Fandom Naruto: In the Shadow of the Broken Moon ~ IC

[Merciless Medic]

Nariko Nakamura
Team Taisei


Location: Nearby Senju Compound | Mood: Focused | Interactions: Taisei Hyuga ( Noam ), Hisa Hyuga ( InsaneAsylum ), Natsume Uchiha ( AtlannianSpy ) | Mentions: Kazuo​

Within the trees and as night made stealth easier, Nariko crouched with her squad in the pine tree. She watched Taisei sniff the stuff comically, and his sneeze had her holding a hand over her mouth to keep her snickering on a low note. She took the bottle and put down a little bit on the back of her hand, which she then snorted and coughed. Spluttering, she passed the bottle to one of the other girls. It was truly weird, not being able to smell anything.

Holding the bag filled with things that may or may not be bottles and some loose junk with generic shapes, she hauled the surprisingly light bag over one shoulder. She nodded as Taisei said he'll be coming back for her if their genjutsu breaks and the other two have to escape. With their destination being the headquarters when they take their leave, Nariko set the mask on her face after flashing her group her signature grin. She whispered to her team as Taisei wrapped it up, chuckling at his father-like tidbit at the end. "Yeess, and I'm getting eighteen bottles. One for everyone, and two for Kaito. If we get more, bonzai...!" She excitedly said, giving everyone a thumbs up as her adrenaline started spiking early.

She looked to the other two, her body antsy to get started. "Ready when you are."

 

[Ganryu]

Squad Kazuo
Hanarei IG42 BriiAngelic​

Tama cheered at the acceptance, tugging at Emi's sleeves, at first with one hand, then with both, a cute groan of "Nyeeeee!" Echoing, before she gasped and put her hand over her mouth. "We gots to be real sneaky likes. Like, like, kun-o-ichis!" She grabbed a small scarf from a table and wrapped it {badly} over her head like a hood, and made a handsign with it, befoe skipping upstairs, the concept of stealth lost on her.

Kaito was making clones... which were getting dogpiled by kids. He, as promised, made all sorts of funny noises as he was 'defeated'.

As the crystal eyed girl led Emi upstairs, she shuffled under her bed for a surprisingly large mirror. She pulled it out with some difficulty, the mirror larger than herself, and hilariously tilting the girl backwards like she was going to fall, swinging back and forth before she slammed it against the wall. It shattered and pieces fell to the floor, but Tama didn't seem bothered, even putting her hand proudly on her hips.

"Pssssst. Can youse keep a secret?"

She looked around secretively again, despite the broken glass on the ground, checking the hallway, stepping, and snooping... about as well as as a young child could. Satisfied to herself, though the scan wasn't very good, she held her hands together. Suddenly, a pulse of chakra shot in the area, slowly lifting the glass panels together, the mirror reforming. Only, instead of a reflection, inside, a picture could be seen.

Sanryōkyōgan: Photo op!

Madam Iwamoto could be seen, bowing before two rather regal looking men. One in rich silks and wearing the mark of a Daimyo, and the other with a swordsman wearing a headband with the Hidden Mist engraved in the metal. He had shark like teeth with a horrid smile, across his right arm, a spiked whip with spikes facing down as to not prick him, the bristles of the spikes slowly and unnervingly moving up and down and a small subdued purr coming from it. The entire thing was made of a strange material that glittered like glass, but moved like a whip. Oddest of all, light distorted from it, and the man's arm where it wrapped seemed a necrotic gray color. To any ninja, the man was legendary, Mizuno Keiji, leader of the Swordsman of the Mist. In the background, barely noticiable in the picture, a man stood, half embeeded in the tree, with vines wrapped around his waist, and a Senju tattoo on his forehead.

Tama groaned for a moment, before dropping to the ground, the mirror reshattering. She grunted, and began to pick up the glass pieces. "So, cool! I gets to have two Dads! Course, I'm sure that means twice as many Dad jokes. But I likes Dad jokes. Hi Dad, I'm Tama!" She giggled, before struggling to lift the mirror again, trying to hide it under her bed. As she swung it around, it accidentally crashed into a drawer, tumbling it over with a crash, scattering small little orphan clothes around the room. A potato sack came out among other things. Behind it, however, a small hole in the wall could be seen, with a chute leading straight down, covered in vines. Tama rubbed her head, then looked at it.

"Oh yeah... Madam Iwamoto likes to spy on us through that. She doesn't thinks we notice, but I notices lots of thingies!"

Tama was regathering the clothes, before looking at the drawer with a finger to her mouth. The wood was completely smashed, and the mirror once more, shattered. . "This is going to take me a bit..." She pouted on the floor, holding her hand over the glass, and it began to hover into her hand by itself.

{OOC, chute goes down to her lab where the other two are}

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

Down below as Rokuro calmly walked down the elevator shaft with Tree Climbing jutsu, cat claws marking the way deeper and deeper down. The vines seemed to pulse with energy with each step, Rokuro able to feel it against his feet. After about 20 feet, he could hear a small voice above him, and could feel a chilly breeze.

"Hey, mister! It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!"

Above, Matsuri stood, holding out one of the wooden training daggers Rokuro had left behind. He simply let go to let it fall below into Rokuro's waiting hand.

"We're playing 'tackle catfish man' now!" He turned to run away, back to the others, leaving frosty little footprints behind, the small white haired boy not wearing shoes.

{Godmoding, but I'm the gosh dang GM!} At the bottom of the shaft, a small mouse with a headband could be seen turning to wave at Rokuro, before standing next to a cat watching around the corner.

Madam Iwamoto had strapped the small bone child to a steel table as her skin danced, small bones popping out and then the flesh healing, again and again. The girl whimpered, looking scared, and looking anywhere but the Madam. The Madam scrapped off a piece of bone, and put it under a microscope.

"Incredible. I had no idea you had unleashed it so well... it looks like a bit of grafting with an Uzumaki's genes has given you a bit too much chakra though, and your body's having a hard time controlling it. Thankfully Kaguya and Uzumaki lines are both gifted with great regenerative powers, so this shouldn't be life threatening no matter the results. Hmmm... I wonder if your cough last week was from your ribs going haywire. Let's see if we can't cull back some of this chakra to stabilize it. I would very much like to make these genes my own, but far too unstable so far..."

The Madam started to quickly sort through a cabinet full of needles, tubes, jars, a few saws, and bottles of pills, some soldier pills. She selected a needled, and croo'd as she tested the fluid within it. At that time, a man started to emerge from the nearby wooden wall. Shirtless and muscular, vines wove in and out of his muscles and biceps, curling across his body, eventually forming pants below as they curled together. The old crow gasped, near dropping the vial as she turned to notice him.

"Gah!!! Torimori! Announce yourself next time!!!"

"But that takes away half the fun. Madam Iwamoto, how's Experiment 423 going?"

"I've been far too busy to make much progress. Here take what I have so far." She ruffled through the shelf, and handed a folder full of papers to the man in the wall, who reached out to grab it. He shook his notes.

"The Kounki have preference for our own village, Madam. Try to remember that. You've been far too friendly with the Mist lately. This isn't going to a problem is it?"

The Madam just shoo'd him. "If it's problem, deal with it. Otherwise, leave me to my research. Now, Ai-Ai, I believe we were mid procedure? This might sting bit... Now, this should tamper your chakra... though we'll have to be careful, don't want it nullfied mid bone shift, that would be painful, wouldn't it?"

Torimori sighed, shrugging as he seemed to disappear into the wall once more, Madam Iwamoto smiling oddly as she approached the girl with the vial.

 

[IG42]

Squad Kazou
Realising the momentary shiver he felt wasn't because of the slightly spooky shaft Rokuro looked up to see a kid silhouetted in the light from the top, catching the training kunai he waved as Matsuri left. "Have fun Frosticle!" He was really starting to like that kid.

Spotting the mouse he decided that it was probably close enough to a rat to be his mission objective and raised the kunai, before he could stab though it turned and waved at him. "Aww that's kinda cute. You still die though." Jabbing with the wooden knife he stopped only an inch away when he finally noticed the headband. "Oh you're a summon? Well you shoulda said so, I was about to send you to the happy cheese wheel in the sky."

Hearing the nearby voices he crept up next to a mystery cat and toned down his chakra as he eavesdropped on the conversation, there was quite a lot of it he didn't get but he was pretty sure it was bad if they were hiding down in the big rathole that looked even less sanitary than his parents' damp clinic in the middle of a warzone and he was definitely sure he wouldn't like what was in the vial. Whipping his wrist around the wooden kunai struck Iwamoto's hand knocking the vial away. "This looks a bit much for a nurse's office don't it?"

Ganryu BriiAngelic Hanarei

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Hisa Hyuga

With an outstretched hand Hisa took the bottle from Nariko, she waved in in fromt of her nose before handing it to Natsume.

A moment later she sneezed and rubbed her nose.

“I’m good to go. Let’s just do this carefully please! We have no need to rush.” Hisa said walking farther down the branch, giving herself a better view of the compound.

She adjusted her glasses, and a surge of chakra towards towards her eyes. The veins on her temples bulged out, ending at her blank white eyes.

“Everything looks normal right now from what I can see,” Hisa reported.

Noam Merciless Medic Ganryu AtlannianSpy

 

[SomeRandomCanuck]

Squad Kasane
Ryūji Ganbā
Interactions: The Regal Rper Phayne IG42
​

“You gotta be kidding me… there is no way” Ryuji thought to himself as the rest of his team pointed out that he was very obviously not wrapped in Kasane-sama’s chakra chains anymore. Under her instruction Ryuji channeled his newly regenerated chakra around, focusing and breaking himself out of his own genjutsu.

Disheartedly he looked at the ground on all fours for a few seconds, sulking a bit “At least now I know that my genjutsu ain’t too shabby? Ugh today’s just not been lucky for me…” he muttered to himself. Then dusting himself off he stood up to find the rest of the team over the apologetic Kiyoshi, clearly something had happened to cause such a reaction, something Ryuji missed in the midst of his antics.

“You know what I’ll just listen to the other two speak…” he thought, casually listening behind the others, he smirked slightly at Eiichi’s jab at himself, despite the incorrect application of the word he couldn’t help but become amused. Deciding to play along with the jab rather than contradict it he wrapped his arm over Eiichi and added in “What can I say? I am the man of the people, a true appreciator of the most beautiful things on earth. Kasane-sama has merely opened my eyes to the wonderful world of red-headed beauties.” slightly over exaggerating his actions as he gave a confident thumbs up and his signature degenerate smirk, trying to use the comedy to cheer Kiyoshi up.

His eyes then narrowed as he provided his own opinion “But in all seriousness isn’t it a bit arrogant to assume we expected perfection from you? What Eiichi and Kasane-sama said is true but we haven’t even been a team for 5 hours, much less the amount of time to truly expect you to be at your best constantly. We are a team, we all made mistakes contributing to this loss, I for instance made a risky plan that could have gone south real quick given the wrong circumstances. Don’t let the most insignificant of losses affect you, mentality is what always bankrupts a person first.” He sighed before also placing his fist forward, widening his mouth giving him a genuine smile and casually chuckling “Now don’t leave me out of this brofist, or I might be heartbroken”

Finally turning to face Kasane-sama he politely bowed and turned serious and remarked “None here Kasane-sensei, Unless the mission includes dinner plans. In that case what food do you prefer?”

 

[Hanarei]

Squad Kazuo

Emiko Senju
​

The young Anbu members blinked as she was taken aback by Tama's enthusiastic tug. It was rather cute and heartwarming to see how excited she was making her little cry of excitement. Emi smiling as she nodded lightly at the girl seeming to take the aspect of being stealthy. A good move considering she didn't exactly want to draw a lot of attention, not so much for worry of the mission as well as being disruptive to the other children as they seemed to be quite taking a liking to liking to Kaito. The girl unable to help but glance over at him a bit perplexed by his behavior. He really didn't put on the demeanor of a supposed commander, even with her considering the need to be deceptive. Her head turning back to Tama with a smile following her doing her best to not laugh at her attempt at a disguise with the scarf as she followed her upstairs.

Emiko's eyes glanced about the place observing it quietly as she followed the girl up. It was far from the most lavish places to be. There didn't seem to be at least much in terms of anything fishy about the upstairs floor from a glance. If there was anything fishy going on it wouldn't likely be where the children slept she had to figure. She was a little taken back as she watched the girl pull out a mirror, or more so struggled to do so. The girl quite filled with freight seeing her struggle with it as she stepped forward looking quiet worriedly as it seemed as if she could barely hold it at all, looking almost as if the girl might get squashed by it.

"C.... careful now! You don't want to bre..." She spoke too late as Emiko winced as the mirror was shattered. The girl looking quite uneasy a bit worried looking as the shards fell making sure the girl was fine. How did she even manage to get such a mirror up there in the first place? Why did she have such a mirror? The girl couldn't help but wonder a bit as she saw how proud the girl seemed. Her eyes shifting to her a little taken back though giving a light nod in response. She didn't seem bothered so she didn't want to do anything to upset the girl. She would have to make sure she was alright at least cleaning it up after.

"A Kunoichi is always one able to keep secrets." She spoke with a smile. Her attempt to keep a look out not being exactly the most in depth particularly given the loud crashing noise she was certain the mirror would of made to draw attention there. She watched the girl hold her hands together. The young shinobi blinking as she watched the mirror itself began to reform. Her eyes shifting to the girl focusing on her. A Kekkei Genkai as she had to some extent expected. It was a bit far too much of a coincidence how common it seemed to be for the orphanage. However, that brief bit of surprise had been quickly replace by shock seeing the image the girl had produced.

She could see Madam Iwamoto making her out rather easily. her eyes noticing the marking of the Daimyo. Her eyes didn't take long to shift up seeing the headband of the Hidden Mist as it had already caused her to be alarmed. It was made worst seeing the man taking a moment to realize who it was. The girl opening her eyes wider. Mizuno Keiji? Her hand gently clutched into a fist as she couldn't help but feel uneasy. Was she doing something with the kids to awaken their Kekkei Genkai and then selling them off to other villages? The very idea infuriated her as she looked on. Her eyes shifting over to the background her rage suddenly paused seeing the figure embedded in a tree. Her eyes glancing at them as her eyes locked onto the mark of the Senju. Her eyes opening wide just as sudden as Tama fell as the mirror shattered leaving Emiko to nearly jump the image burned into her mind fading away.

Had she been seeing things? No... that was clearly the Senju mark? Her mind racing as she could feel her gut churning in response. A feeling of both horror and anger. A mixed feeling of emotion that she had trouble containing. Her expression looking a bit sour even as she tried to put on a smile looking over at Tama a bit worried stepping forward as she seemed to already be shuffling forward starting to collect the pieces once more. Tama's cheerful voice only making Emiko that much more heated up. Emiko bit at her bottom lip putting a smile on her face attempting to control her feelings. She didn't want to upset the poor girl after all.

As if to help startle her back into focus she watched as the girl managed to smack into the dresser as clothes went flying. Her eyes shifting over moving as to help her though she was quick to catch sight of the hole. A chute filled with vines. She glanced over at Tama putting on a smile gently patting her back as if to give her some form of encouragement. She didn't seem too down given all that happened though she could tell she felt uneasy seeing her expression as she worked on cleaning things up.

"The fact you can notice things like that is why you will make a great kunoichi one day Tama. It takes real talent to do what you did and to notice things like this. Just pick up some of the clothing and put the mirror of yours back under the bed. Once your done just go down and ask the man with the silly mustache down there if he could make one of his silly clones follow you and help you move that dresser in place. Don't worry, he is a bit silly but he will help you move it and make things look good as new! I'm going to go check out this little chute. Remember only tell him, no one will be the wiser of the little accident. I'll be back soon."

She spoke lifting her finger up to her lips as to emphasize the aspect of keeping it a secret. She figured planting the idea on her that Kaito would help cover up the broken dresser might put her at ease while also informing Kaito about the situation as well when he saw the chute when doing so. The image in the mirror played in her mind wanting to relay such a thing to him as well but she didn't want to worry the girl about trying to tattle the secret she entrusted her with. Unfortunately as well, Emiko wasn't in the happiest mood. As she moved to the chute her expression showed quite clearly looking into the hole in the wall she was quite angry. Almost seething with what she seen even if she tried to contain it a bit. Emiko slipped inside glancing back at Tama giving a warm smile hiding away her anger from the girl.

"Remember, keep quiet about it, only funny mustache man who came with us to help you put the dresser back in place! If he asks just say Emi went down on a super secret mission to do secret stuff down the hole. We don't want him to know too much after all!" She spoke with a warm smile at the girl playing it up as if they were still keeping secrets between each other despite knowing Kaito could probably easily figure out what she might be doing. Emiko slowly slipping down the vents using her tree climbing to slip down carefully not wanting to be too noisy and sneak down attempting to keep a level head unsure where she might pop out at.

IG42 BriiAngelic @Orikanyo Ganryu

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Natsume Uchiha
Team Taisei

Natsume was the last to sniff the suspicious powder that was meant to immure them from genjutsu, purely by coincidence of course. Certainly Natsume hadn't deliberately waited until the last moment to make sure nobody else dropped dead or their nose fell off or something, that would be callous. Still Natsume felt a little better once nobody did fall over or lose their nose and forewarned as she was Natsume was even ready to suppress a most un shinobi like sneeze that might otherwise have overwhelmed her.

"You know we ended up working out a pretty decent price for those bottles in the end," Natsume mentioned offhandedly t Nariko. Well, it had seemed like a good price to Natsume, Taisei had seemed broadly uninterested in the matter so she supposed his salary made it less notable, but it had looked like a decent chunk of change to her and she'd been quietly a little pleased with herself for wrangling the shady women into a half decent deal in the end. "You might want to consider selling off a few more of those," Could mouldy old wine even taste any good anyway? Natsume half suspected it had all turned to vinegar by now, not that she was any kind of connoisseur or anything.

"I'm ready to go as well, I'll follow your lead Hisa, since you've been here before and uh, can see through walls and all," Damn, saying it out loud like that it seemed kind of unfair, at least for a stealth mission and all. Was this how her teammates had felt back when her tomoe's first started kicking in?

Noam InsaneAsylum Merciless Medic

 

[Phayne]

~Squad Kasane~
Mentions: SomeRandomCanuck IG42 The Regal Rper

The sensation of having his hair ruffled was one that Kiyoshi had been quite unaccustomed to, even during his days back in the Land of Silence. His parents weren't much of the 'doting' type to any of their three children and his elder siblings weren't exactly the admirable type that cared for their youngest brother. Rotten to the core by the virus of entitlement; they were more interested in potraying a false sense of 'self-importance'; regardless if that was directed upon the retainers in their care or to the youngest member of the family. Happy to live off the deeds -even if vile- of their parents, Hideo and Asuka were the poster children of what it meant to be 'Spoilt, rotten and entitled'. It was honestly a miracle that Kiyoshi had not succumbed to the same virus that had afflicted them, to become another stain on society. Perhaps in a twist of irony, it was because of their abuse and torment that he didn't turn out to be an asshole like them.

Back to the present, Kiyoshi could not deny that It was an awkward sensation being treated in such a manner; especially from someone whom had been a complete and utter stranger several hours ago. Undecided as to whether this new found sensation was desireable or not, Kiyoshi truly didn't really know how to react at that moment and simply attempted to idle through the awkwardness he was feeling; hoping that the inevitable silence that would come from him would brush everything over.

Alas, the awkwardness would only continue; taking another strange twist as Eiichi approached soon after. Past experience with his previous team would suggest that he was in for another round of 'the blame game'. A game that his former team mates seemed to enjoy playing whenever things went south during one of their missions. Of course being the 'refugee kid' Kiyoshi would ultimately take the majority of the blame, being the scapegoat for the inadequacies of his comrades. Was this going to be another one of those games?

Raising his head slightly to meet Eiichi eye to eye, the initial 'Hey' and the scowl that painted Eiichi's face would suggest that this was to be one of those games; the irritation in his face obvious as he closed the distance between himself and Kiyoshi. However it soon became clear that this wasn't the case. Instinctually ready to apologize once more due to actually feeling at fault for the loss, Kiyoshi's attempt was cut off by Eiichi raising his hand to the front of Kiyoshi's face; preventing him from interjecting as Eiichi began his speech.

Once more, Kiyoshi was rendered speechless, his mind wavering as it tried to interpret the reality versus what he had initially expected to occur. Standing before him was a team member attempting to console him, not a team mate happy to point the finger at someone for their failure whilst ignoring their part in the defeat. It was a new experience, a welcomed experience and one that Kiyoshi found himself struggling to deal with. A squad that treated everyone equally, that shared in glory together as well as defeat together.

Kasane's interjection too was quite the unusual one for Kiyoshi. His former squad leader was quite clearly cut from a different cloth, only interacting with his squadron at arms length without ever attempting to build a relationship between himself and the three under his watch. For him, it was merely a case of getting the three greenhorns under his care to build up experience on the field, to get them ready to no longer need a leader to direct them. Once that was achieved he'd move on to the next batch and so on and so forth. Trivial relationships were not high on his list of priorities. If you 'fell' it was your duty to pick yourself back up or get left behind. Kasane from what Kiyoshi had seen so far seemed to be quite the opposite; her admission of dragging them all even if they fell being quite telling of what her personality was going to be like. Treated as more of an equal rather than a scapegoat; Kiyoshi found himself feeling a variety of new sensations inside as he continued to watch and listen; eyes visibly through the red bangs as he looked between Kasane, Eiichi and soon at Ryuji whom had joined in; wrapping an arm around Eiichi's shoulder as he made his presence known with his remark about red haired beauties. It was a good thing he didn't get the chance to meet Asuka.

Much like Eiichi and Kasane had done, Ryuji too had joined in with trying to console Kiyoshi; once more attempting to play down the mistake that he had made today by usng their lack of time together as one of several reasons for why he shouldn't dwell on it. However, what the three of them had said had done very little to get Kiyoshi to change his mind on the matter. His own worst critique, Kiyoshi wouldn't soon forget the mistake he had made today, only being thankful that like his team mates had said, this had occurred outside of a real fight where the consequences where not as dire as they would have been otherwise. That being said, Kiyoshi was truly thankful for their attempts to console him and whether it was intentional or not he was greatful that they had done so in a manner that made him feel like an equal, rather than an outsider. If he was the type to show more emotions, perhaps he'd have even shed a tear. Alas, the same neutral expression had remained plastered upon his face; save for a small, virtually hidden smile at the edge of his lips.

"I'm.. sor" he began, before stopping himself and taking a deep breath. "Y.. you're right... thank you Eiichi..." he glanced a the blonde, before turning to Ryuji. ".. you too Ryuji.." he added, raising both his right and left hands upwards in a fist like manner, brofisting the two simultaneously. Another awkward experience to add to todays current events.

Turning now to face Kasane, "None Sensei" he replied.

​

 

[Ganryu]

Squad Kazuo
IG42 Hanarei​

The mouse silently screamed, a look of horror on it's face as it held it's hand over it's heard, and convulsed, falling over on it's side and frothing at the mouth at the threat of kunai. Thankfully, Rokuro spared it, but it just indignantly got up and began squeaking at him, some lecture as it pointed at the knife and began shaking it's paws at him. The cat nearby stared disapprovingly.

With a clang, the wooden kunai collected, the Madam recoiling her hand as white frost crawled up it for a moment. The syringe flew out of her hand, stabbing into a nearby tree root. A dull gray crawled up it as a strong necrosis set in, whithering the root away as it began to crumble, the entire room shaking with it's absence. The Madam flicked her wrist up and down, snapping her joints, and causing bits of frost to fall off.

"This place isn't a mere nurses office, you dolt, it's a geneticists laboratory! And you are endangering my test sub- patient!" The old woman scowled, turning to look around the room. She lifted her eyepatch up, a flare of red with a circle pattern around it. It seemed like a sharingan, however, instead of three tomoe, it had three arrows curved inwards. It didn't seem to spin, but they contracted and expanded as she looked towards the corner Rokuro had. She gave a tut, focusing on the corner Rokuro had come from, and began to walk towards it.

A slow tap, tap, tap came from every step as her cane fell following them.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The Madam's voice was strict, but amused. "You have some interesting blood there, boy. What clan are you from...?"

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Heavy pressure fell from her, and a final 'tap' as her cane struck the ground. The wooden cane began to twist and turn, the knob ontop unfurling as petal like flesh blossomed. In the center, a mouth could be seen pulsing and biting, a 'snap-snap-snap' echoing as a tongue lolled out. Pollen began to burst out of the mouth, falling in great spore clouds. Wherever they touched, they would cling to and tingle, painfully digging into skin.

"Would you like to see what it would be like if your blood was even stronger? That's all I care about, making something new. Something wonderful...

I am Madam Iwamoto. Oh, you were one of those shinobi Tsubasa invited in for their 'story time', weren't you? She never normally brings in anyone interesting." She spoke, amused, as the cloud of yellow began to spread.

Wood Release: Blood Root

As pollen spores grew, they started to tinge any clothing with blood, green and red mixing around any clothing of Rokuro's should he be in the cloud. Next to him, the cat coughed, before a puff of smoke as a kunoichi appeared out of transformation, vines crawling across her body, and blood dripping on the floor as Kanon's transformation came undone.

--------------------

Above, Emi would find the hole led to a ventilation system crawling throughout the tree house, vines moving up and down it. She could crawl past the kitchen, past the library where Kaito was making exaggerated hand gestures to the kids {Though, in the corner, she could see a copy of him sitting down with the caretaker, her eyes glossed over, and drool falling as he spoke melodically to her, hands on her heads["Longing. Rusted. Seventeen. Daybreak. Furnace. Nine. Benign. Homecoming. One. " he muttered]}, and the path led down a chute.

Down, down, down the chute rode, dozens, hundreds of feet. However, voices could be heard at the bottom. Emi would find herself in the middle of a large room, still dominated by tree roots, a circular dome nearly a hundred feet wide. She could see the scene of the Madam approaching Rokuro, trying the pollen attack

She could also see a small squirming girl on a metal slap. She was smaller than most of the other girls in the compound, with long, ragged hair. Her skin danced as bones mutated unnaturally underneath. Despite her distress, no words came out, just little "Nyghhh!" as she pulled at leather straps.

 

[IG42]

Squad Kazuo
Rokuro puffed up indignantly at being called a 'dolt'. "Genetics lab? PAH!" He scoffed the scoffiest possible scoff. "You wouldn't be able to analyse your own snot in here without something getting in it!" He planted his hands proudly on his hips at the crone's question. "I am!...not telling." He'd prepared to show off but he remembered ANBU were supposed to be secretive mid-sentence.

Not one to stand in mystery clouds he moved away from the green haze and was thankful he had when the mystery cat got caught up in it and turned into Kanon before keeling over. Woah I'm going to outsnoop the snooper while doing pest control. Watching the vines sprouting from her skin with interest wondering if he could find a similarly neat way to get blood from an enemy, for the moment hoping to keep his own Rokuro pushed his chakra outward transforming it into a layer of earth covering his body with extra thickness over his knuckles for punching.

With excess trails of dust drifting around him Rokuro gripped an empty gurney and lifted it with an unnatural heave before throwing it at the apparent little old lady with a spin.

Ganryu Hanarei

 

[Hanarei]

Squad Kazuo

Emiko Senju
​

Emiko shimmied her way through the vents maneuvering past the vines as they made the trip a bit more uncomfortable then it already was. Finding her way down the chute as she made it down to the first floor. Her little adventure taking her through peeking out to see what laid out before her. The vents themselves clearly did serve their function of circulating air, though it was clear it also was a great place from which if someone was so inclined they could use it to spy at any point in the orphanage. The vines themselves she suspected wasn't natural either. The idea of it clearly nagging at the back of her mind at the affront to what she viewed her clan standing for. In some deep part she wouldn't admit a certain jealousy such a gift had fallen into the hands of someone doing such heinous things where as she didn't possess it at all.

She peeked into the room where Kaito was watching over the children and playing with them. Her eyes unable to help but glance over noticing him with the caretaker in the corner. Whatever he was doing perplexed the young shinobi, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. She had push on and try and find out just where this chute lead, and sure enough she could see as it suddenly shot downwards far below as if some deep black abyss. A very uneasy feeling in her stomach as she looked down upon it. The feeling only grew more potent as she could faintly hear voices below. Emiko made her way down sticking to the walls and being as quiet as possible not wanting to be too cumbersome on the way down. Finally reaching the bottom into the large room below.

Her eyes had locked onto Madam Iwamoto as she seemed to approach Rokuro. Her eyes alert as it seemed clear he was in danger as she was tempted to attack though her glance had shifted quickly to see the poor child on the metal slab. A sort of horror filling her as she watched the girl tug at the straps seeing the bones shifting and moving as she seemed clearly in distress despite not at all screaming. She was nearly ready to move down to aid her, fighting the urge. The girl looking angrily at the poor child at what was happening feeling quite worried for her safety.

If remove the straps there is a chance she could end up hurting herself. It's... it's horrible...

Anger was clearly in her eyes as she took quite a bit of effort from simply lashing out at her. It seemed quite likely she would catch onto her before she could manage her attack even with her attention focused on Rokuro. Even if she were to strike first using a Kunai it wasn't as if she was the most skilled with such techniques. She wasn't exactly a direct fighter herself and given the techniques she seemed to somehow be capable of using she had likely a good bit of defense on her side if she got any sort of warning that would be able to counteract her. Her best option would be to use her Ninjutsu though her style involved usually more setup.

Her eyes darted to Rokuro as she watched him seem to... armor up? Whatever the technique was she was quick to react. If he could keep her distracted and preoccupied enough she could prepare an attack of her own. To be quick enough it would put her closer in harm's way but it was the only way she could think of in the heat of the moment to quickly use her technique and hopefully catch the old woman off guard. If they could subdue her they could perhaps force her to reveal how to stop whatever she had done to the girl. Her eyes fixated over noticing as he took hold of a gurney seeing it as her chance.

Emiko released her chakra dropping down aiming to land a few feet behind Iwamoto preparing to use Rokuro's throw and predict near where she might duck to avoid it if at all. Performing the hand signs in the air timing it a she finished as she landed a bit roughly though touching the ground at the same time. Her chakra quickly spreading out using a large amount as she had to be quick, hoping her little ambush along with Rokuro's own attack to allow her to catch her off guard.

Mud Release: Mud Prison

The ground she infused quickly began to shift extending out around the old woman. The ground shifting into mud as it began to swirl up from the ground to encase her moving in an attempt to entrap her into the swirling pool of liquid earth concentrating to keep it moving. Emiko seeming to show some signs of exhaustion from expelling so much of her chakra at once in an effort to quickly infuse the ground.

IG42 Ganryu

 

[The Regal Rper]

Eiichi | ANBU HQ | Squad Uzumaki

For a brief moment Eiichi's eyes hardened when it looked like Kiyoshi was about to apologize again. It was as if, he was daring him to say it. To apologize for no reason once more.

Luckily, he didn't, else he would have grabbed him by the shirt and started shaking him violently.

"None," Eiichi answered in agreement. His tone now much more relaxed. Pleased even. "Alright" he clapped, his hard expression smoothing over to something more chill, not friendly- but calmer. "since we've gotten that settled let's do as the Princess says and get our asses ready. She said we should meet her outside at the entrance, so...I'm off, see you guys at the entrance"

By the time he'd finished his sentence, he was already half-way towards the exit. "I'll see you guys out there.

And true to his word he was out there first. Standing outside, tengu mask worn backwards, the face a glowering sneer with bushy brows that matched the level of absolute fury and smug conceit he wanted to portray in a fight. On his shoulders was a small bag, packed with a three different civilian clothes. He wore his ninja tool pouch on his left leg, and behind him another pouch that held some of his personal bag of literal tricks, from explosive confetti shuriken to pop-rocket poppers, fit for dazzling the eyes of your intended targets with a little of Fire style sprinkled in.

However when his other teammates did show up, Eiichi scowled. "What the hell took you so long, I've been standing here for almost a minute now." It was irritating being tardy when this was their first mission. He wanted to get things started, get things rolling- especially since he hadn't seen sight of any of the other candidates since they all split off into their teams. Who knew what they were doing currently. "Move yer ass, lets get goin into high gear! Where is the Princess anyway, isn't she supposed to be giving us details on what exactly we're supposed to be doing?" Eiichi stomped, grumpy, his trademark scowl back. Pacing back and forth, it was clear he was nervous on some level- or maybe he was impatient, hard to tell. The fact his accent had slipped just a bit there earlier might have been a sign he was growing quite impatient not knowing what the others were up to, or how far along they were in comparison.

The thought of Kanon struck his mind and he couldn't help but wonder what on earth the big muscle-head idiot was doing right now and if she was fairing well on her mission. He knew they fought a lot more than they got along, but the idea of her being hurt made him anxious as hell not knowing what the others were up to.

More than anything, Eiichi wanted to get started. Distracted and caught up in his own thoughts, there had been some kind of clear shift between him getting ready and him waiting and now that they were about to start the mission- he was concerned what kind of mission they'd be going out on. Kasane was nothing like his old mentor- where he played favorites, and saw ways in teaching them by pitting them against each other, only becoming a real leader when things became dangerous. The thought however, did not leave his head- that they all had their differences, and even though they were effective as a team- this was ANBU. What kind of first mission would they be going out on? Clearly not rescuing someone's cat from a tree because the stupid furrball decided to get stuck up there in the first place right?

If it were that, he'd be livid as hell.

He seriously hoped it wasn't some stupid genin level mission they'd be going out on. Made to look serious but in actuality wasn't.

Mentions: BriiAngelic

Interactions: SomeRandomCanuck IG42 Phayne

 

[Merciless Medic]

Nariko Nakamura
Team Taisei
​

Location: Senju Compound | Mood: Determined, Thrilled | Interactions: Taisei Hyuga ( Noam ), Natsume Uchiha ( AtlannianSpy ), Hisa Hyuga ( InsaneAsylum ) | Mentions: Kazuo Senju​

So, that went about as well as a fart during prayer.

Nariko was currently running away. From a good two or three Senju shinobi. Honestly, she wasn't counting, she was too busy parkouring across the area, trying to deflect all attention away from her two teammates by giggling while running away.

"You can't get me, suckers~!" She sang out and then stuck out her tongue at them over her shoulder before leaping onto a building.

She did at least help put the bottles in the bags, and the one bag she had held all the miscellaneous objects. She even put some empty bottles in there to sound convincing enough.

Luckily, her team and she herself didn't fall for the genjutsu traps thanks to Kazuo (well, Nariko didn't), but she was now being chased because she did not take into account shinobi on patrol and when she did, she was already walking out and had bumped into the guy with a bag full of other items bottles (but it's actually not the needed bottles). Thankfully, she was quick. She even smashed into another Senju shinobi trying to chase after one of her teammates to get him to follow her, which now meant she had three following her.

Oh dear.

Nariko had ran around several blocks, trying not to pull too far away from the compound to alert the other shinobi so she didn't have outside factors that she had to weigh in but also not staying too close to allow her slower teammates to escape relatively unnoticed.

There was only so long she could continue dodging their shuriken, their kunai, their ninjutsu, and their attempts at body flickering onto her or using their clones to catch her before they got bored and looked for the others or looked for someone who was more qualified to catch her. So after she was done swinging around on the wires, the telephone poles, and jumping over buildings and wall jumping to avoid them, she dropped a smoke bomb to body flicker away, dropping the sack of strange items that they mistaken for bottles.

While they had their dopamine rush get ruined, she ran back towards the rendezvous, but also used her clone to find her teammates so they may all get out of there together just in case they needed her help.

Honestly, this was so much fun, she wouldn't mind doing this again. At least she had one bottle in her fuuinjutsu paper if things went south.

 

[Ganryu]

Team Kazuo
{Last round of posts}
Hanarei IG42

​

The Madam seemed particularly set off about Rokuro's insult at her lab, her teeth clenching, and her hunched back straightening slightly.

"I WILL have your blood. Either as a vivisection or a dissection! My lab is of the highest quality!"

As he threw the gurney, she slammed her cane into the ground, and held two hands together, water and earth together. The spores began to gather and sprout on one side, wrapping around the gurney, and holding it in place as it slammed forward. The Madam panted as she made a few more handsigns, and the center column root behind Rokuro groaned, before several branches shot out of the ground at him, trying to wrap around his ankles and grasp with bone crushing force. The Madam smirked. "You can't get close. And throwing things is predictable. And since I took some of Torimori's cells, I almost feel invincible in my old age. Why, these spores could be considered the ultimate defense.

Tell me child. What do you want, attacking an old lady in a lab? Why, I've only made a home for these orphans. They'd be starving on the street without me. Sure, some sacrifices must be made, but those here have so much... potential in them."

As she stood there, however, it made the Madam an easy target as mud suddenly rose up around her, forming a sphere, and sealing her off from her 'defense'. An angry grunt came from the disgruntled geneticist. "Tch, who else is there?" She rolled her eyes, then looked back, easily spotting Emi. Her red eye's arrows contracted as she looked.

"Ah, a Senju, a most progidous bloo-..." She stared a moment longer, before bursting out laughing, in a hideous crow like laugh as she pointed at Emi, and nearly fell over, stumbling on her cane. "HA! Mudblood! She's literally a mudblood. Your genes never set off! It's too late now for you to activate them, unless someone like me were to do some tinkering. But even if I did, nothing special about it. GHAHAHAHA."

Clearing her throat, she shook her head, and tapped her cane on the ground. The swirling tongue and teeth at the top clenched together, before beginning to cough. A large bulge started to travel up the staff, before the tongue lolled out, dropping a large seed on the ground. A few handsigns, and the Madam slammed her staff down on the seed.

Roots shot out as spears in four directions, distorting the cage... which continued to hold, even with the slamming wood. The Madam's eyes narrowed. "How much chakra is in this prison!? I refuse to lose to a ninja without anything special about them. Not unless I've had a chance to tinker with them!!!"

She slammed harder, the marks of the sprouting wood struggling against it, pushing outwards, inch by inch as she struggled against Emi's chakra, making it a battle of brute force, chakra vs chakra.

 

[Hanarei]

Squad Kazuo

Emiko Senju
​

Emiko's hands pressed to the ground keeping placed as she was pouring her chakra in ensuring more and more mud lifted up swirling around the woman. Her eyes focused upon her as she seemed to catch onto her though surrounded by the mud as it swirled around her in a sphere to contain her. The girl's already stern gaze had only turned that much more hostile as as the woman spoke talking of her bloodline only to seem to catch onto her use of technique to burst into laughter, mocking her for not inheriting her clan's ability.

Spoiler: Flashback

The sound of sniffling could be heard from behind the tree. A small figure sat curled up with her knees bent in front of her. Long reddish brown locks flowed down a bit messy reaching halfway down the young girl's back. The child face planted against her knees crying softly to herself. Her arms clutching at her legs tightly as if to seek comfort hiding away. Her head picking up showing her watery eyes with the birth mark situated under her left eye. A young Emiko crying to herself.

"It's not fair...it's not..." She muttered sniffling more pressing harder against her legs. The girl's eyes still watering as she squeezed up against her legs. The sudden shuffle of some brush making her shift her head as suddenly a larger figured humped out.

The man landing in a rather dramatic fashion superhero posing. He propped himself up slowly brushing himself off having managed to get his nice white shirt dirty in the process. A look of terror on his face ever so briefly. His wife is going to kill him if he shows up all dirty before they even had gone out for dinner to make up for last time. The look had faded rather quickly as it shifting into a wide grin. The man lifting up his hand presenting the girl with a peace sign. Rather goofy in his pose as he stood tall looking at the crying child as she returned her glance still tearing up though looking almost puzzled by it.

"Never fear, Dad's here!" The man spoke with a grin seeing young Emiko as he acted like his typical goofy self. The girl looking rather uneasy at him seeming to pause for a moment before pressing tight against her legs against sniffling more not seeming too phased by it. A soft sigh escaping Jurou's lips as he slowly approached. The man falling down onto his ass. His head glancing over as he stared at his daughter. Propping his one leg up bent up. His hand outstretched gently pulling her in close to a gentle hug. A soft smile on his lips as he looked at her.

"Your uncle told me. It's alright. I know you always liked to tell me you wanted to be like me but I knew deep down you really wanted to have the clan's gift like your mother. I know it might be upsetting but you gotta understanding, it doesn't change anything. It doesn't make you any lesser. Look at me! Not an ounce of valuable blood in me, a big ol loser and look at me now! I'm a full on Shinobi with a name for myself, a beautiful smart and loving wife and the cutest most wonderfulest daughter a man could ever hope to have. Whatever silly hocus pocus stuff you have or don't have won't change that."

The young Emiko heard him speak glancing over so briefly from the corner of her eyes though she still seemed upset. Pressed up to her knees as her sniffling had lessened though it wasn't hard to see she was still upset. While his words eased her up a little it didn't quite vanquish the idea in her head. She felt as if she was letting her clan down. Her mother, her uncle Kazou, everyone. Her frown lingering as she seemed to pause shaking her head against her knees.

"You are amazing cuz you didn't have nothing. I did but I blew it." A soft cry escaped from Emiko's lips as suddenly her father's fist gently pushed down against her head brushing his knuckles lightly through her head just enough to cause discomfort without being painful. The girl shaking head picking it up glancing at him pouting. The girl's eyes still wet though seeming at least to have settled down a bit in response. A light blush forming on her cheeks as Jurou patted her head smiling at her hugging her lovingly. The man smiling warmly at her.

"You didn't do anything wrong sweetie. I wouldn't have my Emi-chan any other way then what you are right now. Your my daughter, I know not having some silly little trees growing out of your head won't stop you from being great. A Senju isn't great because they can make more firewood on a whim, it's the actions they take that make them such a proud clan. Don't you worry about that either, I'm already quite proud of you my little Emi!" He spoke with a light laugh poking at her nose making the girl wiggle her nose pouting more.

Despite the gesture a soft smile wormed on her lips. The girl sniffling wiping at her eyes. A light nod followed as she looked at him. It didn't make her feel completely relieved finding out she didn't possess the clan's blood limit, but the sadness she felt eased up. Her father standing up partially offering his hand as she looked at him. Her eyes blinking back still a little wet though feeling far less devastated then she had before. Her small hand gently taking hold of his standing up. The girl glancing up at her father as he smiled down at her. The girl smiling softly back feeling a little bit better.

"Come on, let's head home. Your mother is going to k... lecture me very sternly as is. Tell you what, tomorrow how about the two of us train? I'll help teach ya how to give a whooping! Well get you to be a great shinobi and one who makes her own path just like her great and wise papa!"

The young Emiko smiled up at him as she gently pressed against her father feeling some sense of warmth embracing his side lightly before taking his hand. The two venturing off together back home.

She stared at the woman focusing her Jutsu as she sought to belittle her. The words jabbing lightly at her though it's effects on her minor. It wasn't that which bothered her. It was what she said about tinkering on her. Treating her as some sort of experiment even if her 'time' was too late. It was the fact she was treating the idea of experimenting on the children to unlock some latent kekkei genkai in them was necessary to somehow make them whole. It truly disgusted and infuriated her.

"I don't want to hear anything from a monster like you! You aren't gifting them potential you are robbing them of happiness for your own sick twisted gain. I'll happily live as a Mudblood if it means causing a demon like you to disappear forever for what you did to these children!"

Emiko noticed as Madam Iwamoto seemed to use a Jutsu noticing the seed just as roots began to shoot out attempting to break through her prison. It only made Emiko press her hands harder on the ground throwing much more of her chakra in swirling the mud around her focusing all her concentration on the woman refusing to relent as she attempted to break free of the swirling mass of mud. Her deathly glare locked onto the muddy prison as it seemed to twirl even faster as more and more mud rose fueling it further attempting to compress down upon the old woman. The mud itself while repelled by the roots slowly working to absorb some of the chakra eating at it and only further fueling the twisting mud aided by Emiko's own efforts.

"How dare... scum like you dare to sully the Senju clan's name by stealing our techniques! Just.... disappear!"

The girl's hands kept pressed against the ground feeding more and more chakra not at all hesitating to apply all of her energy into it trying to overtake her. Beads of sweat slowly dripping down her face as her fiery gaze lingered purely on the entrapped woman refusing to give in. Her mind only drifting over from Ai-Ai back up to Tama... to the other children. The image of their painful looks seeing her angering her and only fueling her to want to put an end to her. She couldn't allow a beast like her to wander free and terrorize the poor orphans any longer. Even if it meant passing out or getting struck down she wouldn't give up until every last bit of chakra was spent attempting to drown in the mud and eat her words.

IG42 Ganryu

 

[IG42]

Squad Kasane
"That's Captain Princess to you." Kasane quipped as she appeared behind Eiichi and gave the tengu's beaky nose a playful flick. "Since none of you had any burning questions earlier we'll be off right away, no point standing around just to chatter right? Of course if you fall behind you might miss something important." Giving them only a moment to admire her sly smile she dashed off heading across the village rooftops occasionally crisscrossing with other shinobi.

Setting a brisk but not too dangerous pace for her charges she called over her shoulder to them as she ran and jumped across the buildings. "Okay boys we're heading over to the red light district to investigate a gambling ring that's been specialising in something you recently got very familiar with, the Chuunin exams, I expect at least a certain one of you knows that betting on the matches of the final stage is big business and while that's all well and good and profitable this one has been dealing under the table in match-fixing and using some nasty leverage to make sure the players dance to their tune."

Touching down on a neglected rooftop above a mostly quiet alleyway Kasane waved for the trio to join her. "Now I bet you suspected it already but the brackets aren't as random as you'd think, setting up bigger clashes for later on is just how you make a good show. This guy Nagatori Kai has been going past that to bribe invigilators and threaten participants to affect the fights themselves, we're going to take a walk to his business and gently remind him of the difference between good honest underground betting and dastardly underground match-fixing and collect our fine while we're at it. Now we're going to be using civvie disguises to get ourselves in there, so you get to show me how good your quick change is." Body flickering away she reappeared barely a second later dressed in a simple dark blue kimono with a white flower pattern and the upper portion partly open to expose the top of her chest, a decorated clip pinned up her hair at the back. "Points will be deducted for speed, wardrobe malfunctions and fashion sense."

The Regal Rper SomeRandomCanuck Phayne

 

[KageYuuki]

Ren Ogumo

A Spider's Parlor​

Inside the room, light gently crept in the mansion, veiled and tinted slightly by the veils of silk surrounding it deep within the forest, turning the dawn light to a warm creamy color inside. Little ‘skrrrt, skrrrt, skrrrrt’ could be heard as the walls bristled. Even as Ren slept, spiders could be seen running up and down her windows, fixing her curtains, adding little designs to it, chewing up old sections. Around the bed itself, a small net kept all but a select few out, as per Ogumo fashion.

Not so softly a ‘tok-tok-tok’ came from her door.

“Hey, kid, the old ba- … the clan head is requesting us. To the meeting hall.” The voice was apathetic and gruff, but feminine.

Footsteps started away. Two finger’s knuckle marks dug deep into Ren’s door, splintering wood. Beneath the doorstep, two small footprints, barely larger than her own, also dug in slightly. Wandering down the hallway, an Ogumo’s white hair shuffled with each step, barely kept, it was shoulder length into a bobcut. She slumped over, looking defeated, but the most easily identifiable attribute was the empty sleeve of the button up shirt she wore. Her movements were almost reminiscent of the living dead. Ren’s aunt, Miyu Ogumo, looking far less energized than on the mission, whether it be in angry outburst, smug pride, or sudden panic attacks.

Ren startled awake at the loud knock. Had she not known better, her first thought would’ve been that someone was trying to break down the door. It took a moment for her still half asleep mind to pin the voice to a name, and then figure out what Miyu had said. The clan head wants us . . .? Another beat before Ren bolted out of bed, throwing on clothes to look at least somewhat presentable.

She’d never requested for Ren specifically before. Were all the Ogumo summoned? No, Miyu said us… Was this about ANBU? The thought made her hesitate, Do Granny’s webs really reach that far?

Ren paused at her door, first to take in the indents left by her aunt, and then to look back towards the bed. A large, iridescent spider was attempting to make off with a toy rabbit. “Mr. Ao, please leave Amaya alone. That’s not food.”

There was a pause before the stuffed animal was returned and Ren left the room.

Deeper within the compound, the mansion led to a garden in its center that managed to be even darker than the buildings around. Heavy veils above the massive redwood trees blocked the sun completely, and expensive jewels hanging from them shone like stars, making it seem like midnight, even at the beginning of morning. Occasionally stars ‘flickered’ out as the more massive of the clan’s summons wandered across, legs as large as small trees in their own rights. In the center of the garden, a single shrine like building sat, the ‘meeting hall’ where the clan head, Shion Ogumo, always seemed present. Being called there could be a single person interview, or the entire clan assembled. And no dared ‘assembled’, unless called.

Threads hung from the dark ceilings, candles lighting the floor as a single old lady sat in the middle of a cushion. Behind her, a screen door sat, with a purple mist leaking out. Nobody seemed to mention what was in that room… no one dared.

Sitting on her knees at attention, Miyu could be seen, sweat dripping down her neck.

Granny Shion smiled pleasantly. “Ah, Ren. How is your new team treating you? Kei from your old team seems to miss you terribly. It’s a wonderful thing to have friends, to have purpose.” She glanced at Miyu as she said it, an eyebrow twitching a fraction of an inch, almost accusatory.

Ren knelt beside Miyu, taking the same formal stance. Though she wasn’t nearly as tense. Even after finding the matriarch’s bingo book entry, the shock gave way to fascination instead of fear. Questions bubbling up she wasn’t sure she could ever find the answers to. Questions that had a time and place to ask and this was likely neither of those.

“We miss her as well.” Ren stopped herself from fidgeting. When she wore her mask, she was to be another of the Leaf’s nameless shadows. When it was off, she was just another regular citizen. A shinobi that almost never seemed to get missions. She realized she didn’t know if or where those lines crossed. She didn’t “die” like some of the other ANBU, there was nothing explicitly keeping the clan in the dark about her new rank. “But she and Sho will make for fine chuunin. Even if we couldn’t be promoted alongside them.”

The old woman smiled, cracking her head unnaturally. It seemed to fall to the side more than move naturally.

“Oh… I wouldn’t worry about that. I’ve always found ranks trivial. I, myself, never rose above chunnin before retirement. Far too busy to be special. I like to think I continue to keep myself entertained in my old age…

By the way, did you hear the tragedy of the Ino Shika Cho trio? Rumors say all three are recently marked as deceased. Funny, hot headed as he was, I could have sworn Shikahide was… durable at the very least. The other two, I could see passing on. Cho was unambitious, and Ino was too curious. Oh, and the talk of the Hyuga head dying. Such a time we live in. In chaos, always such a shake up for the great clans on top, and such a chance for small clans like ours to be so foolish as to make names for themselves.

Oh, but look at me ramble. It’s been so long since I’ve taken a moment to spend time with my grandchild, and great grandchild. Such promise, even if no longer particularly… active nin.

Miyu, dear, if you wouldn’t mind, I just wanted to discuss living situations. Your room is awfully drafty isn’t it? We’ve never been able to fix that window just right. Wouldn’t want you to have nightmares again, would we? And I’m sure with your occasional ‘odd jobs’ as you put it, it must be hard to afford anything. If you wouldn’t mind taking Takamaru’s old room. ”

Miyu blinked for a moment, somewhere between confused, and annoyed. Her veins bulged, but one look at the old crow sent her breath away. She just nodded in the end. “Yes, Granny Shion. Is that all?”

Shion nodded. “Dismissed. I would like a word with my great grandaughter, however. Why, I don’t think I’ve called her since the chunnin exams… Ren, be a dear and wait just a moment. Miyu, you’re dismissed.”

Miyu blinked, and looked back, but slowly shuffled out of the dark room.

Shion waited several minutes, letting the clock drag on, all the while dozens of spiders crawled across the room, crossing over her haori and leaving time and time again. Each with a small pulse of chakra… a small message, all over the village. Granny Shion’s eyes slowly opened, a dull sheen to them, eyelids almost cracking they were shut from her placid smile so long. Her gaze pierced forward at Ren, all the warmth draining, along with much of the temperature of the room, several of the candles blowing out, leaving just a few standing with a dim light illuminating the cheeks of the old woman.

“Ren. Where is Shikahide now?”

Ren let out a small, shuddering breath at the change in the matriarch's tone. As far back as she could remember, Granny Shion had never come off even remotely cold towards her before. The sudden shift left her on edge. It wasn’t surprising that there were already rumors floating around. The future heads of three noble clans suddenly disappearing was going to cause a stir.

But her knowing Shikahide was alive . . .

She fought to keep herself from fidgeting under the piercing eyes. Ren felt one of her own spiders, Hoshiko, settle onto her arm under her kimono. She tried to choose her words carefully. While how much of a secret her new rank needed to be kept from the clan head was . . . debateable, the mission itself was secret.

“It . . . would be hard to say. The clans are probably keen to keep the entire affair under wraps, considering all the talk of the Hyuuga’s clan head. If Shikahide died with his team, we would suspect his remains are with his clan or out in the field unrecovered. But we wouldn’t know for sure.”

Cold wind blew in the dark room, flickering candles waxing and waning playfully with it as chimes sounded. The clan matron’s face was stoic as the flames bounced across it as she studied Ren, eyes still slightly open.

The chimes slowed, and several candles regained their flame against the wind.

Shuffling could be heard from the giant spiders above in the massive redwoods.

More seconds passed, and finally, a smile started to return to the old woman’s face.

“I see. It would be hard to say, wouldn’t it? That’s always the problem with rumors, isn’t it? Finding out details. Still, for all rumors are often wrong, I find you can never have too many. Each thread in a spider web has its purpose, even if it catches nothing. Nothing wrong in putting more threads out, you might just catch something after all.

Ren, put out a few feelers for me, would you? It’s so lonely in the clan shrine, I don’t get to see much with my old eyes. I have to rely on you young folk to be my eyes. I always worry about how much of village affairs I’m missing…

Oh, perhaps some interesting news to you. It seems right as a search party was being put together for poor old Shikahide, an incident occurred in the Hokage’s mansion. Really off putting, and delayed a team just enough to not be worth it. Something from the Senju complaining about intruders. It turned out to be nothing, but, well, it’s a rumor to pass the time.”

Ren forced herself to keep still and not shiver at the biting chill that cut through the shrine. She could feel her heart pounding against her chest in the silence. Would the matriarch call her out on her half truths? It wouldn’t be hard. And if the bingo book was anything to go by, she could just pluck the answers from the threads of Ren’s memories herself.

Instead, Granny Shion’s usual smile returned and the conversation carried on. But the unease remained.

It took a moment for Ren to find her voice again. “That . . . is an interesting rumor, with all the tension in the clans it would be easy for one to assume the delay was intentional. We could spread some threads of our own on the matter.”

The smile, placid, actually grew, several missing teeth showing their yellow color as the lips twisted to the sides. “There we go. Not many people in the clan know how to play the game. Good… good… Now, sadly, Granny Shion has to play with a great deal many people who don’t know how to play… I’ll be watching you with… special interest. Do come again, I’ll be sure to summon you again.”

 

[SomeRandomCanuck]

Squad Kasane
Ryūji Ganbā
Interactions: The Regal Rper Phayne IG42 ​

Seeing as their red-headed sensei ignored his question and left them after giving them a sly smile, Ryuji sighed and spoke to no one “Ah ignored, damn now what should I prepare…” rubbing the back of his head he started heading towards his home.

Leisurely taking his time he calmly ran through the narrow back alleys of Konoha, using a shortcut that he knew of since he was a little kid before reaching a bustling street. The red light district, home to all of Konoha’s sins and pleasures, walking past the bright lights of multiple gambling dens he approached a large building, it was already crowded at this hour, upon its gateway hung a sign “The Lucky Karp”. His family opened this casino when they first immigrated to Konoha, starting off as a small gambling rink it had soon become one of the more popular and chic locals to gamble and test one’s luck.

In the alleyway lay a small red door with gold trimming, he walked up to it before knocking 8 times. Suddenly a small eyehole slided open where a pair of eyes peered at him before a gruff voice called out “Oh, it’s you young master, my apologies let me open the door.”

Ryuji merely shrugged indifferently as he heard the click of the latches and locks unlocking the door, eight in total. When the door opened Ryuji laid his eyes upon one of the many “Security Personnel” his family hired to help keep the calm and order in the building, tall, thuggish, wearing the standard suit.

“Thank you, is my father at the clan building by any chance?”

“No young master, he is currently handling some high profile clients in the private rooms, so he will be busy for a while.”

“Huh, ~lucky~”

Ryuji walked past the guard as the door closed behind him, walking through the tight hallways and staff quarters of the casino he reached a sliding paper door, upon opening it he was greeted with the small gardens and clan residential building, seperate from the main gambling den. As he walked through the garden he stopped at the pond in the middle, some karp swimming leisurely, without a care in the world. How he sometimes envied the karp, being able to laze all day, get fed plenty, and live a calm life. He kneeled down, grabbing some pellets from a small bowl layed near the pond he sprinkled the food in and calmly watched the fish eat their food.

“Well, can’t dally any longer, I have a date with an attractive lady.” he joked to himself, lightly chuckling as he dusted himself off, stood up and entered the clan residence. His room wasn’t much, it was decently sized with a small futon laying in the corner, a few games and books laying around haphazardly, and a small liquor cabinet in another corner, ontop it was a mixer and a half drunk bottle of Soju from the land of rice, a present from his father which he unfortunately had to win through a bet.

Grabbing all of his equipment, a small flask of pure alcohol, some medical supplies, enough bomb tags to blow a small building to kingdom come, and rations he first organized them by group, then taking out multiple seal scrolls channeled his chakra and with a few hand signs sealed everything he needed within the scrolls. Then placing the scrolls around his jacket on the surface he didn’t have anything on his except a few scrolls of paper, but in reality he was packed with everything he would need upon the trip, after all it did help to be talented in the art of seals once in a while.

Upon gathering his equipment and prepping himself he placed his mask upon his face before exiting the building. Jumping on top of the roof and heading at a moderate speed towards their meetup point, hopping from one rooftop to the next, the breeze cooling breathing upon his face as he ran.

Once he reached the meetup point he saw his blond compatriot standing, visibly irritated, Ryuji merely stared blankly at his compatriot as he started scowling at them. Once Eiichi was done, Ryuji yawned lazily and slowly replied in a joking manner, trying to calm the smokebox.

“Chill out smokey, what haven't you had your daily nicotine yet? We arrived here and on good time too, being irritated won’t do you any good, especially before a mis…” he stopped as their sensei appeared behind the tengu wearing blond and lightly flicked him on the nose. Ryuji chuckled slightly before following their sensei.

Jumping across rooftops he listened in to Kasane-sama explain mission details, it slightly surprised him that he would be heading back to a region he was extremely familiar with, both living and enjoying the district immensely. Especially since he was planning on running a chunin exam gambling rink before his untimely forced participation in the event “Ya, I mean you get business not only from Konoha nin, but from every other village with at least one team entering. It could be more than 3x the usual earnings for some of the bigger casinos…” he commented

But upon hearing about the match-fixing Ryuji scowled slightly, it was distasteful to influence and rig the outcome of any game or bet. To a Ganba it was uninteresting when the results were certain and ruined the fun and risk involved. It was obvious hearing about the brackets being set up the way they were, any gambler with half a mind could see that the money that could be made from two major contestants fighting in higher stake matches was way more than if it were just blowouts. But to be able to bribe officials and invigilators, whoever this Nagatori fellow is, he must either have some serious influence in the rink, or some new major backers.

Hearing Kasane-sama tell them to change into civilian outfits Ryuji took a second to admire the red-headed beauty in the casual outfit, a slight nosebleed appeared as he gave a perverted smirk, and a solid thumbs up.

“Excellent choice Kasane-sama, exemplifies your beauty tenfold!”

Then before he could take any repercussions he quickly bolted away, his seal scrolls to take out a servant’s uniform, a standard suit, tie, dress pants, and black dress shoes. Then he channelled his chakra and with a few hand signs used a basic genjutsu spell to change the colour of his hair to a grass green, and his eyes to a shade of purple.

Then appearing in front of the group he took out a small pair of old fashioned spectacles, donning upon the bridge of his nose and bowing to Kasane-sama, spoke with an accent similar to those from the Land of Hot Water.

“Young Mistress, young masters, lets us enjoy Konoha’s prolific gambling rink.”

 

[Phayne]

~Squad Kasane~
Mentions: SomeRandomCanuck IG42 The Regal Rper

Making his way home, the red haired ninja had headed off in a seperate direction to his newest compatriots whom like himself had made their way home to prepare for their debut anbu mission. Honestly, It was somewhat surprising that they had been issued a mission this early into their career's as members of the Anbu Black Ops, having only really just formed the squad earlier in the day. That being said, it was a quick opportunity for Kiyoshi at the very least to make up for his mistake during the training session; the weight of the mistake still weighing at the back of his mind despite the words of encouragement from everyone else.

Traversing the many rooftops, Kiyoshi now garbed in his standard attire had kept his eyes peeled towards the world around himself; skimming the bustling streets below as he took note of the many civilians that continued with their day to day business as well as several familiar faces of genin and academy instructors that he had met in the past, prior to becoming a member of Anbu. Whilst he had seen these scenes many times before; todays journey back home had felt far different than it had done so in the past; almost as if a weight had been placed upon his shoulders or a tightness had slowly began to grip his chest. For reasons he hadn't yet begun to fully understand, Kiyoshi was seemingly beginning to see the world in a different light; like an outsider looking in through a glass window at everyone else.

Stopping at the roof's edge of a local convenience store; Kiyoshi would watch as a mother and her two young kids left the store. The daughter; the younger of the two children was happily holding to her mothers right hand whilst her free hand held onto an Ice pop, whilst the boy ran ahead; a toy paper plane in his hand as he simulated 'flight'. The three of them were blissfully unaware of his presence, unaware of the young man standing behind them whose task it was to now protect them as well as the countless other innocents from danger. A responsibility that on the surface was no different to those not integrated into the Anbu, yet in reality held a far darker nature. It wasn't 'breaking news' that the Anbu operated on a different set of rules to the everyday ninja. It was well documentated that they were the ones most often relied upon to carry out missions that operated in the grey area; to sometimes carry out duties that many normally would not condone.

It was something that Kiyoshi would need to quickly adapt to. To learn how to differentiate between the mask he wore for Anbu as well as the one that he would need to now wear in public in order to maintain his Anbu ties a secret. It was almost certain that somewhere down his path as a member of the black ops, he would need to get his hands dirty. To fulfill a mission which details teetered between what was morally right and what wasn't; in order to prioritize the overall safety of the village. Could he still look at an innocent mother and their two kids with kindness in his eyes? Or would the weight of his new role in life become too heavy that his eyes would soon cease to have life within them?.

Shaking his head in an attempt to ignore such morbid thoughts, Kiyoshi would resume his trip back to his home; a simple studio flat located in the cheaper and somewhat shadier part of the village. Beggers couldn't be choosers and in all honesty, most if not everyone who was forced to live here had their own problems to contend with, that the simple presence of a former child refugee was of little interest to them.

Entering the flat, the familiar coldness of the interior had greeted Kiyoshi. Minimalistic and only really housing the basic neccessities one would come to expect of a home. Most, if not all of the furniture was second if not third hand. After all genin's salary was minimal, and there were more important things than a brand new sofa that the red haired boy had to prioritize. Rent and food being his too main concerns.
Quickly making his way towards the closet at the far end of the studio room, Kiyoshi would quickly begin to ruffle through the limited sets of clothing that he owned; pulling together a disguise that hopefully wouldn't look too out of the ordinairy for where their mission was taking place.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ready, Kiyoshi would begin to leave his rundown studio flat; making his way towards the designated meeting area. Initially leaving in his standard ninja attire so as to not draw suspicion, Kiyoshi would make it several blocks away before assuming his Anbu outfit. Dipping down into a dark alley between two buildings; the naturally silent boy had quickly thrown his cloak over himself; before affixing his mask upon his face and forming a simple hand gesture.

Completely covered in a thin layer of his own chakra, Kiyoshi would become completely and utterly silent; any sound produced by his body being completely nullified by the layer of chakra that cloaked him entirely. His presence would only be known, should someone happen to look in his direction; yet given his persistence in now sticking to the shadows; it would be nigh on impossible for someone untrained in perception to notice him. The truth behind such a claim was soon put to the test as two shinobi happened to walk down the alley; both clearly carrying a few years of experience under their belt as they happily walked past Kiyoshi, neither seemingly aware that he was even there in the first place.

It would be several minutes before the silent shinobi would make his way to the meeting point, arriving a few minutes after Kasane had done so; just in time to see Eiichi's mask getting flicked. Making himself known, he'd follow behind the others as they began to go into the details of their mission.

Dirty gambling... match fixing... these were not exactly new to Kiyoshi; who continued to listen attentively to the exchange between Kasane and Ryuji. Considering how deep the Habiki family had had their hands into the underworld, it was to be no surprise that Kiyoshi had some prior knowledge on both of the underhanded practices; after all it was almost natural for these shady gambling dens to be involved or at the very least affiliated with those that partook in the spread of drugs. Many of these smaller organizations had been prime locations for the Habiki to spread their opiates. That being said, Kiyoshi never had interest in the 'family business' so knew very little as to how such practices really operated.

Setting down on the desolate rooftop; Kiyoshi would follow the others as he quickly assumed his civvie diguise, whilst also a voice alteration with his Parrot Charade jutsu. Appearing behind the disguised Ryuji, was a visually more menacing red head youth; his hair spiked upwards and his face far fiercer than what was normally associated with Kiyoshi; though the latter could be explained by his facial appearance being obscured by his red bangs most of the time. Wearing a black, unzipped jacket over a plain white T and black jeans, the man standing before them looked almost entirely different to the silent red head that was their team mate.

His voice too would imply that he was an entirely different person, as a far deeper tone based on that of his deceased brother escaped his mouth. His whole personality too was modelled around what he had remembered of Hideo; the 'cool, aloof type' that was victim of the sin of Pride, ego and arrogance.

"How do you want us to proceed?" he questioned. Glancing between the other disguises. Raising an eyebrow at Ryuji's behaviour.


​

 

[Ganryu]

???? ​

Beep - Beep - Beep

The monitor continued it's annoying job of making sure the injured nin were alive within the white room, separated by white sheets. The room was sterile, yet the stench of iron was omnipresent. Suddenly, one of the machine's flatlined, and a rush of nurses and doctors rushed forward. Hilariously, a few had surgeon's mask over their ANBU masks. A moment later, the word 'Clear' was yelled, and lightning release went off, sparks jumping and the room flashing.

Beep... beep... beep.... weakly returned.

As the staff started to flood outwards after a patient saved, a man in a mustache folded his arms next to the door, and glanced down to a nearby trash can. "So... should I be yelling at you for trying to escape, or congratulating you on a full recovery, Miss Hakamori?"

Suddenly, one of the beds had a resident disappear, an extremely tall girl flickering out of existence as her bedsheets fell empty.

Demonic Illusion: Cidada Molt

Kaito kicked the trashcan, which transformed into the same girl, crouched down. She looked at the empty bed, then up to Kaito, then to the bed. She cocked her head in a pleasant smile. "You found me. Yay. Though, how did you know...?"

Kaito scoffed. "Heart monitor went silent, but congrats on disabling it rather than causing a second flatline. Also, you're a really tall trashcan. Oh, and I suppose, I am Commander of ANBU. Now, if you're feeling better..."

He reached down, and helped the girl up, who nearly stood as tall as Kaito did. She winced as she stood. She wore hospital gown, but was as white as a ghost. Kaito scoffed, and kicked her again. A second transformation went off. She'd already changed, long sleeves hanging off of her body, and a tag from her hat hanging down in front. She did jazz hands with her overly long sleeves making them jiggle. "Yay?"

Kaito laughed, and threw a set of ANBU robes. "Welcome to ANBU Miss Umeko Hakamori. A bit late to the party, but it's fashionable to be a bit late I suppose. Or, in other words. "Yay."" Kaito made a surprisingly accurate teenage girl voice, complete with overly enthusiastic jazz hands." Now, my real self is out and about at an orphanage, but I think you'll be good on that team. You'll be assigned to Squad Kazuo. I'll inform him he's getting a genjutsu specialist. And a bit of prankster."

Umeko bowed, as if the entire thing had been a compliment. Kaito in turn smiled, twirling his mustache. "Oh, and... try not to be impaled again? These teammates should be better than your last."

A bit of a haunted look passed on Umeko's face, but she quickly passed it off with another smile, and bowed in affirmation, wincing once more. "Two stars. Would not recommend... In other words... 'not yay'."

Kaito smirked, then tossed her a small wooden box. Umeko kept a static face, eyebrow barely twitching, before opening it. A katana, flaked with blood. She blinked, looking at the guard. "Wait, is that my blood?" She sounded distressed, even with a placcid expression.

Kaito laughed. "Quite possibly. Figured you could use a 'keepsake'. And afterall the effort the doctors made to unimpale you, well, it was the least I could do. Now. I'm a busy man, so, I'll just wish you well. Best of luck, Miss Hakamori. "

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Hisa Hyuga

Normally, moving around quietly wasn’t too much of a pain. With a big loud bag of bottles however, it was a different story.

This was when that sealing techs would have come in handy, but unfortunately Hisa never took the time to practice it. She thought she’d figure it out on the spot, but well… maybe next time it’d be best to not be so lazy.

“Looks like Nariko is doing her part,” Hisa mentioned to Natsume. She had doubts about Nariko’s role in the plan, but she was better than she expected. Escaping the Senju wasn’t exactly easy after all.

When it came to Natsume, however, Hisa had little reason to doubt her. She seemed pretty reliable, despite having that typical Uchiha look that makes it seem like they hate you for existing. Maybe she was biased though. They’re both members of a clans with prominent dojutsu. If she couldn’t see something, then surely Natsume would be able to. It almost comforted Hisa. Almost.

Hisa was hurrying through the alleyways, assuming Natsume was behind her. The veins around her eyes and temple pulsated. “Stay close Natsume, we’re almost out of here,” Hisa said reassuringly. With her byakugan, Hisa was able to get an idea of what was coming before it came, so if there was someone coming, Hisa could change routes or hide long before getting near them. Unfortunately, it was very tiring, and the young Hyuga was starting to wear down.

Suddenly Hisa skid to a stop, dropping the bag and putting her hands on her hips. “Ugh!” She exclaimed, her breaths labored and heavy. “I really need to exercise more…” Her hands fell to her knees as Hisa leaned forward. In doing so, her glasses slipped off of her face and fell lens first onto a rock. One lens broke completely.

“M-my glasses!”

Merciless Medic AtlannianSpy Ganryu

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Natsume Uchiha
Team Taisei
"Are you serious? Wait why do you even nee-" Natsume cut herself off quickly, not wanting to exacerbate the tension further. Instead Natsume leant down to pick up HIsa's glasses and hand them off to the other girl. After a moment's thought, Natsume picked up the shards of broken glass as well and shoved them into a spare pouch so as to not leave any evidence behind.

"Okay, let's swap,"Natsume said patiently. "I think I can lead us out from here, I'm pretty fresh still and we aren't far from our rendezvous point, I can take your bag as well," Although Natsume suspected her sharingan was more draining to actively use than the byakugan, Natsume hadn't had to use it much so far, where Hisa had been using hers a lot to guide them safely through the compound. Also unlike seemingly everyone else on the squad Natsume had actually bothered to learn the basic sealing technique Taisei had taught them so she had been unencumbered by a bag full of dusty bottles of wine or decoy junk, although thanks to her bloodline learning such a simple technique was basically effortless for her so it wasn't necessarily a matter of superior diligence.

Natsume's eye lit up with an eerie red glow as her modest, two tomoe sharingan activated and she swept the terrain ahead of them for signs of foreign chakra or traps. It seemed mostly clear, so Natsume picked up and shouldered Hisa's bag and started forwards. "You'll have to watch our backs still, I can't do that through the back of the skull thing like you guys," Natsume said and then suddenly realized that she was probably doing that thing again, coming off as overly curt. A normal person would probably say something reassuring or comradely here.

"We're nearly there, let's just get this over with," Natsume ventured. That...probably wasn't it.

InsaneAsylum Noam Merciless Medic

 

[IG42]

Team Kazuo
Hopping to the ceiling away from the grasping roots Rokuro looked disinterested by the gloating and justifications. "You're...kinda boring." Rather than drag things out he was prepared to put faith in his chakra cloak armour to keep the spores off long enough to jump in close and beat her up or drain whatever blood was in her shrivelled body, instead Emi showed up and tried to grab the crone in an earth prison drawing yet more shrill ranting.

As flowing mud and grasping roots further messed up the already not-so-pristine lab space Rokuro suddenly inhaled sharply, an incredible scent filled his nostrils and danced tantalisingly across his tongue. Looking about with a birdlike jerkiness he sniffed searching for the source until his eyes landed on a cooler that had fallen open spilling out blood bags and a some vials that had smashed on the floor. "Ehehe that looks...good...." Coiling like a stalking predator he pounced snatching up an armload of the bags and with an animal growl bit down to greedily shotgun the blood in a wild feeding frenzy, the rich load of chakra in myriad types spilled over and roared through his bloodstream sending his chakra cloak into an overdrive of clashing elements with metal, ice, explosive bursts and wood flaring up randomly across his body.

"KEhAahahAHAahHEhEhehEhEhah! SO TASTY!" Blind to anything else he scratched at the floor with uncontained energy, scooping up the still mostly intact vials he bit the tops clean off and chugged them down too. "GYhehHEHEhHeahEHhEhahhhhhah....mooore...." Licking at his stained hands he spun around then froze staring at the Madam locking in on the most intriguing treat left in the room, slowly an eerie grin stretched across his face, then he vanished from the sight.

A blur of motion shot uncontrollably around the room leaving cracks and dents where it bounced off the walls, reappearing on the wall behind the Madam Rokuro pounced with an explosive boost that crashed through the mud and wood crushing the woman into a new gouge in the floor. "Keheheheeee." Still giggling lowly the berserkering boy clamped his teeth down on her shoulder and went to continue gorging himself on the latest meal.

Ganryu Hanarei

 

[Ganryu]

Squad Kazuo
~ Fin ~
IG42 Hanarei ​

The Madam rolled her eyes. "Oh, it's always about the children. Dissect enemy nin, put drugs in them, make them explode, and it's all fine. Do groundbreaking, if unfounded science on a child to give them superpowers, and suddenly you've crossed a line."

Still, the mud wall closed around the tree roots, cracking heard as wood splintered, and the sphere retained it's shape. The Madam grunted, then pulled out a small scalpel. She ran it down her arm, drawing blood. Swiping her hand down to a pocket, she pulled out several clear strips, and ran them across the open wound. "Gene splicing on the fly's a bit tricky, but you kids have to learn with age comes knowledge. And with knowledge we encroach the throne of god. There is not a better geneticist in the 4 corners of the world than I!"

She flinched as the strips started to dissolve into her skin, and her chakra skyrocketted as her hair turned red, and her jawline became more like Emiko's. She slammed down the staff into the 4 pointed tree roots, and it exploded out, pushing out. With a scream from the old lady, her spores started to rot and dissolve as she reabsorbed their chakra, then, the 4 pointed root burst the bubble, mud spraying all over her precious lab. It left the Madam panting. She wouldn't admit it outloud, but Emi had more chakra naturally as a genin than Iwamoto did naturally..

She stepped forward to Emi, grabbing the cane like a cudgel and straightening her hunchback slightly.

As Rokuro found the blood bag, the words "Sanada - Senkichi" were printed on the side. The taste was rich in chakra, unlike anything he'd ever had, and would instantly put him in a high, a good feeling that the more he moved, the happier he got. All across the room, splinters flew up, dust and mud kicked. The Madam was halfway to Emi when she looked up to see the shadow diving her.

"Shit." was all she could say before crumbling to the ground from the impact, a crater burrowing her in mud as bones cracked. She was left twitching from the impact. As he suckled on the blood of Iwamoto, pain would come from the mixtures she had absorbed over the years. There was something not right about it. It didn't taste fresh, and was bitter as if he had been chewing willow root or liquorice. The unstable blood mixed with his, sending pangs in his stomach, and reacting poorly to his Kekkei Genkai, very likely resulting in him throwing up.

Another voice sounded in the room. "Now, now, Rokuro. Try not to go too berserk. We're professionals here."

Standing in the middle of the room, Kaito Chosokabe held Ai-Ai in his arms, a hand over her eyes. It wasn't like he'd been hiding, more that he'd been there, and just chosen now to reveal himself, having been missed by everyone.

Genjutsu: Hiding in Memories

He walked by Emi and offloaded the child, before approaching the body, putting two fingers to her throat. "Cadaverific. Buuuut, never can be too sure." A knife appeared in her chest, and Kaito pulled out a scroll marked Aburame He placed it on the corpse as dozens of beetles appeared. "Step away. I always hate being a cleaner. But to climb up top, you have to put up with a little of everything. I do believe Madam Tsubasa will be taking over the orphanage. I think the kids like her better anyways. Don't you Ai-Ai?"

He ruffled the girl's hair. "W-where's the Madam?"

"On vacation dear. She was too mean, so they're putting her in 'being nice' school."

He looked back at the disappearing corpse. Many of the bugs were exploding, the blood not nice on them either, but there were always more. "She'll need extra lessons though."

Kaito nodded to the two. "Good job you two. We do some real underhanded stuff. But in the end of the day... it's all about making the Leaf a better place. And we DO do that. I do always enjoy watching the younger generation. That, and I did my mission here. Everyone has secrets, but doesn't make you a bad person. And I think Tsubasa will make a wonderful caretaker for these children. "

 

[The Regal Rper]

Eiichi | Red Light | Squad Uzumaki

Kasane's appearance wasn't something he picked up quickly enough to react to appropriately. He'd been too focused on Ryuuji and his infuriating nickname. So when she had appeared, flicked him, and then carried on- Eiichi had been startled. Enough so that he physically jolted forward with a shrill minor 'eep', and whipped his head around to stare at her in surprise.

The grimace that came with the blush of embarrassment was something he vehemently wished could be erased from existence.

Being called smokey, didn't exactly rub well with him either. For Ryuuji's sake, he let it slide though. Not about to start something with his teammate for what he assumed, was an innocent nickname unless he kept calling him it and it kept bugging him. With their Captain Princess off, Eiichi huffed, giving chase, following like a bloodhound gave chase for its lead. The debriefing on what their mission entailed spirited Eiichi a bit more however, and his attention was rapt on every word as they skipped rooftops and buildings towards the Red Light District.

Someone tampering with gambles was no real skin off his proverbial knee, but someone tampering and rigging things for their own benefit at the core, was despicable. It reminded him too much of home- how easy it was to pay off a squad of Shinobi from their hidden village when the Tyrant had taken over to do their bidding. Bending things into their favor with connections, wealth or a combination of the two was something Eiichi would never be able to tolerate. He'd seen too many homes destroyed, too many lives ruined. The fact it had been done with the battles related to the Chuunin Exam only set him on edge even more. It set things up for failure naturally, and that touched far too close to home for him given the losses he had gotten to see as his time as a Genin, trying to bring some measure of relief to his still war torn home in the Land of Rain.

The fact it had something to do with the exams at all set his blood boiling- but he suppressed it. The only thing consistent was his livid scowl.

The only thing that broke it was the order to get changed, and how points would be deducted for fashion of all things.

He scoffed when she said that, looking to the side. Trying not to glance at their senior's chest.

It was starting to annoy him how Ryuuji kept drooling so openly. He supposed it was a good thing they weren't all older- else the sleezy commentary could have been heavier. He'd be lying if he said he didn't find it somewhat amusing.

Ryuuji would fit in well with some of his older cousins. That was guaranteed.

A good jab in the shoulder from Eiichi was all his pervy acquaintance got before they split to get changed. The passing comment he made when he socked him was: "For that smokey comment, and getting drool near my shoes."

The minor smirk Eiichi had when he said it notable he found some humor in it nonetheless.

"Like he said." Answering Kiyoshi's question as he showed up a few seconds, the last. "Let's move." He nodded to their Captain. "Lead the way boss." Eichi stated, pulling his glasses down, his eyes a different color. But not only that, piercings in his ears that hung visibly enough to be seen.

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