Mission: (Not quite) A walk in the park! - Side Story

Kenji blushed a little too, but he turned his face away so it would be less noticeable. "What? No, she's just...being like Megumi. You know, teasing. Because apparently teasing younger boys is entertaining to them or something." Not that he was complaining all that much. The attention from attractive older women was always welcome, as much as he played it like it embarrassed him. Granted, it did embarrass him, but more in a good way.

After Kenji sat down for dinner, he made no attempt to get up again until it was time for bed. He lounged by the fire, took his plate of food, and munched on it until the feeling in his arms started to come back. At the very least he could bring the chopsticks to his mouth. Of course, Megumi and Shay had to sit on either side of him and Kensai, providing plenty of comments throughout dinner that could be taken suggestively to both boys. Kenji did his best to ignore it, but he couldn't stop his cheeks from flushing the whole time. The fire at least made the lighting glowy enough it was hard to tell.

When they finally broke for bed, Shay led the way to the train car and slid the door open, revealing a set of five bedrolls within. "And here we are, chez Shay." She snickered at her own joke and led the way inside. Go ahead and pick wherever you'd like."

Kensai however noticed an uptick in the women's sexual innuendos. Before it was like he'd had half of Megumi's inappropriate attentions. Now with Shay present, it was like having Megumi squared, the two women played off each other and off the boys regular embarrassment so well it was like they were one in the same, at least operating on the same wave length. There was no respite because as much as the young Genin wanted to relieve himself from the wonderful torment of mature women his legs shook when he tried to lift himself from the ground.

It was less like sleeping in a box car and more like sleeping in a once furnished box car. There were amenities for sure but it seemed more like there was it was a once furnished First Class passenger car that had all the benches taken out and a great deal of the windows sealed, though it kept the bathrooms. Not crapping in the woods was a plus. Kensai would usually strip down to his undershorts and though Megumi had seen the whole pale monty, Shay hadn't and he still had some decency having already removed his mantle, scarf and sash, he would unbutton his shirt and remove his shoes but that's about how much he would undress for bed.

As soon as his head hit the pillow, Kensai was out.

Kenji flopped himself down on the first bed roll he got to, not even bothering to take off any of his clothes. Granted, his shirts were already off so there was no real need to strip down anymore. Megumi, of course, stripped down to her undergarments, because that was how she always slept. She slipped into the bed roll next to him. Shay, meanwhile, seemed to go with the floow as Megumi stripped down and did the same, getting into the bed roll next to Kensai.

Kenji fell asleep almost instantly, but the two women were up quite a while longer sharing stories. Unbeknownst to Kenji, Megumi would tell Shay...quite a lot about him. There were a lot of embarrassing stories for her to give away, and she had no qualms about doing so.

Makaru sat atop a stump well with in the tree lines and watched the last fire go out, his eyes settled on the train in the darkness, all of their targets were within. The mission was to cause as much trouble for the rail line as possible, rob, rape, pillage and destroy. Murder however was off the list thanks to the clients explicit request, though killing in self defense wasn't off the table. Though his men were bloodthirsty the Ronin wasn't above whipping them into shape. They were brigands and he'd taught them much, but they were more after a good time than leading any type of counter culture or crusade. In essence they were louts, but even with enough lazy schmucks they could overpower the camp like they'd done two nights before.

"Masaru." The old Samurai called calling out a younger yet more ornate brunet with soft features. Even in the low light you could tell that Masaru was a young lady. "You are to lead the group and attack from the other side of the train. I've taught you well, now you must lead men into battle with an unworthy opponent, I wish you could take the fight to a worthy opponent but alas it shall not be so."

The young Ronin's apprentice stepped out of the shadows and flicked a braid back over her ear, "Makaru-sensei, what of the Shinobi?" Her tone was equally soft as her features, more like fine silk than the coarse burlap of her masters voice. It however did not denote fear but curiosity.

"Leave the Woman to me. You are more than a match for the boys." Makaru said dismissively, he was an experienced combatant and saw that Megumi was the biggest threat in the camp. "We attack during the twilight, and retreat at the first light of dawn."

"Yes Sir." Masaru bowed to her mentor and turned to leave. She would cross the tracks a almost a mile back from the head of the line and prepare her men for attack. She would wait for the signal then bring her brigands in from opposite of her masters. Though she didn't look it, the green clad young woman's heart fluttered, she longed so much to face those boys in mortal combat. Though she knew from her master's iron word that killing except in last resort self defense was off limits. She could commit to mortal combat and hold back, discipline was the weapon of a Samurai after all.

The first sound of an attack would be a loud pop and a brilliant red light being splayed over the camp as an aerial flare opened up above the camp. Kensai would turn over as the red light came through the skylight and shown down upon their faces, he was still half asleep, his eyes creeped open through the intense light. It wasn't until a fiery arrow came crashing through one of the remaining cabin windows that the inexperienced Genin started to panic. "What the!?" as the cacophonous sound of wild men yelling as they rushed the train became evident.

What the hell was going on!?!?

Kenji thrashed himself awake with a panicked shout as the sound of men yelling broke through the night. He had been so deeply buried in his dreams, he thought he was still sleeping for a moment until the light from the fire arrow called him out of his stupor. He came quickly aware of the fact that they were being attacked.

"What the hell is going on??" he said, as he tried to rub his eyes awake.

"Looks like an attack." Megumi was already awake and at the window, gazing out with a stern glare. Gone was her usual playful mood, replaced by the seriousness of a shinobi. "Quite a few of them from the looks of things. Get your weapons and let's move. We're protecting these people."

Shay, who was starting to wake up herself, crawled up out of her bed roll and scurried to the window. "The hell...bandits? Shit, we have to help the others!"

"And we will. You, on the other hand, stay in here. The battlefield is no place for a civilian."

Kensai was still in shock but was drilled into shape enough that when Megumi said to get his ready that he stuffed his feet into his shoes and readied a basic spear out of his omni-weapon. The cool air coming through the broken window had him add his scarf to his ensemble.

If someone didn't do something soon, the flames from the arrow would catch the carpet of this car of the train.

When the door of the fourth sleeping car opened and the cold rushed over Kensai his daze stopped, his awareness peaked and he could see so many bandits, there was at least two for each worker they'd helped today, they were all armed with swords and knives and bows. An arrow whizzed by the group as they exited the train car, Kensai's awareness faded to nothing as tunnel vision struck and he locked onto the archer completely missing the remainder of the battle around them as the workers took up their tools as instruments of defense of their camp. He could feel his heart pounding in his head and the roar of the battle becoming a faint din as his breath got stuck in his throat.

Makaru had lead his troops into the fight, and was quick to demolish the steam engine with a single cut of his weapon splitting the boiler in two the gushing water dousing the pilot light and and spilling on the ground everywhere. He would be quick to slice through the steel beams that made up the drive train as well. He would leave the brigands he was leading to do lesser damage.



Masaru on the other hand stood by with both hands on her Katana Ketsuekimaru. Though her shoulders drooped as she sighted the boys leaving the car with the woman, Makaru said not to attack the boys until he was engaged with the dark skinned woman. She would bide her time as the brutes she accompanied rushed by her to attack from the other direction, Her men seemed to be taking most of the brunt of the counter attack, but that was okay, she didn't much care for the peons under her command, just as she knew that they didn't much care for her after she sliced up the first three would be suitors from that bunch. Though from watching, she could tell that at least the first boy was so green he was practically lost on the battlefield and the other boy...

In spite of the cold, Kenji didn't waste time throwing his shirts back on. He sprang out of the train car bare chested and all, ready to fight. This would hardly be the first real combat he'd faced. He and Megumi had been pursued by Kiri since as long as he could remember, and they'd come across bounty hunters and the like many times before. Granted, most of the time Megumi took care of things, but he'd been forced to defend himself on occasion. At the very least a bunch of bandits didn't frighten him.

The first thing Kenji did when he was out in the open was make a few hand signs and essentially vomit up a small pond of water beneath his feet, to give himself some ammunition to work with. His arms throbbed with every sign, which would make casting ninjutsu most likely painful throughout this fight. A pair of bants rushed in at him, but he was fortunately able to get another hand sign off in time to form a large sphere of water around himself, giving a defensive barrier the bandits wouldn't cut through with their swords. A second hand sign caused whipping tendrils to spring out from the sphere and swat at the bandits.

Inside the train car, Megumi made her own hand sign, activating one of the numerous seals tattooed on her body. In particular, she activated the one on her back, causing her zanbato to poof into existence. With a mighty swing upward, she exploded the roof of the car to pieces and jumped up onto what was left of it so she could see outside. So many bandits...she almost didn't know where to start. Leaping towards a small group of opponents, she brought her sword down and expelled a powerful wave of chakra through them.

Meanwhile, Shay grabbed a wrench from the corner of the car for defense, and threw a blanket over the flaming arrow to snuff it out. Then, she held tight and waited.

Makaru ignored Megumi's attack on his peons, if she wanted to waste tim on the small fries, he'd let her. He had bigger fish to fry, moving down the side of the train and doing as much damage to the locomotive and its cars as humanly, or inhumanly possible. The train was already inoperable, it wouldn't be too much longer before there'd be no way to remove it from the tracks.

... The other boy impressed Masaru, he'd seen combat and instantly waded into the fray taking on bandits with water techniques, obviously his specialty, though it wouldn't help him as water always gave way to steel. Masaru would wade through the torrent of bandits toward Kenji bringing her hand up onto her weapon and pulling it around to her weak side, she was prepairing a form of Iaijutsu her master had taught her.

Kensai was still dazed by the chaos going on around him. It was something else, and then two bandits flew by, Kenji's doing no doubt, Megumi flew up through the top of the train and started raining down strikes. There was so much going on that Kensai's focus only returned to him because of the killer intent of two bandits that charged him. The white haired shinobi dodged, stepping away from their clumsy attacks, completely off balance by the sheer ferocity though even he could note that they lacked skill. Kensai would dance in between the two bandit blades for a moment before swinging his spear widely and strikeing the first in the head then pulling the spear back and sweeping the legs of the second. All academy moves but still effective. He was still very much caught up in the tide of discord.

Kenji didn't notice the girl at first, as he was too concentrated with the bandits around them. They kept trying to attack him, but their attacks splashed harmlessly against the water sphere that surrounded him. This technique he had learned specifically to protect against physical strikes. Seeing as how his taijutsu still wasn't the best, even with Megumi training him, he needed some way to keep taijutsu users away from him. Up to a certain level, this worked to decent effect. Combined with the additional water tentacles, it served both as a defensive and offensive technique, which he used to continually swipe and batter any bandit that got close to him.

When he did finally notice the girl, he paused, wondering why on earth a ten year old was dressed in armor and running at him with a sword. Was she...with the bandits? She sure didn't look like she belonged on the battlefield.

Megumi probably should have held back a little, but the adrenaline was pumping too fast through her to do so. She left her bandits broken and beaten on the ground before turning to find new opponents. When she saw a figure running alongside the train causing damage, she turned her sights towards it and broke into a sprint.

Masaru's steps were almost unburdened as she sashayed towards Kenji, though she was much smaller than him standing only at a meager five foot, and she had innocent eyes and a baby face, they belied what she really was, as she gave the blonde haired Shinobi a generous smile as the boy knocked away two of her lesser compatriots. "My name is Masaru." She greeted cheerfully moving into a more focused stance, just out of reach of Kenji's water tendrils. "I will be your last opponent."

Makaru on the other hand was less pleased that he'd so garnered the attention of the lead shinobi, She had a massive blade and moved very quickly. He had a very good idea of what was going on in the surrounding area, his bandits were wreaking havoc. All according to plan, even if he had to take on the lead Shinobi he would still accomplish his mission.

The Errant Samurai would stop short of Megumi reaching him and take up a very defensive stance. He would let her strike first and either counter attack or disengage if depending on her attack.

Kensai on the other hand was reminded of something his academy teacher had told him about his training alone. The Teacher had told him. "You'll know how lacking your individual training is once you reach actual combat." He'd taken it to heart but he'd not gotten an individual teacher before Megumi. However thankfully the Academy's lessons on fighting and all the drills and kata's he'd been made to practice every day before class proper started were coming back to him. He'd given up the spear and dismissed it instead going with a Kunai to block and counter attack like he'd been taught, They were smaller Kunai but still effective.

He would take a moment to watch as Kenji was addressed by the woman, the Bandits would give the two the room they needed to fight, which meant Kensai was fair game then...

"Gah!" Kensai would cry out as a strike from a bandits short sword struck his left shoulder, it was a shallow cut but the force of it sent blood flying, it looked worse than it was, with the shallow cut bleeding down Kensai's arm like a red waterfall.

Inside the sphere of water, Kenji couldn't hear the outside world very well. Everything was garbled, as though coming through, well, water. So when the girl stopped to say something and took up a fighting stance, the only thing he really caught was her name, leaving him a little confused. This Masaru didn't look very old at all, and yet she seemed to be with these bandits... If that was true, then he still had to stop her, even with as young as she seemed. He moved the water tendrils around in front of the sphere, poised and ready to strike whenever the girl came within range. He couldn't move as long as he had the sphere around him, which meant he had to wait for her to come to him.

Megumi wasted no time in attacking the samurai-looking man. Appearances could be decieving, but they also spoke loudly in situations like this. She could tell that the other men running around were nothing more than inexperienced underlings. This guy on the other hand, he was probably the one in charge, which meant she had to focus on bringing him down as quickly as possible. He would do the most damage.

As the man took a defensive stance, Megumi raised her sword ready to swing. She didn't sprint the entire distance to him, however, stopping to bring her zanbato down just out of reach of his own sword. When she slammed her blade against the grass, the earth beneath it cracked and split open as a massive concussive wave of chakra erupted outward at the man.

Makaru would notice that the woman's attack wouldn't reach him and there for it must be a feign. Being a false attack, Makaru decided to not stick around and lept skyward, with his sword to pass overhead of the woman that attacked him with her huge sword and land behind her, from his landing position striking upward, to try and take out her back.

Masaru would make take a moment to see of her Blonde opponent would take her on, before deciding that she should be more aggressive. She would charge in, the girl's meager body type hid a great deal of the pure physical power she possessed. "Tri-Cut!" The female Samurai would announce for the world, slashing at two of the tendrils, dispersing them before striking the sphere of water with tremendous force belied by her meek nature.

Kensai's recovery was brief as he moved back away from the bandit that'd given him the wound and addressed it by hitting the man in the sternum with his Kunai, knocking him backwards, just like he'd practiced in the academy. It was Kensai's first kill, a bandit, a man with his own lifetime and experiences, all brought to an end by a sixteen year old, but those thoughts were for a time outside of the adrenaline fueled fury of the battlefield, as the white haired Genin drew another Kunai and began engaging more bandits.

Megumi raised a brow as her new opponent decided to leap up and over her attack. He was nimbler than she would have expected, but given that he had jumped from about five feet in front of her all the way behind her, he had a long way to go. She watched him as he flew through the air, dragging her broad blade backwards as he went. By the time he landed and swung his sword at her, she was able to lift her own and use it as a shield.

When their blades clanged together she pushed forward, hoping to throw the man off balance. "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but if you don't back off and tell your people to get the fuck out of here, you'll be leaving in a bodybag!"

Kenji was surprised at the swiftness the girl attacked, cuting through several of the watery tendrils on her way to strike at the full sphere. Unfortunately for her, in spite of her show of speed and strength, her blade lost much of its power upon striking the water, as most objects do. With part of the blade piercing into the sphere, Kenji concentrated more water tendrils towards it, in attempt to draw the sword into the sphere and disarm the girl.

He couldn't see Kensai or Megumi from where he was right now, and the longer he spent fighting this girl the less help he would be to them. There was no telling how many more bandits were coming, and he wasn't about to let the innocent workers get hurt if he could help them.

Masaru was taken aback by Kenji's counter and attempted disarm. However she'd seen similar techniques to try to ensnare the weapons of samurai and had trained against them, she would spin, shouldering the spine of her blade and cutting free of the water, then with a quick jump retreating back outside the range of the tendrils. "I see." She mused shaking the water she'd managed to amass on herself. "You're a fairly experienced defender!" She would take up another stance, and ready another attack.

Masaru's next attack would be much faster. However it would be a much more direct attack, a two handed thrust directly to the center of the sphere of water!

Kensai would let himself get lost within the flow of battle, striking down the untrained rabble, just letting his body flow through all the movements that he'd been taught in the academy, and everything he could make up on the spot. He'd not really even focused on what was happening around himself or even trying to help the workers just letting everything flow and taking every moment as it came.

Makaru on the other hand was fully focused and picked his feet up with Megumi's push, before planting them after gaining all of her momentum and sliding backwards a ways. "Oh the lady has a bit of strength to her." He would muse aloud drawing his weapon into a more aggressive stance over his head, with both hands. "I'm just rabble hired to give these people a hard time so they'll stop." He responded coyly adjusting his footing slightly. "And you're just rabble hired so that they can continue unimpeded."

Kenji was a little confused at the tenacity this girl was showing in attacking his defenses. She had to know that she wasn't going to break through the water with simple sword--

"Oh shit fuck!" he said, with a sudden recoil as the girl's blade pierced through his water sphere. Fortunately, the thrust lost its power before it could reach him, stopping a few inches from his body. In his confusion over this girl he must have lost concentration on the jutsu's chakra makeup.

On the positive side, now that the girl's weapon was a good couple of feet pierced into his sphere, he could ensare it. With his heart still reeling from the shock of almost being stabbed, he made a hand sign and expanded the sphere outward to swallow the girl's sword entirely, and even farther in hopes to swallow the girl herself.

"I don't really care who you are or why you're doing this," Megumi said, shifting her massive weapon into a side stance, with the blade held above her head parallel to the ground. "I just care that you're hurting innocent people, and causing senselss damage. I won't allow that. Now, I'm going to give you one chance to surrender and leave. If you don't, you'll never have a chance to spend the money you were paid. You'll be nothing but a bloody smear on the ground when I'm through with you."

Masaru took a deep breath as the water started to envelop her, she was moving into the territory of her enemy now! The water barrier wouldn't give under repeated attacks with her sword and she didn't know any better stances or cuts, so she would improvise. Improvisation was the king of all Samurai skills!

Releasing her sheath and reaching back into her coat Masaru produced a hand crossbow and leveled it at Kenji who was just out of arms reach and loosed the quarrel square at his chest! At this range, even submerged, Masaru was sure she couldn't miss!

Makaru on the other hand saw very little need to improvise, the more time he spent dancing with Black Betty the more money the would get in bonus from the man with the red hair. And though she was inhumanly strong there was nothing that said that she was of more skill than him, though being able to use such a large clumsy weapon without giving him any openings was quite impressive. "As a woman I'm sure you're very familiar with bloody smears." With that the man jumped backwards swinging his sword through the air, unleashing a slicing wave of pure Ki at his opponent!

Kenji could be thankful for water pressure, because if not for the tremendous loss of power to the crossbow firing underwater the damage would have been much more severe. He turned enough that the bolt struck his shoulder, and he could feel it dig in no more than an inch or so. He let out a little help in the pocket of air he kept for himself to breathe, but he forced down any greater cry of pain. It hurt, sure, but he'd ultimately be fine. For now he had to ignore the pain and finish dealing with the crazy twelve year old samurai bandit girl, whoever she was. With her inside his water sphere,he could do just that.

He made several hand signs as he pushed himself out the back of the sphere, leaving the girl alone inside except for his right hand. When he was clear into the open air, the water sphere would become much denser, almost like iron, as the water prison technique completed. Now all he had to do was hopefully wait until the girl passed out from lack of oxygen. With his other hand, he reached up and broke the shaft of the bolt sticking out of his shoulder. He'd leave the head embedded until he could get it properly removed.

Megumi brought her massive blade down in front of herself to use as a shield again, absorbing the brunt of the chakra blast her opponent loosed at her. When she raised her blade again, her expression hardened with unamused focus. "It's a shame you're going out on a playground insult, but I guess I expected too much. Just don't say I didn't give you a chance."

From the look of her opponent, she could tell he was a dangerous individual, at least to normal forces. A roaming bandit, however, was not usually much more skilled than the average shinobi, and that was being generous.Still, she wanted to end this quickly. No use dragging it out. Three gates oughtta do it.

Makaru would notice Megumi's muscles tensing and the veins on her forehead pulsing as an explosion of energy bust forth from her body. As dark as her skin already was, she also gained a more reddish tint as her grip tightened on the handle of her sword. Her knees bent slightly, barely a twitch, and then suddenly she was gone from where she was standing, racing forward with incredible speed at her opponent. She swung her massive blade downward, putting every bit of her newly released power into the blow, the force of which would likely obliterate whatever it came into contact with.

Even under water Masaru would give a little smile as her weapon made contact with her opponent and a wisp of blood became visible in the water that he quickly escaped from. However her offence had left her in a vulnerable position. She was trapped without air, the pocket the boy was using quickly bubbling to the surface. The girl didn't seem too concerned, however her eyes were darting around for a weakness to use her sword against, but it wasn't to be. She would have to use more technical means to break out of this aquatic execution chamber.

Closing her eyes the girl started bringing focusing her Ki on her diaphragm, she still had the whole breath and all the air she'd swallowed earlier at her disposal. Though she usually saved this technique for demoralizing her opponents, or strengthening her allies the absurd pressure of it would get her out of this mess. Bringing both hands onto her sword she focused her warriors spirit on Kenji! She opened her mouth to scream and the sphere of water would start to bubble as pressure was put on it, a pocket of Ki enhanced air would form around the girl and continue to push as her muffled Kiai pushed back the water, that began to "Crack" and soon crumbled, the technique being displaced by Masaru's battle-cry "-HAAA!!"

The finish of her scream, and then panting with her eyes locked onto Kenji, her shoulders rising and falling with each breath, the water dispersed from the technique was quickly absorbed into the soil, as it had little of the original users chakra left in it. It seemed that Masaru was at her limit but there was still some fight left in her. "Now you're min..." But the sopping wet girl was cut off as she jumped backwards to avoid the barrage of Kunai and Shuriken that landed where she'd been standing.

"Sup Bro?" Kensai called to Kenji landing next to him, he'd seen quite a fight and was awash of scrapes, cuts and bruises, soiling his clothing, but the truth of the matter was that most of the blood on his person wasn't his own. "Now you're ours." Kensai was quick to correct Masaru drawing two Kunai out of his pouch, his last two.

"Damn it!" Masaru called looking at both boys, she couldn't take both in her state. She lifted her left arm up and from out of her buckler shot a red aerial flare, screaming as it tried to make altitude bathing the battlefield in an eerie red.

Makaru would smile as Megumi blocked his attack. He'd found a worthy opponent! This wasn't a complete waste of his time! He took up another stance as she began to glow with a green aura. The attack was effective, but not as effective as Megumi would like, as Makaru had moved just enough to dodge the attack! However his planned counter attack to take the jounin's head was put in disarray as she struck the ground at his feet sending him end over end several times, and landing him against a tree.

It would only be a second to right himself before Makaru's shoulders tensed and the area was alight with red. "Damn it Masaru." He scoffed, "Well you wanted me gone. I guess it's time for me to leave then." He would right himself and look as though he were preparing for Megumi's next offensive attack. However he would stamp with his forward foot kicking up the dirt around him in a geyser. When the dirt fell he was gone. This was Makaru's own personal, Skirmish disengagement technique.

Just like a coward to retreat when he knew he was outmatched, Megumi thought. Makaru was boastful until things became heated, and now he was leaving. Well, Megumi wasn't about to come out of this ambush empy handed. Rather than focus on trying to find where her opponent had vanished to, her eyes darted to the flare in the sky. If that was where Makaru was heading, she'd get there first. Like a rocket she took off across the ground towards the flare, finding her students engaged with another opponent a few seconds later.

Kenji, who had only just started preparing for another attack against the girl who had miraculously broken out of his water prison, didn't even have time to make a hand sign before his sister's figure appeared behind Masaru and reached down to grab the girl by the collar. "So, you one of these bandits too, kid? How about you answer some questions before I make you regret ever picking up a sword to harm innocent people?"

Kensai was just as quickly readying for an attack as his fellow that the sudden appearance of Hirohata-sensei caused him to jump a little when she quickly picked the girl up off the ground by her collar as though a mother wolf was picking up a wayward pup. It was almost shocking as Masaru still had the Katana in her hand...

"Wha..." The girl shrieked completely caught off guard by the woman pulling her up by the collar as to be completely disarmed by the action and look over her shoulders to try and figure out who it was. "Hey!" She shouted angrily trying fruitlessly to swing her weapon back behind herself in such a way to strike Megumi and do damage but coming up short each time she swung her arms fruitlessly. "Let me go you... Cow!"

The white haired Genin gawked as an opponent that'd given Kenji so much trouble was so simply disarmed by Towel-sensei! In the time it'd taken for Masaru to give up on trying to strike her captor the bandits around them would execute a well rehearsed escape plan.

It would only take a moment for the Foreman to approach the three Shinobi and their captive. "They've been taken! Shay and Boro have been Kidnapped!" This was unrepresented, though the bandits had attacked before and had taken damaged stuff and injured workers they'd never killed or kidnapped.

"Easy there, washboard," Megumi said, plucking the sword out of the girl's hands as though it were a toothpick. She casually tossed the weapon aside and then carried Masaru over to her two students. "Here, you two tie her up so we can start questioning her. Always good to have a hostage."

As soon as Masaru hit the ground, Kenji made a hand sign to form a pair of water whips from the ground, to restrain Masaru while they tied her up with rope. Megumi's appearance then gradually returned to normal, losing its massive chakra output and skin returning to its normal shade as she closed her chakra gates.

When the foreman came running to deliver the news of Shay and Boro's capture, Megumi gave the man a stern, contemplative look. "They took captives? That doesn't make any sense for a bunch of bandits... Shay I could understand if they were looking for some cheap pleasure, but Boro too... something's not right about this."

"I swear to all that is Holy I will cut your udders off you fucking Holstein!" Masaru challenged like a runt Chihuahua trying to take on a Saint Bernard continuing to swing his weapon until she was handily disarmed by the more physically mature woman. However the air would be quickly knocked form her lungs with an almost cute "Unf!" as she was brought down by Megumi and put on display for her students feeling vulnerable for the first time since the fight had started, now she didn't have a weapon!

The teenager would shriek as she was quickly ensnared by the boy she'd injured earlier with her crossbow an the other stepped over her body pulling wire from his bag and separating it from the spool with a zing! The girl would let out perhaps the most girlish sound any female had made in the past few days as the White haired boy was quick to tie her body with a Karada and her hands with reverse prayer tie keeping her form using any type of hand signs! This girl wasn't getting away and the ninja line dug into just the right places! Showing that she was a little more developed than her face and her choice of clothing would leave most to believe!

"They've never taken captives before!" The foreman let slip accidentally in the panic induced moment of truth. He realized what he'd said and started to blather on ineffectively about how an attack like this had never happened before, and such obvious lies. There was no way he could sell such bullshit to any sane person. "Uh...Please help Boro and Shay!" The foreman cut to the chase.

Megumi gave a death glare as the man fumbled through his obvious lies. She didn't so much as blink until he'd finished speaking, at which point she leaned in close and with a pissed off frown. "So let me get this straight. Instead of informing our village of recurring bandit attacks, in which case you could have secured the proper defenses and planning necessary to fend them off, you completely neglected to mention it, thereby having us shinobi completely unawares of potential danger, not to mention exhausting us with a hard day's labor beforehand. How fucking stupid are you people? I'll save them, but don't think we're done talking about this. You put people at severe and unnecessary risk to what, save a bit of cash? Idiot."

Meanwhile, Kenji was busy staring awkwardly at the work Kensai was doing with the wire. The position that he tied Masaru in was...interesting, to say the least. Yeah...interesting. "So, uh...where'd you learn how to tie someone up like that?"

Kensai would continue tying until he was finished making sure that Masaru's feet were bound but easily removed in case she needed to walk or be walked. "Oh..." Kensai paused remembering, "So after academy I started my courier job, that was usually done by noon. And after noon I had the rest of the day to myself, some days it was solo training and some days it was bothering Jounin and Chuunin to teach me things. Sometimes I came away empty handed but others they'd teach me things. A Chuunin by the name of Miyu from Takigakure to teach me advanced rope and wire techniques, she had me practice on her. Looks professional doesn't it?"

"I'm the foreman... cost overruns are... I'm sorry." The usually stern man was now bawling at Megumi he obviously wasn't cut out for the life-or-death situations and was emotionally collapsing. "Please save them! What are you going to do to Save my friends!?"

"There's only one thing the little lady can do!" Came the overtone of one of the bandits as he'd walked back into the camp arms crossed under his chest. "I'm an Envoy ya see." He explained his purpose really clear. "Makaru sent me to Parlay wit'chas." The balled scarred bandit explained in his thick hick accent. "Give up the wee girl unharmed, and we give ya back yer peons."

"Huh, cool," Kenji said, as he inspected the knots more closely. "You'll have to teach me how to do that some time. Although I'm not exactly sure who we'd practice on..."

While Kenji was busy captivated by Kensai's knot tying, Megumi turned to see the other bandit strolling up to them like he owned the place. And talking like a pirate. She didn't know why the fuck he was talking like a pirate, but he was seriously irking her. In the blink of an eye, she flickered behind him. Alright, Captain, here's the deal. You're going to answer some questions for me, got it? You try something funny, or even try to move from where you're standing right now, and I'll bury you so far underground not even the worms will find you."