War Games [Invite]

“And so the objective is to defend these….fruits?”

Takano Uzumaki, famed among his age group for the monumental stick he had up his ass, who was always serious and never seemed to be able to take a joke…..held up two watermelons with a face that could only be described as complete befuddlement. The Chunnin instructing him made a heroic effort to hold back a fit of laughter with all of his might.

“That’s correct. This exercise is meant to simulate an escort scenario, so if one watermelon is smashed, you lose ten points. If you lose both, the game is over. You will be graded on how many you carry across the finish line, and how well your tactics will stack up in an actual combat scenario.” Noting the glint in the genin’s eye, the Chunnin cleared his throat, “And just to clarify, the watermelons are meant to simulate actual people. You can’t do anything to them that a normal person without chakra wouldn’t reasonably survive.”

Takano grunted an acknowledgment seeing the sense in the arrangement, before hefting the fruits and placing them in the small cart he was meant to be escorting. A quick set of hand seals produced two water clones, one of which utilized the Transformation Technique to morph into a watermelon, alongside the real Takano which did the same. The remaining water clone clambered onto the cart, snapped the reins, and sent the horses trotting down the wooded trail towards the finish line. Now, all that remained was waiting for his fellow Genin’s attack…..

Stuff:

'Snap, crack, snap, crack, snap, crack'

Was the noise one would hear along the trail as Valen snapped up broken tree limbs and tossed them into a respectable pile that was blocking the pathway to the finish line. The surrounding woods were too think for a cart to traverse and so the only path through was along this road. The diminutive genin, standing at a whole 5'1 and finished growing, tossed the last of his broken branches into the pile. It was a fairly decently sized pile that would burn for quite some time. The point of the exercise was to assault the target and try to destroy the melons they were transporting. Valen was playing bad guy in this and he was supposed to try his best. Which he would have done even if he had not been told to do so. Mostly because he loved the competition. The short man was dressed in a long black coat jacket that covered his body akin to a robe with no opening. It had a white collar and went down to just above his ankles. His black shinobi boots were on his feet and beneath the cloak he wore simply black shinobi pants. At his belt he wore a katana that was of passable quality, it was at least better than the stuff you could buy at the market at any rate.

The cart was about one hundred and fifty meters up the trail, and around a bend in it. The finish line was the same distance behind his barricade putting it at exactly the half way mark. The area to either side the wooden barricade was cleared enough to prevent what was about to happen next from getting out of hand. Without a word Valen would draw his katana and the blade would ignite into flames, the fires enshrouding the weapon with a burning fury that he would use to light the barricade up. The wooden obstruction would immediately become engulfed in flames that would reach up to about two feet higher than Valen was tall. As previously stated however, the area around the barricade was cleared enough to prevent the fire from spreading uncontrollably and the branches above were too high to catch on fire. Of course the cleared areas around the barricade weren't wide enough for the cart to get through. The barricade would burn for quite a while yet, and with the creation of the fire would also come the creation of a large amount of shadows. The wooded area had plenty from the get go. However the flames made them even more abundant. So without a word Valen would extinguish his fire sword and move within one of the shadows and hide within it, obscuring himself from sight as he performed the tiger seal with a single hand. As of when he hid within the shadows, the cart had still yet to turn the corner to see anything. His hiding place had been selected to put him only three meters from the edge of the path.

[1]

Stuff:

The water clone’s eyes narrowed as he flicked the reins, causing the trotting horses to slow to a sudden stop. Just around the bend, partially concealed by the trees and brush, was a column of smoke, rising thick and fast over the treetops. While a fire-barricade wasn’t the most inventive solution to the test, Takano’s clone couldn’t exactly deny its effectiveness. Unfortunately for his opponent, he was a Suiton specialist, and his ancestry made it so he didn’t exactly have to worry about chakra expenditure the same way most Genin did.

Just as the clone clapped its hands together, preparing to throw the entirety of its essence into a new justu, the sharp cry of a messenger hawk split the air. Dispersing his rising chakra, the clone raised an arm, providing a place for the bird to land and retrieving the tightly bound scroll from the pouch on its leg. It seemed that Commander Sero was organizing some sort of training journey, and had requested for him to join up with them as soon as possible. Takano smiled at the opportunity, before his form was reduced to simple liquid as the real Takano released both of his clones, reclaiming their chakra. Picking up one of the watermelons, the genin vanished in a Body Flicker, hurrying to the harbor where his boat waited…..

[EXIT]

The sharp cry of a messenger hawk would draw Valen's attention from his hiding place and wordlessly he would step out of it. It would appear his opponent was being summoned. Looking at the hawk caused Valen to consider his timing on things as well and counting the days in his head, slowly, would realize that he in fact needed to get going as well. He needed to track down Sero as the three day timer he had been given to obtain his gear and report back to him was soon to pass. Hell he had been intending to today when a Chuunin had blind sided him with a call to come out here and test himself in a war game type of scenario. Effectively a competition to Valen to see who was the better shinobi. He had intended to win too, intent to let the man get close before launching a vicious assault on the cart itself and moving to cut through the melons for a quick victory if he could. That was how he always went for things, quick and viciously.

Still, with the war game effectively canceled it meant he could get away to fulfill his orders. The fire barricade was separated from the trees so it would burn itself out. However regardless he would wave toward the Chuunin that had come to fetch him for this scenario. He had come out when Takano's messenger hawk was called, then Valen would point at the fire. The man would nod in acknowledgement before moving through some hand seals and putting the fire out with a quick water release tech. Once that was done, Valen would leave to go get into his uniform and go track down the man who led the Nightmare Brigade.

[Exit]