The Intern Pt. 2 (Rescue Group Plot w/ Keiji)

Senkou simply nodded his head at Keiji’s agreement with his espoused philosophy. They could chat over some tea about this, but now it was time to focus on the mission. He watched Keiji climb up a nearby water tower with the assistance of a propelled rope. Higher vantage point, but easier to be spotted against the outline of the tower by the sun. Fortunately the people that they were looking for would be too busy dealing with the activities right in front of them to worry too much about what was going on above them.

Senkou scanned what he could see of the warehouse district. There were a couple of quiet spots, a few people here and there moving through the narrow alleys between structures. Becoming a hunter-nin would be a good step towards his own goals though he didn’t include becoming one as part of the plan for those goals. They had access to information, organizational elements, and a reliable reputation, except for the one Kaguya that he learned about from one Ami Hyuuga. Perhaps Keiji was out here not only for this mission but also as part of the search for the rogue Kaguya.

His persistent scan finally caught a glimpse of what he was looking for. A group of men carrying crates out of a warehouse that had a couple of squads of armed individuals stationed around the building. Not enough discipline to be soldiers, no real uniform between them, and too many of them were smoking. Plenty of signs that these were gangsters. Senkou whistled to Keiji and pointed to what he saw. He would follow the lead of the hunter nin on how to engage, Senkou’s mind went to analyzing his own approach as he waited to see what Keiji would do.

Scanning the area for signs of their targets he had narrowed in on a warehouse a small distance down the way from them, that had men gathered around it in numbers. They were smoking and armed, and seemed suspicious to their core. Deciding that they must be their targets, he would begin to move, but was stopped by Senkou's whistling and pointing, only further confirming his suspicion. Nodding to his partner he would stop moving and would instead begin staring intently at the warehouse looking for all possible entry points and trying to discern the pattern of the guards meandering about the place.

It seemed they moved in pairs of four and did a standard twenty meter rotation every five minutes, patrolling their assigned areas diligently despite that they were seemingly joking and chatting with each other and seemed less then diligent or focused. Keiji knew better though, rouges simply acted one way but reacted another usually quite counter from their outer appearance. He had no doubt that each and everyone of the men inhabiting the grounds and warehouse proper were hardcore killers or had the capability to do so. Having waited five ten minutes to ascertain everything he had he would use the ninja silent hand signs to signal to Senkou that he had made his decision.

Moving next to his comrade he would begin pointing towards the far left side of the warehouse's roof, he would motion towards a flat section that had what seemed to be a door leading inside and no signs of activity, making it a favorable entry point. Pointing then a second a time towards a section of the warehouse that led out to the riverway behind it, it seemed that a lower section of the warehouse could access the lower causeway, which meant it would be a great exfiltration point for them as well. speaking low, "Lets get in through the roof top and find some weak points on the inside shall we? Meet up down there if we get separated and or as our extraction point.", he would flash him a fat stack of explosive notes and wink at his new comrade to show his intention clearly.

Decisions were apparently made. Senkou caught the hand signs from Keiji and quietly made his way to him, staying low so as to avoid being silhouetted by the sky over the rooftop. That decision was apparently to blow up or otherwise demolish the warehouse. It seemed to Senkou that there was plenty of demolishing going on around Baulder and that they didn’t need to add to the ongoing state of chaos.

In an attempt to maybe renegotiate the use of explosives in this manner, Senkou reasoned out loud, “Perhaps it is more to our advantage and to a continued relationship with this village that we leave the warehouse intact and instead focus on the criminal personnel. The river is an excellent place to essentially drive the gangsters into. Nothing like a cold swim flavored with surprise and terror to instill a long lasting sense of fear. Between the two of us, I’m sure we have enough munitions to sow chaos among them so that they can’t bring their full numbers and capabilities to bear in any meaningful manner, but I ultimately leave the decision to you.”

Senkou himself was more interested in discovering who was the boss of these gangsters. There had to be quite a thriving criminal element in this village for there to be so many and operating together under a single banner. Which leads to interesting questions, like why and what are they doing that makes this such a valuable place to congregate in? If this was sort of a hub for a more region wide network it would behoove them to try to understand the full extent of criminal activity here in Baulder.

Senkou added as an afterthought, “Taking a hostage to interrogate would provide some information at least on their local activities and mayhaps direct us to our next target.”

He listened and watched Senkou as he spoke, wishing he could see his face so as to see his expressions when he talked and gauge his positioning better, but perhaps that was the point of how Senkou operated. Answering him softly he would nod first, "Limited explosions, got it. We can definently try and capture one and perhaps... take them all through the causeway at the same time. If you like... after we infiltrate the building, you can run ahead towards the river access point and setup a trap zone, and I can try and lure them all in towards it? Play a boisterous fool, only to lead them all to their deaths. Take these, I trust you will figure out what to use them for if you even decide too. I will get there attention using just one of them...", he would hand 4 out of 5 explosive notes to Senkou as he pocketed the last one back in one of his pouches.

Reaching for one of his hip quivers he would withdraw and arrow and then attach some thick spooled threading to its end. Withdrawing his bow he would knock the arrow and draw it backwards until the tension hit maximum as he took aim at the roof lip just above the rooftop access door he had pointed out earlier. Looking over to Sen, he would wink before reassessing that his aim hadnt shifted. Inhaling deeply he would fire the arrow true and straight into its target, the threading traveling with it as it latched itself into its target, and a large zip line was now created for them. Taking a piton from his pack he would cut the other end from one of the two spots he had engaged right now, and pinned it into the framing of the water tower. The sun was beginning to set it seemed, as the sky became a blaze with orange hues slowly. Looking over to Senkou he would speak again, "We can use this to get in, and then carry through with the distraction/trap plan? Be careful not to touch my wire directly though, it will slice those that are not myself...", it was made from his own hair and curated in the special technique of the clan proper and as such was highly durable with a steel like quality.

Funneling the gangsters through the warehouse into a trap by the causeway was an excellent idea. Using the contrasting lights at the entrance coupled with a flash bang triggered over head of the crowd should ensure a group panic resembling a stampede out into the open of the causeway where the gangsters would then face the choice of a stack of explosive notes or the cold river. Throw in a pepper bomb and they would be completely incapable of providing any hostile reaction to the two shinobi.

Senkou took the explosive notes offered to him, “The adjustment is sound. Push them through the warehouse and out the side to the river. I will airburst one of my flash bangs to get them run head long out into the open by the river where they will then hit by one of my pepper bombs, with all their senses but touch thoroughly disorientated they should pose no problem to us, capture whoever looks important among them, push the rest into the river, maybe a few die. Thanks for the explosive notes.”

With that Senkou attached one of his carabiners that was tied to his own wire to the zipline that Keiji had so kindly provided and with a quick run and jump establishing forward momentum down the line and quickly landed in a roll that ended in a crouch right at the rooftop entrance into the warehouse. Creating a fine and modular layer of chakra on his hands and feet, Senkou would crawl like a spider along the inside of the roof, the dark shadows at this height would ensure he would remain undiscovered by the gangsters within the warehouse who were quickly gathering up crates and putting them onto wagons which looked to be half full at this point.

Finally settling to a prone position behind a large crate stack that was close to the entrance to the causeway, Senkou was quite pleased with the work he had done in the ceiling. He had set up a one long pulley system which had the four explosive notes attached to kunai which were tied to wire, the four kunai would be lined up directly above a single wagon for each of them, following the wire there was one of his signature flash bombs situated directly above the opening to the river. When Senkou would let go of the wire, the kunai would fall in a layered fashion forcing people to move away and towards the opening to the causeway following the path that Keiji would take through the warehouse. The coup de grace would be the flash bomb at the end of the line and then Senkou would throw his pepper bomb at the crowd as some of them would no doubt turn around at the sound of the flash bang going off. Senkou was a master of urban warfare and thoroughly enjoyed his work.

With the agreement from Senkou and the taking if the tags, Keiji smirked slightly as he was about to have some fun it seemed. Attaching more spooling to another arrow he would fire a second anchoring shot above the main entrance to the warehouse before he latched it to the towers frame again. It would be wise to go in and go loud as far away from Senkous infiltration zone as possible after all.

Once Sen had gotten over smoothly and safely to the other side he would loop both of his threaded whips around the second zip line so that he could have free use of his arms. Getting a running start he would leap off the tower and begin sliding down the zipline towards the main entrance to the warehouse - its loading dock door still raised high into the rafters. As he slid down he would knock another arrow with an explosive tag on it this time and fire it off towards the front entrance to the warehouses courtyard, a stone gate like structure. The arrow would careen through the air and plant itself firmly in the top archway of the gate before it exploded violently and collapsed it into a pile of rubble, effectively alerting everyone inside that trouble was a foot, as well as sealing off ease of access to reinforcements. Beginning to draw attention his way he would fire three more arrows into guards at the various staging areas outside to draw their attention towards him as he reached the apex of the zipline.

The loading dock doors were only ten meters from him now as he untethered and sheathed his bow, gliding down in a front rolling motion towards the ground and into the building. His tethers would implant into two nearby wagons to slow his fall as he rolled forward and sprung upwards into a standing position. Drawing out his Mari-blade he would hold it a lot in his hand before attaching one of the tethers to it and begging to swing it around himself like a rope dart. Taking several pot shots he would purposefully miss some of his strikes and hit non vital areas with others so as to egg on the increasing force that had gathered around him. Once sure it was most of the personal, he would perform a wide arcing slash behind himself by swinging the blade backwards and mentally controlling the tendrils from his hair that were attached to its hilt.

The wide sweeping arc would create a hole in the group of men behind him that he immediately used to bolt backwards through and towards the entrance to the cause way, waiting until the last possible second to fire one of his threaded whips upwards and swing himself free and clear of whatever Senkou had planned for the horde hot on his trail. Pulling himself skyward he would do so in such a way that he could land behind the group and cut off a retreat back inside of the building.

Senkou paid extremely close attention to the rate of pace that Keiji was leading the group of gangsters that were hot on his trail through the warehouse. Just as the edge of the group was about to clear the first part of Senkou’s trap, he released the wire that he was holding. One explosive tag went off and the effect was like watching a herd of sheep hear the baying of a pack of wolves. The back end of the group chasing Keiji sped up as they could see the outlet that led out to potential safety. The second one detonated a couple of seconds later, now the back and middle part of the group were starting to trample each other and the edge of the frontrunners felt the hot breaths and screams from those behind them adding speed to their chase turned flight out into the open. Who they were chasing no longer really mattered.

The third one exploded and now it was almost just a long horizontal line of men trying to get out and instead simply impeded the progress of the person next to them like rats fleeing a sinking ship, there was no consideration other than their own survival. Senkou was pretty sure they did more damage to each other than any of his explosive tags did. The finale came as most of the mid and front sections of the mob that was chasing Keiji managed to free themselves out into the causeway and turned around to see what the aftermath of the explosions they had heard was. It was at that moment that the flash bang tumbled into view and air bursted causing immediate blindness and deafness that faded into a loud ringing in the ears and a massive collection of black spots in their eyes. This last one pushed the end of the mob past their limits and they took the rest of the mob with them into the river itself.

Senkou surveyed the carnage that was caused by the trampling of panicked gangsters and began to walk through them seeing if any of them were valuable enough to question, maybe Keiji fished out a couple for interrogation as well. His gaze caught the sight of something black pillowing into the sky, his explosions were very localized and didn’t produce much smoke at all, so clearly this came from a different source.

Senkou jumped on top of the roof of the warehouse again and immediately saw that massive amount of fires that seemingly had just started in the past few minutes, he whistled for Keiji as he was sure that Keiji had also noticed these if he could see the skyline. The interrogation would have to be postponed. Evacuation had become of paramount importance.