Back At The Ranch ~Kagemaru, Taro~

[SeraphMazrakiel]

It was a fine day in the village of Konoha. But today was different from most days; the next few weeks would be different from most. First of all, an expedition led by Hokage herself had left for the Hidden Sand Village that morning. Several high-ranking shinobi, as well as several others -- his son included -- all departed the Hidden Leaf Village. This left Kagemaru without much company for the next while.

Kagemaru sighed heavily. "It's a beautiful day outside." With nothing better to do apart from stay at home and work on jutsu all day, he decided to take a walk. Get out of the house. Putting on his shoes and forgetting to tidy up his hair, Kagemaru unlocked the door, and turned the handle.

It jammed, and the door wouldn't open.

"Eeee?!" he thought to himself. "...blasted doors!" He twisted and turned the door handle, trying to open it and escape his house, but he couldn't get out. He tried shoulder barging it and banging wildly. He tried pushing against the door, scratching it, and even tried using verbal commands to open it. All of them failed, and he was back to where he started -- except now his door had a few scratch marks in it. He couldn't be stuck in this house for a WEEK!!!

Kagemaru admitted defeat. By a door. Groaning in shame, he decided to lock the door. He grabbed the key, and turned it...

The door swung open.

The Adarakis paused.

"..."

"BAKA DAAAAA!!!!"

Kicking the door several times, he stood on the doorstep of his house and loudly proclaimed to the neighbourhood "I AM THE CHAMPION OF THE DOOORRRR!!", wide grin and all. He made a note never to tell his son why there were now scratch marks on the inside of the door.

* * * * * * *

He made his way to Hendana Park. It was a beautiful sight, surrounded by sakura trees; a great water fountain lay at the centre of the park, where children played. Even though their great leader wasn't there to protect them, it felt quite peaceful, as if nothing would ever strike Konoha; as if all the troubles and enemies of the world were elsewhere entirely.

In the centre of the park, a group of local chess players had set up their gear, and were encouraging others to come play. Kagemaru had always enjoyed playing chess with his son, and decided to scope out what was going on.

As he approached, he found that they were doing something out of the ordinary: they were playing games of chess alright, but the pieces were arranged differently. Several different scenarios were being set up, and people were playing as either attack or defense. One board he noted was set up much like a castle, and it was the opposition's objective to reach the centre of the keep.

Two players had just stood up and left one of the boards. One of the chess club members gave one of the men a basket of food -- assumably the prize for the winner of each scenario. Kagemaru walked over to the table, interested, and saw a little sign on it saying "Escort". Curious, he decided to sit down at one of the seats at this table -- as he did so, one of the group came over and set up his pieces for him.

"This is a difficult scenario for you to win."
"...scenario?"
"Yes... every now and then, our group set up in the middle of this park, and we offer chess puzzles to the public, and whoever wins takes home a prize. Are you interested in this one?"
Kagemaru studied the placement of the pieces carefully. "...this is a difficult one, ne?"
"Yes sir, it is."
"...I'm interested in it, then."
"Ah, good. Well, hopefully an opponent will come for you soon, otherwise you'll have to go up against one of us."
"Oh... I don't mind. I've got nothing better to do anyway."
"Suit yourself... we'll wait anyway. I do have to say though, your position is one of the most difficult."

Kagemaru nodded, and waited to see who his opponent would be.

[Kiri]

Taro hopped out of bed as enthusiastically as ever, dressing and getting ready for the day. Retrieving his glasses, he put them on and headed for the kitchen, all the while singing "breakfast time, breakfast time!" He wondered what Nada would make this morning? He was so hungry. "Nada-chan~" he called cheerily, then blinked as he was met with an empty kitchen.

Oh. Right. No Nada-chan for a while ... he forgot....

Sighing in anguish, Taro found some fruit to eat and drank a quick glass of milk. Peering at the long... extremely long... no, excessively, extremely, painfully long list that Nada had left for him, he frowned. He didn't want to do any of that stuff, but it couldn't be helped.

Leaving the kitchen, he headed for the study for a long day of work.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Taro hit his head on his desk, groaning. How long had he been doing this? It was almost noon! Putting his pencil down, he got up from his desk, a determined look on his face.

"NO MORE WILL I BE A PRISONER! I'M GOING TO GO DO SOMETHING FUN!" he announced to no one in particular. Satisfied, he nodded and made his exit. That silly paperwork would still be there when he returned... unfortunately.

Making his way outside, he smiled. They were certainly having some nice weather lately. As he made his way into the park, he noticed something very peculiar was going on. It looked like a tournament of some sort. His intrest piqued, Taro moved closer. It was then he saw a familiar face.

Treading across the grass, Taro took a seat across from the other man.

"Hello, Adarakis-san," he greeted.

[SeraphMazrakiel]

"Ahhh... Homura-san! Delightful surprise!" Kagemaru spoke cheerily.

The man of the chess club took a look at Taro. "You wish to play chess? The winning prize for this table is a picnic basket of food, for you to enjoy the lovely day with. Shall we begin?"

[Kiri]

Taro grinned to Kagemaru, then looked at the man explaining the prize and nodded.

[SeraphMazrakiel]

"Very well." He set up the pieces accordingly; Kagemaru was white, and Taro was black (defense and offense, respectively).

"In this scenario, these seven black pieces here are attacking this convoy of white pieces," he explained. "The objective of the seven black pieces is to destroy all of the white pieces, in particular the four caravans -- as designated by the white castles. Each of the black pieces moves as it normally does in chess, with the exception of the king, who can make two moves in a single turn if he chooses. That is to say, he can move anywhere within a two square radius, instead of the usual one."

"Your goal as the defender is to protect these pieces here," he explained to Kagemaru, motioning to the white castles. "You cannot control these pieces yourself: every four turns, the caravans will automatically move forward one space each. If any of the caravan pieces happen to make it off the board, white wins."

So, protect a caravan wagon until it gets off the top. Got it.

Kagemaru looked at the board. That left him with four playable pieces. And they were fairly useless too. Especially compared to the opposing black pieces.

"Added bonuses. Within each caravan are two pawns. Destroying a caravan will release these two pawns onto the playing field. These pawns move as kings -- that is to say, they can move one space in any direction. In the front wagon these have been replaced by a white King and Queen: the front wagon is the lead wagon, containing your strongest warriors."

"There is also no such thing as check for the black team. The white team will have to worry about their King being taken, however, should it be released. If the white King is taken, black wins."

Great. So I have to get a caravan off the board, or just stay alive. Wonderful.

"Also to add to that is the fact that each Black piece has a certain number of hitpoints. Each bishop has three hit points, each rook has four hit points, and the Queen and King pieces have five hit points. White pieces aren't so lucky -- each pawn and Knight has one hit point, Bishops and Queens have two hit points, and the King has three hit points. So, White has a severe disadvantage."

"Who really spends all this time coming up with all these rules and scenarios anyway?"
"A chess lunatic," he smiled proudly.
"Well, it does sound interesting... let's give it a shot."

"Alright. Pay to play... black starts!"
"...pay to play?"
"Yessir, pay indeed."
"You expect me to pay to start off in a losing situation?!"
"Winner gets his money back... plus defenders get an extra bonus basket!"

MORE food?! Before the man could continue, Kagemaru's wallet was out and he was asking if they took Ninja Express. The man smiled.





(OoC: I was thinking of using D&D or similar system... but by then I'd already settled on chess, so I had to make something of it. Ah well. I have too much free time. lol. Kudos to Kiri-sama for hosting the picture while my server's down! XD)

[Kiri]

Taro listened to the explanation, rubbing his chin in thought and nodding at all the proper places. It seemed pretty straightforward. All he had to do was destroy all of Kagemaru's pieces, plus he had the advantage. Easy!

Forking over the money to play, he turned to Kagemaru with a grin.

"Shall we, Adarakis-san?"

[SeraphMazrakiel]

Kagemaru chuckled evilly, with a "Fu fu fuuu" to rival any man from Pennsylvania. The appropriate amount of money paid, the game was about to begin.

"Black starts... it's your turn."

[Kiri]

"Black starts... it's your turn."

"Oh, of course, right. Yeah." Taro looked down at the board thoughtfully, trying to decide what his best move would be. He needed to start taking care of those "caravans." After a moment of consideration, he took his bishop on A2 and moved it to attack the caravan on D5.

[SeraphMazrakiel]

Darnit. Kagemaru didn't think that he'd attack the caravans straight off the bat. But Taro did. Before anything else happened, Taro moved a bishop and, like a gust of wind, removed the caravan from play, to be replaced with two pawns on both sides. Two useless pieces. He'd hoped that the first move he'd make would be to attack the lead wagon -- that would unlock some valuable pieces which Kagemaru could use to take out his opponent. Instead, Taro, knowingly or not, played a smart move by unlocking two pawns onto the battlefield. Unfortunately, the Knight wasn't able to help out, so he just let it stand there -- a place it would stay for the next few turns.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Kagemaru dramatically placed his hands on the White Bishop nearby and moved him to intercept the Black Bishop. One hitpoint down.

As the caravan piece was removed from the board, Kagemaru thought of his son, and wondered how he was getting on.

[Kiri]

Taro watched as Kagemaru (dramatically) made his move. Attacking his bishop, eh? That meant that particular bishop had two of three hit points remaining. Kagemaru's bishop also had two, but Taro was a turn ahead. All he had to do was leave his piece in place and it would be out of commission soon enough.

Not much contest, here.

Then there was the matter of the pawns that had been put into play following the caravan's dustruction. They weren't in a position to attack.

Deciding to leave the black bishop where it was, he moved his hand to the rook on A5 and moved it one space to A6. That would set things up for later.

[SeraphMazrakiel]

Kagemaru surveyed the situation. Taro moved his rook a space, most likely to prepare to attack the Knight. With the release of the two pawns however, Taro might be reluctant to attack the knight. Then again he might not be.

He moved the pawn at the bottom of the board to C2. Hopefully it'd be able to get there in time, before the knight comes under attack.

[Kiri]

Taro watched as Kagemaru moved one of his pawns, most likely to get it in position to defend the knight. None of his pieces were in any immediate danger, though. Scanning the board carefully, he reached to make his move. Taking hold of the rook on G3, he moved it down one space to G2.

Watch out, caravan #2.

[SeraphMazrakiel]

Taro was moving to attack the caravan. I see... Kagemaru thought to himself. Pawn on C2 to C3, that way it was protecting the knight, and the caravans to the back.

"Your move, Taro-san." Kagemaru smiled.

[Kiri]

Taro raised an eyebrow, then looked back at the board. Fine. So the pawn was protecting the knight now. Well, he could see another piece that had no protection whatsoever.

Taking hold of his bishop on B8, he moved it to attack Kagemaru's white bishop.

[SeraphMazrakiel]

His bishop was attacked. One hit point down. Kagemaru decided to retreat... he had a plan... whether his opponent would fall for it was a different story.

For his fourth move, Kagemaru moved the bishop to F8.

This was the turn where each of the surviving caravans moved forward a space. He moved each of the caravans forward a space.

Now a rook stood between the White Bishop and the Black Bishop. "Ai-hai-hai-hai-hai-hai!!!" Kagemaru let out loudly. Even though he was behind on hit points, he had a feeling about this match. Perhaps he felt like he was the good guy, destined to win this match... or some other force of nature. Whatever it was, he looked down at the board, and waited for Taro to make his next move.