"Sunaribian Bandits" (Playing Hero Quest)

As Kyle had knocked the kunai out of hte hand of one ninja-- one enemy soon took distance away. He made an odd hand sign. "Ninja Art-- Sand Controll!" It was one of the Sand's most known jutsu-- the ability to manipulate sand. In an area like this, it was a fatal jutsu as the very terrain itself would be a weapon.

At that moment, Kyle felt something around his feet. "What?!" he shouted. The sand had ensnared his legs, keeping him from moving.

The bandit sneered as he focused on Kyle, the sand soon creeping up at him. "Don't worry. Its much cooler 10 meters below the surface, kid." he said, about to make another hand sign to pull him under. "Sand Burrial---"

WHOOSH!

Shao swooped in behind him. He used body flicker-- a ninjutsu skill that seemed like instant teleportation. With Byakkugan active, he immediately saw his target. Before his enemy could catch on, SHao delivered a strike to the left under arm and part of the back, targeting something that caught the man off guard.

"Gha!" he gasped, his jutsu stopped as he felt the odd sensation of pressure upon his limbs. Kyle's demise was suddenly haulted as he wasn't pulled under. However, it didn't stop a few of them from throwing kunai.

While kyle blocked with his short sword, the bandit now turned to face Shao. "You little---?!"

But it was too late. Too close to evade, the bandit was right in Shao's line of sight. "Sand style, huh? An annoying jutsu, indeed." Shao spoke, followed by a series of light strikes. The man was stunned as he felt the blow to his chest, shoulder and side, all by sharp jabs of Shao's palms.

"Y-you little shit!" he said as he jumped back and quickly made a one hand sign. "You're scorpion food!" He seemed to try to move the sand, which did and reached up lightly.

Shao just stood still as the sand reached-- however, at when it would touch him, the sand soon crumbled-- returning back to the ground. "What..." the bandit said, baffled. He soon felt it. HIs chakra seemed sluggish-- almost as if it was blocked.

"Shame it can't do much if you don't have the chakra to manipulate it," Shao continued, and soon charged forward. This time he followed up with only two quick jabs of his palms-- and followed with a jump and roundhouse kick!

The kick landed square into the jaw, launching the bandit forward and knocked out on his back into the sand.

With that, the sand that had bound Kyle's legs sagged and crumbled, sliding off of him as if nothing held him anymore. "Haha!" Kyle smiled as he pulled free and quickly recovered.

Now only 2 bandits remained, and Kyle and Shao were now able to act.

"Hurry! Kill them before others arrive!" one of the bandits sneered as they charged forward. One to the left drew another round of Kunai to throw-- while another made hand signs. Shao quickly recognized the sign-- it was a lightning style jutsu.

"Kyle! Get behind me!" SHao warned as he took point and quickly entered his low stance.

"Raiton-- Wave of Inspiration!" The thrown Kunai weapons suddenly flickered with electricity. The thrown weapons now moved fast and likely could still hurt them even if they blocked.

Still, Shao knew what exactly he had to do. He focused his chakra-- this time not without hand signs but with his own body and stance. "Eight Trigrams.... " he breathed, seeing the kunai rush towards him. "Wind Style-- ROTATION!"

Shao's experiment put to work! Releasing Fuuton, he unleashed his rotation move-- expelling chakra with his rotation to deflect the thrown Kunai. However, more important, the wind change in chakra nature literally added to the rotation, kicking up a wicked storm of sand in the process! The wind change in chakra nature mixed with the rotation immediately canceled out the electrified kunai, making it useless against the turbulant windstorm that shao created.

Kyle shouted as the sand whipped around him by Shao's rotation-- and soon ended as he stopped, leaving a perfect speherical imprint on the sand below him. Shao panted, the sudden change in chakra nature exhausting him via his kekkei genkai alone.

"Whoh... Shao..." Kyle said, amazed.

The whip of the air threw the two bandits in disarray-- but it was then that Kyle took action. He took advantage of the wind style Shao created, and threw out a series of Kunai. The bandits saw as they came towards them-- and quickly moved towards eachother, to avoid the strikes.

However Kyle smirked as he tugged something in the air. At first, Shao couldn't see it cause it was so thin-- but it soon glinted in the light of the sun. Wire.

He had tied the wire to the kunai-- and were now tied between them. "Gotcha!" he said with glee.

The glint of wire soon criss-crossed along the space around the bandits. Before they knew it, the wire cut into their forms-- and the kunai spun around. The momentum of the catch of the two bodies caused the kunai to swing around them-- easily tying them up in Kyle's trap. The wire painfully cut against their body, but also bound them together and caused them to fall to the ground in a bodily mess.

"Kehe!" Kyle snickered as he raised a thumb up in a self congradulation. "Told you I'm a badass!"

"Uh-huh," Shao said, not completely convinced as he assessed the situation. The other bandits were now stunned and unconscious, counting also the two Kyle had successfully tied up. "Let's just secure the other bandits and check in on Mari, alright. You can pat yourself on the back later." he said as he eased up and went to take care of them.

Kyle just smirked as he followed Shao. "Of course. What you afraid I am gonna try to impress Mari?" he teased.

"Knock it off..." Shao said, turning away so that Kyle couldn't see him blush.

Within a couple minutes, Shao and Kyle had tied up the rest of the bandits, and removed any of their ninja tools they could use to escape. Thankfully, Kyle's knotwork was stronger than most. Despite his flaws, he was a skilled ninja-- though Shao would never say it or the praise would go to his head. Once they were secure, they were content enough to go and check the others. "Kyle," Shao said, "Could you stay here and keep an eye on them. I'm gonna check on Mari and the captives."

"Sure," Kyle said, "But don't you go taking all the credit, you hear me?" he boasted.

Shao didn't honor the request with a reply and just walked off to the dune where their third teammate was. As he soon reached the dune, he walked around to see Mari and the three traders. Two of them were drinking deeply from water bottles, while Mari attended to the third. She had her hand to his forehead-- the glow of her medical ninjutsu easing the man's headwound.

"Mari," Shao called out, and slid down the dune to meet them. "Is everyone okay?"

She turned to Shao and smiled gently. "Everyone is okay. Just a minor concussion on this one here when the bandits attacked. The worst of it was some dehydration as the bandits left them tied up. Other than that, everyone is going to be just fine."

Shao smiled. He felt at ease knowing Mari was their medical ninja in the field. Even though he had not needed treatment of yet, he had seen her work and it always looked impressive.

"I'm glad," Shao said as he looked around. "The wagon is trashed though... we are gonna need reinforcements to take the bandits in and to handle the cargo."

"Don't worry,"Mari said as she lowered her hand, done with her first aid. "I already sent a messenger pigon to Yasha sensei, so he should be sending assistance any time now."

"That's great. THanks Mari," Shao said, smiling at her.

By that time, Mari rose from her position as the man with the head injury came about. "Y-you're from the hidden leaf?" He asked, observing the headbands Mari and Shao wore.

"Yes, we are. Well technically, we are under the employment of the sand to help them out," Shao corrected, suspecting where this was going.

"I see..." the older man said, "Well, Leaf or Sand... it matters little. You have our thanks, younglings." he said softly.

"Please rest, sir," Mari said and took out another cantine. "Drink this. You were out in the sun too long."

As the man replenished his energy with Mari's water, the young woman looked up, puzzled. "By the way, where is Kyle?"

Shao rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I feel its like asking where is Waldo..." Shao sighed, remembering the old story book. He climbed back up the dune and pointed. "He is over there. "

Curious herself, Mari rose up and joined Shao to see Kyle as he stood to watch over the bandits.

"Bahahah!" Kyle laughed aloud. THe bandits had already been roused away after being unconscious and now glared daggers at Kyle. "You poor saps, you didn't stand a chance! Guess third-rate losers like you couldn't hold a candle to real Shinobi. I single-handedly took you down without breaking a sweat!"

"You little punk!" One of the tied up bandits snarled, "You didn't take us down it was that---" OOmph!

Kyle's foot landed right on his face, silencing him effectively. "Heh, excuses from the weak. You got trashed so face your disgrace like a man. Making me look smile so you can feel bigger by comparison, is something you won't get away with from me. HAHAHA!" Kyle's annoying laughter echoed in the dunes.

Both Shao and Kyle looked on blankly, embarassed by his behavior even in front of the bandits. Shao let out a long breath and turned to Mari. "He would make a great career as an interrigator. His boasting is worse than any torture," he commented.

A short bit of air escaped Mari as she struggled to contain her laughter. Her body shook with the amusement as they stood guard, and waited for reinforcements to arrive.

They didn't have to wait long as soon Yasha arrived, with the sand ninja in toe. They greeted squad three, impressed by their achivement.

(End of Quest)