Chapter 20: Ryouta's Plan

" Now, since the bandits will be coming through the north area, through the forest. This will be to our advantage. The forest terrain would make it difficult from them to move through, so we must lure them into going through the forest. However, there might be a chance that they would by-pass the forest, but if they plan to raid this village in about 40 hours time, they can't circle around too much the forest to flank us on the other sides," Ryouta said as they were all gather in their base.

The base was merely a makeshift one they decided upon setting up in a rather empty hut in the middle of the village. This would be the place they would gather and discuss stuff, or their main command center, so to speak.

" Go on," Sora mused.

" The only way they can flank us and avoid raiding the village with the least amount of trouble would be to head west before heading south," Ryouta said, pointing his finger on the map. " Going east would be troublesome, since they would have to bypass this cliff face, and it would take too long. We can assume that they are raiding this village because they are running out of supplies, and thus, a farming village is targeted to raid for food stores."

" There isn't much food stores here, from what we have seen," Hiroshi commented.

" Isn't much, but there still is," Ryouta replied. Hiroshi merely shrugged his shoulders.

" This is what we will do. We will set up traps along the west side forest, not subtle ones, but obvious ones. If possible, we will herd them towards us, avoiding them from taking the west side here they can flank us from the highway. Coming down from the south would be too much trouble for them, as they can't travel at our speed, so we don't need to worry about the rear. Now, let's start this."

" Makoto, I need you to use your widest sonic range. I want you to give as much detail as you can about possible routes that the bandits will be using through the forest, and which path they will be taking. Map out a detail area, so we can estimate where they will approach us. Setting traps will be left to us, since you can't…well, see," Ryouta replied.

" Got it," Makoto answered.

" Sora, you will be printing explosive tags," Ryouta replied.

" What the hell?"

" These," Ryouta said, pulling out an explosive tag from his shinobi pack. " This is a fake. I want you to scrounge up as much paper and ink you can find in this village, and make as many fake copies as you can. There is no blatant need for detail. Bandits know what an explosive tag is, but they don't really know how the details about it."

Sora pouted and merely grunted.

" The rest of us will head off westward to set up some traps to lure them to attack on this side," Ryouta replied, standing up. " Alright, let's go people!"

Ryouta, Hiroshi, Suzumi and Hibiki all headed out towards the village, going into the forest and heading west. Ryouta wanted to make a rough estimate on where they were limited to go up to. It didn't take them long.

---

Not too far away, just about a kilometer, was a wide river which was flowing pretty rapidly. Hiroshi stood at the edge, watching the rapid flow of water rushing down the river. Ryouta took out a map and gave a look.
" By any luck, they shouldn't be crossing this river, so this is as far as they will travel to enter the village. If they were heading for a wide range of attack, this will be their range. What do you think about it, Hiroshi, Hibiki?" Ryouta asked.

" Eh? What, me?" Hiroshi asked, surprised Ryouta was consulting him.

" Both of you are much more adapt at using traps, especially Hiroshi. How do you think we should deploy ours traps?" Ryouta replied, grinning at both of them.

Hibiki and Hiroshi looked at each other, not too sure what to say. There was an awkward silence for a while, but Hibiki took a deep breath and broke it after a while.

" You know, I was thinking we should just allow them to come in from the west side, if they take this route, that is," he replied.

" Why is that?" Ryouta asked curiously.

" An extra kilometer trek in the jungle will wear them off significantly, and will be an added advantage up us. To ease the trouble of them entering, we will set up more explosive traps on the west side as a deterrent. If they are stupid enough to enter from this side, then they are stupid enough to get blown to bits. We will forgo using other explosive notes in other areas and focus them on the west side. After all, the forest can do with traps that don't involve explosive notes," Hibiki answered.

" Good point…do you have anything to add, Hiroshi?" Ryouta asked.

" Um…well, we should set some traps up here anyway, not much as a deterrent but more to lure them towards the east side…I mean, north side of the village. It shouldn't take too long…hmm…" Hiroshi mused.

" What is it?" Suzumi asked.

" Is it just me, or do you all think that it will rain tomorrow, or the day after?" Hiroshi asked.

All four genins looked skywards into the sky. There were a number of clouds in the sky, but nothing really significant to show that it would rain tomorrow. Being in a forest area made it much more prone to raining. Ryouta took a sniff in the air, trying to test the humidity of the place.

" Would it make a difference whether it rains or not?" Suzumi asked.

" Definitely. Explosive tags work better when they are dry," Hibiki answered.

" If so, then setting the explosive tags over an open area, since the highway side is pretty open without cover will render the explosive tags 50 percent useless…at least," Hiroshi replied.

" How do we deal with that?" Suzumi asked.

" Well, I guess we could set them underneath the ground," Hiroshi replied.

" Underground?"

" Something like a landmine," Hiroshi replied.

" How would we set that off? It will be difficult to trigger it of when the bandits arrive in the vicinity," Hibiki replied.

" We trigger it manually," Hiroshi replied. Hibiki merely shrugged.

" Very well, we'll ignore this area for the moment and leave Hiroshi to deal with it later. We'll go with Hibki's suggestion on letting them through this area for the moment. Now, go about and mark down the entire area so we can map out a reference in where they can approach us," Ryouta replied.

---

" Looks like their back," Makoto replied. Sora turned around to see them return into the hut they were in. The rest of them spotted Sora on the floor with rectangular pieces of paper sprawled all over the place, a paintbrush in her hands and several ink bottles around here. She had been making some good progress with the fake explosive tags she was working on.

" Looks like you were pretty busy while we were gone," Ryouta commented.

" Hell yes! You better have a damn good reason for this," Sora demanded.

" Of course I do. We need to keep them off the south side, and these fake explosive traps will do the trick. We'll obviously stick them on the south side of the village, and we'll leave it up to them to decided whether or not they are fake or not," Ryouta replied. " Right, for a new set of things to do: Hiroshi, I need you to go north to the forest area and set a number of traps there. This will weaken their forces before they siege the village. I'm going to discuss with Makoto on our defense plan, and I'll check on you later. Pick someone to go along with you. The remaining person can stay and help Sora with the tags. When done, stick them up on the south side of the village."

Hiroshi looked around. He had two choices: Either Suzumi or Hibiki. The choice was pretty obvious.

---

Hiroshi walked into the forest, looking at his surroundings. Carefully observing them, he then took out a scroll from his pack. Unrolling the scroll, he bit his thumb and ran his finger over the scroll. Charging chakra into the scroll, he unsealed all the items inside the scroll. A sizable amount of equipment appeared, from wires to small blades to paint.

" Are we setting up our traps here?" Suzumi asked.

" We sure are. We will be covering a wide area, so let's get to work, shall we?" Hiroshi asked.

" Hmm, wouldn't it be easier to set traps with the others?" Suzumi asked.

" Well, perhaps it's much more convenient for less people to do it. After all, we wouldn't want to trigger the traps ourselves with too many people around the place, won't we?" Hiroshi asked.

" Well, you have a point," Suzumi said.

Hiroshi took up a length of metal wire and hoisted himself up a tree, with the help of his weapon launcher. Reaching the top, he started to string lines around the trees. Suzumi tossed him a small pack when asked, and he caught it deftly when thrown to him. He attached them properly to the tree and then leaped down, dragging one end of the metal wire with him. Between a small path between two trees, he set up a line between two trees, somewhere along ankle length. He opened up a small bottle and taking out some of the brown powder it contain, blew it gently over the wire. Suzumi looked surprised as the wire seem to disappear in front of her eyes.

" Powder mixed with some special pigment. It allows the wire to be much more difficult to see," Hiroshi said, pointing his hand to something apparently invisible. Suzumi could barely see the wire, her sight guided by the fact that there was a slight shadow underneath it. " It's not perfect, but I doubt these bandits of their level will notice it."

" Hmm, you are pretty good," Suzumi praised.

" Gee, it's just setting up a trap," Hiroshi replied.

" Hmph, you make me sound dumb," Suzmi said, pouting.

" Uh…hey, I..er…didn't mean it that way," Hiroshi replied, feeling dumbfounded.

Suzumi started giggling all of a sudden. " I was just joking…" Suzumi said, grinning.

" Uh…yeah…I knew that…" Hiroshi said, scratching his head.

" So, what next?"

---

" So, I believe they will only pass through this areas if they are heading down from the north. It shouldn't be too difficult to handle. We will just focus our attacks on these spots," Makoto said, pointing on a much more detailed map, showing Ryouta areas he had marked out and putting crosses on them " And we will be just fine."

" Yes, I agree on that," Ryouta said, turning around to see Sora and Hibiki return to the hut.

" We are done sticking the fakes on the south side of the village. I'm bored now. Why don't we go check on Hiroshi and Suzumi?" Sora suggested in a bored tone. Ryouta merely sighed.

" Hiroshi is now setting his traps. We are not sure what traps he had set, or how dangerous they could be. Going there now without prior knowledge of the traps he had set might cause problems, since you might set off one of his traps by mistake. Hiroshi excels in this field, don't you remember? He has a pretty crafty mind, and I doubt you can pass all his traps without setting more than half of them off," Ryouta replied.

" Yeah, yeah…I get that," Sora said sarcastically, jumping down on a chair and rocking it back and forth on two legs, obviously displeased with the lack of activity. However, Hiroshi returned shortly, with Suzumi in tow.

" Ah, the rest of you are back. Now, we can discuss our battle plan," Ryouta said.

" I've been waiting for this already," Sora exclaimed, jumping off her chair.

Ryouta spread out the map of the village which Makoto had expertly drawn, giving all the details even they would have missed, which was remarkable for a blind guy who did this while sitting in the middle of a hut, just listening to sound waves all over the place. They got around in a circle, with Hibiki, out of habit, hanging off the ceiling some distance away. Hiroshi felt uncomfortable with this. Hibiki had obviously warmed up to them much more when they had initially arrived, but he still held some reservations against the Leaf genins, which was obvious with his speech and actions, like now.

" Alright, I expect the bandits to hit us from the north side of this village. Our battle plan will be simple…"

" Suzumi, since you are good with genjutsu, we shall use that to our advantage. You will be located in the middle of the forest here, and with your genjutsu abilities, we can catch them by numbers easily, since your genjutsu has a large area of effect. I've marked out this place where you will be located. Sora, I will have to trouble you to keep Suzumi company and to ensure that nothing happens to her, or in other words, you will be guarding her while she does her genjutsu attacks. Got that? When she's done trapping them and upon her signal, you can go in and take the bandits out," Ryouta said.

" I'll do my best…" Suzumi said nodding.

" Sounds like fun," Sora said, cracking her knuckles.

" Makoto and I will be situated in the north of the village, before the forest. Any bandits that come in through the north that Suzumi is unable to capture will be dealt by us. Our ninjutsu combos will wipe them out easily," Ryouta said, looking at Makoto, who merely gave him a grin.

" Hiroshi, Hibiki, I will have to trouble you two in guarding the east side, where the village leads to the highway. I don't expect an attack from this side, but I cannot take any chances. As Hiroshi said, if by any chance it rains tomorrow, we will have to set the explosive notes off manually, so Hiroshi will be much better suited guarding that side. Hibiki will back him up. Any qualms?" Ryouta asked.

" None whatsoever," Hiroshi said, very impressed with Ryouta's leadership abilities and planning. Hibiki merely shrugged, a reply which everyone assumed was an agreement to Ryouta's plan.

" Well, I guess we are done for now…let's go have some fun, shall we?" Ryouta asked, grinning.

---

The next hour was spent trying to work out their dinner, in which they entered the nearby woods to gather food and hunt down animals for dinner. Sora was pretty enthusiastic about the hunt, and pairing up with Hibiki, managed to hunt down a boar, three rabbits, two snakes, three birds and several frogs and lizards. Hiroshi then later complained that if they were that enthusiastic in catching their prey, they should have told him that earlier to save him the trouble of setting up traps to catch their dinner.

With Suzumi's knowledge in herbs, they managed to gather some spices along with some other food they could gather in the forest, like fruits, roots and edible plant components. Gathering everything, they took it back, and as per usual, Hiroshi was the one in-charge of cooking again. They roasted the boar over a large fire, coated with a nice mix of herbs and spices they found, and Hiroshi also managed to cook up a stew of animal meat and plant tubers and stems with whatever animals they could find. Sora and Ryouta was a bit worried when Hiroshi added snake meat into the stew.

" Don't worry, it's perfectly safe. Heck, you can even eat it raw," Hibiki said, holding up one of the snakes he had skinned for Hiroshi. As if to prove a point, he held the head of the snake in one hand and bit upon its neck, and with a rendering tear, ran his teeth along the dead snake's body, ripping off the flesh, spraying blood everywhere as if he were milking a sugarcane stem. The sight of him being bloody all over while eating a raw snake was a bit sickening, but he didn't mind.

Their senseis only joined in when dinner was prepared, and had generous helpings of roasted boar meat and thick stew. There was a delicious aroma that floated around the air all around them, filling up the air with a narcotic smell of sorts.

" Geez, this is the life," Sora sighed contentedly, dropping on the floor after she had finished up what was left of the roasted meat, even sucking the bones dry. Hiroshi, as always, was surprised at her appetite. She could eat a hell of a lot when she wanted to. He wouldn't be surprised if she was one of the very few girls who don't go on diets.

Night dawned upon them, and soon enough, all of them started to feel drowsy, ready to fall asleep.

" What's that?" Ryouta asked.

" A part of a puppet I'm working on," Hiroshi said, holding up the broken arm of a puppet under the bright moonlight to show Ryouta what it was. He was now trying to fix it up with some of the tools he had brought along, adding bolts and nuts together to fix the arm. It had several parts sprawled all over the place.

They heard a loud snore behind them. Sora had joined them once more on their midnight wait, but since she had eaten so much previously, most of her blood was now sent to her gut, depriving her brain of enough oxygen to stay awake. She was fast asleep, snoring loudly on top of the hut where they waited for midnight to pass, an obsession that Ryouta couldn't seem to put down and something that puzzled Hiroshi all the time.

" Well, what can you do with it?" Ryouta asked.

As a reply, Hiroshi attached several chakra strings to the puppet arm. He then levitated it several feet in the air, the chakra lines burning blue with his chakra to hold the thing in place. Flicking several fingers, he made the arm detach some of its fingers, which broke up into smaller parts, all floating in the air, connected by chakra lines. He wiggled his hands, and the joints all floated all around in the air.

" Making progress, are we?" Hibiki asked.

" Hey, when did you come up?" Hiroshi exclaimed, turning around to see Hibiki right behind him.

" About two minutes ago," Ryouta answered.

" And you didn't tell me?"

" I figured you already knew,"

" Hmph, call yourself a shinobi. You can't even sense my presence, how would you sense the presence of the enemy, eh?" Hibiki asked, smirking.

" Now, now, your 'windwalking' abilities don't make it easy for people to detect you. After all, that's what it basically wants to achieve. If Hiroshi can detect you so easily while you use that skill, I'd say you are pretty weak, don't you agree?" Makoto asked, stepping up behind him, closely followed by Suzumi, who stood behind them, wrapped in her blanket.

" ..Somehow, I feel insulted in some way…" Hiroshi mused.

" Don't take it that way…" Makoto said, laughing heartily. " Besides, what are all three of you doing out here so late on top of the hut?"

" Waiting for midnight," Ryouta answered.

" Eh?" Suzumi replied.

" Please don't mind Ryouta, but this is an obsession of his where he would like to wait for midnight to come, at exactly 12 o'clock. I have no idea why, but he likes waiting for this time. It's like him taking his drug or something," Hiroshi answered. The Sand genins looked at each other curiously, but were unsure what to say.

" How about we join you?" Makoto asked.

" Feel free to. The more, the merrier," Ryouta said, grinning happily, glad to have more company. Sora was still out cold, not aware of the presence of more people. Hibiki purposely sat next to her and prodded her once in a while with the end of his spear.

They all sat down silently on the roof, waiting.

" Um, it's a bit too quiet, don't you all think?" Suzumi asked.

" Well, I'm all in the mood to just wait, but please don't refrain yourselves to just sitting there quietly. You are all allowed to talk," Ryouta invited. However, none of them really replied.

" Well, I'll start a conversation. What was the reason why the three of you wanted to become shinobi?" Hiroshi asked, still fiddling with his puppet. The rest of the kept quiet for a while. It was Suzumi who spoke first.

" Well, my family came from a long line of shinobi who used puppets, and so I guess it was more of an obligation for me to become one. I guess that's my reason…I know, sounds stupid…an obligation to do something…" Suzumi replied awkwardly.

" Yet, it's still your choice, isn't it?" Ryouta asked.

" Eh?" Suzumi exclaimed.

" Becoming a shinobi may have been an obligation for you, not a choice, but then again, accepting the obligation yourself was a choice, so in a way, you agreed on being a shinobi, and that was your choice alone. You aren't that bad of a shinobi, Suzumi, and I expect you to become a fine kunochi one day, so stop acting like you are the weakest shinobi here," Ryouta said.

" Agreed," Sora said sleepily. Hibiki looked at her curiously, then continued prodding her with his spear. She didn't budge however, even though she was quite awake, listening to their conversation.

" Skill alone doesn't justify ones strength. Do you truly think I'm more skillful than you are? Perhaps, but then I don't think so. I believe a shinobi is strong only when they hold true to their beliefs, a one true belief that one holds dear," Ryouta replied.

" What is your belief, Ryouta?" Suzumi asked.

" You all are," he said, grinning that them. The rest of them were not too sure what to make of it, but Hiroshi got the gist of it somehow. " Oh, look, it's already past midnight, and I didn't notice it at all. I must be getting weaker…" he continued, laughing.

They didn't sleep early that night. They spend a good three hours talking to one another on top of the roof of the hut, the shiny bright crescent moon high above their heads, illuminating their bodies down below as they chatted throughout the night.