1 Protect the Civilians! [B-A, Open] Tue Dec 03, 2013 6:57 pm
Bokuden
D-rank
“How troublesome…” Bokuden thought to himself as he ran around Kirigakure at ground level, forcing his way through the frantically chaotic crowd, “It’s no wonder this place is in such a bad way. Just look at how these people are behaving at the first sign of danger; fleeing thoughtlessly like sheep.” In all fairness to the civilians, the village’s administration should have had an evacuation plan in place for such an occasion well before it was needed, but from the looks of it that was either not the case, or executed so poorly that it did not make the slightest difference in the way things played out. Things had only been getting worse in Kirigakure since Bokuden had arrived. A battle between shinobi is one thing, but to actively target civilians was nothing short of cowardly. These were not influential members of society, nor were they politicians or nobles. The people being targeted and fleeing from this attack were average citizens, working regular jobs in order to make a living for their families. In the grand scheme of things their lives meant nothing to the outcome of the war, which only made it more despicable that they were being marked for death by their assailants and not being taken as prisoners. If they were to be used as hostages Bokuden would at least be able to find strategic reasoning behind their actions, but this was not strategy, it was slaughter. There was no redeemable reasoning behind their cruelty, this was intended simply to deal emotional damage to the village, which one could argue is a potent anti-morale tactic in itself, but not like this. These were not Bokuden’s civilians, but he would protect them all the same.
The hood on his cloak was worn up as he made his way through the crowd, hiding his face in the shadow it cast. During the entirety of his stay in the village hidden in the mist Bokuden had prioritized keeping his identity hidden as much as possible, not that many would even be able to identify him with just a glance of his face, but these were small things that he was accustomed to doing to help keep it that way. He did however, stand out in the crowd as he waded through, standing significantly taller than most that passed him by, with no mention of the fact that he was a hooded man running towards the danger that the dozens of others were running from. It didn’t really matter however, the vast majority of the people were far too preoccupied with running for their lives to bother questioning his actions or attempting to uncover his identity on the fly.
It was not a difficult matter to track down the source of the commotion, the savage men who were targeting innocent civilians as well as using explosives to inflict structural damage upon the village, all Bokuden needed to do was move in the opposite direction of the crowd and he would no doubt end up face to face with his targets. Well, at least it would have been that simple of the people he was in the process of trying to save weren’t so unruly and making moving around at any kind of reasonable speed utterly impossible without knocking them all aside. He actually did think about that option, but would dismiss it after a fair amount of deliberation due to it being counterproductive to his goal of preventing them from getting hurt. Of course, it wasn’t like he would hurt them too much… just a little shove… but no, he’d grit his teeth and suck it up.
After a while however, his patience had worn thin and that was simply no longer an option he was willing to explore. So instead of knocking around the civilians he decided to take the more efficient, if not less satisfying, course of action and ascend to the rooftops where he could move around freely, unimpaired by the frightened masses below. The only issue was of course that the battles, especially the explosives now being used by the Seven Bells forces, wreaked havoc on the structural integrity of this area of the village. Most of the buildings were still standing, but the ones that were without damage were few and far between. Many had holes blown into walls, debris and corpses on the rooftops, and obvious structural damage all around from the battles that were taking place. It was an unpleasant sight to say the least, one that almost made Bokuden regret making the decision to come up to the rooftops rather than grit it out in the crowds below. One look back at the frenzy that was going on alone made him immediately dismiss that thought from his head. Once again, it ALMOST made him regret the decision.
There was also one other major disadvantage to travelling by rooftop at that time; as many of the battles had moved onto the rooftops, Bokuden would be left with little cover to move around unseen or shield him from potential assaults. Travelling by rooftop would leave him out in the open and vulnerable to attack. It would likely have been a major issue and likely a deterrent for a lesser shinobi, but considering that the likelihood of any of the assailants being powerful enough to be an actual threat to Bokuden was close to zero, it was a risk he was willing to take.
Not having to wade through the sea of people below expedited his travel time greatly. It only took him a few moments to close the gap between himself and the men who were pursuing the civilians. An explosive tag would then go off in the area directly below Bokuden, causing debris to fall into the streets and cutting off the escape path for a handful of the fleeing civilians. Not wanting to sit around for the assailants to make their move Bokuden took the initiative and would jump down to ground level, landing directly between the civilians and the Seven Bells shinobi.
Mission Completion: 1018/3000
The hood on his cloak was worn up as he made his way through the crowd, hiding his face in the shadow it cast. During the entirety of his stay in the village hidden in the mist Bokuden had prioritized keeping his identity hidden as much as possible, not that many would even be able to identify him with just a glance of his face, but these were small things that he was accustomed to doing to help keep it that way. He did however, stand out in the crowd as he waded through, standing significantly taller than most that passed him by, with no mention of the fact that he was a hooded man running towards the danger that the dozens of others were running from. It didn’t really matter however, the vast majority of the people were far too preoccupied with running for their lives to bother questioning his actions or attempting to uncover his identity on the fly.
It was not a difficult matter to track down the source of the commotion, the savage men who were targeting innocent civilians as well as using explosives to inflict structural damage upon the village, all Bokuden needed to do was move in the opposite direction of the crowd and he would no doubt end up face to face with his targets. Well, at least it would have been that simple of the people he was in the process of trying to save weren’t so unruly and making moving around at any kind of reasonable speed utterly impossible without knocking them all aside. He actually did think about that option, but would dismiss it after a fair amount of deliberation due to it being counterproductive to his goal of preventing them from getting hurt. Of course, it wasn’t like he would hurt them too much… just a little shove… but no, he’d grit his teeth and suck it up.
After a while however, his patience had worn thin and that was simply no longer an option he was willing to explore. So instead of knocking around the civilians he decided to take the more efficient, if not less satisfying, course of action and ascend to the rooftops where he could move around freely, unimpaired by the frightened masses below. The only issue was of course that the battles, especially the explosives now being used by the Seven Bells forces, wreaked havoc on the structural integrity of this area of the village. Most of the buildings were still standing, but the ones that were without damage were few and far between. Many had holes blown into walls, debris and corpses on the rooftops, and obvious structural damage all around from the battles that were taking place. It was an unpleasant sight to say the least, one that almost made Bokuden regret making the decision to come up to the rooftops rather than grit it out in the crowds below. One look back at the frenzy that was going on alone made him immediately dismiss that thought from his head. Once again, it ALMOST made him regret the decision.
There was also one other major disadvantage to travelling by rooftop at that time; as many of the battles had moved onto the rooftops, Bokuden would be left with little cover to move around unseen or shield him from potential assaults. Travelling by rooftop would leave him out in the open and vulnerable to attack. It would likely have been a major issue and likely a deterrent for a lesser shinobi, but considering that the likelihood of any of the assailants being powerful enough to be an actual threat to Bokuden was close to zero, it was a risk he was willing to take.
Not having to wade through the sea of people below expedited his travel time greatly. It only took him a few moments to close the gap between himself and the men who were pursuing the civilians. An explosive tag would then go off in the area directly below Bokuden, causing debris to fall into the streets and cutting off the escape path for a handful of the fleeing civilians. Not wanting to sit around for the assailants to make their move Bokuden took the initiative and would jump down to ground level, landing directly between the civilians and the Seven Bells shinobi.
Mission Completion: 1018/3000