Mission Info:

Members participating: Naoko.  Open slots available.
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Laundry wasn't my most favorite thing to do, but it was something that needed to be done.  Thankfully I managed to get things hung back up in my little closet and was just going to sharpen my blade when a loud crash came from down the street.  My apartment rumbled with a fervor.  Jumping out of my door, I saw through the smoke and dust people screaming and shouting.  There was blood and shrapnel scattered everywhere.  A small ramen shop had been blown to oblivion, it’s sign torn to pieces and strewn about the street, several people gasping for air as chunks of the shop stuck out from their chests.  One boy was screaming for his mother while clutching at his leg, what was left of it.  The boy’s leg was torn off right below the knee, blood spattering out steadily as he cried out.  A few others ran out of the shop, somehow surviving the blast but only to be lit on fire and run screaming into the street.  Several more explosions sounded off around the city, several billows of smoke rising above other buildings and the ground shook from each one.

At first I was frozen in shock, not believing the horrible things occurring right in front of me.  Several minutes might have gone by while I stood and stared, my mouth agape as fires spread through the shops and stores.  It took another explosion behind me to get my attention, my apartment shaking so violently I knew it came from somewhere in my building.  Finally I began to move, rushing back into my apartment to get my things.  Someone was setting those explosions off and that someone needed to be put down.  After securing my weapons and attaching both my brown face covering and my fox mask, I slipped on my hood, took a step out my back window, and hopped down to the city street below.

Down on the street level, pure panic seemed to rule.  Men and women were running every which way, screams echoed through the misty village and lights from building fires were poking through the thin mist.  Looking left and right down both sides of the street, I decided the left road had more villagers running away from that direction.  Whatever they were running away from was what I needed to confront.  Quickly I ran through the streets, keeping one hand on the handle of my katana while weaving through the waves of panicking people.  Suddenly I came up to a line of other shinobi.  One turned as he noticed my arrival, scoffing as if I had been slow to respond to the crisis.  Speaking out of the side of his mouth, he updated me on the orders, “If you haven’t guessed, we’re under attack.  Our orders are to hold this line and stop the enemy’s puppets from killing any more civilians or gaining control of the residential district.”

I nodded back before double taking at what he had just said.  “Wait, puppets are doing this?”

The shinobi just gave me a glare.  “Yes!  There’s hundreds of the fuckers all over the village.  So look alive or you won’t be for very long!”

Again I nodded, glad that my mask covered my shock at his quick snap.  It was understandable for his reaction, after all it was his village being attacked.  His life and his home were at stake here, not to mention any family or loved ones.  I had only been here for about two months, and although I still couldn’t truly call the village ‘home’, I knew I’d protect it because it was my home now.  It didn’t matter if it felt like home, it was, and now my home was under attack.  Putting aside my questions as to how puppets were doing all this destruction, I unsheathed my katana and held it out before me.  My eyes danced around wildly as I looked for the slightest hint of a puppet through the mist.  A few minutes rolled by and more explosions seemed to be heading our way.  I tried to see through the mist, switching spots to stare at as explosions went off, each time trying to see where the sound was coming from.  It wasn’t too long until an explosion happened in front of our line, pushing away the mist.  Out of the smoke, sprung forward several people.  Looking closer as they ran toward us, I noticed their arms, wrists, and fingers all had blades sticking out and their skin seemed to be cracked for each piece of limb.

So these were the puppets!  They looked almost human!  Furrowing my hidden brow, I rushed forward with my comrades as we began to clash with the puppets.  Charging forward,  I dove into a slide, feet first, and held out my katana, slicing at a puppet’s legs.  My blade didn’t chop off the legs as I had hoped, the puppet’s legs being of a much sturdier material and my blade also being below par.  I knew I needed a new blade, but seeing only a cut in the puppet’s legs was disheartening.  Changing tactics, I would test out my jutsus to add cutting power to my blades.

As I thought this through, my attention was diverted and didn’t realize I had become surrounded by quite a few of the puppets.  How  many were there?  It seemed to be well over ten as I made a quick glance around at the battle.  They might truly number in the hundreds by the looks of their overwhelming force.  Five puppets had surrounded me and knowing only one way out of this, I held my blade downward with both hands.  Waiting for them all to come in close and within range of my jutsu, I focused wind chakra to my blade.  Holding the concentration as they came in for an attack, I stabbed at the ground and released the wind chakra, letting it burst out from the tip of the blade.  The ground redirected the wind chakra and made a 360 degree surge outwards, cutting deep into the puppets and sending them flying back.  The jutsu hit them all with such ferocity that they shattered into large but unusable pieces upon hitting the ground or walls.  So it was jutsu that they were weak against.  Noting this down in my head, I charged back into the larger fray of puppets.

Chakra:

Mission WC: 1083/2500