Protecting the Spirit of Furaibi. (Arc 3/4)

Oda Stats:

Missions:

Oda ran back to the meeting spot as quickly as he could, his mind racing. Was this why the piglets had been pestering him? Was Furaibi calling out for…help? Whatever these bandits had up their sleeves it was deadly, if it had Furaibi asking for help.

“Back so soon?” The disembodied voice said from the shadows.

“Are you ever going to come out? How am I supposed to know you are who you say you are?” Oda said between labored breaths.

“Trust.” The voice replied.

Oda furrowed his brow a bit but ultimately decided to drop it for now. “It's a group of bandits. They’ve got some trick up their sleeve that has the spirit worried.”

He turned closer to the tree line where he thought the man was and passionately stuck a thumb at his chest. “Send me back down there bossman, I'll clear out the lot of them.” he had a deadly look in his eye.

“Your eagerness is admirable but not needed at the moment. We run the risk of spooking them if we do that, we might never uncover their plot or know who's really behind this.”  The man paused for a second, thinking. “Did you see what they were wearing?”

“Simple bandits' clothes, ragged, except one guy who had nicer clothes of all black and a long black trench coat. I couldn’t see his face, but his hair is slicked back and white going down to the middle of his back.” He tried to commit every detail he could remember of that man to memory. He seemed like the leader of the operation.

A pile of clothes in a bag came flying out of the woods, from a completely different direction than Oda was facing. He embarrassingly turned 90 degrees until he was facing where this mystery man actually was and opened the bag.

“Those should do. Put those on.” The voice grew serious and took on an official tone.

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate-”

“Infiltrate the bandits and uncover their plot plus find out who the leaderisyeahalrightsoundsgood” Oda said as he ran back to the woods, now in an undercover bandit outfit. He raced through the woods back to the small clearing that the pigs had led him to. As he did so he grabbed handfuls of mud and rubbed it into his hair until it was a dark and earthy brown.

He stayed in the clearing until he spotted a group of the bandits moving on the outskirts, then he started to follow them. He suddenly had an idea and stumbled out of the woods, putting a slur on his voice and developing a wobble in his gate.

“Hey wait up!” He yelled to the group, keeping his eyes droopy “Boyami Glad Ifounds yeww” He said, hiccuping.

“What the hell is this? Oh he's drunk as a skunk!” One of the bandits said

Another one of the bandits listened intently as he could hear a faint bell be rung.

“We don’t have time for this, we’ll punish him when the jobs are done, you-” he pointed at Oda “When we get to the briefing, sit down and shut up.”

Oda put his hands up lazily and gave a small hiccup “You got it boss”.

He followed behind the group, somewhat grateful for their ire, it meant they left him alone. He looked at the ground allowing his hair to cover the majority of his face, using that as cover as he peered around the camp. These bandits were a serious outfit, they had permanent log structures up, and hid everything in camouflage. Whoever was behind this was capable.

They finally came to a yurt, covered in leaves and camouflaged, and went inside. The tent had been set up to accommodate a lot of people, and the bandits sat at pre-arranged chairs. At the front was a large board with paper over it and a podium. The crowd grew to a hush as the man in the black trench coat stood at the podium.

He was an imposing man. He stood at 6 ft 4, and he mustve been in his 50’s, his hair was silvery white and he wore it slicked back tight to his head. His right eye was covered in a burn mark, the eye itself replaced by a glass replica. He was muscular, and carried himself like a general in the military would, with a stare as cold as ice he looked around at the group briefly. The unruly bandits by this point were completely silent.

“Tonight will mark the culmination of our lifes work.” He let the words hang in the air, his gaze being the only thing that hinted it was more of a warning than a statement. “When we succeed, every one of you will know riches you have never dreamt.” The men gave subdued cheers. “Some of you will not make it.” They grew quiet. “That cave will be dangerous, but it is your job to make sure the device gets to the den inside.” What device? Oda briefly entertained asking before deciding that would bring too much attention.

Oda would have his answer soon enough. The steely eyed ring leader motioned for a rather scrawny man in a lab coat to come up to the stage. Making it to the stage he gave a slight bow to the leader before an awkward pause ensued. “Mr.Hana, you may begin.” The ring leader said coldly.

“Ah yes well-” The scientist stuttered as he took off the paper covering the board. It revealed schematics for a device roughly the size of a dinner plate. “N-now as you can see here the device is relatively small b-b-but don’t let that fool you, it can store an incredible amount of energy.” He pointed to a specific spot “N-now when you press this button, the device will activate. It needs to remain there for 1 minute. Th-this is very important” One of the bandits crudely interrupted, to Oda's benefit. “Yeah but WHAT DOES IT DO?” he asked.

“I'm so g-g-g-g” The scientist breathed “Thank you for asking.” He said. “The device is designed to absorb the energies around it, now I believe” He got more animated and excited “I believe-theoretically of course- that if placed in the den of one of these spirits that we can actually absorb the nature spirit itself. With the nature spirit trapped inside, in this case Furaibi, who knows what power we could wield.” Oda felt sick. This went against all that was natural. No one should have that sort of power.

“I think you understand why I am telling you this now” The general quieted the room with his words. “This is it, men. This is why we have been toiling away in the woods. To reach a power only few have ever known.” He slammed his hand down on the podium, giving even the meanest looking bandit a jump. “Do not. Let. Me. Down… Dismissed.” He motioned for them to leave.

The leader had mentioned an assault on the cave tonight. Oda decided he had to go to report back to his higher ups, they would formulate a plan then. However, as Oda began to separate from the bandits still flowing out of the tent a hand grabbed his shoulder, it was one of the bandits that he had encountered on the road “Don’t think you’re getting out of this easily. You can’t just get drunk and not do your part.”

“Won't happen again boss” He mumbled in return.

“I'm keeping an eye on you, we head out in 30 minutes. Get ready.”

Oda's mind raced to formulate a plan. How was he supposed to fight 100 bandits? Some of them were clearly capable, and he was still only a Genin. He pondered on this, still thinking about his plan when suddenly they were already at the clearing. The leader stood a little further from the tree line and turned to address them, holding the mysterious device in his hand and holding it up. He began to make a short speech before being interrupted.

Ah, fuck it. Oda thought as he impulsively formed the appropriate hand signs and launched a series of small flames from his Scattershot Technique(10).

The bandits gave a shout of surprise and the leader moved to shield himself from the attack. The flames were simply a diversion, and Oda raced behind them to deliver a punch to the man's face. To Oda’s dismay the man took the punch in stride, barely moving. He grabbed Oda by the throat and threw him down. Oda wen’t skidding briefly before launching back up to the ground and holding a defensive stance.

Oda now stood between the group of bandits and the cave entrance. The leader coldly stood straight, eyeing Oda. He gave a slight chuckle “Is this really all they sent?” His chuckle grew into a bellow and now the bandits joined in. “Move aside kid, don’t die over this.” He began to move forward and Oda slashed at the ground with a Fire Lash(10), whistling a short tune to activate it and then dismiss it. The leader's face went from cocky to angry and as the bandits began to motion forward to attack he put a hand up, halting them in their tracks. “This one is mine.”

Like most battles, It had begun before Oda really had time to process it. Their martial abilities were somewhat equal, the man was much stronger though, and Oda struggled to block his attacks. He dodged and weaved most strikes, however one landed hard and Oda went sliding back.

He could feel the anger bubbling up from that strike and his orange and red eyes seemed to flicker in the light. He had been wanting to try this for a while.

He began to do a hand sign in one hand, a hand sign in the other, and whistling. Chakra raced through his body like a torrent. It took incredible focus for him to compartmentalize and think of three separate jutsu.

The leader's eyes flashed fear as he backed up slightly. Fire in multiple forms began to form around Oda. First, 2 whirlwinds of fire(80)  began circling from around him, kicking up the dust around Oda as he exhaled and a cylinder of flame came shooting out, gradually forming into a dragon(40)  which bobbed and weaved between the 2 whirlwinds.

He used the shock of the bandits to launch his final attack, A great fireball(40) that shot out in between the whirlwinds, the dragon following after and weaving to attack the bandits. The whirlwinds broke off lazily and arched wide to cut off any escape.

The great fireball itself impacted the leader and he yelled in defiance. A brief quiet took the battlefield as Oda breathed heavily, a significant portion of energy just being spent. With the bandits scattering and being hit by his first two jutsu they posed no threat. He stared down at the leader, charred with smoke rising from his body. To Oda’s amazement the leader was still alive, but he clutched at the now burned and destroyed disc in his hand. Oda walked closer, and the man began to give a maniacal laugh, still laying on his back and staring up to the sky now. Oda leered over him and grabbed his collar. “Tell me who you are”

The leader simply laughed and looked past Oda, talking to someone else in his burnt and delirious state. “Brother, good luck. We…Will…Prevail.” He passed out, smouldering.

Oda stood there in confusion, the gears in his mind racing and turning, trying to piece the clues together. Who was this brother? As he dismissed his other jutsu and stood there in stunned silence it finally clicked for him as his mind sped through the memories of the day.

A Flash of the jaguar that slashed out at him in his dream, Inazuma the panther…Maybe it wasn't attacking him, maybe it was calling for help too…

A flash of a memory, the bandit on the road “ we’ll punish him when the jobs are done,”. Jobs, plural.

Another memory,  “Tonight will mark the culmination of our lifes work.”  Our. His brother.

Oda looked up to the sky and across the rolling hills of the Land of the Moon, clear across the other side of the village a large storm brewed with lightning crackling in the clouds.

Shit.

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Battle:

TWC: 3000 (2000x1.5)

Claims: