Naruto Saigen Roleplay

It had been a long week of work for ninja's in Konoha. All ranks were being pulled for emergency flood precautions. A great storm was said to be moving across the way and Konoha was in a rush to get prepared. Everyone was in a panic, well everyone who wasn't a ninja. Ninja's were completely exhausted with their constant need by the village for emergency weather assemblies. It was hard to catch a break during storm season in Konoha.

After a week of waiting the day of the rain had finally come. The air pressure turned the air stale like a bruise turns black and blue. Everyone could feel it and mysteriously the panicking seemed to calm down. People just worked into the routine they had prepared themselves for, hunkered down with supplies and got to business. The Awai clan had provided emergency flares made by the clan to villagers so they weren't worried about the storms taking out their ability to read.

To some like Shiroyasha that ability to read was essential. Like every other genin in the village this week he had been worked to the bone carrying supplies for villagers, and all he wanted to do was relax with a book. Unlike ninja villagers couldn't seal up their needs to retrieve when they required, so that meant they carried a lot of food and water to the village bunkers and that had kept him away from his cute little romance novel all week. The community worked together though, and ninja were paid well so Shiroyasha couldn't complain and he had finally gotten the chance to read.

On the day of the rain Shiroyasha was in a bunker with ten villagers and another ninja. The ninja was someone Shiro wasn't familiar with but they had been respectful to him so far. He was just serving his duty like they were and Shiroysha kept the pleasantries to a minimum. The villagers were ominously still as they sat around the flare and listened to each other read stories. While they did that Shiro sat in a corner half listening to them and half reading his own novel. He had lit the air around him with a faint Hiton light that enabled him to read, but of course the Nara's eyes were well adjusted to darkness. Sitting in the light Shiroyasha read on.

The bunkers were bigger than they let on. Hurricane bunkers had several aspects to them that were responsive to flood conditions. First, all the bunkers were actually tethered in some way or another. Not all to each other, but often in groups of 4 to 5. The purpose of this was that if (as unbelievable as this eventuality was) the bunkers got swept away, no single bunker was left alone, but instead they'd have larger groups beyond who was in each bunker. This minimized the need to be intentional about who was in each bunker. This also meant that as they were being swept away, there was ample opportunity for one bunker to be caught on something and prevent the rest of continuing on.

Second, the bunkers could not be just holes built into a cliff, building, or wall, but had to be solitary units all on their own. This was for the same reason. If the rainfall was more than grates and fuuinjutsu could handle, and you had people in holes in the ground or wall, they could still drown. This meant, as people climbed down their ladders or up the small stairs into the bunkers, they were actually climbing into individualized units. The shinobi were privy to this information while the civilians were not. In the event the entire bunker was surrounded in water and the ground it was in or on gave way, the bunker would simply float.

And finally, and this was the most important part, the bunker itself had 3 walls. The interior wall, which was the one the various civilians inside of it were surrounded by and could see and touch. Then an exterior wall, which was the one that the dirt was packed against, and the rain would pelt against. And finally, a wall between the two, with enough space between itself and each wall that it was full of air - enough air that it could be buoyant, and that if either wall gave out (either from damage from the interior or exterior) there was still a secondary wall to prevent the air for buoyancy from escaping. This also meant that it was difficult to hear what was happening outside of the bunker because of the insulation.

This information all went through the other shinobi's mind, and all seemed quite pertinent to him as he quietly stood and walked over to Shiro, careful not to disrupt the villagers.

Tapping Shiro on the shoulder he would just whisper very quietly, his voice waivering uncomfortably for a moment.

"Do you hear that scratching on the wall?"

The gravity of what Konoha went through to protect their citizens was impressive. Besides the work that went into creating the bunker system the thought was pure genius. True intelligence had designed the buoyant system and there were countless lives saved by these minds. People who held such a place in design were heroes.

Shiroyasha tried not to think about it too much though. He was lucky to have basic understanding of the complexities and he didn't push it too much further. He knew what role he played in the system, and what that meant for everyone else too; that was enough for him to find peace int he storm. As he read his book he became absorbed in his literature and lost track of what was going on around him. For just a moment the main character took his interests just far enough that he found himself immersed in what his imagination was bringing forth. Shiroyasha was truly happy for just a moment.

That was when the ninja who was stationed with Shiroyasha tapped on his shoulder. Shiro was not paying attention and was shocked by the feeling of a finger on his shoulder. He set his book down and with a disgruntled look on his face he put up a single hand seal. The gaseous light around him intensified. Both Shiro and the ninja could feel the heat of the Hiton energy radiating off the light. Shiroyasha was annoyed, but not personally. He just wanted to take a moment longer to be in his own world and being disturbed truly rubbed him the wrong way.

"Whatcha mean, like a rat?" Shiroyasha hadn't noticed any signs of rats in the bunkers. He had even spent the whole day before going over various fuuinjutsu placements for in case water breaks. Shiroyasha sighed in the ninja's face and squinted his eyes to see around the room they were in.

The heated, literally, response from Shiro surprised the other shinobi, who sort of stumbled on his feet without actually moving backwards as Shiro acknowledged him. As Shiro looked at him, he'd realize the ninja eyes weren't actually on Shiro but were instead darting around the room trying to penetrate any nook or cranny to see if there was something.

A rat?

He stammered for a moment and then rubbed his face, "Yeah..! Yeah! A rat. Yeah, thats probably all there is. Maybe in one of the food crates. Ah, thats not good but its probably just a rat. Lets keep our voices down on it, no need to worry the others.", he gave a frail smile, thoroughly unconvincing, and then backed away from Shiro.

If Shiro listened closely, he'd hear that the shinobi was talking about. It seemed the boy expected as much from Shiro because as he slowly sulked back he'd look over his shoulder at Shiro to see if the Awai was listening for the sound now. They were in charge of protecting these people after all, and a rat could have rabies or something.

A short amount of time would pass, Shiro's counterpart had returned to his seat, shifting in it uncomfortably as he listened for the sound. The scratching sound was not constant, but would instead come in seemingly random intervals, gong on for a short amount of time before resuming. Suddenly, there would be a loud thud that would cause everyone to jump in place, and the shinobi would quickly stand, "Uh! Uh! Don't worry folks, probably just some of the rain, not a big deal!", he'd attempt to calm them. With murmurs they'd settle and resume talking among themselves, but he would rush over to Shiro again, "A rat??", he asked again.

Shiro realized it wasn't a rat as he looked around, but he couldn't find a leak from where he was sitting. As he came to grips with the reality of what he was being told Shiroyasha focused his senses on his hears. Tik. Tik... tik. It was pretty loud once he realized it was there. Shiroyasha instantly felt panic. He was really hoping this storm would be light, he just wanted to read but it seemed that action would present itself.

Suddenly there was a loud bang and Shiroyasha jumped ot his feet. He was surprised but not put out of place. He let his book fall from his lap to the ground. "Okay everyone get ready to evacuate to the next bunker." Shiroyasha was going to have to take the lead. He felt good about it too. He liked being in charge, though he wasn't particularly thrilled with the situation. Shiroyasha was a fighter, a life saver in one way but he lacked an arsenal of ninjutsu to combat the flood. The best he could do was seal up the room once they were evacuated.

Looking over to the other ninja Shiroyasha paused for a second. His brain took a jump start to come to it but he remembered the shinobi's name, "Mako. Help me get these people out of the room. Get your list, do a count. Get them down this hallway, I'm going to seal this room off." Shiroyasha pointed to the door, giving the ninja a sense of urgency; though it was obvious it wasn't needed. Mako had noticed the water first and was definitely more on edge than Shiroyasha was. The Nara was ready for this. He was prepared at least, ready was pushing it. Shiroyasha was ready to read a good book, but he was definitely not going to be doing that tonight.

It seemed Shiro was ready to listen now, and Mako gave a hesitant nod as Shiro gave order. Okay, get everyone out. Was that safe? Well, Shiro was calling the shots, Mako was not one to question, so he would do as his compatriot was instructing. Moving over to the civilians, Mako would hurry them to their feet. Each civilian had been given a small passphrase to confirm their identity, and then each shinobi assigned to each bunker was given a list of pass phrases for their people. If Mako was a wiser man, he'd think this excessive, but who was he to question the expertise of evacuation experts in Konohagakure.

Among the many brilliances of the bunkers was their door sealing mechanisms. See, with triple walled bunkers, sealing them was not easy mechanically. But every bunker had shinobi, and every shinobi could perform kai, so you could simply seal with fuuinjutsu instead. Each fuuin was attuned to one of the two shinobi assigned to the bunker, and if each performed kai, the bunker would open.

"Can you unseal yours and I'll do mine when I finish the count.", Mako would ask to Shiro quickly, before turning his attention back to the people he was counting.

However, now both were aware of the increasingly frequent scratches coming from the wall around them.

Time was counting down. The scratching at the walls was getting more and more frequent. On top of that it was getting louder as the water rushed between the first wall and into the barrier of the bunker. Shiroyasha felt a certain dread wash over him like the rain outside. He had faced ninja in battle, cleaned the dirtiest houses in Konoha, and even taken a beating from his mom on more than one occasion; but natural disasters were a real drag. Shiroyasha knew what to do, and his ninja instincts led the battle for him but damn if he wasn't under some stress. He knew if they sealed off this room though they would be safe. For a awhile at least.

The racket in the walls was growing louder and Mako had begun the count. It was improtant to account for heads now, that way bodies could be found later. Shiroyasha didn't like the idea but overlooked the face of reality that was so in his space. He walked over to where the seal was placed. It was next to the door the group would be exiting from. On the wall was a large parchment of a scroll. Shiroyasha stood before it and held his hands together ina hand sign. He channeled his chakra and released a portion of the seal. Fuuin marks traveled halfway across the room. With the other half released the seal would fortify the room and seal off all air flow to protect buoyancy. Unfortunately with these seals in place the room would be inhospitable which meant everyone would need to travel down the dark halls to the next bunker.

As Shiroyasha finished his half of the sealing a loud crash came from the westward wall. Time was ticking.

Mako gave an affirmative nod to the last person and then made a sort of hurried walk over to Shiro. Shiro seemed to feel the issue was pressing now, but Mako who was easily more frightened was also unconvinced. "What do you think all the sound is?", he would ask. Mako's question seemed unusual, was it not water? Why would he ask such a thing. Regardless, he didn't wait for an answer, but instead replicated what Shiro did and performed kai, activating his fuuin. Just as Shiro's had, the etchings of the seal would spread and signal they had been successful, and with a light tap, Mako would push the door to open.

...and then he'd tap again, this time pressing a little harder.

.....

...and then he'd tap again, this time pressing his shoulder against it.

....

....

...and then he'd push again, this time putting his back against it and pushing with his whole body.

"Hey...hey Shiro. Hey...", his entire face was white as he looked to his partner. He'd lower his voice, trying not to let the 10 civilians that were mere feet away watching them hear him.

"I think the door is jammed."

The boys had made a crucial error. They were supposed to take the scrolls into the next room and channel their Kai from there. Having perfored the jutsu inside of the room they were officially locked in. While that was horrible and treacherous from the twelve of them, the fact that water was breaching the outer walls was even worse; and to top it all off the room now had a limited air supply. Shiroyasha felt stupid as hell and his face turned pitch white. He watched Mako bang on the door and in his mind it wsa replaying over and over.

They had made a rookie mistake, and one that could cost villagers their lives. Shiroyasha was welling up with a horrible emotion inside of him. He felt guilt. He felt like he was the one to blame for putting these peoples lives in jeopardy. Shiroyasha couldn't believe the gigantic error he had made. He stood there for a second in awe by his stupidity.

Eventually Shiroyasha came to and grabbed Mako by the shoulder. He pulled him in real close and whispered to him, "Undo your portion of the seal, take the scroll and get everyone out of here. Before we all die from asphyxiation." Shiroyasha had sweat on his brow and his hand wsa gripping Mako tightly. He was totally at a loss for himself. Usually the Nara was more dedicated to his work. He wondered if he needed to put down the reading and focus on real life duties while he walked over to the wall and removed his scroll. When the scroll was moved the seal broke and another crash came from inside the walls.

Shiro didn't even wait for Mako to evacuate everyone, he simply walked out. While he crossed the threshhold to the hallway Shiroyasha head a big crash from inside the room he had just left. Apathetically he put the scroll on the ground and released it again with another kai and fuuin seals traveled from the ground around the scroll towards the room where the seal was placed. Shiroyasha was opraying for MAko to hurry up so he could be done with this room.

Shiro seemed just as thrown about the whole matter as Mako was, and he had grabbed onto Mako's arm and was squeezing it pretty tightly, "H-hey, get off of me.", he chortled, attempting (and failing) to yank his arm around from Shiro until he finally released. The nara boy gave instruction, though, and Mako gave a concerned nod, doing as he was told. He unsealed and stepped out of the room into the hallway, directing the civilians to follow him as he did so. The civilians slowly started their way out of the room, murmurs coming from them reflecting their confusion and concern, could these two genin in charge of them be trusted?

As the finally person stepped out and circled up behind the two genin, Mako would press his scroll against the fuuin and allow for it to begin to seal, turnin to Shiro with a small smile of relief on his face.

"Boy, I'm sure glad you figure that out...I was star-"

"Hey! What are you lot doing! GET inside your bunker! We've got a breach!"

A shout came from down the hall, an older shinobi, clearly a special jounin if not a jounin, was rushing down towards them, and he did not look or sound happy.

"You're endangering these civilians! Get them back in there NOW!", he shouted.

Busted. Someone had come behind them and even worse than just being told that they were doing something wrong; the senior told them there was a breach somewhere else. Shiroyasha wondered if that was what they had heard, or if maybe another breach was occuring. The genin turned around and gave a salute. He looked particularly attentive, as if he had been caught sluffing off or something. Shiroyasha felt like he was in a bad dream or something. Everything was going wrong and he had to seriously explain himself before he got in serious trouble. Endangering the lvies of civilians was a serious chage he didn't want on his permanent record.

Shiroyasha spoke quietly as to not disturb the people who were now floating around the hallway waiting for instruction on where to go next. "Sir. We suspect a breach in this room too. We were evacuating these civillians to the next bunker. We activated the Lock and Block Seal." Shiroyasha stood there staring at the senior. He was nervous that he did something wrong.

One of Shiro's famous moves was following his gut instinct and being wrong. He sure hoped this wasn't one such case.

Mako gave a look to Shiro as if he was a child being scolded (which, well, was what was happening if you really thought about it.) But, he was just following Shiro's orders, and it seemed like they had been doing the right thing, so why were they in trouble now? Shiro had an answer though. He would mimc Shiro's salute, and then give a confirmatory nod as Shiro tried to explain, it was clear despite his poor performance so far, MAko was trying to show support and confidence in the decisions they had made so far.

The jounin that arrived listened to what Shiro had to say and then smiled lightly, giving an approving nod. "Good call kid.", he moved over to the seal the duo had activated and performed his own seal, the intricate design spreading over the entire bunker after having done so. "Yep, seems there was a faulty seal on this one and the whole thing was giving in.", more concerned murmurs from the civilians that were clearly eavesdropping on this private shinobi conversation.

Pulling out a small book, the jounin would flip through it. Mako would notice the rather casual attitude the jounin now had, as if meres seconds ago he hadn't been shouting at them for endangering people. Wasn't this lacksadasical approach endangering people!? He was clearly getting impatient, shifting on his feet as if he had to pee. "Alright, go down to bunker 49582, 5 halls down, take a right, 2 halls, first on the left. It'll be unoccupied and should be good to go.", he instructed.

"Got it! Lets get out of here.", Mako was quick to turn, clearly just as afraid as the civilians that they were all about to drown. Moving over towards them, he would hurry them along in the direction the jounin had just told them, but as he did he'd look over his shoulder and smile,

"Hey, good job Shiro.

Shiroyasha stood at attention while the jounin instructed him. He quickly memorized the path he and Mako would take the civillians through. Shiroyasha had an excellent memory. Shiroyasha returned the gesture as the jounin gave him a salute, then Mako and walked off.

Shiroyasha was proud of himself for acting as he did. His quick thinking saved the day, but in truth Mako was the one who had spotted the problem. Had Shiro just been reading and eavesdropping on the civilians he might not have heard the tapping. When Mako instructed the civilians to proceed Shiro gave them a thumbs up and smiled. It was fake, he was a bit worried about the storm but he didn't want to give the people that impression.

Turning to Mako Shiro gave him a real thumbs up. He was grateful for the shinobi's good sense of hearing, and even though they had messed up a bit they worked good as a team. Shiroyasha replied to Mako, "You did great back there too bub." Shiroaysha turned to lead the group and gestured for Mako to follow him. He suddenly realized somewhere he had lost his book.

"Guess I won't finish that chapter." Shiroyasha thought to himself and sighed. The people were walking fast and the group was making their way to safety. It would be another four days of rain but they would survive in the bunker.