins and their sons. We may not be many, but my Amejisuto is a Suchiru, and we are all prepared to do whatever it takes to get her back...if you'll both follow me.” At that, the old man started back up the stairs, turned the corner, and opened up another door to yet another stairwell that led up to the roof.

Climbing these stairs and unlocking the door to open it wide, he stepped out onto the large rooftop of Amy's shop and their home to reveal a group of about fifteen men and thirty boys of varying ages, mostly over the age of sixteen – only three were younger and even they were at least thirteen. Then, to add to these forty-five soldiers ready and waiting in their respective battle gear, there were also about ten women – wives of the Suchiru family heads – who had come to assist in getting their fiery niece back, all with an arsenal of kunai, ready made e-notes, bows and arrows with extremely sharp tipped arrows.

 

[Toraono Michino]

The scientist followed the leader of the clan up onto the roof where he was met with a small army of clansmen who looked about every bit as serious of this situation as he was. They were going to go to war with a clan that had been around since long before the First Men had began to move against the Ancients that ruled over them. It was going to be a long shot in the dark for them to make it out of this without any casualties but Tama had faith this would work.

It had too.

“All right, let’s move out. Toushin, you lead the way.”
The assassin glared up at the shouting scientist from the ground room. He wanted to say ‘or what’ but knew the answer to that lied with the blades that the warriors above were holding. He was in a precarious position and knew that one slip up and he would follow his clan’s coming fate. He was no fool and knew very well how disorganized and now insane his clan had gotten. To actually attempt a clan war in Sunagakure was pretty much mass suicide. With sad eyes Uzu nodded to Tama and walked out the front door to give those on a roof a signal to follow him…

It only took the massive ensemble half an hour to travel down the streets of Sunagakure quietly before they reached the caves that would lead them down to the secret underground fortress that was east of the village. Along the way a few of the ANBU stopped them and laid heavily into questioning Tama about why he was leading an entire clan down into the caves. Yet no matter how hard they try to get information of what was going on out of the scientist he simply kept a steely presence and told them simply that he had a project he was going to complete with their help, and if they didn’t like it they could take it up with his master Mikaboshi; who just so happened to be the ANBU Sennin. The thought of bothering the Ancient over anything forced the ANBU troops to slowly back down. They knew very well of Tama and how there was orders placed long ago that he was not to be bothered unless he was obviously trying to destroy the village itself and in that situation the Ancient was to be informed immediately; he would be the only person who could stop him after all.

The walk through the Deeper Caves was cut shorter than it would had they not had Toushin to guide them. With the assassin in the head of the army they found themselves walking into a very large cavern with something resembling a castle hanging over a deep pit settled into the middle. A large bridge lead from the lip of the cavern and to the main entrance. Toushin took a step forward before a flash of light and a flesh hand on his chest stopped him.
A man with dusty brown shaggy hair and what looked like a silver crown on his head stood between Uzu and the bridge.
“What is this that your attempting to do, brother?”
“You know what we’re here for. You stole away my apprentice and the only daughter of the Suchiru Clan.”
“No, no, I know that, but I mean why did you lead them here? You could have just simply returned and all would have been forgiven.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“It was decreed two nights ago that the Suchiru Clan and the scientist known as Ryuu Tama are both two dangerous threats to the clan that must be removed. They are outsiders who know enough about the clan that they can throw our plan into jeopardy.”
“What…plan…” Toushin asked nervously though he already knew.
“To take over Sunagakure of course. Assassinate the powerful few and then use our agents that already in to move up in the ranks to take over certain positions of power. You know how this works Toushin.”
“But this is madness! Your planning mass suicide if you really think that the Uzumoreru Clan has enough discipline to take on an entire shinobi village! Besides that only the King could make such a decision!”
“I’m surprised you didn’t notice sooner, but the metal in my hair isn’t just for decoration brother. It was an easy vote streak since your recent debacle with that whore-”

The man was cut off suddenly by a quick slap to his cheek via a very angered Toushin. He knew very well his shame in trying to reintroduce a Queen into the clan but his feelings for the woman had not stopped. She was pregnant with a child that might be his own and she had decided to leave him and the prestige for another man and a calmer life but his heart still yearned for her touch. To hear even his half brother speaking ill of Kitanai brought about a quick spark of fury.
The Seikon held a hand up to where he was slapped and simply laughed before vanishing in a bright flash of light. The bridge then suddenly exploded into nothing but sawdust as the King’s powers disintegrated the wood into nothing but atoms. Toushin dropped to his knees, punched the rock beneath him and swore.

Tama remained in his deadly calm the entire time.

With a slow and purposeful walk the scientist walked up beside the assassin and placed a hand on Uzu’s shoulder. The black and gold eyes glared up at the blonde but relinquished quickly as he realized what Tama was doing. The two men absolutely hated each other on a lot of fronts but in this he understood. To have your entire birthright to be stolen from power hungry relatives was the blonde’s entire childhood.
Lifting his hand away from the dark clothing of the assassin he walked forward and dropped it against the stone and a shock of his power caused the cliff to shudder and groan. Chunks of the stone began to break away and lift themselves away from the cliff to land and fuse together to slowly form a stone bridge to the castle.
“Uzu, I need you to lead the strongest of the Suchiru into the fortress and keep the main force distracted. The rest of the clan I would ask to follow me, we’re going to attack from another entrance.”
With the end of his sentence another pulse of power shuddered the rock and a stone staircase began to form itself leading into a lower part of the fortress that was hidden by the darkness below.

[mft]

 

[Chiyo]

Kitaeru held a stony silence throughout the conversation between Toushin and his brother, it was his family they were planning to take out, and they were standing before the maw of the monster. His hands clenched into tight fists with his brothers standing in a line behind him, the rest of the men, boys, and wives watching the conversation all with narrowed eyes and fists clenched in just as much rage as their leader's.

As soon as Toushin's brother disappeared along with the bridge leading to the castle, the elder Suchiru turned to face his brothers, sharing a silent exchange before Kitaeru turned back to watch as another bridge came into being through the scientist's power, the Suchiru leader's eyebrows raising as he became more impressed with the boy's prowess.

Just as Kitaeru began to consider the hands his daughter had been in when she was taken, the Ryuu began to speak, and his ice blue eyes turned to take in the scientists calm but determined demeanor as he spoke. Nodding a little, he turned to his brothers with a curt nod and each of them beckoned their eldest sons to the line behind Kitaeru. “These are my strongest fighters, my brothers; Akinori, Bishamon, and Mamoru, and their sons; Arashi, Hayao, and Kane. If you think we need more to keep the main guards busy I have a few boys that could be of assistance.” The man said, his voice still calm – though his eyes kept shifting over to look at the massive building where his daughter was being held. Now that they were so close, it was hard to keep his mind on planning.