Fandom Naruto: Altered: IC

[KageYuuki]

Kohaku Fujioka - Team Kazou
Okuni Tanabata - Team Miyako
-shortly after the genin tests.

Okuni hummed as she walked up to the stall, the sun setting. It had been a good day, she’d passed her test, was looking forward to the night, and a good ending to the day would be with a good Manju.

“How’s it going, Honda? Like the doomsday prep packet I gave ya?” She said cheerfully to the owner. He just sighed and held out his hand for payment as Okuni reached out for the last Manju on the rack.

Another, smaller, hand was already grasping the bun. A girl with silvery hair stood beside Okuni, she held a doll that was shaped like a small dog against her sorry. “Sorry,” Kohaku said as she picked up the treat, “but I was here first.”

“No, you grabbed it first, I was here talking to the owner first. It’d only be polite to let me have it.” Okuni’s smile didn’t fade, but a dangerous aura came from here. The owner, Honda, rolled his eyes, and pulled his cart back slightly, already guessing what was about to happen.

Kohaku’s lip twitched in a smirk, “Can’t help that you were being slow.” The small genin stuck out her tongue as she finished speaking. “You’ll just have to go to Soyokaze or something.”

Okuni’s smile twitched. She noticed the headband on the girl, and suddenly any guilt she might have been was swept away, she whipped her ponytail at Kohaku’s wrist to force her to let go of the manju bun, and reached for it herself.

“And you’re not clever enough with enough limbs! I’m a survivor, it’d be a disgrace to lose here.”

In the background, Honda sighed as he switched his ‘open’ sign to closed.

A small gasp escaped Kohaku’s lips at the sudden attack, the sweet bun slipping from her grasp. Her lips quickly curled into a snarl as her fingers twitched, the dog in her arm opened its mouth and fired two senbon for Okuni’s hand.

Okuni flinched as the two senbon pierced her hand, but she didn’t back down, this was a now a fight for honor! Okuni snapped her head forward, her ponytail threatening to wrap around Kohaku’s neck. Okuni then tried to backhand Kohaku’s shoulder with her pierced hand, clenching her hand into a fist.

Kohaku’s puppet hit the sidewalk the moment the senbon hit their mark, the girl’s fingertips alight with chakra. Though before she had a chance to move, Okuni’s hair coiled around her neck with a snap. She bit back a gasp as something sharp bit into her shoulder, sending her stumbling to the side. Her fingers twitched, sending another short volley of senbon at the other genin.

Okuni grunted, falling to one leg as the other was pierced by Senbon. She pulled on her hair, pulling hard on Kohaku with her ponytail, and slamming her palm forward at her stomach.

“Don’t take on a stronger ninja!”

Okuni noticed that: A) her punch seemed off… B) Everything was spinning. However, her sleeve followed her punch, making missing a moot point, her sleeve would slap Kohaku with as much power as the punch anyways.

“S-stronger? We were in the same class!” Kohaku’s puppet jumped up, trying to latch onto Okunki’s sleeve and slow down the punch. As soon as the command was given to the puppet, she produced a kunai from her own sleeve. If Okuni wouldn’t let go, maybe the threat of a haircut would make her.

The threat of a haircut did spur Okuni into action. She whipped her hair, to send Kohaku flying by the neck and into a nearby stall.

“I became stronger the moment you tried stealing from me!”

Okuni grabbed the small little puppy puppet, and threw it for the touchdown in distance down an alleyway, though the force caused her to fall over, poison now in her veins making standing very difficult. Or moving.

“Gah!” Kohaku attempted to drive her kunai into the road to slow herself, but quickly found out she lacked the strength to do so. The small genin slammed into the cart and fell to the ground in a heap. Everything was spinning, she already felt sick. It was only two of her senbon, that her own poison would have such an effect on her…

She groaned, trying to push herself up on shaky arms and reach into her pouch. “Riku…?” Bleary jade eyes tried to search for the missing puppet.

The sound of a register springing open filled the air like the din of a bell calling for the end of a match, change was exchanged and the prize was taken, Ryoken stood with the manju in his mouth, happily chewing away as he stared at the two, his change in his hand.

“Wow, you two fight really well!” said the young man through bites of manju. “Not sure what your fighting over but pretty cool moves!”

Okuni’s jaw dropped as she turned to see Ryoken eating the object of their desire.

“The survival doesn’t go to the strongest, but the opportunist… Life of Anarchy… page 3…” Okuni said slumping her shoulders. She struggled to stand, but stumbled over to Kohaku, offering a hand… without pins in it.

“Well… that options out the window. Want to get Mochi?”

At least Okuni knew where she stood with Kohaku and her trying to kill each other earlier, and it made things much easier in her mind.

Kohaku warily eyed the offered hand… hands… spinning hands. Shaking her head - and immediately regretting it - the genin shoved a small pink vial in Okuni’s hand as she stood on shaky legs. Grabbing another vial, she downed its contents with a grimace. Why couldn’t antidotes taste better? “What’d you do to Riku?”

Okuni downed it as well, trying to think. “Punted it…. That way! I think Just in case, let’s go find it.”

The smaller kunoichi gave her a mortified stare before running off in the direction Okuni had pointed. Perhaps staggered like a drunkard was a more appropriate term. “Riku…!”

 

[KageYuuki]

The Murata apartment was finally, blissfully quiet. It wasn't totally silent, Shizuo could be heard snoring softly through the thin walls and the old building made a bit of noise on its own as it creaked in the wind, but this was about as quiet as the cozy little apartment ever got, at least while all three of its inhabitants were present.

Kuroki yawned and stretched out her arms. She had work in the morning and should really be in bed already, but she felt a little restless for some reason. One cup of sake, Kuroki decided, moving to fish out a bottle and glass from one of the cabinets. The bottle was somewhat dusty so Kuroki gave it a quick wipe with the hem of her shirt before carrying it to the counter with her glass. It took her so long to get through a bottle by herself, what would Kazou say if he knew that she had perfectly good alcohol sitting around gathering dust these days? Kuroki smiled crookedly and uncorked the sake, and the tangy scent of sake wafted up to her nose as the contents of the bottle tumbled into the glass.

"Should I find another glass?" Kuroki asked, seemingly speaking to nobody as the room appeared empty. "I'm sure I have one around here somewhere,"

For a moment, only silence reigned in the space before a figure faded into view. A cruel glint lingered in her emerald hues. “At least your senses aren’t as dull as I thought,” Sakura kept her voice low as she stalked forward. Her swords hung at her sides in plain view, though her hands were tucked in her pockets.

“And you still haven’t learned how to knock so I guess some things never change right?” Kuroki said, with a cheery smile that failed to reach her eyes. There was subtle movement from underneath the bench Kuroki was standing behind and suddenly a glass leapt into the air, allowing her to snatch it out of the air and start pouring a second serving of alcohol, all without ever taking her eyes off Sakura for an instant. “I’ll feel awkward drinking alone in front of someone else and I bet it tastes better than that shitty beer you probably still stick to, so c’mon. Unwind a little,”

Even with Kuroki’s sudden movements, Sakura didn’t move, though a faint smirk tugged at her lips. The red haired jounin rolled her eyes, “please, that was only one time.” Her hand slipped from her pocket to reach for the offered drink.

“Well at least I can be pretty sure you aren’t here to kill me then,” Kuroki sighed and took a sip from her own glass. It wasn’t exactly terrible, but still cheap enough that it could have benefited from some ice to mask the harshness a little. “I still get the impression this isn’t a social call, although it’s always been hard to tell with you,”

Sakura scoffed, bringing the cup to her lips. “If I wanted to kill you, you would at least be bleeding before you noticed me.” Her smirk grew as she returned the cup to the counter with a soft clink. “Though being a sensei is ungodly boring… By all means, make my night.”

“See this is why I feel the need to drink when you’re around,” Kuroki muttered morosely. “It always turns into a sword measuring contest. I feel so sorry for your students, I don’t think any of us had a sensei that scary back in the day. Really what is Ryohei thinking putting together this many rookie teams? Even during the war, he was more conservative..”

“Hell if I know, but it’s why I’m here,” the smirk vanished entirely from Sakura’s face as she spoke, replaced by a familiar emotionless mask. “He wants you back.”

“He knows very well that that’s not on the table,” Kuroki said, her own expression hardening to match Sakura’s. “And he knows why unless his memory is starting to go in his old age. I hope giving you students wasn’t his idea of pressuring me,”

“Well dealing with a trio of brats certainly wasn’t my idea.” Sakura’s tone darkened as she finished off her drink. “Besides, you’re barely scraping by as is, aren’t you? The girl - Yuuka, isn’t it? - she’s always sick. You’d be able to properly afford all those appointments again.”

“I don’t need Ryohei’s blood money to look after my family,” Kuroki snapped, her expression outright murderous for a moment before she recovered her mask. “So I don’t think we really have much to talk about. Why don’t you finish that off and head home? You probably have a mission tomorrow right?”

Sakura laughed at Kuroki’s sudden outburst, though still managed to keep her voice low. “Blood money, huh? You certainly don’t seem to have any qualms with that boy of yours running around with a sword playing ninja.”

“What that boy’s trying to do doesn’t really have anything to do with money,” Kuroki said coldly. “There are just a few people he should meet and they won’t come out unless he’s a shinobi. Besides that, Kazou won’t let him do anything he’ll regret. If it was anyone else I wouldn’t have allowed it,”

“No?” The jounin tilted her head inquisitively, “Sooner or later he’s going to have to take a life. It’s all swords and shinobi are meant for, even a softie like Kazou can’t deny that.”

“He already understands what swords are for more than you ever have Sakura,” Kuroki said softly, finishing off her drink. “But I gave up on trying to get through to you on that a long time ago. Maybe those kids will have more luck than I did?”

“Again with that speech?” Sakura chuckled, dry and bitter. “As if I give two shits about those brats.”

“Well, that’s what I figured,” Kuroki said, shaking her head. “But stranger things have happened so I’ll cheer them on from the sidelines. I changed my mind, by the way, go ahead and take your time with that,” Kuroki added, actually picking up the bottle to refill Sakura’s glass. “Cause the next time we meet like this… I doubt we’ll be sharing sake,”

 

[AllHailDago]

You Want Fries With That Shake?
Collaboration with AtlannianSpy

It took Shizuo about twenty minutes to loop back around after fleeing from Lyn and track down Kojiro, hopping between rooftops so that he could scan the streets below. It looked like the other boy had escaped the encounter more or less intact as well, which was something of a relief to Shizuo. He felt a little guilty about leaving Kojiro behind in all of that chaos, technically Shizuo supposed he should feel guilty for abandoning Kohaku as well but she seemed to have totally avoided Lyn’s ire, how was that fair exactly? She was the one who had been so rude! Was it because she was a girl? Were her and Lyn right now getting together and plotting sinister girl stuff? Entirely possible Shizuo believed.

Still there wasn’t much to be done about it if the girls were scheming together so Shizuo decided not to worry about it and instead joined Kojiro at ground level, taking a zigzagging path that saw him jump from the rooftop he was on down to a balcony on the neighboring building then down to ground level.

“Hey you uhh make it out okay?” Shizuo asked, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

Kojiro panted after having sprinted for such a distance. For some reason the girls tone of voice and sensei's reaction told him he needed to flee whatever retribution she had planned. He reached back and patted sadly at the hole in his shirt where he had used a kunai to cut himself free of Sensei's grip in order to flee. Darn it, this was one of his favorite shirts!

He pouted a little as he walked, until Shizuo descended from a nearby rooftop. Kojiro gave him an irritated look and wagged a finger at him. He sent an image of Kojiro struggling to run and cutting himself free, before turning and pointing at the back of his shirt. All in all it was a weird exchange from those not in the know. Kojiro's irritated face also lacked any really intimidation factor, what with the pursed lips and puffed out cheeks.

Shizuo winced, out of guilt more than intimidation and held up his hand placatingly. “I know, I know I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were stuck that badly. Why don’t we uhh, get a milkshake or something? I’ll buy to make up for your shirt, I know a pretty good place that’s not too far from here,”

Kojiro tried with ALL HIS MIGHT to resist the sweet temptation of Shizuo's offer. He tried to keep up his grumpy stare, but alas, his efforts were in vain. His frown and puffy cheeks turned right up into a smile as he pondered what flavor to get. He nodded furiously, and sent an image of a cup the size of Kazou-sensei to Shizuo. He wasn't gonna just forgive him for a tiny milkshake after all!

Shizuo snickered involuntarily at the image Kojiro sent him. “As if you’d be able to drink that much, c’mon,” Then he felt the burning sting of Kojiro’s fury upon him again and backpedaled quickly. “Okay, okay! We’ll get the biggest one they have! I don’t think they’ll actually serve something Kazou sized though,” Shizuo said, eyeing Kojiro from the side. “Oh and borrow my jacket for a bit,” Shizuo added, shrugging out of the aforementioned garment and tossing it to Kojiro. “People’ll think you’re weird if you walk around with a hole in the back of your shirt,”

Kojiro settled happily into the jacket when Shizuo agreed to the biggest possible milkshake. Doubting his dedication to sweets was a fool's errand! That milkshake shop didn't stand a chance. Thankfully when Kojiro slipped the jacket on it was actually a relatively close fit. They were both pretty normal sized thankfully. Unlike a few of their classmates who were downright puny, like Kohaku and Kaoru. Kojiro huffed lightly in a distinctly pleased manner as they made their way to the shop.


The place Shizuo had in mind technically billed itself as a burger joint, but it was most famous for its enormous milkshakes, decorated with lashings of syrup and extras such as chunks of chocolate and cookies.

Togata’s Diner was a bright red building with an eye catching, glowing sign shaped like a shuriken. Shizuo had never been able to get a straight answer out of Togata himself as to why it was a shuriken, the man had never been a shinobi or had anything to do with them as far as Shizuo knew.

Inside the diner was bright and clean, if a bit garish, the black and white tiles clashed somewhat with the red plastic seats and table, but the music playing in the background was upbeat and the staff were friendly. Shizuo also liked the uniform the waitresses wore, although he had no intention of admitting it to Kojiro.

“Can we get two milkshakes? Kage sized, one spearmint and one...uh what do you want?” Shizuo asked Kojiro, as they found an empty seat and a waitress came over to take their order. “Oh let’s get some fries as well, they’re pretty good here,”

Kojiro could barely contain himself as he took his seat. A billion flavors burst through his mind as he pondered what kind to ask for. When Shizuo asked he opened his mouth and closed it a dozen or so times in indecision. Finally he decided and sent a single image of cookie dough. Definitely his favorite after a tiring day! Fries sounded really good too. Kojiro liked the sound of Kage sized shakes. All was not forgiven, but it was surely forgotten.

“Urggh that’s so much better!” Shizuo exclaimed, as their order arrived and he was able to take a big sip from his milkshake. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to eat pickles again for a while,” Shizuo made a contented sigh and leaned back in his seat, snagging a crisp, golden fry from the basket on his way back.

“Anyway here’s to Team Kazou right?” Shizuo said, raising his glass to form a lazy toast. “Ahh man I’m glad we passed, my Mum would have gone berserk if I flunked, I’d have been swinging that damn practice sword till my arms fell off, what’s your family like Kojiro?”

Kojiro let out a pleased breath as he grabbed a warm fry from their basket. He dipped it in his milkshake a few times before eating it whole. He delighted in the combination of the sweet and salty flavor and warm and cool temperatures. He raised his glass in unison with Shizuo, thinking them lightly together. Or at least Kojiro thought it was light before a startling echo resounded around them. He was shocked neither glass broke!

Consuming the food with demonic fervor he almost didn't realize Shizuo asked a question. It dawned on him about halfway through his shake. He blinked in a flustered manner and his cheeks heated up in embarrassment. He put a finger to his chin to show visible consideration for the question. Finally he sent a few images of his family cheering him on and encouraging him in things. Well, in a manner of speaking…. Their cheers were sent mentally of course but that was hard to convey through imagery. His family was happy and supportive of his decision to be a ninja. But none had much to offer training wise as they were all civilians these days.

Kojiro eyed Shizuo and his sword curiously. It had been so cool and Kojiro had a burgeoning desire to learn like Shizuo did! Maybe he could… Narrowing his eyes in thought, he sent an image to Shizuo of the two of them swinging swords together with several question marks floating around the image.

Shizuo stared at Kojiro with a horrified expression. “Hey wait a sec- what did you do with that fry you mons-” Before Shizuo could finish his interrogation Kojiro sent him a succession of mental images, distracting him from the great fry controversy. It was hard, Shizuo was beginning to learn, to keep his mind on one topic around Kojiro.

“Well they seem pretty cool I guess and… are you saying you wanna learn kenjutsu?” Shizuo asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Although Shizuo was pretty sure he was stronger, he and Kojiro had similar builds and he hadn’t seen Kojiro have any glaring issues with balance or dexterity. There was probably nothing stopping him becoming proficient with kenjutsu if he was really set on it. “My Mother is the one who taught me, she probably wouldn’t mind taking on another student for a while at least. She’s been bugging me to invite my squadmates over anyway,” Shizuo leaned over the basket of fries to whisper conspiratorially to Kojiro, one hand shielding his mouth from witnesses. “I don’t necessarily recommend it though, she kind of turns into a demon when she’s training, she takes it really seriously,” Shizuo shuddered involuntarily.

Kojiro nodded swiftly to Shizuo's question on Kenjutsu. Being a swordsman would be super cool! Especially if he could mix in nin and genjutsu somehow… But those were thoughts for later! For now he needed to learn how to use one at all! Besides, how spooky could Shizuo's mom really be? Kojiro could probably handle it juuuust fine.

Dipping another fry in his shake, oblivious to Shizuo's displeasure, he stared off as he imagined himself swinging around a sword and summoning tornadoes. He blinked in sudden realization and sent an image to Shizuo curiously. It was a simple image of Shizuo's face in the center of the chakra nature circle with a bunch of question marks around them.

“Eh? Ohh. hmmm... Wind I think?” Shizuo replied, after thinking about it for a while. Jeez it was so long ago we tested it, Yuuka was wind as well but Mum said hers was earth or something.” Shizuo took another fry and munched on it thoughtfully. “Actually that jutsu you used against sensei looked like wind release so we must be the same huh? Oh don’t get me wrong though I’ll be relying on you to handle that stuff, I’m terrible at actual ninjut- hey stop, stop! I can’t take it anymore!,” Shizuo cut himself off as he caught sight of Kojiro dipping his fries again. “I’ll order dipping sauces okay? Tomato, barbecue, honey mustard, chipotle, anything you want! But there are lines that a man just can’t cross okay?”

Kojiro broke out into a big smile to find his new friend shared his element. Though he didn't seem to like ninjutsu, so Kojiro supposed he wouldn't get to teach him anything. Bummer. Kojiro stopped mid thought to eye Shizuo and his apparent distaste. He looked down at his fries and the shake he'd been dipping them in. This was weird for him? Kojiro gave him a confused look. He scooped a bit of shake onto a fry and offered it to Shizuo with a smile. Maybe he just needed to try it!

“N-no! Get that thing away! Kojiro!” Shizuo hastily shout out an arm to ward away Kojiro’s deadly fry and in his haste his elbow collided with the rest of the fries, sending the basket toppling over itself and spraying a passing waitress with deep fried, golden brown debris.

It didn’t take long after that for the owner to come by and turf the two genin out, although he did them the kindness of letting them take their milkshakes with them.

“I really am sorry!” Shizuo half shouted, bowing stiffly at the waitress from outside the restaurant, his face bright red. With a rueful expression Shizuo straightened up and faced Kojijro, rubbing the back of his head again. “Guess we’ll have to go somewhere else next time,” he said and broke into laughter.

Kojiro looked back sadly at the restaurant. Maybe Shizuo disliked fries and milkshake together more than he thought….He sipped at his remaining milkshake a bit wistfully. He made a note to make a mental offer first next time. He nodded at Shizuo and sent a mental picture of his favorite dumpling place near his family's home. With a smile he nodded more sporadically. Yeah, this wasn't that bad after all! Nothing to worry about in his eyes. Even if this shake was… really good.

 

[The Suspicious Eye]

Shion TsubakiLetting out a heavy sigh, in a fluid movement, she sheathed her sword and stood up straight. Her exam was quite a troublesome ordeal, one she didn't expect to have to complete on her own. Shion left alone, recalled the wise words of her father. "Sometimes we expect too much from others, because we would be willing to do that much for them. Succeed in what you will do for them. Your failure should be the only disappointment." Stepping through the door and into the office she noticed three figures waiting for her. Stepping between the two sitting figures Shion looked at her jounin sensei who was overseeing the exam.

Slumped beside her were her so called partners, their faces clouded with dejection and exhaustion, it was evident that they'd given up. Shion paid them no attention, not even glancing in their direction. There wasn't much to say about them, Shion herself succeeded in her task, so their failure was of no disappointment. Going over the exam in her mind she wondered how other students would have faced it. Hearing her name, her train of thought focused on the present situation, she stepped forward and looked up at the jounin sensei of their exam she listened intently to what they had to say.

As they explained her situation, her heart fluttered in pride as she heard she'd passed, however her situation wasn't ideal. Since her partners had failed the exam she would have to be assigned to an official team tomorrow. She was looking forward to learning from this jounin, but she was in no position to complain to a superior. Just let it be, if it's meant to be it will happen, she thought to herself. Her steel eyes never faltered, with a stern gaze she nodded and bowed deeply. "I understand. Thank you for your hard work. I hope to be of service to you and everyone in Gunshugaku." Straightening up she met the overseer's eyes with her cold steel ones and added, "if there isn't anything else I will take my leave for today." Turning around she faced the other two Letting her eyes rest on them for the first time she let out a sigh. "You two, if your conviction was this weak you shouldn't have tried in the first place. Learn to carry your own weight before you try to carry the weight of a team."

Stepping past them she walked back home. It wasn't a long walk but one she needed to dissect everything that had happened. Stretching she winced as she irritated some of the injuries she sustained. Making note to dress her injures at the restaurant, she began to wonder how to break the good news. Knowing everyone in Hanabatake would make a big deal of it. Making her way down the familiar streets the smell of flowers began to encompass her as she made her way closer home. Her body eased as she picked out the calming scents of Wisteria and Rosemary. Cinnamon and peaches danced around the shop door as Shion stopped in her tracks as she looked at the Hanabatake Cafe. Looking at the building she remembered back when it was nothing but a worn out empty building. She recalled how much the Abiko family loved it because of the large garden that came with the building. It was such a eyesore but now it was the best place to have a cup of tea. There was a lot of work and love put into this place and it shows.

A gentle look resting on her face she walked around to the alley side and unlocked the employee entrance and started to change. She noticed it was quiet today, compared to the normal hustle and bustle of the backroom. Putting on the black and white uniform Shion realized this would most likely be the last time she will wear this uniform.She always thought the whole uniform and idea was a bit strange, but now she wondered if she may miss the uniform. Pushing the feeling out of her mind she made her way down the halls, past a photograph of the staff and out into the cafe area.

"Congratulations!!" The girls all said in unison as Shion stepped out.

Eyes widening in surprise she looked around at the decorations and smiles of her co-workers and long time customers. Her face changed from shock to confusion as she didn't understand what was going on. She hadn't told them one way or another on whether she was successful or not, how did they know?

Without saying anything one of the girls, Suiren, understood what Shion was thinking and spoke up. "This is for you. We're celebrating you becoming a genin."

"You did pass right?" the tallest girl, Amaririsu asked looking a bit worried.

Warmth rushed across Shion's body as all eyes rested on her. She nodded slowly as she watched the faces of her friends and customers light up. The blonde, Himawari, squealed with excitement and hugged Shion tightly. "Congratulations, Shi-chan! We all knew you could do it!"

"Of course she's so talented!" The last girl, Shobu, said excitedly. "Everyone! Let's congratulate Shi-chan on passing her exams!!" The other customers cheered, congratulating her happily.

Struggling a bit against the tight hug Shion heat encompassed her , "Thank you guys..." Her eyes shimmered as she continued, "honestly."

"Hey now no time to get all sentimental. You girls still have work to do." A older man said as he stepped out and smiled down at the girls. This man was En'ichi Abiko co-owner of the Hanabatake Cafe and Shion's guardian. He had a calm and friendly demeanor, making him easy to approach. As the girls scattered he looked over to Shion and patted her head. "Really though, you did great. I'm proud of you Shion."

Those words shook Shion as she looked up at the man. She didn't know what to say to him, those words meant so much. Biting her lip she did her best to keep up her face. However, the expression in her eyes wall all that needed to be said.

"Now, no more dilly dallying. We have a party to have after the shop closes." He said with a smile.

"Right!" Shion said as she nodded and turned to face the cafe and began her job for the last time. Hearing the gentle ring of the door opening she walked over and gave a polite bow. "Welcome to Hanabatake Cafe, master. May I show you to your table?"

 

[Orikanyo]

Ryoken Sakurai
Team Tatsuya
The best medicine tastes terrible.​

“STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP”

The flat topped trolley: laden with teetering stacks of cardboard boxes, did not stop, if anything it got faster.

Pedestrians strolling down the bustling, unfortunately steeply inclined, market street gawked at and in some cases jumped backwards to avoid the runaway device and its hefty weight.

A half second later the onlookers’ necks swiveled back to their starting points to gawk anew as a slim young woman in a nurse’s uniform sprinted after the trolley, her arms outstretched in front of her to try and snatch the trolley’s handle bar.

“ARRRRGH SOMEBODY HELP ME OUT HERE! C’MON! I’LL GIVE YOU CANDY SO HELP A GIRL OUT!”

As if on the word candy she had invoked the words to summon him, Ryoken appeared out of nowhere before the cart, planting both feet hard as he pressed all of his weight upon the cart, sliding a good foot and a half before both were put to a stop.

“Hey are you okay?!?” Ryoken shouted from beyond the cart, his body had exerted it’self much further than it had ever had for the promise of reward.

“Ryoken! Thanks little buddy you totally saved my bacon!” Shiori exclaimed through panting breathes as she finally caught up with the trolley and seized the handle to take some of the load off of Ryoken. “Tatsuya was totally gonna murder me if I let this stuff get damaged!” Shiori took one hand off the trolley and pinched the bridge of her nose, so that when she spoke it was a passable approximation of Tatsuya’s dry, slightly nasally voice.

“Shiori you continue to disappoint but not surprise me. Aren’t you even capable of picking up a simple delivery without sabotaging the work we do here?”

Shiori sighed and then shrugged and fished around in her pocket. “Thanks for helping me out,” she said in her usual voice, tossing a chocolate bar over the stack of boxes to Ryoken. “That’s for you- oh wait actually what are you doing right now? You’re a tough little dude right? And I could really use a hand with this stuff!” Shiori’s expression suddenly took on a devious appearance. “You know we actually keep a lot of candy at the clinic right? For kids that come in and stuff,”

Like a Dog given a treat the young man seemed to flip in the air to grasp the chocolate with his teeth, the abr’s life ended in a moment, the beast consuming it in meer seconds.

Whipping abit of chocolate from his face he watched Shiori, he liked the lady, she spoke nicely and she poked at certain parts of his mind that hadn’t been raised from the sleep of pre-pubescence yet.

“That sounds great! I can do anything you need!’ the young man was won over simply on the promise of possible treats, indeed this woman had him under her thumb at the mention of it. Should she notice this or not, well, that was up in the air yet.

“...Umm.. So… What do we do? Do i walk backwards..? Or…” images of riding on the cart as it slid it’s way down filled his mind, excitement, thrills! And possibly alot of smashed medicine… May not be a good idea… medicine… he wondered what was in there… Maybe more candy to…?

Shiori smiled innocently. “Aww you’re so sweet! How that grump ended up with such nice students I’ll never understand! Hopefully you guys will rub off on him and not the other way around! If you go all sour like Tatsuya you’ll end up alone and grumpy just like him,” Shiori sighed condescendingly. “He really wouldn’t have any social whatsoever if I wasn’t encouraging him and clearing up all the misunderstandings he gets into being so blunt! And he has the nerve to look down on me just cause I’m somewhat clumsy and sometimes I get dosages slightly wrong, Grr!”

Shiori shook her head and started pushing the trolley of medical supplies. “Anyway for now just stay in front of the trolley and make sure I don’t lose it again. When we get to the uphill section we’re gonna need those genin muscles so you can come around to this side and help me push!”

“Alone? Grumpy? I don’t think i’ll be like that, Daddy says a smile a day keeps the baddness at bay!” Ryoken followed Shiori’s movements with the trolly, making certain that it isn’t going to run off on her again.His eyes looked at the packages as they walked their way down. “...Huh…?” he rose an eyebrow at one of the slightly jostled open packages… is that.. More of that milk from the other day? It tasted so good after that test he was wondering what was in it!

It… has a weird package though… Maybe that's why it tasted good?

From what he read it said something about being milked from.. Uhh.. something…?

“Is that so huh? I thought the Chowakage was supposed to be really eloquent and all but...then again maybe that is kinda elegant in its simplicity! Mmhmm!” Shirori nodded to herself, her tone self satisfied. “Not everyone would get that right away but I’m pretty smart,” Distracted by her own line of thinking, Shiroi’s gaze was far from her precious cargo even as a bump in the road knocked the open package even further ajar, allowing the bottles of “milk” inside to gleam enticingly in the afternoon sun.

“Dad is super great! Hes so awesome and cool and he can do anything!” Ryoken chirped, causing some of the nearby people watching chuckle abit at his enthusiasm for his father. “And your super smart Shirori! And pretty too!” His hand slipping inside the box, plucking on of the bottle and held it behind his back.

“Ehehehee what me? Aw c’mon,” Shiori giggled, trying and failing not to look extremely pleased with herself and failing without even trying to notice Ryoken’s light fingers. “Ryoken you have pretty good taste you know? A sophisticated and elegant women isn’t bad right? You get it! Oh look out we’re coming up to a hill!”

The next section of Ryoken and Shiori’s journey was a lot more intensive, as a steep incline forced them both to work up a sweat. Twenty minutes later though, the two of them were standing outside of the clinic, panting but gazing proudly upon the still in tact delivery.

“Gaaaa! I am a saint for putting up with all this!” Shiori bawled, waving her arms with a sudden burst of energy. “Or maybe Goddess is a better title for me, either way I definitely deserve a pay rise! YOU HEAR ME TATSUYAAAAA!” Tatsuya wasn’t anywhere to be seen but this didn’t seem to bother Shiori in the slightest, she seemed content with merely venting to the empty street. “Anyway great work little buddy!” She said, patting Ryoken on the head and tousling his hair. “Stay right there and watch the cart for just a tad, there’s a vending machine round the corner, I’ll get us something!” With that Shiori was gone, leaving Ryoken in charge of their precious cargo.

“Yep! I’ll be right here!” He waved to the woman, earnest smile still on his face… He then smirked once she rounded the corner. “Hehehe, can’t hide the good stuff from me sensei! I knew something good would come of a walk in town!

Lets see… hmmm…. And…” he layed his hands on the cap of the oddly shaped milk bottle… the milk also looked weird… should he really do this? The box was still abit open, he could slip it in, if caught he could say it had nearly bounced out on the last bump…

….

Throwing caution to the wind the young man took a mighty swig of the milk…

It tasted…

…

Honestly horrible.

Tasted like bad, just in general bad, the taste that said “Oh no this is a bad idea.”

He only got through half the bottle in his stubbornness before he began to black out from the pain in his body, wracking his system with a extremely unpleasant feeling of “Guess whos gonna die today you little idiot.” He barely had time to regret it, giving the milk a 4/10, not the worst thing hes tasted, but not that good either.

Right before he drifted away fully.

Shiori skipped backwards, humming softly to herself as she rounded the corner. “RYOKEN!” She called cheerfully. “The winds of fate call upon you to decide! Make your choice of ultimate destiny and determine mankind’s fortune! Chocolate milk or Strawb...erry,”

The sound of shattering glass rang out through the street and brown and pink milk trickled into the gutter.


Inside the clinic, Tatsuya was enjoying a rare moment of peace. WIth no students around and Shiori off on an errand the clinic was blissfully silent except for the soft scratching of Tatsuya’s pen. How odd, Tatsuya would normally consider such busywork rather odious, but with all the time he’d been forced to spend interacting with those damn brats even paperwork had soothing, meditative quality to it.

Suddenly Tatsuya paused in his writing and looked up. It was odd, but he could hear a faint sound that seemed to be getting louder. It was if.. Something was coming…

“tatsutatsutatsutatsutatsutatsutatsutatsuTATSUTATSUATSUTATSUTAAAAATSSSSUUUUYAAAA!”

The door to Tatsuya’s office suddenly burst open as a wailing, sobbing Shiori hurled herself through it, colliding forcefully with Tatsuya and wrapping him in a bearhug given uncanny strength through the strength of her panic.

“D-Dammn it wha!- Shiori get a hold of yourself!” Tatusya hissed trying to peel the sobbing girl off his chest and make some sense of her distress. “What the hell is going on!”

“TAATSHUYAA!” Shiori managed between sniffs and sobs. “I-ITSH RYOKEN! HE’S DEAAAAD!!”

“What! How could he possibly?- When did you two even-..” Tatsuya felt an immediate and powerful migraine start to form in the back of his head.

“RYOKEN- HE HELPED ME- WITH THE DELIVERY-” Shiori had transitioned over to the rapid, hitiching style of sobbing commonly seen among gradeschoolers. “AND THEN- I BOUGHT HIM- MILK- BUT HE WAS ALREAADDDY DEEAAAAD! HE MUST HAVE DRANK THE VENOM WE ORDERED TO MAKE ANTIDOTES!! WAAAAAA HE’S DEAAAD BECAUSE OF MEEEEE!”

Tatsuya Minazuki knew, quite well that he was not a good person. He was disagreeable and cold with most people and in his past he had made mistakes and committed sins he was still atoning for. But deep down, at the very core of his being, Tatsuya felt that he did not deserve the genin that had been inflicted on him, that their very existence proved the universe to be a cruel and unjust world.

Tatsuya sighed. He sighed deeply, heavily, tiredly. Just a moment ago his office had been so quiet.

“Shiori.” Tatsuya growled, through gritted teeth, with his hands on her shoulders Tatsuya pushed Shiori back so that he could actually make eye contact. “Where. Is. The. Boy!?”


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Somewhere in Ryoken’s mind, his consciousness was currently lost in the haze of his near death state, it was a curious situation. He could see his life so clearly, from his long since gone mother, her shining, face, which he could only so barely recall. A curious scream, muffled and far away… His father taking care of him, the many, many medicines and injections to keep his healthy.

He could feel the coughs, the feelings of being stuck within his own body much like it was yesterday. He didn’t feel those pains anymore, for that he was thankful, but he remembers his father telling him to always tell him if he saw blood when he ever saw blood again.

Years passed by in a flash, he was at school with friends, playing, having fun, seeing cameras everywhere, eatting wonderful food…

Food… food…

He was hungry…

“Well damn, didn’t think you would do it.” Said a harsh raspy and airy voice from the corner of his view, he turned to see it, a tall individual in a white kimono, horned and with dark eyes it looked down on the boy.

“Man kid you really gotta read labels, they are there for a reason like seriously how did yea not get taught that!” The floaty person said, absolutely baffled by what just happened. “Traumatized that poor girl while you were at it to. Poor thing.” The being tsked, looking like it tossed away a cigarette.

“Umm… s-s-orry?” He barely got out, his body just not working, the poison was preventing him from doing much at all…

“Pft, you ain’t sorry yet boy, giving yea about a minute more before I tear yea out and were on our way.” The begin huffed malevolently, looking at Ryoken like the young boy would look at a dinner in the microwave.

“Huh?”

“You really don’t get it huh? Stupid brat. Your dying kid, and it’s your fault.”

“Wha-”

“Don’t what me, you drank poison!”

“M-milk!”

“It wasn’t damn milk! Tsk, why do i bother?” The robed person knelt down and moved his hand closer to Ryoken’s neck. “Don’t struggle, not that you can boy. Heh, been waiting on you for awhile, come on, gonna eat your soul nice and slow- GAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

The being’s scream echoed as Ryoken’s spirit would not go down easily as it would seem. The two ended up in a tug of war, the object being tugged was the ghostly being’s hand. Ryoken was outright clentching his teeth on the hand that dared try and steal his life.

He felt a strange taste on his mouth, the being fall back screaming just seconds before the world went to black once more.

“Unbelievable. He really did drink it,” Tatsuya scowled as he gazed down at his twitching, sweating student. “500 milligrams of black crawler venom, even a wild animal would know not to drink it,”

“I-is he gonna be okay,” Shiori sniffed, trailing along at the end of his sleeve.

“I suspect he’ll live if we can get the venom out of his system,” Tatsuya said, kneeling down next to Ryoken and flipping him onto his side. “He’ll have to vomit it up,”

“Oh should I run back for an emetic?” Shiori asked, but Tatsuya shook his head.

“No time,” Tatsuya said curtly. “We’ll be using a slightly rougher method, sorry boy but this is going to hurt quite a bit,” Tatsuya curled one hand into a fist and then suddenly thrust it into Ryoken’s gut, triggering a reflex that immediately sent the contents of his stomach, including the venom, hurtling back up the way they had come rather violently as Tatsuya held him up by the scruff of his neck to direct the flow.

The stream that flowed from Ryoken’s mouth was, in a word, profound, it might be even said he cough up double his weight, at least in theory. Ryoken’s eyes were opened to the sight, urging another purge, after two more, he began dry heaving and finally panting.

“I’m sorrbby!” He said between coughs and sobs.

“LITTLE BUDDY!” Shiori shouted, rocketing over to hug Ryoken until Tatsuya pulled her back by the collar of her shirt. “Let him breathe Shiori or we will merely have him choking to death instead of being poisoned,” Tatsuya said, sighing as he shifted his weight back off his knees to sit down beside

“As for you!” Tatsuya said, directing a malice filled glare at Ryoken’s heaving back before breaking off into a long coughing fit. “I knew you were stupid but do you really have NO SELF PRESERVATION INSTINCTS WHATSOEVER!? You know you ingested enough venom to kill an elephant!?” Tatsuya’s withering gaze turned suspicious. “Even taking into account how little time it spent in your system you should really be in much worse shape,”

I don’t think I could have survived an incident like this until I was at least part way through my resistance training Tatsuya mused, rubbing his temples I wonder if there’s something here we can use..?

“Ryoken everytime I try to imprint any kind of information in your mind I can feel my own braincells dying so I’m going to give up that strategy for now. However even if the mind will not learn, the body just might. This method is painful and a bit dangerous but if it works you might acquire a useful new property,”

“Huh…?” Ryoken looked up as he whipped away the last bit of spittle from his lip. “Umm… what do you mean sensei?” He looked up to the man, sitting on his bum.

He eyed Shiori and got up and tip toed his way over to her and gave her a hug… He wasn’t a perv by far, but he was a rather acceptable height in difference to her.

“Do you recall during your trial when I told you I was immune to the poison I was using on you?” Ryoken asked, deftly separating Shiori and Ryoken with the end of his walking stick. Tatsuya then used the walking stick’s hook to grab one of Ryoken’s arms and turned the boy around to force him to pay attention.

“Well even though that was only a poison in the loosest sense of the word, I am actually immune to range of basic poisons. I acquired this trait by exposing myself to small doses, which I gradually increased to build up- Why am I bothering to explain this to you? The point is this: If you eat small amounts of bad stuff under my supervision, eventually your body will get used to it and if bad people try to use it to hurt you later it won’t bother you. Sound Good?”

Ryoken narrowed his eyes at Tatsuya for a second, as if his twin brain cells, the third being dead from a close encounter with death, began rubbing together to create a semblance of thought.

“...Hmm…. You got yourself a deal! Err.. Wait was it a deal or you telling me that you doing this…? Err… it… won't involve needles will it?”

It didn’t before, it certainly would now.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Miyako Fujihara
Team Miyako
​

"Mmm! See seizing the initiative by proactively interfering with the enemy's plans or extracting intelligence from them would be a pretty good idea but in this case those kinds of strategies are off the table! See this Togata guy actually only sent in the mission request yesterday night. Matter of fact he's pretty lucky it's so close to graduation and there's a bunch of genin teams running around in need of some grunt work otherwise it likely woulda been a day or two before we could send someone out."

Miyako lifted her arms behind her back and started stretching, working the kinks out of her shoulders as she spoke. "Basically what I'm saying is that we have about twenty minutes to get our butts to that restaurant before they open for lunch and things kick off! Firsst one there gets to challenge Sensei to arm wrestling! I won't lose though! Woo!"


With the team running at a good pace at Miyako's insistence, they made it to Togata's Pizza in good time, where they were greeted by a barrel chested, notably hairy man, his mustache and hair slicked into place with wax, the titular Mr. Togata.

"Ehh Alright. So assuming you's read my letter you basically know what the deal is right?" asked Togata, slapping his hands against his apron to remove some of the white flour coating them. "Just as we feared, we received a whole stack of orders all at once, soon as we got started today. About half of 'em seem to be legit orders from various addresses. But at least thirty of 'em come from this one place: Hidezaki Towers," Togata squinted suspiciously and sniffed. "The Confederates! That's where any traps or distractions will be set up, I'd bet my apron on it!"

"Hmm Hmm! I basically get the gist of the situation," Miyako called over her shoulder. At some point she had walked past Togata to pick up one of the hats his delivery men wore trying it out on herself and admiring the embroidered slice of pizza emblem that decorated it. "Okay here's what we'll do, I'll pick up the extra deliveries to various locations, you kids head to Hidezaki Towers together so you can look out for each other. You've got thirty pizzas to carry but it's up to you guys how you do it, it might be best to divide them up equally, or maybe have one person carry all of them while the other two focus on defense!"

Miyako adjusted the brim of her newly claimed headgear and then seized a breathtakingly large stack of pizza boxes that the diligent kitchen staff had been stacking up on one of the counters all the while. "Alrighty I'm off!" Miyako called, before vanishing in a puff of vaguely cheese scented dust.

"W-Well uh yeah," said a bewildered Togata after a few moments. "Just like the lady said. Oh and try not to break anything or hurt anyone, if I'm liable for a whole bunch of damages it'll defeat the whole purpose of hiring you!"

Arael
Ganryu
xAlter

 

[Ganryu]

Okuni Tanabata
Squad Miyako
xAlter Arael
AtlannianSpy
[/CENTER]

"Twenty minutes!" Okuni panicked as they took off, jumping off Haku's shoulders. Okuni expected to be left behind as per usual, but her teammates seemed just as slow as she was. This was a first. They'd be significantly faster than her in most squads. Though Okuni always won the endurance competition. She wondered if it was a side effect of her meds, or from her training, but Okuni never seemed to wear out. Giggling, she took out a pill bottle from her sleeves, popping one. Her mom had threatened to throw her through a wall next time she didn't take them.

As they arrived, Okuni checked corners for shadows, convinced they were being ambushed right then and there by the missiong, giver, but all seemed peaceful as he told them their mission. Asking them to deliver the heavy mess of pizzas.

"Just like delivering prayer shrines with my Mom... the boxes here seem a little smaller though."

Okuni shrugged, motioning for Haku in particular to help her pick them up. It was large and awkwardly stacked, but Okuni would manage.

"I can keep going, and going, and going... Just Asami, please protect me from Haku. Oh, and the enemy ninjas. Mostly Haku."

Okuni HATED having to trust another, but in this case, it was that or trust the man who'd been messing with her emotions from the moment they met. Who, who said he was going to take her away. Okuni blushed thinking about it, still having a determined face as she dealt with the pizzas.

Okuni's face then went deadpan as if she'd been shot... What did she feel dripping on her sleeves of her shrine maiden attire? ... She didn't want to think about it. The special property of the dress would distribute the grease across her clothing though, turning it a sickly yellow.

 

[Arael]

Asami Kurayami
Team Miyako
Ganryu AtlannianSpy xAlter​

Twenty minutes hardly seemed like enough time to get there, and apparently, Okuni felt the same as the three Genin began following behind their sensei. Asami was surprised she was able to keep pace with everyone but also felt a bit ashamed at how slow she seemed to be moving in comparison. While she had little trouble keeping up she always felt like she could be a lot faster than she allowed herself to be, maybe during her next free day she'd work on her speed and agility, just to build up the momentum she needed since missions down the line would probably require more movement like this. After mentally noting that she noticed Okuni moving from the corner of her eye seemingly putting something in her mouth but she didn't pay it much mind since it was hopefully the medication she often brought up, Asami couldn't help but start to feel a bit responsible to see that the girl actually took them, regardless of how much better she claimed to focus without them.

As they arrived, Asami couldn't help but note the features of the place. An assortment of booths spread out around the place, the claw machine set up near the back while workers came to and from the back room stacking pizza boxes on top of one another. The owner seemed like a pretty nice guy as he gave them a rundown of the job they'd be doing and was even kind enough to tip them off about the possibility of traps around Hidezaki.

"I mean the most I've carried was groceries, but how hard could pizza's be?"

Asami watched as Okuni and Haku went to grab most of the pizza's as she- much like Miyako went to grab a stray hat from the counter, fixing it onto her head as she moved her headband around her neck as Okuni addressed her again, asking for Asmai to protect her from enemies and more importantly Haku.

"So he is a pervert." She gave Okuni a determined nod, "I'll do my best!"

She noticed the other girls face going red again, before turning dead with either shock or disgust, maybe a mixture of both? But Asami shook the thought as she took a few minutes to try and process a plan to get their mission done efficiently and without causing any physical or property damage.

 

[KageYuuki]

Mibu
Haru Mori
Squad Tatsuya
Stepping into the music room, Haru heaved a sigh before shedding his jacket and headband. Nestled in the building the Mori clan called home, it was a simple room. With hardwood floor and plain walls, the only thing that stood out was the dark ebony piano.

Slender fingers lightly traced the keys as the freshly minted genin settled onto the bench. No one else ever used this room, letting it become a kind of sanctuary. The melody now filling the space was for him alone.

And after the insanity that was Tatsuya’s idea of a test? Haru could use the moment of escape.

Spoiler: song

What he likely didn’t notice was the smallest seam on his wall, almost indistinguishable from the rest. Mibu could use Hiding in Shadow to stalk Haru, but she needed practice on her Cloak of Invisibility, and it used far less chakra. Teammates were precious, and information on them more so. As he started to play the piano, the sheet shuffled ever so slightly as Mibu was surprised.

Piano player, proficient. Of great surprise.

She’d never felt anything from music too much but furrowed her eyes as she noticed the melody drawing her in.

”Look at you, a real shinobi now! And under a well-known jounin no less”

“Prestigious jounin that mocked the storm release though… we’ll have to change his tune on it.”

The melody that had started so soft and gentle gradually rose in tempo and volume. A gentle rain growing into a tempestuous storm.

The sheet dropped, Haru was far too in concentration to notice likely. The rise in tempo made Mibu curious, and he was much harder now. At first, she’d thought it was part of the song, but as she listened she realized the base melody was the same, he was just playing angrier. Also, she realized her poor decision in spying locations.

“Elevated tempo, volume, same melody. It almost seems as if the playing reflects your stress levels.” A voice sounded behind him as Mibu slapped her ears. “It also seems as if years of mastery behind this. If this piano is played with stress, this little shadow would guess it is how you calm down? Was perhaps the test from earlier stressful?”

”Haru, where are you going?”

“Just… need some rest. It was a pretty… rough test.”

“You mean sneak off to play piano, don’t you? Honestly, I don’t understand why you waste your time with that. You have a gift.”

“...sure didn’t care about my playing before you found out about that ‘gift’.”

The tempo was slowing back down, shifting to a different part of the melody before suddenly stopping altogether. Haru about jumped a foot, spinning towards the voice behind him.

“And the calming tempo reflects it works well.”

Mibu stated as monotonous as ever, however, as Haru spun, she got closer and closer to him, not respecting boundaries in any sense of the word.

“Under your eyes are darkened.”

Haru stared at her wide-eyed, struggling to find his voice. He could’ve sworn his heart jumped into his throat. “M-Mibu, when did you… How did you… what are you doing here?”

“11:14, window and Cloak of invisibility, is it unnatural to visit your teammates?” She responded in kind.

“It is when you’re breaking into their home and spying on them.” Haru groaned, rubbing his eyes. “Just… never mind. Do you want some tea or something?”

“To be fair, it is good training, imagine this little shadow was from the Hidden Tunnels, sent to kill the heir to apparently a sought after Kekkei Genkai. The path of a shinobi is bloody. There are others of much more skill than this little one. In fact, this shade would appreciate the same being done to her. Hibiki often does it, and it does indeed help with reflexes and mentality. And yes, please.”

Mibu finally backed up, sitting on the edge of a nearby bench with her legs crossed and her hands in her lap.

“Your skill with a piano is considerable. Admirable even.”

Haru’s lip twitched, the faintest hint of a snarl at the mention of a sought after kekkei genkai. Though it passed as suddenly as it came, the genin getting to his feet. “It’s not that special,” he mumbled, stepping around the piano bench to move towards the door. “I’ve just been playing a long time is all. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Very well. This little shadow appreciates the hospitality.” As Haru left, Mibu began to snoop, looking around the room, and holding up the sheet music confused for a moment. She looked over the notes even more confused. She didn’t understand any of it. How was it a few little notes could produce a sound such as before? It was beyond her, and she placed it back down. Music had never been her forte. Then again, loud sounds tended to disagree with her anyway. It was something the rich did. Instead, she began to sit, and identify all the ports of entry to the room, and positions she would hide in. The Mori clan seemed… confident in their ability.

Haru rubbed his eyes as he shuffled down the hall towards the kitchen. It was bad enough he ended up with a cold-hearted sensei that tried to poison them and the Kage’s son for a teammate. Apparently, his other teammate was a stalker. “Just… wonderful,” he muttered under his breath.

As if his prayers were answered by a demon, Haru would suddenly feel a large push to the floor, a boy about his age standing over him.

“Oops! Looks like I knocked over our clan’s savior!”

Two boys behind him burst into laughter as if he’d said something funny. The leader, Etsuya, aimed to step on Haru, mud covering his shoe. “Mom says can’t track mud into the kitchen, and Haru’s such a doormat anyways.”

“Ngh,” Haru hit the floor with a dull thud. He gave a low groan, dealing with Etsuya was the last thing he needed today. “Come on, Etsuya,” he rolled over, grabbing other boy’s ankle. “You know Aunt Hanabi’s going to be furious when she sees what you tracked in already.”

“Oh boy, look at him, trying to ‘save’ me.”

Behind Haru, he would hear his own voice. “Do you know what you three are getting yourselves into?”

Haru might notice a black hand slip into three pockets around him if the voice didn’t throw him off. However, by the time the voice ended, nothing could be seen around him, save for his own shadow being just a tinge darker.

What? I didn’t say… Haru only caught a glimpse of a hand slipping out of one of the other boy’s pockets. “Now come on, guys, let me up. One of my teammates is here and I don’t want to keep them waiting.”

Etsuya tried to step on his head. “I didn’t say you could get up! And getting ourselves into? Tch. Malarky (Gan just wanted to use this word). Just cause you have Storm Release doesn’t make you any special. I bet you were hogging the music room again.”

Slowly beside Haru, his shadow started to rise beside him, still in a black form, and seemingly without eyes, it was initially emotionless, but then it smiled. As it walked forward, it had no shadow of its own.

“This shadow will protect what is precious. Check your pockets, and don’t TOUCH Haru again.” It said in Haru’s stolen voice.

Each boy looked confused, reaching into their pockets, and screamed as they found the tags, running down the hallway.

Haru blinked a few times, staring after them as they took off. He felt a chill as he glanced over at the living shadow. “Uh… that- that you, Mibu…?” His voice was quiet, carrying a faint tremble to it.

Shadow dripped off the shade, revealing Haru’s form, and reforming into an actual shadow behind it before it poofed into Mibu with her regular deadpan expression. “It is. You seem to have mud on you. This little shadow wishes she knew what the clan head sounded like, as that would be been less troublesome.” Mibu moved to gather the dropped explosive tags.

“It’s nothing…” he murmured, trying to brush off his shirt as he quickly got to his feet. “You didn’t have to do that you know… they would’ve gotten bored and left before long…” Haru kept his eyes focused on the floor, shifting his weight uncomfortably.

“Teammates are precious,” Mibu said simply, she grabbed her invisibility cloak, and brushed off his hair. “Also, shinobi are merciless. There is something… wrong if you can’t tell between an ally and enemy. This shadow will tail you to the kitchen, tea would still be nice. There is a bright side, those three are unlikely to harry you for some time.”

“R-right,” Haru turned away, quickly moving to the kitchen entrance that was just a few steps further. Shinobi were merciless… could he even be like that? The thought of actually having to kill someone made his stomach turn. “Um… Th-thanks for that, by the way… they’re always on my case.” Haru set some water on the stove to heat up, searching through the cupboards for everything that was needed.

Setting out the teapot and a pair of cups, he reached up and pulled out a jar of gyokuro. While Haru had never been a big fan of green tea, his parents were always more than insistent that was the tea to be served to guests. Trying to break the silence that looked over them he spoke up. “S-so you uh… can use shadows in your jutsu?”

Mibu sat happily at a counter, silence, talk, neither mattered to her. The question did seem relevant.

“Yes, this little shadow uses it as a large base. My… neighbor, Hibiki, taught me many of them. This one supposes it is important for teammates to know what each other is capable of, so this one will give a break down of their abilities. This one specializes in stealth and the basic jutsu. Nature: Wind. Preferred chakra usage, Wind. The additional jutsu are mostly shadow based:

Hiding in Shadow, C rank, lets one sink into shadow and hide there, though they are very much tangible, it's slightly a spacial jutsu.
Shadow Meld, C rank, a recently learned jutsu that lets one absorb my shadow externally or internally.
Oumu, C rank, lets one copy another's voice and throw it freely, it was used to steal your voice earlier.
Wind Release: Hiding in Dust, D rank, a wind release jutsu that kicks up a dust cloud so one can escape.
Sticky Fingers, D rank, increases chakra in the fingers, increasing grip by the fingers, letting one steal mid-combat.

This one is working on more shadow based jutsu.

Those are the jutsu this one, Mibu, uses. For this reason, if one is to be honest, our sensei is worrying for a skill set such as this, as his jutsu do not seem to conform. His… personality is also worrying. Yourself?”

Mibu finally stopped talking.

Haru listened in silence, nodding as she spoke. He chewed his lip as he poured hot water over the bright green tea leaves. They’d only just graduated from the academy and already she had so many jutsu in her repertoire. It was impressive.

And intimidating.

“I never really picked up a specialty at the academy,” Haru said, pouring tea for them both before offering a cup to Mibu. “Outside of what we learned at the academy I… really only know one jutsu. That Storm Release technique you probably saw me use against sensei. Even if it failed.” He watched the ribbons of steam slowly rising from the cup, never really looking at his teammate. “I’d… based it after my mom’s water bullet, but it’s so slow and weak.”

Haru took a quick drink of the tea, “as for sensei, other than him being a doctor we really don’t know anything about him. He wasn’t really… willing to tell us anything.”

Mibu took the cup with a quick bow of her head. “The lectures are more grating. Perhaps personal opinion. This one still wishes to understand how the sensory in the test was to work. Perhaps one should break in to search for cameras…” Mibu mused blowing on the cup. “As for specialty, this little shadow picked up her specialty after choosing what she enjoyed. Her grades were terrible at the start, and passable at the end. Not particularly talented or bright at anything, just what was wanted and seen as important. What do you wish to do as a specialty? You seem kind, perhaps healing? Maybe a bit scare, so maybe genjutsu? Or there’s the obvious path of developing your kekkei genkai, though it seems to this one you don’t particularly enjoy it, so why bother?”

She took a quick sip of the tea and mused speculatively.

“A tip this little shadow prefers, place a peach in the water, it will add flavoring. Similarly with lemons and strawberries, and most fruits, but peach has had the best experience, along with a little bit of honey. If time is had beforehand, a stick of cinnamon will work well instead for a more exotic flavor. Regardless, thank you for the hospitality.”

Haru set his cup down with a sigh, turning to lean against the counter. “I don’t really have a choice when it comes to Storm Release. The Mori… we… used to be famous for our kekkei genkai. Feared, even. But for some reason members started being born without it. I’m… the first to be able to use it in three generations now.”

“Must be nice to have expectations…”

Mibu sipped her tea, her voice slightly dropping for once. It quickly picked up its normal monotone however.

“This shadow is your teammate however. If you wish to learn something, this one can try to help. Sensei’s job is to teach, but one supposes teammates are to support each other. ”

“I don’t know about nice…” Haru managed a glance and a faint, sideways smile at her. “Get to be whatever you want that way. But you’re right… you know, Storm release techniques tend to be pretty bright. Maybe… maybe I can help your shadows with something?”

Mibu shrugged. “This one is not opposed to ideas to become more efficient. She will research into it.” She didn’t touch on the expectations note any more however. She slowly sipped at the rest of her time. “This shadow will disappear after the tea is gone, your time is yours, the only desire was to visit and learn a little more.”

 

[KageYuuki]

Makoto Takenaka

Settled into a bench near the academy's entrance, Makoto sipped at a small paper cup of tea. Despite it being early in the morning, the air was already thick and humid. Last night's storm was no joke, the jounin mused while scanning over the mission file. For the genin, it was going to be a simple job. No one ever got something major for their first mission, after all, boring as it may end up being. As for him... he was going to have his work cut out for him.

Maybe if they do well I'll treat them to dinner... A happy and well fed team always performed best. He stretched and leaned back, watching a few birds that idly hopped along the ground nearby. Even from where he was sitting, Makoto could hear the chime of the academy's bell. One class graduates and already a new class of prospective genin were beginning their training. Feels like that gap gets shorter every year... Makoto downed the rest of his tea before crushing the cup and tossing it in a nearby trash bin.

Regardless, he had a trio of his own to worry about. Whenever they decided to show up.

Phayne InsaneAsylum QuirkyAngel

 

[Ganryu]

"Defense of the North"
Mibu & Kaoru Issho​

Mibu looked over two tickets her neighbor Hibiki had given her. Apparently a ‘work offer’, he didn’t seem interested but said she should be. Why? It was to an event called the ‘Defense of the North’, a popular strategy game. Something about history. It would be good for strategy training. Mibu thought about her role in her team, she wasn’t good at fighting, and wasn’t really that supporting. She could scout, maybe sabotage, but that was it. Picking up a new skill would increase the team's chances manyfold. Teammates were precious.

But two tickets… Mibu couldn’t go on her own. Ryoken was nice, but… she didn’t think he’d have the attention span. Haru…. Mibu just had images of him crying in the corner for some reason. Maybe her new friend Emerie… They’d probably talk too much and get thrown out without participating. So… Who?

Mibu looked up against her three framed pictures, and almost emoted. Her teammates… Hibiki … and… her grades! Mibu nodded knowingly, she knew just the person to take.

=========================

Kaoru sat in silent contentment in his own little corner of his parent's library. It wasn't technically his of course, but since he was basically a baby it was always where he seemed to end up. Nestled behind a small table his parents once put there when they realized he favored it, he sat in a bean bag chair with two dozen comics stacked next to him. He was happily flipping pages as he read through old issues of his favorite heroes’ stories. He paused on a particular page and eyed the poss and technique of one of his particular favorites, Stormquake.

He was in a two page spread pose of his signature stance. Excitedly Kaoru attempted to replicate the pose, happily confident no one would see as his corner was behind the autobiography section no one seemed to ever enter. Standing up, he slid his left foot forward and positioned it sideways with the toes pointing to the right. He extended his left hand over the extended leg and held his hand out with his palm up and fingers in an open curl. His right leg stood with a slightly bent knee, and his right arm was held close to his side, thumb folded in and the other fingers pointing forward side by side.

He held the stance and compared it to the comic. He had the stance down, but the feeling wasn't there yet. Sitting back down he wondered why. He realized pretty easily that he just didn't have the right gravitas yet. Stormquake was a master of lightning and earth, and a man of significant physical build. Meanwhile Kaoru was the tiniest member of his class, girls included, and only had a solid grasp on his own nature of lightning. One day though…. One day. He's get there, and no one could convince him otherwise.

“... This one is confused…. Is this a set up to some sort of taijutsu?” His shadow spoke. An arm extended out of it, correcting the placement of the comic book to make it placed just right. Mibu though honestly was confused as hell. What powerful jutsu was this? In the shadow she had two tickets ready, but wasn’t sure how to start the conversation.

Kaoru jumped off his bean bag chair and sound to face the voice. When did someone get there?! Oh gods, they saw him posing didn't they?! “U-uhm. I-it's a b-battle pose. H-he u-uses it both s-symb-bollic-cally and as a n-nint-taij-jutsu stance.” Kaoru said this all without thinking, or even realizing who he was talking to. He slid his glasses back up his nose and squinted. “M-Mibu? Wh-what're you doing h-here?”

Shadows slid off Mibu as she rose from the floor. “Interesting. It went like so?” And Mibu copied the pose with zero shame. “It does not… feel more powerful?” Shaking her head, she put her hand into her pouch, and produced a ticket. “Kaoru Issho, this one would like to challenge you to a battle of wit. Having been given these recently, it would be a shame not to try it out. You had one of the highest scores in the academy, so this little shadow would like to see how you perform at this game. My teammates are….” Mibu imagined Ryoken doing math, and Haru crying, “-unsuited for this sort of game. Would it be of interest to you?”

Kaoru was a little weirded out, but frankly he'd been snuck up on so many times he was just glad it wasn't to mess with him this time. He smiled and nodded as Mibu executed the same pose. Hers didn't capture the same energy either it seemed. He took the ticket from her outstretched grasp and read over it. He'd heard about this actually!

“W-woah! It's pretty hard for g-genin to get into th-this! I'd definitely be interested in going!” Some if his favorite heroes were based off those described and used in this simulated battle! He was sure this was gonna be fun. Plus it's be great for devising new strategies, or possibly even new jutsu! He'd never turn down something that could lead to that!

“That is acceptable. These were received from a friend, he seemed uninterested in the tickets.” Mibu again glanced at the stack of comics, remembering the name atop it, handed Kaoru his ticket, then started to walk to the entrance. “Let us meet there about noon.”

=======================================

The tent was of a purple shade and easy to find, the words ‘Defense of the North’ on a sign atop it. Sitting inside, an old man with a pencil length beard sat in purple robes and a strategists cap, looking at the two coming in.

“Tickets?” He said as if he didn’t believe two genin had tickets to such a show.

Kaoru looked up in wonder at the tent. This was usually a chunin and jonin event, he was so lucky to be here! He didn't trust himself to speak to the ticket man, as he was bubbling over with nervous energy he was sure would worsen his stutter. Instead he simply gave a shaky smile and handed him his ticket.

Mibu handed her ticket with a glare, and sat down. The man blinked and sat down. “Rich kids.” He guessed improperly. He raised his hands, and a man appeared from water on top of the table.

“I am hoping you know the history of this battle, but let me run over the basics one more time. Against all odds the Village Hidden in the North held off for three days, and decimated the army of the Village Hidden by Tunnels. Three heroes countered three heroes. 300 held off 3000.

The heroes of:

Kuba, the Fire Fist

Michizoe, The Far Voice

Miyo, the Toxic


And they defeated soundly, the forces of:

Yagami, the Mountain

Baisho, the Dream

Kurisu, the Thread

Now, if by chance you are a history nut, I would ask you to try to be creative, but I doubt that will be too much an issue. Now, remember, the goal is to survive this assault with as many forces left intact as possible, but do not be upset if you do not manage, many strategists across the nations have failed at this puzzle. I have spent my life researching this, so I am able to replicate this battle and have many times, I will answer to the best of my abilities. Now… where will you place these figures?”

“You have one hour to decide. I will leave a few books by the table.”

Kaoru nearly sparkled with excitement.Taking a rare initiative he decided immediately to be the defenders. Kuba has dozens of comics made after him and even had a crossover with Stormquake! He was one of his idols too! He swore to become a nintaijutsu master like him some day. It…. Wasn't working out so far unfortunately. But he had plenty of time and opportunity to improve his taijutsu as an official shinobi now….he hoped.

He blinked a few times in realization he'd taken the defenders figures without at all seeing if Mibu minded. “Uhm, sorry. Kuba is a favorite of mine. You don't mind do you?” He didn't think she would, but it'd be rude to not at least ask wouldn't it? He thought so at least. She did bring him here with her extra ticket after all. It only made sense to let her go first if she wanted.

“This is a competition, feel free to move where you want and to go first, or this one can. This little shadow has an idea already of where a maximized effectiveness would be. A man of fire, this one would place here near these small villages and burn them down, one cannot risk supplies falling to enemy hands.”

Mibu ignored Kuba’s heroic side in charge of cold hard fact.

“This little shadow still has to think though, the enemy is difficult in this fight. Baisho makes one afraid to commit too many troops to one place, while Kurisu would assassinate any lone unit. We have some strong people on our sides, and victory is possible, history shows this, yet to be honest, this little shadow knows not the history. Kaoru, are you familiar?”

The proctor looked at the two.

“Not often I see competitors being friendly to one another.”

Kaoru had to resist physically expressing the horror he felt at Mibu's casual suggestion to burn down civilian settlements over potential supply losses. “I'm fa-familiar with p-pretty much all of it. It's been made into d-dozens of comics and was e-even m-mentioned in school a c-couple times.” He picked up the Michizoe figure and placed it stop the village marker on the map. “Micha-chizoe, was known as the Far Voice. His sensory was le-legendar-r-r-ry and he could c-communicate t-telep-pathically and o-overwhelm minds if he was d-discovered. My p-personal p-placement would be having him in the village i-itself, working as rec-reconnaissa-sa-sance from s-safety and organizing the village e-evacuation in case c-combat reached the vi-village.”

He picked up Miyo's figure and set it at a significant forward position, where most every road into the village crossed paths. One could also view each direction openly from here. “M-Miyo the T-Toxic could m-mass produce her poisonous s-sweat to create a m-mobile swamp of sig-si-significant size. I'd p-place her here with a s-small group of shi-shinobi capable of w-withsta-standing and hiding alongside her in s-such conditions. This would s-s-significantly reduce the l-likelihood of mm-mass troop ma-ma-movement along the r-roads and help prevent a-ambushes from many d-directions.” He pointed at Kurisu and Yagami. “E-Either one of them pulling an a-ambush or easy k-kill on her here would be d-difficult as well.”

Lastly he set the Kuba piece and set him at the approximate center of the map between Michizoe and Miyo. He then put a sizeable portion of the troops in the same place under his command. “Kuba…K-Kuba was a symbol to his v-village and o-others. Both phy-physically and m-morally. His skills with f-fire release were le-legendary to the point other vi-villages told their shinobi to flee on s-sight of him. He was g-general-lly peaceful, but threats to his v-village were met with ex-extreme f-force.” He gestured to the villages Mibu had mentioned. “If he b-burned those down it would suh-swiftly demoralize the a-already vastly outnuh-outnumbered troops of the N-N-North. Th-they m-might even assume he's b-been put under g-ge-genjutsu fr-from sheer c-contrast to his c-character.”

He gestured at the place he put him instead

“Here he ha-has the a-ah-ability to move to any si-significant point in the ba-battlefield, d-da-deploy troops, and u-use his ma-mass area jutsu with a-a-assurances he'd not harm civilians or their property. With the r-remaining shinobi I'd spa-spread them in a sma-small controlled net around the a-areas the three S ranks c-couldn't cover. Th-th-they'd remain in contact with Mi-Michizoe constantly to a-a-assure no one was killed unb-b-beknownst to the village, a-and no one was under gah-genjutsu from Baisho. That would a-also a-allow greater s-suh-search for ambushes. S-hould they c-come across a-a-any of the S ranks th-they-they'd be under orders to re-retreat to Kuba swiftly and silently and i-i-i-immediately report n-name and l-location.”

He eyed his placement with a thumb between his teeth. He'd been a fan of the shinobi involved and the scenario game for a few years now. This strategy was what he'd finally decided on after reading the numerous comics, history books, and even some of the rare printed copies of results of real matches between strategists! He knew it wasn't likely to be even close to unbeatable, but it was a good plan for a first timer... right? He looked up at Mibu with a shy smile, realizing he hadn't pretty much ever talked this much with anyone. “Wh-what're d-do you th-think?”

Mibu nodded.

“The style of this little shadow is a little bit different. This one would move Kuba aftermentioned to the smaller towns to burn them to prevent supplies. It is necessary and they can rebuild. More places one has to hide, the worse it is to finish routing them. Especially shinobi. The villagers are more important than the village, so this one would move them to the north to prevent casualties, taking as many supplies with them as possible. They can exist a while in the caves there, even if it is not comfortable. This one is also going to hold back 10% of my forces to ambush anyone and everyone who makes it to the village until the all clear sign is given. Any enemy routed will find nowhere safe. If they are losing a battle, they have permission to raze it.

Michizoe and Miyo are to go to the Southeast pass, where Miyo will make an impassable swamp, cutting them off, and preventing Baisho from being a problem, or her troops. Kurisu is likely to be a pain, so Michizoe is to use his jutsu to detect and disable him as often as possible, and let Miyo set up. If he is detected, Miyo is to withdraw immediately. Once those hazards are up, both are to retreat, and Kuba as well, forming a three prong pincer attack on Yagami, the Mountain with full forces, hopefully routing him, but at worse forcing a retreat. It would be an even battle number wise, 800 vs 1000, but 3 S-rank nin tend to change the tide of battle quickly.

It is expected Kurisu to manage to make it to our forces by this point, and likely will eliminate Miyo as she is the largest game changer. This is fine and to be expected, he will be vulnerable to a counter attack by this point, Michizoe can likely disable him while Kuba eliminates him, likely also fueled by anger at the death of Miyo as well. This leaves us with 2 S-rank ninja, and them 1. If they manage to get past the poisonous swamp, Michizoe can then shut down Baisho while Kuba reeks havoc upon the forces, lowering their moral, and hopefully forcing them away. We don’t have to win the battle numberwise, a moral victory of seeing the Fire-fist unstopped is likely enough to stop any army, and their overwhelming numbers mean little in a confined space such as atop this plateau, and the poison swamp likely would have affected many. Estimated casualty rate, 30%.

This one will admit several flaws not known with this strategy. This one doesn't know if the burden of burning villages would affect Kuba any. The poison swamp if bypassed early would lead to our defeat very quickly. Another flaw would be Kurisu thinking more rationally and eliminating Michizoe instead, however, it is doubtful we would lose, instead using poison swamps instead of countering their S-rank, and we would have two ninja who excel at AoE effects on a battlefield where outnumbered. Estimate of routed forces would increase to 50%. That, however, is assuming we catch him after murdering our sensor.

But this one is convinced that by taking the sacrifices of a few minor villages, Miyo, and likely 30% of our forces in open battle, we would be able to win the fight.”

Mibu finally took a deep breath after her rant, looking at the proctor. They’d taken less than 15 minutes between them. Now it was just up to him to judge. Mibu, however, was concerned as more and more possibilities came to her mind.

“All decided are we?” asked the proctor, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose portentously. “Well then let’s see how things unfold then. We’ll start with you young lady since your formation is in place currently,” The proctor ran through a complex series of hand signs with practiced ease and all of a sudden the simple wooden game pieces were replaced with tiny figures, each representing units of 50 or so shinobi, with the six S rankers having figures of their own.

The much larger horde of tiny shinobi belonging to the Village hidden in tunnels, distinguished with yellow highlights, were arranged in two uneven, snake like formations that began working their way up the two mountain passes towards the much smaller band of white highlighted Village hidden in the North Shinobi. Meanwhile the the North shinobi acted on Mibu’s order’s Michizoe and Miyo moving to the Eastern pass to set up the toxic swamp while Kuba broke off to raze the smaller nearby villages. If one paid close attention, it was actually possible to make out a distraught expression on the face of the tiny fire fist as he destroyed the settlements.

Meanwhile the two Tunnels formations slowed considerably as they began to encounter resistance, and particularly on the eastern front tiny shinobi began to collapse and fade from existence as they met with Miyo’s poisonous swamp. However at that point something unexpected happened. The tiny figure of Yagami broke off from his forces and with a small detachment following him began traveling rapidly east, over the seemingly impassible mountains separating the two Tunnel formations. The little Yagami, using an impressive combination of shinobi athleticism and earth release to tame the difficult terrain, made quick work of the position arrived at the edge of the Eastern path near Miyo’s position. Yagami made some little motions that probably represented handseals and suddenly the whole game board vibrated as the mountainside he was standing began collapsing and sliding down, quickly burying Miyo’s swamp and many of her troops as well. From there Yagami linked up with the eastern tunnel forces and he and Baisho pursued Miyo, while Kurisu took a detachment of her own ahead to chase after Michizoe.

Meanwhile the forces Yagami had left behind in the West split in two, half of them making a beeline towards the village hidden in the North itself while the other headed North East to try and catch the remainder of Miyo and Michizoe’s forces in a pincer maneuver.

The still visibly upset Kuba, catching wind of this development, made a show of surveying the burned wreckage around him and then lead his forces West to engage the advance Tunnels force. Although Kuba caught the advance team and annihilated them in a flashy display, the remainder of the western formation was able to cut off Miyo and Michizoe’s retreat and crush them. After that the now combined Tunnel forces took some time to reorganize their forces and then advanced leisurely on the village itself. The reserve force had plenty of time to raze the village and retreat, even taking most of Kuba’s remaining forces with them, but he and units that probably represented volunteers stayed behind to make a last stand, taking out an impressive number of Tunnel shinobi before inevitably succumbing to the combination of numbers and three S rank shinobi.

“Hmm well that’s a defeat I’m afraid,” The proctor said passively. “Although it’s not really part of my job, let me offer you my thoughts,” The proctor leaned forward to tap the the game board, his finger jabbing at the Eastern path that was still covered in illusory rubble. “Your defensive position here was very strong, you made good use of Miyo’s abilities and and Michizoe’s sensory jutsu are a natural counter to Kurisu’s stealth and Baisho’s genjutsu. What you underestimated was your enemy’s ability to plan and adapt,” The proctor’s voice raised in pitch slightly and he took on the eager expression of an enthusiast explaining their hobby to someone at a party. “It often gets glossed over because most historical accounts focus on the village hidden in the North’s perspective, but Yagami had standing orders from the outset of the battle to prioritize engaging Miyo, since his large scale earth release jutsu were the best way to suppress her swamps. When Yagami’s forces didn’t encounter Miyo at the western chokepoint he was able to easily conclude that she was guarding the East. From there he used his Earth release in an unconventional manner to take an unexpected route through the mountains and surprise you. Have you ever heard this quote young lady? ‘An ambush, if discovered and promptly surrounded, will return the intended mischief with interest.’ That’s what Yagami was able to do to you.,”

The proctor lifted up his finger and moved it over to the still smouldering settlements outside of the main village.

“As a final note I’ll say this. It’s rare, exceedingly rare for an inexperienced commander to run into trouble by paying too much concern too logistics instead of too little but that’s what happened here. This was a pitched battle settled over the course of days not weeks or months and the supply situations of both sides were ample, whatever could have been gathered from those little villages simply wouldn’t affect the outcome of the battle one way or the other. Even if they had been worth burning down you don’t need an S ranked fire ninjutsu specialist to set alight a couple of huts, you could have used a handful of chunin and gotten the exact same results, probably from the reserve you set aside since they would have had ample time to retreat back to the main village. Assigning Kuba to that task left him in a poor position to actually dictate, or even respond to the flow of battle. Performing a task that clashed with his morals also appeared to undermine his decision making and the morale of his troops later on as well, though you had already lost by that point, if Kuba had chosen to link up with Michizoe and Miyo instead of defending the village you might have been able to pull the bulk of your forces off the battlefield safely by leaving behind a small screening force,”

The Proctor paused to take a much needed breath and then sighed happily. “Good first attempt though, now then let’s see how you fair young man,” he said, resetting the board and shifting the position of the troops to the one Kaoru had described. Just as before, the board was covered in illusory, miniature shinobi who began to move about. The opening moves of the battle proceeded in a similar manner to Mibu’s simulation, even to the point that Yagami left his forces behind and started crossing the mountains.

“See this is quite interesting,” said the proctor, getting worked up enough to offer some running commentary. “You can see here the Mountain has made the same assumption about Miyo’s position as last time, though he’s actually incorrect this time. It appears he also gave the same orders to the forces he left behind.

Just as before, the western Tunnel formation split into two groups, one heading North to rush the main village while the other headed East to catch up with Yagami and the western forces. However this time Kuba, Miyo and the handful of forces with them were able to split up and intercept both groups, eviscerating their numbers with wide ranging fire and poison swamps. In the meantime however the eastern formation, with Yagami accompanying them, had exited the mountain pass and organized themselves into a secure front line. Miyo and Kuba’s groups were able to turn around in time to meet the remainder of the Tunnel army head on, but the difference in numbers was still too great for them to overcome. The tipping point came when Kurisu and a small group were able breach the North’s lines and target Michizoe,disrupting the coordination of the North’s forces and eventually leading to a surrender.

“Ahh and there we go,” said the proctor, nodding. “This was a more conventional formation, made very adaptable and reactive thanks to Michizoe’s ability coordinate and manage intelligence. That allowed you to respond well in the early stages of the battle and inflict some heavy losses while conserving your own forces. But even the damage you inflicted wasn’t enough to overcome the numbers advantage your enemy had and to set up your formation you conceded the mountain passes and allowed your enemy to link up and pit all of their superior raw strength against yours.”

The proctor stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Overall young man you inflicted more damage on your enemies so it’s your win. However in saying that, the young lady’s solution was closer to achieving an actual victory. In situations where you are heavily disadvantaged it isn’t sufficient to fight conventionally and minimise your mistakes; you need to take risks and hope they pay off,”

Mibu nodded, watching the battle carefully. “This little shadow understands. Thank you for the insight. One’s thought should be more flexible, and keep into account the thoughts of the enemies at all times. ” That was the reason they were given an hour, there was a lot to understand. Mibu made the Seal of Reconciliation towards Kaoru. “This was your win then, it seems you are top of the class. It was a fun match.”

Kaoru blinked in rapid repetition, surprised to be declared the winner. While he didn't necessarily like Mibu's seemingly brutal methods, they did seem sound in varying ways. He couldn't help but smile, so happy was he to have actually been here and won. He turned to Mibu and matched her Seal of Reconciliation. He didn't really know what to say about being top of the class, due to how much he disagreed. So he just chose to be polite as a fallback. “Th-thank y-you! It was a l-lot of fun, a-and I r-really appre-preciate being able to b-be here!”

“Hmm, wait here a moment,” said the proctor suddenly, standing up and heading back into a curtained off section of his tent. After a few moments of searching the proctor turned back around and plopped down a large, cardboard box, releasing cloud of dust from the thick coating the box had accumulated in storage.

The proctor gave the box a quick brush to remove the rest of the dust and revealed a brightly painted scene in a slightly dated artstyle depicting black clad shinobi battling for control of a hill. The title, in bold, yellow lettering, identified the box as “Shinobi Stratagems 2.4: War of Tariffs Edition.

“It’s not really efficient to use a genjutsu like this all the time when you’re just starting out so for now I’ll lend you this,” said the proctor, stroking the box with an unmistakable trace of nostalgia. “It’s a little old now but of the commercially available wargaming rulesets this one is probably most suitable as a training tool for shinobi. Work your way through the scenarios in the box and then come try defence of the North again, that would be my advice. I know the War of Tariffs isn’t one of the ‘cool’ ‘flashy’ conflicts kids tend to go in for these days. But the campaign will give you a good grounding in the fundamentals of strategy,”

Mibu nodded as the box was given to the two. “Flashiness is how ninja are killed. This little shadow respects ANBU so it’s never been this one’s style. The item is appreciated, and will be put to good use. When this one is more proficient, she will be back, as her team really needs one with some wit.”

She turned to Kaoru, and bowed.

“This was enjoyable. You will be challenged by this shadow again, perhaps next time will go differently.”

Kaoru bowed thankfully to the proctor and turned back to Mibu. “I h-had fun too. W-we should t-try the W-War of Tariff's wh-when we both h-have free time a-again. I l-look forward to next time!”

 

[xAlter]

Hakumei Sakuya
- Team Miyako - Location: City Center - Tags: Ganryu Arael AtlannianSpy -
​

Listening to his sensei, Haku shrugged as he made to wait for the pizzas to arrive. Of course the waiting was not fun, as waiting for anything is a rather boring ordeal, or so the stories go. Leaning onto one of the nearby walls, Haku closed his eyes in a meditative trance. Evening out his breathing, Haku seemed to almost drift off, if not for Okuni yelling for Asami to protect her from him. Hearing Asami's remark about him being a pervert, Haku made no attempt to fight back. It was true. On some sort of subconscious level, all men were perverts. Denying that one simple truth was like denying that grass was green, the sky was blue, or Okuni being super paranoid over everything. Opening his eyes once he smelled pizza, Haku made to grab his own stack.

Watching Okuni's face scrunch up in, was that disgust?, Haku let out a silent chuckle. "Carrying pizzas is a lot more difficult than you'd think Asami-san." Haku spoke up from where he stood. "It's a mixture of balance, speed, and agility. It's not like groceries at all. Where as groceries are in a bag, the only thing keeping pizzas from falling is you, the carrier." Pushing off from where he stood, Haku dusted off his pants. "Our best bet to avoid dropping the pizzas is using the shunshin tehcnique. That way we can get to places without risk of tripping, falling, or dropping."

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Emerie Sairento​

The day had been a quiet one. Her attendants had little idle chatter to entertain her with, and her mother was already hard at work when she had awoken. Emerie always did love quiet mornings, but she loved noise to keep her aware and awake. Perhaps she would ask for a band for the tower? As Emerie strolled towards the academy where her sensei waited, she tried to recall if there were any musical performers in the village right now.

Emerie lightly tapped her cheeks as she walked. She needed to focus. Today was the day of her first mission! Surely she’d be doing something very ninja-like today. She had her boots shiny and clean now, and she wore another white and black outfit. This one was far less frilly than was she had worn for her final test. She had learned that she had best not dirty her best clothes on these missions.

Sensei came into view, sitting on a bench. Emerie approached quietly, until she stood a distance in front of him.

“Good day to you, sensei,” Emerie said, greeting him politely. “I am ready to perform well today.”

KageYuuki QuirkyAngel Phayne

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Dancing with the Genin​

Emerie stayed towards the back of the crowd as they exited the theatre hall. They had just witnessed an amazing performance by a traveling group of dancers, foreign to this land. Having enjoyed the show so much, Emerie had almost forgotten to leave! Emerie was excited to go tell her mother how amazing the dancing was. Perhaps one day she could make sort of dancing machine that people could enjoy…


Emerie let out a deep breathe, and walked out into the noon sun. Perhaps someone she knew liked to dance she didn’t know about!


Someone she knew who liked to dance sat in the theatre halls ravenously taking notes in the dance structure of the dances. Okuni was a traditionalist, her mother she still thought danced better, and more respectfully, but these dancers just seemed… so much different. As they left though, Okuni caught eye of something… interesting. Smiling, Okuni jumped to the ceiling and lept rooftop to rooftop to catch up. She wished her tree climbing jutsu was better, but, well, her raw strength made up for it. She landed in front of Emerie.


“Emerie of the Sariento clan, I have a few questions!”


Taken aback by the sudden arrival of a relatively familiar face, Emerie brought a finger to her lip. “Ah, why of course. I would be happy to answer whatever you wish to ask,” Emerie responded with a calm smile.


This wasn’t the first time she’d been interviewed, but normally there would be camera wielders nearby as well. Were they hiding somewhere?


Okuni smiled as she grabbed the comb in her hair and started combing it. “Good to see someone in the class taking an interest in the arts btw. But I am a truth seeker and I will find it. X years ago, the Sariento clan moved into the village, and the Saito clan disappeared from the pages of history. Is your clan secretly the Saito clan in disguise hiding themselves from a failed military experiment that gassed Edo village, an ally of ours, and picked up the ridiculous accent to hide the truth! Also new name let you get away with new experiments explaining the progress made that you secretly had but were afraid to bring forth!”


Okuni panted as her rant got faster and faster.


Emerie listened carefully, briefly furrowing her eyebrows as Okuni spoke. “Hmmmm… I do not believe this to be true, as my family has never spoken of either the Edo Village, or Saito Clan. As for these experiments you speak of, I assume you mean the ways my clan uses our special jutsu to forge weapons. However, I do suppose your theory is not outside the realm of… ah… possibility,” Emerie answer, speaking clearly just as she was taught.


“Hmm. I’ll follow up! But there’s one other matter. I saw you in there. I challenge you to a dance off. So few people appreciate the arts. Seems like it’d be fun.”


Emerie’s lips parted for a moment, as she tried to understand Okuni’s challenge. “What is a… dance off?” She asked. Emerie was quite sure she understood the challenge but wanted clarification. She had never actually danced before. She had only seen street performances and professionals such as the ones she just watched.


“Well, the hall’s now empty, or will be quickly, show me your moves. I’ll show you mine. Let’s make it interesting of winner buys loser a snack. Manj- No… Mochi, pretty sure I’m banned from that Manju shop….”


Okuni beamed as she talked. She told herself it was truthseeker to get closer to a target, but really anyone interested in dance was going to be fun.


“I suppose I have the time. Dancing has always looked like a fun activity.”


Emerie turned back towards the theatre. Contemplating what way she would dance. “Shall we!”


Okuni nodded, climbing into upper window, past where they escorted the dancers out. “I’ve always been taught traditionalist style. Yourself?”


She made her way to the stage, waiting for the last leaver, an old man, before leaping down. “Who first?”


“I have not been taught to dance, so I will simply do as I must to recreate the dances I have seen throughout my life so far.” Emerie said, hopping down onto the stage. She thought make to the dancing she had just witnessed, and held a pose similar to the one they had ended in.


“I see you want to go first! Go for it!” Okuni made her way respectfully off stage, sitting in the front row. Her movements became… much more refined as she talked about something she was serious about. Though that mood was ruined as she reached into her sleeves and pulled out a pill bottle. Her mother miiiight have threatened to throw her through a wall if she forgot again.


===============

Emerie’s hands rose upwards to the sky, her eyes shut as she turned her face upwards. Her long hair hanging down behind her like a waterfall. In a swift spin, Emerie flipped back onto her hands, holding it there a moment as her legs lowered, until her feet were pointing at the ground. She let out a sharp breath, before heating up the so far boring routine. Her knees bent and she swung down to her knees. She swung her head in a circle before planting her hands on the ground in front of her. Her weight shifted, and she seung her legs in a circle, her hands maneuvering over her legs as she swung them around. Upon the third rotation around, Emerie did some sort of somersault backwards. She lie on the ground, and stuck a foot up in the air, her last pose.


Emerie released a relaxed breath. “Was that any good? I made an effort to make use of all the styles of dance I have witnessed.”


Okuni nodded her head.


“Based mostly on Ballet I see, much like those foriegners who performed earlier. The technique is nice. I’m more of a traditionalist though. Come down and I’ll show you what I learned from the shrine.”


Okuni smiled as she approached the stage, inhaling a large breath from her nostrils, and holding it as she closed her eyes. Taking the center of the stage, Okuni centered her self holding her hands centered around her chest, and straightening her back. She released the breath peacefully and opened her eyes.


Her right arm struck out like a wave, her left following suit, and her feet unfolding under her. In slow, rhythmic steps forward, her sleeves spread out, and in a twist, they followed like great clouds spreading across the sky. Weaving across gently, and leading with her hips, Okuni moved like a raincloud over the ocean.


She continued moving into smaller and smaller circles with her arms, slowing down as the dance came to an end, until Okuni was left standing perfectly still, her hands cupped around each other, and her sleeves fluttering downward.


She smirked.


Emerie, having moved down to the seat where Okuni sat clapped her hands together happily. A bright smile plastered onto her face.


“That was amazing! You are an excellent dancer! I do think one day you will perform on many stage such as these in front of many viewers!” Emerie exclaimed with delight.


Okuni shrugged. “More like commit homocide for a broken system in the name of a village that brings no honor with some fancy footwork, but close enough! Your moves aren’t bad either. Screw it, sweets are on me~!”


Okuni was inwardly glowing. Most people just called her weird… an honest to goodness compliment went a long way. And she got to show off for an audience… of one, but still an audience! She jumped down from the stage, looking around. “Man… would be nice to perform here for real, but most people don’t really like tradition. Oh well, maybe once the place collapses people will return those good old values. Any, uh… place you prefer?”


“S-sweets? I know not of many places in the village. I am normally satisfied with the food that is prepared for me at home. I will leave the decision up to you, as you seem to know a lot about the village,” Emerie responded.


“If you rely on others for all your cooking and needs, one day you’ll get stabbed in the back! If a place doesn’t know who you are, you are a lot safer there. ‘Sides, I think the same foods would always get boring. Let’s go down 2nd, there’s a niiiiice restaurant that serves deep-fried butter.”


“What is a ‘deep fry’?” Emerie asked, standing up and brushing off her clothes. “Are they like french fries? I do adore french fries.”


“Eh… close enough.”

 

[Phayne]

-Team Makoto-

Shinjiro had spent the early hours of the morning in light training, covering several laps around the local neighbourhood as the sun rose before cycling through his standard routine of push ups, sit ups, pull ups etc. Nothing too strenuous that would take away from the energy he would need for the rest of the day; their debut mission being today. Whilst it was standard routine for him to go through a light bout of exercise in the early hours of the morning, today had been slightly different, the feeling of excitement and anticipation leaving him somewhat fidgety and restless. Just the act of putting himself to bed had been a monumental obstacle itself, his brain too engrossed in thoughts about what their next task was to be. It had been a good solid 45 minutes if not an hour of merely staring at the ceiling fan above him as he tried to force himself to succumb to slumber.

Alas, the time had finally arrived for him to meet up with Naomi, Emerie and Makoto Sensei. Eager to see what their debut mission was going to be, Shinjiro hurried off towards the agreed meeting point, his newly acquired fuma-shuriken fastened to his back as he lept from rooftop to rooftop; the silhoutte of his long frame and shuriken causing a kids bubble gum to pop, as he watched in awe as the 'Ninja' raced stealthily across the roofs.

"Morning Sensei!, Emerie!" waved Shinjiro, as he lept from the buildings roof, his right hand stretched outward as it grasped the top of the lamp post, the momentum causing him to do a full circle around the light before he released his grip and landed onto street level, before proceeding to walk over to the duo currently waiting.

"Naomi not here yet?" he inquired, unsure if she had arrived and merely entered a convenience store whilst they waited.


Mentioned:
InsaneAsylum QuirkyAngel KageYuuki
​

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Team Miyako
​

At one time Hidezaki Towers had been one of the tallest and most modern buildings in Chowaku but that had been a few decades ago. In the intervening years newer, more buildings had sprung up around the again apartment tower and the building itself had inevitably aged, although it was clean and surprisingly cheerful, with many of the balconies decorated with flowers, herb gardens or wind chimes.

Today however there was an unmistakable air of tension around the quiet residential building, which only seemed to approach as the three genin of Team Fujihara approached it carrying their precious, greasy cargo. The trouble began when the genin reached the gates of the low wall around the tower's modest front garden. Suddenly the empty balconies on the second floor became a hub of activities as scores of elderly folk armed with garden hoses appeared.

"There they are!" Cried one of them, a fierce looking gentleman equipped with an old conical soldier helmet. "Hose 'em down! They'll have to go back for fresh pizza if they're soaked! In the name of the Shogun of Hidezaki hold your ground!" At his command the elderly defenders opened up with their hoses, concentrating their fire on the pizza boxes in an attempt to make them unsellable.

Ganryu
Arael
xAlter

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Team Tatsuya

Trial of the Wind
​

=============

Trail of the Wind

Rank: D

Description: Mr. Fuji lives atop Mt Fuujin seeking enlightenment. He used to be a sensor, and occasionally gives us assistance, so we in turn occasionally give him supplies. The only problem is Mt Fuujin is mostly a sheer cliff, and climbing it without tree climbing jutsu is tough.

===================


Mibu continually reviewed the items in her pack. A mission with her team was acceptable. She would get to see their skills in the field beyond attacking sensei. How would they hold up? Ryoken was strong, and Haru’s talent was unique. It was D-rank, so it shouldn’t be too problematic, and Mibu’s rent was now behind, she needed the cash.

Finally deciding it was good after 15 minutes of debating whether or not to take the explosive tag, she headed out to the village gate to meet with the other two, blending into the shadows naturally, her training with an ANBU member taking effect. Never be open, who knows when you were to be attacked? Granted, with Mibu, not likely, but she wanted to also avoid the ‘glomp’ she had a feeling Ryoken would be up for.

Ryoken showed up as if on cue, a bag of jerky in hand. He was chewing away at a particularly tough piece as he showed up at the gates, eyeing the area for a second, then proceeding to sit on a nearby bench. He himself had a couple stalkers who have been following for some time, one of which was a cat whom he fed on the way and the other was a young woman with a camera and glasses far too thick for them to do her any good fashion-wise.

In fact she looked rather…. Intentive… one could hear her heavy breathing from far off and she wasn’t quite in bad shape. She screamed of being an otaku, or at least somebody obsessed with something.

Nonetheless, Ryoken treated her like the background.

“I wonder if Mibu is here…?” he questioned picking a particularly stubborn bit of meat from his teeth.

“I don’t… see her,” Haru approached with a slow step, he could smell the spices coming out of the bag Ryoken was holding. The blond rifled through a new looking leather bag before attaching it to his belt. Sapphire hues scanned the gate once again, “So… where’s sensei?”

A voice sounded from upside down an awning. Good luck glomping her up there!

“Treating a patient’s evisceration last observed. A tiger summon named ‘fluffy’ who was not. This should not prove to be a difficult mission however, this one sees no reason to wait to be yelled at that we should have gone. The package is secure.”

Mibu produced a small backpack of supplies. She was deadpan the whole time, but hoped they would appreciate the ‘fluffy’ joke. Someone slipping on a banana was apparently funny, so why not a man mauled by a tiger? Terrible condition though when she’d peeked in, but ‘George’ was much less funny name for a tiger to her.

“Shall we depart? Can both of you climb trees?”

“Well duh, of course I can! I climb trees all the time!” Ryoken most certainly misunderstood what Mibu meant by tree climbing, but nonetheless, he could do it. Not a lie per say, but more or less a victim of wording and circumstance, circumstance being his own foolishness.

And food being in his mouth.

Haru jumped, spinning to look up at Mibu. He stammered for a second, trying and failing to ask how she managed to get up there without being noticed.

Mibu noted the look of confusion. “You have a habit of not looking up, you didn't notice a shadow atop your closet yesterday either. It worries your teammates, perhaps it will be a less friendly shade next time.”

“My…” he paled, “What were you doing in my closet!?”

Mibu produced a worn book from her own pouch.

“Annotating ‘Spring of Youth.’ Its a decent book, but the main character's reactions seem to be wholly unrealistic as his personality was close to yours, but none of his movements, or reactions were close.”

Mibu then produced a breath mint, and tossed it at Haru.

“Also it was noted you forgot to brush your teeth this morning. Well, shall we deliver this? Ryoken, could you take inventory of what's inside? This man, Mr Fuji must not get food or supplies often.”

Catching the mint, Haru stammered for a moment, his wide-eyed expression never going away. She was watching him? Why!? Why didn’t anyone notice her there? He shook his head, turning away from his teammates. They probably did notice and expected him to be able to find her.

He was supposed to be the gifted one after all.

Ryoken looked up at Mibu and began to act as if he WASN’T trying to sneak a peek into what was inside the package already. It smelled good whatever it was… hmm..

“..I smell… Preserves… Sweet… a bit sour.. Jam, some preserved meats and… hmm..” he sniffed harder into box. “Bitter… medicine? Cold medicine maybe. I remember the smell when dad used to give me the medicine when I was sick.

Also… blood increasing pills?

"That too I remember…” he winced a bit from a memory he couldn’t quite recall, hurt his head, why he liked to be dumb about it.

Dumb was good, dumb meant he didn’t need to remember anything!

He was a good boy.

“And Umm some other stuff I don’t know, cloth, and packaging.” he waved off the rest, obviously not important.

“Umm,” the blond genin’s gaze was still on the path. “Ryoken, just don’t- don’t eat the provisions we’re supposed to be delivering.” Why did Mibu think giving that to him was a good idea?

“Fine fine…” Ryoken answer halfhearted and totally not jumbling the thought of the jam in his head.


=============


Traveling to the mountain itself took half a day of walking. During the entire, Mibu would ask an assortment of weird questions, from food, to clothing, to favorite weapons shop. She’d heard of this thing called gossip recently she’d been dying to try out, though her cold voice never really got far in any conversations.

As they approached, it started to rain, bucketing the side of the mountain. Mibu didn’t bother to really even notice it beyond turning to the two.

“This is an unforeseen difficulty. Even with Tree Climbing jutsu, the wind and water are above what most can handle. However, we have no way of knowing when this will stop, or when Mr. Fuji will run out of supplies. Shall we climb anyways?”

“Tree climbing jutsu? But this isn’t a tree….” Ryoken sighed not quite liking the rain as he shook off some of the excess, spraying water into the air from the rain. “Man… I’m hungry….”

Mibu shook her head, producing her bento box from her pouch. It was a little small, but something would answer hunger at least.

“Go ahead. The bento box contains: skewered salmon marinated in soy sauce overnight, caught last night; coconut rice, jasmine rice cooked with coconut oil and a touch of pineapple; and sliced peaches, marinated in its own syrup along with a pinch of cinnamon basil. Some mochi as well, made with red bean paste sweetened as well last night, so… daifuku. Today was a cheat day, anyways, one should always watch sugar intake. This mission goes well, more can be made..”

Mibu listed the ingredients robotically. “Likely unnecessary to list everything though, the Chowakage likely can afford more decently made food, all this was salvaged except the soy sauce, coconut oil, and mochi. Apologies, digression is a sin of this little shadow.”

With the mention of each item in the bento box it seemed as if Ryoken’s body ate it accordingly, it was if the lid were not there at all and the swiftness of his consumption of each article was so swift in fact it may be considered a technique all in it’s own.

With a pat on his stomach he handed the box back to Mibu. “Thank you for the meal! It was delicious~!” he exclaimed, quite beaming, it appears Mibu tops the ranks of friendship today.

“Hoo! I’m ready!!! Ready to climb and deliver!” the boy started shadowboxing the mountain, looking ready to take on the world.


“Well as long as nobody’s hungry that’s the main thing isn’t it?” Said an icy, dangerous voice from behind the genin.

Tatsuya had supplemented his usual cane with a sturdy looking, black umbrella but otherwise he looked pretty much the same: his long coat and scarf seemed suited for the rain and his glowering, contemptuous expression was probably familiar to the genin already. Once the three were looking at him Tatsuya made a show of looking around at his surroundings.

“How curious,” he said dryly. “The city gates appear to have undergone rather substantive re modeling. Why they almost look like the side of Mt. Fuujin but that can’t be right, I distinctly recall telling you all to wait at the city gates until I arrived. It couldn’t possibly be that my students were dimwitted enough to go off on their own on their very first mission? The mission that they have to present an after action report to the Chowakage personally as is tradition for everyone’s first mission in our village?”

Ryoken’s head whipped around with a smile that definitely didn’t fit the fact they were currently being scolded. “Glad you made it! I thought it was weird that you weren’t there sensei, but we had to do the job yea?

I thought we should tell dad just how good of a job we did on our first delivery mission and all this hiking is so much fun!” as always, the negatives of this situation passed far over the young boy’s head, or possibly it flew right under him given how far his head was in the clouds.

Mibu looked up at the mountain. “Remodelling?” She blinked twice before giving up. “One fails, however, to see the problem of the actions so far, however. A genin is allowed D-ranked missions, and tradition has yet to pay my bills. We assumed you to be busy, not to wait. That said, success is appreciated, and a jonin being here raises said odds.”

Mibu shivered a bit in the cold and rain. “This weather is abysmal, and the terrain has become treacherous. This little shadow is confident in being able to climb this, but, well, that is due to additional trainings had on the matter beyond the academy. Does anyone think they would struggle to climb? This one sees little need for a team on a mission such as this. Of course, the decision ultimately lies with the leader among us, should he decide to lead.”

Mibu’s words snapped Haru out of his daze, the genin inching out from his hiding place behind Ryo. As if hiding would protect him any from their sensei’s wrath. “Uh… Mibu… I’m not sure breaking away from the team would be such a good idea… I-I mean, we were put on one for a reason, right?” Sapphire hues eyed the steep climb warily, with this storm that crept up on them, could they even get to the summit?

Tatsuya stared at Ryoken and then Mibu with outright disbelief. "Are you two really as dense as you act or is this some kind of conspiracy to drive me insane? It won't work you know, I've been dealing with Shiori for years now," Tatsuya broke into a sudden coughing fit and only resumed speaking a few seconds later, after adjusting his scarf.

"In either case do your best to pay attention for a little while, I'll try to use simple words so you can follow along. As you three stand right now you are probably capable of completing this mission, if you continued on by yourselves I'd estimate there's about a 60 percent chance you complete the mission with no issues whatsoever and at least an 80 percent chance you partially achieve the objective to some extent, or while receiving injuries." Tatsuya paused for a moment, studying each of the genin in turn to make sure they were paying attention, then continued.

"Those are pretty good odds, if you were gambling you'd probably take them right? But let me ask you children this: Do you think when Mr. Fuji sent this request to our village he understood that he was gambling? Do you think he made his peace with a 1 in 5 chance that he doesn't get his food and medicine this time? Do you think we want other prospective clients to think that if they hire our village for work as simple as this we might fail them?"

Tatsuya lifted up the end of his scarf, ensuring the forehead protector sewn into the end of it glinted dully despite the cloudy skies above them. "This is not just a piece of metal it is the dignity of our village; the livelihood of your comrades and the fear that dissuades our enemies from preying on us. It. Is. Heavy. In short order you will be ready to bear it along simple paths such as the one we walk now. In time, I hope, you will be capable of bearing it across more treacherous ground, but you will take this burden nowhere I am not satisfied you can carry it without tripping up. Understood?"

Mibu removed her headband and started juggling it. It did not seem that heavy. “No, they are all grandiose concepts for a simple shadow.” She responded honestly. Honor, tradition, respect… none of them paid her rent. “All this one knows is this one is now wetter and confused. Odds did not increase with a lecture. They are simply the odds. Orders to increase the odds will be accepted happily, this one would rather not fail, but honor, tradition, and respect are all lost on this one. Is there a formation our leader would prefer? Or tips on climbing mountain? This one has given their word and so she won’t climb as we are ordered not to, but the point is not understood if honesty is expected.” Mibu simply shrugged, waiting in the rain for further orders.

Ryoken simply started to do the math. “But… 60 percent… plus 80 percent… is 140… that means no matter what we’ll finish it right?” His mental math seemed to strain his three cell brain.

Nonetheless, he seemed to sulk due to the lecture. “I’m sorry Mr. Tatsuya…. Honest…” his big eyes welled up, feeling honestly horrible.

Haru flinched at Tatsuya’s lecture, shrinking back a few steps. “Yes, sensei…” His blond hair was now plastered to his face from the rain. Tatsuya wasn’t wrong though, their client was depending on these supplies. Failing such a simple objective would be embarrassing for the village. Gods, what would everyone at home think if I botched my first mission…

He looked over at Mibu as she spoke, at first it was with a wide eyed stare as she dismissed their sensei’s lecture. It was only just going to get them yelled at even more by sensei! Eventually, though, Haru nodded and turned back towards Tatsuya. “Uh… sensei… Mibu does kind of have a point…” He shifted his weight, “Standing around in the rain isn’t going to help Mr. Fuji get his supplies either…”

“No...No I suppose it won’t,” Tatsuya said coldly. “So Mibu we will be continuing this discussion on your time, not the client’s. Meet me at the clinic after we’re done here. Now onto the matter at hand:” Tatsuya suddenly unslung his satchel from his shoulder and let it fall to the ground with thump that dislodged its flap, revealing coils of rope and dozens of kunai.

“Kunai were actually originally designed as climbing tools, prior to the widespread adoption of the tree climbing technique such instruments were necessary. And if the terrain or conditions are too unfavorable then occasionally such antiquated methods can be useful. You tie yourselves together with the rope and hammer the kunai into the mountainside as you go, then you can thread the rope through the holes in the kunai and you’ll always be secured, even if should lose your grip.”

Tatsuya coughed again. “With three people a common configuration is to have the nimblest, lightest person in front to scout out the best path; someone with a lot of stamina following them close by carrying the kunai and hammering them in as the group goes while someone strong bringing up the rear acts an anchor, supporting the other two if they should fall. Of course, if you have any better ideas you should do that instead, you were all so confident that you could handle this mission by yourselves that my concern is probably unnecessary,”


Mibu blinked coldly, but started to tie herself as first person, though the term ‘lightest’ did make her debate if sensei meant her or Haru at this point. Mentally, Mibu strained at the request, she could just climb the mountain herself, but, well, she had to continue to be a ninja, and getting kicked from the team would not help. She doubted the kunai would work well on the side of a mountain, soft iron, but if it was soft rock, it would easily work. She then glanced at Tatsuya. Did he know it was soft rock at a glance? He hadn’t shown his great genius so far, but….

She turned to her teammates.

“If the orders are to be understood, the order should be this little shadow, Haru, and Ryoken.” She glanced at Tatsuya again. “Correct?”

Getting impatient, Mibu would wait minutes before trying to walk vertically up the sheer side of the mountain, gripping to it with ease. Mibu had relatively few things she was ‘proud’ of, but her tree climbing was on point.

“Sure, Sure let’s go Haru!’ Ryoken, now excited at the prospect of climbing up the mountain again, already began to tie the rope around…

Haru’s waist.

After which he then began to start on his, looking quite pleased regardless of the fact that Tatsuya just had done the teacher equivalent of wagging his finger at them going “tsk tsk tsk.”

After he was done, Ryoken picked up the basket once more, tying the handle onto the rope and weaving the end of the rope onto his own tied rope, hanging it off of him rather than dangling over the abyss.

He would be going slowest right?

And food was important! Never waste food!

“Okay!! All set! Lead us Mibu!!”

Haru blinked, looking back at Mibu. There it was again. Why did Mibu keep calling herself a shadow? He didn’t have long to ponder this when Ryoken spoke up again, “Eh?” The blond quickly looked down to realize his teammate had already gotten the rope coiled and tied around them. “How did you…?”

He heaved a sigh, was there really any point in trying to figure out the ‘how’ or ‘why’ with Ryoken? Haru instead tried to comb his hair back out of his eyes with his fingers. “Let’s… let’s just get going before this rain gets any worse.” They hadn’t even started yet and already a hot bath sounded amazing for when he got back home.


It hadn’t been raining long yet but the mountainside was already slick with moisture. Water made the rock shiny and slippery and there were little overhangs that tended to gather pools of it and then release it as a stream of little drops that seemed to zero in on the tops of the climbers’ heads. There were handholds in the craggy surface of the rock, but they were often few and far between or worse still, too soft and unstable to support anyone’s weight. The only steady path up the mountain was therefore a frustrating, zigzagging route that frequently screeched to a halt while Haru hammered kunai into the rock face to secure their route.

“Hey guys! Guys! Hey guys! Guys! Guys! Hey! Hey! Hey guys!” Ryoken repeatedly called to the others, absolutely AMAZED by the scenery around them. Hell, even the incoming rain clouds made it look sufficiently ominous. “Hey! Do you guys think there's a trail we coulda walked up on? I mean climbing is fun but it might be a bit hard for an old fellah to get down right?” Ryoken began to question this whole idea of climbing up the mountainside.

Even if he was having fun, likely the only one at that.

“Hey! Hey guys! What should we eat when we get back? Need to eat some protein after this or we won't get stronger! Or spinach, I saw one time on the T.V that a guy ate nothing but spinach and was able to punch a whole boat in half!!

But it was a cartoon, but yea still!

Guys? Do you hear me?”

Mibu continued her walk vertically, scouting out routes as they came. She took a moment pausing deciding between several routes, rain splattering her face as she tried. The cold, the rain was… annoying. It took her a full minute to respond to Ryoken.

“Hey.

No trail, hence the mission.

Old guy doesn’t come down, hence the mission.

Unless one is paying, this little shadow is fasting.

Spinach is, in fact, nutritional, strong punch.

This little shadow doesn’t have a TV to watch cartoons.

Yes.”

Mibu glanced around for Tatsuya, curious if he was doing, or ignoring his own advice. She could climb this mountain just fine. She looked at the tree line, only 200 ft up, 2000 more to go, but that was fine. A strong breeze blew by, causing her to squat to not get blown off. Teammates were precious, but clearly, this mission was to her skills… She continued to quietly sulk as she then chose the left path.

“Yes, Ryo, we hear- gah!” Haru’s foot slid out from under him, though the genin was able to quickly catch himself. “I’m just a little more focused on, y’know, not falling?” He paused, hammering in another kunai. Was sensei going to expect them to collect all of these afterwards? “I don’t really want to test Mibu’s grip strength…” The hammer slipped off the kunai’s ring, coming down on his hand instead. Though Haru only let a sharp breath hiss between his teeth in response.


Oh they’re doing surprisingly well. Tatsuya thought, looking up from under his umbrella to watch his students struggle up the cliffside like a trail of ants. Tatsuya hadn’t actually moved from his original position at the foot of the rock face while his students climbed. After all rock climbing wasn’t really something Tatsuya needed to practice and if all went well he’d prefer to conclude the mission without getting himself dir-

“Well this is somewhat unexpected,” Tatsuya muttered, as a sudden, heavy rumbling distracted his musings. The rumbling grew louder and louder until it seemed as if the very rock underneath the hands of the genin was shaking along with it. Finally the rumbling climaxed with a deluge of mud and dirty water that rushed through treeline at the top of the mountain to cascade over the edge straight towards the three genin. “Still, it might be interesting to see how they handle this for a while,”


The rumbling once again made Mibu crouch for balance. Wind, earth, water, all seemed to conspire against her, she just needed fire and lightning, and the whole circle would be complete. Thunder sounded in the distance made her roll her eyes. She scanned above them continually trying to figure what was going on, her perception not as well trained as she liked, before she noticed the sheet of mud coming towards them.

“Mudslide.” She said almost louder than normal. She allowed her less than a second to think, the wall of mud closing in fast. First guesses were usually right.

Quickly she pulled out a kunai and a large sheet from her bag. She normally used it for her cloak of invisibility, but it had another use today. She sheered the rope connecting her to Haru and Ryoken, her grip strength was not good and she’d only slow them down if dragged by mud. Leaping behind Ryoken, she started to tie her cloth over the basket of supplies to secure it. She took the line she’d been tied to the rest with.

“Ryoken, would you make sure the basket makes it to the top? This little shadow would rather not be yelled at again by sensei, at least for not doing the mission, and-”

Mibu was hit by a moving wall of mud being dragged away mid-conversation, though she continued to mutter as the mud dragged her along.

“Mibu!” Ryoken shouted, his brain worried about his friend, but his body and instincts already set to work. The mudslide was heading their way, as such a smart animal would run around the deluge, the fact he was currently tied to his friend wouldn’t help, but he was a strong young man, capable of lifting Haru should he fall.

At least until he got traction against the wall. Using Haru and his pitons as a fulcrum, Ryoken swung once to the left with his feet and hands moving himself along the movements, once to the right, and then pushed off the stone on the last swing to the left, planting himself using his fuuma shuriken against a safer part of the cliff face, he held on to dear life on that Fuuma Shuriken, hoping Haru would get pulled to safety.

Haru’s eyes widened, first at the incoming mud and then at Mibu cutting her section of the rope. “Wh-what are you doing!?” He reached out to grab her as she passed, fingers only barely brushing the fabric of her shirt. She was swept away just seconds after. “MIBU!”

The genin didn’t have much time to consider how to rescue his teammate when Ryoken’s full weight pulled on the rope. He barely managed to remain clinging to the cliff face until Ryoken’s final swing, pulling him away with a short cry.


"Good grief," Tatsuya muttered, watching as Mibu was swept away from her teammates by the tide of mud. Tatsuya tensed and then body flickered upwards, leaving behind a small crater where he was standing and another in the side of the mountain where he landed, his feet and one hand penetrating into the rock deep enough to grant him a secure foothold.

"I hate using this technique," Tatsuya muttered, focusing on controlling the faintly visible chakra coursing around his legs and enhancing their strength. Tatsuya took off again leaping upwards diagonally to intercept Mibu's fall and snatching her out of the mud as they crossed paths. The pair of them traveled through the air perpendicular to the rock face until they cleared the mudslide and then Tatsuya punched his hand into the mountain, allowing him to come to a halt and letting Mibu dangle from his other hand.

"You know that catchphrase of yours about how precious teammates are is just about the only sensible thing that ever comes out of your mouth. So what are you doing depriving your squad of their precious teammate over a basket of supplies hmm?"

"Are you two alright over there?" Tatsuya called over to Haru and Ryoken.

“I’m okay!” A slightly mud splattered Ryo called from above, he eyed the basket, which seemed largely fine, they were a good while from the top so… It would take time to get moving, if Mibu was gonna join the group again.


“-such things would lead to the collapse of the mission, therefore it is more acceptabl- oh.”


Mibu finally noticed her rescuer. She looked almost confused. Yes, she knew Tatsuya could, he was a jonin, though far less flashy than she’d expected. But the fact he DID rescue her surprised Mibu more than anything. He almost won points for not being flashy about it. Then he called her insensible again, proving they still were not on the same wavelength. The sides of Mibu’s mouth curled ever so slightly.

“My hero.”

She hugged him while covered in mud, inwardly questioning why. It was not any more efficient to the mission to annoy Tatsuya. She had no mission to be annoying to him. Yet her mind said ‘yes’, even if it was illogical. Weird. Mibu let go quickly, and leapt up the side of the cliff, running vertically with a full display of her skills. Again, she had to question why she’d bother, but it just felt right. She somersaulted from rock to rock, climbing the last bit with a small pant.

“This little shadow returns.”

Finally managing to cling to the rocks once more, Haru heaved a sigh of relief. Sensei had caught Mibu, she was safe. The feeling was short lived, however, as watched her seemingly effortless ascent with a sour expression. “Show off…” he tried to wipe some of the mud from his face but quickly gave up. The rain would wash it away soon enough.

“Geh.. you little-” Tatsuya scowled down at the Mibu shaped splotch of mud now besmirching his white lab coat, breaking into a coughing fit before he could finish the invective. WIth a heavy sigh Tatsuya planted his feet on the mountainside and walked vertically up its surface, unhurriedly keeping pace with Haru and Ryoken until all three of them caught up with Mibu at the top of the mountain.


Mibu panted hard, having to stop on a rock on the way up, holding hard to it as she waited. She climbed easily, with much finesse, but it was only now occurring to her how few places there were to rest on the way up. No wonder it was an official mission. “Sorry this one cut herself off.” she said still recovering as the rest past her.

Ryoken wasted no time getting onto all fours and shaking all of the mud off of his body once they were up on the top, exactly when his friends and Tatsuya were near like a good friend. Once upon his feet again he stretched. “AWWWW yea we got up here without a problem~! Sensei caught Mibu and the stuff is safe! Or wait are we at the top yet?” the young boy asked, somewhere down the line his hair had come free from it’s tie and… In truth was more like a messy shaggy veil all across his face…

“Mibu!” Wiggling free of the rope, Haru ran over to her. Slender fingers roughly snatched the front of her shirt, “What the hell were you thinking!?” He asked with wild eyes, “You could’ve been hurt! Or killed!” Shaking his head, the blond pulled her into a hug, ignoring the mud. He was shaking.

Mibu sat on her rock atop, still catching her breath, she was proud to climb, but now embarrassed to be winded, she lowered her mask, unveiling the only part of her not splattered with mud. It was a good mask….

“As Ryoken stated, sensei caught this little shadow, and the stuff is safe. If you wish to know, this one was thinking the mudslide would pull too hard on a weak body such as this. You were the one not wishing to test this one’s grip strength, though it is a good thought. Strength has never been a strong point of a shadow. If one is to cut themselves free, the next logical step is to ensure the mud does not ruin the supplies, the mission, it will be a pity having to clean the shade’s favorite cloth, though. The next thought was ‘there’s mud everywhere’. ”

She was as monotone as ever, literally stating what she was thinking, ragdolling into the hug.

“Seems to this one more useless to dirty your clothes hugging one such as this one. In any case, we are nearly there, shall we?”

“That’s not what I…” Haru sighed, letting his arms drop to his sides. “It’s not the first time I’ve been all muddy.”

“Are we hugging! I wana hug!” Ryo, naturally, rushed into to hug Mibu, by going through Haru, thus collecting them all in a rather tight, muddy, and very unpleasant hug, which then began to be forced towards Tatsuya like a big, messy, unwanted ball of love and discomfort.

“What are you-- dammit you little fools-” Tatsuya backed up but he was up against the edge of the cliff and he was soon forced to stand his ground simply to prevent the over excited Ryoken carrying his teammates of the edge of the cliff. “Fine- FINE! Just stop before you fall off again! I’m not catching a second one of you who develops suicidal tendencies!”

Utilizing a fraction of the strength Tatsuya had displayed rescuing Mibu he picked up the three genin suddenly and moved them away from the edge. Before he could divest himself fully of the children there was a distinctive snapping sound and a flash of light from just ahead of the group.

“Gahahaha! That’s one for the collection!” Said a little old man dressed in shorts and a hawaiian shirt despite the rain. He grinned toothlessly as his camera spat out a photo that he took and shook to develop it. “You’re all looking a little sorry though, why don’t you come back to my cabin, I have a shower you can use and in any case I’d like my supplies.


Mr. Fuji’s cabin was a charming little building constructed from logs of the pines that dotted the mountain top. The windows were illuminated by the efforts of a cozy little fireplace and overall it looked very inviting to the rather bedraggled team Tatsuya. Inside the cabin was what one would expect, with simple, wooden furniture suited to a single occupant. The one rather notable feature however was the back wall of the cabin which was absolutely plastered with photographs.

Each photograph depicted a team of genin and their sensei baring a basket of supplies, most of them looked dirty or exhausted or both. Judging from the number of photographs they accounted for decades of deliveries.

“I see you’ve kept up that irritating hobby of yours,” Tatsuya said tersely, removing his coat and shaking the mud from it before entering.

“Oh yes,” said Mr, Fuji, humming softly to himself as he sought out a blank piece of wall to attach the photo of team Tatsuya to. “I’m such a reliable client for Gunshu that I tend to be their first choice to assign new teams,” he explained to the genin. “As a result I’ve seen the ‘firsts’ of many a shinobi, nearly everyone in the village at one point, although that’s not so much the case now that the village has grown. The first hardship, the first victory, it felt like such a shame not to commemorate them in some way so eventually I started taking photos. Now where to.. Oh it looks like there’s a space here,”

Fuji pinned the photo in place, wedging it up against several photos of unfamiliar teams, most of them from one or two generations ago judging by the signs of aging evident on the photos. One photo in particular might catch the eye of the genin. The sensei, a friendly looking blond man had his arms wrapped around three students, a bright eyed boy and girl on either side and in the middle of it all was an absolutely livid child with large glasses and a blue scarf several sizes too large for him. The boy was so covered in mud that it was difficult to tell his identity but something about his glaring eyes was oddly familiar.

“Hurry up and get yourselves clean,” Tatsuya said, averting his eyes from the wall as he spoke to his students. “It’ll be a nuisance if any of you catch colds,”


The sounds of a shower sounded as soon as the words had left his lips. Mibu was the dirtiest, therefore she headed there as soon as the offer was given, not a single word of ‘taken’, or shame of taking extra measures as many kunoichi might be prone to rattle on about, or checking if the shampoo was the best, ect.

An odd chant could be heard from the shower… a recital of the 12 handsigns names put to some tune. Some awful tune. Mibu’s singing ability was terrible! Inside… her facade cracked, and she smiled a bit.

Joy - To be hugged properly…

Ryoken seemed entranced by the weird old guy, he liked him though! He seemed like a good person that's for certain! The wall of photos made him wonder if dad was on there to… No.. Dads too old to be there! But… “Ooh… That kid looks scary…” he pointed to the glasses wearing kid in the scarf. “The scarf looks comfy though…” he tilted his head before remembering a shower. He loved showers!

He had to get in quick to cause he didn’t want to miss whatever else the old guy had to say!

As such, his brain, going a mile a minute before his lazy common sense could catch up, decided to tell his legs to book it to the washroom and head inside…

And as such he did, his fast genin feet carrying him directly to the door and putting a hand on the handle, turning it as the faint sounds of “Don’t you fool!’ slowly came out from his mind… But it was too late.

“Can’t wait to get clean-”

Before Ryoken even got a look, he would see a bar of soap headed to his face, striking into his mouth from ghostly pale skin, and a kick aimed straight at his throat to knock him out the shower stall.

A ninja was vulnerable in the shower, and had to be prepared for anything. Mibu then pointed the showerhead at him, and turned the heat off.

Anger- The feeling of a teammate barging in on you in the shower improperly..

The genin flew back out of the shower doors he just came in, the soap flew into his mouth, but the kick forced it back out. But the damage was done, his brain filled with the hell that bar of soap had been through being in the shower of an old ass man such as Mr.Fuji… And thus… mixed with the pain from his throat...

He blacked out

Haru, who stood no chance of catching Ryoken, could only look on in horror. Before burying his face in his hands.

There might actually be hope for her taijutsu after all, Tatsuya mused, watching silently as Ryoken was sent flying. After witnessing the boy literally drink poison and then walk home Tatsuya found it difficult to be concerned after a simple kick.

“You know I’ve though this a while but isn’t your clan proficient in sensory jutsu and fuuinjutsu? Wouldn’t it be much easier to have them seal your supplies in a tag and send it by bird? Even though you don’t use your full last name anymore I doubt they’d mind doing that much for you,” Tatsuya said to Mr. Fuji, who was watching the chaos unfolding in his living room

“Sometimes it’s not about doing something the easy way,” Mr. Fuji said with a soft chuckle. “Where would the memories come from if I did that?”

Ganryu
KageYuuki
Orikanyo

 

[Ganryu]

Tangible Values
Mibu & Tatsuya
​

Mibu quickly made her way from ontop of the mountain to the clinic following the mission. Tatsuya sensei had said he’d wanted to see her after, and so she’d comply… not that wasn’t sore though, apparently mountain climbing wa difficult, as was trying to murder teammates.

Teammates are precious

She thought of Ryoken walking in on her… why was that exactly? Then again, she had thrown herself inway of a mudslide rather than take the basket and run…

Emotions were confusing. She opened the clinic door, and bowed before Shiori politely, before taking a seat and waiting. She closed her eyes for just a minute, relaxing couldn’t be that bad.

“OH! HEYA MIBU!” Said Shiori, springing over her desk to close in on the temporarily offguard child. It had been a slow day so the excitable nurse was eager to pounce on any diversion. “I heard you guys just had your first mission! Yaaay! Congrats! They grow up so fast! Seems like it was only yesterday we were meeting for the first time!”

“Shiori it was less than a week ago,” said Tatsuya, his voice tired as he emerged from the back of the clinic. “Don’t be so melodramatic and finish that paperwork before you go getting distracted,”

“Bleh- meanie!” Shiori stuck out her tongue, ungluing hersellf from Mibu. “Mibu if he’s too big a jerk you gotta tell me okay? I’ll beat him up for you,” she said to the genin, flexing one arm with confident expression.

Mibu jumped at Shiori’s waking her, listening to her talk and talk and talk. Mibu appreciated. However, Tatsuya appeared fairly quickly behind her. What exactly did Mibu expect? He was jonin, didn’t even look winded. Still, orders were orders, and this was good. She turned to Shiori and bowed. “This little shadow wouldn’t be able to report as such, even as a personality may be a superior is a superior, he is the boss of this shade much like yourself, though with far less history. The offer is appreciated, however.”

She turned to Tatsuya, sighing as much out of fatigue as anything. “This shade is reporting as requested for something you wished to speak about.”

“Yes I’m glad you remembered, I wasn’t looking forward to tracking you down a second time today,” said Tatsuya, moving over to Shiori’s desk and retrieving a folder he had placed there earlier. “We’re taking a tram to our actual destination but I have something for you to read on the way,” he said, handing the folder to Mibu. “Come along now,”

The trams were one of Chowaku’s proudest features, many considered the shining machines and their network of stops and tracks a symbol of the village’s modernization offering cheap, rapid transportation to all of its citizens. The one that stopped for Mibu and Tatsuya was a handsome red color with golden trimming and this time of day bustling with workers of various stripes commuting home from their jobs. Nevertheless Tatsuya and Mibu were able to find a pair of open seats near the back of the tram and it took off at a reasonable pace, affording Mibu time to read.

The folder Mibu had been giving contained an intelligence report from Gunshuakure scouts posted in the neighboring land of Dignity. Though Dignity had once been equal in stature to the land of Harmony it’s fortunes had declined after the last war whereas Harmony’s had risen, now there was quite a gulf between the two nations, but Gunshugakure still kept an eye on the other nation due to their shared border.

The report concerned the activities of a rogue shinobi operating within the land of Dignity. He had been working as a bodyguard for a wealthy businessman when Dignity’s small corp of hunter nin tracked him down. The rogue had slain his initial attackers but sustained injuries in the process and Dignity reinforcements had been able to corner and finish him off after a short chase.

Mibu accepted the folder without much complaint, following orders as she boarded the tram. She initially seemed distracted as she watched a couple near the front arguing over something about a weekend, but was able to refocus on the document, reading it much slower than her norm. However, it was undoubtedly much faster than likely what Ryoken would have read it in.

FInally closing it, she looked at Tatsuya waiting further instruction. She wasn’t told to comment on it, so she didn’t, even though she knew he’d want her to. It was the biggest turmoil Mibu had internally. Annoyingly obedient, or get this over quicker.

For once Tatsuya seemed not to be in a hurry, he’d put them on the tram after all and regardless of how quickly they talked they’d arrive at their destination at the same time. When it was clear Mibu had no intention of beginning anything Tatsuya spoke up.

“That about sums up what it’s like to be a shinobi who doesn’t carry the burden of a village symbol,” said Tatsuya. “When we speak about our village’s honor, or it’s traditions, or its reputation those might seem ethereal or sentimental but they can be the difference between life and death. That man wasn’t attacked because he was any particular threat, other shinobi just saw him as competition that could be safely eliminated. They might do the same to you, but they won’t because they would fear the reaction of our village, even if they thought they could win outright war isn’t a matter to contemplate over one or two missions.” Tatsuta moved his hand over to tap at the bottom of the sheet. “Did you see how much he was being paid as well?” The figure was a bit less than what Mibu had earned on her first mission. “His client had powerful enemies, so this would have been a C, or even B ranked mission but because this man didn’t have a village’s reputation for success behind him he could only get missions by severely undercutting them. I know you aren’t good with subtleties but do you understand what point I might be getting at?”

Mibu blinked twice. “Of honest, this shadow doesn’t. Perhaps the point of the lesson was missed, this one argued against tradition. Tradition doesn’t seem to be the problem here, logistics seem to be the problem. It it logical to route out missing nin, as they have secrets to your village, and one would not want those to spread. If one declares another one ‘harmless’, then a line is created and error can occur, but an absolute policy enforces this. A village taking a mission near guarantees even upon a failure, they will try and make amends.

During the great ninja war, the first one, many clans following tradition were wiped out by more practical clans. The religion of Jashin was driven out of any main village due to the length their rites took. Or perhaps there is something more this little shadow misses, which seems likely to be the case. If its pride towards a village, isn’t that more business backing and experience?”

Tatsuya sighed. “This man wasn’t a missing nin of the Land of Dignity, he was just rogue in the sense that he didn’t belong to a village, had never belonged to a village, there are a few remnants out there like that. He didn’t die because of logistics, we could have taken that bodyguard mission today instead of our delivery and we would have lived through it because those Hunter nin wouldn’t attack us. They’d probably send a very angry delegation and we’d have some trade embargoes to deal with but they would be too cautious to outright kill us because our village has a long tradition of retaliating when we are targeted like that, most villages do. Those modern villages that wiped out the jashinists? They were simply following traditions of their own that gave them an edge. They undoubtedly added refinements and innovations of their own into the mix but the vast majority of their practices were handed down to them by their predecessors. They didn’t throw everything out and start anew they built upon what had been handed down to them, that’s what all of us do. Even if we discard a certain practice and come up with something new we’re only able to make that observation because someone older than us tried it in the first place and we were able to observe how effective it was. Every tradition we have was bought for us in blood,”

Mibu thought for a minute, rereading the file, wondering of her own question. Building on the past was great, but what for? Why ninjas? They were efficient, sure, but, blood for blood and it only meant casualties. The Hidden Tunnel’s Village had the greatest military strength seen, yet it wasn’t the strongest village. Other things came into play.

“What tradition ought this little shadow have anyways….?” Mibu asked, more serious than she intended, it was Tatsuya, and she didn’t trust him, but… well, he’d asked the right question for her. “This little shadow has very little tradition to work off of. No name, no real reason to be a ninja, nothing to proudly hold. This headband doesn’t feel very heavy, neither does this name. Simply things that mark this one’s job. Any tradition would have to have been created, if its advantageous to some, then it is unfair and means this one would never be able to be a ninja, nor an anything..”

“Then you should quit,” Tatsuya said bluntly. “There are other jobs you know? Jobs where your superior doesn’t beat you and try to poison you, or where you nearly die falling off a cliff, or any of the hundreds of far worse fates I’ve seen befall shinobi. Gods why do you think I endeavour to make every day of this job as miserable as possible for you? It’s because if that was enough to turn you away then you’d have nothing to gain from being a shinobi that would justify the risks! People can be happy, rich, famous without ever picking up a blade and putting their life on the line!”

Tatsuya’s voice had risen slightly, but he caught himself and sighed. “I can’t tell you what traditions to follow, nobody can. Oh plenty of people will tell you they can but nobody who wants to make that decision for you is your ally. It’s something you have to decide for yourself and if you can’t then there’s no value in you being a shinobi. I could find you another job tomorrow if all you want is something to cover your bills. Plenty of my patients have businesses that could use another pair of hands, or I could arrange some kind of apprenticeship that would be steady and after some years of hard work put you in a position to strike out on your own.”

Mibu looked out the window at the solution.

“Happy? This shadow hardly feels…

Rich? This shadow hardly dreams of what to fill the apartment with…

Famous? This shadow hardly has a name...

Life on the line? Who would honestly care if this one was around or not? Pain is annoying, but if this one was poisoned, they’ve spent far too much money, if this one fell off a cliff, it was justice for not looking out, if this one exploded, then the opponent was too powerful, or this one too careless.

There is no benefit to this one being a ninja, but there’s hardly a reason not to. None of those other jobs would be any different, and doubt any would answer my questions. If you so see fit, do so. This shadow isn’t sure what she wants, but she would like to know at least. If you are going to tell this one to figure it out on her own, could you at least leave her to it, lectures should have points, should they not? Either one has answers, or they do not.”

“You can leave soon,” Tatsuya said as the tram shuddered to a halt. “We’ve arrived at our destination and we won’t be staying long,”

Tatsuya and Mibu exited the tram to find themselves outside city cemetery, a large plot of serene land given over solely to dead shinobi.

“This is the difference between being a shinobi and those other jobs,” Tatsuya said, his voice respectfully low. “The missions we give new genin are pretty safe and I’ll be with you for the ones that have any kind of risk, but the chunin exams are coming up and our esteemed leader wants as many teams entering as possible. You’ll be going up against other shinobi with the training, tools and willingness to kill. Mibu you don’t where the answers to your questions lie and neither do I, but I can narrow it down for you just a little bit. This is the one place where you will absolutely never find them and by this time next year you could be stuck here for eternity.”

Mibu knelt in front of the names, brushing her hands against it, tracing the like family names to each other, almost enviously. Seeing as they were they here, she took that Tatsuya’s threat to give her another job wasn’t serious. Still, so many names. “If this is the difference, then who better to be a shinobi…” She shook her head darkly, letting go and blinking a few times. Her voice suddenly changed to much monotone. “Very well, this one takes it you would prefer that not to happen, and you are this little shadow’s sensei. What would you suggest?”

“Find something, anything worth ending up in here,” Tatsuya said. “Not something worth risking death for, something worth dying for. Find it before the chunin exams as well, because I won’t allow you to enter without it,” he added, before turning away and walking towards the exit.

Mibu blinked as he walked away.

“So… was this one supposed to enter the exams or not? A dream doesn’t sound very good against not getting stabbed in the kidney.” She sighed, she wanted to hate Tatsuya more, but… he had asked the right questions. Maybe a smidgeon or respect, though she hardly understood more. That was going to take a bit more.

 

[KageYuuki]

The Chowakage worked out of an imposing office several stories below the ground. Some of the higher floors were given over the city’s administration, or for jonin and chunin to use when filling out, but the entire floor was reserved for the Chowakage to work in, or entertain guests or hold meetings with his council. In the time of the previous Chowakage, the room had been decorated in a somber, old fashioned style with lots of dark wood paneling and traditional furniture. When Ryohei had risen to the position though he’d had the room remodeled, substituting in black marble for the floors and his desk and stark white walls, giving the whole room a more modern look. The most dramatic change had been modifying the wall behind him with genjutsu and seals that projected the illusion of a rather stunning view of the city below, as of the whole floor was at the top of a high rise tower rather than beneath the ground.

Ryohei was busy reading through a report on street gang activity in the outer wards of the city when a soft knock on the door alerted him to the presence of his secretary, Shizumi.

“Sakura Yamauchi is here to see you Lord Chowakage,” Shizumi said crisply, a subtle, but unmistakable note of contempt coloring her tone. For some reason Ryohei had never put his finger on, she got along poorly with Sakura.

“Ahh thank you, send her right in, oh and bring us some tea if you wouldn’t mind Shizumi."

It was only a few moments after that the door opened once again, this time without a knock. The heels of Sakura’s boots tapped against the marble floor as she walked inside. She kept her expression neutral, a hand resting comfortably on the hilt of one of her swords. “I’m not entirely sure why you insist I go through her.”

“It’s merely a formality my dear,” Ryohei said, beckoning Sakura over to a leather chair in front of his desk. “Access to the kage is a valuable thing, so people tend to get a bit fussy about how it is doled out. Shizumi is just here to reassure them all that there is a process to that that takes into account their stature. I do wish you two could get along a little better but that’s neither here nor there. How are you getting along with your new students?”

Sakura clucked her tongue, but settled into the chair nonetheless. “Only two of them passed, and only one seems to have any potential. Though I doubt he’ll survive long in battle.” Her emerald hues narrowed at him, “Why did you allow such a runt to go through the Academy to begin with?”

“Hmm I wonder,” Ryohei said just as Shizumi returned bearing two cups of tea. The warm, gently steaming cups gave off the pleasant aroma of apple and cinnamon as Shizumi placed down the tray on the desk between Sakura and Ryohei.

“Recently this has been my tea of choice, even though it’s something of a nuisance importing it from the Land of Wisdom, their merchants always put such a markup on everything,” Ryohei raised his cup to his face and, after inhaling to enjoy the aroma he took a small sip and sighed contentedly. “I became interested in this tea after reading about the method of its cultivation though. You see, apple trees don’t actually grow well in the land of Wisdom and the resulting harvest tends to produce small, somewhat bitter fruit. But although they aren’t ideal for eating fresh, those apples have a wonderful tartness to them when preserved and especially shine when added to products like tea,”

Ryohei smiled pleasantly and took another sip. “Isn’t that amusing? Even though the material factors such as climate or soil quality were suited for some other crop, what a certain farmer in the Land of Wisdom desired more than anything else was apples and that harvest born of strong desire was unexpectedly fruitful. If I was a farmer that’s the kind of crop I would want to raise as well,”

Her eyes narrowed in annoyance at Ryohei’s roundabout answer to her comment. “Feh, you and your speeches.” Sakura picked up one of the cups and leaned back. The tea wasn’t bad, though it could’ve done without the sugar Shizumi put in it. “Though I doubt you called me all the way over here to talk about your newest tea obsession.”

“Ahh I do apologize,” said Ryohei with a slightly teasing tone. “My job seems to mostly consist of making speeches these days so it’s become something of a habit. Anyway as to the main topic, well it wasn’t purely out of politeness that I was asking about how you were getting on with your students. Sakura, you need to start thinking about your position in the village in a more... holistic sense,”

“I’m a member of ANBU, I take care of threats from the shadows and hunt any missing nin.” Sakura scowled at him over the rim of her cup, “Or at least I was until you got it in your head I needed to teach.”

“And that was fine when you were 19, or 24,” Ryohei replied smoothly. “A few years in ANBU is good for your prospects. It shows that you can be trusted, that you’re willing to get your hands a little dirty. But long term it’s not a path that develops your position. All your greatest achievements are classified and by design, your co workers aren’t really people who would prioritize their relationship with you over other loyalties. Other jonin your age have trustworthy friends, former students who have gone on to take up useful positions, public reputations of heroism or success to fall back on them. You’re a skilled shinobi but outside of me you have mostly enemies and rivals within this village,” Ryohei took another sip of tea.

Sakura hummed, lightly drumming her fingers against the teacup. “So what you’re saying is ‘go work on your people skills.’ You’ll have to thank my parents for that obvious shortcoming.” She scoffed, taking a drink from her tea. “Though I suppose sensei didn’t touch on them all that much either…”

Ryohei winced slightly. “It was my intention back then that your teammates would help you emm, round off some of the edges of your manners. Of course, that plan backfired on me and set the whole process back quite a bit. I don’t know if you remember this but after they left you were very difficult to talk to, even for me. I admit though I’ve let the matter lie for too long. But you know what they say right? If you want an apple tree the best time to plant it was ten years ago. The second best time is right now,”

“Well, how would react if your own teammates-” Sakura clicked her tongue before turning back to her tea. “Regardless, only two of the kids passed my test to begin with.” Emerald hues never looked up from the tea she’d been drinking.

“They were my students as well as your teammates,” Ryohei said gently. “Still they’re back among us because there were more important things to consider than my personal feelings on the matter. As for Akio, it’s a shame but I don’t think you were wrong to send him back. The replacement I lined up seems promising too, I think she can learn a lot from you,”

Sakura’s cup settled back on the desk with a clack. “And who, pray tell, is it you have lined up?”

“Shionn Tsubaki is her name,” said Ryohei, producing a file from underneath his desk and sliding it to Sakura. “From the land of wisdom originally…. Trained in kenjutsu under her Grandfather. I remember hearing stories about the elder Tsubaki back in the day, he was quite impressive. Still, her training will be far from complete at this age, you’d be perfect to help her finish it.” Ryohei gently adjusted his glasses with his two pointer fingers, an old tell that he was plotting something. “Kuroki is overseeing her son’s kenjutsu training and he’s on Kazou’s squad. Wouldn’t it be satisfying to show them the error of their thinking by raising the stronger students?”

“Kenjutsu, hmm?” Sakura picked up the file and skimmed its contents. “Well, it’s something I can teach at least.” She tossed the file back on the desk, finally allowing the faintest traces of a smirk on her lips. “Funny how Kuroki still insists that she knows more about the truth of kenjutsu… Proving her wrong by surpassing that boy of hers could be entertaining at least…” Her eyes moved back up to meet Ryohei’s, “Though there are an awful lot of foreigners in this year’s batch of genin.”

“Isn’t it exciting?” Ryohei said, looking amused. “We have the chance to bring together techniques from all over the world, and their ties to other villages could prove useful as well, in time. Of course, those are long term plans. For now, just try to get along with them a little you know? The other teachers as well, if you can manage it. I know some of them are a bit… eccentric at times,”

“You and I both know that’s an understatement,” Sakura scoffed, leaning back. She folded her arms in front of her chest. “Though you still certainly picked some of the worst possible students to stick me with.”

“I like to think of them as hmmm.. Challenging!” Ryohei replied easily. “You’ve never failed any task before so why wouldn’t I feel confident giving you students that need a little extra attention? Besides, I think both of them have their good points. Kaoru’s studious nature and talent for ninjutsu almost remind me of a young me! And Shinichi is a fairly well rounded boy with good synergy with that charming creature of his already. It’s true their attitudes are a little...frivolous, but that’s why they need a teacher like you who won’t coddle their bad habits,”

Sakura’s expression returned to a familiar, heavy scowl. “Fine, fine,” she waved him off. “Not like I can really say no to you anyway.”

Ryohei finished off his cup of tea and sighed contentedly. “Of course, in the end, I always get what I want,”

 

[IG42]

Shinichi Kabuso and Kaoru Issho
Strolling down the street Shinichi fiddled with the steel plate he had sown into his scarf symbolising his new status as an official genin, a status that had been solidified for him and Kaoru by passing sensei's test but not for Akio, at the thought his bright mood dimmed again and Shizuka whined sympathetically.

Petting the otter he forced a smile and glanced down at his remaining teammate. "So what should we get to celebrate?" Looking at some of the eateries they were passing he could see that a lot of them were full with other graduates some with their families either celebrating or commiserating. "Seems like everyone's out and about today."

Kaoru adjusted his headband to make sure it didn't click against his glasses. It was a proud moment for him to finally have it. Finally he was a ninja, and his road to being a hero of the village was just getting started. He eyed Shinichi with an sympathetic expression.He didn't really have a best friend like he and Akio, so he couldn't imagine what it felt like. He had to make sure to try and cheer him up! This was a time for celebration, and what hero would just let their teammate hurt on a day of celebration?!

He looked around at the shops and families. He frowned and avoided looking at them as best he could. Finally his eyes settled on a street stall selling manju . "How about there? Honda's Manju Shop? Have you been there before?" Kaoru gave Shinichi a quizzical look. Kaoru hadn't been there before, but he'd heard good things. Besides, manju.....mmmmm.

Looking over the stall Shinichi noted the queue next to it while Shizuka leaned forward and sniffed curiously. "Hmm manju sounds good. Haven't had them from here before but it seems popular enough." Joining the back of the line he returned his attention to Kaoru. "So what sort of mission do you think we'll get? I know the D in D-rank doesn't stand for dangerous but I hope it doesn't stand for dull instead."

Kaoru swallowed a mouthful of saliva that threatened to spill over. He had to force his attention away from the manju to answer Shinichi. "W-well mo-most D rank m-missions are rather...m-mundane. H-h-however, I g-get the feeling S-Sakura-s-s-sensei won't g-give us the r-really dull ones. S-she seems f-fond of g-getting a bit more d-dangerous than o-other sensei's." He really couldn't imagine what she'd have lined up for their first mission.

"Yeah, here's hoping sensei doesn't pick anything too crazy." Shinichi nodded a little in agreement. "On the other hand what if she just grabs the first thing she sees and just ditches us to do it ourselves? She didn't seem all that into it." Reaching the front of the line he looked at the different varieties on offer. "Hmm what looks good to you Kaoru?" He smirked a little at the obvious longing in his teammate's eyes. "I get the feeling that you know a bit more about sweets than I do."

Kaoru nodded in agreement about Sakura-sensei. "S-she didn't seem i-into it, d-did sh-she? It s-sounded almost l-like she was f-forced into it." He hoped that wasn't the case. He didn't want his sensei to be unhappy teaching him after all. They finally reached the front of the line and his worries evaporated as sweets clouded his thoughts. His eyes nearly glowed from excitement as he eyed his options.

As Shinichi smirked and mentioned his live for sweets Kaoru snapped back to attention with an even more pronounced stammer. "I-I-I-I h-ha-have n-no c-clue wh-what y-you m-mean!" He said this in a rather unconvincing rush of words. However, he did think he knew which ones might be best and pointed them out to Shinichi regardless.

Once they had their food Kaoru half led the way to a nearby table embarrassed silence. Kaoru sat with a light thump across from Shinichi. Kaoru immediately attempted to prevent an embarrassing second outburst by filling his mouth with manju instead. Based on the distant glazed over expression he got as he took a bite it seemed like it worked.

Laughing easily at Kaoru's flustered reaction Shinichi slapped the smaller boy's back and went with his recommendation, sitting down across from Kaoru he let Shizuka run down his arm onto the table and broke off a small piece of his manju for the otter before biting down on his own. "Mmm good choice." He said leaning back with a sigh while Shizuka chewed loudly.

Trying not to wolf down the treat Shinichi tried to strike up conversation again. "Think it'll take long to get another teammate?" Not getting a response he took a closer look at Kaoru and noticed his vacant expression "You still in there?"

Kaoru snapped back to attention after several long seconds. Surprisingly he was able to remember and answer Shinichi's question, despite not remembering listening to him ask it. "I th-think it sh-shouldnt take t-too long, r-right? The Ch-Chowakage seemed a-adamant about sp-speed and numbers of n-new shinobi a-after all. I j-just wonder what th-theyll be l-like. Wh-what do you th-think?" As he asked this he broke off a piece of his own manju and offered it to Shizuka.

With a sound somewhere between a purr and a whine Shizuka happily grabbed the second morsel. "Well it should be someone leftover from a team where not everyone passed assuming there are others like that." Shinichi replied thoughtfully as he sat back and tried to think of other teams that had been mentioned at the ceremony but his thoughts went back to his own joyful reaction to the announcement of his team and brought himself back to the present deciding it would be rather mean-spirited to try and think who was most likely to wash out anyway.

Shaking off his melancholy again he leaned back further lifting the front legs of his chair off the ground. "I guess whoever it is would have to be someone who can pass on their own next to the other two that ended up failing. You might say it would have to be a singularly impressive performance"

Kaoru nodded in agreement, not even noticing the pun his teammate made. "True. Th-they'd have to b-be an abso-solutely ex-exemplary s-sh-hinobi." He tossed another bite into his mouth and tried considering who else in their class might be capable of that. Mibu perhaps? Emerie? In all honesty he didn't think anyone in particular was so outstanding they'd succeed while both teammates failed.

"S-so. What's w-water release l-like to use? I-it's the nature I w-want to learn n-next." In actuality he'd been stuck, and still was, between fire and water. Water would allow him to augment his lightning, amonst other things. Whereas fire would give him advantage over his own natures weakness of wind. Now he could maybe learn partially from his teammate. Yet...wouldn't fire offer more options if Shinichi had water covered?

"You're thinking about learning another element?" Shinichi said with a touch of surprise, he hadn't pegged Kaoru as being that ambitious so early on. "I've got to focus on mastering water first and working with this guy." He said while picking up Shizuka and setting him down further from their snacks. "While making sure he doesn't steal food and make himself sick."

"The thing about water release is it can depend on where you are quite a bit, while it's pretty rare to have fire or lightning on hand to augment your jutsu it's possible to have extra water nearby to use and my clan have our partners to help with that." He scratched Shizuka's back with his free hand. "I bet it's also more stable than lightning, especially if you want to shape it into something like that tracing wolf whotsit you used."

"Y-yeah. My g-goal is to learn a-all five na-natures!" He sat forward with an intent expression his classmates would've exclusively seen in ninjutsu training. Or if they on an off chance ever talked comics with Kaoru. He nodded firmly as he committed Shinichi's comments on Water release to memory. Water was vastly more present in nature than the almost impossible to find lightning or fire, that was true. There would be an amazing amount of variability... His decision was made, water for sure next!

"I've n-never really h-had too much trouble shaping it, but it's m-my only area of e-expertise. So p-presumably th-thats why. M-maybe that means o-other elements wi-will come even more n-na-naturally!" He hoped that would be the case at least! He turned his excited gaze towards Shizuka. "What can't h-he eat, s-so I kn-now not t-to f-f-feed him it?"

"All five huh? That should be an adventure." Sensing that he had become the subject of conversation Shizuka looked up at Kaoru curiously. "He can't eat chocolate at all but he's smart enough to stay away from that at least." Taking it as a compliment the otter nodded and puffed himself up proudly until Shinichi poked him lightly. "Problem is while he can handle a bit of other stuff he just doesn't know his limits." With a low whine Shizuka gave him the stink eye.

Kaoru nodded when or looking at Shizuka carefully. "N-no chocolate, and c-careful a-amounts of everything e-else. G-got it." Kaoru popped the last bit of his own manju into his mouth with a satisfied look on his face. "A-an adventure h-huh? I s-sure hope so!" Kaoru cast a glance skyward, noticing for the first time the encroaching darkness in the sky. "W-well. P-probably about t-time we h-head home huh?"

Looking up for a moment as well Shinichi nodded. "Yeah the guys at home are probably running in circles waiting to find out if I've passed or not, hopefully they aren't organising a search party." Finishing his own treat he allowed Shizuka to run back up his arm and settle in his scarf before standing. "I guess I'll see you once sensei gets our new teammate in, or we could meet up and train if it takes a while, we'll just have to see if the elements fall into place." He grinned widely and waved along with Shizuka. "See ya round."

Kaoru nodded his head with perhaps too much vigor. "I-I'm sure w-we can make the-them fall into place i-if they do-don't naturally." Kaoru stood and deposited his plate in the nearest trashcan. He waved at Shinichi as he left, pondering what matter of training they could do together first. In fact that's all he thought about on the way home, as he refused to think about his parents fake excitement when he got there.

AllHailDago

 

[Ganryu]

Okuni Tanabata
Squad Miyako
xAlter Arael
AtlannianSpy

"The grease is dripping, can we hurry it up! See, these robes were made for distribu- Actually, that's classified, let's just say I don't want more on me!"

Okuni travelled holding the boxes as they made it. She was slow, but seemed relatively balanced, and didn't show any signs of tiring out. She couldn't see very well where she was going, so she trusted her teammates to guide her. As she heard an elderly gentlemen scream hose'em down, Okuni cried to her teammates. "Someone, stop them getting the boxes!" She tried ducking behind a corner, but it was again, slow work with the mass of boxes.

As she made her way behind the corner, up expression souring.

"The man wants us to fail. But I ain't giving him what he wants, ya see! Let's take these #%#$'ers down." Okuni popped her head out to see they were elderly.

"... I can't take down old people, my Mom's an old person! She'd throw me through the shrine again! Then make me fix it!"

Okuni sat back. "Anyone want to just take down their hoses? Actually, long as I don't know what's going on, my Mom won't kill me. Hey, Haku, you're kinda a jerk, wanna take care of them? But, not like the bad kinda jerk, the good kind, the kinda mess with, uh... Hey, Asami, got any genjutsu that won't give them a heart attack? I kinda can't do much that wouldn't result in the man giving me a court order. Stupid old people."

Okuni popped her head out to yell at them.

"It's your generation that's led to all of today's societal problems! War of Retribution we're still cleaning up for! And your anti refugee attitude is forming gangs! Pensions my ass!"

 

[KageYuuki]

Haru Mori Mibu
Team Tatsuya
Kneeling beside a large bucket, Haru dipped a hand in the cool water, the other holding a dulled kunai. Dipping the weapon in the water, he allowed chakra to flow from his other hand before releasing it. It was a simple enough training exercise: make the kunai float using only chakra.

Not that he’d been overly successful in the past hour. The blond sighed as he watched it sink to the bottom of the bucket once more. Putting his chakra directly into it didn’t seem to be the solution, but adding his chakra to the water only succeeded in slowing it down.

“This little shadow notes progress.” The kunai seemed to say, though the tone and lexicon could only point to one thing, Mibu. Where would be the question of the day. She was at training too, observing her teammate, and being stealthy. Of course, the ninjutsu practice was interesting as well, as Mibu was fairly poor at it. Mibu preferred to have a needlepoint expertise anyways.

“You seem to give up way too soon though….”

Haru jumped, letting out a sharp breath as he accidentally dropped the kunai back in the water. He didn’t even bother looking around for his hidden teammate, knowing he didn’t have a chance of finding her. Not that it stopped him from idly wondering if she was in his shadow again. How did she even see anything hidden like that?

“I’m not letting it drop to the bottom on purpose,” he sighed, retrieving the kunai once again.

“Naturally, hence the progress. You’re talent’s far greater than that of this little shadow in that regard, and likely of Ryoken, bless his soul.”

Mibu’s voice continued to echo around. Haru wasn’t freaking out, she was almost proud of him. But, she was so entranced by what he was doing, she failed to notice the time. Or her chakra reserves. A ‘pop’ was heard nearly directly above him her feet quit clinging to the ceiling, and gravity took over. A large splash would cover Haru as Mibu fell directly into the bucket.

“Gah!” Haru fell back, both genin now soaked. “Glad the kunai wasn’t in there anymore,” he pushed himself to his feet and held out a hand to Mibu. “You okay?”

Mibu groaned slightly, taking a moment before she got up, ignoring the hand.

“It seems this one needs more training of her own as well, as that was an amateur mistake…. This one is fine, no need to worry. It was supposed to be a passing observance but took longer than expected. 3 seconds, the initial sink speed of the kunai… 25 seconds, the final sink speed.”

“I mean learning from mistakes is part of training… right?” He offered a crooked smile, “and I know I’ve managed to slow the kunai down, that’s just… not the goal of the exercise. I’m supposed to keep it floating on the surface.”

Mibu sighed. “Yes, this shadow supposes there is truth in that, though the number of mistakes does seem excessively large sometimes. In any case, it seems as if progress is being made regardless. That is good to know. What is it you are aiming for?”

“This?” Haru shrugged, returning the kunai to its pouch on his belt. “It’s just supposed to help with chakra control. Apparently, the same concept can be used to walk and run across water. Which is…” He rubbed the back of his neck, “pretty cool, actually.”

Mibu nodded, not meeting Haru’s eyes. “Yeah… that would be cool.” She didn’t mention how she’d learned it was running into a lake repeatedly while Hibiki laughed his ass off. It had been March! Mibu was slightly jealous an easier way apparently existed.

“Interesting to note. Who is it helping you with the concept?”

“My… dad is… He says that getting better control of my chakra will help with storm release. I mean I guess he isn’t wrong, but…” He shrugged.

“But?” Mibu asked curiously.

His gaze was focused more on the ground as he spoke, “just can’t have a conversation with anyone here without this stupid kekkei genkai being brought up.”

Mibu shrugged. “In that case, this is excellent training, an escape if it were. If you do not wish to do so, don’t.”

“I guess…” Haru muttered before shaking his head. “Hey, Mibu, I’ve been wondering… why do you always call yourself a shadow or use ‘this one’?” He’d admit it wasn’t the best change in topic, but he'd take about anything over the subject of his clan.

“Preference.” She said monotonically, but her body backed away slightly at the question.

Haru couldn’t help but frown slightly, it wasn’t like Mibu to flinch away like that from what he’d seen so far. “I’ll admit, that’s kind of a weird preference…”

“What’s your shadow’s name?” Mibu asked suddenly.

He blinked, “What?”

“Would you miss it if it was gone? Do you ever pay attention to it? Does it really matter that much to you?” As Mibu bombarded Haru with seemingly random questions, she made a handsign, her own shadow starting to meld into her body, this time simply becoming invisible. She sighed.

“No one’s ever really cared for their shadow. This is something this little shadow understands and empathizes with. This one wants no pity, but you asked, and that is what my answer is. The name is more like a serial number this one is trained to respond to. Mibu… it means full of dreams, it’s not accurate, it’s not a name. ‘Haru’ can either mean ‘male’, or clear skies, a pun of your storm release it's so fitting…”

She waved her hand to the side, her shadow returning. “In any case, one ought to leave their teammate to train.”

As she spoke, Haru found himself clenching his fists, his nails biting into his palms. Though it wasn’t until she finished that he allowed himself to speak. “That’s not true!” The blond snapped, surprising himself at the outburst. He took a breath, taking his fingers through his hair. “That’s not true…” he repeated, more softly this time.

“You-you’re not some shade that no one cares about. You’re Mibu! A genin of Gunshugakure, a member of Team Tatsuya, and…" He offered a sheepish smile, “hopefully my friend.”

Mibu blinked. “We’ve known each other for perhaps a few weeks. If you perhaps don’t like the answer of my speech, don’t ask.”

Teammates are precious…

“Besides, what’s this one’s last name? If she is cared about, surely someone knows. Not a topic this one enjoys, the small talk was preferable.”

Haru sighed, “you don’t have…?” He deflated for a moment before suddenly perking back up. “Then make your own! You can be whatever you want! Like...” He paced a little, fingers pressed to his chin in thought. “Hmmm you could be… Mibu… Kageyoshi? Oh! Or maybe Mibu Kagemaki?”

Mibu stared for a minute at the statement, not even responding, before simply turning to walk out.

She raised her mask a little bit, the slightest trace of red on it as she left simply and quietly.

“M-Mibu, wait!” Haru sighed, raking his fingers through his hair again. “I’m sorry…”

 

[Orikanyo]

The Arcade.​

The building was alive with the sounds of games being played near and far, the inside just that little bit darker than the outside world and filled with gaudy old as hell flooring that was abused to hell and provided only the lowest effort in being kept clean.

Candy and spilled pop littered the land, between machines being jostled and slapped by frustrated hands, each one built to last against the tides of players each attempting to hit those high scores. It was chaos, but an ordered chaos. And most of all, it was the boy’s chaos, for indeed this hive of scum, B.O, spilled drinks and chips was one of the few sanctums that the boys of the village called their own from the ceaseless onslaught of the females of the species.

Some girls came of course, they weren’t barred, but very few stayed, and even less frequented the place.

A holy place for teen and preteen boys alike.

No man held rule over another, save for the worth granted to you on the score screen. Kings of each game stood triumphant in their respective circles of fellows.

Ryoken was one who rules the Immortal Battle 3 machine, a highly competitive game that pit you against others in 1x1 gladiatorial combat to the death.

But right now, he was wrestling with a chip bag in the eating area, that was curiously well sealed. Sure he might rip it open, but the chips would go flying and any food dropped to the floor was definitely lost to all mankind… even he wouldn’t touch it.

He sighed, the bag giving way after one more tug.

“Man… Sensei is kinda weird… Always yelling and stuff, always lecturing and talking… I don’t even think he knows math right!”

Kojiro sipped at his soda contentedly as he eyed Ryoken’s struggle with his chip bag. He was going to offer to help, but Ryoken finally succeeded. Kojiro gave him a small smile and offered him some of his candy. It was chocolate covered peanuts, one of Kojiro's faaaaavorites. He ate a handful himself from the jumbo bag he bought and munched contently.

“You get me Kojiro? That's like trying to lecture you on ddr, I know my stuff! I went through school, if I go on the mission faster than he can cause he's late doesn’t mean he should get mad and do bad math.” Ryoken sighed, looking abit down, if he was downing the peanuts he was given. Sharing a favorite food was better than normal food, always, because there's heart in it.

He offered some chips in recompense.

“You think the others are gonna show? I wonder if they got surprise missions or somethin.”

Kojiro nodded in understanding. Well, in assumed understanding at least. Ryoken was a little hard to get context from sometimes, but at least what he was saying made sense enough for Kojiro not to be left completely confused. He happily took a chip when offered and munched on it joyfully.

He tilted his head in ponderance at where they might be. Shizuo shouldn't be on a mission without Kojiro presumably, so he might still be in his way. Though he did mention he'd be dealing with his sister today. Maybe he couldn't come after all? Kaoru didn't really seem interested when he'd offered, even though he seemed to feel a bit bad about saying no. The only other person Kojiro could speak for was Ryoken, and he was here already! Kojiro shrugged at the question and sent a simple mental image to Ryoken. It had Kaorus face x'd out and a question mark over Shizuo's.

From the entrance to the arcade, the sound of two bickering voices rose partially above the din of noisy arcade machines and chattering patrons. One was high and feminine while the other a little more gruff, though they were both starting to sound distinctly exasperated.

“Okay and you’re wearing your medical alert bracelet?”

“Yes,”

“And you bought your medication for your lunch time dose,”

“Yeees,”

“And you put on sunscreen?”

“YES! GODS! Though why I bothered I have no idea! It’s an arcade Shizuo! An arcade! I’m going to be inside the ENTIRE time you dumbass!” Yuuka Murata finally snapped, turning two tiny fists on her brother’s arm and side.

“Ouch, hey, alright! Alright!” Shizuo warded off Yuuka’s assault for a while and then grabbed her wrists until she calmed down. “I get it. I’m just worried,”

“I haven’t had an attack in weeks Shizuo! I’ll be fine!” Yuuka said hotly, then, more softly. “I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah okay,” Shizuo said, stepping back and rubbing his nose somewhat bashfully. “You’re right, you’ll be fine, I’m underestimating you again I’m sorry,”

“If you get it then go have fun with your friends already,” Yuuka said, turning away as her pale cheeks went slightly pink. “You’re gonna cramp my style,”

Shizuo smiled thinly. “Alright I’m going… but I’ll be right around the corner in the next section! And if you need the bathroom it’s-”

“ARRGGH I GET IT SO GO ALREADY!” Yuuka shouted, unleashing her flurry of punches again until Shizuo retreated to a safe distance, nearly running straight into Ryoken and Kojiro as he was looking over his shoulder.

“Oh hey guys,” Shizuo said distractedly, craning his neck slightly to watch as Yuuka stomped off towards one of the machines.

“Heeyyyy Shizuo! Hows it going man.” He waved enthusiastically, looking over the guy’s shoulder. “Hey Yuuka! Hehe, cute as a button today.”

“Save it Ryo I’m not here to be cute today!” Yuuka replied, rolling up the sleeves on her pink jacket. “I’m here to chew bubblegum and kick ass! And Shizuo wouldn’t buy me any gum!”

“It’s bad for your digestion!” Shizuo called back grumpily, earning nothing except Yuuka sticking her tongue out at him before turning back to an Alleyway Brawlers cabinet.

“She still having that problem and stuff?” Ryoken inquired, almost jumping outta his seat to greet the guy.

“Yeah.. well none of the doctor’s could ever figure out what it was except for that it’s genetic and it looks like it isn’t gonna go away on its own… But she hasn’t had too many symptoms lately so we figured it should be okay for her to go out for a bit…” Shizuo said, watching Yuuka from a distance. She had already attracted a small crowd of onlookers and an opponent who, judging from his frustrated expression was being rather brutally executed.

The door to the arcade opened once again, as a girl in a white hoodie and black pants entered the arcade. With her hood up, is was quite difficult to identify her by sight. The arcade owner barely glanced at her as she walked in, as if she had been expected. The girl paused for a moment as she spied Ryoken, Shizuo, and Kojiro. However she didn’t go up and speak to them. Instead she started to walk off farther into the arcade.

Instead of continuing to talk with Shizuo, Ryoken paused, sniffed the air for a moment and looked puzzeled… “Hmm…? Wait….” He sniffed long and began to follow the smell physically… it was around… wafting… leading him through soda stain and chip debris…

Slower and slower he follow… following until he saw the white hood… “Hmmm… it… has to be…” he paused before walking quickly up behind the white hood.

“Hey, you seem familiar, have we met somewhere?” He asked, curious about this new person in the arcade.

“Huh, oh…. I do suppose that remaining hidden in your presence is quite difficult. Young Ryoken has always had powerful senses.” The girl pulled down her hood revealing a plush of snow white hair. “I did not expect to see you here today.”

“Em!! I knew I smelled something familiar! I come here often though, kind of a hang out spot and stuff…” he didn’t quite mention the group, but largely because the guys hideout was a kinda but not really secret.

Ya know, just not something you mention immediately.

Ryoken quite liked Emerie, and not because her hair reminded him of soft cotton candy, which it in fact did, but she fed him quite a bit… and she smelled nice… and was pretty…

And her mask is so cool!

“Looking great as always Em, but what brought you here huh? Looking for a game? Or somebody?”

“Ahhh there he goes again,” Shizuo sighed, turning to Kojiro as Ryoken took off like an excited puppy. “It’s’ actually kind of impressive how he can talk to anyone like that,” Shizuo himself found Emerie Sairento a bit hard to approach. In addition to being a girl she was also from a super rich family and gave off an aristocratic vibe Shizuo couldn’t really get along with.

“Ah, I came in search of no game in particular. I play whatever game sparks my interest,” Emerie said to Ryoken. “What games do you enjoy playing Sir Ryoken?”

“Immortal Combat 4 of course! I’m the best at it, anybody here can tell you THAT of course.” Ryoken gave a small, haughty chuckle, looking quite proud of that fact. “You wanna play? I’ll go easy on ya cause you're a beginner and all.”

“I would expect nothing less than the best from you, do not feel the need to hold back when facing me.” Emerie smiled at Ryoken. She hadn’t played the game in awhile, but surely she still knew how to play at the least.

“Then come on!” Ryo wasted no time taking the young lady’s hand and dragging her to the machine. It was a two player competitive fighting game, you choose your character form a list, each with their own powers, fighting styles and the game was very, very well known for its graphic violence.

Ryo chuckled once more, not go easy on her? Well then, she asked for it~!

As the game started up, Emerie was quick to choose a fighter. She chose a queenly woman wearing a beautiful blue dress. The woman wielded an oversized mace, known for its slow attacks but long range.

“Would you like to play a single round, or best 2 out of 3?” She asked with her usual smile.

Kojiro had blanked out upon seeing Emerie. Shizuo had spoken to him, but he only vaguely realized they were words rather than pointless sounds. Kojiro's eyes tracked Emerie and Ryoken with almost comical slowness as they moved towards a machine Kojiro recognized as the one Ryoken was the king of. Kojiro shook his head clear of all the Emerie, or at least tried, and turned to Shizuo.

He pointed to Emerie and Ryoken and made a gesture with his pointer fingers at eye level towards them. He followed it by pointing between Shizuo and himself and gesturing at the myriad of other games. Lifting his hands up and down in an either or gesture, he hoped Shizuo understood. He really could go either way.

“Let’s stick together for now,” Shizuo said, after watching Kojiro space out for a moment with mild curiosity. “There’s a machine empty next to those two and I could go for a round.” Shizuo wasn’t ordinarily very interested in immortal combat, although Yuuka’s preferred arena was Alleyway brawlers she was perfectly capable of wiping the floor with him here too. The other person Shizuo tended to match up against was Ryoken who was even worse, Shizuo wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten so good at the game with his puppy like attention span but that didn’t make him any easier to beat. Frankly Shizuo was just looking forward to a more even matchup vs Kojiro.

Kojiro followed closely behind Shizuo to a machine he hadn't really bothered with. Fighting games were most definitely not Kojiro's preference. However he was always willing to play them to make his friends happy. As Ryoken had on numerous occasions taken advantage of… Those matches always went exactly as one would expect between a terrible player and the King. Mostly no hitters with a rare triumph where Kojiro managed to hit him more than once! As they started playing however it seemed clear while he'd actually hit Shizuo, he would probably not be winning any of their matches...

Ryo, confident in his strength and not about to walk back on his word to a lady, no matter how much her hair reminded him of shaved ice, chose his main fighter. Goro Majima, the mad dog of Shimano. He fought with but a knife and taijutsu. But his movements were erratic and odd, meant to entrance and confuse… And the hitboxes were difficult to remember for the attacks, sweet spots, parrying, evasiveness, that was the mad dog.

He was ready.

“Alright Emerie, let's have a good fair game.” Ryoken stretch out his arms, cracking his fingers.

And so… the game begun…

Emerie’s character started off the fight with a twirl, before throwing knives at her opponent. One at a time with consistent timing.With each throw, the character twirled, and their outfit flowed and spun along with them.

Ryoken made his character leap up and close the distance with a flying kick that parried the flying knife. The character seemed to perform this act erratically, along with a laughing sound effect as if the character was having fun with the way it began.

Emerie was unfazed. She moved the stick down and to the side, causing her character to duck and and roll beneath the flying kick. She then did a leap backwards to gain distance. As she leaped backwards however, the character spun, sending a violent spray of knives out this time.

“Oh? Sairento’s keepaway game is actually pretty strong,” Shizuo said, leaning back from the cabinet he was sharing with Kojiro and elbowing his partner to direct his attention to game happening alongside them. “If she keeps this up she’ll be able to whittle away Ryoken’s health while sealing away his most powerful combos.” Although it hadn’t really translated into actual skill, just from watching Yuuka’s high level matches Shizuo had a surprising amount of game knowledge built up and he found himself slipping into the role of commentator with surprising ease.

But Ryo’s character has tons of options for closing gaps and initiating and Ryo knows them all instinctively, which makes it incredibly hard to predict how he’ll attack. How long will Sairento be able to set the range and pace? That’s what will determine the outcome,”

Kojiro nodded at Shizuo's commentary, despite the complete lack of understanding. Clever and witty in real combat, unfortunately this did not translate to games for Kojiro. Within a few moments his attention drifted to Emerie instead of the game. He let out a long sigh before snapping back to reality and turning back to their game. His cheeks were not flushed, and no one could prove otherwise. At least he would claim as such.

“You can’t keep the mad dog away that easy!” Ryoken made the character launch out his knife, which had a chain attached to it, catching Emerie’s character mid action as he took the smaller hp hit to set this up. The chain knife was drawn back with the character, into which Ryo comboed into a upwards aerial into a mid air juggling combo with kicks and launching the chain knife again if she got to far away.

For once, Ryo was quiet, focusing hard.

“Oh, very excellente,” Emerie said aloud. With a smile still on her face, she furrowed her eyebrows to try and focus like Ryoken was.

The combo had taken a decent chunk of health, so Emerie decided to switch up the strategy. A long pole extended out of her character’s sleeve, swinging around for a low sweep attack, however her character continued spinning like a top, the pole becoming a dangerous weapon in this situation. The move was tough to avoid if you weren’t prepared for it, but Emerie was sure young Ryoken would know just what to do.

Instead of fleeing, Ryoken began to… show off a tiny bit… In this game a parry was an attack that hit another attack directly, nullifying both attacks at the same time but leaving the one who used a much larger attack open. As such, with brilliant timing as one might expect of an expert of this game, Ryoken parried each swing of the pole with a jab from the character, and punished the end of the combo with a heavy strike skyward, sending the other character backwards.

“Hehehe, hows that!” Ryoken grinned widely, fully in the zone.

Emerie’s smile slowly replaced itself with a neutral look. Emerie’s character was close to dying, as she could tell by all the wounds and torn clothing. Ryoken was doing well, but failed to follow up and finish the job. Now Emerie was about to unleash the real reason she chose this character.

Emerie’s smile returned, as she began. First, as soon as her character landed, she flipped back up and dashed back towards its opponent, planting the butt of the staff into their head. The attack was a brief stun, giving an extra second of time for the character. The staff disappeared, replacing itself with a large warhammer that somehow slipped out of their sleeves. With a strong upward strike it sent Ryoken’s character into the air, Emerie let the hammer disappear, and as Ryoken’s character was about to land safely, she struck again with the staff! The staff slammed Ryoken’s character upwards into the corner before they could recover. Once again, before they could land, Emerie slid forward and began a long and obnoxious serious of upward pokes that allowed for no aerial recovery or escape from the corner. Over and over Emerie’s batter female character poked Ryoken’s own character until the health bar finally dropped to 0. It wasn’t the most beautiful way to win, but it worked nonetheless.

Emerie turned to Ryoken. “That was a match excellente!”

Ryoken’s face was that of one who had just witnessed their child throw a temper tantrum right in the middle of his friend’s funeral because they wanted a cookie.

His disappointment was immeasurable… How could she stoop so low…

But he turned to Emerie and smiled brightly, bright enough to blind in the deep darkness of the arcade. Smile and conceal, don’t feel. “Yea good job Em! Cute and skilled, that's Emerie for you!” his complements didn’t reek of the sore loss he just felt. But he most certainly wasn’t gonna play again for abit.

“Next time i’ll have you! That's for sure.” For damn sure he would, he’ll plow her directly into the floor and straight to hell for this! ...Well this won't do too much to their friendship at least. He still quite liked her.... Though now he was quite, quite abit salty... beneath the smiles.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

The Arcade, Pt 2

Shizuo Murata & Kojiro Zanki

​

“Hey uhh, if you’re not gonna play can you guys stop hogging the machine? Other people wanna use it?” A small voice said from behind Shizuo, who spun on his heels to be confronted by a younger boy with a nervous, but plainly discontented expression.

“Oh right, right my bad!” Shizuo said quickly. Blocking off a machine without actually playing was a pretty serious faux pas in the arcade and so to apologize Shizuo dug out a couple of quarters and left them on top of the cabinet. “Here next couple of games are in me,”

“Phew, sorry about that,” Shizuo said to Kojiro as they walked away. “After it was my idea to post up there and all, listen you want a drink? I need to buy one for Yuuka anyway, she’s gotta stay hydrated when she’s out and about,”


Kojiro followed Shizuo away from the fighting game, quite pleased they were through. Though he didn't let Shizuo know that. He waved off his apology and nodded about a drink with great enthusiasm. He cast a glance at the ground and scratched his chin in consideration for what drink. Finally he simply sent an image of a generic cola to Shizuo. He smiled at Shizuo and gave him a thumbs up. He sorta wanted to ask about his sister, but didn't as it seemed….rude maybe?

“Okay got it, I might be a few minutes, the vending machines inside the arcade are overpriced and Yuuka hates their selection, I’ll meet you where ever you’re gonna be later,” said Shizuo, turning towards the exit and expecting Kojiro to send him another image of a meeting place. He wouldn’t have thought it when they first met but Shizuo was already starting to appreciate the convenience of his friend’s communication method.

Kojiro gave his departing friend a thumbs up as he exited the arcade. Alone now Kojiro knew exactly what he wanted to play, as he always did. As he made his way to the Double Dance Revelation machine he pondered what song to warm up on. He found the machine vacant today thankfully, and stepped up to put in his quarters. He selected a jazzy pop song from the medium difficulty list and began playing, feet moving from one arrow to the next in a careful, comfortable rhythm. It was easy to see he was skilled, but this was bit a fraction of his ability at the game, as many in the arcade knew now that he was King.

“You’re pretty good at this one huh?” said a voice to Kojiro’s side. Yuuka had sidled over from her section of the arcade and sprawled herself over the protective railing around the empty dance pad next to him.


It was possible to see the resemblance to Shizuo in Yuuka, although she was pale where he was sun tanned and skinnier they had the same dark hair and eyes and their mouth and nose were the same shape, although Yuuka’s impish half smile would have looked very out of place on Shizuo.

“Want a match? Oh don’t worry I’m not after your crown, I’m rubbish at this one,”

Kojiro stumbled in surprise at the sudden voice. Hitting pause he turned to find himself facing Shizuo's sister. When she asked to play he didn't even consider whether or not she wanted to dethrone him. He simply gestured to the game pad beside him with a smile and gave a slight nod of affirmation.


Yuuka slid in under the railing and took up her a position next to Kojiro as the music resumed.

“Uwaa it’s way harder than it looks from the sidelines,” Yuuka said, gripping the rails for support as the song’s tempo sped up. She was enthusiastic but had plainly been telling the truth about being rubbish, her particular flaw seemed to be the need to look down periodically to see where her feet were going, causing her to miss the next couple of prompts.

“You know-” Yuuka could only speak in short bursts, before she was forced to turn her attention back to the game with brow furrowed, giving her delivery a drawn out, stop-start quality.

“This game is really-”

The reason-”

“I started coming here in the first place!” Yuuka explained, panting lightly.


Kojiro noted her difficulty and realized her comment on being rubbish was even more true than he would've guessed. This was only a medium difficulty warm-up song after all. He started considering what songs from the Easy list to play next instead of the Insane levels he would normally. He realized with a sudden frown that he hadn't really made any gesture of response to her.

Stopping without pausing, his lead so vast he could simply let the score remain and win, he turned to Yuuka. He made the relatively simple handsigns to use Mental Snippet connect with her. When he felt it connect and solidify he sent a simple image of the words “me too” in a light orange color. It was his favorite at home, but it really wasn't nearly as much fun alone. The arcade meant more people and challenges and even a title as a King!


“Whoa!” Yuuka exclaimed as an image popped into her head unbidden. “That’s that thing Shizuo was talking about! With the mind pictures! Wild!” Yuuka was so taken aback that she forgot about the game running in the background and her combo multiplier ran down to zero, triggering the dismal audio cue of a game over.

“Aww,” said Yuuka, looking disappointed. “One more okay? One more! There’s this one song I really wanna- Ah!” Yuuka hurriedly scrolled through the game’s tracklist and her cursor came to a stop on a track simply entitled “Jump” by a pop group called the Lil Rabbits.

“Do you remember when this song was a really big hit?” Yuuka said, breezily ignoring the in game announcer warning about the track’s punishing difficulty. “It was Shizuo’s first year in the academy, yours too I guess? Anyway I was totally obsessed with it, the Rabbits had these super cute outfits and their dance moves looked so cool to me. Ahh you’re player one so you have to start the song I think,”


Kojiro gave her a beaming smile that turned a bit apologetic as she got a game over. He began to turn, intending to select an easier song for her, only for her to leap into song selection. The ding she stopped in was a…questionable choice. It was so difficult it actually checked if you were sure you wanted to play it. Only two songs were harder on the tracklist.

He tried to remember if he actually knew this sing when it first came out. He couldn't though it felt familiar somehow...The group that made the song didn't ring any bells either. He shrugged and shook his head at her question. He reached out to the display and with a couple clicks he set screen 2 to have no fail mode enabled so she could actually enjoy playing the song through. Instead of failing to the barrage of notes in the first couple seconds, like many novice players did. He gave Yuuka a smile and a thumbs up. He sent a simple image if the word “ready” with a question mark.

“Kehehe, try to keep up!” Yuuka shot back, settling into a comfortable stance as the machine’s display flashed a countdown until the song kicked off.


Jump was an upbeat, but frenetic song with a surprisingly complex instrumental component with dozens of different instruments that came in and out. The song had been famous back in the day for it’s music video in which various instruments fell over but then got back to their feet, displaying the resilience in the face of adversity that were the central theme of the lyrics. Whoever had been in charge of translating the song from music to video game had made the ambitious decision to try and represent all of the different instruments with inputs, resulting in a frenzied torrent of ups, lefts, downs and rights with barely any logic to them.

Yuuka seemed to be a little surer of her feet now, but she was having a great deal of trouble keeping up with the sheer pace of the track, hitting perhaps one note and working up a noticeable sweat just to manage that. Still she seemed to be having fun, working in little pumps with her arms or swings of her hips from time to time. She also seemed to have the breath to spare to keep talking.

“So I was totally hooked on this song and then one day I heard it coming from the arcade when me and Mum dropped Shizuo off there. So I tagged along and saw this machine! But I was kinda under the weather at the time so couldn’t play it. But I couldn’t get that song out of my head so I kept tagging along with Shizuo just to listen and watch other people dance-” Yuuka continued, between panting breaths


Kojiro moved with confidence and surety, his skill being more than obvious in the sheer amount of rapid entry perfects he received. Yet, even for him, a song of this speed and erratic nature led to some Poors and a few spare Misses. He sent an image of himself on a dance pad alone at home, followed by one of him out front of the arcade for the first time, and finally one of him on the arcade gamepad with a player next to him. He kept the flashes as short as possible to try and not be distracting. Though he supposed she was talking an impressive amount so it probably wasn't much an issue.

“-Oh great idea-” Yuuka shot back, her speech coming in shorter bursts now.

“-maybe I’ll-”

“-Bully Shizuo until he buys me one for my birthday!”

Yuuka let out a short, breathless giggle, the rapid movement of her chest giving it an odd cadence.

“Seems like-”

“It’s not really the same though-”

“So I wanted-”

“To try it here at least once,” Yuuka said, with a wide grin as she stumbled slightly, triggering a cascade of MISSes from the display as she seemed unable to get back into the rhythm. “Hehe...Shizuo’s gonna be so mad though,” she said, her voice all of a sudden quiet and barely audible underneath the pounding music.

Then she fell, tumbling backwards towards the arcade’s tiled floor.


Kojiro had stopped several moments before, a little worried at the weird interval of her breaths. He eyed her warily, unsure of if he should have her take a break and… drink some water? Isn't that what Shizuo mentioned earlier? His brain had been a bit befuddled by all the Emerie in the vicinity. He started to take a step towards her just as she suddenly went quiet and began falling backwards. Wide eyed and panicking, Kojuro just moved on instinct. He simply leapt off the machine to where she seemed to be falling trying desperately to catch her. At the same time he sent a desperate image to Shizuo of their location with the word “hurry”.

“YUUKA!”

Suddenly there was a sharp gust of air and Shizuo appeared seemingly out of nowhere, having body flickered over from the entrance, knocking a couple of older teenagers out of the way in his haste. Shizuo’s momentum carried him forwards even as he dropped to his knees and Kojiro’s efforts slowed Yuuka’s fall enough for him to come to a halt underneath her, so that she landed safely between the two of them.

“Idiot!” Shizuo muttered, diving a hand into the pocket of Yuuka’s jacket as she coughed and gasped between shallow, uneven breaths. Shizuo drew out a what looked to be a disposable syringe packaged for safe storage but rapid usage and he pushed up the sleeve of Yuuka’s jacket and injected the syringe into her bicep with practiced ease.

A few seconds of tense silence later and Yuuka gasped again and her eyes fluttered open, her breathing returned to normal. Shizuo let out a long sigh and his body, previously tensed like a spring, suddenly relaxed like a deflated balloon, although he stayed upright enough to cradle Yuuka’s upper body.


“...Sorry,” Yuuka said weakly, shifting herself onto her side. “Are you mad?”

“Not really,” Shizuo said, producing a bottle of water he’d brought over from the vending machine and handing it to Yuuka, who took a small sip.

“Aww if you don’t get mad I’ll feel super guilty,” Yuuka said with a bitter, half smile.

“Okay then I’m mad,” Shizuo said tiredly, picking up Yuuka and carefully transferring her to his back.

“Yeah?” Yuuka asked, sounding sleepy as she looped her arms around Shizuo’s neck.

“I’m furious,” Shizuo said. “I’m taking you home now to lecture you for hours and hours so… don’t feel too bad on your own,”

“Okay then,” Yuuka siad, closing her eyes again, peacefully this time. Shizuo exhaled a pent up breath.


“Thanks for reacting like that,” he said to Kojiro, gently shifting Yuuka’s limp weight to sit more comfortably on his shoulders. “I’m sorry you had to see that though, she should really know better by now,”

Kojiro waved off Shizuo's attempt to apologize. Instead he simply nodded and patted his shoulder and cast a worried glance at Yuuka. He gave Shizuo a look that fairly expressed his willingness to help all on its own. Shizuo was stronger than him, but that didn't mean he needed to take her home by himself.

“We’re good,” Shizuo said, shaking his head. “She just needs to go sleep it off and I think she’ll freak out if she wakes up on somebody else’s shoulders. I’ve been doing this for years so it’s no big deal. You’ve already helped enough so you should catch up with Ryo and enjoy the rest of your day off,”

Shizuo turned to leave and then hesitated. “Actually there is one thing, it’s kind of putting you on the spot though. It’s sort of a long story but If I can become a really famous shinobi I might be able to track down some people who know about Yuuka’s illness. But to do that… well I’d need a kickass team backing me up you know?”


Kojiro tilted his head in curiosity. He was hesitant to have Shizuo deal with it alone, but he was right about doing it that way for so long… Instead he simply held out a fist for Shizuo to bump, flashing him a devilish grin. If their skills and improvement led to healing Yuuka, that only gave him all the more reason to train relentlessly. Heck, he was getting pumped up to train now in fact!

“Heh, then I’m counting on you,” Shizuo said, returning the gesture with a nod and a smile.

AllHailDago

 

[Arael]

Asami Kurayami
Team Miyako
Ganryu AtlannianSpy xAlter
​

Asami was still in a bit of a daze as Okuni went on to briefly explain the functions of her robes before cutting herself off, but then again she wouldn't want all that grease on her either if it was as bad as her teammate made it sound, but judging by her constant look of discomfort and disgust it was.

The commute to Hizadeki was rather quiet and arriving at the tall tower was a simple task. that was until the elderly residents popped up on the second-floor balcony armed with hoses and the one calling the shots who wore a rather comical helmet which in any other scenario would be rather amusing, but now it was a symbol of war. The raven-haired genin nodded as she watched Okuni take cover when the older gentleman called for them to be hosed down, she looked to Haku briefly before analyzing the area. Trying to find a way to disarm them without causing damage to the people or area.

"Well, there goes half my arsenal...unless." She lightly tugged at Haku's sleeve in a gesture to follow as she moved back a bit, taking in her surroundings as she did a small once over of the area before jumping up and onto a fence that bordered the garden. Her gaze now locked on the elderly as she moved chakra throughout the area and up onto the second-floor balcony, once she had enough Asami clasped her hands together, forming the snake hand seal- not required but it helped balance the flow.

"Demonic Ambush." She remained in her still perch as she focused on the illusion, a mix of herself, Haku, and Okuni all running with boxes in different directions of the building.

"Hopefully this can draw them away from us long enough so we can get inside, if not I'm open to suggestions and not...totally against having Haku beat them up," Asami called out as she released her hands, and sighed heavily before fixing her newly acquired hat, and tuning into Okuni's semi-political rant and resisted the urge to applaud her due to the circumstance but instead gave a slight nod of approval as she turned back to the balcony to see how the old people were holding up.