Fandom The Village Hidden in the Leaves

[loyalwolf]

On the defense​

Kuren ignored Akira’s comment about his talking and keep a strong gaze on her next move. The fact is, kuren talking serves to both try and unhinge his opponent but also he help him spread more of his spores. Either way kuren seemed to keep his natural stoic look and relative cool when it comes to Akira. That was until he saw Akira take his fan and begin using it for her own benefit. At that point you saw a slight fire and anger grow in kuren’s eyes.

Once he saw Akira begin to target Ashi, kuren’s natural instinct was to go help and protect her but he didn’t get the chance. She quickly transitioned from targeting Ashi to going for kuren with more speed than before. He reached for a kunai and ready his tessen to help with defense.

Kuren zeroed in on akira’s hips and shoulder, not even bothering to look at her eyes. He had to rely on the universal tells of striking, until her was able to pick up on akira’s rhythm and fighting style. He was able to pick up on the shifts in mass and weight in the hips to predict with each strike were going to come from. Then looking for the slightest twitch in her shoulders to avoid punches.

Kuren found himself seeing the strike but his reaction time was quick enough to follow through. Often having to rely on his kunai to block the attack all together. Often time have a punch or kick graze his body. Leaving behind, a multitude of cuts and gashes. Still kuren continued defending, side stepping left and right, then shuffling back hoping to create distance from Akira. Kuren mental process began to work overtime, trying to memorize her movements, glances, deep breaths and rhythm. At the same time trying to lead her to a particular set of building that his jutsu was holding up. He just hope his endures could keep up with her or that his teammates would come up with a plan while he distracted her. KageYuuki Hanarei AtlannianSpy

 

[Hanarei]

​

Ashi heard Akira direct her attention towards her calling her a mongrel pup. Mongrel pup? What was that suppose to mean? She had little time to think it through as a quick barrage of fire came upon her by Akira in what looks to be coming from her fingers. Ashi jumped quickly forward, her high mobility and being on all fours aiding in sparing her from getting struck by the unexpected attack. She slipped behind the cover of a nearby cart using it as a makeshift form of protection.

Mongrel pup... what the heck does that even mean? Mongrel... is she trying to make fun of me not having a dog? That has to be what that word means! That... I'm going to... I'm going to deck her in the face really hard for that! Ashi seemed to grow a bit angry, formulating in her own mind just what the it was the bone lady meant by her insult. Even if it wasn't exactly what Akira meant by an insult it worked in its own way upon Ashi. It was far from the first time she mistook something someone said or did in the wrong light, this time at least it was an actual insult from the start.

Ashi peeked out from behind cover. Her eyes quickly catching sight of Akira looking on at the woman with the pure intention of finding a way to deck her right in the face. Her eyes couldn't help but notice Kuren desperately on the defensive being cut and scraped despite his best efforts. She wanted to so badly to focus her efforts on hurting Akira, but she could see her squad member wasn't doing very good. It wasn't likely an attack on her part would do much to stop Kuren from being viciously assaulted and would just lead her to be cut up in the process. It was then Ashi got an idea...

"Take this you ugly skeleton... freak lady!" She shouted out loudly in a desperate attempt to insult Akira. She tossed a smoke bomb towards her, aiming to hit her around the back of her shoulder. It was her 'way' of hitting Akira back for her insult while also creating a distraction in Ashi's mind. It was far from the most optimal way of using a smoke bomb, and like a very unexpected thing to do for any enemy expecting at least a moderate amount of finesse a Genin should be able to show in using their tools.

Ashi quickly propped herself back, pushing off from the ground into a passing fang. She moved diagonally forward, skirting past Akira to her left clearing a bit of space away from her bone spikes. Ashi grabbed hold of Kuren, tugging him (likely uncomfortable into her passing fang. She gripped tight onto her teammate, using her momentum to help carry them away quickly without losing too much speed in the process. She stopped her spin after clearing some distance, landing on her side holding onto Kuren, finally letting him go.

"You okay? Making me have to worry bout you instead of decking her in her ugly face!" She asked propping herself up, adding a bit of bite to her words while trying to not show any bit of worry she had for him in the process.

AtlannianSpy loyalwolf KageYuuki

 

[shadowdude505]

Misumi Sarutobi (Squads 5 & 6)
​

Misumi was frustrated by the fact that the Hidden Mist jonin had deflected her wired shiruken away. She had been hoping that he hadn't notice so she could roast him, but maybe that was asking for too much. Misumi watched as her fellow genin tried to fight the enemy. Luckily for her the jonin kept his focus on the other genin, giving her time to analyze and think of her next move; unfortunately that extra time wasn't much of a blessing. Yukari took a hard hit from the man's hammer and Hideki received a brutal cut from the man's ax. Three genin were now in bad fighting shape, leaving the remaining three to stall. Misumi needed to do something fast, otherwise she was sure that the jonin would begin to kill one of the wounded.

Luckily a fire ball out of seemingly nowhere catch the jonin off guard. He managed to doge it, but at least but it managed to stall his attempt at killing one of her fellow genin. The jonin began to make a new batch of hand signs though. Misumi sent a surge of fire chakra into one of her fans and shot a wave of hot hair toward the man. "Heat Wave." If the tessenjutsu technique managed to hit the jonin, maybe the lack of breath would slow down his hand signs. But Misumi wasn't about to end there.

Misumi used her Blody Flicker technique to quickly transport herself back to the ground. She disappeared in reappeared in a batch of flames. When she appeared on the ground, she had her other fan pressed against her hip while closed. Hopefully the flames during her Body Flicker would distract the jonin from noticing the shift in fan positioning. Misumi began to charge chakra into the closed fan, preparing to use the Exploding Point technique. It would be a big drain on her chakra, but she still hadn't swallowed her soldier pill yet. If it all worked out, maybe she could cause an explosion in the jonin's face while he tried to attack her with his weapons.

KageYuuki Kimiwriter Orikanyo Ganryu InsaneAsylum

 

[Ganryu]

Squad 4​

Having made their way to the hospital, they would see swarms of mist ninja, almost looking casual in the warzone. The front had become almost their center of operations, meaning Squad 4 had just found itself in the area with more Mist nin than literally any other section of the village. It would be a really, really good time to undo their transformation. They seemed to be particularly heavy around a nearby hotel, seemingly an endless supply leaping out of one room as the occasion required. A higher up ninja approached them, wearing a generic mask that made him very, very hard to distinguish from any other jonin. However, the three little genin he brought along would seem very familiar to the three. Unlike earlier, they no longer seemed as confident, or as mean. They looked down right pale. Their sensei spoke.

"You three, you look too worn out for duty. Switch out with me and my squad. They need the battle experience. What squad do you belong to, and what is the status out there? I'd particularly like to know what happened to that."

He motioned at Nagisa's arm. His mask contorted, and though impossible to see, from the sound of his voice, it was probably a smile.

"Don't worry, battle scars are nothing to worry about. Even on a cute kunoichi, I'm sure they'll heal up fine. We've got a long road ahead of us, but if each and everyone of us does their part, we'll finally be able to avenge the Mizukage and Daimyo's loss. Even against someone like the Leaf, we don't have to fear."

Tapping his chin, the jonin thought for a minute.

"Actually.... Hmm. I hate to ask this on another squad, but, you know where our med nin are set up. If you're headed over there, why don't you plant a few of these on the hospital ruins. It'll slow the Leaf considerably, and it would let me rest easy."

He handed the three a few explosive tags.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Katsumi Nonoba​

"W-wrong village?" ...................

.......

................

"Oh! Sorry!" Katsumi once again, used her transformation Jutsu, this time with the correct headband. It took her a few moments to realize her mistake. She turned, ready to follow Nagisa's stealthy lead again, but instead she was soaking her bandages in the blood of a dead body!

Katsumi could barely stifle her scream.

"W-w-w-what are you doing Nagisa you're going to get a disease from that! That's disgu-", Katsumi paused, understanding what she was doing as she turned her cleaner bandages into a sling for the bloody arm. "Never mind..."

Fortunately, Nagisa didn't mind too much it seemed, as she went on to explain the plan once again, adding in more details. Katsumi nodded all the while.

A lot of sneaking later...

Katsumi felt a lump form in her theist once they reaches hospital. The Hidden Mist had made a base within their village, and looked as if they had the whole area of buildings surrounding the hospital under control. Katsumi could barely contain her fear when a masked jounin approached them, with three genin of his own in tow. Katsumi shivered at the sight of them again. When the jounin began speaking and asking questions, Katsumi remained silent, following the plan and letting Nagisa do all the talking. But, when the man handed her the explosive tag, all she could do was stare at it with a blank face, letting out an occasional sniffle.

 

[KageYuuki]

Squads 5 & 6

The Cavalry Arrives!​

Shosuke glared at Aiko’s clone as she appeared, taking note of whatever water release technique she was attempting. He winced slightly at the short blast of hot air, reminiscent of the arid Land of Wind. It even left the feel of a faint sunburn in its wake… Despite Misumi’s plans, the short duration of her tessenjutsu did little to slow his hand seals.

The ground beneath the street rumbled and swelled before a geyser of water broke through, a burst main water line angrily spraying its contents into the air. The rubble from the karaoke bar Hideki brought down creaked and groaned as the water leaking from the broken pipes was collected.The gathered water quickly coalesced into a single, massive dragon.

Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet

The water creation practically roared at the genin, snaking higher into the air. It seemed the swordsman had abandoned his original intentions of capturing Aiko. Before the mass of water could descend the shimmering form of a crystalline dragon coiled around it, quickly reducing both to dust.

Crystal Release: Tearing Crystal Falling Dragon

That massive pile of regret, pain, and uncertainty was uplifted the very moment that gorgeous crystal dragon saved their skins. There was only ONE person he knew that could make crystals like that, one person whom he was more, MORE than happy to be seeing again.

If they got outta this alive, he might even think of giving his sensei a hug... Or maybe a gift or something…

The sharp jab of pain in his arm brought him back to the moment, however, dropping his sword to hold the broken shield strapped arm, trying to stop the bleeding as much as he could. He backed a few steps away from Shosuke to nearly bump into another person! This one was kneeling over Yukari with a smile that DEFINITELY didn’t fit such a horrible situation.

“Ohohoho~! My my, certainly got yourself a nasty boo boo, need a band-aid hmm?” The man chuckled as he talked to the very hurt young lady below him, before glancing towards Hideki's way, getting a flinch from the young man.

“Two injuries hmm? One at a time, I’m no medical ninja, I may be amazing, but I can’t work miracles.” The man, whom if you haven’t guessed already is indeed Koma, who else could be this outrageously silly in such a place. The man’s hand began to glow and he placed it upon Yukari’s wounds, humming a tune as he did so.

He now looked to Shosuke as he worked, craning his neck to look around Hideki. “Don’t mind me, I’m sure the others will be more than enough for you.”

“Sensei!” Sei sighed and skidded to a stop beside him, facing the enemy. Her kunai was at the ready, though she glanced sideways at her teammate. “Is she going to be alright?” She knew an answer wasn’t going to be straightforward. This close, though, she could see just how bad a shape Yukari was in. Darn it. If only I’d learned medical ninjutsu. It was the first time she’d actually wished she’d listened to her parents when deciding to be a ninja. Shaking her head, she focused on the fight ahead of her, calculating exactly how she could help.

Aiko’s jutsu failed, dropping to the ground with a splash as the swordsman began taking all of the water from the area. Her ice clone crumbled to pieces in front of her. Aiko began to bring her hands together once more, in an effort to try and halt this massive jutsu coming together. She felt a warm familiar hand on her head.

“Thank the heavens you're not hurt,” Aisu said, patting his daughter on the head. He didn’t look at her but kept his eyes fixated on the swordsman as his water dragon soared into the air. Only to be slain by a dragon made entirely of crystal.

“I'll handle this one for you.”

Ice Release: Ice Sword Technique

It was a simple technique, one Aiko used quite often. Her father, however, was far more skilled than her. The blades were formed in an instant and were both larger a stronger than Aiko’s. This Mist bastard was about to find out that they were extremely fast as well. Ice sword after ice sword bolted towards the mist jounin from Aisu’s direction.

Shosuke growled as his jutsu fell apart, taking note of the three newcomers. He wasn’t given much of a chance to move as blades of ice forced him back onto the defensive. Even as he body flickered away, the caster didn’t lose track of him. This jutsu was definitely a step above the genin he’d observed earlier.

"♪You dun goooofed♪"

A cheery voice called from a crater.

"I mean, you didn't really even seriously hurt any of the genin. I don't know who taught you to be a feared 'swordsman of the mist', but man they sucked at it."

Mai tossed a wheel up and down with her left hand. She looked out at the scene, not really even considering herself a combatant. She wanted to watch now. She did look out at Hideki and Yukari.

"Hey, how'd you two get hurt anyways? This guy should just be a stepping stone for us. I just want to watch Jounin go at it now though."

“Because I wanted to let you brats live,” Shosuke snapped, unusually agitated. These three were clearly Jounin, it could easily be a losing battle. But those damn Yuki clan members and the Mizukage’s order… Blood oozed from shallow cuts as he formed a handsign, a thick mist quickly enveloping the area, heavy with killing intent.

Hiding in Mist

Misumi felt relieved when the Leaf jounin appeared. There was no doubt in her mind that the stronger ninjas in her village would be able to take on the one Mist Jonin. She ran over to Hideki and Yukari. The Sarutobi genin continued to maintain her chakra flow into the point of her closed fan. She could feel her chakra slowly drain on her and swallowed her soldier pill to replenish chakra that she’d already lost. If she needed to use her biggest attack, extra chakra would be helpful if she needed to follow it up with a different ninjutsu.

Sei nodded to her but kept silent. This wasn’t like the yokai mist. She didn’t trust it.

Staring at the mist, Misumi thought it would be a very bad idea for a genin like herself to go in after the Mist jounin. She decided to stand guard over the wounded and continued to ready an Exploding Point attack in case the Mist jounin tried to attack the genin.

Aiko’s initial wave of relief from the arrival of Takara and her father was brought to a screeching halt. Fortunately, the girl was already crouching, so she wasn't forced to the ground by the unbearable invisible force that froze her in place. Dread filled her heart, as the mist enveloped Aiko and her father.

“Goodness, do you feel that boy?” Koma rose an eyebrow, as Hideki damn well near crumpled under the sudden weight of the mist around him, it was as if he could feel the intent to kill him and every single person here in his very soul.

“A very interesting trick that one, though has somewhat of a blunted edge, since he's backed into a corner. But you know what they say about the cornered rat, eh?” He joked, before standing up once more. “Should be fine for now. Really Yukari, you simply must take better care of yourself.” The man tsked as he turned away and began walking into the mist, it was hard enough to see within it. But to Koma, it may as well be like walking into clean air.

Had it not been for the crippling fear that came with the mist, Yukari probably would have attempted to say something back. Koma’s jutsu didn’t really do much for the broken bones - or a lot of the pain - but she wasn’t in immediate danger of dying. She’d also regain consciousness, something she currently wished she hadn’t. Despite being nearly paralyzed with fear and pain, she felt Hikari’s soft fur brush up against her hand.

“Hellllooooooooo~! Anybody out there?” Koma called out into the mist, pretending to shade his eyes and squinting into the fog. “Awful weather, I can barely see you out there. Really, it’s very rude to hide when somebody is talking to you.” He wagged a finger in the air.

The Jounin that arrived no doubt knew any members of the Seven Swordsmen didn’t need their sight in battle. And with as talkative as Koma was… it wasn’t much surprise he was one of the first to have a swing taken at him. Shosuke’s axe cut through the air, looking to cleave the Leaf Jounin in half, his hammer following close behind.

“Found you~!” The cheerful chiming of his voice echoed through the mists as the man twirled to his right, facing the swordsman behind the blinding whorls of mist. “You can’t hide from me~! I can smell fear you know~!” The man reached up behind his head and began to untie his headband, letting it drop to the ground.

Sei trembled. She gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on the kunai. Her hand hurt. Don’t be a coward. Don’t be a coward. Watching her sensei walk into the mist, she briefly wondered if he was even human before glancing at the other genin. As long as they stayed there, they were still in danger.

“W-we should find some cover and t-try to retreat. We might not get another ch-chance.” She knelt by Yukari. “Do you want some help walking?” In the distance she could hear Koma’s sing-song voice baiting the enemy. Being too close to a fight between Jounin would be just as dangerous as fighting the enemy themselves.

“We can’t,” Yukari’s voice was barely a whisper. “This mist… we can’t…”

Hideki damn well near yelped when Sei came upon them, he could barely see Yukari, much less the other young lady. “Cover..?” he sputtered, breathing heavily before he was finally clicked back to reality, the intent in the air had scrambled him pretty badly…

“...We have to get out.” Is all he could really manage right now, blood continuing to seep from his wound.

Sei noticed the wound and pulled a bandage from her pouch, offering it to him. “Even if we just get inside. We don’t want to get caught out here during a fight, especially if the enemy decides to take hostages or destroy this whole area.” She pointed in the direction she’d come from. “There should be a mostly standing building over there.”

Sei gently touched Yukari’s arm, trying to coax her to stand, or at least put her arm around Sei’s shoulders so she could help her up.

A weight settled on Sei’s shoulder, “And you want to just stumble blindly- and loudly- around someone that hunts through sound? May as well be mice walking right into the cat’s mouth at that point, nyah.”

Flinching, Sei twisted to see the cat perched on her shoulder. “You!” She sighed and finally sank to her knees. “Well what do you suggest we do? If the enemy is focused on Sensei and the other Jounin, then we shouldn’t really matter to him. Would you rather we stayed and got caught in the cross-fire?”

It really wasn’t her place to be snapping at the yokai. Usually, Yukari did that just fine, but Sei didn’t like being told to stay this close to danger. She’d rather be doing something instead of waiting for something to happen.

“You’re pawsitively terrified, aren’t you?” Hikari chided, “To the point you forget you have a Yokai with you, nyah. You blind kittens aren’t so defenseless. So shut up and wait a moment, nyah.”

Sei frowned. The cat hadn’t really done much so far. Looking back down at Yukari, she sighed and nodded. Until her teammate was ready to move, they’d just have to wait.

The ground by Hideki shifted slightly, “These guys and their damned mist,” Takara’s voice came from beside him. “Can hardly see the hand in front of my face, had to take the long way around.” She gripped Hideki’s shoulder,“Are you hurt?”

This time, he did jump but didn’t make a sound as he froze, staring at what just grasped his shoulder…. And then calming down once he saw it was his sensei. “...just a bit. Mai might be even… Wait…” he paused, trying to remember if he heard Mai’s voice not a few seconds ago. “...Just a cut…” he muttered, tentatively trying to undo the strap upon his arm that kept his shield in place… Well.. what was once his shield.

The thing did its job, hell, saved his life really, but it was really messed up. And he couldn’t keep it on him. “Sensei... Help with the strap.” he winced, gritting his teeth under the sharp pulses of pain.

“Easy…” Takara’s voice was low, calm. Lightly touching the shield and focusing for a brief moment, the ends of the strap crystallized before shattering. She frowned at the wound, but before the Jounin could do much about it a few hand seals were woven, a thick crystal dome forming around her and the four genin.

Crystal Release: Crimson Fruit

“Little more than a cut,” she murmured, rustling through her own pouch. “Sorry…” The Jounin tightly wound a bandage around the gash in the boy’s arm. Afterwards, a makeshift cast of dark crystal grew over his lower arm.

The young man flinched occasionally as Takara worked on covering his wound, he had seen her use the crystals in such a way before… mostly on Mai. But he hasn’t actually had to be covered in them himself…. It was… weird…

“....Umm…. Is… that a cat?” The young man looked at Sei, confusion visible on his face. It’s so cute… he thought, wanting to pet it, even during this rather dangerous situation. Or perhaps it was the blood loss messing with his head?

Glancing up, Sei tried to recall the young man’s name from class. She was usually good with names but his was escaping her for the moment. “You can see her?” She looked back at the cat. How exactly did one explain a yokai to someone? “She’s . . . Yukari’s summon.”

“...See her? She's… just a cat…” He rose an eyebrow, before getting an explanation, kinda. “I’ve never used a summoning jutsu before….” He stared at the cat, wondering if he was allowed to pet it, would he get scratched? Would it be rude?

Did he have to ask Yukari for permission first?

“...Cute…”

“Summons are… more trouble than they’re worth,” Yukari muttered, barely managing to push herself up. “Wouldn’t even try to pet her if I were you…”

It seemed Yukari had read his mind… But then again… She looked so soft… maybe if he took it slow? Like how you should let a dog sniff you before you pet it? What if he got scratched up? Would it be worth it?

....

Torn, the young man slowly reached forward. “Hey, kitty… I’m Hideki, not gonna hurt ya.” he spoke softly, testing his luck.

Hissing, the Nekomata swiped at his hand before bounding from Sei’s shoulder, sitting next to Yukari.

Pulling his hand back with a tsk, he let out a sigh. “...Fine…”

“Guys, we’re not out of this situation yet,” Misumi said tensely. She used her open fan to fan the sweat from her brow. Even within the safety of the crystal doom, she could still remember the feeling of death within the mist. “We need to retrieve the other two genin and get out of here. We should let the adults handle the Mist jounin. Though if he does manage to slip past our jounin, I have an attack ready to cover you guys. It’s an advanced move and I don’t fully have a handle it on yet, but it should buy us some time if needed.”

“Aisu will take care of Aiko and Mai,” Takara glanced over at Misumi, “you four are safe here, the fight won’t be much longer.”

Aisu stood warily in the mist. With Aiko struggling behind him, he’d have to protect her from any surprise attacks. He peeked over his shoulder at his daughter. She was crouched down and shaking, unable to overcome the killing intent.

“Stay strong Aiko, I’ll keep you safe.”

His hands held a handsign together, and a thin layer of water spread across the ground from under Aisu’s feet. It covered a ten-foot area around him and Aiko.

Aiko had never seen her father so serious before. She wanted to look at him and for once, thank him, but right now, she couldn't even lift her head up.

Meanwhile, in the mist, Mai shook with anger. The killing intent had an… odd effect on her. Mai couldn’t imagine dying, and so the repeated images of her dying shook her hard. She just wanted to stop them, to punch whoever was causing it in the face. The mist checked her stupidity. Mai couldn’t even watch what a Jounin level was thanks to the jackass’s mist, and he kept forcing some weird feeling on her that she couldn’t shake, no matter what she did. Mai exhaled in a deep anger. She wanted to try listening in, but every time she closed her eyes. Mai punched the wall nearest her in anger with her wheel, embedding her wheel in it.

“Tch. No wonder he’s a stepping stone.”

Mai’s frustration grew as she couldn’t focus in to listen to the fight.

Koma stood still in the mists, facing towards the hidden jounin, his headband lay upon the ground as a faint red light pierced the mists, emanating from a singular spot, upon the man’s forehead. “Now then… How much do you know about the history of that weapon of yours?”

“What’s it matter?” Shosuke slipped behind Koma once more, looking to wrap the rope connecting his weapons around the Jounin’s neck.

“Everything in this world has a history, from a newly made umbrella,” he stopped to duck the incoming rope. “To weapons, wielded by countless men and women. Weapons especially can be rather… storied.” He began to circle the man, keeping him in line of “sight” and the strange glow upon him.

“That weapon of yours, and those of your compatriots, have seen their fair share of blood over the years. I wonder if they’ve kept track how many people they have killed.” he chuckled, but continued. “When a weapon kills that many, certain beings tend to leave behind a hint of their spirit… desperate for revenge against the one who wields it, no matter if the one who killed them holds it anymore or not~!”

“Since when were you Leaf ninja so superstitious?” Since singular attacks weren’t enough, Shosuke switched to a barrage of kicks, slashes, and crushing blows with his hammer.

Koma first tensed up and brought his arm down to block the kick, then proceeded to grab the offending leg, however, as the swordsman attempted to crush and slice the man… he found his arms unable to complete the swing and something… latching onto his shoulders.

Ancient, lifeless arms stretched out from the weapons, latching onto the man’s body with startling strength. “Superstitious? Oh no no no, no other Leaf ninja are like me you see.” The man leaned in further, still latching onto the man’s leg.

“You see, I’m an oddity around here… it's a wonder I’m a jounin at all! But that's what happens when you make a lot of friends.” The shining red light came closer and closer, as sounds resonated from the weapon!

The sounds of turmoil, screams of pain, calls for vengeance and bloody murder. Screams of countless men, women, children, all calling out for names long forgotten, some recognizable… And some very... very... familiar.

“I knew it from your scent… blueberries and iron… You’ve been a very naughty young man…”

He leaned in further, the blood red, glowing eye in the middle of the man’s forehead stared down upon the man merciless in his unending gaze.

“...Shosuke…”

Shosuke tried to pull free from the grasp of… whatever this was to no avail. If this was genjutsu, then it was something much stronger than he was capable of undoing. “What the… hell are you?”

“What am I? My young man, I am-” he was cut off by the sudden flurry of grabbing hands, attempt to pull the man in several different directions, more and more came out, reach, scratching, pulling, dragging, until it all…

Went…

Dark…

It took a few moments for the mists to finally fade from around the area, a couple breezes flew through the street, aiding in its departure. Slowly and ever so surely, one could finally see more than a foot in front of one’s self.

To those looking for their sensei and the swordsman they could easily be seen not too far down the road, Koma putting his headband back on and the young swordsman named Shosuke kneeling down motionlessly before him, weapon splayed out behind him, dropped and discarded, but both remained motionless and empty.

“Well, that takes care of that. Headcount! Everyone alive?” Koma called to the others, looking around the area, he walked over behind the motionless jounin and plucked up the weird looking sword. “Honestly, this? A sword? What rubbish.”

Shosuke still breathed, though softly, his eyes empty and staring downwards… not even a single sound came from the man as the jounin before him called out.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

Reiji Dokumura​

Summoning Jutsu: Grand Manta

Standing alone atop the Konoha Memorial Stone, stood an aged old ninja. He stared up at the dark cloud covered sky, as an enormous creature slowly sunk through the clouds and halted just below them.

The gigantic stingray floated in the air above the village, casting an ominous shadow over an entire neighborhood. It's tail slowly swung back and forth, as a low groan escaped the stingray's mouth.

Far below, several ninja appeared, surrounding the old ninja. Most were ANBU, but there were regular jounin in the mix as well. Most of them had various injuries, none life threatening.

"Even if I were alone, the lot of you would have no chance."

As he spoke, a gentle rain shower began to fall. The Leaf Ninja didn't realize that this rain wasn't actually rain, but the stingray excreting the very poison Reiji was so well known for. It didn't take long for the Leaf Ninja to drop to the ground. The poison entered their open wounds, granting them what was likely the greatest pain they would ever feel during their entire lives. Not that their lives would last much longer. They screamed and flailed, unable to handle the piercing pain that stabbed every inch of their innards.

Only a few unscathed ninja remained standing, having no wounds for the poison to seep into.

Reiji turned, and body flickered away. The remaining capable Leaf Ninja followed in pursuit.

From the surrounding trees Mist ANBU appeared to put the Ninja affected by the poison out of their misery.

Reiji stood atop a vast gray platform, the Grand Manta. It's gray skin was soft to the touch. Four Leaf Ninja followed him up, with rage plastered onto their faces.

They each brought their hands together to form a handsign, but before their hands could make the proper sign, the found themselves unable to move.

"I didn't think you would abandon your allies..." Reiji said, pointing at the ninja on the far right. "They're all being killed at this very moment." Reiji shot a water bullet out of his finger tip, leaving a hole in the poor man's chest. He fell limp.

Reiji pointed to the next one in line, a young Hyuuga woman. "Know that your comrades suffered the greatest pain before death, while you received mercy." Reiji shot another bullet. She fell to the ground, another corpse.

He his hand, and crossed his arms. The two remaining Ninja stared back at Reiji with a three tomoe rage in their eyes. Uchiha.

"Which of you would like to die first?"

They found themselves able to move again, and quickly leapt backwards, creating a greater distance. "We're not going to die you are! You ba-" The Uchiha that spoke felt something pressed into his back. Before he could act, a piercing pain shot throughout his body, forcing him to the ground to writhe and scream in pain.

The other Uchiha gasped, and was about to draw his blade, but stopped when he saw that a finger was pointed right at him.

"Get away from my brother!"

"Ah, and let him suffer? Will you be the one to put him out of his misery?"

The Uchiha looked down at his brother, who was still screaming in pain. Reiji body flickered a distance away, crossing his arms. He let the Uchiha make a decision. Which to his surprise, was made rather quickly. The Uchiha drew his blade, and stabbed in down into his brother's chest. He held the blade there for a moment, before pulling it out of his brother's corpse. He turned to face Reiji, a new pattern on his eyes.

Reiji grinned as the Uchiha Body Flickered forward, slashing faster than the eye could see. Reiji leaped up and over the Uchiha and his slash. In mid air, Reiji threw a wire at him, which wrapped around the Uchiha's sword arm.

The Uchiha made a handsign, and sent a Great Fireball at the Mizukage. Having been holding the wire with one hand, Reiji used his free hand to form his own handsign, countering the great fireball with a blast of water from his mouth.

Along with overtaking the fireball, the water also drenched the Uchiha. Beflre the Uchiha could use an escape Jutsu, Reiji channeled lightning chakra down the wire. The Uchiha fell to the ground, literally shocked. Reiji let go of the wire, and while the Uchiha was shocked, sent two senbon into each of the Uchiha's eyes. The Uchiha roared in agony, stumbling backwards.

"You failed your village, worm."

With that said, Reiji pointed at the Uchiha. A bullet of water blasted right between his skewered eyes, sending him falling down to the ground.

Reiji sighed, and looked up at the clouds. They were barely out of arms reach.

Forming a series of handsigns, Reiji began gathering as much of the water from Konoha's river as he could. He brought it all above Grand Manta, forming an unstable ball of water that grew larger by the second. It was enormous by the time Reiji found it sufficient. As soon as he stopped gathering water, Grand Manta began to move in the direction of the Uchiha Compound.

 

[KageYuuki]

Gou Uchiha
Sage of Shadows
It wasn’t long before Gou spotted Kurou rapidly weaving hand seals, gathering his chakra for . . . something. That blasted book was the basis for all of the shinobi’s jutsu that he’d seen so far. And now he was no longer holding it. A dull pain pulled at the back of his right eye as he focused on the floating tome, his sharingan changing once again.

At the distortion appearing in front of Kurou, he immediately changed handsigns to Ram. His book detonated, covering the area in debris, and sending a shockwave likely sending Kurou flying back. It was a bit of a desperation move, but Kurou remembered what had happened to his Tailed Beast Ball earlier. A similar distortion had claimed it. While Kurou owned multiple copies of the book, he wouldn’t trust himself to fight a kage without it.

The smoke screen wasn’t that large, Kurou hadn’t detonated too many tags inside the book. It had taken the book a second or two to regenerate after its premature detonation. Before it finished, Kurou leapt out of the smoke straight up, again doing handsigns. His chakra was once again abysmally low.

Another clone? Gou wove hand seals of his own, watching for movement within the small cloud of dust. While the dust itself was too thick to see through, he could hear movement nearby, towards the front of the cloud. Grabbing his blade, the older shinobi lunged, seemingly faster than his earlier slashes. Should the draw itself be dodged, it had the power to naturally lead to a spin and second strike. The most closely guarded of the Uchiha’s sword techniques.

As he neared, he would see heavy concentrations of chakra. His sword struck true, the form of Kurou instantly bisected. The bisected sections quickly fell apart to a myriad of seals, so thick with chakra seeing through them was difficult. Kurou had used the majority of his chakra to make a simple clone. Though, the clone was not without purpose, Kurou feared the Hokage’s sword more than anything else. Each tag read ‘kumo’ (spider). Each one fluttered trying to engulf the Hokage and stick to his skin. Seal of the Spider Bite was a seal specifically designed to ‘crack’ a chakra system, creating a point for chakra to leak out freely. So many tags were extremely dangerous. Above, Kurou cracked a dry smile as he continued his handsigns, still watching the cloud.

“Well, this has been pleasant. Do keep to your word about remembering my name, it’s Kurou Akechi.”

Well, that could have gone better… not every day Gou traded blows with someone that could outwit the sharingan’s perception. A hollow chuckle left the Hokage as he observed the sheer number of tags that surrounded him. He looked up at Kurou, crimson tears running from his right eye. “You’re a sly one, Kurou.” The same distortion that Kurou had seen take his tailed beast ball and almost steal his book appeared once more. Though instead of targeting the sage, it claimed its caster.

“Like I have a choice going up against a monster like you.”

Kurou sighed, feeling Gou leave more than watching it due to the dust cloud. Kurou had to guess a time/space jutsu. Gou didn’t seem the type to run away. No, Gou COULDN’T run away, Kurou’s threat had been extremely clear. So if it was time-space, he could hazard a guess at the next step. He finished his handsigns, and his book crackled, coming to life with chakra. Its pages wildly turned in the air, back and forth, back and forth. Kurou ‘stole a few pages’, and quickly turned behind him, turning the paper into kunai with the paper shuriken technique, and holding them defensively in front of him.

Like Kurou had guessed, Gou had indeed reemerged behind him, already mid draw. Blood seeped from fresh cuts, lingering spider seals still visible around the wounds. Should the blade itself be blocked or dodged Kurou would soon find the sheath traveling the same path of the swing. Kamui was always such a massive drain on chakra, the Hokage couldn’t recall having to use it so many times in one day outside of battling the Ninetails - Kurama - what felt like only a few days ago. One of his biggest failures, both as Hokage and as a sensei.

Kurou held his kunai parallel and horizontal, channeling the strike towards his breastplate. It hurt, massively so, but not being fatal was good enough for Kurou. The second strike hurt even more so, sending him hurtling towards the ground with a rather large impact. Kurou grunted in pain from the crater.

“Yep…. That’s it for me…”

The book which had been surging went off. A massive shockwave of chakra blasted outwards from the book. Windows shattered for about a mile from the sheer force of the chakra expanding from the book. Dust was kicked up, and people blown away. It was far larger than the genjutsu barrier Kuro had set up. The chakra shot out from the book latched onto every last living thing it passed by. And yet, for the amazing show of force, it wasn’t Kurou’s attack. The returning implosion was his attack. After a second of peace following the explosion, it all came rushing back, ripping apart foreign chakra it had come in contact with, and drawing it into towards the book as well. Kurou painfully made a handsign, Ram, or Release, as he sat in his little crater.

A torrent of chakra, visible even to those without sharingans spread across the Hidden Leaf’s sky. Several battles between Mist and Leaf nin were stopped by the sudden Aurora borealis in the sky of all the chakra stolen from the technique.

Jade Books of Heaven: Pure Land Devastation.

Gou discarded the splintered wooden sheath as Kurou struck the ground. Though before he could move to finish things, the blast from the book was enough to nearly knock him off his feet even with chakra holding him in place. At first, it seemingly did nothing other than making a bigger mess of the section of the village they were in. Had it not been for the sharingan the Hokage wouldn’t have noticed the foreign chakra clinging intently to him. His blade clattered to the ground as he made the ram hand seal to expel Kurou’s chakra. Cutting it far closer than he would have liked.

All the chakra Kurou’s had latched onto was suddenly, and violently, sucked back into the book. The force was more than enough to pull Gou off his feet this time. Skeletal arms dug into the ground, stopping him from drawing too much closer to the Jade Book. It just barely stopped him from being thrown away a split second later.

Gou’s breaths were labored, ragged, tears of crimson running freely from both eyes. His entire body felt like it was on fire. For his strongest defense, it certainly came at a high price.

Once the implosion of chakra stopped, the book floated down quickly to Kurou. Holding his hand out, Kurou let it come to him. He could hardly move. He didn’t even want to count the number of internal injuries those two blows had done. Even with the breastplate stopping it. The book released a wave of energy into Kurou, intense chakra slightly burned his hand, but the amount revitalized his body. Kurou stood up out of the crater like nothing had ever happened, and with a smirk, faced the Hokage.

Kurou’s book opened once more, and Kurou placed his finger on it. Rather than a seal, a phrase appeared on it. “Chomei, help.” Despite the calm smirk, his body wracked with pain from the simple finger jutsu.

The book began to again wildly flap, before dispersing orbs of black and white across the area, mostly black.

“Now, what in blazes is that form? I’ve never heard of it. Would you indulge me? It seems defensive in nature, and the damage it does to you, it must be one hell of a defense to be worth it. Let’s test it, shall we? My ultimate spear against your ultimate shield. I mean, I'm supposed to delay you, but…. Well, let’s end this in one blow.”

“My student named it Susano’o,” despite the pain and exhaustion, Gou forced himself to straighten. He never had perfected it like in the stories of old, only able to create the upper half of the massive form. The glowing eyes of the chakra avatar glared down at Kurou. Muscle, flesh, and even armor rapidly encased it as one of its four arms drew a sword, another taking a shield. “And you’re the second to force me to call on it.”

 

[Retro-Grey]

Ao, Kiyoshi
Team 3 — Near the Hokage Monument​

Kiyoshi didn't remember the man that stood before them, but if the man was referring to him as a fox, then that would mean they had met in Tsushima. If that were the case, then Kiyoshi was probably the reason for the drunk's burns. Maybe he should add a few more degrees.

The blond genin was quick to react when both Koutaku and the drunk began weaving signs. Kiyoshi was gave Koutaku a quick glance before fanning to the left and weaving signs of his own as soon as Koutaku gave the orders. He watched the drunk's skin darken and Koutaku begin his prep for another jutsu. It was now that Kiyoshi noticed Kaida seemed to have run off, but he couldn't worry about her, he needed to focus on the enemy at hand.

In his new position, Kiyoshi eyed his opponent. With his legs tense, he began to dig his right foot into the ground behind him. He brought his right fist back, fire chakra spiraling around his forearm.

"Earth Spear huh? I got something for that. I call this—"

Kiyoshi's body flew at incredible speeds, a testament to his training, before appearing directly in front of the drunk, the boy's face contorting in excitement as he prepared to strike in a downward smash.

"Kagutsuchi Collision!"

Ganryu yoshua171

 

[Ganryu]

Hachi, the Drunken Stone - Squad 3

Retro-Grey yoshua171

The drunk moved his hand slightly at the incoming kunai, blocking with a dark patch of his arm, as the jutsu had spread completely. At the kunai's speed, he didn't have much time to respond, but the fact he did, even in his reeling, showed his skill. The kunai still managed to sink into it, though it wasn't deep. The man still screamed, stepping back in surprise.

"Yeowch!"

It wasn't much compared the the following blow, which followed him completing his Earth Spear. The sheer impact knocked him to the ground with an explosion echoing throughout the area. He was flat on his stomach on the ground, moaning from the impact, a small impact around him.

"Ugh..."

The man started to stand once again, slowly getting up. He seemed alot more coordinated now, even being dazed. He didn't move away from Kiyoshi.

"See, ya just had to sober Hachi up... Ow. What the hell kids....?"

He reeled from the punch, though he stood up straight now. He brought his hands together for additional handsigns, leaving himself apparently wide open to Kiyoshi. He glared at the kid, daring him to hit him again, even as he stumbled, open as could be.

 

[shadowdude505]

Misumi Sarutobi (Squads 5 & 6)
​

When the crystal dome was removed, Misumi noticed that the mist had cleared and that Koma stood victorious over the Mist jonin. She stopped channeling fire chakra into her fan, allowing the chakra stored to dissipate into thin air. She didn't like that she had wasted a lot of chakra, luckily she had swallowed a soldier pill and was still in fighting shape. An explosion reminded her that the fight wasn't over yet, though she hoped it would be over soon. "This situation looks like it's been dealt with," she stated, referring to the defeated Mist jonin. "What should we do now, sensei?" she asked, respectfully adressing the Leaf jonin that were present and allow either of them to answer her question.

Personally, Misumi wanted to check on her squad. The question asking if they were alive or dead burned in the back of her mind.

KageYuuki Kimiwriter Orikanyo Ganryu InsaneAsylum

 

[KageYuuki]

Akira
The traces of a grin began to spread across Akira's face as blow after blow began to strike Kuren. It was simple to see the genin was outmatched by the woman and with his teammates off in different directions, she could likely kill him. She paid little mind to the smoke bomb glancing off her shoulder, rolling a few feet away before detonating. Did that mutt really think charging her again was a good idea? The bristling array of spikes would be more than enough to stop the Inuzuka from truly striking her.

A faint gust of wind and the chatterbox in front of her was gone. So that's what she wanted? Akira clicked her tongue, examining the blood adorning her spiked fists. "Skeleton freak lady? Dear, I've been called much, much worse." Her dark hues shifted skyward, studying the bright aurora that seemed to reach as far as any of them could see. "Well, that's new."

Footsteps pounded against the damaged road as the transformed clone rushed Akira, slamming into her and shattering the jar. She glared at the scattering moths in disgust, "And what were you-" Akira coughed, staggering back as her nose and throat started burning. "The fuck did you do?"

AtlannianSpy loyalwolf Hanarei

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Hotaru Hagano
-Squad Seven-
​

"Just a little something I whipped up," said Hotaru, from her perch on top of a nearby house. The expression she wore was the sweetest, most innocent smile Hotaru could manage, carefully masking the exhaustion she was feeling. "See we were supposed to have dinner tonight. Of course that didn't really pan out so well cause you and your friends went ahead and invaded our village. But I guess I'm still in a domestic sorta mood and hey the more the merrier when it comes to dinner parties right?"

Hotaru had already sprung to her feet and was running away, hopping from rooftop to rooftop as she taunted Akira over her shoulder. She'd gotten lucky, there had always been a good chance Akira would see the clone coming and simply shoot it down before it got close enough but between Ashi's smoke bomb and that bizarre chakra phenomenon the woman had perhaps been too distracted. Now that that phase had been accomplished there was one more card Hotaru had left to play. There was a house, about a block away that contained a single explosive tag and had been steadily filling with gas ever since Hotaru had visited it before she and Kuren had confronted Daisuke. Gas that Akira, with her damaged throat and nose, wouldn't be able to smell.

Hotaru shrugged her bag off and whirled to throw it roughly in Akira's direction before she continued fleeing. Hotaru was prepared to detonate her remaining explosive tags inside if Akira passed close enough by but she doubted her opponent would be that foolish. Mostly Hotaru just wanted to make herself a bit lighter and she also hoped the seemingly desperate move would mask her true intentions.

KageYuuki
loyalwolf
Hanarei

 

[loyalwolf]

Ashi saves the day?​

After being overpowered and outmatched by Akira, kuren was beginning to be desperate. He was bloody, exhausted and badly damaged, but he still tried to protect his vital points, but the rest of his body was suffering in the processes. He was relieved when he saw Ashi’s smoke bomb and thought this was his chance to escape. That’s when ashi came out of nowhere and grab him and spun him violently to safety. Not fully prepared, the spinning knocked Kuren’s equilibrium off and it made his wounds open more. He groaned and yell out in pain and uneasiness. He wheezed out in both pain and lack of air “Next time warn me Ashi…. Cough”

At this point kuren couldn’t support himself to move so it was for the best that Ashi helped him move around. Yet he couldn’t help but feel she wasn’t the most graceful when it comes to carrying him. Either way he needs her to get him to the trap Hotaru had set. At this point, Akira had spores on her body that he could lock her in place when the explosion happened. As the adrenaline began to subside, the pain from the strike intensify. He yelled and groaned “Ashi! Hotaru, trap house…. few blocks that way! Go now!” he had to deal with his wounds at some point before he bled out, but he had to wait until Ashi halted her movements. At this point he just had to trust his body in Ashi’s hands.
KageYuuki Hanarei AtlannianSpy

 

[Kimiwriter]

Sei Teshima, Squads 5

Sei couldn't help her trembling. Everything had gone to hell and now the immediate danger seemed to have stopped. The mist cleared and the destruction on the street was clear. It made her stomach churn and she thought she might be sick. Taking several deep breaths, Sei first turned her attention to Yukari. She wasn't a medic by any means but she knew enough basics to temporarily treat her teammate's injuries. "We'll need to find a doctor." Sei looked around at the crumbled buildings. In the distance, she could still hear battles raging between ninja. Finding a doctor in this mess would be close to impossible.

A bright light flashed followed by an explosion that sent shock waves through the streets, kicking up dust and pebbles.

Sei shielded her eyes. After a second, she glanced around. Lights continued to flash from somewhere near the Kage Mount. Sei shivered again.

"I . . . I'm going to check with Sensei. . ." She stood and looked down at the cat beside Yukari. "Stay with her until I get back." Without waiting for an answer, she stumbled away towards her sensei.

When she neared, she found Koma still standing over the fallen Mist ninja. Sei shivered when she saw his face. His eyes were off. And something in the air reminded her of yokai. Carefully skirting the mist ninja's line of sight, she approached Koma. "What did you summon that could do this to someone?" It was like the man's soul had been sucked out of him. Or maybe he was just in a genjutsu; that could explain it, right? She liked that explanation a little more. "Yukari needs a medic." The statement was obvious but she really didn't want to think about anything else beyond getting her teammates to safety.

KageYuuki shadowdude505 Orikanyo Ganryu

 

[Orikanyo]

Koma, the man who did the thing.
Also Hideki
and two others~!


​

"Hmm? Ah, my curious little Sei. Good work on calling for me, I didn't quite expect you to come face to face with a mist swordsmen, but nonetheless this is valuable experience for you both, i dare say you've leveled up~!" he chuckled, now continuing to her questions, coming from her ever increasing inquisitive nature, or so he sees. "No need to worry, he is LONG gone. or rather, hes quite near." he spun the axe on the chain absent mindedly. "These weapons are rather storied you know, be mindful of such things, the unwashed blood of countless lives is quite the horrid thing. Espeacially with how ravenous and vengeful spirits of that sort can be..." he whistled as the cheerful man kept on walking back towards Yukari.

"Don't worry, with me here she will be fine, naturally her body will have to recover.. But I'll get her moving again." his feline smile never left his face, cool as a cucumber.

Now standing once again above Yukari he looked over to the genin he sort of drafted into his squad for the time. "Misumi, we'll be talking about your squad after the current issue is dealt with. Focus on your duties with this group for now. I will see to it that you are taken care of in regards to squad placement afterwards..."

Owed her that much.

"Now Yukari, do your best to hold still and not fidget lest you want to keep this leg." he began to use the mystic palm jutsu to stitch some pieces of her back together again, something not even all the kings men could do!

The young man standing nearby was more interested in the sudden streams of color and such in the sky, positively bewildered. Koma perked up for a second "Don't stare to long or your face will be stuck like that forever." he chirped before setting Yukari's femur straight, something that one would usually have to prepare the patient for, but considering he is, in fact, no doctor, and she was a genin who may have given him a good smack a few days back with that one body blow jutsu... He took whatever little bits of revenge he could get.

Hideki was brought back to earth that the little quip, and backed off to find his own group, specifically Mai...

He was going to need to talk to her...

A BIG talk at that.

But for now he needed to figure out what was going on, see if they were both okay... that mist swordsman... Just what did that jonin do to him? the young man turned to look at where the swordsman was and nearly jumped out of his skin!!

"EH!?"

Standing over the man was two ninja, a man and a woman who were busy finishing stuffing the jonin into the bag the man carried. Hideki could do nothing but stare at the two, completely bewildered by what was happened.

a few moments earlier.
Atop of a roof top laying low as possible was two people, one, a candy pink colored young lady who snuck another treat out from her bag into her mouth, and another a man holding binoculars to his face to watch the fight going on not far from their position. "Ugh.. why are we sticking around here? Mimi! lets go! The boss will be worried!" the candy coated young lady shook her counterpart, obviously bored and apparently didn't learn not to speak with her mouth full. "..." the dark haired young man with a dour face paid no attention to his partner in crime, simply starring more so through the binoculars.

"Ugh.... this is SO DUMB!" she complained again, flipping over on her back to pout like a child.

The fight progressed below, their target was now being attacked by various fronts, he had the upper hand, but now seemed to be kicking it into high gear with his mist jutsu after two- no three jonin came into the scene. "..hmmmph." he grunted, as the candy colored young lady continued to be a irritable child. The fight continued to progress.. Ending much faster than expected. But nonetheless, it seemed their target of observation had been neutralized.

"Gimme that!" the binoculars taken from is hands by his bratty partner so she could look to. "Oh! Looks like hes gone, whelp time to go back~!" she tossed the binoculars back to the man, dinging him in the head. "Grrmbble grumble." "Mimi" grumbled, standing up and moving towards the battlegrounds. "Wait! Where are you going? Come on lest go back, we did our observation!" "Hmmph.." "...Wait... I... OH!!! Yea~~!!! Thats a good idea!"

With a snorting giggle the young lady and man disappeared from their observation post, coming upon the "body" of the swordsman silent as the grave the young lady hefting her bag as her partner filled his with the jonin..

Silent as the grave...

Until.

"Hey everyone~~~!!!! Thanks for the swordsman~! We'll be right outta here in a jiffy so none of you worry about us~!" the candy colored young lady wove to the bunch, looking cheerful as can be. As the man grumbled once more, looking quite unhappy that they couldn't leave in peace. "Cool rock candy jutsu though! i wish I could make candy like that~!" her grateingly cheerful voice called over to Takara, sparking a laugh from Koma. "Heheheh~! Rock candy.. Good one.."

And, as quckly as they came, the man stood tall once more with his bag full of odds and ends, and now a human body, and looked to the candy colored girl. "Whoop! time to go~! See you all around~!' and with a toss to the ground, a bright flash enveloped the area, before they disappeared.

Spoiler: Pictures~!

the candy colored young lady.

"Mimi"

 

[Hanarei]

​

Ashi felt a sense of relief having Kuren in a safer place despite her attempts at being tough. She looked back towards skeleton lady's direction, hearing her mocking her attempt at an insult, making her frown. She was far from pleased to hear her simply shrug it off frustrating her more. Her concentration shifted though briefly up as she glanced up at the bright light, temporarily distracted by it. She couldn't help but be lost in just what exactly it was. Her attention was suddenly shifted back down to Kuren as he spoke. Her expression seemed to shift back to angry pouting.

"Hmmph! Well excuse me prince I'm sorry for saving you I'll leave you behind next time to get beaten up next time if your that ungrateful!" She spoke crossing her arms looking away in response. She was expecting to get some praise or compliment, not to be told she did something wrong. She wasn't exactly able to complete drop her over analyzing things to be subtle slights against her. Even if Kuren had added a compliment to what he said it was likely Ashi probably would of had a similar response unless it was only praise he had to give her. Despite her words, she seemed to notice his condition, suddenly picking her up on her arms, slinging him over her shoulder attempting to keep up the tough act. Yeash he is heavy... what did he eat a whole cow or something before he came to the dinner? Nnn... now its making me hungry... stupid spicy food noodle thingy and not just having just some straight good meat...

Ashi began to move forward, carrying Kuren forward. She wasn't a whimp but carrying someone else with you was far from the most ideal thing to do. She was much less mobile then she normally would be. Her passing fang wouldn't be usable with him on her either for quick bursts of speed. She would have to rely on Hotaru to help keep her distracted so she didn't have to worry about having to dodge more of those annoying projectiles she shot from her fingers. Her head turned up glancing back a bit as Kuren spoke to her

"Yeah yeah, I heard you, I know already. I'm moving. She'll learn soon enough for being such a... jerk!" She spoke back pushing forward, carrying her teammate forward keeping distance from Akira. She wanted to so badly toss more insults at her but she had to worry about Kuren... although truthfully it was likely more about her being mildly feisty with Kuren as he was bleeding on her back that helped to keep her a little preoccupied from letting her temper get the best of her.

loyalwolf AtlannianSpy KageYuuki

 

[KageYuuki]

Akira
Akira continued coughing, staggering away from the noxious cloud that had formed. The fresher air helped her get her breath back under control as she glared up at Hotaru. "Fuck... you..." She snarled, watching the young kunoichi ditch her bag of bugs and take off. She would have quickly given chase, but was stopped as her chatterbox of a teammate spoke up again.

"A trap?" Akira snickered, turning towards the retreating Kuren and Ashi. "So that was your plan?" The woman was practically howling with laughter at this point. "You know, that actually would have worked had dumbass not gone and opened his fucking mouth." She shook her head, bone spikes crumbling to dust. "Seems the master wasn't kidding when he said you were kids playing ninja." Akira's expression sobered, all traces of amusement leaving her voice. "Give up kid, before that mouth of yours gets your team killed."

"This is boring, you brats aren't even worth his time anymore." She wove a few signs, vanishing in a cloud of smoke. If Hotaru were to check, the larva still clinging to her shoulder would be nowhere in the range she could track.

Their attacker was gone.

Letting out a slow sigh, Daisuke stood atop one of the nearby apartment buildings. He'd been hoping to gather some information on that boy's kekkei genkai, but it seems that had been a wasted effort. "Ah, but the night wasn't a total waste..." That one kunoichi had quickly captured his attention. She was clever, curious, not unlike the days he was a genin. He looked down at the small larva she'd managed to attach to his coat, clever indeed.

"I almost can't wait until our paths cross again. Hopefully, you'll continue to impress." No longer having a reason to hang around, the observing clone took its leave and dispelled.

AtlannianSpy loyalwolf Hanarei

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Hotaru Hagano
-Squad 7-
​

"Ahhh... damn."

Hotaru considered herself on the whole a fairly emotionally resilient person. She had never really gotten mad angry or sad when the other children used to tease her or make up rumors about her and Hotaru felt she had handled her setbacks in the past well. Experiments don't really fail as long as they yield some knowledge in the failing, in science knowledge translates directly to progress.

It was the same for people, even if you didn't achieve what you were aiming for, a failure might reveal something that would become the foundation for a later victory. The important thing was to keep moving forwards. Hotaru still believed this, but it was possible to understand something on an intellectual level while feeling bitter and angry.

That wasn't a fight they had to lose. Akira had been strong yes but not unbeatable, their plan had been risky but it had a real chance of success. They'd been careless and because of a useful avenue of investigation into a tantalizing mystery was closed off. Akira and her mysterious kekkei genkai, Daisuke and his bizarre chakra signature and the mystery of what exactly they were trying to accomplish here. Hotaru wanted to tear apart these mysteries and examine every piece of them but for ow they were out of reach and it stung.

"We should let the gas out and remove the tag," Hotaru's voice was absent and distracted. "It'll be a problem if we leave it there and those people come back to their house,' She took a few, halting steps towards the house and promptly fell flat on her face.

"Oh right," Hotaru mumbled into the ground as a palpable wave of exhaustion swept over her. "I used kind of a lot of chakra so one of you is going to have to do that. I think I'm gonna... take a... nap..."

Hanarei
loyalwolf

 

[KageYuuki]

Squad 4
“I’m from squad 11, the other two are from other squads. We were moving West through the downtown district when we were ambushed,” Nagisa’s voice had a hollow, shaky quality to it inspired partly by Katsumi. “This guy came out of nowhere and tried to… Well I got my arm up in time so I’m alive, my Sensei distracted the guy that was trying to kill me and told me to fall back here. Along the way, I bumped into these guys but I’m not sure if anyone else is still… alive,” Nagisa trailed off and then limply took the explosive tags, tucking them into one of her pockets.

“We can plant some tags at least,” she said, leading her squadmates past the mist team. “Oh and be careful,” she added, addressing one of the mist genin. “It’s pretty rough out there,”

Yuuki remained silent as they spoke, hanging onto a scorched Mist headband he'd burnt before they left Nobushige. It wasn't really hard to act like a shaken, broken genin. Not with the sights they were treated to since the attack started.

He silently took the explosive tags. At first, the Uchiha was sickened with the thought of being asked to rig the hospital ruins. But then he realized they had the perfect excuse to be searching the rubble without raising suspicion.

“You and Katsumi get started searching,” whispered Nagisa as soon as they were far enough away from the Mist ninja for it to be safe. “I’ll take the tags and plant them. If we need to leave in a hurry it’ll be useful to have them in place.”After saying that Nagisa slowed her pace somewhat, letting the other two pull ahead, although she was careful to keep them in sight.

Unhurriedly Nagisa began planting the tags at various locations around the hospital ruins. Some of the tags she made a very obvious show of planting, in case anyone from the mist happened to be watching. But some of the tags Nagisa planted as discreetly as possible, by tucking them into her sock and using a suppressed chakra thread to pull them out and plant them as she walked. While she was doing this Nagisa tried to remain alert for anyone watching or approaching them, playing sentry so that Yuuki and Katsumi could focus on searching.

Passing his handful of tags to Nagisa Yuuki pulled ahead, his eyes already scanning the rubble for signs of trapped shinobi. He could see a few very faint wisps of chakra leaking through piles of stone and metal.

He turned towards Katsumi to point her in the right direction and froze. Another blast rocked the entire village, the entire sky now cloaked in an aurora of chakra. The density was enough that even the average civilian could see the bright display. For someone with the sharingan, it was nearly blinding. “The… hell is that?” Beautiful as it may have been Yuuki couldn’t shake a feeling of dread that also came with it.

With Yuuki locating the trapped hospital survivors, Katsumi understood her job would be to lift the rubble trapping them. Before she could reçue even a single person, she fell on her butt. The blast had scared her off her feet. Katsumi’s gaze pointed up to the chakra scatter across the sky like a blanket. “Y-Yuuki? What’s that?”

“Chakra, I think… whatever it is I don’t like it.”

“I’ll hurry up then. B-before something else bad happens,” Katsumi stated, getting off her ass and moving to one of the larger clumps of rubble Yuuki had pointed to. Almost effortlessly, Katsumi lifted up a large slab of concrete with her left hand, dropping it off to the side.

Under the concrete slab was a woman, formerly pressed by the slab. At first, she looked done in, bleeding profusely from the head, and a few broken bones, but she still was breathing. Her long dark hair spread all over the rock she was on, and a set of cracked prayer beads hung from her neck. The woman was Nohime Sanada, Mai Sanada’s mother.

Swiftly, Katsumi knelt down next to the woman frantically reaching first aid kit. The bleeding had to be dealt with quickly of this woman was going to survive. It took Katsumi about a minute to get the bandages wrapped around the wound on the woman’s head. The blood flow should’ve stopped, if not be slowed down enough.

Yuuki carefully moved on ahead, the rubble beneath his feet shifting slightly as he walked. He could only hope there was no one alive underneath the places he’d stood on, but there wasn’t any way to tell. Having the Byakugan would have been a major advantage for them, but they didn’t have the time or luck to find a Hyuuga currently.

Finding the next place, he knelt and waited for Katsumi to catch up. There was a pool of congealed blood at his feet, it seemed too much for one person.

When Katsumi did catch up, it obvious she was distressed. She looked around nervously, hoping she wouldn’t see any Mist Ninja running toward her. Even worse, would be for a Mist Ninja to find the woman she had treated only moments ago. She didn’t have time to be distracted though.

Without even reacting to the excess of blood, Katsumi swiftly picked up the next giant chunk of rubble, and dropped it off to the side.

A small cluster of wounded medics could be seen, many still partially buried. While some of them were clearly no longer in the world of the living, others seemed to still cling to life. One seemed to stand out in the pile, impaled by a short piece of rebar, the familiar Uchiha emblem was faintly visible through the dark crimson.

“M-mom!” Yuuki cringed the moment he spoke up, quickly looking around to see if any had noticed.

A lump formed in Katsumi’s throat, not because of the amount of wounded, but because of the woman who had been speared by the rebar. She felt even worse once Yuuki accidentally said who the woman was. Katsumi hurries over to her, through the mess of blood.

“S-she’ll be ok Yuuki…”

Diagnosis

Katsumi gently pressed her hands around the wound, looking to see exactly how much was affected.

After a few moments. She looked at Yuuki with dread on her face, before quickly looking away. Katsumi wasn’t sure whether or not she could save her.

Yuuki swallowed hard and looked away, the look from Katsumi said more than enough.

Katsumi paused for a moment before speaking. “I’m going to t-take it out, but I need you to put pressure on her as soon as it’s removed so she d-doesn’t bleed out.” Katsumi grabbed onto the piece of concrete on top of Yuuki’s mother, the source of the rebar.

He hesitated a moment before carefully working his way down beside Katsumi. It was nearly impossible to keep even the slightest appearance of calm. Sure, they spent a decent number of years at the academy, learning the rules of shinobi, that one should never show their emotions. But there was a major difference between writing that out on a written test and actually doing so as family and friends were potentially dying all around you.

Taking a slow breath Yuuki pulled off his jacket and folded it up, kneeling beside Ayame. “O-okay…”

Katsumi began pulling upwards, not too fast, by not agonizingly slow either. The rebar exiting all that flesh didn’t look or sound pleasant. As soon as the rebar fully exited her body, Katsumi placed it off to the side.

Yuuki grimaced as the piece of metal was removed, pressing the folded jacket to the wound with trembling hands.

Squatting down next to Yuuki’s mom, Katsumi began healing the wound as best as she could, blood dripped off of her hands. She could feel her efforts becoming more and more difficult to maintain.

The young Uchiha remained silent, unable to look away from Katsumi’s effort to mend the wounded area. Second seemed to drag on like hours as his jacket was quickly turned crimson. “Why won’t it stop…?” His voice was barely a whisper. He almost didn’t see the hand that lightly brushed against Katsumi’s or the dull brown eyes trying to study them.

Katsumi silently cursed herself for not spending more time learning more medical Jutsu. If she had, maybe she’d have a better chance of saving all these people.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt something lightly touching her hands. Looking down, she saw that’s was another hand, a woman’s. She quickly looked at Ayame’s face with hope and surprise.

Seemingly unable to speak, the older kunoichi focused on forming a handsign. The process was slow and painful, but she only needed the one. Finally bringing her hands together, a dark diamond appeared on the center of her forehead before what looked like lines painted by an ink brush spread across her face.

Creation Rebirth

The deep wound Katsumi had been tending to mended beneath her hands and bones audibly shifted back into place. It was a few moments before she could push herself up, almost knocked back over from Yuuki’s sudden hug. “Shh, shh,” Ayame’s voice was low, “Calm down…”

Katsumi was shocked, but also relieved. The fact that Yuuki's mom could heal herself so quickly was wonderful. Katsumi didn’t celebrate for long, there were others she had to get to. Without speaking, Katsumi moved another chunk of rubble and began healing another wounded man. It was odd for Katsumi to still be functional at this point. Her emotions hadn’t overtaken her yet.

After only a brief moment, Ayame pushed Yuuki back. It was hard not to act like a mother, but it was clear things had gone to hell and she wasn’t about to let the genin do all the work. The one already seemed to be running low on chakra. She lightly touched Katsumi’s shoulder, holding out a few soldier pills. “Take these, let me take over healing.” She glanced at Yuuki, “What’s the situation out there? Are we still under attack?”

“It-it’s the Mist,” Yuuki cleared his throat, trying to keep his voice in check. “They’re still here- they’ve made a base just outside… We don’t know why they’re attacking but it seems to have something to do with the Mizukage and Daimyo.”

Ayame frowned, slowly nodding. She knew the situation was bad, but the Mist having set up a base so close wasn’t exactly something she wanted to hear.

“Oh… ok, thank you,” Katsumi thanked Ayame, before quickly swallowing one of the pills. “W-what should I do then?” Katsumi asked. She felt a slight comfort having a Jounin with her, but she knew that she was far from safe.

“Keep doing what you were,” a glow enveloped the Jounin’s hands as she started tending to the medic’s wounds. “Move what rubble you can, triage the wounded and give whatever immediate first aid that you can. Hopefully, we’ll have a few more that can help…”

Katsumi nodded and began moving around the area, moving chunks of rubble off of anyone she could. A majority of the time, all she found were lifeless corpses, but on occasion, she found someone who was still breathing. She’d do what she could to stop any bleeding before moving on.

Before long, Katsumi was forced to swallow another soldier pill. The chakra enhanced strength was far too costly to be using so many times in such a short period.

She lifted a huge chunk of concrete once again, only to find a mess of crushed corpses, flesh, blood and rubble. It was disgusting, and yet a single hand covered entirely in blood stuck out from the mess. It grabbed at the air lazily, searching for a way out.

Without thinking, Katsumi reached out and grasped the hand, and pulled. She managed to retrieve a woman with short hair. Although the woman was covered from head to toe in blood, she didn’t seem to be gravely injured. Katsumi noticed that she was wearing what a hospital patient would wear. She must have been getting treatment for something when the attack struck. Katsumi could still see water pooled up all over the hospital, and her own clothes were soaked. Not just with water.

As Ayame and Katsumi worked, Yuuki resumed trying to scout out any potential survivors. Whenever he came across a spot with even a little chakra leaking out, he’d scratch a mark onto the concrete or wood or whatever was available and could be cut into.

“I somehow don’t think this what I asked you three to do. But, we’re stretched so thin, I had to take the chance. Still, I had a feeling. Your story was too well coordinated.”

A ninja appeared in the middle of them. The same ninja with a mask from earlier, the jounin who’d given them the tags. He seemed to appear from nowhere, nothingness slowly forming into a shape.

“Normally, I hate being flashy, but, well, in battle it is a viable tactic to spread fear among enemy ranks. In order to accomplish this, I’m going to leave one of you alive, and get a little flashy for once. I just need a messenger. So, who do you want to live? Oh. There’s one more here isn’t there?”

He looked at the crowd of medic nin, no compassion in his eyes. Even with Ayame up, he didn’t seem too concerned.

“Oh damn, it’s been so long since I’ve done this, I’ve forgotten the basics of being stupid. I am Han’yo Moto of the Hidden Mist, Master of the Basics, and Jounin of squad 4. The way I will be killing you all is a combo of low ranking elemental jutsu and making you all look like fools. There we go, is that that flashy enough?”

A little too flashy for my tastes. Thought Nagisa, detonating the closest one of her tags to the mist jounin and following it up by summoning a pair of shuriken and hurling them in quick succession, one concealed in the shadow of the other. The tag was too far away to really do more than distract and Nagisa didn’t really expect to hit a jounin just with those shuriken either, but she needed to do something to give Katsumi and Yuuki the chance to react and for her own part Nagisa took the chance to make some distance, hopping backwards as a kunai appeared instantly in her empty hand.

No! While she couldn’t afford to squander chakra on anything other than healing, Ayame couldn’t leave the genin to defend themselves against the jounin alone. Weaving several signs, she focused on Han’yo for a moment.

Bringer of Darkness

“Fuuuck!” Yuuki hissed at the man’s sudden appearance. Of course, it wasn’t going to be so easy. But dammit, why did it have to be a Jounin that came after them? He kept back as Nagisa detonated a nearby tag, weaving hand signs as quickly as he could. Taking a deep breath, he focused on compressing the chakra in his lungs as much as possible.

Fire Release: Flame Mortar

He launched the deceptively small fireball at the Mist shinobi. Yuuki couldn’t pull too far back, Katsumi had burned so much chakra trying to heal the injured shinobi he wasn’t sure how much of a fight she could muster.

Katsumi squeaked and bent down behind some rubble with the woman she had saved. “U-um… stay here!” With her fear plastered on her face, and two wide and afraid eyes, Katsumi peeked over the rubble as Yuuki and Nagisa went on the offensive. It seemed that Yuuki’s mother had weaved a Jutsu as well. If an opening appeared, Katsumi would strike, but if not, she’d focus on protecting the injured.

The explosion caught the nin off guard more than any of the following. It forced him back, part of his mask burned, showing a total of his ear. And then his vision started to fade. He smiled as his last sight was the Med nin doing handsigns. She must still be delirious from the collapse of the hospital. Han’yo closed his eyes, and suddenly his movements looked more confident. With a swipe he grabbed the shurikens both out the air, his sight no longer there to be fooled. Following up he hurled the first one as fast as he could into the fireball, erupting it. The second he threw full force at one of the downed ninja nearby Katsumi.

“Hehehe, maybe I didn’t introduce myself right? I hardly ever do it, it attracts so much unwarranted attention and isn’t efficient. I am Han’yo Moto, OF THE HIDDEN MIST.”

"We heard you the first time," Nagisa snapped, summoning another pair of shuriken and launching them at Moto. Meanwhile, her kunai missed the shuriken by a few precious inches, from Nagisa’s position behind Moto the timing was a little too tricky. But the main point wasn't to hit the shuriken, Nagisa's kunai just needed an "excuse" to be there so that Moto could dismiss it until Nagisa tugged subtly on the thread, causing the kunai to swing back around towards Moto so that the attached tag could be detonated at a lethal range.

"We just don't care,"

Yuuki growled as Han’yo snatched the shuriken from the air and blocked their attacks. It almost infuriating how he went about with his eyes closed, blocking their attacks.

Though if his eyes were closed…

Yuuki set to work, pulling shuriken and explosive tags from his pouches. Wrapping the shuriken in explosives, he threw them in the air and detonated them in rapid succession. If you wanna fight with just sound, let’s see how you like this. His sharingan caught sight of the glowing thread attached to Nagisa’s kunai and the tag coiled around the handle. With all the racket he was making chances were good Han’yo wouldn’t even notice it change course.

Instinctively, Katsumi flung herself down in front of the incoming shuriken with her arms in front of her chest. The shuriken sunk into her forearm, making her squeal as she skidded along the ground. She quickly rolled to her feet and pulled the shuriken out of her left forearm. She was bleeding a lot, it must have sunk pretty deep. With her right hand, she reached behind her back and grabbed her Fuma shuriken. The five blades spread out to their positions.

Han’yo cursed at all the noise going on around him. Taking away his sight was hardly a problem, sight and sound together? A bit too much. He made a few handsigns, foregoing tracking the shurikens. Instead, he vomited water at his feet.

Water Release: Water Prison Jutsu

A cage of water surrounded the Jonin, blocking the incoming hits, and letting him have a moment of reprieve.

Nagisa tsked as her kunai lodged itself in the shell of water and then detonated. It wasn't the result she’d been looking for. Hopefully, the tag would do enough damage to disrupt the jutsu. But if it didn’t Nagisa did have something with a little more penetrative power than the average kunai, she’d been trying to keep this sort of a secret for the chuunin exams but that seemed kind of irrelevant now.

Nagisa raised her arm and tugged at the bandages covering it, as the cloth fluttered away it revealed not flesh but polished wood panels, a prosthetic arm. The panels on the side of Nagisa’s arm sprang open, forming a crossbow-like mechanism with two stretched back limbs and a taut wire joining their ends. With a loud snap, the crossbow fired, launching a heavy bolt at Hanyo’s position.

Seeing Han’yo put up a jutsu to defend himself with, Yuuki threw the last shuriken in his hand at the bubble letting it detonate on impact. Weaving signs, he took a deep breath.

Fire Release: Grand Fireball

A bright stream of fire erupted from the Uchiha’s mouth towards the Jounin.

Han’yo held on to his jutsu at the first explosion, having to dump more chakra into the jutsu to maintain it. It seemed they were trying hard to break it. For genin, not too bad a job. Two senses down for a second, and forcing him on the defense? Not bad. He started a series of handsigns. The crossbolts finally broke through the shell, causing the entire thing to collapse. Han’yo finally finished his handsigns though and had a good feeling where the group was from the feeling of them impacting his technique.

Whipping his kunai to the side, water from around his feet started to follow it, gathering around it. He swung his knife a dozen times, each time sending an arcing blade of water at the group. The first three crashed into the fireball, evaporating in it, but the forth and onward broke through, slicing it to ribbons, and sending the arcs at the group. Each high pressured blade would leave deep scars in stone.

Water Release: Blades of the Deep

Han’yo felt the impact of a kunai in his shoulder and instantly ripped it out, throwing it to the side where it detonated. Some of the rubble behind him shifted.

“If you were my students, I’d have you strung for being far too flashy. That many explosives? Really?”

While Katsumi struggled to pull the shuriken from her forearm, she had been watching explosive battle taking place. Fortunately, she was enough of a distance away that the explosion didn’t send anything flying her way, but that didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous. People could still be trapped under rubble, and this style of combat could only harm them.

Grunting, Katsumi let the shuriken drop to the ground. Her left arm was throbbing, and bleeding badly, but her adrenaline overrode her senses. Despite the adrenaline, she took a deep breath but squealed once the arcs of water came flying her way. She froze, shock and fear paralyzing her for a moment. Just before she was hit, Katsumi’s instincts took over. The Genin sidestepped the arc of water and planted her foot. A dark red mist took her position as Katsumi reappeared to the left of Hanyo, swinging her Fuma shuriken at his torso.

Nagisa went low, sliding under the path of the water blades and then gathering chakra in her arm to push off the ground in a sort of reverse body flicker. It was less efficient than moving from the proper stance would have been but it did propel Nagisa after Katsumi so that she reappeared on the other side of Hanyo, skidding past him close enough to extend the blade in her prosthetic and take a slash at the jounin’s legs

“Shut up about the flashy shit!” Yuuki snarled, as if flinging around blades of water weren’t ‘flashy.’ Bounding back, he tried to get out of the way of the incoming blades. Failing that, he threw his arms up in front of him letting his bracers take the brunt of the blow. The blades still bit deep into his arms but had it not been for the vambraces he probably would have lost use of them.

Han’yo stopped moving as Katsumi and Nagisa approached. His nostrils flared as he sniffed the air. Two bloody arms, he could follow the strikes. And yet he didn’t move, his body tensed, and his knife was at the ready. Suddenly bodies appeared in front of Katsumi and Nagisa, blocking their individual strikes. Nobody seemed more surprised than Han’yo.

“You think you’re tired of hearing about flashy shit? Try being his genin!”

It was the three genin from the exam, who still looked terrified. Han’yo looked pissed.

“What are you three doing here? I was going to take that strike as to undo the genjutsu I’m under. I can’t protect you and fight! Tch.”

“We heard the explosions. As did half of the home base, I expect them to be coming this way any second.”

As if on cue, several more, older ninja appeared around the area. They didn’t attack the three genin however.

“Lord Han’yo, Squad 4, withdraw! The Mist is returning. No questions, its an emergency! Passcode’s Sanosuke ”

Though confused, all the mist ninja disappeared extremely quickly. Han’yo’s genin helped him, one stayed behind him, looking at the Leaf’s Squad 4.

“You guys are lucky this time. We’re not done here, you hear me? We’ll pay you back! You, you killed our Lord Mizukage’s son, made us look like idiots, lied to us, and hurt sensei! This right here is nothing to what we will do!”

A body flicker later, and they were left alone.

There was a brief moment of silence and then Nagisa frowned.

“Wait, that guy was a lord?”

 

[Ganryu]

- ARC END -​

All across the village, the fighting was stopped as a glow blinded everyone, red bathing everything around, followed by a deafening roar. Following the two confusing events, a large cloud was left over what used to be the Hokage’s office, and debris began to rain as far away as where Squad 7 was standing. The silence continued despite the maelstrom of violence, before beginning to wear off, becoming a low buzzing. Left in the center of the village was a massive crater, and two bodies.

Stepping into the crater’s heart, Daisuke sighed. “What happened to just buying time, hm?” Shaking his head he stowed Kurou’s Jade Book before carefully lifting the unconscious shinobi. “I suppose I should get you patched up. Before Chomei has a conniption.”

Before he could leave, a group of ANBU appeared. For a long, tense moment neither group moved. A silent agreement was reached to just collect their wounded and leave.

There had been enough fighting for one day.

Shortly following the explosion, two mist ninja ran to the Mizukage from their base of operation, a look of horror on their face. They’d just come from their teleporting seal. The looked even worse for wear than many people fighting, with dirt and blood covering them.

“L-l-lord Reju, sir. T-the village. I-its gone. The Bijuu, they attacked us while we were here. Tailed beast bombs everywhere. Explosions, houses gone, the screaming, and the blood… We’ve been tricked! We’re gathering up survivors, but we need you there! Its horrible. My heavens… it’s horrible.”

And the ninja broke down, falling to the floor crying. The other one looked just as shaken, but managed to mouth.

“P-password’s Sanosuke sir…”

Without a word, Reiji moved the enormous orb of water over the Uchiha Compound from atop Grand Manta.

“So we were played for fools…” Reiji’s muscles relaxed, and the orb dropped. Before it made contact with the compound, Reiji formed a handsign, forcing all of his chakra in the orb downwards.

With despair added to the rage in his eyes, Reiji spoke. “Might as well finish the job before I go.” Without bothering to look at the destruction he had created, Reiji and Grand Manta disappeared, leaving behind a faint mist.

All around the Hidden Leaf, the Mist began to retreat in earnest, making their way back to the hotel that they had claimed for their base, leaving the genin to attend to their wounds.

It was a trying night, not many slept that night. Or the next few nights following that. It had been discovered and reported to each ninja about a week later the cause of the invasion. Apparently a Leaf ninja had brutally murdered both the son of the Mizukage, and of the Daimyo in a very public and humiliating way. It had been an Uchiha, and it hadn’t been a transformation, as sharingan had been used. A small group of powerful shinobi from the former Hidden Whirlpool village had taken this opportunity to incite them against the Leaf, and had offered their help. However, they had betrayed the Mist, and had Bijuu attack while the Mist was a way, nearly leveling the village.

Damage in the Hidden Leaf is great. Akai Kyodai has robbed every major clan in the Leaf, and devastated their living places. What they hadn’t destroyed, the fighting often did, meaning many genin don’t even have much of a home to return to.

The worst results of the attack, however, were twofold. First, the Mizukage’s attack against the Medical nin had proven gravely affected. The majority are either dead, or too hurt to move. No healing following a war is a very, very bad thing. Second, following his battle with the interloper, Gou Uchiha, Hokage of the Hidden Leaf, has been comatosed. The enemy ninja’s final attack, a tailed beast bomb, had cleared the area, and left the Hokage’s body covered in burns, and severely injured. Talks of a new Hokage are abound, yet who would take his place?

As for the genin, each had been recognized for their efforts in the war. Should the village have been functioning, they likely would officially be recognized as chunin for their efforts. Each had taken on a Jonin level opponent, and none had lost a member in the ensuing battle. Even without the official title, they have basically been recognized as such by the entire village. An entire class of genin being brave enough to participate in, and contribute in such a large scale battle was amazing, and the teams seem to have become the talk of the village overnight, as the village needed something good to look forward to following such mass devastation.

Still, the village is at a terrifying standstill, their leader out of commission, and the Mist forced to retreat has left one big question: What now?

 

[Ganryu]

Total Drama Training
Mai Sanada && Takara Himura ​

Mai walked through the ruined training field. Even this place had become a warzone. Still, a wrecked training area was hardly anything new to the girl. She wondered if Takara-sensei would show up. Mai had sent a note to her Jonin sensei, but, who knew if she’d come. It wasn’t like Mai to ask for training. She’d normally seek out someone in the training areas, and either ruthlessly beat them up, or enjoy getting beat up far too much. Considering she had a habit of finding who she thought was the strongest, the former hardly ever happened. And yet, that marked the oddest thing on Mai. She didn’t have a bruise on her, nor bandage, nor even really even callused hands. Mai paced the training field impatiently.

“Oi, Takara-oni, you here?”

“Yeah,” Takara sat on the log of a fallen tree, though instead of her usual novel she held a worn notebook. Sensei or not, with the way things were it was near impossible to get away from work for even a few moments. “What did you need?”

Mai gave a flippant smirk, with suddenly an elegant curtsy. As normal she tried to make herself as annoying and hard to read as possible.

“Aren’t you happy to see me Takara-sensei? Well, fiiiine, guess I’ll get to the point. Due to… reasons, I’m a bit afraid to train like normal, but I can’t let myself get weak. Especially after this... Takara-sensei, I need to know how strong I am. I got an idea thinking about it though. Well, first, how good is your genjutsu, sensei?”

“Respectable for a Jounin,” Her eyes were dull, unkempt hair barely held back in a loose ponytail. “Why?”

Mai tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Hmm. Not sure if I’m looking for respectable. Eh, whatever, I’ll bite. Sensei, I want to fight that swordsman again. One on one. I watched him carefully, and I know at least what he looked like halfway fighting us. Can you do that?”

The Jounin blinked at her a few times, trying to figure out if she heard the girl right or not. “You want to… what? Why would you want that? Especially right now?”

Mai furrowed her brow. Now she was the one confused.

“Fight the swordsman? I need to know where I stand. Why wouldn’t I want that right now? There isn’t a better time. Like I said, normal training’s out the picture.”

Takara was silent, she put the notebook and pen away as she stood. Her body dissolved into crystal dust as she body flickered right in front of Mai. The look of anger and disappointment on her face were likely nothing new to Mai. The unrestrained punch right for her nose? That was a little more uncommon.

Mai reeled as much in surprise as pain from the punch, stumbling back. It was one hell of a good punch. Mai never got to train like this! As soon as she’d regained herself, a crazed slasher smile was plastered on her face. She, however, slapped herself in the face, the smile faded away.

“Sensei, I just said I can’t train like normal. Tch. Last time I taijutsu trained with you… Anyways, is that a no you can’t do it?”

“I can, but I won’t,” Takara sneered. “Take a look around you, Mai. The village is in ruins, we don’t have a Hokage, your teammates are both injured, and all you seem to think about is yourself.”

Mai didn't say a word for the longest time. She just stood there, taking a deep as a breath as possible.

"What’cha want me to do, cry? If I don't get stronger, how are we going to stop the Mist next time? No one else seems to want to. Is crying going to make Hideki or Aiko less hurt? Is it going to give us a Hokage? Is it going to make my Mom wake up? Tch, I'll figure the rest out on my own. I always do."

Mai ripped off her glove, throwing it to the ground. With a struggle, she clenched her right fist, and turned to leave.

Snatching her by the shoulder, Takara spun Mai to face her. “I'm not telling you to sit around and cry, I'm telling you to get your head out of your ass and stop being such a self centered brat. Had you not charged that swordsman to test your own strength your team wouldn't have been forced to stay and stall for help. You're god damned lucky you didn't get all five of them killed with that little stunt of yours.”

“The stunt where they got to see his speed, and maybe see if Aiko has the sharingan? By the way, she doesn’t. Hideki’s smarter than me, he could have done with that information. If you hadn’t noticed I’m fine, and it’s not because I was looking to fight him then, I was looking to block. If we ran, he told us he was going to kill us. If we fought and were loud, maybe some jonin who could actually fight him would come by. Geez, it's almost as if I was thinking about them, but I’m just a stupid genin, Miss Himura. Thankfully I’m lucky. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to make more ‘luck’.”

“If that was your grand plan then why didn't you go help them when the battle clearly started going downhill. Was it because you were sulking that you couldn't even touch him?”

Mai snarled and raised her right hand between the two. It was still trembling and not quite closed.

“Because it’s hard to block when you can’t feel anything!”

Takara shook her head, “You're not the hero of some story, Mai. You're not untouchable. It's only a matter of time before that ego of yours gets someone killed or worse.”

Mai wanted a witty retort, but none came to mind. Why couldn’t she be the hero of her own story? The hokage was, everyone spoke his name as reference, but she was classmates with his son. Why couldn’t she just be a hero?

Honestly, she thought she’d get praise for helping hold off the swordsman. She’d thrown herself in danger, done the best job she could to keep everyone safe, and it’d all worked out fine. Instead she was getting yelled at. Mai did tear a bit. She muttered under her breath, looking down.

“Apparently I’m the villain though.”

Still, Mai looked Takara in the eye. She might be out of words, but she could let her spirit speak. She was Mai Sanada. Nothing was going to beat her spirit. She was invincible!

She finally found something to cling onto. She could at least leave on a winning argument.

“Miss Himura, what’s my strongest current jutsu?"

Takara finally released the girl’s shoulder, crossing her arms in front of her. “Probably your shadow strike. It's certainly the one you're most proficient at.”

Mai’s response was a smirk as she turned to walk away. Childish? Maybe, but if she couldn’t answer Takara’s question, the least she could do was give her one she knew she couldn’t answer. ‘It’ would give her something to look forward to next mission. The jutsu that surpassed Shadow Strike.

Mai was still annoyed she hadn’t an answer to the hero question though. Why couldn’t she be the hero of the story? Why was Takara making her out like a villain the entire time!? What would it take to get her respect? She’d already attacked a Swordsman of the Mist. Why did she even care? She’d already swore she’d never see Takara as a sensei. Still… she did care.

 

[Orikanyo]

Hideki Ukita & Yukari Hyuuga

New allies, New friends.​

“Okay Hideki… It’ll be fine… there's no need to be nervous. Just going in to say hello and thanks for saving your life and all that… Really no issues…” he stood in the hallway around the corner of the hallway that a certain young woman who saved his life not a few days ago lay recovering. He had a tough enough time trying to figure out where to go, much less getting the point across that his reason for being in this area is at all innocent. And now he was waiting to be called in by a older woman who was looking over her.

Why didn’t he just wait?

Maybe talk to her when she was finally out?

Why did he suddenly think it was the good idea to come to the god damn Hyuuga compound!?

Hideki, that's enough, no need to get freaked out, your only being watched as you take every single step through this place.

Just take a deep breath…

He was coming in bearing gifts nonetheless, flowers, at least Sensei said they would be a good choice. Peonies and magnolias, despite all that went on the Yaminaka clan’s flower business was still up and running, they seemed happy to make a bouquet that wasn’t for a grave it seems…

…

Best he stop thinking about such things.

“You can come with me now, she is awake, though in some pain.” a soft warm voice called to the young man, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Ah, o-okay.” he responded to the sweet older looking lady, grey eyed as all others in this place. He followed behind the woman, still feeling shivers crawl up his spine.

Sitting on a futon Yukari leaned against several pillows, a while cat was curled up on her lap. She wore a simple yukata, though the dark blotches of bruises could still be seen against her pale skin. She studied him for a moment, “Hideki… right?”

Getting knocked senseless with a hammer isn’t exactly good for one’s memory.

Momochi took to the side to let the two speak, keeping out of the way and still looking abit to much like she was enjoying this. Hideki swallowed the frog in his throat and nodded. “Ah.. Yea…” was all he was really able to get out, the flowers ruffling in his hands as if reminding him why he was here.

“...Ah.. yes, I came to… let you know.. I mean…” he backed off on his words, trying to find the right ones as if he felt like an actor on a stage with a VERY aggressive audience. Though… the woman in the room looked more or less calm, he wondered just where was this feeling coming from.

He cleared his throat again and started again. “I came to… thank you, for saving my life and those of my squad.. Had you and your squad not arrived we would’ve likely died… And… that I’m sorry i wasn’t able to prevent your injury…” he bowed slightly, looking as awkward as he ever could be.

“Oh, um…” A slight flush crossed the Hyuuga’s face, “We couldn’t leave your squad alone like that... “ She shifted, wincing slightly as he mentioned not being able to stop her from getting hurt. “That- that wasn’t your fault… I shouldn’t have rushed him like that… You did stop him from… from killing me though…”

“Ah…” he nodded softly, feeling a pang of pain come from his arm as he remembered the scene again. “We were lucky that nobody died... My sensei said we handled it to the best of our ability. I’ve.. never truly understood what it would be like to face somebody that strong before then.” he paused, unsure of why he was going on like this.

Momochi eyed the two, thoroughly enjoying their exceedingly awkward conversation.

“...Though… I guess we both saved one another… Though I got off better.” he managed to hold his head up for a moment, noticing the cat from before laying atop of her… it looked so fluffy and soft… So cute as well.

After a brief, yet awkward silence, Yukari cleared her throat. “Have a seat, if you want,” she motioned to a cushion on the tatami floor. “Would you like some tea?” Hikari stirred, noticed Hideki looking at her and turning away.

The young man nodded, taking up the seat readily, suddenly remembering the flowers once again. “Ah, yea.. I- uh, thought it would be best to come see the hero of the day” yea smooth hideki “With.. these… If you want them.” he offered them towards the young woman, daring to only look with half glances. All while Momochi starred in utter delight with how silly this was from behind him.

Yukari blinked, carefully reaching to accept the bouquet. “Thank you, they’re beautiful,” her pale eyes studied them for a moment, if only to hide the flushing on her cheeks. “How’d you even find them? I thought the market district… was…”

The young man scratched the back of his head, feeling embarrassed all the sudden. “Umm… The Yaminaka clan apparently got off well enough, Their home was largely saved from the blasts.” he sighed, trying not to think on it too much. “There.. Was a lot of people there… They were handing flowers out freely, giving what comfort they could… I’ll admit that i know little on the meaning of flowers… they helped me a great deal.” he tried to explain, not fully certain if he understood all that happened himself.

“I see…” It really felt like dumb luck the Hyuuga’s compound hadn’t been hit nearly as hard as some of the other clan’s. But it was something she didn’t want to dwell on. “I’m… not really an expert on flowers either…” She admitted, avoiding Momochi’s gaze, “B-but it still means a lot that you went through all the trouble.”

He felt blood rise to his face once again. “Ah, Well… Your very welcome.” he felt a smile creep along his face, feeling flattered. “Umm… So… Whats your.. Squad like?” he asked, realizing this was the first time he's worked together with another squad, well, he's worked with Yuuki in terms of training but besides that nobody else..

He would miss that shield, the amount of times he’s given that boy a smack with it….

Such a shame…

“You seemed very capable.. Has your missions been hard up to this point?”

“Well, they’re… uh… probably very different from what your squad has.” How could she even begin to explain her work with Yokai without sounding insane? “We tend to a lot of shrines… not typical shinobi work by any means.”

Hideki was… bewildered… A ninja tending to shrines? And being that great at fighting? This sensei of theirs must be a master at training them, putting them through tougher trials than he could imagine…

He.. suddenly felt really small again.

“Umm.. Well… On our missions we’ve done a few odd things. Our last one before… the war… We were sent looking for a nobleman’s pet. We were told it was a kitty.. So we prepared to find a cat.” he looked down once more to the cat that seemed to be actively ignoring him, much to his sadness.

“We got to the village and apparently it had been attacked often by a beast that prowled the woods. I went looking through the town for our client’s cat, while the others looked for the beast. I was.. Unable to find the cat, even with a bunch of cat nip… Found lots of other cats though... Wish i could’ve brought them home..“ he cleared his throat trying to get back on track, despite the fact he seemed to really like cats.

“So I went to go find the others. After some time I.. Well.. was set upon by the beast. A tiger, of all things… Licking my face all over. And guess what turned out to be our client’s precious kitty?” he sighed, cracking a smile as he shook his head. “Mai loved the thing, we had to pry her off it when we had to let him go…” he chuckled slightly, remembering the day like it was yesterday.

“Friendliest tiger I’ve ever met.”

Yukari blinked, trying to process his story. “A… tiger? And the client didn’t tell you that?” She gave a light chuckle, careful not to aggravate injured ribs. “You’d think that’d be something important so you don’t, you know, kill it?” Hikari silently watched him, flicking her tail slightly.

“Guess I’ve had a client do the same,” the Hyuuga mused, “we had to find this… this teapot that was stolen from him. Boring, but I guess that’s genin work. Of course he failed to mention there was something sealed inside it that had gotten out.”

“Yea.. Well all is well that ends well.” the young men chuckled, though rose an eyebrow as she mentioned something similar happened to her. “Something was sealed in the teapot? Like… a summoned creature?” he asked looking quite curious on the matter, leaning in intentively listening.

Yukari hesitated, now she went and done it… Probably that medicine for pain messing with her head. “Kinda? More like a monster if anything.” At least Momochi already knew about Koma’s unusual line of work.

“A.. monster?” he blinked a few times. “Like… What.. did it look like?” he tilted his head, curiouser and curiouser. Momochi took this moment to walk up with the tea. “Here we are, ah, allow me to take these flowers. Peonies and magnolias. My, are you certain you’ve only met Miss Yukari only recently? You’ve made a good choice.” she giggled, teasing the young man to give the young lady a way out of that topic.

Hideki was taken aback by her sudden appearance, blushing madly. “Ah, I’m.. Umm..” he stuttered, sinking back and trying to hide his face. “It was a…” he tried to wave it off, but the woman simply giggled again. “My my… Maybe I should get hurt to? Would you bring me flowers? I wouldn’t mind a cute boy like you stopping by~!” she chimed again, Hideki’s head now turning red as a beet.

He wished he could simply dig into the floor and swim away…

Yukari sighed, “Aunt Momochi…” She wasn’t wrong though, he was cute. The younger Hyuuga cleared her throat, picking up one of the teacups. “Anyway… how are your teammates doing? The one, um… Mai? She took a pretty nasty hit back there.”

The young man collected himself by the next round of questions, with the help of the tea nonetheless. “Mai…? Shes fine, as usual… Though I will have to talk to her about something soon enough.” he took another sip, thinking that he will cross that bridge when he comes to it. “Aiko however is worried for her father, whom proved himself by aiding against the swordsman I feel, but nonetheless I think he had to answer a few questions considering their home village…” he sighed, worried again. “Their both wonderful teammates, wish we had more cohesion…”

“Home village? He isn’t from the Leaf?” It would explain a couple things, ice release didn’t really seem like something native to the Land of Fire. But Kekkei Genkai were a strange thing. “Mmmm, I can’t say my team’s any better in terms of coordination in battle.”

“At least yours didn’t decide a suicidal rush was acceptable.” he grumbled, rubbing the cast upon his arm. He noticed at this time how freely he was speaking, even if their choice of topic was rather subdued, hell he first thought it was like coming to see a damn princess and now he was… simply talking.

“...I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I’ve never really… Well…” he looked around at the building. “This place is absolutely massive. What's it like living here? I have no clan so… Only places like this I’ve been to is the Uchiha compound.” he eyed at how… traditional the place looked, and rather…

Well…

Not exactly home-like it felt.

“Strict...stuffy…” She sighed, “You’re lucky you’re not from some large clan, don’t have a group of elders judging your every move. No traditions to worry about, hierarchies to fuss over. Doesn’t help I’m supposed to be the heiress.” Yukari mumbled the last bit, even that was in jeopardy now.

He nodded, it all sounded so hard to deal with, hell, stifling. He could only imagine the type of surveillance they have going on here. “It must be very tough doing anything… At least you're never really alone.” it was an upside, no matter how small.

Atleast.. That's how he viewed it.

“...My.. home is pretty empty now, I’m not certain where my father went and with all thats happened…” he has tried looking for the man, asking anybody he can on his location and what he was doing. The last person who saw him said something about the forest and trying to attack the enemy from beyond the front line?

All while his son nearly died fighting a mist swordsman… Tied to duty, some father.

A thought just occurred to him, she was an heiress to the clan right? How did he not notice before? The security all makes good sense now, especially since she is injured. The young man felt a bit more comfortable, knowing that the feeling he felt was precautionary measures and now fully understanding why it was happening… Though.. He did feel something… A stare with a good amount of… malice behind it..Something going beyond that of normal “keeping an eye on somebody.”

…

Wait… Shes the heiress? So that means her father is…

…

Hoooo boy….

“...Even yuki didn’t have this much going on, and I punched him in the face a few times…” he spoke softly, feeling as if there was a wrathful god watching his movements again.

“It is next to impossible to do much of anything, let alone really have a moment to yourself.” She shifted slightly, “I’m… sorry to hear that… I can have someone ask around a little more, if you’d like…” Yukari tilted her head slightly, noticing Hideki’s sudden nervousness. He hadn’t said anything wrong so…

Oh…

“Dammit, father…” she rubbed her eyes with a groan.

“..Ever since I came in... “ he didn’t dare look up now, the floor was awfully important, very important to look at. “...I guess he is protective…?” he asked, glancing towards Momochi who suddenly appeared with a board of some kind and plopped it down between the two. “Why don’t we have some fun hmm?” the woman asked the two, again, trying to save the conversation.

“Huh? Whats that?’ he asked looking down at the board below him. He remembered seeing two old men playing a game like it on the street often enough.

“Protective’s one way to put it… cares more about the clan and its image than anything.” Yukari looked at the board, lightly picking up on of the wooden boxes on it. “Never played go before?”

“Can’t.. Say I have.” he decided NOT to mention the old people thing as he watched Yukari pick up the box. “How exactly do you play?’

“Basically the goal is to surround and capture the other player’s stones. I can teach you if you want.”

“Well, alright. Should be fun.” he said, copying Yukari and grabbing the box on the opposite.

*Sometime later*

“So if I do this… Wait… No…” the young man grumbled, still learning the game, even as Yukari thoroughly crushed him.

*More time later*

“Right… And then I… Ah! I won! For.. once..”

*More time later*

“...You were going easy on me that one time huh?” the young man sighed in defeat, going 7-1 the young man felt quite defeated in the realms of Go. “You are very good at this. Do you play often?” he asked as Momochi gave what might be considered a quite smug smile, knowing herself to be the heiress’s most common combatant in such a game.

And most fierce as well.

“Ah… sorry,” Yukari chuckled, rubbing the back of her head. “It’s been forever since I’ve actually won a game of go. Momochi’s pretty merciless when she plays.”

“Well, that was fun nonetheless, lets do this again sometime.” he smioled, though wondered if he really.. Could come back at all, almost felt like this was a one time deal considering everything. The young man stood up once again, feeling his legs numb and tingly from sitting down for so long.

“That would be nice,” Yukari returned his smile, “hopefully I’ll be well enough to leave soon, might be a little easier on you.” Not that it would stop her father from sending an attendant or something to keep an eye on them.

The young man gave a nod, turning to leave. “It’s a date then. See you around.” the burst of confidence showing as he began to leave, lasting only until he left the room… And swiftly began to make his exit before his words begin to bite him directly in the ass and tear it off.

Momochi watched as the young man closed the door behind him and started making a quick exit. “...Well, that went well enough.” she smiled to her young charge. “A better visit then any suitor I’ll say that much.” the older woman giggled at Yukari’s expense.

 

[Ganryu]

Heroes and the Dead
Mai Sanada && Hideki Ukita​

The sound of the clock ticked away the seconds as the young man sat at the table, he was in his home, doing as he had been doing for the last two days between whatever came to mind he felt he should do. Waiting for somebody to come home, somebody to give a call, a note, a sign of life, anything to spell that the certain person was okay or won’t be back for abit of time.

A still slightly warm lunch lay in front of him, simple ramen, nothing truly special, in truth he had been more used to eating out rather than eating at home. Neither of the men would cook, both barely said a word to one another even when they were both around and they rarely ever kept anything perishable in the house should it start to rot.

All that was needed to be said had been said, what use was talking to man with nothing to say, not a shred of life left within him, simply doing his duty in a vain attempt to try and find worth day in, day out.

The happiness he gained from visiting the one who saved him was long gone, Go was fun enough but… it just couldn’t defeat the stifling silence that prevailed throughout the house. The afternoon sun shined through pulled shades as the young man continued his silent vigil, a painful silence.

It was like this when his mother died as well, a endless silence as he continued to wait for her to come home from the hospital, hoping beyond all hope that it was a mistake. A horrible, simple mistake. He did nothing but wait for a week, he didn’t go to school, he didn’t do as much as eat… Perhaps it was due to his training that he even managed to cook, clean and talk, even for a moment about a happier time with his fellow wounded.

Or.. maybe he had grown used to that pain, enough to keep that semblance of life.

…

Like his… Father….

…

A large tapping could be heard above though. It sounded like a thousand squirrels running amok in the attic. It was followed by a voice, a rather energetic one.

“Damnit! Picking locks is always so much easier in books.”

Mai sat atop his house, trying to break in as ‘sneakily’ as possible through the upstairs window. She had a sack hanging off her back, and about 1,000 bobby pins by her. About 400 were broken.

Hideki blinked, not fully registering the noise until that familiar voice cut through the silence lording over him. He got up much faster than what he would’ve wanted, the chair under him screeching against the floor in his sudden jump to standing.

He stepped around the room, looking up to the ceiling in an attempt to find exactly where the sounds were coming from. “H-h-hello?” his voice cracked, sitting there and stewing over the past didn’t do wonders to hiding the more pronounced effects of one’s growth.

He stepped softly along the floor, finally looking at the door where the sounds lay, or atleast the sounds were above and beyond it. His father’s room, it had been years since he’s been inside… he reached for the door knob and froze… Could he.. Really go in?

It be like opening up a vault filled with… who knows what.

Memories, that horrible pain, could he really just enter?

The pit in the bottom of his stomache tried to pull him back to the chair he had been sitting upon, desperate to go back to the silent nothing, to hope that the intruder he could almost place would just leave…

It screamed at him to leave that door alone, all the way up to the point he began to turn the knob and let the door slowly swing into the stale aired room.

One step after another, he walked into the room, it was so very bare… As if looking into the mind of his father. There was nothing but a futon, a pile of scrolls, a couple of boxes and what was left of the man’s kit that he left behind before he....

The boy sighed before he looked up towards the disturbance of his gestation in his own misery, none other that the young lady of tomfoolery herself, trying to pick a lock that had been busted and broken for years now.

“...Mai?” he rose a hand to shade his eyes from the faint rays peeking from behind her.

Mai looked in, and waved.

“Hi Hideki!”

Beforehand, she’d thought it’d just been dark in there. Now she realized the window was just dirty. She looked at the lock on last time, shrugged, and swiped the bobby pins off the roof. Except for one. She put that one in her hair. Looking at the window one last time, she shrugged and just lifted the damn thing. Metal groaned.

Slipping inside she gave him a slap on the back.

“So, Hideki… what’cha up to? I came by to give ya a present. I mean, most people give flowers, but, well, I thought that was dumb, so I brought something useful. A week’s worth a jerky. How’s your arm treating you?”

She dropped a basketball sized sack of jerky on a nearby futon. It was far more than a weeks worth. Mai was seemed to be in as cheery a mood as ever, though a bandage covered her nose. It was a bit bruised.

“Mai maybe this is a bad-” the slap on the back sent him forward a step, as usual, she had more muscle than she could control. The mound, no, mountain fo jerky placed upon his father’s futon was like seeing a unicorn to his stomache, which had been subsisting on guilt, sadness and shitty cheap ramen. It roared like a lion signalling to it’s pride toi hunt, calling for the young man to consume it with enough gusto to make Mai jealous.

“I.. my… my arm is getting better.” he looked down to it, having barely felt any pain from it in the last few days. He finally let out a long breath as the fresh air seeped into the house form the opened window, filling the place with a small spark of life.

“I’ve… been waiting for dad to come home…. But..” he trailed off, biting his lip before looking at the young woman who invaded his family’s… Well.. HIS home.

“He… hasn’t…” he cringed. “Come back…”

Mai put her finger to her chin thinking.

“Yeah. My Mom’s not woken up yet either. But he’ll probably come back. There were bandits and Mist nin, he could have been taken by either. If that’s the case, we just have to look. The strong conquer the weak, and I’m sure as hell not getting conquered that easy. Man. This place is a hellhole. Imma be right back.”

And like that Mai left as quickly as she’d come.

Hideki blinked, she was gone, just like that. All of his brooding here, all of the pain he felt, she just brushed it away and left after saying they should look for him. She… her mother… her mother was two steps from death and she was telling him to get his ass moving?

Could she feel no pain!?

Could she not think about it?

Or… or…

Maybe she was just… Keeping her head up and moving?

Or maybe that was just her being Mai?

“...Why did she leave all of the sudden?”

Aaand in a flash she was back again, panting from the run. Mai now wore a cloth across her mouth, and had a bucket with cleaning supplies in it. Mai just started cleaning out the blue, looking at the worst spots, and dousing them with cleaning. She talked as she worked.

“To be honest, bit too tired to really keep training, but, hey, gotta find something to do. Don’t know why, but I’ve just felt so lazy lately. Don’t like it, so been working my rear end off to not feel lazy anymore. I mean, at least your house is wood and normal things, Cleaning here will be so much easier. My house is rock. Roof’s still caved in. Not sure I want them to fix it, it’s nice to stare at the stars. It is hard to clean around a 10 ton roof though…. Hear anything from Aiko? Miss Himura’s being a real bitch right now. Hope Aiko’s better than that.”

“I… Wha…” baffled, once again, in truth this is to be expected but gods damn it if it wasn't coming quick today. “Miss Himura? Cleaning? Wait… your… house is made of stone?’ he questioned, blinking a few times as the young kunoichi turned maid, a rather interesting combination in any other situation, began cleaning his father’s room…

For.. some.. Reason?

Mai stood up from the floor, putting her hands on her hips.

“Come on, did ya fail history in the academy? The Sanada clan’s main responsibility in the Hidden Leaf is the upkeep and protection of the Hokage Monument. In order to facilitate this, we live in a quarry where we collect stone for the monument to add whenever a new Hokage is chosen. We don’t really know the 4th’s condition, so alot of the mason’s have started, just in case. Like, half of us are ninja to protect the damn thing, half of us are masons. I’m obviously a sexy kunoichi, don’t let me near a chisel. Come on, read a book.”

She went back to the floor.

“Oh yeah, and Himura’s being a bitch. She broke my nose! And it wasn’t fun! I didn’t know that was possible. So ain’t calling her sensei til she apologizes. Also, Hideki, that mold’s been growing for freakin’ ever, you ever clean this?”

“I… huh..” he never really knew what mai’s family did, he was… genuinely impressed! Which was surprising, somewhat, that he was impressed in any fact other than her strength or swimsuit choices… Naturally she brought up her “sexyness” again but whatever, that will never end.

“Himura… Sensei huh… why would she punch you in the face? That doesn’t sound like her.” he frowned trying to think why she would… Well… he could list a few reasons why, but this time it feels abit… deeper.

“Oh, this is my dad’s room, I’ve.. We’ve… Well… it’s complicated.” he sighed, wondering just how the hell it came to this. He was very busy a few minutes ago feeling sorry for himself and now mai came in and suddenly became his acting maid? …He really needs to chill on that train of thought for now.

“Meh, whatever, bored anyways. And I dunno! She was freakin’ psycho! I just wanted her to train me with genjutsu. Thought she’d be overjoyed with it! I mean, I’m more embarrassed I got hit, it was a shit punch. I mean, I’m all for Taijutsu training, but can’t really do it at the moment. Its pissing me off! Like, how do I train if I can’t even punch things til I collapse? Its one of life’s great mysteries. I’m still trying to figure out how to train. We have a bamboo forest I’ve been messing around with body flicker in, but I’m always afraid I’ll fall off. Ugh. Feeling mortal sucks. Ugh. Any suggestions what I can do all day instead of punching things?”

“Umm… Welll…” he stuttered, trying to piece the big incomplete puzzle that was being laid out before him. “Train you with genjutsu… and she… punched you and broke your nose?” he shook his head, pretty certain he wasn’t going to get a single straight answer out of the girl.

“Well.. bodybuilding? Strength training? Chakra control can always be done. Sorry to say but I don’t think we’ll be sparring for abit.. Arm has the nasty cut you know, and my shield is ruined. I need a new one.” he remembered the fight again, and suddenly the questions he had came up once more.

“Hey… mai… During the fight, with the swordsman… you survived that strike… how did you do that? Your completely fine even after it.” he began the first one, curious as to how she managed that.

Mai stopped in her tracks as he asked the question.

“Uh…. promise you won’t break my nose?”

“...Uhh.. it’s kinda already broken so…”

“I might have, kinda, in a sort of round about way blocked the blow almost completely? I mean, yeah, fighting him would be fun, but figured blocking was a bit more important. Figured ya’re smarter than me, if you saw his speed wouldn’t take you long to figure out how to shut him down. That, and gotta admit, was curious if Aiko had the sharingan. Miiiight have played dead for a minute or two. I mean, I would have been up and about helping fight more when it got worse, but he had to go and hit my weak hand. Wasn’t for that, I’d be fighting too.”

Hideki stood silent for a second and nodded. “...Alright…. You obviously had thought it through. And I… understand that you wanted to help…” he gritted his teeth, ah shit, he wasn’t gonna hold it in this time. Tears began to form in his eyes, he held one closed as if trying to block it. “...What if… you did die there…? I… I didn’t know what to think back there Mai…. In a second… You would’ve been… You… You would’ve been taken away from me…” he shook his head.

“I couldn’t even go to you, my friend, and you think i would’ve been okay to just sit there and continue on if you would’ve died? If that went badly? If you weren’t able to block it? I’ve been with you two since the academy… I… What would… I… Don’t know what i would’ve… done…” he continued to try and hold whatever he could back, he could barely even explain it all… he had to act flat and order Aiko to go check on her because that was the tactically correct option.

What would’ve happened if he HAD gone?

If he HAD broken?

All because she wanted to.. Test his speed?

“Meh, it’s called trust. I trust you’re smart. I trust Aiko’s really strong. Come on, is it that hard to trust me to do my job? Its part of being a squad, right? I can promise you I ain’t going anywhere. I can tell you what to think, think I can do the one thing I do right, kay? Not like I’m going down in one hit. Hahaha. Worst I’ve ever been hurt is by Himura, and it wasn’t the nose.”

She cracked her neck, satisfied in the corner. Sighing, Mai looked at her new glove. She still hadn’t been confident enough to discard one completely, but had left that one at the training grounds. With a grimace she held her right hand up.

“Hey, speaking of which, Hideki, uh… There’s a secret I proooobably should have told you months ago. Ya know how how I kinda, just…. Uh, stopped with ninjutsu… Well…”

Mai suddenly pulled her hand down, withdrawing it to herself. She was suddenly acting like Aiko.

“You don’t think scars are ugly, right?”

“Mai… I..” Hideki was… he… he couldn’t find the words… He… thinks he knows why mai got that broken nose now… “...Mai… trust is built upon, it is shared and created. I trusted you, to atleast in some way, to follow and act as a team member. I trusted you to be with us through thick and thin. But the last thing that i want, the very last thing I want from you is to RUN, DIRECTLY INTO A GOD DAMN JONIN! And get, yourself, killed.

You want to talk about trust?

You could’ve told us at any time about this damn hand. You had a problem with ninjutsu that I never even heard of Mai! And we’re supposed to WORK TOGETHER! As a team! And as a team we should know what we’re all capable of!

But ugly? Scars? Ugly!?

Broken trust is ugly Mai!

You dying is ugly Mai!

You leaving us to mourn… After you do something so.. Fucking stupid… As running head long as a man who could’ve killed any of us from the beginning…” he finally let out the tears, stuttering and gritting his teeth before th woman.

Mai responded with a smile. Before her body faded to black. She reappeared under him, punching him as hard as she could in the gut. It’d probably send him through the door. She didn’t remove the glove in the end.

“If you think you’re f’ing weak, then do something about it. I don’t get any of you. If we’re so bad off, get stronger. I don’t have time for crying, what makes you think you do!? We need to get f’ing stronger. I thought maybe if I took the chance, Aiko could get stronger. Why do I want to be strong? I did want to lead my clan, but that ain’t it now. Now I want to make sure this shit never happens again. That next time we see a Mist nin, they run in fear of us. They won’t take anyone from us. The hell does it matter if we fight a jonin? He was going to kill us all anyways if we didn’t stall. Geez, why CAN’T I be a hero? Someone has to be!”

“A…. hero…?” the young man lay upon his back coughing up a lung. “..a hero…? You… Really think… You…” abit of a chuckle came from the hallway. He really hurt, new cuts and bruises forming from the splintering of the door. His wrapped arm began to bleed once more, he could feel it trickling down, a small bit of crimson staining the white bandages.

“Strength only goes so far Mai… You… Won’t be a hero that way. The moment you try and act like a hero… Is the moment you start pretending to be one…” he huffed, looking into the open door of his room nearby, his sword placed by the door. He could reach in and grab it… it would be so very quick…

“A hero.. Is an ideal… You can rationalize your actions any other way you want, but all I see… Is my dumb teammate… Who nearly got herself killed over something stupid. Aiko will come into her own in time… We’ll get stronger, in time… But we can’t do that, if we throw it all away.” he growled, prepared to not let this girl not have her way again like last time.

“Name me one hero you know. Personally.”

Mai didn’t move one or the other. She honestly looked confused, albeit still angry.

“A hero? I don’t know a single one… You only hear stories of their lives…”

“No, I know one. Nohime. She could stop an entire battlefield of raging idiot Sanada, and was gentle enough to heal any wound. She put everything she had for those around her. I tried being like her this once, to think about you guys instead of enjoying myself with a good ol’ fight. I could have, it would have been so easy…”

“...Your… mother…?” he looked down, thinking about it for a minute. “...No Mai…. You didn’t do a thing like that… You brought pain… Even to bring out Aiko’s Sharingan… it wouldn’t have been worth it had you have been hurt… You… Were selfish to even think, that this could even be seen as heroic. What Nohime does is amazing, and she is a great healer… Don’t try and paint your foolish decision as something it isn’t…

We, are ninja.

When we conduct missions that are dangerous, our every decision can lead us to death.

Remember the mine?

We had to rush because you couldn’t keep yourself calm.

Lives could’ve been lost if sensei wasn’t there to pick up the damn pieces.

We had to fight where we could’ve taken them by surprise….

And I…

I had my first kill that day…

I ended a man’s life, Mai, on my very first mission.

We make decisions that could bring the end of our lives… And the lives of others, those of our squad, those of our enemy. Each moment counts, each hand matters. Each very, heart beat… And you think, that tossing out your heroics on a whim can be any benefit? You tossed yourself at the man for a brief and half hearted distraction, he put no power into it, that weapon would’ve shattered your rings and you in but a brief second of movement.

Your heroics, this pig shit you dare try and measure up to your mother’s accomplishment... “ he sighed. “...What.. do you think she would do.. If you told her what you did?”

Mai looked like she was chomping at the bit the entire speech, but suddenly calmed down at Hideki’s claim of taking a life. She hated killing. The Mist nin hadn’t been pleasant, Mai just hadn’t let herself remember it. Now it came back uncomfortably. Why the hell was everyone so angry with her? She didn’t have anything to any of it. She said she’d TRIED to think what would her mother do. Apparently the answer was never, ever try to do that again. Mai just stood shaking.

“Hideki, just get better. I ain’t backing down. If I don’t got no words, I got enough of my will. Strength will be enough, I don’t care what its against. Can’t stop won’t stop. Anyways, enjoy the jerky.”

Mai turned to leave, not facing Hideki because she was crying.

“...Okay… One… final thing… Even if you don’t care to hear it…” he coughed slightly, clearing his throat. “...I can dig scars…”

Mai didn’t turn back, but did remove her glove, holding her slightly blackened hand up towards him.

“... still think so?”

He chuckled abit, he held an almost jovial air again.

“Beautiful.”

Mai body flickered away.

 

[Orikanyo]

Hideki Ukita and Takara Himura

Leaving the nest.

​

The young man was sweeping, to the best of his ability anyways, the left overs from Mai’s earlier visit, he wasn’t fully certain how things would turn out moving forwards but knowing mai she hadn't’t and wouldn’t change. Which was fine, as long as she got the lesson of “Don’t do suicidal charges for absolutely no benefit” which she truly didn’t.

He had shoved the big bag of jerky to the living room as he finished off the rest of his father’s room, the place becoming that much less hard to look at as he did so, in the sense of emotionally and actually making it look somewhat better. He imagined he would go about cleaning off the rest of it with the equipment Mai left.

A small peek in the box left behind had produced a picture of all three of them together, some small knick knacks from days long ago and a letter, sealed and addressed to none other than Hideki, it was his father’s hand writing that wrote it.

He put it all, save the letter, back into the box and he took in a deep breath. He, really had enough crying for today. Mai, in her own way, had busted him out of his doom and gloom enough that he could bare the world again.

Walking into the living room once more, letter in hand, he wondered what would it contain…

A light series of knocks sounded at the front door, Takara standing outside. Every part of her wanted to just collapse on the spot and sleep but she couldn’t. She’d recognized the name on the list, how Hideki had all but disappeared into his home, he needed someone more than she needed sleep.

Busted out of his stupor again, the young man walked towards the door. Who was it this time? Had Mai come back to… Wait no she’d just use the window. This was a normal person, as such he undid the locks and turned the doorknob, pulling open the door.

“..Sensei…? You.. Look like the walking dead.”

Smooth, Hideki.

Takara managed a weak chuckle, “yeah… I probably do.” Her hair was barely held back in a low ponytail, dirt clinging to her clothes. “May I come in?”

“Sure, sure come in.” he opened the door fully, letting the woman come inside. “I’ve barely heard from you since I got the cast. Are you okay?” the young man looked concerned, his sensei seemed ragged and run down, worked half to death. Much different than the Takara he knew for all these months.

“Exhausted, but I’ll be alright. The village is so short staffed we’re all running nonstop.” Outside of her fight with Mai, she really hadn’t had a chance to actually stop, let alone rest. Slipping off her sandals, she stepped inside. A gloom seemed to cling to the air of the house. “How’s your arm doing?”

“Painful, though considering I had an axe in it I’m lucky to still have it.” the young man walked into the living room, placing the letter on a stand nearby. He walked over to the shades and drew them back, letting the evening sun break into the room, fully lighting up the place that now breathed again.

“They said I am progressing well, I should be back to light training in about a week from two days ago. The wound is clean, the cut easy to heal, apparently the bracer, and my bone, is what prevented my arm from being completely lost, and given the fact the weapon was used a lot before hand it’s a wonder it’s not infected.” he rattled off what the doctor told him, the several stitches in his arm stung now and again, but the fact he could weakly, and with some pain, move his fingers was a blessing.

‘Otherwise.. I’ve been spending time wondering where dad went… having deep introspection and slowly driving myself insane.” the boy sighed as he stroked his chin… Silently curious to that stray bit of hairs he felt upon it.

Takara nodded, sitting down with a low sigh. “I’m sure it still hurts… I’m sorry I couldn’t get there faster… stopped it from even happening.” She watched him go and draw the curtains back, “I’ll see what I can do about getting a new shield made for you.”

The Jounin listened to him explain what the doctor had said, nodding as he spoke. Slowly, the subject changed to what had led her there in the first place. “I saw the reports… I’m sorry, Hideki.”

“Don’t feel sorry for it, That's just how things played out.” he looked to the wrapped arm, frowning slightly. “And thank you, for the shield I mean, my old one isn’t going to be much use anymore.” he huffed slightly, feeling that it was atleast a small bit funny.

“...Dad is considered missing In Action. Meaning he is either out there, or dead and they can’t find him. I’ll be honest I… Don’t know what to believe. I’ve been sitting here the last while, waiting to see if he turns up, doing nothing but listening to the clock and staring at the door.” he sighed, scratching behind his head as he felt like it was really stupid as he spoke about it.

“I guess it was just history repeating itself. The faint hope that they will return when you really know better. You can say as many times as you like that it’s not worth sitting there, but you can’t bring yourself to move from that spot. After mom died, i didn’t know what to do, so I sat in that exact spot, waiting.

Dad was the one who got me outta that spot, little by little by forcing me to the academy. After a time I.. kept going myself, I met my friends again, saw their worried faces and… Well…” he sighed, brushing off abit of dust on a nearby shelf.

“But dad… he never left that spot, that dark place. He worked each and everyday to keep us living here, he got me on my feet again but… He just would never be the same without mom.” he sata cross from Takara, looking as if he was telling a story old as time itself.

“I managed to walk inside his room not to long ago thanks to Mai. She tried breaking in from the window on the roof. It was partially empty, all that was left was box, some of his equipment and his futon. It was… barren, as if nobody lived there for years.

But in the end, i think dad died a long time ago. He… Loved mom more than anything. I often wondered if I wasn’t here maybe he would’ve ended it to be with her. He lived to.. Give me a chance, even if he knew that he was… Done…” he gritted his teeth, not wanting to cry a second time today.

“Wherever he is, if he’s dead… I hope he's happy, I… think I can manage on my own now without him, so if he chooses to go see mom I…” he started to crack, trying his best to finish. “I.. Will be fine…” he let out a long breath, sniffling slightly as he rubbed his red eyes.

“Mai… She came in here earlier, and we had a fight. It didn’t end great, but we… Both got something from it. Even if i couldn’t pound the thought of “no more suicidal attacks” but… I… need to keep moving. No matter what happens. I can’t let myself sit here and wait. I only wish she didn’t punch me through the damn door to get that across…” he sighed, rubbing his aching back.

“...Sorry, I kinda vented again.”

Takara was silent as Hideki spoke, what was there she could possibly say? She’d been a shinobi for a long time now, loss came with the territory. But consoling someone that had to deal with such a loss… it was never something she’d been particularly skilled at. It felt almost like the best she could do for the genin was to be there for him.

A frown tugged at the Jounin’s lips, “Mai...knocked you through a door?” Takara ran a hand over her eyes, what was she going to do with that girl?

“Yea… But I kind of deserved it.” he sighed, scratching behind his head. “Don’t worry, once my arm is healed I’ll get her back for it. Only way it’ll get across really, might be revenge for how many times she's lost when we sparred..” the young man spied another piece of wood from the door, plucking it up off the ground.

“...Man… This place is extremely empty…”

“I honestly can’t even begin to figure that girl out,” Takara muttered, looking up at the ceiling. She really shouldn’t have sat down on the couch like this… Her violet gaze moved over to him as he spoke up once more. “You know… You’re welcome to stay at my apartment if you want… I might not be around all that much until the village is back together, but it’ll probably be a little more lively.”

Hideki rose an eyebrow as he faced away from takara. “...Your place?” he questioned for a moment, thinking about it. Living with Takara sensei… Should be interesting. “Alright, it sounds much better than staying around here. I’ll be right back, I’ll pack a few things while I’m thinking about it.” the young man walked off down the hall, leaving the sleepy jonin to herself for a moment.

The place seemed awfully barren, no pictures upon the walls, no art either, just white walls and modest furniture. Upon the table before her, lay the small unopened letter with the young man’s name upon it.

“Take your time, you don’t have to decide right away.” She looked over at the clock, at least she finally had a night to actually sleep.

The sounds of hustling and bustling echoed through the hall, along with a few sounds as if something was knocked over and papers scattering. “I’m alright!” he called out, before he planting two bags out into the middle of the hallway. He stepped out and looked for a moment into hsi father’s room, he went inside and took something from the gear inside, a old flak jacket.

Picking up one bag and shuffling it over his back and taking up the other in his functioning hand he stepped into the living room again, flak jacket on with only one arm through the holes, the injured one hidden underneath the vest.

“Alright, are you ready?”

Takara nodded, pushing herself back to her feet. “Let’s go then,” she turned, taking a few steps, “You probably shouldn’t leave that letter unread either.”

The young man froze in his step forward, looking towards the small piece of paper upon the table again, he somewhat wished she didn’t mention it, he wished slightly that he would have forgotten about it and come back later… But she was right, it wouldn’t be proper.

“Alright… Give me a sec…” he plopped down his luggage, with some effort naturally, and walked over to the letter, tentatively, he reached down and grasped it again, fiddling with the letter he opened it, within was a simple piece of paper…

For a moment he stared down at the paper, reading each word, each syllable that laid upon it…

And without another word he folded it back and and pushed it into the jacket’s pocket, with a faint measure of haste in his movement. He quickly gathered up his things as before and motioned to Takara for them to leave.

“Alright, I’m ready.”