Ganryu
Your Lovable Jackass GM
Mai couldn’t help grinning like a wolf as she made her way to the village gate. She’d got mission orders to work with Yukari! Yukari had been blinded, but Mai didn’t bother with small details like that. She had full confidence in her friend finding some way to be a ninja again. Blind ninja weren't unheard of, just uncommon. What was uncommon was one recovering so soon, but Yukari was strong. Stronger than the Hyuga.
Was Mai stronger than the Sanada if things came down to it? Shaking her head at the thought, Mai finally saw her friend at the gate. Well… it was Yukari, and Mai diiid have an obligation to make sure anyone on a mission with her was up to par. Afterall, Mai had at this point actually led a number of missions. With a fade to black, Mai reappeared in front of Yukari with a heel drop. She didn’t say a word. If Yukari could sense her, she’d have to prove it.
Yukari’s palm snapped up, emitting a concussive blast of chakra. She didn’t put much power behind the attack, only enough to flip Mai back.
Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm
She was still adjusting to ‘seeing’ the world entirely through touch, but there also weren’t many people in the world that greeted someone with a body flicker and a kick. She couldn’t keep the grin from forming on her lips, “Hey Mai.”
A glomp followed, and Mai spoke with a tear in her voice.
“I’ve missed you so much…”
Mai realized it was uncharacteristic, and not her regular ‘stupid’ self, let go.
“I, uh… yeah, good to see ya.”
Clearing her throat, she picked up a dossier, sounding formal, and confident, like this was the dozenth mission she'd given a briefing on.
“Don’t know if you could read it, but our mission seems pretty standard. Bandits. In a mine. Again. Its kinda odd, same mine my first mission was at. Takara killed a guy pretty brutally there. Weird to me more bandits show up, the leaders different than last time. But why do the exact same thing. So weird. Anyways, we’re to apprehend them and bring them to the village chief. Any questions?”
“I’ve really missed you too,” Yukari returned the hug with just as much enthusiasm, “It’s been too quiet around here without you.” She tilted her head slightly at the sudden change in Mai’s demeanor, but listened intently at the short briefing. “Mmm, the document I read did mention something about a team clearing the place out already. That does seem really strange…”
“Yeah, that was us. My first mission. Hehehe. Takara got really mad at me. I put her little crystal bomb where she said. How was I supposed to know she wanted it above the mine and not in it? Bah. Well, let’s go meet our client first. We could finish the mission first, but ya right… really strange..”
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-One long never ending conversation later.-
Mai found the village chief’s house fairly easily, it was the largest one in the area. What seemed weird was she could have sworn it was a different house last time. Shaking her head, she knocked, and a large burly man exited. Definitely not the same guy as before.
“Oi, who’re you? Oh! You must be them ninja we sent for. Thank goodness. What’cha need to know, we got bandits in the mine again. We need you to go kill’em.”
Mai flinched at the orders ‘kill’em’, but otherwise kept a straight face. She’d been working on it. It sucked, she felt like she was cracking keeping that still.
“Well, didn’t some bandits take up residency in that mine a few years back? Why are their more?”
“That ain’t none of your business. We’re paying. You’re ninja. Worry ‘bout what we tell you to worry ‘bout, capisce? Need any info on’em, that I can give, but anything else, don’t you two worry your pretty little heads about. Swear its a C-mission, I know better than to lie to you ninjas.“
Mai looked at Yukari for support, whether to end the meeting there, or to ask any followup questions.
Resting her hands on the top of her cane, Yukari kept her expression carefully neutral. “Keeping secrets can be just as bad as lying,” she quietly mused, “how many bandits are we looking at?”
“10. Stole our grain, have hostages, some kids. Unforgivable. Leader's name is Toma. Bastard never did fit in. 7 kids in there.
Don't lecture me or I'll go hire Sound. New village, real cheap. You guys are just closer, don't go thinking that makes ya special. I’ll be here if you need anything else, you can take your time, but I expect 7 kids back and ten dead bandits. Tavern’s free to use while you’re here.”
With that he turned to leave, grabbing a deep flask taking a deep drink.
Mai looked again at Yukari.
“Nice guy. Still, something's off. He knows this Toma guy… I wanna find out a bit more before we go in. If the leader doesn't talk maybe someone else will? One of us talk around town, one scope out the mine?”
Yukari quietly hummed, tapping her cane against the ground a few times. She tilted her head slightly, it was fuzzy but the basement beneath the chief’s house seemed bigger than the building itself. “Why don’t we go to the tavern? It’s been a long walk.”
“The hell’s in a tavern, we’re 15?” Mai shrugged, leading the way. Mai kept an eye out as she walked. The town had an odd, grizzly feel to it. She kinda liked it, but at the same time, couldn’t help but notice the staring eyes. Sure they were ninja, but this type of look was different. Almost looked afraid.
“Think we should do transformation?... then again, can’t remember the last time I used it, might have ya mold if for me if we do. I dunno. Whole place has me creeped out.“
“We could try anyway. Can’t… really guarantee the results.” Yukari hesitated, her voice lowering. “Scary how fast you forget details…” Shaking her head she quickened her step slightly, “Anyway, tea and some actual lunch sound good.”
The tapping of her cane continued even as they stepped inside, Yukari’s voice became faint, enough Mai would have to pay attention to understand. “It’s hollow under the floorboards…”
Mai nodded. What exactly had she forgotten anyways? Still, Yukari was the one person on earth Mai gave a pass to to say whatever she wanted.
“Meh, screw the transformation for now, not sure what would fit in here yet anyways. Hehe. I can’t use my hands, and…you, uh...”
Mai waved her hand in front of Yukari’s face.
The tavern was in absolute tatters. Pieces of the walls were missing, and the cook had a hook hand, and a mustache that fell to his chin it seems like. The tables were also grubby. Mai just blinked at the state it was.
“I’ve been to actual ghetto’s nicer to this…”
“...so it does look as bad as it smells?”
“You insulting my fine establishment!? I’ve been cooking here since we got here 4 years ago you little brats! And decades since then! Why I otta…”
Mai faded to black as the cook was thrown back into the kitchen. What few patrons were inside laughed at the sight.
Sitting down she sighed.
“Man… Yukari, you ever wonder why we keep going? I mean, by all means neither of us should be ninjas anymore. Couple of broken birds, and we ain’t even adults yet. What keeps you going?”
“I…” a deep frown marred Yukari’s features, “I’m really not sure… I lost everything I was fighting for. Maybe I’m just running on momentum at this point,” a bitter chuckle as she moved to rest her arms on the table. Only to pull them away from the tacky surface. A low groan sounded from the kitchen along with clattering pans. “What about you?”
Mai stretched out across the chair.
“I had lots of dreams. Wanted to be clan head, wanted to fight the Mizukage, wanted to be a hero, but right now, I just want to see things for myself. I wanna see what’s true, what’s not. I wanna make my own opinion. I mean, I’ve been told so many things…. That I should be strong, that I’m an idiot, that my nindo’s worthless, that my rages were just me. Well… I’m just going to walk my own path and see where it goes. Don’t think anyone really trusts me, but.. Well, I guess that’s fine.
That, and what the hell else could I do? Can’t do stonework with these hands. I can’t write, can’t do music, can’t… do anything. But hey, at least I’m me, and I’m happy with that at least.”
Mai pointed to her menu to the disgruntled chef. She was sure she’d regret it, but… Sometimes you just had to take a risk. And Mai was out of jerky.
“Anyways… thanks Yukari. I mean, don’t think you’ve ever not trusted me. Means alot…”
Maybe that’s what kept her going… Ever since they met, Mai had been one of the few people to actually believe in Yukari. “I’ve always got your back.”
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Crawling through a shaft in the tunnel, above the main one, Mai listened into the footsteps below. She didn’t need sight… then again, considering who was a few feet behind her… maybe Mai should be less proud of that.
She’d so far heard 5 of the bandits… one of the footsteps sounded tiny though. Like a kid. Maybe a hostage.
Continuing for some distance, Mai stopped as she could make out a sound.
“Are you okay Dad?”
“Yeah… yeah… just trying to figure out where we’re going after this. Edo’s to the south, they might not recognize us. Nagashino will… chief raided them pretty hard.”
“Will things be better there?”
“You bet it will, Kenshin, you bet it will. We’ll start a farm, no one will bother us again. A new leaf...”
Mai whispered back to Yukari.
“These are the ‘bandits’? Those aren’t hostage, those are their children. My gut was right, something is wrong, the village chief was lying to us…That cook’s said they’ve only been here for 4 years. You said there were hollow places under the chief’s floorboards, and, uh...”
Mai took a deep breath as her mind worked a bit. She started thinking about the books she’d read about the area. It’s exports had plummeted lately. People had thought the mine had run out, but… maybe it hadn’t. There had been a huge number of bandit problems reported here. But thinking about it, this village was the only one that ever hired the Leaf. No one else ever could.
“Yukari… I don’t think that those people are the bandits. I think the village chief is. Hokage told me to read more, and have been, and this place has been really weird for years now, 4 like that cook said. The mining disappeared then, and this area stopped getting requests except for this village. Think your cat can break into that hollow area you felt earlier? I’m going to go talk to the next village over. Think we should break these people out too?”
Yukari’s mouth was set in a thin line, the mission had rubbed her the wrong way ever since they’d met with the chief. This only served to confirm their suspicions. “Not many places Hikari can’t sneak into,” the other kunoichi replied. “I’ll see what I can learn from these guys while you go to talk to the other village then. After that…” She smirked even if Mai couldn’t see it, “get these people to safety and bust a few heads together on the way?”
Mai nodded. She tried to fade to black, but hit the side of the tunnel. “Ow!”
“Uh… well, I’ll, uh… I’ll just crawl out of here, meet you later.” A quiet chuckle followed after Mai.
========================
[Yukari]
The father walked out a bit, telling his child to stay back as he investigated a small area. Yukari might recognize it as a spring being tightened. He did this for a few different areas, though sometimes he would simply stand in an area looking down for a minute before moving on.
She tilted her head as she listened to and felt him move around the area. Some kind of trap? The damn things never really were her strong suit. Definitely didn’t have any hope of disarming them, even before she lost her sight. But while she couldn’t take care of the traps, she could study and mimic his movements to get around them.
Hopefully.
It was days like this she wished she knew some kind of clone technique.
Having finished his traps, the man nodded and walked back to deeper in the cave, doing inventory on flour and the like.
“That’s a lot of supplies for less than twenty people,” Yukari’s voice was soft as she leaned against the cool stone wall. “Were you planning on living in here for a long while?”
The man jumped flailing his arms in a very artistic dance.
“Kenshin, run! Go with the rest, Daddy’s got something to take care of.”
With a gulp, he turned towards what he thought was Yukari (It was a wall).
“Tch, they already hired more ninja… guess we never had a chance. We took what we had to from the town. Not like they grew a single thing of wheat here. Not that it matters… Look, just let my son get away, will you? He deserves better than this damn town. If your going to kill me… Tell him I went with his uncle, would’ja? Probably asking too much. Well. Go ahead!”
She finally stepped into view, arms folded in front of her chest. Even in the dim lighting, it was hard to miss the violet silk wrapped around most of her face. “And what if I wasn’t going to kill you or any of the others?”
The man looked at her, looking more confused. He eyed a few feet by her foot, but didn’t say anything about it.
“I, uh… what do you want? Are you the kind of ninja who tries to extort people instead? Uh… if it works for getting my son safe, I’d say take what you want. Not like I got it honestly either. But I swear Imma be a farmer after this. I’m tired of this life. Guess it depends on you. What do you want?”
“Really I’m just here to get your side of the story, see if I can’t piece together what’s really going on. Though I already have an idea.” She made a distasteful clucking sound with her tongue, “the village leader seems to think he’s hot shit, lying to ninja. So, who is and who isn’t a bandit here? Or is it all of you?”
“Huh. Thought you all know. Whole place is a bandit hideout. We took it over 4 years ago, raided whole place, and took the villagers places. No one survived it, boss went overboard, he does that sometimes. We thought no one would hunt us down if they thought we were legitimate and the like, so we ran the village, and robbed others every few months. Boss even went as so far as to hire ninjas 2 years ago. They didn’t catch onto shit, so he kept hiring’em. Figured ya knew, just didn’t care. But me, I’m tired of it. Been thinking lately, me wife died and is this really how I wanna raise my son? Few others were getting sick of it too. Boss is a despot, think that’s the word I read once. Whatever, bad dude. I want my son to be better. Careful though, boss ain’t a ninja, but he’s strong. I’m sure he could take on a ninja if he put his mind to it. I dunno. Full story I got. So, do I pass or no?”
Yukari gave a slight shrug, “I can’t say one way or the other on what details the Leaf knew about all this.” She was quiet for a moment, “Any others left back in the village like you?”
“So they might have known… *sigh*. Well, to be honest, hell if I know. Most of the ones with kids decide to risk it with me. I’m just a trapmaker, not exactly the most social. Saving my hide right now. Only reason the chief ain’t hunted me down is cause he’s scared of’em. Yeah… can’t think of anyone else that didn’t try to run here that hasn’t before. Most of us remember two years ago.”
Toma pointed to a vein of crystal behind him.
“Granted, most’em just wanted to be chief and were pissed they weren’t strong enough. Still, we ‘membered, but hell, worth it. Gathered all the courageous ones we knew hated it. Rest, I dunno. Prob not?”
Well, at least that meant they wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally clobbering any innocents. Not… that any of these guys were innocents… Even the kids were probably debateable.
But, she was a shinobi, not like she had much room to judge there.
Yukari sighed, “one of these days, I’ll get a mission that’s actually straight forward for a change. Anyway, I’d probably stay in here for another night or so if I were you.”
[Hikari]
As night began to fall, lights didn’t go across the village, especially infront of the chief’s house. Standing outside, he held a spear in his hand.
“Oi, Ryuunosuke, where’s those kunoichi?”
“Still in the mine last I saw.”
“Tch, I know I said take their time, but this is ridiculous. It’s like 6 families worth of people. If it weren’t for Toma being a trap specialist, I woulda done it a long time ago…”
Half a dozen villagers patrolled around the area, each with spear in hand.
The small yokai crouched on one of the rooftops, golden eyes watching the villagers make their patrols. Humans like them were a strong reason for her known disdain towards them. Even with the bond to her summoner, Hikari was half tempted to just torch the place and be done with it. Shaking her head, she began silently bounding from rooftop to rooftop towards the chief’s house. Any particularly superstitious among the group would feel a faint, chill breeze that trailed behind her.
Bandits being a superstitious bunch, many of them felt a chill breeze. One looked up at the moon.
“Aye, that’s a bad moon above us tonight boys.”
“Bah, you say that every night. This place is comfy, I don’t even know why we bother with guards. Not like any nearby town is in a state for retribution. And if they were, we could just raid’em again! Hell, we HIRE the Leaf so often we’re like their most loyal customers. Hehehe. Good thing ninja ain’t ones for honor, just coin.”
None of them noticed Hikari.
Slipping inside the chief’s house, she shook her head.
The house itself didn’t seem that special. It had fine china in it, and an actual regal look to everything. Beads covered the couches, and veils were over the windows. However, some of the pictures were off. Not a single one of the pictures inside were of him. There was a bookcase, with most books covered in dust, except one, and most of the house was the same, covered in dust. There were no stairs going down, or any indication there was a cellar at all.
Hikari padded through the house, checking various rooms. Judging by the dust, it didn’t seem he really even used the house. She had to jump up on a table to get a better look at the bookcase. Either there was only one book he actually read, or there was something hidden there.
She had a feeling the chief was illiterate.
Bounding onto the bookcase, she pawed at the one clean book, and a chamber opened up downstairs. At the click, a yell was heard from the front door.
“OI! Who’s sneaking into the loot?”
The path was well trodden, a set of footprints, very well defined led downwards, seemingly a single set. The path had several torches on the side leading down.
Triggering the switch again, Hikari bounded downstairs. A small ball of flame hovered above her as she stepped into the main room. Large jars of sake, chests with ryo, even a pile of jewelry. Seemed the chief actually lived down here too, paranoid bastard. One box in particular caught her eye, with a bloodied flak jacket and other gear that once belonged to a shinobi. Fungus still clung to it.
Having what she needed, Hikari moved back towards the stairs. Raising an eyebrow in disgust at the gold tooth on the floor, the yokai shook her head before disappearing through a Gate.
-----------------------
Mai returned rather quickly. A whole village over might tire out other people, but for Mai she considered it light exercise. Maybe she should make a whole new jutsu out of it?
Still, knowing what she did now, it was time to meet up with Yukari. She headed towards the mine where had last heard her. Then Mai gave an exasperated sigh.
“Shit… I forgot Yukari’s one of the quietest ones in our class… and my super sensing is hearing… And the mines full of loudass bandits. Well… this’ll take a bit. Maybe Yukari planned this out better.”
A ball of fluff landed in front of her, “She’s waiting outside for you, nyah.” Hikari easily bounded up onto Mai’s shoulders.
Mai blinked for a minute, about to ask a question, then shrugged. Hikari would suddenly find itself accelerating at a fast rate, much like a jet taking off.
“So, what’cha find out your end, Yukari? Those guys worth smashing, or is something going on? One thing's for certain. Imma punch the village chief here. I talked to a few different villages. Or tried to. Some of them were emptied. Some ran into the woods when I showed up. One tried to give me tribute. Talked with the last ones. Seems they get raided on a monthly basis. All they had left was some food… Tch.”
Mai looked at her hands.
“Kick. Imma kick the village chief here. Whether or not we let those guys get away or hit them too is up to you though. Verdict?”
Hikari seemed somewhat fluffier than normal as she jumped down from Mai and onto Yukari’s lap. “You’re not the only one that wants to teach that village chief a lesson,” Yukari lightly ran her hand down the yokai’s back. “He’s been lying to the village, using the Leaf to kill anyone that tries to escape his little gang.”
Snarling, Mai kicked a nearby cart, sending shards of shattered wood into the nearby cave, the destruction echoing throughout it. Rocks fell out of it, and spiderwebs broke apart. No one had hauled anything here for four years at least…
Mai’s face then faded away. “Well… let’s go report the results to our client. Afterall, it’s professional courtesy. Infact, let’s bring him down here to see for himself.”
===================================================
The sun was long gone by the time Mai and Yukari arrived at the chief’s house. Despite that, the entire house was lit up entirely. A couple of guards stood at the ready. Seeing the two, one quickly ran towards them.
“Oh good, did’cha kill the bandits in the mine? Our boss--- Mayor is a bit busy. Someone broke into his house and he’s having a hissy fit. I can report everything’s good then, but ya might want to wait til his little… uh, fit’s over.”
Mai kicked him through the wall and kept walking towards the house.
“Hikari, think you can lead us through here?”
“Guess I left some pawprints,” Hikari trotted ahead of the pair, “hard not to with all the dust, nyah.”
“From what she found, these guys may have brought down a ninja at some point - Leaf no less.” Yukari murmured as they walked.
"Probably wasn't an important one. Feel bad for'em though...."
The second guard charged towards them with a yell, clutching his spear. Yukari paused and pointed at the man, a blur of movement before he was on the ground clutching his stomach. Blood dripped from the kunoichi’s claw.
Snake Killer
“Kitten here already,” Hikari called, she sat infront of a bookshelf. “There’s a door behind this, nyah.”
Yukari nodded in Mai’s direction.
Mai raised an eyebrow.
“Hikari’s getting catty I see. Eh? Eh? … Fine…”
Mai kicked down the door leading to the loot room.
“Oi! Chief! We’re here to report. We found out someone else’s been raiding your neighbors! We thought it might be a problem, so we’re here to take care of that!”
“You goddamn worthless ninja!” An angry voice boomed in response. A large burly man with wild eyes turned to face the young kunoichi, glaring at her with violent eyes.
“First you fail to complete your task and now you dare to barge into MY home?”
He stood at nearly 7 feet tall, and had massive muscles threatening to break through the purple pajamas he wore.
Yukari shook her head, leaning her cane against the wall. “Weren’t you the one saying you knew better than to lie to ninja?” She clicked her tongue, “Whatever, it’s about time I got to take some of this… frustration out on someone.”
Mai was less chatty. She turned to black, reappearing in front of him with a knee to the stomach.
Shadow Strike
It wasn’t the hardest hit he’d taken, but it was pretty well aimed. It didn’t matter much, as what might have been mistaken for the wind getting knocked out of him became a powerful gust of wind firing out of his mouth. It was aimed at the kunoichi in front of her, in an attempt to send both her and the other ninja flying through the doorway. He couldn’t have these girls tearing up his precious loot room!
The surprise of such a move sent Mai flying back, straight through the door of the room. Crossing her arms midflight she seemed unperturbed.
“Why is it everyone uses bludgeoning against me? One of these days someone’ll use a sword, and oh-ho then they’ll be sorry.”
Following the crash into a wall, she twitched against it slightly.
Tumbling out the doorway, Yukari dug her claws into the earth as she slid back. “Okay, being airborn is still really disconcerting.” She turned her head in Mai’s direction, “you still good?”
Standing back up straight and rubbing his stomach, the man let out a low grumble. He glared at the two before speaking.
“I never knew that ninja would attack the client who hired them! I paid good money for you to take care of this for me, and yet you decide to turn on me? Did someone else pay you off? Huh? Damnit! GRAH!”
The man turned and punched at the far wall of the room, sending another powerful blast of air straight through it, blasting a hole through the wall leading
outside. He turned and with two power strides leapt through the hole he made into the… outside.
Mai exited in a fabulous explosion of debris as she unembedded herself and left off the wall to avoid the next incoming blast of wind. She spat at the man. Time was starting to slow, that was bad.
“Screw being a ninja, I’m a hero, you’re a villain. Simple as that. I’ve trained way too hard to lose to you. But I’d hate to see Yukari getting rusty cause I hog all the glory, so we’re just going to beat the shit out of you together. How dare you hire ninja to kill innocent people! HOW DARE YOU!”
Mai faded to black again to rush the man with a kneeing strike.
“Aw, how thoughtful,” Yukari flickered to the side and swiped at the man with her claws. Blue arcs of chakra cut through the air towards him.
Bird Killer
Hikari clambered up to the rooftop, shaking dirt and dust from her coat.
“Do not speak to me! Return my payment and I will let you both live!”
The man was ready for the next strikes, just as his opponents appeared near him, he splayed his arms out to his sides. A powerful wave of wind chakra burst from him, tearing apart his pajama top, and cutting deep into the ground beneath him. Anyone too close would find themselves with several painful cuts and slices along with being sent flying a good distance if they couldn't get back in time or brace themselves.
Wind Tearing Burst
Mai was slammed into the ground, but with a psychotic smirk on her face.
FINALLY!
A deep cut across her blouse revealed chainmail underneath. The impact hurt, but what was pain to a masochist? Mai was finally happy! Then again… she liked that blouse!
Roaring in some odd combination of emotions only known to Mai, she was now infront of the man, and he hadn’t pushed her back. Mai uncrossed her arms, trying to chop the man from two different directions with an X like pattern
Cross Strike
Yukari held her arms in front of her at the blast of wind, with the distance she was at it didn’t do much to cut her. She clicked her tongue, unable to tell if her own attack had struck or not. If it did, it didn’t do much to faze him. Feeling Mai move in for another strike, Yukari pointed a clawed finger at the chief. In a blur, the claw shot forward and retracted.
Snake Killer
“Fool! My muscles cannot be harmed by your pathetic stri- ARGH!” The man groaned as a hole suddenly appeared in his gut. “IS THAT ALL THE FIGHT YOU CAN MUSTER?!”
The man’s arm suddenly reached out and grabbed Mai by her skull, his grip was painfully strong. However, it didn’t last long before he tossed the girl right at her clawed friend like a baseball. Yukari managed to catch her, but just barely, the two sent tumbling back into a heap. “Yep… fuck this guy,” she muttered with a cough.
With a low hiss, Hikari leapt from the rooftop, a gout of flame erupting from her mouth.
Mai groaned at the pain. He let go too soon. Cracking her neck, she got up.
“Well, this guy’s a bit tough. I hate to say it… but we might have to use… tactics.”
Mai produced a flashlight under her face for the word tactics. The fact Yukari was blind didn't register to Mai.
Stowing it away with some moderate difficulty, she watched Hikari for a moment deal with the bandit.
“I got an idea. Do you have any moves you think can finish him off? I can distract him if Hikari can hit him with another fireball. Uh… don’t tell Takara, or Hideki about what I’m about to do… Only got one and it's embarrassing…. But if you can get your strongest attack ready, I can distract him if you can tell Hikari can get another fireball ready.”
Yukari nodded, standing up.
Mai stiffened her muscles. As soon as Hikari fired another one, she was going to body flicker towards the man, and disappear.
The man swiped a gust of wind at the cat, disrupting the flames enough to avoid any real damage.
“A fire breathing cat? I would love to have one in my collection of exotic pets…” The man paused, bringing his arms close into his body, as if charging up his energy. Then suddenly, his chakra flared and exploded in a sudden burst as he let out a blood curdling battlecry. A tornado of wind erupted around the man, tearing into the nearby buildings as the debris began to circle around him.
“BUT FIRST I WILL END YOUR PUNY LIVES! MY RICHES AND GLORY WILL LAST FOR ETERNITY! GRAHAHAHA!”
A distance away, huddled in a corner somewhere, one of the boss’s guards prayed for his life to be spared. “O-oh man… I forgot to give the boss his meds this morning! He’s off his rocker man! I screwed up man!”
“Is a normal mission really so much to ask!?” Yukari vented her frustrations to the night air. Slicing her thumb with a claw she rapidly wove handsigns, slamming her palm onto the ground. The resulting smoke was quickly blown away, revealing three more nekomata.
“What the hell is this?” Senshin protested.
“Long story, light him up.” Four combined fireballs in a windstorm was prooobably a bad idea. But at the moment, Yukari was too pissed to care.
“Is every mission being like this too much to ask? I get bored of delivering letters.”
Mai had the most satisfied look on her face considering the fact her head was bleeding from getting grabbed. She looked… relaxed?
Until she disappeared into the firestorm, becoming one with the flame. Literally, Mai blended in with the fire as if it were natural. That girl was on fire.
Mai made her way through the firestorm behind the man. She hated stealth arts, but well, she wasn’t going to let Nagisa show her up ever again. A piece of the flame broke off, right by the man’s bicep, Mai’s face now kissing it.
Genjutsu Kiss
Everything was Mai. The fire was Mai. The cats were Mai. The trees were Mai. Mai’s face was everywhere, and laughing at the large biceped man. The real Mai was blushing that she’d had to use that, but…
The man didn’t even react to the flames that surrounded him. Bis own tornado had been turned into a smoldering chamber of heat, forcing him to sweat profusely. However, all he did was continue his insane laughter.
His laughter began to fade however, as several faces began to appear of the one girl he was about to slaughter earlier. He punched at one, but it was replaced by three more. The face continued to multiply, until he was completely surrounded by them!
“AWAY WITH YOU NINJA! ACCEPT YOUR DEATH!” He bellowed out to the flames. He was breathing hard now, and his skin was starting to burn.
“I won’t… let you… take… my riches…” the man fell to one knee, and the tornado dissipated, dropping all the debris to the ground. He knelt in the center of it all, struggling to catch his breath with heavy burns.
Yukari rushed him then, closing the gap with a body flicker while building chakra in her palm. She struck at the center of his chest with a palm strike. She may not have had her byakugan any longer, but even then the basics of gentle fist hadn’t been lost to her.
With a croak, the man dropped backwards onto the ground, letting out a couple of final words. “D-damn… wanted… rich…” his hulking formed crashed into the ground, kicking up ash and dirt.
Mai went over to see what aid she could give. Turning to Yukari, she was a bit red.
“Don’t tell ANYONE what you just saw… I can’t really weave genjutsu on other people, except by.. Except by… you know what screw it, you didn’t see anything and no one would believe you if you told them.”
Shaking her head she looked around the town.
“Do you think the village knew?”
Yukari sighed, “I’m really not sure… Between the Hidden Mist and the Yoake, it’s possible something could have slipped through the cracks.” Though it was a fairly humiliating thing to miss.
===============================
Mai and Yukari headed to the Hokage’s office following leading the escapee’s out, and letting them have a freeshare of the treasury. And forcing the bandit tribe to flee from the town in terror following their chief's defeat. They decided it was best to drop him off at ANBU headquarters. With a knock, Mai took a breath waiting for entrance.
“I’m hoping they didn’t know and we did the right thing... “
“Guess there’s only one way to find out,” Yukari murmured, opening the door when she heard the Hokage call for them to enter. She stepped inside, offering the older shinobi a low bow.
“Welcome back,” Gou said in his usual low voice.
“Failed the mission and destroyed the village,” Mai said unflinchingly. She looked Gou dead in the eye. “Did you know what was going on there? I have to know for my Nindo.”
The Hokage blinked, “I… beg your pardon?”
“The clients were bandits. The town of Kobe was destroyed four years ago, and the raiders disguised themselves as the residents there. They’ve been hiring the Hidden Leaf for years to do their dirty work. And we’ve been doing it, and getting paid handsomely. That first mission I did with Takara-sensei was them too it looks like… We didn’t kill anyone, but I dropped off their chief with ANBU this morning, and we scattered the rest. I think that counts as failing the mission. I do have to know. Did we know about it?”
Mai kept looking at him, her eyes asking as much as her words.
The silence before he sighed likely felt much longer than a few seconds to Mai, “No, I’m afraid we didn’t know about it.” It was a troubling thought, he’d likely have to dispatch scouts to look into affairs in the rest of the Land of Fire.
Mai nodded, suddenly looking much happier.
“Huh, so that’s why ya said read books if I wanted to be jonin. Honestly never would have figured it out if I hadn’t read about the whole mining thing stopping suddenly four years ago. Well, my nindo’s as strong as ever than. Thank you Lord Hokage. Guess I’ll see you on my next reporting, thanks.”
Was Mai stronger than the Sanada if things came down to it? Shaking her head at the thought, Mai finally saw her friend at the gate. Well… it was Yukari, and Mai diiid have an obligation to make sure anyone on a mission with her was up to par. Afterall, Mai had at this point actually led a number of missions. With a fade to black, Mai reappeared in front of Yukari with a heel drop. She didn’t say a word. If Yukari could sense her, she’d have to prove it.
Yukari’s palm snapped up, emitting a concussive blast of chakra. She didn’t put much power behind the attack, only enough to flip Mai back.
Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm
She was still adjusting to ‘seeing’ the world entirely through touch, but there also weren’t many people in the world that greeted someone with a body flicker and a kick. She couldn’t keep the grin from forming on her lips, “Hey Mai.”
A glomp followed, and Mai spoke with a tear in her voice.
“I’ve missed you so much…”
Mai realized it was uncharacteristic, and not her regular ‘stupid’ self, let go.
“I, uh… yeah, good to see ya.”
Clearing her throat, she picked up a dossier, sounding formal, and confident, like this was the dozenth mission she'd given a briefing on.
“Don’t know if you could read it, but our mission seems pretty standard. Bandits. In a mine. Again. Its kinda odd, same mine my first mission was at. Takara killed a guy pretty brutally there. Weird to me more bandits show up, the leaders different than last time. But why do the exact same thing. So weird. Anyways, we’re to apprehend them and bring them to the village chief. Any questions?”
“I’ve really missed you too,” Yukari returned the hug with just as much enthusiasm, “It’s been too quiet around here without you.” She tilted her head slightly at the sudden change in Mai’s demeanor, but listened intently at the short briefing. “Mmm, the document I read did mention something about a team clearing the place out already. That does seem really strange…”
“Yeah, that was us. My first mission. Hehehe. Takara got really mad at me. I put her little crystal bomb where she said. How was I supposed to know she wanted it above the mine and not in it? Bah. Well, let’s go meet our client first. We could finish the mission first, but ya right… really strange..”
-------------
-One long never ending conversation later.-
Mai found the village chief’s house fairly easily, it was the largest one in the area. What seemed weird was she could have sworn it was a different house last time. Shaking her head, she knocked, and a large burly man exited. Definitely not the same guy as before.
“Oi, who’re you? Oh! You must be them ninja we sent for. Thank goodness. What’cha need to know, we got bandits in the mine again. We need you to go kill’em.”
Mai flinched at the orders ‘kill’em’, but otherwise kept a straight face. She’d been working on it. It sucked, she felt like she was cracking keeping that still.
“Well, didn’t some bandits take up residency in that mine a few years back? Why are their more?”
“That ain’t none of your business. We’re paying. You’re ninja. Worry ‘bout what we tell you to worry ‘bout, capisce? Need any info on’em, that I can give, but anything else, don’t you two worry your pretty little heads about. Swear its a C-mission, I know better than to lie to you ninjas.“
Mai looked at Yukari for support, whether to end the meeting there, or to ask any followup questions.
Resting her hands on the top of her cane, Yukari kept her expression carefully neutral. “Keeping secrets can be just as bad as lying,” she quietly mused, “how many bandits are we looking at?”
“10. Stole our grain, have hostages, some kids. Unforgivable. Leader's name is Toma. Bastard never did fit in. 7 kids in there.
Don't lecture me or I'll go hire Sound. New village, real cheap. You guys are just closer, don't go thinking that makes ya special. I’ll be here if you need anything else, you can take your time, but I expect 7 kids back and ten dead bandits. Tavern’s free to use while you’re here.”
With that he turned to leave, grabbing a deep flask taking a deep drink.
Mai looked again at Yukari.
“Nice guy. Still, something's off. He knows this Toma guy… I wanna find out a bit more before we go in. If the leader doesn't talk maybe someone else will? One of us talk around town, one scope out the mine?”
Yukari quietly hummed, tapping her cane against the ground a few times. She tilted her head slightly, it was fuzzy but the basement beneath the chief’s house seemed bigger than the building itself. “Why don’t we go to the tavern? It’s been a long walk.”
“The hell’s in a tavern, we’re 15?” Mai shrugged, leading the way. Mai kept an eye out as she walked. The town had an odd, grizzly feel to it. She kinda liked it, but at the same time, couldn’t help but notice the staring eyes. Sure they were ninja, but this type of look was different. Almost looked afraid.
“Think we should do transformation?... then again, can’t remember the last time I used it, might have ya mold if for me if we do. I dunno. Whole place has me creeped out.“
“We could try anyway. Can’t… really guarantee the results.” Yukari hesitated, her voice lowering. “Scary how fast you forget details…” Shaking her head she quickened her step slightly, “Anyway, tea and some actual lunch sound good.”
The tapping of her cane continued even as they stepped inside, Yukari’s voice became faint, enough Mai would have to pay attention to understand. “It’s hollow under the floorboards…”
Mai nodded. What exactly had she forgotten anyways? Still, Yukari was the one person on earth Mai gave a pass to to say whatever she wanted.
“Meh, screw the transformation for now, not sure what would fit in here yet anyways. Hehe. I can’t use my hands, and…you, uh...”
Mai waved her hand in front of Yukari’s face.
The tavern was in absolute tatters. Pieces of the walls were missing, and the cook had a hook hand, and a mustache that fell to his chin it seems like. The tables were also grubby. Mai just blinked at the state it was.
“I’ve been to actual ghetto’s nicer to this…”
“...so it does look as bad as it smells?”
“You insulting my fine establishment!? I’ve been cooking here since we got here 4 years ago you little brats! And decades since then! Why I otta…”
Mai faded to black as the cook was thrown back into the kitchen. What few patrons were inside laughed at the sight.
Sitting down she sighed.
“Man… Yukari, you ever wonder why we keep going? I mean, by all means neither of us should be ninjas anymore. Couple of broken birds, and we ain’t even adults yet. What keeps you going?”
“I…” a deep frown marred Yukari’s features, “I’m really not sure… I lost everything I was fighting for. Maybe I’m just running on momentum at this point,” a bitter chuckle as she moved to rest her arms on the table. Only to pull them away from the tacky surface. A low groan sounded from the kitchen along with clattering pans. “What about you?”
Mai stretched out across the chair.
“I had lots of dreams. Wanted to be clan head, wanted to fight the Mizukage, wanted to be a hero, but right now, I just want to see things for myself. I wanna see what’s true, what’s not. I wanna make my own opinion. I mean, I’ve been told so many things…. That I should be strong, that I’m an idiot, that my nindo’s worthless, that my rages were just me. Well… I’m just going to walk my own path and see where it goes. Don’t think anyone really trusts me, but.. Well, I guess that’s fine.
That, and what the hell else could I do? Can’t do stonework with these hands. I can’t write, can’t do music, can’t… do anything. But hey, at least I’m me, and I’m happy with that at least.”
Mai pointed to her menu to the disgruntled chef. She was sure she’d regret it, but… Sometimes you just had to take a risk. And Mai was out of jerky.
“Anyways… thanks Yukari. I mean, don’t think you’ve ever not trusted me. Means alot…”
Maybe that’s what kept her going… Ever since they met, Mai had been one of the few people to actually believe in Yukari. “I’ve always got your back.”
--------------------------------------------------------------
Crawling through a shaft in the tunnel, above the main one, Mai listened into the footsteps below. She didn’t need sight… then again, considering who was a few feet behind her… maybe Mai should be less proud of that.
She’d so far heard 5 of the bandits… one of the footsteps sounded tiny though. Like a kid. Maybe a hostage.
Continuing for some distance, Mai stopped as she could make out a sound.
“Are you okay Dad?”
“Yeah… yeah… just trying to figure out where we’re going after this. Edo’s to the south, they might not recognize us. Nagashino will… chief raided them pretty hard.”
“Will things be better there?”
“You bet it will, Kenshin, you bet it will. We’ll start a farm, no one will bother us again. A new leaf...”
Mai whispered back to Yukari.
“These are the ‘bandits’? Those aren’t hostage, those are their children. My gut was right, something is wrong, the village chief was lying to us…That cook’s said they’ve only been here for 4 years. You said there were hollow places under the chief’s floorboards, and, uh...”
Mai took a deep breath as her mind worked a bit. She started thinking about the books she’d read about the area. It’s exports had plummeted lately. People had thought the mine had run out, but… maybe it hadn’t. There had been a huge number of bandit problems reported here. But thinking about it, this village was the only one that ever hired the Leaf. No one else ever could.
“Yukari… I don’t think that those people are the bandits. I think the village chief is. Hokage told me to read more, and have been, and this place has been really weird for years now, 4 like that cook said. The mining disappeared then, and this area stopped getting requests except for this village. Think your cat can break into that hollow area you felt earlier? I’m going to go talk to the next village over. Think we should break these people out too?”
Yukari’s mouth was set in a thin line, the mission had rubbed her the wrong way ever since they’d met with the chief. This only served to confirm their suspicions. “Not many places Hikari can’t sneak into,” the other kunoichi replied. “I’ll see what I can learn from these guys while you go to talk to the other village then. After that…” She smirked even if Mai couldn’t see it, “get these people to safety and bust a few heads together on the way?”
Mai nodded. She tried to fade to black, but hit the side of the tunnel. “Ow!”
“Uh… well, I’ll, uh… I’ll just crawl out of here, meet you later.” A quiet chuckle followed after Mai.
========================
[Yukari]
The father walked out a bit, telling his child to stay back as he investigated a small area. Yukari might recognize it as a spring being tightened. He did this for a few different areas, though sometimes he would simply stand in an area looking down for a minute before moving on.
She tilted her head as she listened to and felt him move around the area. Some kind of trap? The damn things never really were her strong suit. Definitely didn’t have any hope of disarming them, even before she lost her sight. But while she couldn’t take care of the traps, she could study and mimic his movements to get around them.
Hopefully.
It was days like this she wished she knew some kind of clone technique.
Having finished his traps, the man nodded and walked back to deeper in the cave, doing inventory on flour and the like.
“That’s a lot of supplies for less than twenty people,” Yukari’s voice was soft as she leaned against the cool stone wall. “Were you planning on living in here for a long while?”
The man jumped flailing his arms in a very artistic dance.
“Kenshin, run! Go with the rest, Daddy’s got something to take care of.”
With a gulp, he turned towards what he thought was Yukari (It was a wall).
“Tch, they already hired more ninja… guess we never had a chance. We took what we had to from the town. Not like they grew a single thing of wheat here. Not that it matters… Look, just let my son get away, will you? He deserves better than this damn town. If your going to kill me… Tell him I went with his uncle, would’ja? Probably asking too much. Well. Go ahead!”
She finally stepped into view, arms folded in front of her chest. Even in the dim lighting, it was hard to miss the violet silk wrapped around most of her face. “And what if I wasn’t going to kill you or any of the others?”
The man looked at her, looking more confused. He eyed a few feet by her foot, but didn’t say anything about it.
“I, uh… what do you want? Are you the kind of ninja who tries to extort people instead? Uh… if it works for getting my son safe, I’d say take what you want. Not like I got it honestly either. But I swear Imma be a farmer after this. I’m tired of this life. Guess it depends on you. What do you want?”
“Really I’m just here to get your side of the story, see if I can’t piece together what’s really going on. Though I already have an idea.” She made a distasteful clucking sound with her tongue, “the village leader seems to think he’s hot shit, lying to ninja. So, who is and who isn’t a bandit here? Or is it all of you?”
“Huh. Thought you all know. Whole place is a bandit hideout. We took it over 4 years ago, raided whole place, and took the villagers places. No one survived it, boss went overboard, he does that sometimes. We thought no one would hunt us down if they thought we were legitimate and the like, so we ran the village, and robbed others every few months. Boss even went as so far as to hire ninjas 2 years ago. They didn’t catch onto shit, so he kept hiring’em. Figured ya knew, just didn’t care. But me, I’m tired of it. Been thinking lately, me wife died and is this really how I wanna raise my son? Few others were getting sick of it too. Boss is a despot, think that’s the word I read once. Whatever, bad dude. I want my son to be better. Careful though, boss ain’t a ninja, but he’s strong. I’m sure he could take on a ninja if he put his mind to it. I dunno. Full story I got. So, do I pass or no?”
Yukari gave a slight shrug, “I can’t say one way or the other on what details the Leaf knew about all this.” She was quiet for a moment, “Any others left back in the village like you?”
“So they might have known… *sigh*. Well, to be honest, hell if I know. Most of the ones with kids decide to risk it with me. I’m just a trapmaker, not exactly the most social. Saving my hide right now. Only reason the chief ain’t hunted me down is cause he’s scared of’em. Yeah… can’t think of anyone else that didn’t try to run here that hasn’t before. Most of us remember two years ago.”
Toma pointed to a vein of crystal behind him.
“Granted, most’em just wanted to be chief and were pissed they weren’t strong enough. Still, we ‘membered, but hell, worth it. Gathered all the courageous ones we knew hated it. Rest, I dunno. Prob not?”
Well, at least that meant they wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally clobbering any innocents. Not… that any of these guys were innocents… Even the kids were probably debateable.
But, she was a shinobi, not like she had much room to judge there.
Yukari sighed, “one of these days, I’ll get a mission that’s actually straight forward for a change. Anyway, I’d probably stay in here for another night or so if I were you.”
[Hikari]
As night began to fall, lights didn’t go across the village, especially infront of the chief’s house. Standing outside, he held a spear in his hand.
“Oi, Ryuunosuke, where’s those kunoichi?”
“Still in the mine last I saw.”
“Tch, I know I said take their time, but this is ridiculous. It’s like 6 families worth of people. If it weren’t for Toma being a trap specialist, I woulda done it a long time ago…”
Half a dozen villagers patrolled around the area, each with spear in hand.
The small yokai crouched on one of the rooftops, golden eyes watching the villagers make their patrols. Humans like them were a strong reason for her known disdain towards them. Even with the bond to her summoner, Hikari was half tempted to just torch the place and be done with it. Shaking her head, she began silently bounding from rooftop to rooftop towards the chief’s house. Any particularly superstitious among the group would feel a faint, chill breeze that trailed behind her.
Bandits being a superstitious bunch, many of them felt a chill breeze. One looked up at the moon.
“Aye, that’s a bad moon above us tonight boys.”
“Bah, you say that every night. This place is comfy, I don’t even know why we bother with guards. Not like any nearby town is in a state for retribution. And if they were, we could just raid’em again! Hell, we HIRE the Leaf so often we’re like their most loyal customers. Hehehe. Good thing ninja ain’t ones for honor, just coin.”
None of them noticed Hikari.
Slipping inside the chief’s house, she shook her head.
The house itself didn’t seem that special. It had fine china in it, and an actual regal look to everything. Beads covered the couches, and veils were over the windows. However, some of the pictures were off. Not a single one of the pictures inside were of him. There was a bookcase, with most books covered in dust, except one, and most of the house was the same, covered in dust. There were no stairs going down, or any indication there was a cellar at all.
Hikari padded through the house, checking various rooms. Judging by the dust, it didn’t seem he really even used the house. She had to jump up on a table to get a better look at the bookcase. Either there was only one book he actually read, or there was something hidden there.
She had a feeling the chief was illiterate.
Bounding onto the bookcase, she pawed at the one clean book, and a chamber opened up downstairs. At the click, a yell was heard from the front door.
“OI! Who’s sneaking into the loot?”
The path was well trodden, a set of footprints, very well defined led downwards, seemingly a single set. The path had several torches on the side leading down.
Triggering the switch again, Hikari bounded downstairs. A small ball of flame hovered above her as she stepped into the main room. Large jars of sake, chests with ryo, even a pile of jewelry. Seemed the chief actually lived down here too, paranoid bastard. One box in particular caught her eye, with a bloodied flak jacket and other gear that once belonged to a shinobi. Fungus still clung to it.
Having what she needed, Hikari moved back towards the stairs. Raising an eyebrow in disgust at the gold tooth on the floor, the yokai shook her head before disappearing through a Gate.
-----------------------
Mai returned rather quickly. A whole village over might tire out other people, but for Mai she considered it light exercise. Maybe she should make a whole new jutsu out of it?
Still, knowing what she did now, it was time to meet up with Yukari. She headed towards the mine where had last heard her. Then Mai gave an exasperated sigh.
“Shit… I forgot Yukari’s one of the quietest ones in our class… and my super sensing is hearing… And the mines full of loudass bandits. Well… this’ll take a bit. Maybe Yukari planned this out better.”
A ball of fluff landed in front of her, “She’s waiting outside for you, nyah.” Hikari easily bounded up onto Mai’s shoulders.
Mai blinked for a minute, about to ask a question, then shrugged. Hikari would suddenly find itself accelerating at a fast rate, much like a jet taking off.
“So, what’cha find out your end, Yukari? Those guys worth smashing, or is something going on? One thing's for certain. Imma punch the village chief here. I talked to a few different villages. Or tried to. Some of them were emptied. Some ran into the woods when I showed up. One tried to give me tribute. Talked with the last ones. Seems they get raided on a monthly basis. All they had left was some food… Tch.”
Mai looked at her hands.
“Kick. Imma kick the village chief here. Whether or not we let those guys get away or hit them too is up to you though. Verdict?”
Hikari seemed somewhat fluffier than normal as she jumped down from Mai and onto Yukari’s lap. “You’re not the only one that wants to teach that village chief a lesson,” Yukari lightly ran her hand down the yokai’s back. “He’s been lying to the village, using the Leaf to kill anyone that tries to escape his little gang.”
Snarling, Mai kicked a nearby cart, sending shards of shattered wood into the nearby cave, the destruction echoing throughout it. Rocks fell out of it, and spiderwebs broke apart. No one had hauled anything here for four years at least…
Mai’s face then faded away. “Well… let’s go report the results to our client. Afterall, it’s professional courtesy. Infact, let’s bring him down here to see for himself.”
===================================================
The sun was long gone by the time Mai and Yukari arrived at the chief’s house. Despite that, the entire house was lit up entirely. A couple of guards stood at the ready. Seeing the two, one quickly ran towards them.
“Oh good, did’cha kill the bandits in the mine? Our boss--- Mayor is a bit busy. Someone broke into his house and he’s having a hissy fit. I can report everything’s good then, but ya might want to wait til his little… uh, fit’s over.”
Mai kicked him through the wall and kept walking towards the house.
“Hikari, think you can lead us through here?”
“Guess I left some pawprints,” Hikari trotted ahead of the pair, “hard not to with all the dust, nyah.”
“From what she found, these guys may have brought down a ninja at some point - Leaf no less.” Yukari murmured as they walked.
"Probably wasn't an important one. Feel bad for'em though...."
The second guard charged towards them with a yell, clutching his spear. Yukari paused and pointed at the man, a blur of movement before he was on the ground clutching his stomach. Blood dripped from the kunoichi’s claw.
Snake Killer
“Kitten here already,” Hikari called, she sat infront of a bookshelf. “There’s a door behind this, nyah.”
Yukari nodded in Mai’s direction.
Mai raised an eyebrow.
“Hikari’s getting catty I see. Eh? Eh? … Fine…”
Mai kicked down the door leading to the loot room.
“Oi! Chief! We’re here to report. We found out someone else’s been raiding your neighbors! We thought it might be a problem, so we’re here to take care of that!”
“You goddamn worthless ninja!” An angry voice boomed in response. A large burly man with wild eyes turned to face the young kunoichi, glaring at her with violent eyes.
“First you fail to complete your task and now you dare to barge into MY home?”
He stood at nearly 7 feet tall, and had massive muscles threatening to break through the purple pajamas he wore.
Yukari shook her head, leaning her cane against the wall. “Weren’t you the one saying you knew better than to lie to ninja?” She clicked her tongue, “Whatever, it’s about time I got to take some of this… frustration out on someone.”
Mai was less chatty. She turned to black, reappearing in front of him with a knee to the stomach.
Shadow Strike
It wasn’t the hardest hit he’d taken, but it was pretty well aimed. It didn’t matter much, as what might have been mistaken for the wind getting knocked out of him became a powerful gust of wind firing out of his mouth. It was aimed at the kunoichi in front of her, in an attempt to send both her and the other ninja flying through the doorway. He couldn’t have these girls tearing up his precious loot room!
The surprise of such a move sent Mai flying back, straight through the door of the room. Crossing her arms midflight she seemed unperturbed.
“Why is it everyone uses bludgeoning against me? One of these days someone’ll use a sword, and oh-ho then they’ll be sorry.”
Following the crash into a wall, she twitched against it slightly.
Tumbling out the doorway, Yukari dug her claws into the earth as she slid back. “Okay, being airborn is still really disconcerting.” She turned her head in Mai’s direction, “you still good?”
Standing back up straight and rubbing his stomach, the man let out a low grumble. He glared at the two before speaking.
“I never knew that ninja would attack the client who hired them! I paid good money for you to take care of this for me, and yet you decide to turn on me? Did someone else pay you off? Huh? Damnit! GRAH!”
The man turned and punched at the far wall of the room, sending another powerful blast of air straight through it, blasting a hole through the wall leading
outside. He turned and with two power strides leapt through the hole he made into the… outside.
Mai exited in a fabulous explosion of debris as she unembedded herself and left off the wall to avoid the next incoming blast of wind. She spat at the man. Time was starting to slow, that was bad.
“Screw being a ninja, I’m a hero, you’re a villain. Simple as that. I’ve trained way too hard to lose to you. But I’d hate to see Yukari getting rusty cause I hog all the glory, so we’re just going to beat the shit out of you together. How dare you hire ninja to kill innocent people! HOW DARE YOU!”
Mai faded to black again to rush the man with a kneeing strike.
“Aw, how thoughtful,” Yukari flickered to the side and swiped at the man with her claws. Blue arcs of chakra cut through the air towards him.
Bird Killer
Hikari clambered up to the rooftop, shaking dirt and dust from her coat.
“Do not speak to me! Return my payment and I will let you both live!”
The man was ready for the next strikes, just as his opponents appeared near him, he splayed his arms out to his sides. A powerful wave of wind chakra burst from him, tearing apart his pajama top, and cutting deep into the ground beneath him. Anyone too close would find themselves with several painful cuts and slices along with being sent flying a good distance if they couldn't get back in time or brace themselves.
Wind Tearing Burst
Mai was slammed into the ground, but with a psychotic smirk on her face.
FINALLY!
A deep cut across her blouse revealed chainmail underneath. The impact hurt, but what was pain to a masochist? Mai was finally happy! Then again… she liked that blouse!
Roaring in some odd combination of emotions only known to Mai, she was now infront of the man, and he hadn’t pushed her back. Mai uncrossed her arms, trying to chop the man from two different directions with an X like pattern
Cross Strike
Yukari held her arms in front of her at the blast of wind, with the distance she was at it didn’t do much to cut her. She clicked her tongue, unable to tell if her own attack had struck or not. If it did, it didn’t do much to faze him. Feeling Mai move in for another strike, Yukari pointed a clawed finger at the chief. In a blur, the claw shot forward and retracted.
Snake Killer
“Fool! My muscles cannot be harmed by your pathetic stri- ARGH!” The man groaned as a hole suddenly appeared in his gut. “IS THAT ALL THE FIGHT YOU CAN MUSTER?!”
The man’s arm suddenly reached out and grabbed Mai by her skull, his grip was painfully strong. However, it didn’t last long before he tossed the girl right at her clawed friend like a baseball. Yukari managed to catch her, but just barely, the two sent tumbling back into a heap. “Yep… fuck this guy,” she muttered with a cough.
With a low hiss, Hikari leapt from the rooftop, a gout of flame erupting from her mouth.
Mai groaned at the pain. He let go too soon. Cracking her neck, she got up.
“Well, this guy’s a bit tough. I hate to say it… but we might have to use… tactics.”
Mai produced a flashlight under her face for the word tactics. The fact Yukari was blind didn't register to Mai.
Stowing it away with some moderate difficulty, she watched Hikari for a moment deal with the bandit.
“I got an idea. Do you have any moves you think can finish him off? I can distract him if Hikari can hit him with another fireball. Uh… don’t tell Takara, or Hideki about what I’m about to do… Only got one and it's embarrassing…. But if you can get your strongest attack ready, I can distract him if you can tell Hikari can get another fireball ready.”
Yukari nodded, standing up.
Mai stiffened her muscles. As soon as Hikari fired another one, she was going to body flicker towards the man, and disappear.
The man swiped a gust of wind at the cat, disrupting the flames enough to avoid any real damage.
“A fire breathing cat? I would love to have one in my collection of exotic pets…” The man paused, bringing his arms close into his body, as if charging up his energy. Then suddenly, his chakra flared and exploded in a sudden burst as he let out a blood curdling battlecry. A tornado of wind erupted around the man, tearing into the nearby buildings as the debris began to circle around him.
“BUT FIRST I WILL END YOUR PUNY LIVES! MY RICHES AND GLORY WILL LAST FOR ETERNITY! GRAHAHAHA!”
A distance away, huddled in a corner somewhere, one of the boss’s guards prayed for his life to be spared. “O-oh man… I forgot to give the boss his meds this morning! He’s off his rocker man! I screwed up man!”
“Is a normal mission really so much to ask!?” Yukari vented her frustrations to the night air. Slicing her thumb with a claw she rapidly wove handsigns, slamming her palm onto the ground. The resulting smoke was quickly blown away, revealing three more nekomata.
“What the hell is this?” Senshin protested.
“Long story, light him up.” Four combined fireballs in a windstorm was prooobably a bad idea. But at the moment, Yukari was too pissed to care.
“Is every mission being like this too much to ask? I get bored of delivering letters.”
Mai had the most satisfied look on her face considering the fact her head was bleeding from getting grabbed. She looked… relaxed?
Until she disappeared into the firestorm, becoming one with the flame. Literally, Mai blended in with the fire as if it were natural. That girl was on fire.
Mai made her way through the firestorm behind the man. She hated stealth arts, but well, she wasn’t going to let Nagisa show her up ever again. A piece of the flame broke off, right by the man’s bicep, Mai’s face now kissing it.
Genjutsu Kiss
Everything was Mai. The fire was Mai. The cats were Mai. The trees were Mai. Mai’s face was everywhere, and laughing at the large biceped man. The real Mai was blushing that she’d had to use that, but…
The man didn’t even react to the flames that surrounded him. Bis own tornado had been turned into a smoldering chamber of heat, forcing him to sweat profusely. However, all he did was continue his insane laughter.
His laughter began to fade however, as several faces began to appear of the one girl he was about to slaughter earlier. He punched at one, but it was replaced by three more. The face continued to multiply, until he was completely surrounded by them!
“AWAY WITH YOU NINJA! ACCEPT YOUR DEATH!” He bellowed out to the flames. He was breathing hard now, and his skin was starting to burn.
“I won’t… let you… take… my riches…” the man fell to one knee, and the tornado dissipated, dropping all the debris to the ground. He knelt in the center of it all, struggling to catch his breath with heavy burns.
Yukari rushed him then, closing the gap with a body flicker while building chakra in her palm. She struck at the center of his chest with a palm strike. She may not have had her byakugan any longer, but even then the basics of gentle fist hadn’t been lost to her.
With a croak, the man dropped backwards onto the ground, letting out a couple of final words. “D-damn… wanted… rich…” his hulking formed crashed into the ground, kicking up ash and dirt.
Mai went over to see what aid she could give. Turning to Yukari, she was a bit red.
“Don’t tell ANYONE what you just saw… I can’t really weave genjutsu on other people, except by.. Except by… you know what screw it, you didn’t see anything and no one would believe you if you told them.”
Shaking her head she looked around the town.
“Do you think the village knew?”
Yukari sighed, “I’m really not sure… Between the Hidden Mist and the Yoake, it’s possible something could have slipped through the cracks.” Though it was a fairly humiliating thing to miss.
===============================
Mai and Yukari headed to the Hokage’s office following leading the escapee’s out, and letting them have a freeshare of the treasury. And forcing the bandit tribe to flee from the town in terror following their chief's defeat. They decided it was best to drop him off at ANBU headquarters. With a knock, Mai took a breath waiting for entrance.
“I’m hoping they didn’t know and we did the right thing... “
“Guess there’s only one way to find out,” Yukari murmured, opening the door when she heard the Hokage call for them to enter. She stepped inside, offering the older shinobi a low bow.
“Welcome back,” Gou said in his usual low voice.
“Failed the mission and destroyed the village,” Mai said unflinchingly. She looked Gou dead in the eye. “Did you know what was going on there? I have to know for my Nindo.”
The Hokage blinked, “I… beg your pardon?”
“The clients were bandits. The town of Kobe was destroyed four years ago, and the raiders disguised themselves as the residents there. They’ve been hiring the Hidden Leaf for years to do their dirty work. And we’ve been doing it, and getting paid handsomely. That first mission I did with Takara-sensei was them too it looks like… We didn’t kill anyone, but I dropped off their chief with ANBU this morning, and we scattered the rest. I think that counts as failing the mission. I do have to know. Did we know about it?”
Mai kept looking at him, her eyes asking as much as her words.
The silence before he sighed likely felt much longer than a few seconds to Mai, “No, I’m afraid we didn’t know about it.” It was a troubling thought, he’d likely have to dispatch scouts to look into affairs in the rest of the Land of Fire.
Mai nodded, suddenly looking much happier.
“Huh, so that’s why ya said read books if I wanted to be jonin. Honestly never would have figured it out if I hadn’t read about the whole mining thing stopping suddenly four years ago. Well, my nindo’s as strong as ever than. Thank you Lord Hokage. Guess I’ll see you on my next reporting, thanks.”