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The following takes place one year ago, between the Hidden Sand and Hidden River...

Characters:

• Jin Konjiki
  
• Midori Ningyou (pre-Kazekage)
  

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          Through the shaded entrance, three horse drawn carriages emerged one after the other. The sand kicked up by the black steeds was like a soft mist, which quickly spread wide as it escaped into the outside. The horses neighed valiantly, well rested and ready to traverse the great expanse. The center carriage was lined with steel drawn ornaments and designs painted aureate; when struck by sunlight, they give off a brilliant shine like a signal from a distant mirror. The rest of it was made of curved wood from the finest pine, painted red with curtain drawn windows on either sides. The other two carriages were regular wooden ones, rectangular and very simple-- the black paint was warn from usage near the underside.

From the center carriage, a child with chestnut hair looked upwards, as the light from the sun shun through his window and lit up his eyes through the glass pane. He was humbled before the tall graduated walls of sandstone, which comprised the massive walls. At this angle, they seemed to pierce the very clouds, curving to the top like a row of skyscrapers. With his mouth agape, almost smiling, it was both thrilling and yet frightening. This was a shinobi village, one of the great five, and he knew not of such a life. He lived in a more safe, socially segmented environment, and coming here felt like walking straight into a police station. The scenery gave him comfort, so he reveled in them, ignoring the dozens of onlooking Suna-nin who were posted upon the walls.

The vehicles came to a slow stop, and the sandy mist quickly dispersed. The child looked to the front, seeing the leading carriage-- and in front of that, two more Suna-nin. They stood at attention on Either side of the road like posts, with their mummy-like appendages and flak jackets wavering in the wind. In what seemed like a flicker, yet another Sand ninja appeared out of the blue . His details were similar to the others, for they all looked the same to the boy. He gestured in a friendly manner, giving some sort of signal, then advancing towards the center carriage. The boy looked to his right now, through the other window on the far side, which his father was near to-- his mother in the center. The Sand ninja rested his forearm on the window, propped his weight on the vehicle, , and gave a formal smile:

"Mornin' Mr.K, hope everything went well."

He coughed shortly after speaking. The man wore regular ninja gear, with a katana strapped to his back. He was middle aged, brown messy hair, and bore a few scars on his face. Something about his speech reminded Jin of a shopkeeper, for it was robotic, but somehow sincere. He looked at Jin for a brief moment and smiled. Jin was uneasy, as most ninja made him, but smiled nonetheless. His mother smirked, placed a hand upon Jin's small shoulder in reassurance, as she saw the mini transaction of smiles.

"I see you brought your kid along this time. Thats good, he'll make a fine business man some day, like his father --"

"Yes Ganju, always a pleasure."

Mr.Konjiki mused, tilting his pinstriped black fedora as he nodded.

"He asked to come personally, something about sand storms and tornadoes."

Ganju laughed,

"Well, kid, you can look, but no touching, Suna's orders."

He looked over his shoulder towards the village,

"Well Mr.K, as customary, we send a ninja with you as escort through the gorges-- your safety is top priority... She'll be here shortly, and will be riding in either the front or back carriages. Oh,and don't be fooled by her size-- "

He leaned in, as if telling a secret with an eye squinted,

even the tiniest scorpions got a lethal dose waiting for ya."

He winked, then taped the window sill as a friendly gesture, and walked away.

Jin looked mildly distressed, wondering what dangers could a baron desert offer short of scorching heat and sinus problems, certainly scorpions were of no threat. He looked behind now, eager to see what sort of ninja was their escort...

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705/705 words

Staring at the piece of parchment that held the details of her mission for this day, Midori walked forwards through the desert, the sun beating on the beige cloth of her back. In terms of attire, she was clothed in her usual, beige attire that was useful for practical purposes and comfort. Her right arm covered in bandages, the rest of Midori seemed rather uninspiring when it came to appearance, the forehead protector of Sunagakure no Sato shown proudly over her forehead. At her waist was a selection of scrolls, most of which were blank, with a single one sealed, and as she stood at the post she was told to wait at, her eyes scanned over the horizon, the waves of the heat distorting the vision over the distance the further it got from her.

As she stood there, a lone individual appeared, giving her the location for the rendezvous truly. The mission was not at the location the parchment had stated, as could be expected of a mission assigned to a jounin – there had to be some form of deceit, in case of a leaking of information. At least, that was the thought going through her mind. Given the disorganised state of her home village, there was no way to truly know for sure. Regardless, the people she was to escort must be important if they required more than simple genin or chuunin for the mission. So, she read through the information, nodding to herself before quickly tucking the information away in her satchel, taking the time to also check the weapons she had brought with her. 3 shuriken, and a kunai. Yep, looked about right. Nodding to herself, Midori took off in a run to get to the destination of her mission.

It wasn’t a tremendous distance away from where she was prior, however after a run, Midori found the location of the carriages, which matched the details of those she was supposed to act as an escort and bodyguard for. Deciding to make her presence known, she began to wave as she approached the caravan from behind. The lithe figure of the sand jounin gradually approached making sure to keep an eye out. Making sure to keep a relaxed and cool composure, the girl approached the front carriage, pulling out a document to show who she was and going off to find whoever it was that was in charge of this mission, or at the very least, who it was she was supposed to be declaring her arrival to. “Ah, hello! Ningyou, Midori, jounin and escort at your service! The sands of the desert can be a bit troublesome to cross, so, I’m here to help, as instructed and requested.” She held up her paperwork, offering a soft smile, before turning without waiting for a response, and continuing to talk. “I’m going to sit around at the back, the horses will have enough of an eye on the front and side that we should have a rough idea on if anything is coming from that angle. After all, horses are a prey animal, and because of this evolved in a way that means they grow more startled at things in their peripheral vision, meaning a horse is more likely to be over nervous than to ignore potential danger. So, we can depart when you want!” she declared brazenly, before walking to the back carriage, and hopping on, not getting in but simply leaping up to stand on top, before making sure her right arm was still properly bandaged, and then sitting down with a smile, looking around. With a hand sign, however, she disappeared, and in her place, a single rock was, resting on top of the carriage. The transformation technique.

625

Chakra: 260/270 (-10 for 2 E rank techniques)

Jutsu used:

"Ningyou... Midori?" Jin thought to himself, eyeing the lightsome shinobi like a curious child as he looked out the side window. From what he saw, Ganju, the jounin in charge gave a nod of approval upon scanning her documents, then issued a series of gestures at the guards in front as well as the gatekeepers who overlooked the rear. Jin was impressed by such a formality just for a departing party, since rumors were spreading that the village was in a pickle at the time.
His eyes followed her, and a look of disproval veiled his face upon realizing that she was to be their escort. He quickly turned to his mother beside him,

"Hey mom, how is that lady supposed to protect us? She's so small". As she was about to respond, his father interjected, "Ninjas come in many shapes and sizes Jin. Pay attention, you could learn a thing or too." Jin cocked his head to the side like a puppy trying to regain a lost sound, then looked back at the escort through the back window. She mounted the top of the cart, and to his utter disbelief, changed into a rock! His mouth popped open in amusement, hands now pressed to the temperate glass window.

The triple carriages accelerated into the vast desert, kicking up a heavy trail of sand, which followed like smoke from a train. The first few hours of trail was smooth and hard sandstone, owing to years of usage. After however, as the sun began to set, the terrain changed. The carts rattled slightly, going over a small stone every few seconds. This interval quickly shortened, as stones turned into a type a gravel. The pebbled route twisted and wound round large rock formations. These rocks were darker in color and bore cracks due to their parched conditions. To everyone's dismay, a twisting wind, visible due to the sand it lifted, swept nearby. The carriages rattled as waves of wicked winds seem to come quicker and quicker. In the distance, visibility was slowly fading as a dust storm brewed, where they were headed.

"Odd, I reckon this route never seen a sandstorm b'fore. Looks like we be making a detour through the canyons." The pilot shouted from the front, his voice slightly muffled over the wind. He whipped the horses in front into a change of direction, as they began to swerve.
Eventually, the carts tilted forwards, as the route naturally sloped down. Jin peaked out each window, noticing more rocky walls on either side, as they dipped downwards into a massive gorge. It was like gigantic hole in the earth, for he looked up at the enclosing walls like skyscrapers, and felt a claustrophobic chill even though the general area was open. The tilted sunlight casted a massive shadow upon them, and before long, the man whipped the horses to a stop, as the others followed in succession.

Everyone got out of the carriages slowly. The lead navigator spoke to Jin parents, as well as the others, informing them that they would need to wait here whilst the storm had passed. The gorge, whilst dark and gloomy at this hour, offered a great deal of shelter for such a disaster. The horses were tended to, as they rested their limbs and fed by the caretakers. Jin looked at the grown ups in concern, for they spoke worried and hastily of the unnatural appearance of the winds. Standing out of his carriage, Jin looked at Midori, wherever she may have been at during this discourse, in rock form or not.

"Hey lady... how is someone as small you supposed to protect all of these people by yourself? And what's wrong with your arm." Jin said, disapprovingly. He was not quite convinced with such an escort, surely the rumors were true, that Sunagakure was in a weakened state, not wanting to expend resources for these type of missions.

659/1364 words

Currently a rock, Midori sat atop the wagon, and if she could grin to herself, she would. But, she was a rock, and as rocks do not have mouths, that wasn’t really a thing she could do. Still, it was the ability to do things such as this that made the actual work part of a mission so enjoyable. At least, when it was a non-tense situation. The ability to quite literally be anything she wanted. The road grew less even, and from atop the roof she felt herself bounce up and down with the movements of the carriage as they left the village now. She felt the wind pick up, and in order to stop herself from flying off, broke her transformation on her own, clinging to the roof and now preparing herself to take the mission more seriously, simply due to the harsh weather conditions. Bandaged arm clinging to the roof, her other arm moved to cover her eyes from the dust as she kept an eye out, scanning the surroundings and going on full alert mode. In her mind, while the weather was a common sight in the land of wind, there were equal chances someone would make use of the weather. Blue eyes scanned the area, squinting at the presence of the sand.

Still, as she felt the horses draw to a halt, the jounin felt less concerned with the impeding threat brought upon by the sand storm ahead. Her grip on the carriage lessened and eventually, she shifted herself to a basic seating position as she watched everyone evacuate from the carriages, and in a brief moment, have discussions. It was little concern to her what the talk was about, and deciding that now was an appropriate time, Midori took out a basic flask of water, giving herself a quick swig from it before putting it back to her side. She simply waited, watching over those who had been assigned to her care, occasionally glancing back to the storm ahead of them so as to make sure it was not travelling in their direction.

From just below the cart however, Midori picked up the sound of someone speaking to her. Glancing down, Midori saw it was just a little kid who thought she herself was too small to protect them. Furthermore, it seemed that the bandage wrapped around her right arm had incited curiosity in the boy. Midori gave a soft smile, not taking a moment of offense from the child’s words and instead spinning around to sit properly on the edge of the carriage, looking down at the boy with her legs dangling off the edge. “Well, I’ve been a shinobi for a while. Plus, I’d like to think I can know what I’m doing. If you have that much doubt about me, then at the end of this trip, you are welcome to make complaints.” She declared with a rather plain, and uninspiring nod. “But, well, hopefully I can remove those doubts. If nothing else, I’m sure I could come up with a good joke.” She declared with a thumbs up with her unbandaged hand. Finally though, she addressed the boy’s latter concern. “Ah, as for my arm… Well, I guess that’s a story for another time. It’s just not something I’d like to get touched is all. Don’t want to risk damage, and ever little layer of protection helps, no?” she said with a wink, before deciding to simply pass the time. “Besides, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that’s not the tallest here. Although that could just be me. So, kid, the name’s Midori, Ningyou Midori. What’s yours?” she asked with a grin and a legitimate curiosity, deciding to make the trip more pleasant and also perhaps ease any tension within the young passenger by appearing more like a human, and less like a rock. Although being a rock was pretty fun. All the while, her eyes shifted around, ever on alert and contrary to the calm and serene smile that was across her lips. No matter the lack of formality she opted to take at this moment in time, this was a mission after all.

And when on a mission, priorities had to be made.

707 + 625 = 1332

"Ningyou... Midori?"

The boy said under his breath, with intermittent stuttering, as if struggling to pronounce it. He was more curious now about the mummified arm now that she didn't want to depart with its secret.

"My name is, ummm." he paused, clearly under some sort of pressure, possibly due to the anxiety of speaking to a stranger for the first time; a job usually tasked by his parents. But before he could master his emotions and utter a syllable, the ground shook violently! The horses were the first to panic, as they neighed as if under attack by some invisible monster; the horse-masters shouted with arms flaying in an attempt to clam them. Jin lost his balance, now on one foot with his arms out. The carriages rattled violently with a sound akin to shaking silverware. The surrounding dark coloured cliffs cracked and fissured with accompanying sounds like thunder in the distance; cliff faces fell off like onion layers being peeled off (though not near the caravan). There was an electric panic in the air, as everyone made darting glances around the area and to each other, making sure all were safe. There were also several cries and shouts from the small gathering:

"Hold on to something!"
"Get away from them!"
"Where's Jin?!"

Then without warning (not even a hint of chakra), Jin fell into the ground which gave way beneath his feet. It was as if the ground was a thin later of ice, which broke, and in an instant he was gone!

"My boy!!" cried his mother as she saw the unfortunate event unravel before her eyes.

"GEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEH !!!!!!" a sinister laugh echoed through the gorge. It was high pitched and came from a dust cloud which appeared 50 meters away, at the base of a ramp of sand; leading out of the gorge. The tremors had stopped now, and a dark silhouette appeared in the settling obscurity. It revealed a man atop some sort of mechanical horse. He was covered almost entirely by an umber colored trench-coat, coat tails flapping of the sides, with its huge neck collar erect. He sported a black fedora, with an insignia emblazoned on top a steel plate, similar to a ninja headband; that of iwagakure with a strike through it. His black shades were two black circles connected via a thin wire frame, it reflected a brilliant glare like a signal mirror in the distance. He wore some sort of breathing apparatus over his face, for his voice resounded a mechanical echo:

"The Steel Sands sends their regards!! GEHEEHEHEEH!!! his voice was like a snake, lingering on the S's, and was that of someone very old, maybe in their 60's. The man whipped in his right hand, as silvery metallic segments, like a centipede's back contracted as it extracted something from the ground which his horse stood. Out came Jin, he was clenched within a crane-like vice for a hand. The fully contracted arm of the assailant now hid inside his sleeve, with the boy fully secured outside within its thin finger-like vice.

In the next instant, the man turned, and his horse pelted away, up the ramp and into the sandstorm. The horse blew a violent burst of steam every few seconds out of the joints. Meanwhile, one of the horse-masters from the group had taken action, quickly unstrapping a black horse.

"Varus! Get my son back! and take the sand ninja with you" commanded Jin's father.

"Midori-senpai! Lets go after him!" desperately said Varus, the horse-master, as he pointed to the now free stallion. "That's the fastest one we've got!" he said, mounting another horse of his own. "HYAH!!!" and quickly followed behind the kidnapper; he held onto his hat as his coat tail fluttered.

Should Midori decide to mount the horse or not, she would have to catch up to Varus first before getting a glimpse of the masked assailant who was further ahead. The chase would indeed continue into the violent desert. Visibility was low like a mist, with violent winds pelting sand into your eyes and scraping at your skin like sand-paper. Varus would look behind, and shout across the wind hoping to catch the ears of the Ningyou.

"THATS SS JAX! AN A-RANKED CRIMINAL... I HOPE YOUR AS STRONG AS GANJU SA--"
Suddenly Varus and his horse swerved, as several senbon flew at him. The assailant Jax, was just ahead of Varus, but only his shadowy outline was visible.
"Dammit!" Cursed Varus as his horse struggled to dodge the endless projectiles. Jax would keep shooting about 10 senbon per second at both his pursuers-- somehow he could also tell their location...

793/2157 words

Still atop the carriage, Midori listened as the boy began to speak. Upon an inspection of him, he was small, likely no older than 10, perhaps even younger, the lack of years evident in the soft composure and structure of his face and body. Although, perhaps that was just her medically over examining the boy, as if at any moment he would become a patient she would need to aid – and then, she did need to aid him. The ground began to shake, and at the moment it did, Midori flipped up from her seated position to crouch atop the carriage, looking around on the alert. Where was this source of attack coming from? Her glance shifted to the boy on the ground ever now and again, preparing to reach down once she was sure the attack was simply a vague one, and not a focused assault. Sure enough, the other horses and carriages were startled and shaking.

Yet before she could react, a cry came from the boy she had just been talking to, and as she turned to watch, Midori found herself cursing beneath her breath as in an instant, he seemed to disappear, sunk beneath without a moment of warning. Shortly followed by calls of distress, Midori pulled her kunai from its position in her weapons satchel, looking around for any signs she could. Yet all she could hear was the maniacal laughter that seemed to echo and reverberate upon the enclosed gorge that sheltered them from the winds. In the end, a figure revealed himself, standing atop something odd and at a fair distance away. And as he declared who he was, a criminal, and revealed the child that she was just talking to, Midori began preparing as best as she could for how to rescue the boy.

As the man turned on his mechanical horse and ran, Midori hopped down from the carriage, towards the boy’s father and the man named Varus as she kept her kunai in hand, nodding and hopping onto the horse that was gestured to, gently soothing it with her left hand while the kunai was in her right, before grabbing the reigns and ushering it forward at a run, to catch up to the kidnapper, alongside Varus. Out of the gorge they galloped, now into the heavily winded and storm wracked expanse of the desert itself, the sand parting beneath the hooves of their mounts. Her skin ached and burned, and Midori felt grateful for having long hair, for at the very least lessening the blow she took from the weather. Still, she watched and listened as Varus declared who they were up against. A highly dangerous criminal? It seems this mission was more complex than she had originally believed…

Yet it seemed Varus was cut off, swerving out of the way to avoid a barrage of senbon from the opponent, with an accuracy that was strange for the condition of the weather, and the direction he was facing… This caused a theory to occur to Midori, one that she wished to test as she moved her horse further from Varus to ensure the opponent would have to split his attacks to hit them both. Still, the rate of the weapons was unnaturally fast, and quickly shifting the grip on her kunai to her left hand, Midori formulated a quick plan of attack. Attaching a puppet string to her kunai, Midori launched the knife ahead of her with as much swing as she could, controlling the path of the blade as if it were a puppet so that it was not deflected by the storm of senbon approaching her. In the mean time, Midori felt it a good idea to shout to Varus what her thoughts on the situation were. “I think there’s a possibility the target is using either the storm, or the ground, through a jutsu, to see where he’s going and what we’re doing!” she declared, out loud, fully aware that it posed a risk of the man hearing – her priority was to make sure Varus had a chance of knowledge, so that if her theory on the target was correct, she would save time on explaining.

700 + 1332 = 2032

Jutsu used:

Varus kept dodging the deadly senbon as they came in tandem with the corrosive sands.
"WHAT!? HE CAN SEE US WITH THE SAND?!" he shouted in response, perplexed and amiss with the ninjutsu. Should Midori's Kunai attack go towards Jax, the crazed man would have his mecha-horse shimmy to the right to dodge it at the last second, with poise and precision-- without even looking at it. "GEEHEEHEEHEE!!! the assailant screeched.

"He dodge it!!!"  Varus noted, instantly getting an idea. It was obviously the sandstorm which gave him the sensory necessary to evade such an attack, for it was airborne.
"BE RIGHT BACK!" he shouted, making sharp left turn as his horse skidded and kicked up a flurry of sand. Within a few seconds, he would return, but rode straight up to Midori this time, as he made a very important discovery. He spoke with short panting in between, as if he was exhausted from shouting:

"I went to the edge, the storm... its about 15-20 meters in radius... but the direction is weird! ... Behind Jax as we are now, the sand hits us directly, moving backwards. But on the left end of it, it changed direction and hit me from the right side, then from behind at the utmost end.... I'm certain the right side of it does the same... He's recycling the sand!"

If what Varus deducted was true, it would mean that the sandstorm wasn't made of natural sand, but that of the assailant, which he needed to recycle in order use. More importantly, his observations of the pattern were on point; the sandstorm spun in unnatural, yet uniform directions. More precisely, if it flowed down the center, and split left and right at the bottom to flow back up the sides, and it can be deduced that the front of Jax also had sand coming towards him.

This pattern is similar to the flow of magnetic fields around a bar magnet, the South Pole being at the front of Jax himself. Furthermore, in any storm where winds blew, there is a point where the wind has zero velocity; the turning point; the eye! In a magnetic field however, it has two such points. Should any person discover any of the two 'eyes', the sand here would be nonexistent. Somehow, iron weapons didn't seem to be affected by the field, which made a full deduction of such a field incomplete.

Suddenly the cries of Jin were apparent, covered by the mechanical gallop of loud shifting and clanky metallic parts, accompanied by the exhaust steam every few seconds.
"What shall we do? He has some sort of armour, my weapons cannot affect him. Also, we cannot use wide area jutsu, for the Konjiki boy would get caught in it. Yikes!!"
The man panicked, ducking a senbon at the end of his sentence.
"That has to be the hundredth one!! Does he ever run out?"
Should one notice, Jax only has 20 senbons, but they come intermittently at 10 per second. As he controls them in the direction of the sand, they always come back in a similar fashion. Since Varus was lucky enough to not get hit by the returning senbons on the left of the storm, he couldn't yet make the deduction.
"We need to hurry, the sand afoot it getting thicker, the horses won't be able to chase into the dunes."

574/2731

As Varus declared he would be right back, Midori continued to try to weather the onslaught of senbon, one of the thin projectiles embedding itself in her left arm, causing a slight flinch of pain in the jounin as the blade pierced a short amount into her flesh. Still, she kept riding, waiting and avoiding the senbon, watching their pattern of attack. Yet it seemed… The amount thrown at one point every two sets of attacks was shorter… Intriguing, and this suggested something about the method of attack that Midori had not expected. However, if it were true, it would fall in line with the theory she had made prior – that this was a sand release user.

Not long after she was on her own, did her mission companion return, shouting to her the findings and deduction he had made. It matched her own theory, and as he stated his thoughts on the matter, the blue eyes of Midori scanned around the violent storm. Now that she was looking at it with more detail, this was far from a normal sandstorm. Whereas a normal sandstorm would rotate around a centre point, this was entirely different. A jutsu, without a doubt.

As Varus panicked about what to do, Midori grew silent, withdrawing the scroll from her waist as a batch of senbon flew at Varus once more. Drawing wide the scroll and pressing her hand to it, Midori released the seal with a deathly silence. An idea had entered her head, one which she wanted to try. Time was running out. Yet the puppet shinobi felt she had enough pieces of the puzzle to figure out how the target acted. From a poof of smoke, freed from the confines of the scroll, a puppet appeared behind the shinobi, a humanoid appearance that wore a robe draped across its back. Allowing the strings to detach from her kunai, Midori allowed the weapon to fly its natural course as she quickly shifted the focus of the strings to the puppet behind her, eyes glaring ahead of her at the mechanism that carried the target and the hostage. The horses were currently keeping par with the machine, not gaining any distance, nor falling behind. Calculations ran through Midori’s mind as she worked out the mathematics behind this. An average horse could move at forty kilometres per hour. This meant a horse could move, on average, at eleven metres per second. Taking into account the conditions of the storm and sand, Midori guessed it’d be more fair to say ten. Given the fact that Varus and her were keeping pace… Yes, she was sure it would work.

It was time to make an attack that he could not dodge while remaining on the mechanism.

“Varus! He has a limited amount of senbon! The target is a sand release user, and much like he’s using the sandstorm, the ground beneath us is being used to recycle the senbon he has thrown! I don’t know the range of the jutsu, but I know the speed we’re going – which means one of two things. Either his machine can’t move faster than our horses, or this is the speed of the jutsu! Regardless, he’s relying on the machine to avoid attacks, while using the sand to attack and to see! Try to prevent as many senbon as possible from hitting the ground! In the meantime, I have a jutsu I need to prepare!” she shouted to her mission companion. Time was running short. Moving her injured arm slightly, Midori put a hand to the puppet behind her. A small amount of chakra was added to the creation, as the jounin prepared one of the most basic shinobi techniques. She was down a kunai, and her arm had a small puncture in it. Yet slowly, the assailant’s secrets were being revealed. Meanwhile, the target knew nothing about Midori’s skill set. As far as Midori was concerned, time limit aside, this was her advantage.

(OOC: Don’t actually know why we’re keeping track of WC. We can’t use it for training, and I think it’s fair to say by the end of the thread it should reach social requirements. Also forgot chakra in my last post. Whoops.)

Chakra: 240/270 (-5 for puppet strings, -5 for maintain puppet strings, -5 for substitution technique, -5 for sealing technique)

Jutsu prepared:

Jutsu used:

(OOC: Don't know myself :P)

Varus, while on the outside appeared a simple horse-cart driver, seemed extremely intuitive and knowledgeable of ninja tactics and ninjutsu.
"I will try!!!" He shouted, trusting the sand ninja with whatever plan she had concocted. He rode on, awaiting for the next wave of senbon. There was a wave of 10 then 9, though he couldn't immediately tell that one was missing. Dodging them was already a pain, but trying to control where they land was another story. Quick on his fingers, Varus removed his thick leather jacket and folded it on top of his right forearm, like a matador's curtain. Instead of dodging, he simply brought the garment up to his face. Three senbons pierced halfway to it, causing him to gasp with fright.

Varus certainly did not sign up to take on this madman. At this moment, he wished he was back home in the land of Stone, sitting over a fireside and sipping on some hot tea prepared by his wife. But he did however, sign up to be the boy's guardian in times like these. Dutiful, he quickly mastered his emotions, reaffirming his objectives to regain the Konjiki son. With a more determined look, the senbon waves came back, with a set of seven, then nine. It was apparent now, that the projectiles were limited in number and the storm was indeed a jutsu of Jax's doing.

"GEHEEHEEHEEHEE!!! YOUR PERSISTENCE WILL BE REWARDED.... WITH DEATH!!! screeched SS Jax. He was a bit annoyed by his two pursuers for keeping up, and so opted to increase his damage potential. Suddenly, Jax's free hand extended like before, and he whipped it to the side. The metallic arm stretched wide, at an alarming fifteen meters length. It's steel rings which constituted the thing shined with a sinister gleam. In that instant, it swept like a massively long sword, horizontally towards Varus. Varus' eyes widened, for it was at a weird height where the horse could not jump over,  nor could he duck it. Then just like that, he was struck. With a loud oof, he was pelted from his steed, and fell onto the ground into a forced sideways roll, a dust of sand covering his body in the process. The horse neighed, swerving off course somewhere outside the storm and disappearing as well.

"Save the boy!!!" Shouted Varus from the distance, his voice barely audible from the gap created between him and Midori from the sudden stop. Meanwhile, Jax would repeat his attack after retracting the metallic arm. Switching hands, he flayed the mechanic thing to the left. It extended as it swung fifteen meters wide. It was aimed at Midori's torso from her left. Getting hit with the mass of steel will knock her off certainly. Ducking it would hit the horse's head instead (potentially knocking it unconscious), and the horse itself could not jump something from the side. Senbons will contunue flying, making the whole thing even more daunting.

With an improvisation that Midori would have been impressed with if she wasn’t focused ahead of her, Varus blocked and removed three more senbon, although Midori was watching as the senbon hail continued. From ahead of her, the screeching laughter of the Steel Sand Jax rang through the air, over the sandstorm. There was a large amount of cockiness in his voice, seeming so certain that he would be able to kill the pursuers. Suddenly his arm spread out and extended, great in length. It seemed the metallic rings were a part of the mechanism for it, yet that mattered little compared to what happened, as the arm swung around and knocked Varus clean off his horse. After a brief period the horse he was on retreated, and the distant sound of Varus reached Midori’s ears.

Eyes narrowing, as the target began to focus his attacks solely on Midori, the puppet jounin sighed, gathering her focus for a moment as she prepared to enact her plan. Mind at peace, there was no emotion upon Midori’s expression as the time for the counter attack came. Seven senbon flew at her during the first second, and only a second behind it were another nine. To her left, the fifteen meter steel appendage began to swipe at her. Keeping the strings attached to her left hand for her puppet, with her right – bandaged – arm, Midori plucked a single hair from her head, holding it for but a moment. Meanwhile, with a sweep of her left arm, the puppet in front of her moved to intercept the seven senbon, which embedded themselves harmlessly into the wooden frame. Of course, Midori couldn’t afford to keep the puppet there, while the targets weapon was a mere instant from making contact. Now moving the puppet above into the air as fast as she could, Midori waited a brief second as the steel weapon was about to make contact with her, before in an instant disappearing. With a poof of smoke, in the place where once sat Midori, now sat the puppet which she had moved to intercept and moved above her, no longer attached via strings.

Now in the air, without a moment of hesitation, Midori continued to act, snapping the hair in a second poof of smoke as a clone of the puppet wielding shinobi appeared behind her, feet facing her. The reflection clone technique. Pressing the soles of her feet to those of the clone, Midori pressed herself off, launching herself as if she were naught but a projectile at Jax. Moving at twenty meters per second Midori was upon him like a bullet, arriving him in less than a second due to the brief distance required to travel due to the short length of his blade. Completely emotionless, Midori brought her right arm to bare, the bandages unravelling to reveal the prosthetic nature of the limb. As she began to swing the punch however, pistons within the limb itself began to activate, instantly thrusting the fist the short distance required, aimed for the nearest available point of the target, Jax. Regardless of where the hit landed, the force was to be tremendous, easily holding enough strength to break bones. Of course, regardless on if the punch landed, Midori did not wish to risk falling off if the target survived. The moment the punch was thrown, the lower half of Midori shifted with the moment, legs making contact with the mechanical horse and, by focusing chakra to activate the supernatural walking technique, Midori clung to the contraption.

There was no room for emotion while on this mission, one which Midori had no intention to fail.

(OOC: As an explanation for why the whole punch thing is as strong as it is, Midori's puppet prosthetic is S ranked, which means the limb (only that limb) has strength of S-0. Hope that makes sense~)

Item involved:

Chakra: 210/ 270 (-15 for C rank jutsu, -5 for puppet strings, -5 for supernatural walking, -5 for substitution)

Jutsu used:

Jax turned his head, sensing that Midori had somehow dodged his flay attack, but was scarcely prepared for what ensued.
"Hrm?!!!!" the sands pinpointed the Suna ninja right behind him to his utter disbelief, and he was stricken with anxiety, having underestimated the speed and strength of this one. That arm of hers went straight through Jax's upper back, accompanied by the sound of discharging electricity. The blue and white sparks ripped through him,  surging through his body. On further inspection, Jax's body was composed solely of gears, fans and bundles of wires on the inside; he was a machine! "Geehhuhhahehiho" his voice malfunctioned and varied in pitch constantly. "You meddling wench!!!! (static noise) if I can't have the boy (static noise) no one can!!!! Geehhehhihohuhihe...
Sidewinder! Take em to the moon!!! (continuous static)" he blurted, takin to his horse.

Jax's body powered down, and suddenly his horse let out a high pitched electric screech. From the horses metallic body, many tiny pores opened from the top to expel tentacle-like, wire appendages. They were like long steel millipedes, and wrapped around the feet of Midori in an instant, bounding her to the horse's back. Meanwhile, Jin was present atop the galloping mech, more in front and bound to it horizontally. The child was horrendously in fright, his face was crinkled, his eyes were watery, and he constantly tried to screen his lungs out but to no avail. But back to the predicament: even though Jax's supposed body was done for, his vehicle posed a new threat. From the sides of the horse, two massive turbine-like fans emerged and rotated towards the ground, picking up speed with an insanely loud sound. Steam exhausted loudly through many parts, and the entire thing started to vibrate uncontrollably. In another instant, the sandstorm was blown away and the machine was off the ground and rapidly elevating. It would incline, almost vertically, and not stop until it ran out of fuel, which would be at about 2000 meters from the ground.
Whatever happened, Jin would soon faint from being overstimulated with so many things at once. His life now solely rests on the hands of the Ningyou.

To Midori’s surprise, the fist went completely through the target, followed by static, and the sound of gears. As it turned out, the enemy, Jax, was a false human. A machine. It made her curious on who created such a thing, but it wasn’t a thought that was at the forefront of her priority. Instead, the robotic voice of Jax continued to spit out words amongst static and malfunctions. Wait, sidewinder? The moon? Before she could put together what the mechanical enemy meant, wires wrapped around the puppet girls feet. Furthermore, the mechanical horse suddenly began to grow… Rockets? The entire thing was surreal to say the least, although as the horse began to propel itself upwards, it wasn’t like Midori could question it. “Well shit.” She muttered under her breath, watching as the boy passed out.

Giving a quick tug of her feet to check she was held in place, Midori began thinking of a plan as she found herself being propelled skywards. Having confirmed that the wires were preventing her from falling or leaving, Midori smiled slightly. If nothing else, that made the plan easier. Allowing the servos within her arm to reset themselves, before beginning to expand her arm, quickly having every individual joint of the limb separated to expand it by roughly one meter, just enough to reach the boy. From there the fingers looped around the body of the unconscious child, before carefully dragging him to Midori, being sure to keep a tight enough grip so as not to drop him. Now with the boy nearby, Midori clutched him close with her flesh arm, before beginning her plan to get back down. Having confirmed through the damage she dealt to Jax that her arm was stronger than the steel used, she first broke off the lashes that tied her in place, crushing them within the palm of the puppet appendage. From there, boy in her flesh arm, and continuing to channel chakra through her feet, Midori walked to the front of the horse. The rockets were propelling them up, but that didn’t mean they had to always propel up. “Sorry asshole, but I didn’t pay for this ride. I think I’ll be taking a refund.”

With that, using as much force as she could, Midori placed her hand on the head of the mechanical horse, pushing down as hard as she could to redirect the trajectory back down, keeping a grip on the boy. Should it work, the puppet user would wait until they were about to hit the ground before jumping from the horse with the boy, transforming with the transformation technique into a parachute around the child. Should the trajectory not work, she would just jump off regardless with the boy, and do the same thing. Regardless, the end result would be the same. The parachute Midori would act to lower the boy safely and relatively slowly to the ground.

200/270 (-5 for transformation technique, -5 for supernatural walking)

With that powerful arm of hers, the neck of the mechanical steed buckled, though with high resistance. Piping hot steam flew out with sharp whistling noises as it vibrated under the sudden pressure. Internal mechanisms reacted unfavorably, signifying that thing whole thing was about to explode. But with a twist of the unexpected, the Sand ninja actually parted with the thing mid-air, with the Konjiki child in hand. Then, as hackneyed as pulling a rabbit out of a hat, she transformed into a makeshift parachute! If only Jin was awake to see such a feat he would surely be stricken with awe.

Sidewinder flew off into the distance, regaining its composure and looking back with its demonic glowing eyes of red. A slurred voice came from it, "Tch!! (Static noise) You'll pay for this Ningyou!  (static noise) today, you've made an enemy of the Steal Sands-- your days are henceforth, limited! Enjoy it while it lasts! It was another voice and not of Jax's. The voice was deeper, darker, more calm and collected. The criminal organization known as the Steel Sands were a mercenary group, but hardly interfered with Suna's operations. For them to do something like this, means that Jin was of something so great in value, that they would compromise their safety like this.

In any case, it was over for now. In the distance, a spec of black followed by a trail of dust ripped across the ground towards the landing party. "Oh, thank heavens! You're a life-saver, Midori." It was Varus! He removed his shady spectacles and lowered his mask as the sandstorm had cleared. He seemed in his late 30's, black mustache and goatee and all. Spotting Midori as a transformed landing apparatus would mean his perception was pretty high for someone of his job title, possibly a retired ninja.
"His parents radioed in, we have a convoy en route from the hidden Stone, so we can take it from here." Dismounting the black horse, he walked up to the Suna nin. His clothes were sandy and dusty, speckled with holes and tears, but he seemed in good composure, with a light smile of sincerity. "Oh, he's awake"

Jin tossed a bit with a bitter face, as if waking up from a bad dream. After Midori resumed her prior appearance, he would take to the ground to regain his composure. After a few seconds, the child would look up innocently at the woman. His face was dusty, as his tears had dried and attracted a bit of sand. Within that awkward silence, he began to reevaluate what he had initially thought of her, but his mind was still brewing a storm of emotions from the previous endeavor. Suddenly, he bowed, hands to his side with utmost formality.
"Ummm!, t-thank you! Miss Midori! I owe you my life!"
He stuttered earnestly, with his British-like accent. This was a major turning point for Jin's personality, as he just gained a newfound respect for shinobi. But would he become one? That was still uncertain. Jin would wait for Midori's response, listening with utmost attention, and at the end of it, he would shockingly recall their prior conversation, and remember to say:"Oh, I didn't tell you my name... its Jin! ... Jin of the Konjiki family.

The sun was settling down, burning the skies a vibrant orange, with large dark shadows stretching across the dunes. Today was quite an adventure, and something neither one of them would ever forget.

[Exit thread, unless a reply is required]