[Kameosa]

Kameosa sat cross legged atop the head of the great legged serpent Naoru, trudging its way through the waters east of Hi no Kuni’s shores. Naoru was the first son of Manda, the size of a small village, and currently being used as a boat to carry not only Kameosa, but two of the most powerful shinobi in Konohagakure to their grisly destination: Akimichi Chono and Senju Kazuto. He was less than thrilled, but the promise of a hoard of cannibals to snack on had appeased him for the time being.

The snake sage was new to her position, but her summoning of the great beast to carry them across the sea was a testament to the fact that she wasn’t a complete novice. Still, if either of them had looked at her files she was probably the least impressive shinobi of her rank in terms of missions completed and other contributions to the village. Her appointment to sage seemed to have come from an elder sage who was eager to go back into retirement.

Clear skies and calm winds blew at the back of her turquoise hair as she sat with her eyes closed, focusing on the feelings of the sea as she gathered natural chakra. She could feel the water churning beneath Naoru, the gentle rise and fall of the waves, and the feeling of the sea spray on her face as she concentrated.

The tiny isles that the barbarians held up on was between Hi no Kuni’s south-east peninsula and the Nagi Islands, far too close to Mizu no Kuni to be a comfortable trip for the trio. The closer they got, the hazier and cooler the temperature got.

"Couldn’t they live somewhere nicer?” Kameosa wondered aloud before quickly returning to her concentration on gathering energy.

Before going into her meditation her biggest contribution to planning was that Naoru could probably make for a spectacular distraction for them to draw a good number of the forces outside of the keep. She hadn’t really volunteered much of her own effort beyond this, but the gathering of natural energy was a good sign that she knew she couldn’t exactly slack off on an A-Rank mission like this.

SPOILER: Click to show

Yoritomo Akimichi Chono Haru Senju Kazuto Ronin riding on a big snake through the water towards the stronghold. Gathering nature energy.

Mission Link

Summoning jutsu used. Very high cost.

🗡️

[Akimichi Chono]

Chono's legs flexed ever so slightly to match with the rhythmic shifting caused by Naoru's moving along the water's surface. The giant of a man stood with his arms folded while he gazed in the direction they were moving, the slight wind stirring his cloak from time to time as they traveled. Hearing Kameosa's complaint as to the remote location Chono spoke up to give an answer to the likely rhetorical question.


"If it were less remote, it's unlikely they'd have become a problem or at least they'd have been snuffed out much earlier so as not to require our involvement."


It might not have been entirely accurate, but it was close enough to the truth in his mind. Had these cannibals been within the Tea Country or even the Fire Country itself then he entirely believed they would have been snuffed out before they got larger than a small band of a dozen or so rather than the horde that could fill a fortress if the intel for the mission could be trusted. Were it to be that smaller band then sending people like Kazuto or himself who excelled at large scale combat would have been utter overkill.

Now though these cannibals had gotten far out of hand with them becoming deeply entrenched and even worse having taken hostages. If it were not for the hostages then Chono expected between himself and Kazuto the fortifications could be leveled multitudes faster than it had even taken them to travel to the location. With the hostages however the task at hand would prove far more difficult as they would need to try and rescue those they could. Chono being the man he was hoped to save everyone still alive, but the experience he had behind him also made him know this was wishful thinking. . . there almost were always more casualties than not in situations like this one.

Turning finally from where he had been gazing Chono now focused his attention on Kazuto and Kameosa. Kameosa he was not overly familiar with, he remembered her vaguely as being in the academy when he had been an instructor, but the most he could recall was that she had struggled with keeping on top her studies after being forced to repeat a year. She had struck him as someone who could have displayed far more talent had they actually applied themselves to their work. Beyond that though he knew little, while he had indeed been friends with the Snake Sage Hebikai, he could not particularly remember her mentioning anything about Kameosa and it was quite possible that Hebikai had not even trained the girl.

Kazuto on the other hand he knew far better, to be expected since the man had married Chono's adopted daughter Miho. Still, it had been years since he had last been on a mission with his son-in-law. From what Chono had heard through the grapevine and from reading reports penned for the members of the Shinobi Council the boy had come into his abilities as a Senju quite well and was on track for yet another promotion soon.


"Obviously our first goal is to try and locate the civilians. Once we've located them we'll need to separate them from the hostiles. Once they're out of direct danger we can level everything that remains. It's simple in premise, but I imagine it'll be a bit more difficult in execution. Kameosa-kun, I think perhaps you might be best suited to finding our missing civilians while Kazuto-kun and I begin to locate and eliminate any sentries around the perimeter."


His voice conveyed the words with the calm certainty of a shinobi who had decades of combat experience under his belt at this point in his life, but his eyes did glance between the two at the end of his statement to pose the silent question of if they had any issues with the plan. While Chono had lead many shinobi in combat and even had been in charge of an entire frontline during the Third Shinobi War, he also understood he was not some master tactician. In many scenarios his results were as much to do with be able to tap into his comrades insights and abilities as much as anything concerning his own abilities.

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[Senju Kazuto]

"It is a sound plan." Kazuto said, going through the ritual of checking his gear, the usual clicks and clacks of mechanisms, of pouches being attached being lost on the salty breeze of the sea and the sound of waves crashing against the great snake, taking a second to inspect the length of his blade before sliding it back to the scabbard on his back, allowing the blade to slide on its own as he raised himself to his full height, talking close to where Kameosa sat crossed legged, standing next to his father-in-law. However this was all assuming that there was anyone to be saved at all. If the place was as accursed as the report had been, then either they were saving fresh prisoners, or the minds and bodies of the survivors were simply too tormented for them to rescue them. Or simply they were walking to the larder of these abominations. He kept that counsel for himself but he doubted that either Chono or Kameosa had not keep this in mind. Still there was something to bothered him, if this island, this canker of abominations had been so close to Mizu no Kuni, why hadn't Kirigakure done anything to combat it? For a village that had been so historically given to excesses of violence and mindless rage, if one of those civilians had been from their land or even yet a shinobi from their ranks, he had expected a bloody retribution. Did that reveal the extend of danger that these cannibals truly represented? "We are close." The Senju whispered as jagged islets began to poke through the waves like the teeth of a predator, as the sea would begin to grew fiercer, at the distance he could see their destination and his eyes widened slightly, a fortress perched on a rock within a stormy sea, a construction that even from the distance seemed to defy any preconceived knowledge of construction. It was simply, twisted. Slowly he would place his helm on his head, the soft hiss of seals muffled beneath the sound of the sea before Kazuto spoke once more. "So, this is 'Death'." He mused.

-tag- Kameosa Akimichi Chono -words- 370 -notes- --- -music- ---

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Ronin]

OOC: For the sake of my convenience, Mission Details

---

Perhaps the scenery would have been, to some degree, pleasing to the eyes and ears, if what lay before the trio atop the gargantuan serpent was a less macabre mission. The sun, traveling high above the crystal waters of the ocean stretch south east of the Land of Fire, had lent a certain clearness to the almost picturesque scene of a giant snake with three passengers wending its way through the waters. But as the group swiftly approached the cluster of islands on which the objects of their mission lay, the naturally occurring mists of the regions close to Mizu no Kuni began to swirl around them, and soon the bright sun was just a dim footnote in the environmental script.

Perhaps bringing such a giant creature on this mission would have been counterproductive, if the Konoha ninja desired stealth on this venture. However, the impregnability of the mists would serve the rather helpful purpose of making them more difficult to detect. In a way, this almost perpetual mist had served the cannibals on the islands well, as such mysterious and obscure places were often avoided by the average folk, and thus the barbarians were left alone for the most part. It seemed today, however, that the mists might be partly their undoing, for without the vaporous shroud, the gigantic serpent would probably have been spotted by lookouts miles away. Still, a creature that large would not escape detection, even in the mists. The advantage was the likelihood that even if the snake would be detected, it was probable that its passengers wouldn't immediately be.

All the same, the faint glint of some glass device being swiveled somewhere high on the island informed the ninja that their approach had most likely been detected.

Kameosa | Akimichi Chono | Senju Kazuto

[Kameosa]

Continuing to draw in the world around her, her mind was aloft but she still managed to pull Chono’s words from the back of her mind while she remained as still as could be despite all of the distractions. Amethyst scales began to show through along the sides of her face and her canines began to poke through over her painted lips.

"I understand, Naoru will circle the island and act as backup as needed,” her voice was sleepily soft. "He seems mean, but he’ll tend your wounds if you need it. I’ll look for prisoners.”

She whimpered and her body began to spasm as she fell into a fetal position. Kameosa’s legs began to feel tight as they squeezed together and began blanketing her body in scales. She caught herself on her palms as she felt like her lower body was being squeezed like toothpaste as it slowly elongated her lower half into a tail. She breathed in and out frantically, resisting the nature chakra’s push to transform her completely into a snake.

Afterwards, she got her breathing back in order and made herself still yet again without as much of a word about the gruesome spectacle. Having had her eyes closed through the entire thing, she hadn’t noticed the flash of light from the looking glass finding them.

Without being told otherwise, she’d have the serpent take them towards the beach on the far end of the island from the stronghold, trying their best to find a spot of foliage or thick mist for disembark. If either Chono or Kazuto gave word differently, she’d give the snake a change of direction.

SPOILER: Click to show

60/80 snake points

Yoritomo/Akimichi Chono Haru/Senju Kazuto Ronin

🗡️

[Akimichi Chono]

Chono could not help, but click his tongue a little in annoyance at seeing the slight glint of light in the distance. "We've likely just been spotted." The announcement was very much tinged with the annoyance he felt, but the resolve he was famous for also carried through in his words with an unspoken 'but it doesn't matter.' being implied.

They potentially could have made a more stealthy approach, but in the end it made more sense to cover the distance quickly rather than discreetly. The enemies here were cannibals after all, either the civilians would already be dead or they were being kept corralled for later meals. If the later of the two proved true and Chono did hope it was the case, then it would not exactly behoove the cannibals to slaughter their livestock at the first sign of trouble; after all killing them meant the meat would spoil faster than if they kept them alive.

Listening to the words Kameosa spoke Chono would just nod in agreement. They had no idea the layout of the place and he trusted that the sage would likely better know the limitations and capabilities of her summons better than he, if she felt that it was best to circle around he would not stop her. Instead what Chono did was do his best to scan the structures, attempting to puzzle out what each building might be used for based on it's size, placement and construction. While scanning what would soon become a battlefield the large Akimichi casually took out a pill and popped it in his mouth to be swallowed. The calorie pill would take some time to truly enter his system so it seemed far better to take it now rather than in the midst of combat.

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[Senju Kazuto]

"I saw the glint." Kazuto commented, keeping his hands as his muscles began to tense within his suit. He began to focus around the structure ahead. From distance the stronghold had looked twisted, the closer the snake sailed closer to the island through the shipwreck littered the jagged coastline, the more the reality of the fortress was revealed to them. Seagulls flocked the high walls, pecking the carrion left from whatever the cannibals might have left behind, pecking sun bleached bones to find the marrow. Corpses barely held together by rotting sinew hung from cages, rib cages impaled in rusted iron spears balanced precariously in the wind, charms made from bones rattled with the wind and against the waves. His eyes flicked from one visible building to the next, the bastions that were erected behind the walls, the guard towers and the keep that hugged the peak of the small isle, stacks of smoke that rose from certain buildings. Life had found a way, as trees and vegetation had carved a life on the cracks within the walls and close to the damp, rocky shore, his sight finally finding what seemed to be a haphazard pier that had small boats and a boat house close by. "There, those trees." The Senju said pointing at them. "Those walls must be weakened, I can create a breach through there with my techniques" It was either that or insert through the pier. He didn't exactly know where the citizens could be, aside from the corpses that hung from the walls, there wasn't much evidence. If he had to guess, they would be in bastion or a dungeon. But if there was any signature of life that was isolated, then Kameosa or her summon could sense it. He would begin his hand signs in preparation.

-tag- Kameosa Akimichi Chono Ronin -words- 311 -notes- --- -music- ---

MADE BY VEL OF GS

SPOILER: Click to show

1 Jutsu Prepared

[Ronin]

Aside the single glint that had been spotted high above the island, there was little to no indication that the infiltrating shinobi had been spotted. And yet, if anyone had any sensory abilities that could pan over a wide area, they would detect that there seemed to be a company of people emerging from one of the structures closer to the shoreline of the island. There would be about a dozen of them, and it was very likely that said people were amassing in response to the large object that had been observed floating towards the island.

The high walls of the Fortress of Death however posed a relative advantage for the infiltrators. The shoreline could only be watched from a number of watchtowers built along the walls, or from higher buildings further inland, and there were some places where massive rocks, rising up from the sea like demon teeth, actually obscured some portions of the sea from ready observation. Still, moving toward places which were well-used would mean that the shinobi would be sighted more readily and more clearly. With some of the company that had emerged from the fortress moving in the direction of the haphazard pier that Kazuto had sighted (if any sensor within the shinobi's group sensed them coming), the Konoha ninja had three immediate options: disembark at the pier and run the chance of having their first altercation there, disembark at a less convenient position but have some level of the element of surprise, or keep circling the island to find a further out place to infiltrate from.

Of course, with some inventiveness, the options could be increased to many more than just three.

Kameosa | Akimichi Chono | Senju Kazuto

[Kameosa]

"If you can open up that wall, that will be helpful,” she said to Kazuto. Churning through the pure stone of the keep wasn’t something she was certain she could do, so depending on how structurally sound the keep was she might need it to get inside.

The transformed sage arose from her pained position with a small pair of fangs poking against the pillows of her bottom lip. The horned Lamia’s eyes shot wide as she felt the life all around her. In the immediate surroundings, she picked up the group of spectators leaving the buildings dotting the throughway to the keep.

"Company is on the way from the hovels on shore, twelve I think. Naoru, don’t test these shinobi while I am away, aid them and you will have your reward.”

There was a low hiss that churned through the water in response.

With that, Kameosa drew in an impossible amount of air into her lungs. Her legless form dropped into the water, and as the shallow cold touched her body she pushed herself towards the murky bottom until she met with the sand and burrowed into it.

Using the signatures above her as a useful marker, she traveled beneath the pier and sought to bypass the enemies so that she could scout ahead of her superiors. As she got closer, she expanded her sensory abilities into the keep itself, looking for weaker chakra signatures in fixed locations. She hoped to get lucky and find them tucked in some subterranean vault she could secure until the mission ended.

SPOILER: Click to show

TLDR: Scouting ahead underground to try to locate prisoners.

Chakra Sensory SA [Active]: Focusing on this ability Kameosa can detect chakra within 300m of herself, or 60m passively. She isn’t as gifted as a sensor: her detections can be up to 6m off of a person’s true location. -4 snake points.

Enhanced Lung Capacity [Passive]: Much like a sea snake, she gains an increased lung capacity while in sage mode. She can hold her breath for up to fifteen minutes at a time without strain. If sage mode ends, she immediately loses the extra stored air. -1 snake points.

Name: Dochuu Senkou - [Underground Submarine Voyage]
Rank: C
Chakra Usage: Medium [Continuous]
Type: Ninjutsu [General]
Element: Doton
HANDSEALS: 2
Description
Dochuu Senkou is a Ninjutsu utilizing the Earth Element. After forming the needed hand seals, the user can sink below ground and quickly travel through the earth. While this is similar to the Underground Fish Projection technique, it should be noted that the chakra usage is much higher. -4 snake points.

9 Snake points Used.
51 Snake points Left.

🗡️

[Akimichi Chono]

"I'll go through the breach you open."

The statement was a simple one, but he figured it best to be clear of his intentions so that Kazuto could be sure to open the wall enough that Chono would not need to waste time aiding in it's destruction. The giant of a man's hands came together and rendered six handseals which was immediately proceeded by the fiery red hair framing his face beginning to slowly expand and wrap itself around his body through use of the *Needle Jizo technique. By the time the hair had grown to be most of the way down his back and having enveloped most of the torso was when Chono suddenly ran toward the edge of the summon's surface which could be easily stood on. Upon reaching this edge Chono leaped outwards and ahead of the creature, his body including the now steely coat of red hair expanding into that of a perfect ball through use of his clan's hijutsu to make himself into a rotund sphere of destruction with the *Spiked Human Bullet Tank Technique.

Immediately upon making contact with the ground Chono was speedily rolling forward along the ground, the steady crunch of the spikes formed of hair which had been hardened to the point of steel as they tore through the ground likely an ominous sound heralding their approach towards the walls the cannibals had felt so safe behind just moments before. Those walls would be torn down within moments by his son and the walls at that point would serve little more than as an the walls to a cage which would help prevent their escape.

Naturally Chono was not letting arrogance blind him to the possibility that there could be a significant challenge within. It seemed entirely unlikely that these vile people who broke one of the most natural of laws could have existed this long so close to Mizu no Kuni's waters without having some amount of strength to make one of the five great shinobi villages hesitate to challenge them. Still, between the thick plates of his general armor which too were now exapnded in addition to the thick protective layer of steel-like hair encapsulating his body he doubted he would be injured too easily or grievously by any single attack especially with the back up he had covering his advance.

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[Senju Kazuto]

"Concentrate on finding survivors." The Senju said, glancing at Kameosa with the corner of his eye. "Contact us through the radio when you do, we'll keep them occupied." He said as he would hop off from the snake, weaving a set of hand signs as the threshold between the sea and short beach that marked the beginning of the island would meet him. Keeping his legs together and arms across his torso, Kazuto would pierce the water as he finished the seal with a flick of his fingers and began to tap on his gifts. As the giant snake and the sage sailed away, a stirring was felt on the island, loose masonry on the wall would topple down and Kazuto would emerge on top of a snaking tree, birthed from the ocean, heralding a forest that invaded inland and moving towards the fortress. The forest would advance violently, hitting the wall a battering ram that would tear its way through the wall, seeking to initiate a collapse that would crush anything and anyone that stood on the wall and whoever who had come to see what was going on in a deadly avalanche of broken, tumbling wall and creating an opening for Chono to exploit. The charms on the wall would fall upon contact, stirred by the violent shock of the technique, rocks would begin to slide down, threatening to crush anyone upon the battlements and anyone who had amassed behind it, as the trees would continue to climb, pierced and gouge at the stone, tendrils would rise and slap down the crenulations, turning bone charms into dust and anything else into a red smear, as the wall would begin to collapse, the trees would part away like a curtain, allowing the Akimichi to roll over and crush any enemies that remained.

-tag- Ronin Kameosa Akimichi Chono -words- 319 -notes- --- -music- ---

MADE BY VEL OF GS

SPOILER: Click to show

Jutsu Used:

NAME: Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Kōtan [ Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a World of Trees ]*
RANK: A
CHAKRA USAGE: High - Medium to Maintain
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu
ELEMENT: Mokuton
HANDSEALS: 4
DECRIPTION:
A technique where the user forces trees to grow on any surface, easily creating a dense forest anywhere they choose. A small plant can grow into a forest in an instant. By generating chakra, the user maneuvers it as they see fit for attack and defense; and furthermore, this omnipotent technique even allows them to capture the enemy at the same time. With their tremendous life force, the trees can pierce through earthen walls, and extend their branches at their prey in an instant. So long the user maintains the last hand seal they weaved, the technique will remain active and under the control of the user, affecting an area of five hundred meters.

SA Used:

The Branching Path

Might of Heroes

Fell-Handed

[Ronin]

The actions of Chono and Kazuto, with the intention of gaining the whole island's attention, were a roaring success. The scouting party who had gone out to investigate the sighting of some large serpentine object in the water had instead been met with the sudden explosive sound of the renting of the very earth, as trees, spurred on by an unnatural power, grew a million times faster than was expected, the stones of the cannibals' defenses no match for the inexorable power of root and branch. A good number of the sentries posted on the wall met their immediate ends, but some were able to leap off the wall and to safety.

Or so they thought. Even amidst the din of breaking walls, there was another sound, one that almost seemed mechanical. There was too little time to gain respite, before a giant spiked cannonball of destruction flew in through one of the gaps made by the rampaging vegetation. Some fools had tried to stop the Akimichi projectile with spears and swords. They had learned a permanent lesson. There was absolute chaos on the shorefront, and those of the cannibals there did not need to raise any alarm, for the incredible sounds brought a good number of armed individuals pouring out from the doors of the inner fortress.

Those on the beach attempted to fall back, trying to make for the buildings. However Chono and Kazuto chose to follow, they would soon discover that there were traps laid in the fortress' courtyard, designed to halt the advance of a small army. Some were pits filled with spikes, others were pits as well, but filled with some strange and rather sticky goo. These pits had been covered with patches of false earth, and with Chono's present trajectory, he was headed for one of the gum pits. Kazuto, for his part, would be mostly immune to the traps on his chariot of trees, but he would not be out of danger. From high points on the fortress, cannibals began firing, with some strange projectile-launching devices, a shower of globs of a highly corrosive paste, hoping to hit the tree summoner with their deadly onslaught.

In the meantime, away from the attentions of the cannibals, the Snake Sage beneath the earth would sense a number of life signatures in two groups. They did not seem as healthy as the life signatures engaging on the shorefront (many of these were winking out speedily, though), but a little distance from each of these weaker life signatures were a couple of healthier signatures, a possible indication that while Kameosa had found two groups of captives, they were being guarded.

Kameosa | Akimichi Chono | Senju Kazuto

[Kameosa]

Kameosa could get a feel for the location of the prisoners. What she couldn’t tell is which floor either group was being held in, so her best bet was to work from the bottom up. She would tunnel directly beneath where she was sensing one of the groups of prisoners until she found the stone flooring of the fortress above her.

Unable to move through stone directly, she tunneled around the flooring carving to create a small structural instability in the center. When the little hollow area was created, she began pushing at the flooring above her hoping to free up loose stone.

After finding purchase with a poorly laid stone, she pressed up on it and managed to push it far enough to make a hole in the floor large enough for her to peep through. After she did so, she took the time to look up the hole and listen carefully for activity. She needed to figure out if she was on the same floor as the prisoners before she could really make a plan. If they were on higher floors, she would surface onto the basement floor and begin looking for a way to ascend. If they were nearby, she’d wait for the opportune time to rescue this group of prisoners or at least move them to safety.

🗡️

[Akimichi Chono]

Rolling through the wall and along the interior of the compound now, Chono could feel the occasional bump in his movement and the faint crunch of both the ground itself and the fools who failed to move from his path being ground beneath his present form. Given the difficulty of seeing while rolling in such a way Chono was forced to rely mostly on memory of what he had seen paired with what he was feeling or hearing to try and navigate as this sphere of destruction.

Unfortunately for him there had been no obvious signs of the trap pits, but he had at least knew that he had not seen any major drops in the terrain; so when the ground suddenly seemed to disappear from beneath him he reacted with as much speed as possible and shifted the chakra that had been used to grow and harden his hair. The result was similar using the *Wild Lion's Mane, rather than the solid coat from Needle Jizo to protect himself Chono hair now divided into segments and moved outwards using the, sharp tendrils to stab into the wall he had been following and the ground to his left side. The plan was to make use of these hair tendrils as makeshift limbs, holding him up from falling into the pit, but he had indeed fallen some of the distance while shifting the hair. It depended now how full with the adhesive substance the pit was.

Whether he had managed to stop himself from falling too far or had wound up still being covered in adhesive, the plan at the moment was the same. With the armored hair being parted to catch himself he needed to disrupt the enemy less they try to attack the unarmored point of his face at this moment. Chono reached into his bag with his right hand while his left hand moved to press the throat mic tighter to his skin so the low growl would be comprehensible to his allies in their receivers. "Mind your eyes." As soon as he spoke the words his right hand tossed up one of the *Multi-size flash bombs above his head and Chono turned his eyes downwards slightly to avoid being blinded himself.

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