[Pirate Warfare] The Susano'o

Glory. Fame. Fortune. Power?

This was a more prestigious event than the Kusa tournament that was spontaneously held. A major global event, ninja from all villages gathered for this competition that demonstrates each ninja's specialty. Although it's not like Zen had been training for this his entire life, he did want a try to showcase his ship to the whole world. So when he boarded the village's voyager of sea and storms, The Susano'o. he gave his family a hearty farewell before leaving dock. The ship departed roughly a day ago. As their nation was the closest to the Land of Water, they'll likely get there the quickest. That is.... if unexpected complications did not come into play....

"Pirates, huh?! Don't worry. We're taking a super-secret route that hasn't failed us in years. We're not getting into contact with those dirty rag tags anytime soon!" Zen heard this from a passenger who was talking to another man. There were several dozens of people on the ship, mostly ninja who cannot wait till they get to Kirigakure - some of whom because of seasickness. He was reading a novel on one of the more dimly-lit quarters of the ship, not minding what was happened on the surface. He had no interest in sight-seeing the vast waves, although he did hear that while Kumogakure had the best skies, Kirigakure must naturally have the best oceans and seas. All the rocking made him more tired than engaging, and sometimes they would shake more than necessary that it was impossible for him to concentrate. But the ship was built of strong wood and other fortified materials, including state-of-the art defense systems and cannon artillery. There were plenty of life boats and jackets for each passenger in times of emergency. Zen's eyes wandered around one page.

Your butt is as mysterious to me as a blocked toilet is to a plumber


@Krysto  plz join

"Yoohoo, yoohoo, off to Kiri we goooo." Gleefully whistling a few sweet strands of music, Kauzu continued his song of adventure. "Yohoo yohoo yohooooo!" He was excited for this would be his first time out in the Land of Water and this was his first time out on the open sea. It was all very exciting and then to add to the excitement they were going to such a glorious global scale event. Who wouldn't be excited?!?

"Aboard the gallant and grandiose Susano'o venturers from the Land of Lightning set sail to the Land of Water for large scale meeting between person's of all nationalities. Pirates steady lurking the waters at times like these looking for vessels to feast upon, but little do they know Kauzu Sarutobi stands tall and ready for any and all to test his might. Along side him he then has his trusted side kick the silent but strong-" Leaping over the railing and grasping not he ledge, Kauzu swung into position straight in front of the reading Zen. "Zen Tankou!!!!" Placing a confident and sturdy hand on the Shinobi's shoulder, Kauzu pointed out towards the glistening sea that reflected endless amounts of sunlight. "How can you read at such an exciting time? . . . You are excited aren't you?" He turned his focus from the water's back to Zen, his body language overflowing with energy and childlike levels of anticipation.

ooc: i had no idea i was in this one :s

~Finally! a chance to test my abilities. I'll make sure everyone forgets my absence in the kusa tournament~

Maou walked through the cabin and out onto the deck of the Susano'o. There were quite a few shinobi aboard the vessel. From across the deck he spotted a familiar face.

~He's reading a book.. at a time like this?..he'd an odd one~

He made his way across the deck, he wore his usually all black attire including gloves. His katana at his back.

"Hey-o Zen! is that a book on how to have fun?"

Maou chuckled as he leaned on the nearby railing, crossing his arms. He noticed an unfamiliar face a young kumo-nin who he hadn't met before.

"Hey you, are you one of Zen's friends?"

OOC: Off this thread sails

Zen Tankou!!!!

His engagement with the text was disrupted, mangled, and substituted with a change in attention towards a familiar boy who infiltrated into his personal space. His privacy rejected and destroyed by Maou and Kauzu, Zen felt that he had no choice but to refrain from his socially deemed-"unfun" hobby. After all, if you can't beat them...you must join them.

"Mhm, I am very excited", he replied in monotone with a robotic edge. He shifted his head abruptly to Maou. "No, the book is not fun nor is it about fun", he replied in the same manner. He left the two to their own conversation - perhaps Kauzu could indulge Maou further with his soliloquy.

He divided his attention and devoted most of it to a sailor who was talking to him  He was fascinated by the man's stories about the esoteric Land of Iron and the legendary samurai class that existed over there.

"You got yourself a sword, lad?" the sailor asked.

Zen nodded. "Right over to the side of the wall. It's your basic steel".

"The big boys over there don't care too much about their blades. They are lethal cause they can put this magic all over the metal and it can cut your katana like knife through butter".

It became apparent to Zen that this magic was none other than chakra.

"Sounds like the samurai's magic is the same as the shinobi's".

"Hey, I also acquired another treat. You see this penchant around my neck? The stone embedded in it is a precious gem called the Black Pear-"

A blurry black orb collided with the sailor's head, blowing it off and exitting through the other side of the room. Zen's reaction was delayed by two seconds - which was an immediately startled jump from his seat. "HAH?"

The ship started to rock uncontrollably and the bell sounded loud throughout every corner. The next word was bellowed out at the top of everyone's voice.

"PIRATES!!!"

A cannonball fired from a pirate ship, plowed into the deck below, and turned the sailor into a headless victim. Zen immediately ran on board along with the rest of the crew, to see a galleon bigger than theirs closing in on them.

The captain yelled out orders: "Man the deck!" "Starboard to the side!" "Who's on the wheel?!" while cursing to himself as to how they came to be on their route.

The ragged men got down to their firing stations where they must retaliate with their cannonballs. However, the pirates were relentless. They kept on firing and firing, harassing the ship with heavy firepower. It seemed that they were experienced in naval warfare. Zen could see masses waving their swords on the enemy ship, but could not make out any faces. Which meant that there was still a distance between them, and a chance for escape. He wondered how the heck they weren't noticed earlier, and then saw the answer. The ship flags, exposed in front of the open seas like massive blankets or curtains, was the same as theirs. They were both Kumogakure ships.

"Oh.... the world gets crazier every day", Zen said to himself.

It was apparent to Kauzu that Zen was more interested in reading than socializing so he wouldn't pester the Genin any more. With an awkward look and slowly sliding eyes to this other soul, Kauzu put on a smile. "Weeeeellll, guess his books more interesting than we are. Nice to meet you I'm Kauzu Sarutobi of the Sarutobi Clan." The valiant young lad extended a confident and welcoming hand out to this unnamed boy or rather teen with a smile that reflected the energy the sun brought to the world. The kid was much taller than Kauzu which made him wonder how old he was and how he knew Zen, but he wasn't one to dig into the affairs of others.

Both hands laced together on the back of his head, Kauzu innocently turned his ever shifting attention out to the waters. "Oh a ship." He said to himself. Masses of men waving at Kauzu he gleefully waved back oblivious tot he fact they were about to open fire in mere seconds. A plume of smoke signaling the emission of a cannonball, Kauzu's eyes grew similar to how the image of the cannonball did. "Shit!" He shouted as he ducked and let the cannonball stir up a strong draft overhead. He was in shock from the sudden near death experience and the flood gates were open. Adrenaline was riddling his body cold and tingly, this wasn't what combat felt like, this was fear, but not of the things to come of course. Legs shaking until he brought himself back into the present flow of time, which only took a second or two, Kauzu stood and ran to go help set up the canons on the Susano'o. He was a Taijutsu specialist so what use was he at a time like this? Paying no heed to the corpses that littered the deck, he found a small group of headed men and followed them to a large box of iron ebony cannon balls. Grabbing as many as he could he ran them over to a canon while keeping his head down and on his shoulders.

"Nice to meet you Kauzu."

Maou shook the boy's hand with a firm grip.

"i'm Maou, future winner of the Masters and future Raikage"

The tall and handsome genin smiled as he pointed his thumb to his chest. Maou had a very friendly personality. He always thought the best of most people, he was quick to trust those he felt right with. He had high hopes and aspirations.

"I plan on taking the Masters by storm. There'll be no stopping me!"

Maou threw a few punches and a few kicks at the air which is when the two kumo genins noticed just what a long reach advantage he possessed.

"PIRATES?! WHERE!?"

Hell broke loose in the middle of his demonstration. Cannon balls were blasting through the ship from all angles. He ducked down when he saw a cannonball headed directly towards his head. After the duck, he continued to roll and got behind a large crate on the deck.

"everybody down! get to safety ASAP!. climb down to the hull!"

As he was crouched behind the crate, his eyes spiraled his golden gaze replaced by the signature red of the sharingan. He took a quick peek out onto the ocean to identify how many ships and a rough estimate on how many pirates.

"KEEP THE SPACE" the captain shouted as he got down to the controls room. The helmsmen held his stance, keeping the ship steady.

Zen huddled near Maou and thought about the course of action to take. We probably have more cannon balls than them.... but we've already suffered damage. None of my Doton will work out here in the open sea... which means that I really have no choice but to use my fists and blades. he concluded. Zen peered over at the pirate ship from a hole made on the ship's exterior. At this distance... I can't throw anything at them even if I use all of the strength I could muster. Then, a crazy idea popped right into Zen's head. He was the only one who can attack the enemy directly.

His hand grabbed the blade of his katana and chakra flowed through it. Steel was absorbed into his body, turning him into a metal man once more. He hopped over to Kauzu and introduced his plan. "Hey, listen up. We have to attack them from the outside and the inside. I'm going to use Transformation and turn into a cannonball. You're gonna shoot me right into their ship. I know it's crazy and it's going to hurt me alot, but if I can get in and take them surprise, I will be able to turn this around", he explained.

Kauzu was quick and very laborious with his helping hand. Running multiple canon balls over at a time quickly while also alert of incoming shots from the enemy ship. Ahg this is stupid. AT this rate we'll sink each other and no one will win. Damn pirates." He wasn't even able to put up a fight, well not in a way that allowed him to really exert himself and use his actual skills. Having stopped in minor irritation looking out towards the wooden vessel of scalawags, he was approached by Zen and given a plan. It was rather risky, but Kauzu trusted the Genin and knew in the midst of chaos he would have the element of surprise. It also wasn't his life immediately on the line, so that was a plus as well. "It sounds like a plan, here take my explosive tags. I don't know, they just might come in handy." Kauzu would attempt to hand over two unreadied explosive tags tot he Genin and would wait on his mark to load him up into a canon. Once he was prepared, the Sarutobi would aim true and light match to propel the 'cannonball' into the hull of the enemy ship.

"A few more ships to the East!"

Shouted Maou from behind the crate. The cannon's continued to crash along the ship. It was taking heavy damage quickly and something needed to be done. There were a total of 4 ships surrounding The Susano'o. 2 to the left where Zen had just been fired off into, 1 to the north and 1 to the East.

"I'll take it down! Focus on the others! we have to stop taking so much damage!"

Maou jumped off the side of the ship. Focusing his chakra on the soles of his feet, he was able to run across the ocean water jumping over the waves being caused by the rocking ships.

He ran up the side of the attacking ship and jumped up onto it. He unsheathed his katana.

"Yerr making a mistake laddy, Dont ye know Pirates rule the seas?"

Said who appeared to be the Captain of the Ship. He wore a long red coat, with piraty clothing. He had a long sword sheathed. On the deck there were at least 13 pirates ready to attack the young Kumo-nin.

"You're attacking innocent people, I cannot forgive your actions!"

The pirate leader let out a mad chuckle.

"Kiiiilll Him!"

He shouted as he ordered his men to attack the handsome young genin.

4 pirates rushed to Maou. Two of them swung their swords, he blocked the first one with his own and ducked under the other. He spun around as he stood up and kicked a pirate in the head throwing him out of the ship.

"Surrender now and i will turn you in to the authorities. Otherwise.. Perish before my wrath"

Pirates swarmed around Maou encircling him.

His hands moved lighting fast as he wove a few hand seals.

"Lighting Release: Lighting Whip!"

A lighting whip materialized in Maou's left hand, His right hand held his katana.He swung his left hand and lashed his whip at the left half of the pirates. who all jumped back to avoid it. He rushed forward to the same side and slashed at their stomachs with his katana. 3 of them were hit and fell to their knees. Two pirates charged from his back both with swords. Maou raised his katana and lowered it down his spine to block both swords. He kicked the pirate on his right and in the same movement sliced the other pirates left arm off.

He released the lighting whip and began running to the wheel of the ship. As he ran he wove more hand seals.

"Lighting release: Lightning spear!"

He clasped his hands together and two spears formed in each of his hands. He turned around and launched the first at a pirate, then continued making it rain lighting spears. The pirates were semi paralyzed by the lighting.

"Lighting Release: False Darkness!"

He his hands moved in a flash, weaving seal after seal. He clasped his hands together then held them out in front of him forming a triangle with his fingers. Powerful thunder strikes flew from the triangle striking the pirates with a massive force. The thunder strikes hit each and every pirate on the deck, overloading their nervous system and effectively killing them.

For anyone who was not on the ship, it sounded like a mini thunder storm as Maou unleashed hell upon the pirates.

All that remained was the pirate leader.. who as cowering behind the wheel. It only took a hit to the back of the head for him to be knocked out cold.

"Transform!"

Zen sequenced his hands to execute the basic technique that he acquired back in the Academy days. Who said that they wouldn't prove to be useful? His shape and form changed, turning into an average-steel metal cannonball. Kauzu loaded him into the cannon. It was strange, for he felt like all of his mass was being compressed within a circular space. The next thing he knew he was accelerating at high velocity towards enemy territory. Heat and friction increased as the fake cannonball cut across the air, until it met its fateful crash into the interior of the ship...

Zen felt numb and the transformation automatically de-activated. He was on his back in the hull of a pirate ship, groaning. To make matters worse, he felt very hot. Mere contact with anything gave him the sensation of a severe burn. It was unfortunate that he could not cover himself with insulating material beforehand. He looked around to find that nobody was around. The pirates must be upstairs. The sound of naval warfare raged on from he was, and he stumbled towards the staircase, placing his hand on the back of his head to quell his head pain. Stealthily he made his way up to see that the entire floor was littered with pirates. They were firing cannonballs from here. He looked out for someone with pimp clothes, but nobody looked like captain material - everyone here wore rags and menial towels.

There must be as much as thirty people in this room.... but the only thing I've got to do is to stop them from firing the cannons.... of which there are fifteen to twenty... he thought. He had four exploding tags, which means that he had enough to take out at least four. Zen channeled chakra into the tags and threw them all at the ceiling above the men's head. A second later they would detonate, sending a good amount of wooden planks falling right on their heads....

Meanwhile back on the ship, the captain was getting ready to counterattack the other ship on its left.

"Susano'o still has a trick or two!" he grinned as he ordered the people down at the cannons. "Fire on my signal. We're going to tilt the ship so we can shoot down their mast. Everything will collapse on top of the ship and make all their sails cover their vision". The helmsmen employed the old Kumo trick, using expert wheeling technique to make the ship tilt down on its right (starboard) so that its left side (port) would tilt upwards, changing the firing angle of all the cannons to aim for the mast of the pirate ship instead of its side.

"FIRE!"

Transformation Used (E)

Kauzu's eyes lingered out to the ship that Zenhad been fired off at for a moment hoping the Genin would be well, but he hadn't time for such things. Back into the present time, he shook his head and spat a mental bit of discipline at himself for spacing out yet again during such a situation. Watching this other Genin, Kauzu had forgotten his name with all the chaos going on, jump the ship and head off to another ship alone, Kauzu thought he was out of his mind. If the boy got himself killed however, that was his business, it was too often Genin got caught up thinking the ninja life was a fairy tail to go play hero, but perhaps that was necessary. One Genin fired off as a cannonball into a ship alone and the other approaching on foot, what could Kauzu do? He felt heavily inefficient in this situation and he was upset with himself. "Gaah dammit, I'm not gonna sit back and tarnish eh Sarutobi name!" Ripping off his upper body clothing, the weighted clothing hit the deck with a thump. White bandages around his abdomen to keep his breaths in the right place, he was about to jump ship as well until the damned thing spun and tilted. Nearly losing his footing, he applied chakra to the one foot that was still aboard the ship before pounding the other down to stay grounded as the friendlies began to fire cannonballs off towards the enemy vessels.

"Everyone even the damn person steering the ship is doing something and I'll be damned if I don't get any glory!" Hopping over the railing of Susano'o, regardless if it had found its equilibrium again or not, the Sarutobi found himself standing on the ocean alone while cannonballs were being flung in his direction. This is it he thought to himself. Inhaling deeply, he puffed himself up as if trying to intimidate a feral animal in the wilderness, before a slick sheen coated he front of his body. Leaping up with exaggerated force from removing his weighted clothing, he delivered a full power kick to the cannonball. "Iron Body!" He yelled as he simultaneously prayed.

His hellish Taijutsu training having paid off when mostly needed, his kick turned the cannonball nothing but rubble in the ocean. Looking down as he descended towards the rough choppy waters to ensure he got his footing, he leapt up again to kick yet another ebony sphere, this time shifting its trajectory out into empty space rather than destroying it. Landing not he railing of the Suasno'o perched like an eagle, again Kauzu continued this defensive system on one side of the ship deflecting and obliterating the enemy artillery.

Jutsu:

The ship was quiet, it rocked as the waves hit the side of the hull. Maou stood at the wheel with the knocked out pirate captain laying unconscious on the floor. Maou hog tied the pirate captain tightly, making sure that he wouldn't be able to escape.

He jumped down onto the water and tactfully placed 4 explosive tags on the side of the hull. He began running back to the Susano'o and activated the tags which caused a giant explosion. The explosion was so great that it blew off the side of the hull and the ship began taking in tons of water. Slowly, it began sinking to the bottom of the ocean taking the bodies with it.

Maou jumped back onto the Susano'o just in time to catch Kauzu's impressive display of strength and taijutsu. he witnessed the Kumo-nin destroy a few of the cannonballs and parry others with his fists and feet.

"Holy damn Kauzu, don't those things hurt?. I took care of the other ship. how's Zen?"

Hard wood fell hard on the clueless heads of the pirates. They tumbled to the floor, making activity at the cannons cease. However, several of them weren't so affected by the explosions, so they were able to quickly get back up. Letting them no respite, Zen jumped into action and punched one of them right in the face, extracting a loud howl from them before they flopped back to the floor. In addition to his metal-increased strength, the heat he conducted transferred to others to add onto the damage via burning. He continued beating all those who were able to stand back up until they were all on the floor again. This would give Susano'o the advantage. Zen could hear footsteps running down from above, so he used all of his strength to make the cannons turn around, pointing right at the descending foes. All there was to do left is to light them.

Right as more men moved down to see what the ruckus was about, they were blasted with cannonballs, turning many of them into dissipitated sacks of meat. Zen fired as many cannonballs as he can to shoot down all of the unsuspecting pirates who came down to cannons, destroying the enemy from the inside. He was not able to reload them for he didn't have the time, but since he basically destroyed their staircase, the pirates would have to enjoy the several-meter fall to get down to where the artillery room was. Not to mention they have to re-arrange the cannons and gather the cannonballs that were under the piles of wood and living rotten bodies.

He found broken cannonballs, which were probably the ones that Susano'o shot into the artillery room of the ship. He picked up four of them, concentrated chakra to his feet, and got ready to run up the side of the enemy ship to take on those who were on the deck....

Meanwhile Susano'o's cannons blared as ballistic weights were fired at the mast and whatever was attached to the deck of the ship from above. The pirate ship's own mast fell down on itself, crushing many pirates and preventing them any further movement. They were a sitting duck at sea. The sails and flags, like massive blankets of curtains, dropped down to blindside the artillery's men line of sight, preventing them from seeing Susano'o. Susano'o continued its assault against the mastless ship and the ship that Zen is currently handling, getting closer and closer to sinking the two of them.

Fatigued was an understatement for how Kauzu was feeling. Though his jutsu persisted, his knuckles and legs were bloodied from striking the cannonballs continuously and he was sure he had also broken his left hand. Slowly however the canon fire slowed and became very sloppy on the enemies behalf. He was now selective with the artillery he decided to defend against and it gave him time to rest. Crouching on the railing of the Susano'o one last cannonball to deflect came his way. "Oi Boy, we got one coming in!" It was one of the crewmen of the Susano'o and Kauzu nodded and narrowed his eyes on the incoming sphere. With a broken hand, he decided a palm based strike would be the smarter choice here to avoid further damaging the knuckles more than they were already messed up. "Ignition." Harmless red flames propelling the teen off the railing towards the threat, the front of his body was still enhanced with his Iron Body technique. Reeling both hands back as if he was preparing to shove someone, he gauged the ball's distance, timing was surely key here. With excellent judgement, Kauzu rocketed his hands forward to meet the iron mass with two open hands, the wrist tightly hugging together to make sure the force of the attack was concentrated in the smallest bit of surface area it could be. Like the petals of a flower, the cannonball blossomed open from the center point it was struck at, the ebony petals tearing forward near Kauzu's sides before continuing a small distance and falling in the ocean. Left in his hands was a jagged black cylindrical shape with an ugly point at the end. Descending towards the ocean, he dropped the left over debris of the cannonball and with chakra on his feet landed safely in the ocean, heavily winded. The waves bobbing him up and down steadily, he felt like falling asleep with the rocking of the water's, but made his way back onto the Susano'o this time on the deck sprawled out and exhausted.

"That was a sick display of some incredible taijutsu Kauzu!"

Maou was on the deck of the Susano'o. After seeing that Kauzu made it back to the boat safely, he quickly made his way to the civilians who were on board. He went around making sure none of them had suffered any fatal wounds, and provided first aid to those who had suffered minor injuries. The Susano'o had taken a bit of damage but nothing that would prevent it from reaching its destination.

Mao made his way back out onto the deck, There was one ship remaining, the other two had been destroyed.

"Any word from Zen?"

Asked Maou as the two genin looked out to the remaining ship.

He feared that his metal state would run out soon. Leaping on board of the enemy ship, he surprised the pirates with his juggernaut-like appearance. Coated in steel and armed with several iron spherical weights, Zen would have looked like a real life Terminator were he a foot taller. His eyes fixated on the helmsmen of the group, who was dressed in an attire more luxuirous than the more ragged members of the deck. That must be the captain he spies with his little eye.

A dash towards the wheel was executed, avoiding the slow civilian-level pirates -not like they would have been able to harm him in the first place. With one ball in hand, he released it from his grasp and it made bloody contact with two pirates' heads. Their teeth were knocked right out. Another ball was tossed into the crowd randomly to try to disperse them. Zen hurled one of the partially-shattered balls at the helmsmen, who was knocked right out at impact. His face was also cut up a little bit by the edges from the broken-off surface. With his final ball in hand, he shattered the wheel motor so that the ship cannot be steered. Left sitting at sea and deprived of artillery, there was no longer any way for the pirate ship to fight or fight back.

A dive into the waters was quickly made; Zen swam back up onto the exterior of the Susano'o. Only one side of the cannon balls raged on from ship to the next, and in short the pirate ship sunk. Zen made it back on board, deactivating his metal state. "Looks like we turned things around", he said right before a cannon ball ripped through one of the sails of the ship. There was still one pirate ship left, which was the one which continued to bombard the Susano'o from the north.

"Hold on tight, yer landlubbers! This baby is the pride of Kumogakure's technological might!" the captain declared as he switched on one of the more reserved motor gears for situations like these. It sounded like engines running when a pair of chakra boosters emerged from the stern of the ship. They were propelled by the thrust of the flames, allowing the captain to propel the ship while steering it. He manuevered the Susano'o so that when it stopped, its starboard was adjacent to the last pirate ship's bow, away from the volley of cannonballs.

"We best make mince meat out of them",the captain smiled.