The Shinobi Path [CLOSED]

[TripTripleTimes]

Watching the Missing-nin and the drunk man play their little game of push and pull, Ryougin lets out a short chuckle. It is mean spirited that Kobo is bullying the sad state of a man to the ground, but Ryougin did not expect that ze party leader to be such a child.


“I think he is scared enough,” ze replies, voice light-hearted. Ze looks at the leader and then at the man on the ground with eyes unreadable. Ze cannot relax to think that the man is just a civilian when even Masurao did not detected the man until everyone heard the rustling in the forest. If the drunkard was a regular old man, they would have heard him miles away in the dark and quiet forest.


“But let's not be too hasty.” Ryougin takes a step forward and purposely steps on a branch to bring the drunk man’s attention to him. Ze make sure that the moonlight doesn't touch zir and in one swift motion ze brings his arms up out from under his cape, pulls them down and back under the cape. If the old man is just a civilian, he would have not seen the arms move in the dark. Ryougin keeps his attention to the man's head and if he makes any twitch, but ze hopes that his teammates notice the man's eyes.



“So what bar were you in?” Ryougin asks as casual as possible. He lets out a grin.

 

[tane5naoki]

The Drunk's ear twitches at the sound of the branch moving, and the swift movement causes an obvious response. Seemingly unaware of his own movements, the drunks spins on his rear, using the momentum to stand up, though still hunched over. One of his hands curls up into a defensive posture, mimicking the look of holding a sake cup. "The Jade Dragon," He said, his words slurring together, "Back in...The Cloud Village, though I still don't know how I got here."


Masurao narrowed his eyes at the man's movements, just as Kobo stood up, surprised at how quickly the drunk had gotten up, despite the game they had been playing.


"I know this man," Masurao said, "He's a former member of the Sound Village, a Missing Nin."


Just then, Sen Go jumped down, with an annoyed look on his face. "Either way, he dies." With a flick of his wrist, two thin blades appeared from his sleeve, and he lashed out to impale the Drunk through the chest. Then things got interesting. The Drunk flipped his staff over his hand, knocking the two blades aside, avoiding being impaled. Chakra surged through him, having hidden itself near perfectly until the exact moment it was needed. Kobo jumped clear of the fight, as well as Masurao, but the ground beneath their feet began to boil as a mass of leafy vines began to erupt from the ground beneath them, twining around Masurao's feet, as well as Sen Go's. The Latter let out a laugh as he began to cut through the vines, while the Drunk took a few steps back and looked at Ryougin, confusion adorning his face. "I think they may have thrown me out of the bar, come to think of it."

 

[TripTripleTimes]

Ryouin does not expect the man's reaction to be that big. Ze watches with zir eyebrows high as the man stands and replies to zir question. The way the drunk man is acting, Ryougin can safely assume that he is indeed alone. 


A Missing Sound Nin? The tip of a tounge sweeps the corner of Ryougin's lip as he thinks about the man in front of them. The blind shinobi doesn't know who the person is but if Masurao knows, it may be worth the time to bring the head back home and have it studied. A whole body would be better of course, but because of their mission they only have room to bring the head. The village would be very happy to have more specimen from the Sound. Ze is ready to engage in battle as soon the two blades are thrown at the Sound Nin.


The sudden surge of chakra from the man has the Mist Nin quickly jumps back and then quickly Flickers to one of the needles he had thrown earlier to avoid the vines. A S rank and may have water, earth, and wood type release, Ryougin muses. Even if it's wrong, it is better to overestimate the enemy than to under. 


"You should tell that to a blind man." Ryougin barks out a hearty laugh, taken aback by the genuinely confused looking man. Despite teleporting to a new location, it seems that ze has the attention of the newcomer.


Genjutsu for Ryougin cannot be casted by sight. Touching the senbon ze teleported to, Ryougin begins to reconnect to the still satic needles in a linear pattern.


"How did a big guy like you find his way in the middle of nowhere?" Ze asks to distract the man from the quiet weave of chakra around him. "Men like us need a good bottle of sake and women to tell our tale!"


As soon as ze has the man in his line of influence, energy pulses and spreads instantaneous out from the needles and in towards other needles across and besides each other. Ryougin just needs a singe of electricity on the drunk to do zir work. Smoke and water is zir perfer way of spreading his chakra and electricity but in no way does ze want to bring unwanted attention to themselves. 

 

[tane5naoki]

Sen Go struggled with the vines, every time he sliced through one, two more took their place. The constant flow of chakra being provided to the vines caused them to react to the will of the drunk. As Masurao stood stock still, trying to guess his intent, Kobo acted. Lightning quick, he zipped down and lashed out with a punch, holding several senbon in hands to try and hit the drunk shinobi, but the man, instead of defending or attacking, simply slumped over, falling on his ass before spinning in place, flipping over to his hands and jumping clear of Kobo's attack.


Just as the electricity begins flying around the area, the plants react. The drunk barely seems conscious of the fight as it happens, his body moving on its own accord, reacting with movement and chakra. The first few bursts of Ryougin's electricity arc towards him, only to be intercepted by a sudden wall of roots piercing the ground and encasing the Drunk. The Roots take on the shape of an Overturned Sake Cup.


Within the barrier, a sudden surge of chakra fill the vines, and massive fruit began to grow on the leafy vines, in the darkness, they at first look like small apples, but as they grow, it becomes apparent they are massive clusters of grapes, growing from fist sized to the size of a man's head.


Kobo flipped up to a tree, clearing the vines, just as Masurao uses the Substitute Jutsu to break clear, disappearing into the surrounding foliage.

 

[TripTripleTimes]

Ryougin utters a sound of annoyance as zir attack misses the target and is now hidden under the mass of roots. Zir eyes narrows and shifts to a different needle, one that is on a branch watching over the enemy's defence and at the struggling swordsman. Getting close to the man will be a tricky task to accomplish with the plants reacting to chakra with what it seems like very little help from their user and the man himself is a weasel with two left feet. Whatever the drunk is planning with the fruits, it may be best for the team to regroup and avoid the fruits. If those round things grow any bigger, Ryougin imagines that they will explode.


Ryougin pulls out a couple of kunais and threads a copper wires into the eyes of each one. Done with the set of kunais and copper, Ryougin jumps to a tree closer to his struggling companion throws two middle knives to the bark of the tree Sen Go had jumped from. As soon as ze hears the knives solid hit, ze throws an end kunai of the copper wires and a pair of shrunken towards the large triangular sword. The throwing stars arches wildly before hitting the kunai, making it and the wire to loop around the hilt of the sword. Just as the knife and stars hit, Ryougin throws the other end of the wire towards the vines thrashing around Sen Go with a burst of chakra coursing through it's blade, and consequently through the wires.



Ryougin has heard of the strange swords circulating around Mist, and being near the sword that belongs to Sen Go just moments ago has ze wary to touch it. Ze best believes to deliver the man’s sword using a makeshift pulley system and pulled by the twitchy vines.

 

[tane5naoki]

The blade slides right out of the ground, and flips before landing right at Sen Go's feet. He looks down at it, with a manic gaze, and reaches for it, only to have more and more vines begin to entrap him and the blade. The plants seem to be reacting to the malevolent chakra coming from the blade. A crazed laugh escaped Sen's lips, and he tears at the vines, cutting them in an effort to get free.


Meanwhile, Masurao, having freed himself, removed the metal sunhat he had been wearing. He placed it on a fork in the branch he was standing on and proceeded to pull his canteen from his pouch. "Ryougin, be ready. I don't like those grapes," He hollered out.


Kobo, shifted his position, trying to find the shinobi in the swirling mass of vines, but the Drunk's chakra, which had been present one moment, suddenly shifted and was gone again, as though it was being masked, extremely well. "Is he gone?" Kobo whispered to himself, he tightened grip on the senbon, just realizing that Sen Go's hand had reached through the mass of plants and gripped the handle of Baka-Yaro. "We've got a problem."


The change in Sen Go was instantaneous. The second he reached for the blade, his chakra became wild and erratic, synchronizing with the blade's chakra and increasing in strength and potency by nearly 10 fold. The Vines reacted as well, the ones that had been attacking him began to tighten around him, trying to contain him, but with a flash, he had cut through them, freeing himself. With a Manic Scream-Laugh Sen Go looked around, then his gaze fell on Ryougin, up in the tree near him. He crouched, and just as he did, a great popping sound could be heard. Masurao and Kobo look and realize the grapes are exploding, but instead of fire and poison, a thick mist of wine fills the area, coating everything around it in the substance.


As Sen Go's erratic breathing and laughing cause him to inhale great lungfuls of the Intoxicating Mist, the look in his eyes grows duller, and he falls to a knee, hiccups once, and then falls forward on the remnants of the vines he had cut through. Masurao tried to get clear of the mist, but just as he jumps, a vine lashes out and grips his ankle, altering his jump and putting him right in the middle of the mist. A few confused breaths later, he found himself sitting on the ground, giggling to himself.

 

[TripTripleTimes]

Ryougin grins, baring zir teeth, seeing the sword flying towards its owner and no harm has been done to zirself. Ze is glad that ze had made the right decision to not touch the blade when the plants act frenetic by the blade. The Mist’s eyebrows raise seeing Sen Go more wild and the wonders if he'll pull any muscle like that.


Ryougin replies back to Masurao with a quick agreement and prepares himself for any surprise attack from the Drunk shinobi, but all his senses reaches high alert when suddenly the presence of their enemy disappears. Ze look down to the crazed eyes of Sen Go and the blizaring storm of chakra around the man. Ryougin returns the crazed look with a wavering smile and escapes to a different tree away before the swordsman prepares to jump.


Leaving his tree, he hears the popping and then gigglings. Surprised, he looks down to see both his Mist allies on their knees and laughing for no reason. A genjutsu or an area jutsu of some sort? It must be the giant grapes! Ryougin expected gushes of fermented grape juice, a fitting theme of the drunk, but this is much worser than expected. People can get drunk by smell alone and the olfactory system has the shortest path to the brain than any of the five senses. Right away, Ryougin goes through a series of signs. Ze is not one to be beat so easily in the neurons department and messing the brain up.


“Mantis-san, close your eye!” Ryougin yells in warning and completes zir sign for Lightning Release: Surging Heat. A brilliant light rushes out from Ryoujin's outstretched hand towards the mist of wine and cuts through the cloud to the ground. Experienced with alcohol since ze was able to drink, ze just needs a bit of spark to light away the alcohol and with this fine of a mist, ze is sure that the fire caused by zir lightning will spread fast. His teammates can survive a small burn.


Not forgetting the mind-of-their-own plants, Ryougin throws three barely electricity charge shrunkens at the ground near Masurao, cutting straight through the lightning rivering out in the wine. The swordsman Ryougin leaves alone, knowing that the man handshaked the copper wire when he grabbed the sword. Foreign energy courses up the arm, locking the muscle in place, and to the central system, to the brain. Ze had other plans for Sen Go with it, but working on a counter against the enemy's drunk effect takes first priority at the moment.

 

[tane5naoki]

The sudden flash of light from the alcohol catching fire blinds the Drunk Masurao, and singed off all exposed hair in an instant, Sen Go didn't react at all, being passed out and unused to the effects of Alcohol at all. Kobo had realized what the plan was a second before the fire and had been able to turn his head and avoid being blinded by the light, then turned back with a sneer. They would have to move now, their location would have been given away, no doubt.


The shuriken lodge themselves into Masurao, and the technique takes effect, reducing the effects of the alcohol on him. He was able to stand up and shake his head, feeling only slightly inebriated and dizzy. Sen Go doesn't wake up though, even as the technique takes effect and his arm locks in place, he remains passed out. Kobo rushes in, jumping through the now singed and burning bush, and lands next to the tangle of roots that had been protecting the Drunk, and slams his fist into it, tearing through the burned vegetation. With an exaggerated groan he pulled the roots apart and revealed...


An empty hole. A tunnel of roots and vines had been made directly under the barrier, and the Shinobi was nowhere to be found, in his place, a small token had been left, a statue of a Tanuki with enlarged gonads holding a sign. He picked it up and read it, holding back his anger at the words "Enjoy the Wine" written in great, bold characters.

 

[TripTripleTimes]

Ryougin stays tense as the fire dies down and then leaps down to the burnt forest floor after Kobo rips the burnt dome of roots and reaches inside. Sensing that the current dangers have passed, the enemy gone and the two wine effected nins not threating to attack, Ryougin approuches Masurao and leaves the leader alone for the moment.


"How do you feel? Eyes?" Ryougin ask, questions firing without a pause for a responce. A glob of gental green chakra flashes on Ryougin's hands, illumating the bead of sweat on his face formed by the intense heat of his jutsu and fire, before it dies out of sight. "I want do a quick check on you and Kamikaze-san before we move camp." Ryougin inspects the man's face and hands with zir eyes but promptly avoids looking at the top of Masurao's head, and instead looks at the fainted body of Sen Go at the back.

 

[tane5naoki]

"No time," Kobo says, in a voice filled with quiet fury. "There should be Cloud Ninja very close by, and your flashy display will have them swarming any second now. Thundercloud, you and I will carry Kamikaze, Chi," He punctuated Ryougin's name by removing his cloak and tossing it in zir's direction. "Wrap the sword in the cloak, carry it with you."


As the cloak flies in Ryougin's direction, it is impossible not to notice the fact that despite his "babyface" and wacky hair, Kobo's body is unnaturally fit, with bulging muscles that even Masurao had to admit were startling. "Oy," Masurao said, a slight slur to his words, "You didn't tell us you were ripped? I bet you could carry him on your own!" Kobo only shakes his head.


"Shut up and do as you're told." He says, taking one of Sen Go's arms. There's a rustling in the forest, someone is fast approaching and both Masurao and Kobo sense the chakra of fellow Shinobi. Masurao quickly took Sen Go's other arm and both of them leapt away, carrying the unconscious shinobi between them.

 

[TripTripleTimes]

Ryougin grimaces at the fact that ze has no time to check up on Masurao and Sen Go before they leave. Ze understands the need to get away from the scene, but a quick checkup will benefit the whole team on the long run. Bitting zir lips, ze grabs the bright pink cloak and leaps towards the sword to wrap it up. Ze hesitates to touch the sword with the colourful cloak but does not wastes another seconds worrying about the demon sword and the possible effects of touching the thing. If Ryougin survives touching the sword, ze makes a mental note to have a drink with Masurao and have a fun time with the man. That man is surprising easy going when drunk. Ryougin grins and heaves the the blade under his arm.


Just before Ryougin follows Kobo and Masurao, the shinobi castes a quick but subtle jutsu that causes the hair on his head to stands on end. Zir hairs falls flat but where the wine mist was and stretching to all the thrown needles, shrunkens, and kunais, static of engery floats in the air. It is a slow reacting trap; the longer the opponent stays in the area, their ability to track and sense of direction will be lost to them. Even if the enemy does not stay too long in the field, Ryougin will be able to misdirect the pursuing enemies or disable them if needed. 


That done, Ryougin masks his presence and leaps away from the battle zone. 


"Behave," Ze has to whispers to the blade under his arm. Call zir paranoid, but something like this could may be hear zir. 

 

[tane5naoki]

For the rest of the evening, Kobo forced them to move, in an attempt to get away from the area. Once Masurao was sober enough to utilize his jutsu, Kobo took Sen Go on his back and traveled in that manner, while Masurao calmly used his various techniques and clones to lay false trails and clean up their tracks, if they had left any. The sun was rising by the time Kobo would allow them to stop, and by then Sen Go was beginning to stir from his slumber.


"We're nearly to the border," Kobo said, "And we cannot have any more incidents like last evening." Sen Go woke up at that moment, placing his hand on his head and groaning as he got up.


"What happened?" He asked, his voice a whisper.


"We were attacked," Kobo said, "By a Ninja who uses plant based techniques and intoxicants. Thundercloud, you had an idea of who this individual is?"


"A few years back, I came across a Sound Ninja, and after a brief altercation I came to possess his Bingo Book. There are few defectors within the Sound Village, but the listing for Tane Naoki stuck out. He is the cousin to the Otokage, Minoru Naoki, and a great thorn in the side of the Village. He was a infiltration specialist, capable of hiding himself from even the best sensory ninja, as we saw tonight." He scratched his head, "And apparently, he is a master of the Drunken Fist fighting style, that's the only explanation I have for last night."


"Well, we take an hour, get some rest and look after any wounds you have." Kobo disappeared in a blur of motion after giving his instructions.

 

[TripTripleTimes]

Ryougin lands heavily onto the forest floor a heartbeat after Kobo and Masurao. Ze was silent all the way through to the point that the shinobi forgot that ze was holding a cursed sword. Ze is frustrated that the leader have pushed the injured this hard for this long when they could have stopped a while back far, far from danger. Masurao may seem normal but Ryougin is not convinced until ze checks up on zir teammates.


As Masurao verbally reports of the Missing Nin from last night, ze lets the tension in zir body flow out and takes a deep breath of the early morning dew. Ze approaches Sen Go, lowering the brightly covered sword down beside the swordsman, and then rummaging through his pouch to pull out a plastice bottle. Small bits of leaves and what seems like dried apple skin floats in the clear beige liquid. 


"Drink this." Ze commands and shoves the bottle towards Sen Go and sticks a hand into his pouch once again looking for a small blister pack of painkillers. "How's your hea-" Being this close to Sen Go, the man really looks normal compare to the--


Ryougin quickly sucks in a huge breath of air and looks away from Sen Go. Ze continues to breath in and out steadily until ze feels like ze can control zirself. Looking back at the man in front of him, zir green eyes are wide open and zir lips tightly pressed together.


"There were some casualties during the battle last night." Ze pauses for a moment and continues, "I'm sorry for your loss." Letting the news set in, Ryougin turns to Masurao. "Thundercloud, I'll check up on your eyes soon."

 

[tane5naoki]

Sen Go waves zir away, pushing the bottle away from his face, the increase in the throbbing of his head a direct result of associating with Ryougin. "Leave me be," He said, then stares blankly at the odd phrasing afterwards. He quickly pulls out one of his hidden blades, a bright reflective surface, and stares. His face is dirty, which he'll have to clean, but he notices little else. Until he moves the reflection up higher, and realizes a large portion of his hair has been damaged and singed. A savage growl builds in his throat, and he asks, "Did the drunk do this to me?"


Both Masurao and Kobo look to Ryougin, wondering what his response would be.

 

[TripTripleTimes]

"Now, now, let's not get too hasty," Ryougin replies without missing a beat. Ze continues to search for the painkillers in zir pack. "Letting your rage out now won't fix what the drunkard have done to you, and getting mad will only cause more headache for you, I am sure of it." From here, ze can definitely feels the swordsman rage radiating out. With all seriousness, Ryougin looks straight into Sen Go's eyes. "The drunkard have long escaped us to follow his trail and we need to hurry and continue our mission to the Mizukage."


Finally finding the blister pack, Ryougin brightens up and pops two pills into zir hand and place it and the bottle of tea in front of Sen Go.


"Trust me," Ze says with the most soothing voice ze can muster, "You need plenty of water after getting that drunk, and the tea will replace a lot of what your body lost during that time. Oh, and painkillers." 

 

[tane5naoki]

Sen Go waved the tea and pills away from his face, refusing to take them. He stood up and crossed his arms, staring off into the distance, clearly done with the conversation.


Masurao, the only one near the two seemed relieved at how well Ryougin had defused the situation. Even with the pair of them, and Kobo, he wasn't confident in the thought that they could subdue Sen Go enough to continue the mission. A fight with the famed Manic Swordsman was always a fight to the death.


Kobo, out of sight from the rest, took a moment to replace his cloak and withdraw from one of the pockets a map of the area. He knew they were slightly off course, and he needed to make sure they wouldn't run into any unwanted attention. He located their position quickly, using a compass and the sun to figure they were practically on top of the Fire and Lightning countries' border. He began to sift through the data he had collected and concluded they could stay for the hour without encountering any patrols. Confident in his calculations he focused on his comrades, using his acute chakra sensory perception to ensure that they stayed where they were. He didn't need any of them interrupting his contact. 


Masurao, meanwhile, withdrew a small ration pack and began to eat, drinking his water and trying to get rid of a headache that had begun to plague him.

 

[TripTripleTimes]

Ryougin cherriness flattens as Sen Go pushes the bottle AND the painkillers away from him. The shinobi doesn't pushes the two items back, however, and, in truth, is relief that the situation have calm down as easily as it did. Hiding a sigh of relief with a huff, Ryougin stands up and hops to Masurao. Just before ze leaps, ze flings a single painkiller, coated lightly with zir chakra, at the side of Sen Go's head. What kind of Medic-Nin would ze be if ze doesn't look after zir teammates. Ryougin is sure that the swordsman will swap the pill like a fly, but just a touch is enough to slowly normalize the chemical imbalance and perhaps relax the muscles in his dominant arm if Sen Go swap the pill with that hand. Of course, relief would come much faster if the stubborn man just drink some water. 


"Thundercloud-san!" Ryougin calls out to Masurao with a sing-song voice and lands beside the resting man. "No fusing and let me check on your eyes." Ryougin looks at the single painkiller on his palm before ze passes that one to Masurao. Ze is getting careless with his chakra ze notes to zirself, feeling a bit of energy has seeped by accident.

 

[tane5naoki]

Masurao calmly allowed his teammate to check up on him, taking off his sun hat and submitting to the medical checkup. "Despite what Mantis has said," He said under his breath, "You handled that ninja and situation very well." He took the painkiller and swallowed it dry.


Sen Go, meanwhile, did, in fact, swat away the pill as it flew towards him. Immediately he felt relief in his head and arm, though in his angered state he didn't realize what was happening.


In the forest, hidden from the rest, Kobo performed a simple Jutsu, one taught to him by his mentor. He felt his awareness melt away from his body as his consciousness traveled many miles away from him. He opened his eyes and found himself in a dark cavern, sequestered away in the Grass Country. Below he heard the sound of water lapping against the granite walls.


"Koboyashi Maru, you are late." A gravelly croaked from the head of the table.


"An unavoidable circumstance, I assure you, Arata-Sama. We encountered a shinobi from your former village in the night. A certain Tane Naoki." He placed his ethereal hands on the table. "He was...Difficult."


"The Red Rose of Oto, though when I left, they were calling him the Red Thorn of Minoru." He laughed heartily, "Anyways, mission report, how close have you gotten to the Leaf?"


"We're on the border, our attack will launch tomorrow morning. I will make contact with him then, and convince him to join our cause after the fall of the Leaf."


"If all goes well," Arata said, smiling, "Taakuin Suuta will join the Akatsuki once again, and lead us to victory."


Kobo nodded and pulled himself out of the Jutsu, returning to his body. Things were still quiet, and he leapt from his hiding place and returned to where his team was resting in his absence.

 

[TripTripleTimes]

The green glow around Ryougin's hand fades and ze lets out a sigh of relief. There is no permanent damage to Masurao's vision nor is there other ill effects for been exposed to that mist of wine. Ze.did detected that Masurao slight dehydration and of course who can forget about bad hair-do. After the check-up, ze hands his fellow Mist Nin the bottle of tea and pulls out a bottle of plain water and a ration bar and then pops the lid of the bottle.


"Glad you see it that way," Ryougin replies back happily then takes a long gulp of zir water. "We got to flow where the tide goes, right?" Ze plops down on the ground beside Masurao by the tree ze had made Masurao to sit and lean on earlier, and ze wolfs down zir food and drink. The Mist sighs after the food and drinks settles in zir. "I'm glad all we suffered after that is your drunk bable and his lightweight ass." The last bit ze whispers to Masurao. There is a grin on his lips, but for a moment Ryougin looks at the space in front of him eyes unfocused. 


Ze blinks and looks around zir surroundings. 


"Now, protect me while I have a little nap," Ze says cheekily. From underneath zir dark green cape, Ryougin pulls out a folded thin rod, staightens it up, and plunges one end of it to the soft earth beside zir. Soon after, Ryougin throws a kunai tinited with energy to the tree opposite of their's and two more on either side of the first throwing knife. Deciding that 3 kunais are enough as warning bells, Ryougin makes zirself comfortable on the forest floor, leaning slightly on his walking stick, and closes zir eyes. Within minutes, Ryougin is sound asleep.

 

[tane5naoki]

Time passed in silence as the trio sat, waiting on the return of Kobo. Sen Go stood, facing the east, a look of quiet contemplation on his face. While Masurao sat, back against a tree as he meditated in the quiet of the forest, recentering himself for what was to come. 


The silent moments were not unnoticed, as Kobo watched the trio from a perch, masking his chakra so they wouldn't know he was near. He wasn't at all what they thought he was, and it was a secret he planned to keep hidden. He was on this mission for a very specific reason and a chance to study some of the strongest shinobi he might one day fight against, was priceless. When the hour was up he leapt down from his perch, rising high above the trees before cresting and falling into the clearing they were situated in.


"Time to move," He said, loud enough to wake Ryougin. "Pack your things." Masurao moved to gather his sunhat and the evidence they had passed this way, rescattering the leaves under him and fixing the grass.

 

[TripTripleTimes]

Ryougin blinks awake and after a moment of slowly waking up, the shinobi yawns zir mouth widily before stretching the stiff muscles. If ze thinks about, ze has rest just enough to restore enough chakra that ze is comfortable with. 


"Alright, alright. I'm-" A yawn "- up." Getting up, Ryougin unplugs his walking stick from the ground and leaps towards the throwing knives ze threw before going to sleep.


Light has peaked out higher from the horizon, and after collecting the knives, Ryougin runs a hand down a large leaf, wiping the dew off of it. With the water on zir palms, ze washes zir face with it. Ze repeats this a couple of time until he feels refreshed. 


"Ready when you are!" Ze calls out, letting zir face air dry. Under zir armz Ryougin has yet to put away zir foldable guide stick.

 

[tane5naoki]

"In light of our excursions last night," Kobo began, "My timetable has been moved up. We will move through the rest of the Fire Country today, before sundown I want to have set our camp up and be preparing for our attack tomorrow morning." He pointed forward towards the direction they should be heading. "We won't be stopping until we get to our camp, so be prepared to take your meals on the go." With that, he leapt forward, landing easily on the first branch and transitioning over through the forest.


"Okay," Masurao said, "Mantis first, then you, Kamikaze, follow after him. Chi takes the 3rd position, and I'll follow up behind, keeping an eye out for everyone." He motions for the others to follow his plans. Sen Go shrugged at the plan and followed after Kobo, his blade strapped to his back once again.


[[After you make your post, I'll probably do another time skip to that night.]]

 

[TripTripleTimes]

"Alright!" Ryougin says and prepares to leave the site. He has rested, ate and drank some water, and he even washed up. Today will probably be a smooth sailing just like yesterday. The sun is shining brightly and they have the trees for cover. Eating on the go during lunch will be an ass to do, but oh well, today will not be the first nor the last time ze will be doing that.


The shinobi jumps from his perch, following after Sen Go. The walking stick is still snug under zir arm. Ze will put it away in a little while. 


((Welp this one's short. Sorry about that! Guess u were busy for a while? What does the two tags of this rp mean?))

 

[tane5naoki]

The rest of the day flew by in a blur. The four ninja, employing all of their speed and stealth, ate through the distance between their starting point and Konoha. There were a few close calls that resulted in them avoiding the situation and adding a bit more time to their journey, but in the end, they made it to Kobo's preferred campsite. It was to be another dark, cold night. For as soon as he ordered them to stop, he gave instructions.


"No fire, cold food. We need to grab a few hours of sleep, and then wake up as merchants and the like begin lining up at the Village's gate." He crouched on his haunches and pulled out a detailed map of the area. "We're going to the main gate," He pointed to the corresponding location on the map. "We'll spend the dark hours of the morning identifying and tagging wagons and carts with exploding tags. After we blow them and cause a large enough distraction, Thunder Cloud, that'll be your cue to go, and our cue to attack the guards. Reinforcements will arrive fairly quickly, so we cannot allow ourselves to be cut off from exiting, stay at the gate." He rolled up the map and replaced it. "Any questions?"

 

[TripTripleTimes]

Ryougin lands softly onto a high branch of a tree and bounces down to the forest ground almost in glee. Today has been an uneventful day. Ze's not complaining or anything, but ze is riddling with excitement for tomorrow. All of Konoha will have their eyes on them after all. 


"It kinda feels like a tall tale to draw all of Konoha's ninja to us, or at least enough for Thundercloud-san to do his thing." Ryougin looks up at the team's leader and then to the rest of zir team. The two days travel gave the man a lot of time to think about the plan, and since Kobo is opening the plan to the team, ze might as well open zir heart out. "Wouldn't it be better for him to sneak in when suspicion is at their lowest and we move when he needs to get out? It's gonna be early for anyone to really pay attention to Thundercloud-san when he sneaks in. Plus the mountain is pretty populated so nobody will think too much of him heading towards what can be seen a tourist attraction in Leaf in the wee morning." Ze takes a big breath and rushes his next part.


"We can attack around breakfast time!" Ze cheers "Or when it's the busiest traffic around the gate... just before noon?" Ryougin doesn't know too much about the Konoha's economic and ze guessed the village's rush hour based on the Mist's. Ze crosses zir arms and hums in thought. "I actually don't care when we attack, but I just want to say that we should wait until he is in or near the mountain."