Side Story: Starstruck - Complete -

[Ganryu]

Mission: Starstruck

Rank: A

Description: I heard of falling star to the North of the Land of Earth, about the size of a basketball. I have a theory I want to test out, but I need this rock for it. I hear of other people who might be interested, ninja, but if you an manage to harvest it first, there shouldn't be an issue. In fact, I've heard of four different ninja village's striving for this, which might make it easier if you an get them to attack eachother. The fact no one has recovered it yet shows the difficulty. I'll pay you for your efforts whether or not you find it, but obviously more for results.

I've heard of a ninja in your village pretty well versed. A one armed one. I'd like to request her for this mission. Likely one more as well. Smaller team is better subterfuge.

 

[Ganryu]

===============
A Strange Mission
===============

“Alright let’s go over this one more time,” Nagisa said curtly to Hideki and Mai. She was crouched next to a large, flat boulder that made an adequate table, with a large map of the area stretched out over it and pinned down with smaller rocks at the curtain.

The trip so far had taken them through to the border of the land of Fire, right across the Land of Grass, over an ostentatious bridge with a small plaque next to it that Nagisa hadn’t bothered to read, then through a large chunk of the Land of Earth which Nagisa had never been to and a bridge that Hideki seemed to rant about how stupid it was for three whole days. The terrain was harsh and rocky and not all that pleasant to cross so it was a relief even for shinobi when they stopped to recuperate and plan their next move.

“The client’s best guess is that our target, the meteorite, fell somewhere in this region,” Nagisa circled an area of the map to the north of their current location with her finger. “But there’s shinobi from at least four other village running around so our chances of conducting a leisurely search of the area are basically nil. On the bright side that means none of them have been able to take the meteorite either. Our first move is probably going to be to figure out roughly where the team from each village is, so we can either figure out how to deal with them or react when one of them makes a move,”

Mai looked at the map quietly, reading it repeatedly. Ever since Nagisa had been declared leader, Mai had a bit of a scowl. And she was honestly scared of being right next to Hideki. She… didn’t know what his answer for Valentine’s day was, and it was honestly a dumb thing of her to do. Her parents had not made it easier. That mischievous look her mom had was worse.

So, biggest answer was to be quiet, to focus on the mission. To not let anything slip. To be, oddly, professional?

Looking at the map again, Mai outlined with her shaky fingers various places on it, trying to commit them to memory. Audio memory was much better for her than visual, but, hey, had to make do with what you had.

“Circle leads to a gorge. A river running through the steep canyon means you’ve got an entire forest in a cliff, ambushes galore. Depends what villages are involved. If its 4 others, prob mostly small.

Grass has been hogging attention lately, maybe them. They also specialize in ambushes as it turns out.

We are in Land of Earth. Maybe them. Star Village I’d bet money on are here. Hope I get to kick them. Any other small villages that could reach here are River, Waterfall, Rain, maybe Frost, maybe Sound. Hideki, any idea of how to draw people out of it if they are set up before us so we can at least make it in?”

Quickest way to deal with conflicting emotions? Kill it.

Hideki stared at the map and listened to the others for a time, in truth, he had been thinking through this in a different direction. This may be one of the few chances to actually come in contact with other rival groups without actually coming to blows if this was done rightly.

Who knows what types they were sending out here, whoever they were nagisa, mai and him could take them down with little issue. Mai was strong, blindingly reckless, but if utilized right and given the right timing she can lay waste to an enemy before they even get a chance to do anything.

Nagisa was a tactical thinker,and a tactical fighter, every movement of hers had something tacked onto it and she always had a reason for doing something mid fight. That arm, was also incredibly fucking cool. Has she seen his arm tech yet? He only WISH he could do the cool shit she could.

Hideki was.. Well he was in a middling state, the terrain here was to be in his advantage so he best make usage of it while he can. But at the same time he was trying to think strategically, he wanted to finish this mission, but he also wanted to utilize this gathering of various villages to his future advantage.

“It’s grass and Star we have to worry about the most hostilities from, they’ve shown their hand in the past so what we must do it see to it to turn their traps and tricks against em or avoid them completely.

Grass however is known for it’s diplomacy as well, so it’s possible we should expect them to may have started to try and get others into our or other group’s case as well. Star is the most belligerent so likely them.

Then there's rain, which you can imagine will be a fucking mess to even begin talking to. I can try, maybe we can get through this without killing each other, assassins, short temper, weird rebreathers and probably enjoying the lack of rain.

However, we have one ally on the board. The sand village ninja may be one of our allies here. We may be able to work out a compromise with them should we reach them, or in the very least make certain we’re not the only ones fighting the two other. Hell, if we’re lucky they will have either gotten hit by one of the other two before so we can use the mentality of sticking together to fight THOSE assholes off then discuss the meteor afterwards.

If we can find it at all.” Hideki sighed, putting forward his thoughts. “I’ll think of something to say when we get there. Nobody can deny I’ve gotten good at making friends eh?” the young man chuckled, only slightly hiding his excitement in meeting other village ninja.. If they don’t try and kill them first.

“...So i propose we look for the Suna ninja first, if anything, we can agree to have a non-aggressive stance against one another. It’d waste energy we both don’t want to use.” hideki put forward to the two. “Yes? No? I’m an idiot? You guys got a better plan?”

“I’ll defer to our leader.”

“Alright uh.. Good points, both of you,” Nagisa said, a little surprised to have gotten useful information from Mai. Frowning, Nagisa looked down at the map. “My problem is that even if we get these people to agree to some kind of truce, or alliance that’s going to break down as soon as find this thing. There’s only one meteorite, which means only one team is going home happy. The teams from other villages will know that going into any kind of non aggression pact or other arrangement… Hideki, what do these villages think of each other? Take us out of the equation for a moment,”

Hideki scratched his chin. “Suna is largely neutral against Rain, Grass is likely hitting them just as hard due to their size and closeness with Konoha. Star, obviously, doesn’t like them but they don’t like anybody.

Rain likely dosen’t care to much about diplomacy so their likely here to just get the damn rock and go. They don’t care for grass or star as much as anybody else but their bigger then than the two so it might be grounds for contention. Probably don’t have much beef with the Sand, unless something came up recently, haven’t heard much on the Rain lately.

Grass village is filled with ambush artists and and silver tongued diplomats. Likely their gonna try and pretend to be buddy buddy with star as their both smaller villages, like I’ve already said. As for them going with Rain likely won't happen, but they likely won't be to hostile either… Unless the Rain were having a particularly bad day. Most likely to try and trap others and wringe them for info on the rock.

Star is likely here to prove their the best, plus it’s a meteor so… yea know. Likely took it because of how many different villages are here. Most likely of our groups to actively try and attack outright.

It’s worth mentioning, Stone is kind of missing from this, but we’re in their territory, if we see them we don’t attack them. If one of the other groups do, back Stone up unless it’s our Suna friends. Lets not start a war while we can alright?” he gave the best run down he could, lots of estimated guesses but thats what it all comes down to in diplomacy.

“Suna is least likely to stab us in the back, though recent events have kinda put a strain on our relationship. Followed by Rain, Star, and finally Grass.”

Mai yawned slightly.

“So basically if we weren’t here, Star or Grass would get it teaming up, then backstab the other, got it. Anything that makes the Star Village’s day a little bit worse is good with me, so glad I ame. Stone’s not here, but not too weird. I mean, what do they get to gain from it? Bet they watch though. Be friendly with Suna, don’t kick their ass too hard, got it. Plan oh great leader? We don’t know where any of them are.”

“What do any of these jokers gain from this?” Nagisa exclaimed irritably. “I’ve never heard of this many villages turning up for a shitty fucking rock. Who even hired these people? This a pretty remote area so how did four separate clients with shinobi hiring money even hear about it? Word would have got out eventually but the first person’s shinobi should have been able to snatch it long before then and why wouldn’t they hire Iwa? It’s their turf they would be the obvious choice…”

Hideki pipped up with a thought that popped into his head. “Stone hired all of us and is watching our every move as we likely hunt for a meteor that isn’t there in terrain that would force us all to come against one another.” the young man blurted it out with a finger rose.

“...or.. That's what i’m thinking anyways…”

Mai cracked her neck and grabbed her pack to head in. Hadn't gotten orders not to.

“Meh, Stone didn't care when I was here a month ago. Though weird client is paying regardless. Whatever, can we go punch… kick somebody now?”

“Try to contain yourself for a little longer,” Nagisa said dryly as she stood up and folded her map back up. “You seem to know the terrain so try to figure out where the Sand are likely to have set up, we’re gonna have a talk with them,” Nagisa’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t really care about all this political shit but I know a goddamn scam when I smell one,”

 

[Ganryu]

==============
Diplomacy with Sand
===============

Mai rubbed her neck with her wrists. She had a furrowed brow as Nagisa talked. Before she could say anything though, Mai’s head snapped to the South.

“Incoming! Somethings buzzing in the air from the South!”

Grabbing her backpack, Mai dove behind a rock.

Three flying ninjas would quickly make their way overhead, each apparently riding something in the sky. In the front, one sat atop a fuuma shuriken. Slightly behind her, two slower nin rode atop giant fans. In the midst of the buzzing the lead girl talked loudly.

“Hah! Look on the grass nins faces when I plowed through their ambush weeds! I was just like a lawnmower!”

Their arrival was quick, but the Leaf nin had options.

Hideki looked to the group and motioned skywards. “Ninja, mentioning Grass so they can’t be them. Should we contact them?”

“...Do it,” Nagisa said after thinking quickly. “I’ll stay hidden and back you up if things go south,” with that Nagisa activated her concealing cloak and winked out of view, fortunately the rocky ground they had crossed meant there were little signs of her passing. Now hidden, Nagisa distanced herself a little from Mai and Hideki and switched to her bow, loading a flash arrow in case of trouble.

The young man sighed once more, he wondered again how many sighs he did in a year. As helpful as they were being right now, still, good enough team. The young man walked out into a opening and waved towards the oncoming ninja. “Hey! Down here!” he figured, there was really no way to truly garner attention than this. Anything else would seem hostile, he just wanted to talk. And hopefully, they didn’t throw anything at him.

At the wave, the forerunner, literally jumped off the shuriken, landing about 60 feet down with no ill effect. The full force of her jump didn’t even budge the shuriken from it’s path.

“Yo.”

The girl sized Hideki up and down. She herself had her black hair in a spiky ponytail, and wore ninja mesh. She filled it pretty well for her age. Across her ninja belt lie about 6 collapsed Fuma shurikens, and a pouch of other various tools. She didn’t seem to want for confidence either. However, unlike other kunoichi Hideki might know, there was absolutely no passion in her eyes. She looked like laborer at the end of a very long day job.

“So, Leaf nin, what do you want us for? Don’t tell us you’re here for it too…”

“Sup. Glad I caught yea when I did, overheard yea caught trouble with the grass nin opperating in the area. Jack asses have been hitting the leaf hard to, was worried our allies might get caught in that mess.” the young man stated before standing straight. “Name is Hideki Ukita, poor sod they sent after a needle in a haystack, or a fucking rock in a mountain...” the young man scratched behind his head, trying his best to look amicable.

Damn this girl was… Hoo boy.

“Mainly wanted to catch yea Suna nin before anything gets to heated, our villages are allies so no reason we can’t at least talk on common ground eh?” Keep your eyes on her’s young man, eyes on the prize that was above the neck line.

The woman blinked blankly at him a few times.

“So… what I’m getting is we got ANOTHER team here for it? Great… I just want to afford rent this month. I’m not so sure our villages are allies anyways. Jun Iba was a classmate of mine. Ya know, one that got murdered by our allies. So… what do you want us for?”

Underneath her cloak Nagisa tensed. Up close she recognised the kunoichi from the bingo book Nobushige insisted she memorised. If they had to fight those fuma shuriken would be difficult to deal with and things were obviously not off to a good start… should she just take a shot? Nagisa decided to wait a little longer to see if Hideki could pull this off but her hand never strayed far from her bowstring.

“Right… I’m terribly sorry for your loss… I cannot say why that incident occured or if it was indeed a leaf nin, but I assure you no such foul play will be found from me here… Sorry if I sound like a fucking politician you know how this bullshit goes.” Hideki shrugged lightly before continuing.

“I’ll get down to brass tacks, a handful of villages were offered this job at the same time in the territory of a unhired village that is suspiciously not present. We may be paid well for this stone, but this reeks of a damn ambush. I heard you’ve already met the Grass nin’s traps, at least you had little trouble, like a lawn mower I think you said?”

“Yeah, it was hilarious. They were getting pissed they couldn’t hold us in place. Something about 8 hours worth work gone. Far as suspicious, don’t care. Kazekage himself told me not to mess it up, so pretty sure legit, and the pay’s good. Client was weird though. Some crazy old lady on about a theory. Anyways, if ya ain’t going to tell me what it is you’re wanting, Imma, just go back to scouting.

I don’t know what’s going on with you Leaf guys, but can’t make heads or tails if you’re our friends or enemies. Too much of a headache to figure out now.”

Hideki nodded thoughtfully. “Crazy old lady huh? Only the office that came to us. That said, should it come down to it, first one to get the rock between us keeps it. Hell, if yea get the rock I’ll help yea in case the other groups get prickly. Least the Leaf can do for everything thats happened.

Just wanted to touch base in the end. And I guess I’ve always wanted to meet a Suna ninja, a beauty that rides around on a Fuma shuriken? Now that’s a place to start huh? I’ll see you around then.” hideki began to start walking away with a small wave, at least they wouldn’t be trying to kill one another… Off the bat at least.

Plus, if anything, last thing he wanted was to cause MORE shit for the Leaf.

In the distance a large crash was heard, and smoke rose and Shika flinched slightly.

“Shit, forgot those were heavy. Well, screw it. While I ain’t working with you, you certainly know how make a lady feel welcome. Heh, wish my teammates were so flattering.

Well, whenever an explosion or large blast goes off, you can generally find Rain waiting to attack it, so… just a heads up. Genjutsu users so I try to stay clear, but if your team’s prepared to deal with one, maybe they know something. Seem to be a bit too cowardly to try and take it themselves. Well, see you later.”

Picking out another fuma, Shika elegantly screamed ‘YEET’, and threw the shuriken as hard as she could. After some distance it returned, and she was gone, riding atop it into the distance.

“...She and a few others would get along I think… The fuck is a Yeet though..?” Hideki shrugged as he went back.

“Well that could have gone worse,” Nagisa said, reappearing from underneath cloak. “I’d chew you out for goofing off at the end there but it seemed like it worked so...fine. It sounds like the Rain might be a lead but I don’t like dealing with genjutsu more than I have to…”

Behind Hideki, a single hand was placed as an Oni approached him. If he looked behind him, he would see a terrifying expression of Mai smiling sweetly. He had less than a second before he would be flying through the air.

Mai did not apologize. Turning towards Nagisa as if she hadn’t just attempted murder, Mai continued the conversation.

“Doubt you’ll believe me, but actually one of the things I’m best at. I… try not to let people like Hideki find out, I prefer’em to think I’m an idiot. But, well…. You know how I sometimes whistle and I can use my hands? That’s genjutsu. It’s specifically to counter paralytics genjutsus, I just kinda like to be able to use my hands once in a blue moon. Point is, I can help you guys break out if we have to fight them.

I’d rather you not tell people though. Feel free to give the orders to Hideki in 3...2…1...”

A large crash could be behind Mai, who didn’t even turn to look. She just walked off, towards where Shika had suggested.

Hideki didn’t see it coming, he really should have in truth, given how she has been acting and… Well… Guess it was his just deserts. The young man was ready for the impact, waist deep into the ground as he was made of stone. The kick hurt most truly, he only hoped She was leaving cause… Well…

He couldn’t see anything from underground right now…

Nagisa merely observed Hideki’s impressive trajectory and then sighed tiredly. This mission was turning out to be far more trouble than it was worth, theoretically couldn’t they just say they tried, go home and claim the lesser reward? It was starting to look like an attractive option.

“You can come out now,” she said in what looked roughly like Hideki’s direction. “Like I was saying I don’t like dealing with genjutsu more than I have to but It’s our only lead at the moment so we’ll have to risk it. If we can get the drop on them they won’t be able to cast any anyway. C’mon let’s get moving, your girlfriend is too far out ahead already,”

Hideki plucked himself out of the ground and shook his head. “Oh i think I’m pretty far from that right now… that said, I’ve been trying to beef up my genjutsu defence.. It’s still not adequate but it’s something… Well, lets get going then.” the young man simply followed nagisa if she went forwards, figuring this was gonna be a long day.

 

[Ganryu]

================
Vs Rain
================

Around the crater site where Shika’s fuma shuriken landed, it seemed quiet. The opening into the gorge, rocks raised high on either side, with the beginning of a forest ahead of them. A running river made sound detection a little harder. In other words, ambushes were more than expected.

Mai arrived first, still flustered beyond words.

“Stupid picks… stupid mission…”

She noticed out of the corner of her eye the shadows started to dance, but whenever she turned to see them, they stood still. Mai closed her eyes, but could still hear a strange russling she could quiet focus on. She, did, however, spot the first Rain ninja, sitting atop a large rock to the entrance to the canyon, with a crossbow. He definitely hadn’t cast the genjutsu Mai was currently under though….

Before Nagisa chased after Mai she made sure to apply a clarity seal to the back of her neck, an automatic defense against genjutsu. It might not be effective against high level techniques but it might be enough to give her a fighting chance.

Following Mai’s tracks, Nagisa felt an uneasy sensation growing in the pit of her stomach Why did Mai always have to run ahead like this? They could easily be walking into a trap. Hell they were relying on information from a different village, who was to say the Suna nin weren’t colluding with the rain? This whole thing could be a setup!

Suddenly the seal on Nagisa’s neck fired a pulse of chakra back into her system, causing her to gasp in pain and stagger forwards. She’d already been under a genjutsu, shit.

“HIdeki, you’ll want to try a genjutsu release okay?” Nagisa said calmly. If he was under the effects of the same genjutsu she had been he might panic despite normally being reliable.

Now, while he did hear Nagisa’s words, and it did seem rather plausible that he was, indeed, in a genjutsu. And it was a very, very, very distinct proof to her case in the fact that she was currently looking very suspicious and about as sketchy and untrustworthy as three raccoons in a trenchcoat trying to steal the food from his fridge by posing as an “old family friend” or perhaps a fridge sales person.

He figured, it wouldn’t hurt to try and perform a genjutsu break as she stated, even if the dancing shadows kinda did make those nearby flowers curious and likely to strike at him at any moment now…

Upon breaking it, things seemingly went back to normal, though he still thought those flowers were weird. ‘Done, where are the pricks?” the young man immediately went on the defensive.

Mai wanted to respond to Hideki, but was currently engaged in a genjutsu battle. She’d never been in one before. Mostly because she never let on she had any skill in it, and preferred just straight attacking the enemy. Mai could break it easily, but that would alert the nin. Instead, she kept casting ‘calm’ on herself to negate the effect. She couldn’t attack anyone if she wanted. Anyone attacked her, she would snap the genjutsu and their neck, but for now, she just had to keep calm, and locate the rest.

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

Dramatically infront of Hideki, mist gathered, taking the form of a ninja, though Nagisa would see someone casually walk up as her seal activated again. Mist seeped off of his robes, and he wore a menacing smile.

“Greetings, I see you worms have walked right into our ambush. Genjutsu is a skill most ninja aren’t prepared to deal with. Are you sure you two don’t want to just surrender instead? This is a rather small dispute anyways, we’d even let you keep your lives. All we want to know, is what you know of that meteorite.”

Hideki rose an eyebrow. “Clever trap nonetheless, no reason we can’t come out of this amicably. See, what I know most is that this whole thing may just be a trap, two large villages and smaller ones, [yadda yadda the god damn audience has already heard me talk about this. You really want to put them through the same chatter? Seriously, at least it’s a dude this time, you know how many chicks are in this? Far too many, can’t go a damn scene without somebody getting pissed at him, rightfully so but still. Alright back to dialogue]

And honestly it’s getting more and more suspicious by the damn second. Sure I don’t damn well trust yea but the least yea can acknowledge this is damn well spooky. What we’re the damn villages thinking in taking this? How many villages were even GIVEN this mission and decided it was to damn suspicious. But here comes the leaf and all the others-.” Hideki continued to ramble and he turned his left arm to stone behind his back, the other used to show off his confusion, rage and general discontent at his own higher ups and those who sent them all here.

Was it a distraction ploy? Most definitely, but it was also rather on point.

The ninja’s smoky form slipped for a second, revealing him holding a kunai, which he nearly dropped.

“My heavens… is that… logic? I’ve missed it so. You’re not the only one thinking it suspicious. We’ve been at this nearly a week, and every time someone comes close to securing the meteor site, another damn team shows up and throws us all into chaos. If we could just afford some security in this fight, we would have already have won it. You… What was your client like for this, I have a suspicion...”

“We didn’t damn well get to see em. Apparently the Suna nin had a crazy old woman.. Wait a fucking week? And couldn’t find it? The hell this thing is supposed to be the size of a basketball, it couldn’t have gotten up and walked away!” A fucking week!?! For a meteor!?!? That thing should be EXACTLY where it landed, unless…

“..Stone took it, calling it now. Heard it here first.” He was talking frankly… But.. Well.. he still was ready to deck the guy with his stone fist.

“We know where the damn thing is, we’ve been here a week, but its been a damn week of musical chairs of who controls the site, and what they dig up. Crazy old woman…? Hmm. Wait… Hmm. Well, I suppose to get the most precise way to get data from you is to read your mind. Most people don’t subject themselves to that willingly, so I suppose barbarian week is back.”

The ninja made another handsign to fade into mist as he tried to create some ground, dispersing it would reveal his position, but give him a head start.

“Fuck! Quit it with the genjutsu already!” Nagisa snapped as her seal went off again, dispersing the jutsu but racking her body with pain. It wasn’t enough pain however, to stop Nagisa body flickering forwards to tackle the Rain ninja, summoning a kunai in one hand to put to his neck, Hopefully Nagisa could take the bastard alive but after three of those nasty chakra pulses to break out of his stupid genjutsu she wasn’t going to feel too cut up about slitting his throat if she needed to.

Hideki moved to break the genjutsu again, his earth speared arm useless he decided to try something else and… Wait was that a dude on the ridge? Huh, well better go deal with him.. Or.. was it a guy? Doesn’t matter. He rushed towards the bottom of the ridge and performed his hand signs, activated Earth release: Moving Earth Core. He had the idea to just launch them into the sky on that rock, but instead caused the ridge to fall exceedingly quickly towards their level with quite the THWOMP.

Drawing out his shield, he then began to rush the likely discombobulated sniper. “I got this one!”

The ‘sniper’, however, did manage to get off a single shot, aimed at Nagisa’s back. It was expertly shot, avoiding all of her vital organs, yet aimed a cluster of muscles in the back. The leader she rushed took advantage of this, returning the tackle with a thrust of his own, aimed at her throat. Funnily enough, one’s throat was much more durable than often the movies portrayed, though if she took it, it’d hardly be pleasant. He lacked defense, going straight into an all or nothing offense. If she changed to a block, he’d immediately back off once more.

The sniper was indeed dazed as Hideki approached, barely getting himself to a standing position again as the ninja approached.

Hideki was upon the sniper, rushing forwards and putting his momentum into a thrust with the edge of his shield aimed at the sniper’s head to try and take them out of the equation. It was a very simple strike and honestly had very little finesse, but hey, whatever worked! Plus they needed this ranged attacker down pronto.

Meanwhile Nagisa was having a shitty day. She collided with her target, knocking him to the ground but before she could get her knife to his throat she felt something stab her in the back, jolting her and leaving her paralysed with pain for a brief moment. While she was immobile the rain ninja underneath her made a thrust with his own kunai at her throat so she leaned backwards desperately, keeping him pinned under her legs and hissing as the muscles around the bolt in her shoulders burned with pain, speckling her vision with white, blind spots. At the same time Nagisa managed to activate her mechanical light cutter and a blade shaped beam of chakra extended from her wrist, coming to rest just next to the Rain ninja’s neck, its tip effortlessly cutting into the ground underneath him as if to demonstrate its lethality.

“I swear you fucking try a thing and I’m taking your goddamn head off,” Nagisa said venomously, as the pain shifted to more consistent, throbbing waves.

The ninja under her looked at the blade calculating.

“While I’d like to see you try-”

In the distance, a panicked shouting could be heard from the sniper.

“I surrender! Don’t hit me!”

He was apparently not a ninja used to close range fighting, and Hideki’s dropping of his sniper’s perch more than panicked him as he raised his hands infront of his face.

The ninja beneath Nagisa sighed.

“Damnit Takao, two versus one would be a bit tough.”

A wilhelm scream could be heard from the other direction as a Rain ninja flew from 45 degree arc, smashing into the rocky terrain.

“You-! I know you-!”

A body flicker was one him before he could talk anymore, Mai viciously elbow smashing his face knocking him straight out. Oddly her face didn’t have the berserker grin it normally did, or even the rage or passion. It looked deathly serious. This elicited a large sigh from the ninja under Nagisa.

“Make that three against one. I surrender. Not like this rock is worth our lives. I think I’ve had enough of this game of which I don’t know the rules to. I suppose you’ll be wanting information? I could tell you everything I know, but that would waste too much of our time. How about I show you? Who would you like to volunteer. Not like I could pull anything funny now if I wanted to. Or at least not worth the pain in the ass effort you Leaf nin would make it be. Take a medkit from that coward Takao. It doesn’t look like he’ll be using it anytime soon, coward.”

“We have you dead to rights and you think I should let you do something weird to one of of my team?..” Nagisa sighed tiredly and stood up, careful not to twist her upper body more than was necessary. ‘Fine you know what, fine, fuck it. Not like this mission could get any worse at this point,” she turned to Hideki and Mai “Will one of you grab that medkit and get this fucking thing out of my back?”

“Oh no, a slight prick on your back, whatever will you do?”

Mai said with raised eyebrow. Either way, Mai returned quickly, her hands fumbling with the medkit. She whistled and quickly got to work.

Hideki… didn’t want to speak to Mai right now… Even if she was pissed, especially since she was pissed. Oh lord he felt like he was currently amidst a mine field. Why him? Why always him? Can’t he just live for a few days without a women angry at him?

He turned to leave the sniper, not before taking away their crossbow, nice thing that it was he prefered it not pointed towards them again. He walked over to the guy and rose his chin. “Well? Lets get this going. I recommend not trying anything stupid, it’s hard enough having to nearly fight every other ninja you come across, let's end this with minimal issue.”

The sniper handed the kit over nearly looking like he was going to piss himself.

“I can do it myself if you’re gonna be a bitch about it,” Nagisa said testily, her patience pretty well eroded by this point. “What’s up with you anyway, you’re acting weird,”

“Genjutsu fight. I’ve nearly died a… few times in the past. Not fun to remember. I can show you the memories later if you like. Now stay still, can only use my hands for a few minutes. ‘Sides, don’t focus on me, focus on them, we don’t want any funny business. Guy’s clever, I’m sure he’d exploit a second of weakness if given. Oh, and heads.”

Though Mai’s annoyed expression changed to a slight smile as she yoinked on the bolt. It faded as she started applying bandages.

 

[Ganryu]

==================
Rain of Memories
=================

Kaito, the Rain Nin, sighed.

“You lot are strange. If I wasn’t annoyed with this whole mess as a whole, I might be upset at losing. Well, time for a few memories. I’ll start, don’t break it. Or do. I no longer care.”

Kaito began a series of complex hand signs, a look of extreme concentration overcoming his face.

Hideki was no longer in the Land of Earth, but under the pavilion of a traveler’s stop, a dango shop. It was raining heavily, making the pavilion a godsend, though if he put his hand outside, he’d feel nothing.

In front of Hideki, the three rain ninja approached a woman heavily obscured by her clothing. A blindfold and a hooded cloak made it hard to see the woman. She sat in front of a Shogi board, halfway through a game with no one.

“You must be our client, Ms. Nise? I am Kaito Chosokabe, and we are squad 1 of the Hidden Rain.”

“Ah yes. I take it you’ve read my mission?” Her voice was extremely slow. In fact, it almost seemed drugged.

“Yes, you want us to retrieve a meteor from a site in the Land of Earth.”

“Mmhmm. That is correct. The meteor’s very valuable to a theory of mine. But I understand I’m asking much, I will pay for the effort at the least. I’d very much like the meteor, however. Don’t half do it now, I have ears everywhere.”

“Naturally we’ll try. We haven’t had a mission this promising in the Hidden Rain for quite some time. I would, however, like to ask a question or two.”

“Go ahead.”

“It says two other villages that might be already be there. Now, why would other ninja be interested in a rock?”

“Hmm… A bright one aren’t you? Do you want the long or short of it.”

“Long. I’m not one to miss a single detail.”

“Well fine. I’ve done a lot of research on history and religion lately. Have you heard of the cults of Jashin and Myōjō?”

“Humor me.”

“Well, Jashin is unimportant to the story, and my research, so we’ll skip them mostly Mad cult known throughout the lands, probably most famous of our time. They used to have a rival in the north: the cult of Myōjō.

Myōjō claimed to be children of the stars, that the heavens had chosen them for greatness. They claimed all power and ninjutsu came from the heavens, and the right to rule must with a sign from the heavens. Normally this wouldn’t constitute a cult, but they started murdering those they said heaven hadn’t chosen. This included the murder the Daimyo over what is now the Land of Earth. They kept murdering people as decrees from heaven. “

Hideki would hear Kaito’s thoughts loudly in his head. Hurry the story the hell up… if you talk any slower I’m going to fall asleep.

“Now, this was in the days of the clans, and the Myōjō sect lived in the Hai clan’s territory, who soon worked to wipe them out. The Myōjō had never been trained as ninja, but they had some weird power that let them fight back. For a time at least. After this, the ‘cult’ of Myōjō was never heard from again. The heroes seemed to be have all dropped dead or something of the like.

I have suspicions of what happened, but well, theories are best not said out loud until one has proof. Thankfully, this meteor might be the proof I need. I believe they got power from this meteor. I’m curious… extremely curious. It could give an obscure historical cult the power of a small village. I almost imagine what would happen to a small village if they retrieved such an object? Naturally, I have the feeling the other villages looking into this meteor might have similar thoughts. There are people from this story I’d love to ask, but even the major villages have tried. Too late they’ve found cursed seals and genjutsu blocks that would kill the person in question.

Anyways, I’m prattling. Any other questions?”

Kaito nodded in agreement. Then all of a sudden pulled a knife out, plunging it within an inch of his client. She jumped after a moment.

“That answers what I have. Your reflexes are shot, your speech is slurred, but your eyes aren’t addled in the least. You’re not drugged, you’re under a genjutsu. I’d break it, but I’m honestly interested in this mission. There are a few inconsistencies in your story, like how do you know this meteor’s the size of a basketball, but, I’m game.”

“Clever one. ♪Perfect♪”

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

Suddenly the scene changed to the middle of the gorge at night. A largescale battle was taking place, though Hideki would be behind the bushes with three Rain ninja. He’d be standing out in the open as a kunai would fly literally through him. The Sand and Star were going in hard. From atop a fuma shuriken, Shika rained down kunai and other projectiles, while cloaks from the Star prevented much damage. The skill was about equal, but the major difference was the resolve. The Star were ready to fight to the death, the Sand were not.

Kaito whispered to the others, seemingly turning to Hideki

“Looks like we can cleanup here easily. In some ways, this is easier, we don’t have to find the site, they’ve done it for us. I wonder how long they’ve been at it? Well, boys, let’s show them our gratitude. “

After some time, the Sand withdrew, not willing to bet their lives for a rock. However, the Star were left exhausted. After an epic battle, they were easily picked off by the Rain. It gave Kaito immense satisfaction as he watched their leader turn to curse them.

“Tch, don’t think we won’t be back. We WILL have that meteor! Now we know its here we’ll call the Hoshikage if we have to!”

“Go ahead! It’ll take him a week! We’ll have it by then, losers!”

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

The moon suddenly jumped across the sky, and the Rain nin, covered in soot and dust were suddenly ambushed by the weeds around them. After a bit of struggling, they were put on the run, with Kaito waxing more and more eloquent in his cursing. Most of his curses were old and hardly in use.

“We nearly had that damn meteor! We were this close! Ko, you said you could see chakra on the ground with your dojutsu, we KNOW it was there. Tch. Just when we’re close another damn team shows up… Could have presented it tonight if it weren’t for them. Tch. For all of Ms. Nise’s ‘ears’ on the ground, you would think she’d send word ANOTHER team was coming. DAMNIT!”

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

More skips in memory showed battle over battle, and who controlled the crater changing nearly every 4 hours.

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

As the genjutsu ended, Kaito panted heavily.

“There. That’s literally everything I know. Are me and my cowards free to go?”

Hideki closed his eyes, nodding as he thought this through. “Hmm… under a genjutsu… How did she know the size but not the location… Last known location showed sign of chakra usage…” the young man really, really didn’t like how all this was adding up. Cults, the heavens… they were CRIMINALLY ill prepared intelligence wise for this and he was uncertain the leaf really thought this through.

Or perhaps they did, and saw a thing to nip in the bud early.

Slowly and surely this was becoming a literal mess of bullshit. “Something is exceedingly wrong here, that goes without saying… if i were you guys I’d quite this whole fucking thing while I have the chance and the reason to…” he flashed a glance at the sniper and broke the crossbow over his knee.

“Sorry, you understand.” he dropped the thing to the ground and sighed.

“..Been a week, or a bit under it since you took it the first time yea? Last thing we need is to fight a kage over this shit.. Especially Star’s. Damn it, why the hell wouldn’t they send jonin into this level of bullshit?” Hideki wasn’t fully giving all the info he learned, he’d give the others a run down once the Rain cleared out.

The Rain cleared out with a snarl. The sniper looked forlorn at his broken crossbow, Kaito looked thoroughly done.

 

[Ganryu]

============
Lies
============
“Whhhhyyyyy does it always have to be cults!?” Nagisa groaned, putting her hands up to massage her temples after Hideki gave them a full recount. “Why can’t I go a year without running into some crazy motherfucker who gives the voices in their head way too much credit!? And why do they all need to kill people?! Some people just leave out rice or bullshit like that! I still think it’s dumb but at least it’s not a fucking problem for me!” Nagisa’s rant increased in volume and pitch until it left her breathless and panting, then she heaved another, final sigh.

“Okay before we worry about the fucking Hoshikage let’s try and figure this out, we’re being set up and I want to know why.” Nagisa said, her usual calm returning. “It seems pretty likely that all these teams were hired by the same person or group, using genjutsu to conceal their identity behind proxies. They also seem to know this meteorite a little too well, they wouldn’t be able to estimate just from watching it fall to the ground, they’ve known about this thing since long before they got shinobi involved, we might even be dealing with the original meteorite from the story. Their goal isn’t to retrieve the meteorite, for whatever reason, is to have shinobi fighting each other without anyone actually getting their hands on it, somehow that’s part of this person’s theory,’

“Like… the act of fighting for it is key? Or maybe it’s like a spilled blood thing? There's weird artifacts out there in the world, hell i have a sword that drinks blood for the god’s sakes.” Hideki patted the thing on his belt. “Cults… Can’t say I like them either…”

Mai bit her lip, and paced back and forth as Hideki and Nagisa talked. She mumbled more than talked.

“If Jonin were involved, this wouldn’t be a skirmish, it would be a full blown battlefield, jonin are valuable, each village would pour in if that was the case. Bunch of chunin, no one cares about, and no one’s died yet.”

Mai tapped her foot, then sighed. Taking off her backpack, the heavy bag hit the ground hard. She talked fast, extremely fast.

“I’ve heard that story about the Myōjō before. It’s one of the myths of how the Star started. One of many. Ninja villages are kinda secretive though, so it’d take a lot of research to get even that much information. Person who gave it is definitely interested in that village. Wonder if they still do cult things, or if they need blood.

Hmm… Whatever it is, the villages themselves seem aware. Kazekage debriefed his ninja in person. Hokage approved ours without us meeting with client. So… guess question is if your village keeps you in the dark, and you know it, do you follow orders anyways?”

In the distance, a large explosion was heard, followed by a flurry of smaller ones. A battle between the last two teams had begun, and it was vicious.

Mai closed her eyes, trying to slow her breath.

“So… do we?”

Hideki wasn’t.. Fully certain what to say at this moment… he hadn’t considered it when it came down to this type of situation. He knew he’d never hurt a friend over a mission… But would they abandon this mission over a severe lack of information, one that has holes that are slowly being filled in each and every encounter but never truly made any sense?

It was like making a puzzle when half the pieces were missing and the box had been ruined by water damage.

They asked for Nagisa, but he can imagine why HE was here if this ended up some test from the leaf… His family relations as they were, and Takara’s apparent suspicion… Maybe they were checking his allegiances as well?

...Then again…

Not everything was about him…

“Well…. I want to see where this rabbit hole goes… I’d like to kidnap one of the grass nin to interrogate but…” he watched the fight off in the distance. “Well.. I wonder which will have the meteor, if it was found at all..” the young man continued watching the horizon. “...Got anything else Mai? I know nothing about this anymore..”

“Yeah no actually I’d like to know that as well,” Nagisa said. “When I asked what was wrong with you you told me you’d almost died. But the thing is that happens to you pretty much every mission you take and most of your days off as well and it normally puts you in a great mood. So before we jump into the shit again I’m gonna ask one more time if there’s something up with you. It doesn’t have to leave here, but I want to know if somethings up that could possibly be a factor here,”

Mai looked like a caught rabbit for a second. Finally she sighed.

“Tch, why’d it have to be one of the smartest people in our class. Guess it kinda had to be… Fine, Hoshikage’s likely to be here by the end of this. I don’t know how I feel. Don’t know how I feel at all. There’s lots of theories I got here. Half of them scare me to death. But that makes me want to do this mission more. Long as I don’t mess up, and follow orders, no problem, right?”

“Figures it would, hardly can imagine you scared but I guess thats what makes your the heroine eh? Going forward despite your fear?” The young man smirked abit before patting his sword. “In truth, lets say this. If we cannot have the meteorite, or if it seems to much of an issue to actual take. I say we save the world alot of trouble and destroy it.

The Leaf didn't say not to, and in truth they should've fucken told us more about it anyways. If shit hits the fan, why not? It's better than letting the others have it. Star already hates us, grass is just a pile of arse and Sand… well… sand can deal with it. This is just an idea in the end, I know I can certainly cut it.” He patted his sword, if it couldn't cut the damn meteorite he'd go back to the man… His guarantee is like a warrante right?

He then wondered if it could be used in jutsu like any other stone… curious…

“Now there’s an idea,” Nagisa said, with a slight trace of malice. “After all this trouble the idea of just blowing that damn thing has a certain appeal to it. But I still want a straight answer as to what’s going on here, so Hideki- take these-” Nagisa said, summoning a a wad of explosive tags and handing them over. “ANd rig that thing to blow. Sanada, you and me are going to see if whoever’s left has some better answers for us and if they don’t then they can kiss this stupid rock good bye,”

Mai shook her head, and sighed.

“Heroine… more like the villianness. Damn, ANBU’s going to hate me later. Guys, that won’t work. Damnit, this is way harder than I thought. Nagisa, Hideki, I’m sorry. You know how I said I was here about a month ago?”

Mai tossed her backpack at Nagisa. Saying it weighed alot would be an understatement.

“Mission’s not to get the meteorite, its to keep everyone in a stalemate til the Hoshikage arrives. If a Jonin appeared, it could scare him off. But a bunch of chunnin? Hardly. Problem with picking smartest girl in the class is the fact that its not me. The Hidden Star’s the only village that gives a damn about this thing. We blow up the site, he won’t show. At the moment, Grass’ll lose from the Star, and they’ll get away before we can force the Hoshikage here.”

 

[Ganryu]

=============
Hell Hath No Fury...
=============

Nagisa’s eye twitched. She opened her mouth, closed it again and then opened the flap on Mai’s backpack as Hideki shuffled his way over to peek inside as well.

Inside the backpack, under about a pound of jerky, an iron rock, black as the night, could be seen. It almost seemed to pulse with energy when looked at.

Nagisa chuckled. Then she laughed openly, and her laughter increased in pitch and volume until there was an undeniably manic twinge to it.She continued laughing for just slightly too long before subsiding into a tense silence.

“So…” she began, with a tight, false smile. “So not only was this entire clusterfuck of a mission totally avoidable, it was actually orchestrated by our people to- what, assassinate the Hoshikage? AND YOU KNEW THIS ENTIRE TIME! I GOT SHOT IN THE BACK TRYING TO INTERROGATE THOSE RAIN JACKASSE AND YOU KNEW EXACTLY WHAT WAS GOING ON THIS WHOLE TIME!”

“To be fair, that part was hilarious…. Wait… shit, wrong response.

You’re smarter than me, Nagisa. If we all knew, especially you, wouldn’t you have acted different? I’m not supposed to tell you at all, but if we blow up that crater, whole mission goes down the tube. I request you as leader because I know you get crap done. Better than anyone else I know. Problem is, ya’re smarter than me, and I ain’t good at lying to my… Anyways, I ain’t apologizing for doing my job. Only reason I’m here is insurance… and alot of begging. You want the rest of the cards, there’s about 15 Sand ANBU around here, and the Hoshikage’s not our problem once he gets here. Those star nin realize they’ve been duped, they’ll meet up with him and it’ll be a waste of everyone’s time. So, leader, what’s your orders?”

“No fuck all that. This isn’t a mission, a mission is “I get orders and I do them,” this is a fucking setup. You want me to act as bait, I can do that. You want me to act clueless as part of some elaborate set up? I can do that! I’m actually capable of acting! But the bare minimum I need is to not be lied to by my own people. How’s this for orders? I’m going home, I don’t care what happens next, I recommend you two do the same but I don’t really care about that either,” With that Nagisa unceremoniously dropped Mai’s pack on the ground and, after tensing, body flickered away, roughly in the direction of the Leaf.

Mai sighed, before bodyflickering behind Nagisa, her foot falling at Nagisa’s head.

Leaf Drop

“I ain’t apologizing for doing my job.”

Nagisa heard Mai appear behind her and, although she didn’t have time to turn around and block she was able to fire a crossbow bolt forward.

Serpent God Calling Bolt

Instantly, faster than even a body flicker Nagisa disappeared and rematerialised several feet of Mai, affording her time to turn around and unsheathe her blade of pure chakra.

“I don’t want an apology,” Nagisa spat. “But if you try that again I’m going to fucking kill you and then worry about how I’ll explain it later. I. Am. Not. Going along with this bullshit,”

Mai remained silent. Well, she’d screwed up, but Nagisa wasn’t going home, not until this was over either. Mai had one shot at this, and only one. She wasn’t going to miss nabbing the Hoshikage.

Leaping into the air, Mai bicycle kicked, missing completely.

Skybreaker

A vaccuum erupted in the space Mai had just kicked, threatening to drag everything under them in the air under Mai.

Nagisa felt the pull of Mai’s vacuum threatening to tear her from the ground and slashed into the earth with her mechanical light cutter, then she activated the more conventional, metal blade you still had concealed in her arm and jammed it into the gash she’d left in the ground to keep herself anchored. With her other hand Nagisa summoned and released a flurry of explosive tags that she let the vacuum carry over to Mai before detonating them.

Mai snarled as yang chakra flowed through her entire body.

Titan’s Flesh

The explosions would probably kill most people. They weren’t exactly light on Mai either. But she’d had worse. Memories of a certain swordsman flickered through her head. Mai had seen giants world’s above her.

Falling down, Mai aimed for where she’d last seen Nagisa with another downward kick.

Leaf Drop

She was definitely damaged, mostly burn marks that had managed to rip through her chain mail, mostly on her hips, and her ears were ringing. But her vaccuum attack did have a nice advantage of kicking up a shit ton of dust. And explosions brought debris too. The blast had taken away her hearing, but Nagisa’d never had it in the first place, not like Mai.

When Mai landed, she’d find Nagisa was simply gone. She’d taken advantage of the tags erupting and all the dust to activate her concealing cloak technique and leave, reasoning that even if they didn’t put Mai down they’d knock out her annoying super hearing, and Mai didn’t really have anything else to track her with.

The earth crunched under her, making Mai curse. Well, Nagisa was tricky. But, surprise to the bloody damn world, so was Mai! She crossed her arms.

Leaf Strong Hurricane

Mai kicked with such force as to actually create a whirlwind around her(In the description, wiki be praised), blowing the dust away, to allow Mai to see. Mai almost instantly noted the Nagisa shaped hole in the cloud, and turned to black as she flickered towards it.

Shadow Strike

Leaf Strong Hurricane

“I can’t let you ruin this! Even if you sit it out, returning could destroy this!”

Even without turning around Nagisa could tell something was up with the odd pattern of wind she could feel, so when Mai shouted and her voice raised in volume as she approached Nagisa reasoned she’d been found out. By now Nagisa’s crossbow had recharged so she fired another bolt then tapped one of her summoning seals, producing a senbon mine that she left to hang in midair for an instant underneath her cloak as Nagisa teleported away, detonating the mine after she reappeared.

The kick was thankfully strong enough with its gale to blow most of the needles away from Mai. However, Mai, despite her high stamina, had been going nonstop with her higher end techniques. She was forced to stop for a minute as she caught her breath. Time slowed as her eyes darted everywhere across the landscape.

DAMNIT Nagisa!

Mai did a small series of handsigns, her hands shaking terribly as she did so. At the moment she was just looking for movement.

No technique will work twice against me.

Genjutsu: Re:Life

Underneath her cloak, Nagisa exhaled slowly. The wound between her shoulder blades was throbbing terribly and she was starting to run out of options. Still some combination of bloody minded spite and pride wouldn’t let her talk this out. Totally apart from whatever was going to happen after this fight, Nagisa didn’t want to lose.

Slowly, without moving enough to disturb her cloak, Nagisa dug herself into the ground underneath her, using her blade to loosen up the hard packed dirt and then wriggling down and covering herself until she was almost completely covered. FInally, Nagisa slowly unfurled a scroll and with a drop of blood from her thumb and some handseals, summoned the eagle Bakuwashi.

“Take the cloak and head South, behind me” Nagisa hissed, concealing herself fully beneath the dirt and switching to her longbow.

“You got it boss!” Bakuwashi whispered loudly, taking off and dragging the cloak around him awkwardly, with the distortion the technique applied to the fabric it wasn’t clear at all what was under it, just that there was movement.

“Will you two please calm down?! Quit trying to kill one another and get over here! This is outright embaressing!” Hideki had finished sealing away the meteor, placing it next to his other scrolls to help counter sensors.

“Do I have to get the damn fucking meteor and beat yea both over the head? Fucking hell! I get this is a right pisser of a mission and one that could've literally been handled a better way, but we're up shit creek already without a paddle and with the gods as my witness I'm not gonna let you both try to kill each other any longer!

Next one who moves is getting a fucking boot in the ass! Seriously, if somebody wants to go home, they can GO home, Nagisa is stealthy as shit, she can fucking manage. Mai, have some faith in us, in the very least, I remember that young woman to, what the star does to their ninja just for a modicum of power is bullshit! But yea can't just pull the wool over folks eyes and expect them to deal with it.” The young man tried to walk towards where he thought the two might be, if it came down to it, he may have to use Move Earth core to put some space between them. He was prepared for that much…

“And Nagisa! I for one am shocked that you would blow up over this. How often do we really have all the info? We've gone through hell and back to get our friends out of a fucking laboratory designed to enslave, mutilate, eviscerate AND then toss them into an arena to see what happens.

We've seen friends and civilians die at the hands if the Mist for reasons that are unfounded!

We've been through so much shit in the past few years. I know Mai and I aren't your squad mates, hell I'm not even sure you consider me a friend. But please, lets not let this ruin everything. You are far too smart for this, and I can tell you that dog needs to be put down.” Hideki switched to rant mode, calling upon all the shit they've gone through as a generation.

“I know its unfair… And cruel, but I assure you Mai is a honest and trustworthy individual. If abit overly destructive and with a penchant for solving things with violence. Please… Don't go…”

Mai snarled.

“I shouldn’t have broken orders.” And kept my damn mouth shut. Tch. I’m going to do this, by myself if I have to. A heroine, a villainess… important thing is to protect people. Nothing else matters.

She turned and sat on a outcropped rock, still steaming.

“Five minutes, I’m heading out.”

“Do you really not get why this time is different?” Nagisa asked, her voice thick with contempt as she emerged from her hiding place and rounded on Hideki. “All those other times where we didn’t have all the available information or were put in a dangerous situation it was because the village just didn’t have that information and the situation was just that dangerous. The enemy is SUPPOSED to keep information from us and to put us in danger, that’s their job just like it’s our job to figure out what they’re keeping from us.

Seeing that the fight was over, Bakuwashi flickered back into view and flew over to Nagisa to return her cloak, which she put back on as she continued speaking.

“When our own fucking village decides to outright lie to us, instead of even giving us the courtesy of telling us ‘parts of this mission are classified’ than that’s different. I can’t even see how keeping us in the dark improves the mission. In fact they gave us so little information that they jeopardised it, we nearly blew the whole thing because we didn’t know threatening the meteor was off the table. At any point we could have made a similarly disastrous decision because we didn’t know what our goal was and in the meantime we took unnecessary risks because I thought we needed information.

That’s just...careless. I was starting to think that after every dangerous, reprehensible thing I’ve done for this village I was worth worth at least more than casual disregard, that if they were putting me at risk than it was for some kind of tangible benefit. That much I had signed up for but apparently that was fucking naive.

Nagisa walked over to retrieve the serpent bolts she’d used to dodge Mai’s attacks. They were expensive and she didn’t want the fight to result in her having to pay out for replacements.

I’m coming along for the end of this godforsaken mission because I figure I owe you that much Hideki. I lie and cheat and kill and torture and do whatever else is necessary because the people who work with me deserve every single percentage chance I can scrape together for them of succeeding and living through it and letting you idiots do the rest of this alone would go against that.”

Nagisa turned to Mai. “But I’m done extending that obligation to you Sanada. You’ve always been willing to put your teammates at just that little bit of extra risk so you could hold back a little and keep your hands clean of any death. That always pissed me off but I kind of chalked it up to a personality defect and learned to live with it. But this is too much. You’d go against mission orders to keep from killing an enemy but you’d lie to our faces and put us at risk to keep from breaking them. I’m done watching your back you fucking hypocrite,”

“Thank you Nagisa… if its anything, I'll do what I can to repay you for this and all you do… I fear the Leaf is less interested in doing so than I thought. And thank you too Mai, for letting me know whats happening here…” Hideki kept a solumn tone before looking to the distance. “...They would have seen this a long way off, best get ready for a fight.”

“Tch, final note, a teammates never been hurt while on a mission with me. Training, yes. Mission, no. I’ll take hurt before any of them do.”

Turning away the two, Mai lifted her shirt and chainmail slightly, showing her back. Several scars were prominent, including a stab wound from a sword, and a few scrapes that never fully healed from her being hammered into a the side the side of a building. She put it back down after just five seconds.

Exhaling, Mai then took a moment to meditate, and cast Genjutsu: Calm on herself, repeatedly. Or at this point the ‘don’t murder Nagisa’ self-genjutsu. Hideki, at least, had mostly diffused the situation. She then noticed heard two sets of sounds. Another blast in the gorge signaled the two teams had returned to the battle, but it was much quieter, seemingly like the were running out of steam. A set of footsteps in the other direction, however, worried her. It was a single set.

“Shit! Shit! SHIT! I shouldn’t have wasted time. Shit! Guys we gotta run!”

 

[Ganryu]

“From what?”

A man stepped into view, with a fairly dominating presence. He had robes that left his chest bare, long blue hair, and tattoos In his left hand, a broken fuma shuriken and a worn kunai were held, and in his right, a staff covered in thorns from every angle, adorned with a black metal top. He threw the fuma shuriken and worn kunai to the ground like they were dirty.

It was a man even those unfamiliar with the bingo book could instantly recognize. Kurogana, The Deathwind. Better known as the Hoshikage by even those who refused to acknowledge more than 5 kage.

“Quite the rundown all you villages have given us. But that meteorite is ours. It is from the heavens, and everything from the sky is ours by mandate of the heavens. Hehehe, with this we could even conquer the Stone. Now, are you going to get in my way, or surrender? I’ll crush you either way, I just want to know how easy you lot are going to make it for me.”

Immediately purple chakra erupted from him, forming a peacock like tail, the ground starting to shine under him. Every footstep he took left a glowing footprint, a dazzling array in each one.

“You know what?” said Nagisa, summoning a fan of shuriken in both hands. “I’m not really in the mood for making things easy right now, Bakuwashi,” At that Nagisa hurled the shurikens forward and they transformed into halos of glowing sparks as the gunpowder inside them ignited, accelerating them forwards. At the same time Bakuwashi, who had been perched on her shoulder, lifted himself up with a flap of his wings to weave handseals with his talons

wind release: Great Breakthrough

A powerful burst of wind erupted from Bakuwashi’s wings, picking up the shuriken and speeding them forwards even more.

“Oh fuck, Raising barricade!’ Hideki slammed his hands down to the ground and rose up a solid wall of earth after the weapons crossed over his affected earth, he made a thick wall of stone and earth between them before looking to the others. “Run or fight whats the plan? I can do this for so long”

The tails converged over the man like a shell, the shurikens hitting them like a solid object. With the wind and fire, they did manage to pierce about ¾’s of the way through, the Hoshikage giving an approving eyebrow to the action. He continued to walk to the group. The air seemed to become heavy around them.

Mai did not take kindly to the air, dropping to one knee and breathing heavily. She closed her eyes, and her breathing instantly slowed.

“Fighting him wasn’t even supposed to even happen. Yeah I’m stupid, but I ain’t that dumb! He’s not really kage level, and he’s scared of jonin squads, but we’re just chunin. I figured we’d be in the gorge itself by now, and that’s where everything’s set up. Shit.”

Kurogana outside raised his spiked club, and stabbed it into the ground. Behind the group, and in about a half mile radius, spikes began to raise from the ground, curved inwardly. Each spike was about twelve feet high. The line of spikes continued for a quarter of a mile, seeming more like a forest than anything. He left it embedded in the ground, and continued his walk towards Hideki’s wall.

“I think it's time you kids learn what happens when you try and take something that’s not yours. Heavens I hope you banter, I hate it when the kids don’t cry, means I never know if they learned their lesson or not.”

Hideki breathed heavily, just what the fuck was this!? The fuck was this dude? Were those spikes? Fucking god damn it what the hell should he do!? Was the air poisonous? How was this poison getting over his barrier so quickly?

“M-mai! What do you know about this shit brick!?”

Mai started to breath faster and faster.

“N-not much. I wasn’t supposed to meet him, so I wasn’t exactly debriefed. I only got to help organize the get a bunch of teams fight for the meteorite part. And less ‘organize’ and more given instruction. From what I’ve researched on my own, he’s called ‘the deathwind’ because everyone around him starts to drop dead or get sick. Staff’s just a trap in a box, those spikes don’t really do anything, but he loves attacking people running. He’s still a coward who runs away from Jonin, so it's not like he’s invincible though.

Star ninja generally used something called Mysterious Peacock Formation. Last time we fought Star nin, that was the jutsu they used. The star they use either kills them, or let’s them use a chakra cloak they can easily manipulate into nearly any shape. Its physical so you can blow it up, but they can reshape it easy.

The fuuma and kunai he threw away earlier were Shika and Kaito’s. The jonin who helped me organize crap also helped me hire them earlier, they were blitz and assassination specialists. The Hoshikage doesn’t even seem to be winded after beating both of them, so I can say he’s got a lot more stamina than we do.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Didn’t plan to be out here... Shit! Shit!Shit! Didn’t plan any of this shit!“

“Mai get it together! Nagisa! Do you got a plan? We need to hit this guy!” Hideki made more walls of stone and earth, lowering a large square hole behind each wall. “What the hell is this air… Fuck..” Hideki rose his shirt up over his mouth. “The cloak.. Has to be it…”

“This is why this kind of over complicated, machiavellian planning is such a dumb idea, as soon as one little element fails the whole thing collapses in on itself,” Nagisa complained, coughing into her hand as the air overtook her as well. She felt strangely calm, the worst case scenario had already happened so all that was left was to engineer a solution. It was a much simpler problem than the swirling maelstrom of feelings she had towards Sanada, the Leaf and being lied too.

“So here’s our new plan: We hit him really hard, too quickly for his cloak to reform between hits. I’ll go first, Hideki you follow up, then Sanada, I’m gonna teleport you in there so you can...kick him or whatever. Let’s get this over with,”

WIth that Nagisa summoned her longbow and fired a single arrow in a tall, lazy arc over the Hoshikage’s position. At its zenith, a puff of smoke appeared around the projectile and suddenly hundreds more arrows appeared and started raining down on the Hoshikage’s general position, dozens of them exploding as explosive tags attached to them detonated, adding explosions and sprays of shrapnel to the deadly downpour

Mechanical Rain Dance Arrow

Waiting until she calculated it wouldn’t get caught up in the previous barrage, Nagisa switched back to her crossbow and fired a teleportation bolt, ready to move Mai into melee range as soon as Hideki launched his own attack.

“That has to be the most straight forward plan i've heard in a long time.” The young man sighed and focused his chakra instead for Prideful stand, makeing one large fist he then leapt to the skies, with the cover he has used this combo a few times now… He wondered if he should actually name it..

Instea of dwelling upon it, he increased the weight of the fist and hurtled it downwards towards the Hoshikage, hopeing the first strike would provide some cover for it… he wasn't certain what to do really…

…

Wait, fuck, he had a sword made by a man who makes blades that cut anything, why the fuck ain't he using it?!? He face palmed as he struck.

Mai was still breathing heavily.

Not going according to plan, not going to plan… not going to plan...

Closing her eyes, Mai realized something. Her genjutsu on herself, calm, wasn’t strong enough to stop her panicking, but it was still blocking part of her.

“Screw it.”

Mai released it. Suddenly her panick took on a different feeling… It started… to feel good. A crazed grin flashed across Mai’s face. This was the chance of a lifetime. She could worry about results later. She could be yelled at later for being an incompetent mission organizer. She could be told she was an idiot, just like she always was, but right now, one thing mattered. She had to go fast.

Fading to black, Mai reappeared infront of the Hoshikage, attempting to hit him with Leaf Strong Hurricane.

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

The Hoshikage grinned at the incoming projectiles.

“ You’re actually going to fight me? Me? A kage? Surely you jest!?”

His grin soured as his peacock cloak faded, beginning to concentrate in his hand.

“I hate Leaf ninja. Always think they’re better than everyone else. Chunnin think they can challenge a kage. WHAT GIVES YOU A RIGHT!?”

His hand shot forward, a rope extending towards the arrow in the air. The arrow split, and so did his chakra rope.

Mysterious Peacock Method: Chakra Rope: Divide!

Thousands of threads shot out, wrapping around arrow after arrow. As they detonated, they stayed restrained. The Hoshikage then looked at the incoming Hideki, headed straight in the center of his threads. The threads of chakra moved, inwardly, attempting to net him, and at the same time stab him with every arrow he’d just collected. However, the Hoshikage couldn’t quite fathom how heavy the boy was, and the net would do very little to hold him in the air, or stop his momentum downwards.

As Mai flickered infront of him, he blocked the kick with his arm, sliding back only slightly. He gave the girl a deathglare, and he started to glow purple.

“Decay, like a rotten Leaf.”

Hideki didn’t stay still as the arrows came for him, but fuck was it suprising. The damn net almost stopped him, but he still had his trump card.. If… it worked.. He hoped it would work.

Or he’d get a refund from Murasame, despite never paying anything mind.

The young man took refuge in the stone arm he had created, swimming through it like water as he drew his blade. It felt wonderful to hold again and properly this time. It was like finally getting feeling back in a limb that was left numb for some time.

Bursting from the other side, body hardened black the young man slashed forwards at the binds keeping the stone arm afloat, severing the glowing tendrils and allowing the large stone fist to continue his course downwards.

Naturally, the young man road it down atop of it, sword in hand like some odd cavalryman.

“Get ready to use that jutsu again,” Nagisa muttered to Bakuwashi as Hideki and Mai closed in. Nagisa teleported to the serpent bolt she had fired previously, with Bakuwashi still on her shoulder both of them appeared suddenly in the air above the Hoshikage.

wind release: Great Breakthrough

As Bakuwashi finished the seals he had begun weaving before they had even teleported another gust of wind burst from his wings, pushing down on Nagisa, aiming her at the Hoshikage and accelerating her fall.

As she fell Nagisa activated her mechanical light cutter, putting the weight of her fall behind a downwards thrust.

Mai watched whisps of purple chakra trail off the man. More than his cloak they glowed. Mai’s current state made them seem like a slow cloud, but they seemed to dance like ribbons to anyone else. Was it dangerous? Would it hurt? Chakra that thick normally had reason to it. She also noticed she was started to… feel weird. It felt like a warm pain was starting to radiate from her stomach, and spread. It only activated her Kekkei Genkai further, slowing time and exciting her more. She was bored now. She managed to keep enough sanity to notice Hideki and Nagisa coming up to him. She was going to set up the blow, she was going to be useful.

Even though Mai was right infront of him, she faded to black. Then reappeared farther away, then closer, then farther, then right infront of him in a crouched position.

Skybreaker!

At Hideki’s severing of the chakra threads, the purple net disappated, and around Kurogana his peacock feathers began to reform around him, forming a shell to meet Hideki head on. As Hideki’s fist fell against it, the large impact shattered the ground below the Hoshikage, but the feathers held fast against it, pushing back with a much force. The impact thinned his shell immensely, making it less than half its original size, and leaving parts of it dangerously thin.

That’s when Mai appeared under him, with skybreaker. The Hoshikage moved chakra to the thin part she was under to reinforce it as she slammed into it, dispersing most of the impact, but sending him flying into Nagisa’s blade, which pierced through the back of the feathers, into his shoulder.

He didn’t seem to like that.

“Tch. Fine. You have earned my attention.”

The peacock feathers immediately slammed backwards, attempting to crush Nagisa between the various feathers. Whether or not she escaped, they started to morph into a set of butterfly like wings.

Everyone who got close to the Hoshikage would start to feel a warm pain building up in their stomachs, and starting to spread. It felt like heartburn, but sharper.

Shit Nagisa deactivated her sword and stuffed an explosive tag through the gap left behind and into the wound she had inflicted before jumping away to avoid the feathers attempting to crush her. Nagisa had left her escape late enough that one side of the feathers slammed into her foot as she leaped away, knocking her off balance so that she landed badly on her side.

Nagisa’s ankle throbbed painfully, it might be sprained, and the warm, burning pain in her stomach was frankly alarming but neither was enough to stop her from forming a handseal to activate the explosive tag. The way things were going, if they didn’t put an end to this fight soon they were going to die, Nagisa already felt weaker.

“Hyurk.” Hideki felt as if his stomach was going to upend everything hes eaten in the last 36 hours. It was like he was hit by a brick wall of sickness, a churning swirling brick that hit him directly in the stomach. This, somewhat foiled his landing, coming in for a roll upon the ground not to far from his intended target.

But fuck if he was gonna let this be the end of him!

“Oi! I hear yea run from actual jonin squads, taking on only the small fry. What kind of kage does that? A piss poor one at that, someone who makes a bad name for his village and himself has no fucking claim to being called one.

A coward with a shiny gimmick.

A piss poor excuse for a ninja, I bet you couldn’t even begin to actually fight without that stupid power of yours. Sacrificing alot just for a pitiful power? I’ll never understand clans and piece of shit like you.” the young man rose up his blade, skin darkening and 4 other arms forming, smaller but sturdier than normal.

“Mai! Nagisa! Forget this bullshit light show, this shit brick is a limp wristed coward who can’t bare to fight anything his own pay grade.

You make a good show you chicken shit, but in the end, you're just like your village.

A worthless, stupid, decrepit, pile of fucking shit that doesn’t seem to get that it’s stupid space rock techniques or whatever shit their called are nothing but a waste of time and space.

They fail at being relevant, they fail at even finding a meteor that fell from the sky that they so claim to own by right, and they FAIL to have a worthwhile and respectable kage!”

Mai herself was starting to feel the effects of being the man. Every cell in her body was beginning to burn, and moving hurt. She managed to keep down lunch, but not without much effort. Hideki didn’t look much better, and Nagisa seemed to be riding it out. As Nagisa landed, she turned to her.

“I honestly feel like I’m going to die just being near him… I’m going to throw everything I have left at him before this gets worse, just tell me when. I can take care of the rest of that cowl of his.”

With that, Mai crossed her arms, and started to concentrate. She’d never actually done this, Takara’s warning about the gates had actually, and she’d never admit this, scared her. She’d use the first one, what was a bit of muscle fatigue, but anything else? Mai already had a plethera of scars. But at this point, it felt like she was dying, what the hell were the gates going to do worse?

Mai’s skin started to slowly turn red, and chakra flowed off of her. As she concentrated more, veins in her face started to bulge, and her sweat started to float upwards with the flow of chakra. Her face’s hue continued to deepen. Grunting, a crack could be heard as Mai clenched her teeth a little too hard. Longer she held the stance, more in pain she sounded as she declared,

“Gate of Healing: Open,

Gate of Life: OPEN,

Gate of PAIN: OPEN,

GATE OF LIMIT: OOOOOPEN.”

As Nagisa shoved the explosive tag in the wound, his chakra cloak managed to close around it before it could physically touch him. However, the blast in the middle of his cloak rended much of the remaining amount, literally blowing off 70% of his wings. He was left with a set of small dragonfly like wings that would let him do much more than glide down.

Hideki’s assault, however, hurt him much, much worse. The vein in his head bulged. He spoke softly despite his unbelievable rage.

“What, did you say? And to think, I was going to be merciful and let the radiation kill you off in a few days so you could say goodbye to your families. Well then. I declare you dead.”

His wings morphed into a single rope, and he fell to the ground. The rope started to swing around him menacingly in a final defense as he started a series of hand signs. The Hoshikage himself coughed up blood from the taxing of the technique.

“Hidden Star Technique: Elephant’s Foot.”

All around the Hoshikage, pressure started to drop, with a hissing sound becoming louder and louder as he held his hands outstretched, chakra flooding forward into a single dense orb. Veins of chakra were visible all around the area. The air around him warped, and fires started to erupt randomly, some rock turning red hot, some simply fading away. The pressure the technique created started winds blowing away from him.

In Hideki’s pack, a burning of paper could be heard, before a pop, the heat from this man’s technique burning away the seal before anything else on Hideki, almost like a heat sink. Veins of chakra from the area could barely be seen being drawn into the rock, and Hideki would feel no worse from the radiation. Behind him Mai and Nagisa also would be protected as the radation started to be absorbed by the meteor, shielding the group. The Hoshikage hadn’t noticed yet, however, as he built up for a larger, and larger attack.

“...The… the fuck?” Hideki expected to feel worse after that weird technique, the fuck was going on? Well, it did feel really, really weird still, but less so, like there was…. Wait… the glowing chakra… Did the meteor in his bag break out due to the technique?

Was it…

It was absorbing the chakra… The very thing that they were searching for was currently saving him and his friend’s lives!

He just had to stay between the others and the source! And if the meteor was absorbing the chakra… It could be used to easily break through the barriers he puts up! And if that could happen, why couldn’t he just use it to…

…

Well it WAS still a rock. He quickly rose up a stone formation between them and the Hoshikage with Moving earth core and dropped his backpack off his back with a flourish, the arms working together and quickly to withdraw the newly unsealed stone. “We have our key, we just gotta slam this thing right down on him… Roughly basketball sized anyways, why not go full bore on it?

Mai, lets go for a slam dunk, Nagisa can you get her in a position as I draw attention?”

“How bout I get him into position?” Nagisa asked, spitting out a mouthful of blood as she sized up Mai warily. When exactly had that lunatic learned a technique like that? There was a monstrous amount of chakra pouring off her, although it still wasn’t anywhere close to what the Hoshikage was putting out. There was no way they’d survive him getting off that attack.

“Here’s your hoop,” Nagisa said to Mai, firing a serpent bolt into the ground infront of her and then disappearing as she activated her concealing cloak again. All she had to do was get close enough to touch him while HIdeki played distraction.

“Alright, time to go! “ Hideki tossed the meteor towards Mai and braced himself. Slamming all fists towards the stone block infront of him, sending the great stone block shattering into piece with a Earth Plume from the 6 limbs, shattering the block into many shards towards the man. “Come on then your worthless pile of shit, is that all you got or am I supposed to walk all the way to your village so I can find the real kage?”

Mai nodded, though her labored breathing would mean her sanity was slipping as her kekkei genkai took over more and more. Adrenaline rushed through her body from the sheer excitement of using the gates, and with it, dopamine.

She personally hoped she didn’t hit anyone other than the Hoshikage. She also hoped her body wasn’t going to break. It already felt like it.

Whistling, she grabbed the rock, and she moved. The Hoshikage would appear where Nagisa said, she had no doubt of that, but that meant she could build up momentum. Mai faded to black, then reappeared into the distance, against one of his spikes. She kicked off of it, and landed hard against the ground, kicking off of that hard enough to cause rock to sheer. Then she kicked off more spikes, then the ground. She was going faster and faster, leaving afterimages everwhere from the sheer speed, and rocks flying in the sky from every direction.

One step, and Mai felt a crack, flinching slightly, but she sped up rather than slow down.

Reverse Lotus

She looked at the Hoshikage like a wolf eyeing a deer.

The Hoshikage continued to build up his jutsu, not too much caring about the wall infront of him. He’d blow that away too. He’d blow everyone away. At this point, who cared if he hurt himself, these brats needed to learn who he was. His only regret was the odds of anyone of them surviving was extremely small. He’d like one to report back what it was he’d done.

“I’d like to see the Lord Hokage himself survive this!”

Then Hideki blew up the wall, calling out more threats. The single chakra rope that was around him lunged forward spiralling, knocking rock away from him, and aiming through the debris at the dead center of the voice. The rope would try to latch onto Hideki’s neck, and then yank forward to drag him forward with enough force to drag a large boulder, to the Hoshikage, who had enough of his trash talking.

“If the Hoshikage himself isn’t enough for you, why don’t I take you to meet The Great Sage of Six Paths himself!”

“He probably would put up a better fight, even as a corpse!” Hideki activated Solid Ground, his feet planting as his 2 stone arms grasped the rope that came upon him.

Kurogana held out the orb gathering in his hands. Just because the attack hadn’t finished didn’t mean he couldn’t use it to literally try and melt Hideki.

“You first,” Nagisa hissed from behind the Hoshikage, she’d leapt forward to cover the last few metres and had contort her upper body sharply to grab his shoulder as she sailed past his back. But Nagisa didn’t need to do more than touch him, instantly they both disappeared and reappeared directly in Mai’s breakneck path, the Hoshikage with his back to her.

The Hoshikage grunted as Hideki held fast, though the man’s title of Kage wasn’t completely for show, he quickly changed tactics of sending pulse of chakra through the thread, to further radiate Hideki, trying to at least down the ninja.

However, with his attention elsewhere, and feeling invincible due to his orb of radiation, a sneak attack was the last thing he’d expected as Nagisa touched him, teleporting him away, instantly disorientating him. Feeling vulnerable for the first time, he grabbed his ball of radiation and attempted to slam it into the ground, for a premature blast. The Hoshikage had spent years becoming resistant to his own chakra, he’d at least survive.

“Screw this! Killing you all now!”

Mai noticed the footstep behind the Hoshikage, and corrected her path back to the arrow Nagisa had pointed to. She laughed and laughed. This was fast! Even for her! Time ticked slowly, yet Mai was rocketting around like no other. She felt… normal speed in a place where everyone was moving like sloths. Each step she took felt great. The earth itself shook. She felt a crack in her bones and a few muscles tear as she flew at the arrow.

Suddenly the man appeared, screaming in rage or something or other Hideki had said. Mai couldn’t understand any words anymore, too slow. What she did notice was the orb of chakra he was throwing downwards.Mai countered with a rock. Midthrow to the ground, Mai slammed into him like an osprey, smashing the rock into the chakra.

The meteorite picked up the radiation like a sponge, absorbing the massive blast, giving the Hoshikage a look of absolute bewilderment as then Mai smashed it into his chest, sending him flying with every bit of strength she had with five of the eight gates. She heard ribs crack at the impact.

The man went flying backwards at incredible speeds, breaking through his own spikes at their base, a sickening thud heard at each pole, though thankfully for him he wasn’t flying much higher. He broke through the final layer, and continued flying into a cliff in the distance.

The meteorite then released all the chakra it’d absorbed in a brilliant flash, a blast wave blowing through the entire area like a hurricane, and a small mushroom cloud in the distance.

Mai fell to her knees, the gates, her kekkei genkai, and her genjutsu ending, and letting her body actually feel the damage for once. Unsurprisingly it hurt. Still, she didn’t look displeased. After a few pants, she managed to turn to her two missionmates.

“I think we just beat a village leader. Imma… Imma take a rest.”

She fell over completely.

A moment later, several dark shadows appeared around them. Men with turbans and cloth hiding most of their faces, thet Sand ANBU. They looked at the three, then at the scarred mountaintop, then back at the three.

“Did you just-?”

“Hopefully.” spoke up Hideki.

“Goddamn fucking better have,” Nagisa muttered near incoherently as adrenaline drained from her system.

One of them was a bit brighter than the others, and made his way over, his hands starting to glow green.

“He’s known as the Deathwind for a reason, let’s take a look at you. I’ll get you feeling as good as new. Captain, mind retrieving the Hoshikage? I’ll deal with these three.”

Dismissing his own superior the ANBU started working on Hideki first.

“I’m sorry, but your going to need to be quick and get to Mai… You might have noticed but… Well.. I’ve heard things about those gates.” Added Hideki as he waited for the nin to get to work. “...Guess this is another notch on the belt though.”

The ANBU nodded, changing patients.

“Gates, huh…?”

“So, this is pretty impressive. But ANBU are ANBU, we know how to keep your mouths shut. Would you like us to, or would you like us to help people know about this a little bit more? Eitherway, consider yourselves in the Sand’s Bingobooks in a little higher standing, though still allies for the moment.

I think this helps our village’s standing with yours something large. I’m still not sure who the Aburame who killed Jun was, but I’m assuming they are not currently connected to the Leaf. Well, seeing as you probably won’t get a peep out of this from the Kazekage, thank you.”

“Yea… Got a feeling this wasn’t exactly the plan in the end.. Given we have Sand ANBu here.. And you're prepared for radiation. But no reason to go into that right now. Feel free to tell anybody, the whole world if you want. Makes me worried you guys gave me a stupid nickname or title though. HAH.” hideki laughed, well, for a second before he folded over, holding his stomache.

“Yep, okay, no laughing only pain, doctors are wrong. Not good medicine.”

“Just make sure you mention what happened in any report you share with the Leaf,” Nagisa said, slowly sitting up from where she had landed roughly. “Next time they wants us to kill somebody they’ll know to tell us what the fucking plan is from the start,”

The man looked at the mountain, then back at Nagisa.

“Noted. We were supposed to be the ones to take on the Hoshikage. But plans change.”

Rubbing his chin with his free hand, he thought.

“Stupid nicknames, hmmm… Hideki, the Stone Fist; Mai, the Onii; and Nagisa, the Raptor? I’ll find someone more talented than me at this.”

Another ANBU returned, carrying the meteorite.

“Ao, you won’t believe it. He’s still breathing. Missing an arm, vomitting blood and covered in burns, but… that’s inhuman. We need you to help stabilize him with the rest as soon as you’re done with these kids. We can still question him if we’re quick. Hey kids, souvenir.”

“I’ll ‘stabilise him permanently,” Nagisa muttered with a grim expression, struggling to rise to her feet with a kunai in hand.

He tossed the meteorite at the kids, and ran. The original healing ANBU moved on to Nagisa.

“Did you hear the ‘we can still question him part’. I doubt he’s going to live much longer, so don’t bother. Let me just get it so your kids internal organs aren’t swiss cheese…. Seriously though… Good job.”

Mai paled a bit at the ‘doubt he’s going to live much longer’ part. Did that mean she just killed a man?

“...Not to rush medical work, but could we hurry? Probably should get Mai back home so her mother can kill her for this.” Hideki added, still awaiting his turn…

The man shrugged. “Well, seeing as I’m a medic, not a doctor, sure.”

He then put a hand on Hideki trying to heal both him and Nagisa at the same time. It’d probably be less effective, but what was the worse thing that could happen?

“Fine, fine,” Nagisa grumbled, settling back down and consenting to being healed. “...You know it’s not going to get any easier right?” She said, casting a sideways glance at Mai. “This fight should have made it obvious, beyond a certain point you won’t be able to hold back and still come home alive,”


(Long mission, have a bunny)
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